Wednesday, August 20, 2008

David Dunn vs. The Bark Beetles


David Dunn vs. The Bark Beetles

a long time ago wes called me up and left a message about David Dunn being on NPR.. and i didn't get to hear him on NPR, but i was able to use the voicemail in a song! ha!

david dunn was one of two super important professors for me back in school.. totally changed me, and the way i think about music, and art and entertainment.. on and on. i've always been a little worried that steven and david are disappointed with me and my lack of forward thinking artistic output.. and i started thinking i should do a neat arty soundscape or something, and tag the voicemail to it. and that's how this started.. it was all stretched out string bits, playing this odd slow melody.. but the more i worked on it, the more normal it got, with the guitars and that big synth bass sound.. this morning i was listening to it and decided to just say 'fuck it' to the arty soundscape plan and turn it into a Mono song.. so i played the drums to it and sealed it into a fairly typical instrumental indie-rock band song.

i saw a documentary of Mono a few months ago from Netflix, and they were pretty cool.

and i got to play the drums in a real bombastic fashion, which is always fun.. it reminds me a little of a local band called Grails, with Billy on keyboards.. they had a drummer who use these ridiculous over-the-top awesome drum fills, and you just had to pray that it landed somewhere near the 1. exciting stuff..

also, i got a picture of the studio.. it's obviously still a work in progress, but it's so much better than what i've been working with.. it might be the best ever. wow.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Banhammer Blues

Banhammer Blues

you just really wanna win
so you cheat a little bit
or send some pictures to a friend
but we object to the content
and now you've forced bungie's hand

you got smacked by the hammer (banhammer!)
you got sent to banadu (banadu!)
and there's nothing you can do,
but say you're sorry


umm.. if you can't play Halo, you might as well write songs about Halo. umm..

of course, i've been working on a bunch of other songs.. three or four are coming along nicely, plus Matt and I are kicking some things around.. and the New Mexican Revolution has perked up a bit, with a new accordion player and a few gigs and such, so that's been nice.

also, the studio is awesome.. i'd say it's probably 80% set.. i meant to post some pictures, but too much happens at once sometime.. i suppose i'll have to finish some more songs and post more entries, and the pictures'll get up here eventually.. good stuff.

lastly, emily and i got a book in the mail the other day, Fretboard Logic, which has been interesting.. i'm not sure who sent it - although i have suspicions - and i've been working the guitar pretty hard these days. so thanks, mysterious book sender.

Friday, August 01, 2008

a second round of cleaning..

lets see here.. i've got a nerd alert intro (labeled number 7!), an instrumental track i did over an afternoon for some reason.. which i named for Jana's long defunct band, the Crane Barons.. and in fact, i don't think they ended up naming the band that, after all.. so it's not much of shoutout, i suppose. oh well.. and one called Car Ride #1, which was the soundtrack for a short movie we made. or are making. whatever.

car ride #1
nerd alert intro 7
for the Crane Barons

the studio is coming along nicely.. but emily said she played the drums earlier today and they were really loud, so i think i've got a lot more work to do/money to spend.. carpets and foam and all that.