here 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.
hello.music round eight — Cost of Things
Greetings friends… it is Sunday early evening and I have spent a majority of the snowy cold weekend inside reading, writing, composing, recording, mixing, mastering and then rerecording, remixing and so on and on and on. But by my calendar widget, we have less than 3 days to finish the album in a month as part of the RPM Challenge.
I will save my reaction and pep talk for another post but needless to say its been incredibly fun, challenging and all encompassing to put the music first for the first time in a long time.
Here is yet another song I created today while taking a break from mastering other things. I was talking on the phone and picked up the guitar. While talking a started playing this chord progression. It sort of just came out which is strange for me. Within an hour I had it written and tracked and another hour later it was mixed. Not so sure about the lyrics yet…but this song is all mood. Pretty proud with how it all came together so quickly.
So without further ado… the first mix of Cost of Things.
[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/CostofThings_v1.mp3]NPR Song Of The Day: The Sea And Cake, ‘Crossing Line’
Once again, here’s a short piece about The Sea And Cake’s song “Crossing Line,” from its new album Everybody, for NPR’s Song of the Day. Read the essay and listen to the song here.
Continue reading NPR Song Of The Day: The Sea And Cake, ‘Crossing Line’
hello.music round seven — I Am the King of Sad Retorts
Here is I am the King of Sad Retorts version three.
Okay…I finally penned some lyrics and tracked a really rough melody and harmony for this song last night. I think the song will be okay once I refine the words and make the melody clearer, not mumbled and not cracking. But the basic shell I think is there. I really wish I had a female singer to duet with this…but maybe I’m just defaulting into the Tweedy\Gibbard mode that I was trying to get away from on this song. Thoughts?
To hear past version of this song and\or discussion and lyrics go here.
The Arcade Fire Play In A Church
For five days last week the Arcade Fire played to sold out, yet intimate audiences in New York City’s Judson Memorial Church. Though I didn’t go, I certainly have been scouring the web and listening to the various songs they played from their new album, Neon Bible.
A few resources to catch up on the action:
Listen to a stream of Saturday night’s show as webcast by NPR’s All Songs Considered …or download the full show. You can also listen to Bob Boilen’s interview with the band, fan interviews before the show and a watch a slide show gallery with some great photos.
Stereogum’s review
The Onion AV Club blog review
Download a quality audience recording of Friday’s show
It seems the highlight for many people was the acoustic (kinda) performance of “Wake Up” that was performed in the crowd.
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After listening to a majority of the Friday and Saturday night’s shows, I have to say this band is on the cusp of peaking. These gigs at the church could very well be the last intimate experiences audiences will get with this band for some time. But the music here is more solid and revelatory than ever. Hearing the new songs in the live context mixed with the old, made me love the new album even more.
What once was a scrappy energetic performing band falling short in imitating the greatness of their album, is now a band who accentuates and even surpasses that greatness.
Aryn saw them at the genesis of their career right around the time the first LP came out in 2004. I cannot wait to try to see what they bring when they hit D.C. in a few months.
hello.music round seven — Black Moths
I recorded the majority of “Black Moths” around New Years this year but I’ve been tweaking things here and there ever since.
Not really sure what to do with this and I feel a bit constricted by the bad drum loops, the weak low end (no bass). But I think there is a lot of potential for this guitar rock song. Reminds me of something My Morning Jacket would do. I remember it being nice and slow and cathartic when I originally dropped some of the guitar parts down.
All those years of trying to play cleanly and articulate in jazz settings and school has finally maybe gotten me here where I just want to rock out and play with feedback. Someday I would like to combine the two sides of my brain: the feedback side and the rational jazz side.
This would sound great with Greg laying down some old school 70’s rock drums (ala Bonham)… definitely sounds like a great live song. Maybe Greg can help out with this one as well when he does some drums for “Look Out.” With SEVEN days left we have a lot to work on. Let the countdown begin for the RPM Challenge. Should be fun.
hello.music round six part III — Look Out
This looks to be a prolific week for me. I worked on quite a few things that have potential. Now I just need to focus and finish these items off. How are you guys coming with your projects?
I still really want to do the RPM Album with this month’s EP but if we’re running short on offerings I think we could probably do something of a greatest hits of the Jan & Feb EPs for that.
As for this here is yet another song I’ve been working on. The hardest part with this one has been mixing and mastering… I’m working heavily with Live to make the instruments sound good. As you will hear, it’s still a work in progress.
Here is Look Out version two
[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/LookOut_v2.mp3]…and I hope to have version three mixed sooner than later and I’ll update then. The mixing needs a lot work..and some levels and panning and maybe even redo the vocal tracks. Thoughts?
UPDATE 2\21: Here is Look Out version three
[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/LookOut_v3.mp3]You might be able to tell that the mixing is slowly coming together. It’s not so muddy and the volumes are getting better but I’m still learning so cut me some slack? I am hoping Greg can track some real drums on this to help gain some intensity more naturally. Thoughts on this one coming together?
hello.music round six – Love is Ticking
Here’s another rough start for you to check out:
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
Alrighty. After some time away from the basement, here is my latest effort:
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.
hello.music round six(ish) — Tea For the Tillerman
Last night I was playing through some songs by Sufjan Stevens and Cat Stevens and came across a song that I really enjoyed playing. I know the hello.music project and even the RPM Challenge we are taking part in this month is supposed to be original material, but I couldn’t help doing a cover of this short little song that closes Cat Steven’s album of the same name.
Not sure I am really adding a whole lot to this and it might still need some work, but it really is fun to play and sing… and it’s only 45 seconds so stick with me. Here it is…
Tea For the Tillerman version one.
[audio:https://hellocomein.com/soundbox/hellomusic_mike/TeaFortheTillerman.mp3]Thoughts?