all of my stories begin with questions

UM.....I forgot how to type?

2005-12-13T22:38:00.000-05:00

So, the pages on my calendar kept flying and i kept thinking of posting and now it is months since my last post. [i don't have a calendar] In this post, I will try the impossible: condensing 3 months of action and inaction into a few paragraphs.

First of all, I did head up to West West Side Music and had the album mastered by one Alan Douches. He's a great mastering engineer with quite a vision of the future. If it was possible for the album to sound more analog, he did it. Really couldn't be happier with the results. Right, right. You might want to judge for yourself. Now you can; hop over to a recent development:

I also put the studio quartet back together for a show at CBGB's 313 Gallery. It was fun and gave me the kick in the pants to finally finish my arrangement of a David Bowie song I had started and avoided. The premier went well, as did the rest of the show. Things are looking good for 06' to see a monthly majnun show. Probably mainly acoustic sets at first.

You would know some of this if you checked my website, which is completely "redid." That was another major project since completing the album, as the original version of the website was, well, quite frankly it was embarrassing. i borrowed a camera and brushed up on my photoshop skills. check it out

wrapping this up: i am making a commitment to post at least once a week. scout's honor. that may mean a few political rants for filler, but at least you'll have something to read.

music hear while typing: NIN-Last.
[a special February cover song project to commemorate Valentine's Day]

it is finished

2005-08-21T22:17:00.000-04:00

well, mixed anyway. now on to the final step, mastering. i've picked out the place, just a short train ride upstate. in the meantime, i'm not sure i'm going to be playing any of it until it's completely done. but, i may put together a "greatest hits" clip and post it on the website. give everyone a glimpse into what is surely to become the best rock and roll album of my career to date.

on the last song we did, for 4 bars i drew a comparison to jon bonham. for what it's worth to anyone.....

supremacy concrete

2005-08-21T08:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was quite a full day. I must have played the same Playstation game for at least 3 or 4 hours throughout the day. Meanwhile, John did some really cool things to the c major songs. To me, they are my meal ticket as they are unabashedly radio friendly. We're super pleased with the drum sounds on them. John feels the snare sound is one of his favorite he has ever done, in the top ten. And he's worked on quite a few albums.

I definitely have some songs to put first on cd's headed for record labels.

Today we have 3 songs left, so we should be in fine shape. The saddest thing is the realization that i will return to work in 2 days. i will try really hard not to quit prematurely. but the minute i get a good offer to play this music...well, they won't even see me leave.

the waiting game

2005-08-19T19:49:00.000-04:00

tracking officially ended yesterday. without a second to spare. my voice was tapped. this is definitely a rock album. you'll know it when you hear it.

so today we are mixing. actually, john is mixing. in the meantime, i'm killing a lot of time in deep ellum in dallas. this is becoming the most anxious part of all as i'm just patiently waiting to go in to the booth and listen to the mix with fresh ears. i still have creative control, but it's hard to not have my hands on a knob or something. in the meantime i guess i'll just have to al bundy it on the couch and watch some movies.

john has already had some really nice ideas and did some nice production things on the first track, so i'll calm down soon. to bad the Cubs aren't on TV anywhere.

i'm not going to lose my voice.

2005-08-18T08:22:00.000-04:00

it's just going to be raspy for a while. drinking lots of nice hot tea has helped, along with some sage advice from john. first thing i do when i get back to NY is buy "the rock and roll singer's survival guide."

yesterday was a long day. we did 4 songs, including 2 of the c major songs. so not only are we right on schedule, but things are feeling good too. i let some things out of mouth yesterday that probably should have been kept in it. well, for the health of my vocal chords anyway. i'm not sure how john could critically listen for pitch and performance for that long, but the results will speak for themselves. today we are trying to get done early so that john can rehearse with the pAper chAse, and I can go get some tattoos....

i'm going to lose my voice

2005-08-17T11:32:00.000-04:00

probably some time thursday night after we are finished. yesterday had its share of annoyances that delayed are start. had to wait for a gospel session to leave the pAperhouse, then had to run back to Nomad because the original firewire drive thought it was a PC drive, so all of the files wouldn't open on a Mac. weird. once we did get started, we did good work. did vocals for 3 songs. i intentionally chose the third song because i knew i would be raspy after doing the 2nd song. i was finally able to track through a Neve pre, well, a Vintech repro to be exact, but it was still cool. just like john lennon used to use.....

