Radio

Roots of Rebellion and Maybe Bomb on WSOU tonight in celebration of Kurt's last radioshow. Tune in.

http://www.wsou.net/radiost...

Event Horizon

Strike while the iron's hot, I've heard. I know it isn't a new song, and if you see me somewhat regularly, the vocal part for this is quite old, but I reworked it much like I reworked "Slight of Hand" yesterday. New vocal recordings, some new parts, and a slightly varied arrangement.

You'll notice (if you haven't already) that I'm starting to work little intros into each song. While these may not stay, the idea is to give me an idea how some of the tracks may flow together. When the album is finished, I really want it to be a seamless listen from the first track to the end.

Now, "Insult Comic Dog" will be known as the far more formal Event Horizon.

According to Wikipedia.org (a website that students should not use as a direct source on any research papers), an event horizon is "a boundary in spacetime, most often an area surrounding a black hole, beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer. Light emitted from beyond the horizon can never reach the observer, and anything that passes through the horizon from the observer's side appears to freeze in place, with its image becoming more redshifted as time proceeds."

In unrelated new, I sent Kurt the multitrack file for "Dotted Lines and Whispers" last night. I'll be sure to post up any new sort of creation that comes out of it.

I think I'm going to take a walk. The weather seems like it's finally catching up with the calendar.

24 Degrees

Rehearsal for "24 Degrees", a percussion piece for Kurt's senior recital.

Insult Comic Dog

For those of you who have been checking out the iLike page, you may have heard Insult Comic Dog (named after went from "Triumphant" to "Triumph" then insult comic dog - Conan O'Brien anyone?). If you haven't, I suggest you check it out in its instrumental form before you go much further.

I've had some really rough vocal concepts laid down for this song for a while now, so today I finally laid down some newer versions with some tweaks. As of right now, I'm really happy with the vocal parts I have. The recordings themselves could be better, but that's what demos are for. The first two verses and their lyrics are set. The third, as of this demo, is just a copy of the first to be a place holder. The bridge, where I repeat "It's just a dream" over and over, still has room for a more prominent vocal part between the repetitions. Maybe that part after the bridge will have a solo. I had a temp one, bt I could easily see this turning into a guitar solo live. I think Kurt and I tried that last time we got together and it sounded good.

I had fun using the vocoder on this track. Also, ultra-auto-tuning for that Cher effect is fun when you are going for the robot feel. Thos choruses, by teh way, have three part harmonies doing "Rainbows in a red sky falling down." Then I doubled those tracks to make six background vocal tracks, and then I doubled the lead and added an additional dropped octave of the vocal lead. Nine vocal tracks on a chorus. That's probably a personal record.

By the way, the harmony vocal part in the verse was Kurt's idea. He rules.

Enjoy.

Insult Comic Dog.

Guitar for Tinsel Choke

Summer is thoroughly over, and for someone in my line of work (teaching), that usually means a significantly shorter amount of time that I'm able to devote to music. Even though the school year just started (much later than usual), I've been able to get together with Kurt twice already to rehearse and improve some material. During our latest session, he made a loose guitar part of Tinsel Choke that I fell in love with. He did one rough take so I could have a record of it and upload it. I'm sure this is going to change a bit, as will a mix with more than one guitar track on it, but I love the atmosphere it adds to the track. I feel like it brings a much wider, somber feeling to the song.

The part that surprised me most was the fact that the clean guitar sound worked so well. With a pretty heavy drum part, I never would have thought that it would really complete the song so well.

As I mentioned before, I have a feeling that memory is going to be an issue, so I think I'm going to lower the quality to 128 kbps. It's not cringe quality by any means. I'm just hoping I don't have to go lower than this.

Also, I've been trying to come up with a band name for a while, and though I've been knocking a few around there has only been one that has stuck, which I think is the only key to a band name. Plus, it's gotten approval from some very critical friends. When I think about it, I don't really believe a band name needs to instantly tell the listener what the band is about, but they should fit the music once people have heard it. I'll wait until I buy to the domain before I unveil it, but hopefully you'll dig it and think it fits.

Here's the newest version of Tinsel Choke.