Musicians, Songwriters and Performers' Board II

[Thorngrub]

I happened to be @the Urban Lounge that night - Bucky Sinister, San Francisco street poet, was there to read from his book, "Whiskey & Robots":





But before Bucky walked on stage, our own sisyphus here opened the show:

I watched as sisyphus played her accordion onstage, she was quite a presence. In her shocking blue hair, her face contorted in sorrow as she suppressed silent sobs while lamenting on the accordion, half the crowd wasn't sure if she was kiddin or not - (good acting there, sisyphus) - but then, midway through, she suddenly changed the tempo to a bright melody, and her face lit up w/a sort of amazed smile, and everyone LOL'd. Then, at the close of her short but sweet solo-accordion set, she spotted someone in the crowd & shouted out at them "Hey Joe where you goin with that gun in your hand!", and he pulled out a gun and SHOT her, "Rat-a-Tat-TAT", and she clutched the white bib around her throat as the blood gushed between her fingers.

Gotta say that was quite the dramatic finale, sisyphus ... I thought it was the highlight of the evening.

[Thorngrub]

Not your getting shot, let's make that clear: your set, of course
You're on yer way toward superstardom ...

[sisyphus]

danke. du bist sehr lieb...? is that right? fuck. i don't speak german. but thanks, thorn.

[frag]

don't know where else to post this...seems like the most appropriate thread, though...

Spent most of last week in Lafayette recording at our new studio. I'm using the word "studio" loosely, mind you, as it is merely a rather unorganized set-up. Regardless, it works for us as we're finally trying to record an album.
For the past two years we've endured some major changes. When my best friend and I started actually playing together in the summer of 2001, we wrote off-the-cuff joke songs exclusively because that's what we were best at. We basically worked under the influence of Mr. Bungle, Ween, Zappa, Pavement, et al. So it was nothing to be too serious about at the time. A couple of years ago we finally buckled down and pieced together a band from the splinters of our main projects. So we funneled all of this together and then lost it all just as quickly. Many problems. So we thought, fuck it, we can do this ourselves anyway. With that thought, we also started writing seriously. Along with that, we decided to start writing songs together, instead of bringing our own songs to the other. Long story short, past to present, here we are, still just the two of us, scrambling to piece together what album-worthy material we've got so we can record the album we've talked about recording for the past two years.
As I said, I spent most of the week there, but it got very frustrating and I just wasn't in the recording mood by the fourth or fifth day so I came back early. But we got a few tracks done of the thirteen or so we plan to get on there. We have a rather complicated set-up here, though, which concerns me. We're doing all of the music except drums there, where we have to master everything ourselves. Then we're taking the mastered tracks elsewhere, where we'll add the drums. Of course, we'll have to re-master after that. Anyway, a process that I was hoping would take no longer than a month is setting itself up to be an unfavorably long ordeal. We're both very frustrated, at this point, understandably I think, because we are doing everything ourselves. So, is there any good way to lessen that frustration? Aside from drinking heavily, I mean?
That aside, I'm tired of asking for input from people I see on a daily basis because they're never totally honest and they don't hear the music the same way we do, so if anyone here would be interested in a copy of what we've got...or mostly, of our old recordings, then hit me up and I'll gladly send you one to get some input. Thanks.

that is all

[strat-0]

It sounds like you're moving forward, Frag. My biggest caveat is that you won't get good results laying the drums in later. It just doesn't work, not even with a state-of-the-art drum machine, let alone a lowly human. For best results, I would put down the drum and bass tracks (together) first and go from there. You can't reverse-engineer the timing of the drums, cause YOU will be off by milliseconds, and it will sound like shit. Our brains are funny like that. But you'll be able to follow it flawlessly playing to the drum/bass tracks.

[strat-0]

(You can make "scratch tracks" or play live for the drumer and bass player for their tracks, if needed.)

[frag]

We've been recording with a metronome and keyboard drums to help with that. We did a few test tracks where we added the drums later. Those turned out really well much to my surprise. When we were working with another studio engineer last year, he had the same problem with us...didn't like that we wanted to do drums last. Our usual order of recording is rhythm guitar(s), bass, vocals, then piano or whatever else we're adding. I know we'd both like to go the standard route, but we can't really until we have a full band set up. Right now our only option takes us from one side of the state to the next just to do simple engineering tasks. But yeah, we're trying...I'm just hoping we're finally able to finish this and that it'll be worth the hassle.

