Category: helloGreg

hello.music round twelve — Third Take

hello.musicOkay here is my first attempt at the vocals and lyrics… I’m sending this out for both Aryn & Greg to critique and also to help Greg figure what I have in mind for vocal placement so he can hear his drum part more clearly. This could and should change melodically and lyrically I hope once I refine it.

Here is version 2a of “Third Take.”

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/ThirdTake_v2a.mp3]

Thoughts?

UPDATE: Here is my first attempt at drums for this, version 2b.

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/ThirdTake_v2b.mp3]

I only recorded a few bars then cut and pasted to help get the structure down. I’m planning to record this all as one take tommorow. ~Greg

UPDATE 3\29: Greg sent tracks tonight for drums, toms, tambourine and miscellaneous hihat noises. I did a preliminary mixdown of those to integrate into the song. The first vocal track is still in place but will need some major overhaul.

Here is version 3.

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/ThirdTake_v3.mp3]

More tommorow. ~Mike

UPDATE 3\30: For comparison’s sake, here is version three with no vocals to get the full sound of the mix without the soon to be aborted lyrics.

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/ThirdTake_v3_no_vox.mp3]

hello.music round six – Love is Ticking

hello.musicHere’s another rough start for you to check out:

Love is Ticking.

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_greg/autoharp.mp3]

I think this one, and my last post, have some potential, but they need a lot of fleshing out (i.e. removing mumbled lyrics for actual words, etc). Mike’s coming over to my place tomorrow, so perhaps he can help me finish outlining these. Anyways, not much to say here, except that this is my debut recording of the autoharp. I plan to go on tour with it next month as part of my solo act away from the hellocomein group… since we are now famous enough to split off for solo tours. Then after that, we will have the hellocomein reunion tour that will be kicked off with our appearance at the 2008 Grammy’s. So exciting that we will be back together after all those years of intense drug use and in-fighting. Busy times ahead for us!

hello.music round five — Flying Trapeze

hello.musicAlrighty. After some time away from the basement, here is my latest effort:

Flying Trapeze.

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_greg/flying trapeze.mp3]

I didn’t want to take it very far before getting some feedback from yous on the chord progression and verse melody. So, this is intentionally pretty rough at this point – Lots of copies and pastes. It should be enough to get the gist, though.
It’s about a kid who gets tangled in the trapeze at the circus.

January 2007 EP: Temporary Setback

Hello friends, family, fans, and mortal enemies! Though you may have heard these tracks in their formative days, join us in celebrating the official release of our first monthly EP, Temporary Setback.

“Monthly EP,” you say?

Here’s how this thing works. Each weekish, we like to post on the blog tidbits of music that we have each been working on for comments and critiques. This we call hello.music. But to keep our progress from being so open ended, we decided to do a monthly compilation that includes cover art, several tracks from the month, and some random notes. For Temporary Setback, Mike took charge of the EP title and tracklist. Aryn did the cover art, and I wrote the liner notes.

This month features six tracks that range from the acoustic loveliness of Mike’s “We Sang Modern English” to Aryn’s rockstar live recording of “Make Sure.” And “By Looking Out My Window” is my attempt at playing the concertina. Hopefully as we go along this year, you will see more and more collaborative tracks appear as we figure out how best to remotely record and share music with each other.

That is all for now. Feel free to leave comments here, and let us know what you think.

—–

Past EP’s

Temporary Setback :: January 2007
Clouded Spaces, Falling Skies :: February 2007
First Pull Up, Second Pull Down, Third Take Away :: March 2007
Ancient Telephones :: April 2007
The Cavalry Arrived Again :: May 2007
Designed In Anticipation Of His Centennial Years :: June 2007
The Rundown :: July 2007
The Ninth Great Fire :: August 2007
Empty Bottles And Dog-Eared Books :: September 2007
I Can Fix Things In The Morning :: October 2007
We Are Full Of Useful Noise :: November 2007
The Last Duel :: December 2007

hello.music round four – By Looking Out of My Window (The Concertina Song)

hello.musicWith no further introduction, I proudly present:

By Looking Out of My Window (The Concertina Song).