capes at full flap

2005-08-16T11:08:00.000-04:00

yesterday was a nice leisurely day at the studio. it didn't start off that way. once we got to the studio, it took some time for the dvd's to be copied over to the G5 at the studio. so after a while, i decided i would start dialing in the distorted guitar sounds i needed for the days work. i didn't get very far. seemed like a preamp tube in the house marshall amp, the only guitar amp there, was going bad. i was instantly a little worried because i had a lot of clean guitar to do as well. we decided to hook up the bass amp and see what kind of unique guitar tone we could get through that, but it had some major problems too. no sound at all. not even a bad one. so at this point, i'm thinking the entire day is wasted. john made some calls to the studio owner and he was nice enough to rush us over a mesa boogie trem-o-verb. which was pretty fortunate because there were a few things i wanted to do with tremolo.
while waiting for the amp to show up, we decided to get started on the acoustic guitar. at the beginning, i was only planning to use it on the normal parts of the one song i always use acoustic on. but when i started playing it, we instantly realized its potential for creating some nice textures blended with the distorted guitars. it also added a lot of gypsy flavor to a few of the arabesque songs. it was a late 50's Gibson, and it really made me want to go shopping for acoustic guitars. it had a pretty small scale for an acoustic so making the transition from the mustang to it was pretty seamless.
once the amp arrived, we got to work. it had its problems too. the person it belonged to seemed to never ever ever ever use the clean channel, so the gain knob on that channel was pretty noisy. good thing the dirty channel had a "blues" setting and i was able to get a nice sound out of it. we layed down a lot of textural things that will give the album a whole lot of cape flap.

family time

2005-08-14T22:42:00.000-04:00

in the midst of the storm, today i was able to squeeze in some family time. got to see G-ma Madole and some of that side of the family. it's been a while since i've been able to go back to Missouri, so it was nice to see everyone.

i think i've gone over the deep end on the sleep cycle. last night i basically laid down for about 20 minutes, then had to leave for the airport. sleeping on the plane was near impossible. then i did something stupid and fell asleep for 4 hours in the afternoon. luckily, i'm still feeling quite tired so i should have no problem getting to sleep.

we will head to Nomad tomorrow to track the remaining guitars [the mustang survived its first plane ride intact] and whatever else we want to add. maybe we'll even start working on vocals. john and girlfriend lisa are being very gracious so i think i will be comfortable and ready to rock everyday. good thing since the most stressful part of the sessions, the vocal sessions, are coming up fast. i think it will make or break the album more than the whole crossover genre/string quartet rock band will.

seriously, why?

2005-08-14T02:14:00.000-04:00

it's 2AM and in 2 hours the van will pick us up to go to the airport. why did i think it was a good idea to play the antenna lodge show tonight? and why did i want to save money [albeit around 400-500 USD] by flying out so early?

anyway, basically all of the main distorted guitar work is done. there are a few parts to catch, and then a few clean guitar parts and acoustic tracks to record, but that is the first thing on the agenda when we get to Dallas. i've learned that we will be tracking that at Nomad, doing vocals at the pAperhouse, and mixing at Lastbeat. look through previous posts for links to those studios. i'm too tired to do everything for you.

there are some sick guitar sounds so far. the mustang is doing well. the album will have an unmistakebly Fender sound to it. which is good since that is what i like.

one thing i've learned while recording this, during a project, a lot of inside jokes develop amongst involved parties. also, after a 12 hour day, every word out of everyone's mouth seems hilarious. like daniel's suggestion that instead of using an ambient mic on the stroh violin [ala pinky w.(again, check earlier posts)], why doesn't the player just stand further away from the mic. which is basically saying, instead of moving the mic far away from the instrument, why not move the instrument far away from the mic. comedy.

i've got blisters on my fingers

2005-08-13T13:09:00.000-04:00

the main guitar parts for the more raucus songs are in the bag.

the early bird

2005-08-13T10:46:00.000-04:00

as usual, i am the first one up. my body just will not stay asleep after a certain amount of time. things have been going quite well. like i said, the strings are done. we have a few edits to make, but we are in very good shape. today we will just try to get as much guitar done as possible before splitting for the antenna lodge show.

fun on the g-string

2005-08-13T00:20:00.000-04:00

we did it. strings are done, minus a few edits. we even had time to overdub some stroh violin. visit pinky's webpage to see a picture. it's super beautiful/creepy. i must go now. sleepy time.

i'm playing through a marshall???!!!

