The Sound of One Amp Exploding

Some times the universe needs a little push.

me on SoundCloud

Send me your track
August 8
V-Picks came today.  I got the “Fab 4” pack which is four different kinds of picks, which seemed like a good place to start, since I had never tried any of them before. The pick in the photo is my favorite at the moment - its the Medium Round.  The bevel is definitely the secret to the pick’s success, it makes the pick less noisy.  The thickness and the material also make it easier to hold - I’m noticing my pick hand is a lot less tight than I’m used to it being. I may want to try out a pointier version of the medium pick though, something with a little more attack for plucky bits.

V-Picks came today.  I got the “Fab 4” pack which is four different kinds of picks, which seemed like a good place to start, since I had never tried any of them before.

The pick in the photo is my favorite at the moment - its the Medium Round.  The bevel is definitely the secret to the pick’s success, it makes the pick less noisy.  The thickness and the material also make it easier to hold - I’m noticing my pick hand is a lot less tight than I’m used to it being.

I may want to try out a pointier version of the medium pick though, something with a little more attack for plucky bits.

Comments (View)
August 5
LA.  I guess if I liked driving, surfing, tanning, hanging around a pool, and the movie business more I’d be really into this place.  As it is, I feel about the same level of oxygen as Mars. So much of the music that I’ve been into has come out of here - its almost like America has two cultural poles: the North Pole of New York, and the South Pole of LA.  Put them together and you get some sort of approximation of what the hell is going on in America.  Or maybe a fitting for a straightjacket. It’s not the distance that makes one feel cut off, you know.  It’s the timezones.  The idea that I can’t call, tweet or expect a reply email from people I know because they’re asleep right now.  It’s time zones that create the real barriers in the modern world.  I can’t imagine what it would like to be a gaijin, hanging out in Tokyo. As much as the neurotic type-A nature of New York gets to me, this place is like oil to my water.  LA is all about something that I am categorically not.  It correctly identifies me as a foreign body and sends in the white blood cells.

LA.  I guess if I liked driving, surfing, tanning, hanging around a pool, and the movie business more I’d be really into this place.  As it is, I feel about the same level of oxygen as Mars.

So much of the music that I’ve been into has come out of here - its almost like America has two cultural poles: the North Pole of New York, and the South Pole of LA.  Put them together and you get some sort of approximation of what the hell is going on in America.  Or maybe a fitting for a straightjacket.

It’s not the distance that makes one feel cut off, you know.  It’s the timezones.  The idea that I can’t call, tweet or expect a reply email from people I know because they’re asleep right now.  It’s time zones that create the real barriers in the modern world.  I can’t imagine what it would like to be a gaijin, hanging out in Tokyo.

As much as the neurotic type-A nature of New York gets to me, this place is like oil to my water.  LA is all about something that I am categorically not.  It correctly identifies me as a foreign body and sends in the white blood cells.

Comments (View)
July 25

New Paltz

I got out of the city this weekend and made it up to New Paltz, which is a nice upstate town with a kind of hippyish undercurrent. (And a giant hunting lodge thing out of the 20’s called the Mohunk, but never mind about that…)

I’m increasingly concerned about how I’m seeing New York stereotypes play out on my own psyche: the neuroses, the aggression, the crazy, fast-talking, Starbucks-slamming, multi-tasking, ADD inflicted consumer from the pseudo-hipster factory on a fast track to burnout. In other words, I’ve bought into the bullshit.

Like an addict, it takes more and more for me to get my fix. A thousand dollars of studio gear barely moves my needle now, whereas once I spent hours and hours slathering over gear I hopelessly couldn’t afford. And yet it’s been a year since I’ve written a new song.

So what is the solution? I don’t know, other than to say that I probably can’t sustain the New York lifestyle forever. That raises the question of “what else would I do?”. And once you’ve lived in New York that can be a problem: the rest of the world feels like a suburb.

Comments (View)
July 18
The subject under consideration.  If I still like it in two weeks its going on my arm.

The subject under consideration.  If I still like it in two weeks its going on my arm.

Comments (View)
June 2
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

More work on Singularity.  I want to lay down vocals but the zipper noise problems have returned and in force.  Is it the D/A converter, the computer?  Just not sure.

If I get some time this weekend I’ll probably take the old laptop, wipe it clean and just reinstall audio software on it - see if I can eliminate some of the possible problems from all the other crap I run on my main machine.

In the meantime, enjoy the version as it is.  Debating whether to take this and the other tracks and call it a “completed recording”.  Totals about 40 minutes now - is that enough?

Comments (View)
May 26
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Working a little more on “Singularity”.  Still not a complete song, still no vocals.

Comments (View)
May 11
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

The very beginnings of a new track.  This is a song called “Singularity”.  Vocals and the rest of the song, to follow.  (This is definitely the most electronica I’ve gone.)

Comments (View)
May 6
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

What a difference compression makes!  The Logic multipressor is across the two-mix, plus I added some cymbal hits at strategic places.  FInally, I’ve turned up the send on the drums to give them more reverb (makes it feel more like they’re placed in a room).

Comments (View)
May 3
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Working on “Take the Arrow Out”.  I’ve added some more guitars, percussion and tried to clean up the horns a little.

Comments (View)
April 26
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

New song, called “Take the Arrow Out”.  This is getting there, although I might tweak it a little more.  I really like the rimshots on the drums on this one.

Comments (View)