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_greg/By%20Looking%20Out%20My%20Window.mp3]

Be on the lookout for posts coming soon about the refurbishment of my ebay concertina, which for me involves using a craft store hot glue gun on rattling surfaces.

hello.music round two – Slowly Yes

hello.musicHere’s an update to my song from last week. It’s still electronic. It still has the Circuit Dialogue patch. It still has somewhat of a postal servicey feel. I decided to worry about those textural issues at a later date and just work towards completing a song with real live verses and choruses- imagine that!!!!

Needless to say, I present you with Slowly Yes again, now featuring one verse. Hooray. Before you judge too much, I should tell you that I recorded this at 1:00 in the AM, Christmas morning; the verse line is a whisper because I didn’t want to bother Santa as he was putting our presents under the tree. I swear I heard creaking floorboards 20 minutes ago, and if you listen carefully, I bet there is an artifact in the recording. Maybe I can use the mp3 as proof of Santa Clause, similar to what John Travolta did in the 1970’s classic Blow Out with reel to reel tape. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend (it’s occasionally on the channel 62 Sunday afternoon nothing-better-to-do lineup).

Listen here: Slowly Yes version two

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_greg/slowly%20yes_1225.mp3]

Questions:

  1. Do you like the verse melody, or should I try again? Sorry about all the lame vocal effects by the way…
  2. Verse length OK? Chorus length? How many verses I should have?

Here are the lyrics right now, feel free to comment/edit/add:

(Intro with verse progression)

Slowly, yes, is my answer for you, because I know you well enough to call this.
Slowly, yes, is my answer for you, because I know you well enough to call this.
Slowly, yes, is my answer for you, because I know you well enough to call this.

All of the options were failing her when she tried to comply
with an answer that satisfied a simple step: no regrets.

Like a hiker who disregards a faded blaze, ’cause this mountain’s a maze.
Downhill for water, or uphill? “There’s space for a fire, they’ll see me higher.”

hello.music round one – Slowly Yes

hello.music

Here is my entrance fee for round one of hello.music. It’s a couple midi things, a bass line, and the beginnings of a vocal line. A few musings:

  1. Need to stop using the “Circuit Dialog” synth because it’s featured in just about everything I do in GarageBand
  2. The chorus needs retooling because I want the line “a temporary setback” to follow the last “I know you well enough to call this…” of the chorus
  3. Need a verse melody
  4. Bridge.
  5. I would like to alternate verses with Jenny Lewis. Then we will fall in love.

Slowly Yes

[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_greg/slowly yes.mp3]

hello.shuffle (part five of five)

Here is the last part of our shuffle…

Mike’s Songs

5) ‘Alice Childress’ by Ben Folds Five (Ben Folds Five)

This was one of my favourite songs in high school back when Ben Folds was fresh and full of energy. I think over the years he has forgotten how to rock. Great songwriter, but needs his band back to light a fire under his ass a bit.
Greg’s Songs

i have this same midi controller!5) ‘No Love’ by Dinky (Carpark records sampler)

Decent electronic dancy song. Not really in the mood for this right now. I think I will go back to Takk…

Aryn’s Songs

5) ‘Jazz Crimes’ by Joshua Redman (Elastic)

Great band. I haven’t listened to this one is quite awhile. Very tight rhythm section, awesome syncopations and a fantastic flow to the music. These guys have played together quite a bit and you can really hear it in the music. I like the “gimmick” that is the octavizer pedal with the saxes… very effective. I enjoy the solo work of the keyboardist Sam Yahel on this record, but on the next one it has that same sound, which when returned to doesn’t quite hold up. But this one… fantastic.

Hope you enjoyed this feature… I find it pretty cool to see what comes up; good or bad. Let us know what you think here on the blog or at[email protected].