2005-08-12T15:18:00.000-04:00

i know i know. i never ever like marshall. but my mustang and this vintage JCM 800.....a pretty good match. something about the tone these 2 are producing is working very well with the strings. plenty of space for both to be heard. that's why i'm paying a producer.

we were able to track 5 string songs last night. all of the c major songs, plus another song. i feel the c major's are the harder to perform, so i think we're in good shape. not ahead of schedule, but definitely not behind. hopefully the girls will be energized for tonight and we will knock it out.

we're spending a good amount of time getting guitar sounds, so i'm not sure how much will get done here today and tomorrow. hopefully we will get all of the distorted guitar done.

drums

2005-08-11T16:38:00.000-04:00

they are done. even sampled for good measure. my arms hurt. played way too hard. but it resulted in some pretty mean sounding drums. 2 hours till the strings show up. just enough time to get in a little more editing.

i can't make it on my own

2005-08-11T10:28:00.000-04:00

so, first day is behind us. things are looking good. my drums sound good in this live room. something about the way i've tuned them sits really well with the room. daniel and i are performing well together and john is doing his thing. did 6 songs yesterday and will finish the remaining rhythm tracks today before the strings come in at 6PM. don't have time to say much else, nor do i want to. to busy listening to click tracks be put down on tape.

i hate you i love you i hate you

2005-08-09T18:30:00.000-04:00

well well. i thought this blog would be good to chronicle the recording sessions. but i realize just how busy i will be and how unlikely a planned nightly update will be. peter jennings had agreed to help me out with my reporting, but que sera sera.

so so many things have been happening behind the scenes. some wonderful folks are helping me secure the money while i wait for checks to roll in. i also had to make a somewhat last minute lineup change to the string quartet. now playing violin is Angela Harris. not related to, but recommended by, cellist Lenae Harris. things are going much smoother in the quartet and we are in good shape to lay down some clean takes.

john c flies in tonight and we begin work tomorrow. i hope i'm awake for it.

here's the planned schedule so far:
Wednesday-find Hoboken. Track all drums and bass.
Thursday- Half day guitar, half day strings
Friday- looks a lot like thursday
Saturday- guitar solos ala Kelly Kendrick, any additional guitar work left

who knows what will happen. i'll know soon enough.

music?-the whining voices of my co-workers.

stress gives my face character

2005-08-01T21:57:00.000-04:00

so, everything was*is going well. the initial source of the funds for the album is being delayed 2 weeks. this puts me in quite a bind. my plastic can finance about half of what's left, so i'm in search of money. i guess i could post my paypal address here..............

i'll be okay though. i've already entered the mode i go into with these sort if things. one foot forward, then the next, then the next, then a break for air, then repeat.

the quartet met for the first time saturday. it was.....okay. some parts were better than others, but there's almost 2 weeks before the strings will be recorded, so there's plenty of woodshed available for everyone. i had never heard 2 of the songs performed before, and parts of them were truly magical, even on sightreading. nice to know i'm inching closer to putting down on paper what i'm hearing in my head. we will have at least 2 more rehearsals, so the outlook is good. i'll have a better idea how stressful the recording sessions will be after the next rehearsal.

daniel, former bass player of the antenna lodge, is on a train as we type heading to brooklyn. we will begin practicing tomorrow. daniel and i have been playing together for a while, so even though we have not done so in over a year, i have no doubt that we will be in the pocket in 10 days.

finally, in news not related to the project, i bought tickets for XIU XIU! friday sept. 2. they came through a few months ago but were sold out. since then, i've been succumbing to internet ticket service charges to gaurantee i get tickets. they are one of my favorite bands right now so that will be exciting.

