February EP release is coming soon…

hello.music

Hello boys and girls,

You might be wondering “Where is my Feb. EP?”, and “Why is it not up yet?” , and “Why do you hate me?”. While these are all valid feelings to have in the late hour, there are reasons… As you probably have gathered we have been hard at work (some of us) at getting the album ready for the RPM challenge that have been going on for the entire month of February. The deadline is today at noon, so now that that is ready, done, and in the mail, I can build this months web EP release page. So hold your horses, I promise it will be in your slimey webbed hands by this afternoon.

Also don’t forget you can recieve this album as a part of hellocomein.com’s podcast in iTunes here.

-Aryn

edit: I just realized that this is our 100th post!! Get out your party hats and celebrate! oh how far we’ve come from the beginnings…

A long day of electioneering and other exciting phone calls

Hello fans!

So as you may have noticed from my lack of input and collaboration of late, I’ve been gone, far, far away… Where was I you ask? We’ll I’ll tell you! I have been working once again as a trainer for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners getting another few hundred college kids ready to troubleshoot problems that can arise with Chicago’s new(ish) electronic voting systems. So after the many long, long days that culminated into the grand finale that was yesterday, I am done. Its been a very interesting experience working and seeing just how much time and energy (and money) goes into our democracy in this country.

Yesterday was election day, and per usual myself and fellow trainers, lawyers, police investigators, and other official types were all cramped into a room downtown answering telephones troubleshooting issues that come up. It starts out with the calls like “No judges showed up at my precinct what do I do?” , or “When are you sending over my coffee and donuts?” or “Where is the television in our equipment so I can watch my training video?” and after a few hours turned into calls like “So and so is outside handing out materials for whatever aldermann” and “i just voted and the judge there was telling people who to vote for” and “Can you pick me up and take me to the precinct?, it’s icy out and I don’t want to walk.” (unfortunately we don’t offer that service)

The municipal elections bring out the best in Chicago politics, with politicians (or maybe just people supporting them in hopes to get that patronage gig at the end of the tunnel) trying to influence people into casting their hard earned votes towards them. This can happen simply by having an expensive sound truck outside the polling place constantly shouting phrases and reasons and “vote for jim person for ward wherever!” over and over. Or it can be from poll watchers handing out pamphlets directly outside the door of the polling place to try and influence that voter just before he or she votes. Or it could be from a judge who while issuing the ballots makes a “suggestion” towards one candidate or the other. From the calls we get it seems like everyone is doing this and at the same time calling to tell on the other guy for doing the same thing.

Now I wonder how many of these calls are truthful reports of what is going on or just people out there trying to use the system in whatever advantage they can to get that little edge to win. We take all of them as serious, documenting, sending out one of our investigators to check out the situation, but its really hard to tell if what people are telling you over the phone is actually what is going on. Quite amazing, you never think that in our modern age of elections (or maybe I am just naive) that it is possible to have a candidate who will hire two large intimidating men to stand outside of a precinct to “greet” voters as they show up to vote.

Well it just goes to show that elections are a big business these days, from the cost of the equipment, to the cost of training the people to run the elections, to the cost of a job for the few lucky people who get elected or get that patronage job for making that one crucial observation to push their candidate over the edge. Its been an interesting day/month, time to get back to the music.

hello.music round something or other — “A Call to Arms”

hello.musichere is a heroic little clip for you .. entitled “A Call to Arms” , it chronicles the invasion of some army and the native poeples of wherever gathering their weapons to fight back. Will they win? you be the judge.

A Call to Arms

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_aryn/a_call_to_arms.mp3]

hello.music round five – untitled

Hello ladies, fans and gentlemen callers..

I apologize for my absence as of late, I have the lame excuse that I have been working for monies and things. Anyway here is a demo version of the up coming untitled version entitled “Untitled” .. to be receiving a title at a later date, cause I am lazy.

Here goes:

Untitled

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_aryn/untitled.mp3]

expect another update on this very soon.. Or I will be eternally pegged as an internet music slacker… or it might be too late…

Will it sell blenders?

So I stumbled onto these “viral” videos awhile back and thought since we are increasingly being innundated with short internet ad campaigns, I should do my part in spreading the word. This is a series of “Will it Blend?” testing by the company BlendTec to show off how neat their blenders are in how they can blend pretty much anything.

Here is one with dental supplies:

[youtube]F3P6nlXhTtk&NR[/youtube]

and one with iPods:

[youtube]B8H29jU8Wrs[/youtube]

and one more with a golf club:

[youtube]7_YaNteKmew[/youtube]

I like their theme song. These clips have acheived success in the world of viral marketing: getting some random guy like me to push their products without getting a dime in payment.. Which I would gladly accept.

hello.music round three – Make Sure (Live From Luxembourg Theatre 2007)

hello.music

This one was created from a drum track that I laid down a few months ago and recenty rediscovered. After playing around with the bass track I felt like it had a very live feel to it, and decided to (after also discovering the g-band audience noise) try and simulate a live show sound. I think it works pretty well, being a short track, I would envision it being a set closer or something.

The vocals on this one are meant to be long drawn out segments to help pad over the musical background. I had fun making this one, as its something different than (I think) I have tried before. Anyway let me know what ye thinks…

Make Sure (Live From Luxembourg Theatre 2007)

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_aryn/make_sure_livefromluxembourgtheatre2007.mp3]

hello.music round two – Oxygen 1.5

hello.music I am not sure if this is a step in the forward or backward direction on this track, but I felt like I needed to get something down and help myself out of the musical rut I have been in for awhile. So even if this is a bad direction, it’s still a direction, which makes me happy. So I have remixed this little ditty, creating a little meaner sound for it, to give it that diabolique edge and indie rock finish. The only thing I really added was a couple effected bass tracks. What do you think? Did I crap on my own work? did I add anything worthwhile? should I quit making music all together?