[Ayinger]

Hey, 'member that pic of me & Buckwheat Zydeco on the last page? Look at the cheesy company he's hangin' out with now:



_{...from the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame award ceremony closing jam...couldn't believe it when he walked out}

[rockysigman]

Was that Buckwheat Zydeco at the HoF thing? I thought it was Tracy Morgan...

[wayved]

frag: STRAT O IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! Drum tracks should come first! Absolutely!

[sisyphus]

frag said:

don't know where else to post this...seems like the most appropriate thread, though...

Spent most of last week in Lafayette recording at our new studio. I'm using the word "studio" loosely, mind you, as it is merely a rather unorganized set-up. Regardless, it works for us as we're finally trying to record an album.
For the past two years we've endured some major changes. When my best friend and I started actually playing together in the summer of 2001, we wrote off-the-cuff joke songs exclusively because that's what we were best at. We basically worked under the influence of Mr. Bungle, Ween, Zappa, Pavement, et al. So it was nothing to be too serious about at the time. A couple of years ago we finally buckled down and pieced together a band from the splinters of our main projects. So we funneled all of this together and then lost it all just as quickly. Many problems. So we thought, fuck it, we can do this ourselves anyway. With that thought, we also started writing seriously. Along with that, we decided to start writing songs together, instead of bringing our own songs to the other. Long story short, past to present, here we are, still just the two of us, scrambling to piece together what album-worthy material we've got so we can record the album we've talked about recording for the past two years.
As I said, I spent most of the week there, but it got very frustrating and I just wasn't in the recording mood by the fourth or fifth day so I came back early. But we got a few tracks done of the thirteen or so we plan to get on there. We have a rather complicated set-up here, though, which concerns me. We're doing all of the music except drums there, where we have to master everything ourselves. Then we're taking the mastered tracks elsewhere, where we'll add the drums. Of course, we'll have to re-master after that. Anyway, a process that I was hoping would take no longer than a month is setting itself up to be an unfavorably long ordeal. We're both very frustrated, at this point, understandably I think, because we are doing everything ourselves. So, is there any good way to lessen that frustration? Aside from drinking heavily, I mean?
That aside, I'm tired of asking for input from people I see on a daily basis because they're never totally honest and they don't hear the music the same way we do, so if anyone here would be interested in a copy of what we've got...or mostly, of our old recordings, then hit me up and I'll gladly send you one to get some input. Thanks.

that is all

frag, i'd love to hear what you've got so far. i've been in too many art crits to shuffle about being honest, so i'll definitely tell you what i think if you direct me to an mp3 or send me a track or two...

[frag]

sis - I'll try and convert some of the tracks, but I haven't had any luck with that so far. So I'll see what I can do.

wayved - I'm not debating that drums shouldn't be done first. I agree completely. Drums & bass...rhythm's the foundation of any song. I'm just saying that with the set-up we have, and with the availability of our studio and instruments, we have to do it this way. That's where the frustration's coming from, mostly. We've pulled it off on other tracks, though, so hopefully we can do it. And if it doesn't work, well...we do have a drummer now. Actually have two in tow. One's just sort of a loose-end and the other's too technical. Whereas we're both fairly natural and loose when it comes to music. Lots of in's and out's here. I'd just like to finish the project, if for no other reason than to say we got it done.

[RocDoc]

phil said:

Tango and the accordéon

Mmmmm .... !!


Astor Piazzolla ~ Tango : Zero Hour

'Bandoneon....'

[rockysigman]

Last night I went and played with this bass player that I met last week. We're probably going to get a band together. He's already got a drummer and probably a singer lined up. The singer is supposedly pretty well connected too, so that would be nice.

He seems to be pretty into playing slap bass, which I'm not accustomed to. He's been working on getting this band organized for a while. His vision for it is to be completely collaborative, and to be heavy on funk and jazz, but with punk energy and all that. Should be a big challenge for me, but a lot of fun too.

[Kensterberg]

So does this mean that you guys are going to be like the Slightly Hot Chili Peppers? ;D