music? nine inch nails-broken [it's funny how someone else's pain, translated into song form, helps alleviate my own]

spending money is addictive

2005-07-29T23:56:00.000-04:00

congratulations to my checkbook. it survived. so did my plastic.
today i stepped foot in new jersey. hoboken to be exact. it was actually kind of cute. quaint. but looked like it would get boring fast. so of course it made me homesick.
the studio is SO nice. that live room is HUGE. the gear is impressive. the control room is spacious. the bedrooms are big. big enough for 2 twin beds. big kitchen/dining area and living room. plus, it's right across the street from a supermarket. so in short, it seems like a chill place that's going to be very conducive to the creative process. to bad i can't afford to do the whole project there.

before i did that, i fell in love with my new guitar amp. it's so simple that i can't mess it up. just plug my guitar into it, turn the volume knob until it reaches just the right saturation, and voila, the tone i've been trying to dial in forever is born. when i first stepped into the studio to try it out, i thought there was no way i would pick it. the other amp, which was $300 more, had more of the standard controls plus and extra gain knob wired to a separate tube in the preamp section. i thought for sure this amp, with its versatility, would give me what i want. but it just sounded like a little amp. a very expensive little amp that needed a bigger speaker cabinet. the "z" though, sounded good despite its size.

i dropped my guitar off to be setup, so when i got the amp home i had to "borrow" kelly's Strat to put the amp through more paces. still sounded great. it seems like the amp just "amplifies" your guitar. every guitar sounds different, and this amp just lets that sound come through. LOUD, for 5 watts anyway. so that fact makes me think i should start collecting guitars. [it never ends]. first will be a vintage Jaguar, an obvious choice thanks to dear old dad. then i think i will try an SG, the only gibson i've ever even considered playing.

tonight i also worked out the pipes some more. i'm actually looking forward to tracking the vocals. i wouldn't say i have confidence in my voice, but something somewhat similar is creeping into my consciousness. i think it's called acceptance.

before i leave you, this week i gave money to a subway performer for only the 3rd time in my 15 month NY habitation. happened at the Union Square Q train platform, where i wait probably 7 days out of 7 during the week at some point in the day. it was a one arm jazz keyboardist. he had a right arm, but it was a stub just below the elbow, not much good for tinkling the ivories. but it wasn't pity that led me to give him the last dollar in my wallet [literally]. this guy had chops, and most importantly, some creative ideas. really fluid.

music?*** dead kennedys-fresh fruit for rotting vegetables

what did i put into my stomach last night?

2005-07-29T09:54:00.000-04:00

Imo salad [sorta Japanese potato salad]
Squid pan seared in butter [that's right, tentacles and all]
1 glass ube-shu [plum shochu]
1 glass tengumai [my favorite sake]
1 glass peach smoothie
4 smores
more than a few words

okay, so this has nothing to do with the album, but it was some damn fine cuisine.

music: weezer-pinkerton

does a cop at my train station make me feel safer?

2005-07-25T21:36:00.000-04:00

no. does 2 commuter bombings in London make me feel less safe? no.

so......great news. the studio situation has been solved, and decidedly in my favor. i was really looking forward to working at the original spot but where we've been moved is even better. even if it is in New Jersey. amazing live room [big enough i think for a roller rink], great gear all around, and it's residential. meaning no PATH train back to Manhattan for a connection to the Q back to Brooklyn late at night after a long day in the studio. it's more expensive, but here's a quote to take with you, "you pay peanuts...you get monkeys."

needless to say [but not so needless that i'm not blogging], i'm on a high right now. so much so that i decided to finally practice singing tonight. the one thing for the record that needed the most attention has been getting the least. but not anymore. linda's belt of moses is really making a difference. [i won't explain what that means]

since the NY [metro] studio is set, i might as well pass on the info for the texas studios. i'm not sure what will be done where.

nomad *** last beat *** the pAper house

so basically, the only thing left is to do the damn thing. and do it i will. [well, i guess i have to decide what to wear while doing it]

music heard whilst typing: the beatles-let it be...naked

doors are for closing

2005-07-23T21:22:00.000-04:00

major things happened this week. the funding for the album is finally a reality. there goes my dream of financing a debut album on my credit card. some of you, i'm sure, know my source of the funds...what can i say? i'm extremely fortunate and i'm going to make the most i can out of this opportunity.

immediately after receiving the good news about the dough, i received rather disconcerting news about the studio. big fish/little fish. or in other words, my ass got bumped from the studio. the owner took on a month long project which both overlapped and superseded my measly 4 days. they are helping us [sweetmeat and i] to procure another suitable studio. which may unfortunately land us in hipster land aka williamsburg, brooklyn. at least i will angst fuel when i look out the window and see all of the cool kids looking so hard to look so dirty. i'm not going to mention any names or give url's until it is set in stone. no jinxing will occur.