One thing is for certain, I have done something. I think that counts for something in this world of lethargy.

check it:

Oxygen 1.5

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_aryn/oxygen_onepntfive.mp3]

next step.. vocals.

hello.music round one – Oxygen One

hello.music

This is my entrance to this weeks hello.songs . Oxygen One is the very first thing I created after purchasing an Oxygen midi keyboard, so I think its fitting as my first submission into the world of the internets.

Oxygen One

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_aryn/oxygen_one.mp3]

So the idea here was to see what I could make my first really using a midi interface and garage band. I think it turned out pretty well, I would like to revisit it and expand it out a little longer. This was created using my patented method of improvise and add, where I commonly start with one improvised element, then play over that a few rounds then improvise the next part … etc. until I have something laid down.

Its pretty short, and I do like the sweeping synth that comes in about 13 seconds in… its simple enough to drive the song forward. I am not really sure yet where this could go, if it needs to just stay a short interlude type piece or actually expand out into a more standard length song with lyrics etc..

DeVotchKa – Logan Square Aud. 2 Dec 2006

Another great show to report. I think someday I will get quicker posting these things…

Opener- My Brightest Diamond… meh. She obviously has a great voice, and I can see how when she is singing other peoples material it could be fantastic. But I thought her performance was a little flat– weak guitar playing and annoying basslines. Maybe I’m not being fair, it is hard to be an opening band. You are there before trying to play to an audience that is most likely there to see someone else and usually you are a lower tier band. I’m sure she will be good someday. OK enough of that on to the main show.

DeVotchKa

DeVotchKa – Here is a group who’s music was used in the film Little Miss Sunshine which has brought a whole new batch of fans to their mix (i.e. me). A great blend of Latin and Klesmer music, everyone in the group were multinstrumentalists and great showmen/woman. The lead singer, Nick Urata’s heroic chin and coiffed hair recalled a mixture of Clooney, Morrissey, and Bruce Cambell which added to the appeal of his vocals. This guy has so many cojones he needed TWO microphones to capture that voice. He also plays the guitar and laud (??) with a very spanish style strumming pattern.

Violinist/accordionist Tom Hagerman’s virtuostic lines had that spiderlike quality that added so much to the fast eastern european sound. He definitely gave them that Yann Tiersen twinge. Jeanie Schroder on Sousaphone/bass played all of her lines with a smile on her face the entire night. The Sousaphone has such a thick sound, like an electric bass on steriods, that it gives a great pad for Hagermans higher notes.

And last but CERTAINLY not least the drummer. Oh the drummer… this guy was on FIRE! Shawn King. This band plays FAST and he was there, tight as hell, the whole time. I haven’t heard drumming like this in a long time. Very precise and very schooled and very intense. He might even be my favourite aspect of their live show (if I were forced to pick one I suppose).

This was such a fun group to see. Very melancholic yet jovial party music, much like a Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico or something. They even had the bottle of wine to drink from on stage. All in all I think it was the second best show I have seen all year (Andrew Bird is still on top by a hair–not that his hair is better than Urata’s) and its definitely one of my top of all time. If anyone is in Denver over new years I would recommend checking them out, its a cheap show (36 bones) AND it includes Andrew Bird (obviously my new music man crush).

I give DeVotchKa the blue ribbon of success. Blue Ribbon of Success!

Andrew Bird – Logan Square Aud. 24 Nov 2006

Sorry for the delay hello.fan but better late than never I suppose.

So I had the pleasure to see Andrew Bird at the Logan Sq. Auditorium last Friday and I have to say it was probably the best show I have seen all year. But first things first.. openers.. We arrived at the west side Chicago antique ballroom a little early ready to stand in the line snakeing out the door and down the street (a little). Within 4 minutes we were inside and making our way up towards the stage. The Openers, The Occidental Brothers Dance Band International , were pretty good. A nice mix of 60’s esque african jazz with a little modern bass drum in the mix. They reminded me of a Marc Ribot cubanos postizos style band with a little more dance involved. Pretty good way to start out a show, they got the audience moving and ready for the next act. Andrew Bird

The Bird set started out with Martin Dosh taking the stage by himself. He doodled a bit until Andrew showed up and added to the mix. They both looped things around swelling and building until everything stoped, and AB (Andrew Bird) started an intro to “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left” which both served as a beginning to the song and the chorus backup later(when he switched to a guitar for the different parts of the song). I LOVE the versions of the songs he played live, he changes the vocal rhythms and what not from the album versions. They translated very nicely to the live stage. I have heard that AB practices playing his stuff live a lot so the movement from the studio to the stage is seemless. Both AB and Dosh were really masters of looping. They used them as a way to accent the different sections of the song instead of using them as crutches (which annoys me greatly when bands use prerecorded or sampled loops to add structure to a song)

Anyway I thought Dosh was a really great backup player for AB, he has that laid back intense drumming that works well with AB’s song style. I do think that his solo stuff (Dosh’s) was a lot less interesting than when he played with AB. Great rhythms, just lacking in the melodic. Back to AB though, new songs sound fantastic ( album due in March ), older songs sounded great live, and the overall show I will rate on a scale of 4 lobster claws. ( 4 = best show of year )
2 lobster clawsthe other 2 lobster claws