but on the good news front, the lineup for the string quartet is complete. the first rehearsal is next saturday. i feel pretty confident and optimistic about this aspect of the record. it's been a while since i've run a rehearsal, but i'm sure i'll remember how to dole out praise and criticism in thinly veiled sarcasm. here's info on the quartet.
vi0lin- cody geil
vi0la - pinky weitzman
cell0 - lenae harris
cell0 - csilla lakatos, who wins the award for greenest member.
so as promised, the quartet remains tied to the mission statement, "all girls all the time," which also happens to be my mission statement. [sorry george]

yesterday i practiced [notice a friday routine?]. after warming up, i always play the c major foursome to get the pounding out of the way. i must say, it was the most fun i've possibly ever had playing the drums. a shame i was alone. that's probably an excellent commentary on personality type. at least there is a rather large mirror covering up the wall facing the drums so i could admire my greatness. also a nugget of insight on my personality.

basically things are falling into place and time is counting down. less than 3 weeks to go. i guess i should relearn all of the lyrics i've forgotten. okay. my eyes are tired. i need glasses.

music heard while typing: a perfect circle - eMotive
[on my "new" iPod. finally.]

i might just quit this music stuff...

2005-07-17T22:23:00.000-04:00

and become a theoretical physicist. really. since i'm still waiting for the replacement iPod to ship, the pages are flying. just turning over and over. this week was A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. i can't claim to have understood everything in it, but it definitely revived that side of my brain. i mean, 4 dimensional space-time, a finite universe with no boundary, the big bang and the big crunch, what more could one ask of a book?

okay, onto the real purpose of this blog. things are still progressing with the album. did my friday afternoon album run through on the drums [not to mention the fundamentals i've been forcing myself to do during the week], it went well. maybe it's not completely realistic to think this, but i really believe i could track the drums in one take.

the last big step to complete [pre-studio anyway] is cementing the lineup for the string quartet, which is inching ever so close to the tape. as it stands now, the quartet will be an X chromosome only type of thing. i've had the sexes mixed in the group before, but figure there's going to be enough testosterone in my snare drum alone to give the album balance. plus, an all girl quartet is much more aesthetically pleasing in terms of liner photos. but really, the females i've worked with just seem to have less of an ego about things. i almost think women are a little higher up the life ladder than men. ALMOST. one thing holds me back from publishing the names of my future cohorts, unifying quantum mechanics and gravity is easier than coordinating the schedules of 4 working musicians.

in the meantime, i've been working a lot on producing the antenna lodge album. i decided to have a moment in the album that would quite subtly [the addition of the adjective quite to subtly yields a firmer stance of the word, or very subtle] destroy your speakers. you'll want to turn the music up to figure out what's going on, and therein lies the rub: turning up this part will push your speakers to their limit, but you still probably won't know what's happening. i also managed to turn a buzz roll into a synth keeyboard loop. thank you mooger fooger.

also this week, [this is what happens when i put off writing i guess, posts get longer and longer and i start over using transitional phrases such as also], i secured a piece of gear that may come in quite handy for the future. i traded a sushi dinner and dessert for a slightly !@#$%^ laptop. it wasn't liking Win XP so well, so restoring ME with the factory CD has it up and running. don't really see much need for it now, but if i can save up for the digidesign 002, it will probably get a lot of use live, furnishing the drums or strings depending on how i decide to perform live with majnun. but this will mean I will need to eventually install XP on it, so i'm just hoping adding some memory will help it handle it.

so that's enough. my brother made a slight mention to my apparent lack of blogging skills, i can't have that. you'll notice i have added a few links, customized the titles of some sections, and added text in a place that wasn't that easy to find. so to allen, showing pictures of your shaved legs pedaling a bicycle doesn't translate into having blogging skills.

music listened to while typing: the Pixies-surfer rosa/come on pilgrim

your words don't match your words don't match your words

2005-07-10T21:20:00.000-04:00

Yesterday saw more work on the antenna lodge album. kelly and i decided it was time to get realistic about the thing. i have grand ideas and we have no budget. if i don't finish a song requiring a chamber orchestra soon, that will mean the album will probably be complete in a few months. but if i do finish it, we'll need about 1000 USD to hire the players needed, and that's paying them WAY under NYC union scale. thank god-allah-jehovah for digital editing. [i didn't say that]. we did some nice guitar work for the album and mapped out everything needed to be done. mainly, it means getting my piano tuned and a lot of keyboard-midi recording.

Today, i practiced drums. played annoying [for anyone listening] stick control exercises over a simple latin foot pattern. it's a staple of mine. once i get locked into the metronome and get lost into the stickings, i completely forget everything going on around me. probably the only therapy i'll ever use seeing how the only therapist i'd ever see is a fictional character none to the real world through her dealings with a NJ mob boss.

Tonight, [what a sense of time i have in my writing] I will work on aforementioned song and probably add some markings to the last majnun arrangement, c major opus 4. perhaps i'll also update the website to include a link to this blog. so if you wanted to, you could loop endlessly from the blog to the site to the blog to the site.

I didn't want to mention it, but the Cubs won. 3 in a row. So after the break, this means they are due to lose 4 or 5 in a row.

music heard while typing: Xiu Xiu-knife play

once a day will not continue

2005-07-08T21:03:00.000-04:00

Today I practiced drums. Here. I was curious to see if the odd sensation I experienced in my right wrist/forearm last Sunday would return today. It did, but only when using a certain grip. So, as long as I concentrated on how I was hitting the skins, I was fine. If I kept my hand turned over in a proper matched grip style, clear skies. But start to turn it over halfway between matched and French grip and instant tightness. Guess I shouldn't be applying a marching band tenors grip to rock and roll. Or maybe I shouldn't try to play every note as high and hard as I possibly can. Practice went well though, until the batteries ran out on my DAT walkman. 4 AA's lasted about 4 hours. Pretty crappy. Guess I'll be carrying the AC adapter with me until the iPod makes its way back from Apple.

Also today, I got my hair cut. Short. No more black hair. I decided 2 things this week: 1> I am too lazy to keep my face shaved and my roots dyed. 2> I don't want anything appearing on the album or its artwork that will, at some point, appear dated. So, natural we go. In recording philosophy and liner photos. This quest for timelessness has led me to conclude another detail. I will be posing for those liner photos in my birthday suit. That's that only way I can guarantee that what I will be wearing will not be out of style, because beauty is always IN.

Until I get me iPod back, I am reading like crazy. Not that I don't when I have access to portable music, but I don't attack books quite as aggressively. Here's a quote from David Sedaris, Naked, "Test eye shadow on all the rabbits you want. Strap electrodes to the skulls of rhesus monkeys and shock them into a stupor, but it is inhumane to place a nudist on horseback the day after a chili cook-off."

what I listened to while typing: the Cure- Greatest Hits

Oh sweet, nauseating public-private thinking

2005-07-07T23:00:00.000-04:00

welcome to my first post. i swore on a hundred graves i would never do this, but here I am and here you are and perhaps nothing else need be said. don't get your hopes up though. i will not post personal details here. this will be all business. if i achieve my life-long dream of becoming a male escort, then we'll talk. besides, if i were to post about something personal, it would be about how much hope i lose for humanity every day i open my eyes. for now though, i will be posting about music. first, about my days leading up to recording the first majnun album, which will happen between august 10-21. then, [surprise] about recording said album. and finally about the inevitable bidding war the record company will wage against itself for the rights to distribute the album [tentively titled "i am greatness ***do you really think i'd name it that? you're right***]. i will post info about other projects to which i am hitched, namely the antenna lodge, who is also busy recording in a somewhat less structured and funded environment. so, without further pomp and circumstance:

put new heads on my "B" kit tonight. i decided it has more of the sound i'm after for this album. here's the breakdown: Remo coated Ambassador on the 13",15", and 16" toms and Aquarian Force 1 and Aquarian Regulator [black] with a small offset hole t for the bass drum batter and front side respectively. too bad i can't play them yet. i'll have to wait and hope everyone leaves the house tomorrow., which usually happens fridays. that also means i will get chance to dance through the house in my boxers and socks to an old beastie boys album. not bad for my first blog, huh?

album i listened to while typing: talking heads-more songs about buildings and food