… summer to do list (2008) …

After recording in la la land for two weeks, I need to write down my goals for the summer.

1) finish lyrics to the songs “Brain Games” and “Warlords” 08-08
2) finish recording guitars for “Bits”
3) finish recording vocals for “Bits”
4) create a guitar feedback VST combined
5) re-work my Hydrogen spectra VST combined
6) create ray gun based VST combined
7) bring all previous VSTs out of BETA status
8) create CD design for “Bits”
9) finish editing the “Combat” video 07-28-08
10) storyboard a second video for “Bits” 07-08
11) get a copy of my degree in Physics 08-25-08
12) get a job 08-21-08
13) update my resume 07-15-08
14) sell superfluous musical gear to buy more superfluous musical gear 07-13-08
15) mix “Bits”
16) master “Bits”
17) press “Bits”

I have until September 20th on the list. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

(this list will be updated as I complete the goals)

… 100th Post - Badi - (1983) …

Today, Liz, my mom and I went to Movie Madness and my mom picked out quite possibly the worst and strangest movie I’ve seen in years.

Badi (1983) is a Turkish knock-off of our beloved movie E.T.. The film was in what I imagine to be Turkish without subtitles and yet we watched all 72 minutes of this disturbing tale of an extraterrestrial who likes little boys and has an affinity for nudie mags.

-Scene from Badi-

Double Click the image below to play to play:

They pay homage to almost all the original scenes from E.T.. The lab frogs are there … creepy healing fingers … floating apples on a string … the refrigerator raid … and of course a flying street vendor cart at the end that takes the kids to an amusement park where Badi (E.T.) powers up the rides and lets the kids ride all night for free before returning home in his propane powered sparkler ship.

Can I say “OOOOUUUUCH”????

… back to Portland …

Not much to say except that I made it back to Portland today.

I have my work cut out for me now. I listened to the demo of “Bits” on the ride and it was an interesting experience to say the least. Hmmm ….

Here is a shot of the studio where Nick, Jason and I recorded Eureka Farm’s “Analog” back in 1997…

… the real Adventure …

I packed it all up today. I set out to record guitars for the song “Adventure” but it didn’t come together for me. I couldn’t get the sound. I don’t know if it was a problem with my set up or if it was because I knew that it was my last day.

The next couple months will require a lot of focus to finish the work I have started here. I have some ideas on how to make it all come out. I’ll have to do some more gear shuffling … but I’m okay with that.

I feel good about the time I spent here.

I played guitar for ~ six hours a day for two weeks straight.

I worked out quite a few vocal lines and wrote some lyrics.

I recorded some vocals and most of the preliminary guitar tracks.

The songs have all seen some good changes since I’ve been here.

I’m on track to finish by the end of summer.

I’ve also been watching the original Outer Limits episodes every night. Good stuff. The show actually had some great camera work at times.

When I was five, I saw this episode by myself while my parents were out. It scared me to death and has stuck with me for my whole life. I haven’t seen it since and I didn’t know it was an Outer Limits episode until recently. It may seem corny as an adult … but I assure you … I took it very seriously when I was a kid. More on that one later…

… No Escape! (whew!) …

I tracked the guitars for “No Escape!” today. I thought it would go quickly due to the relative simplicity of the song. Whew! It was a tough one. I can’t remember how many different combinations I tried. I ended up using the Blackheart with my old Daddy-O pedal. Miked with my 414.

I recorded everything with manic redundancy … tracking the same line over with different sounds and pickup configurations and gain settings. I’m just hoping to blend something together that sounds like what is in my head. I feel like I have a long road ahead of me on this project.

“No Escape!” is one of the first songs I wrote for Bits. I think it went something like … Night Driver (years ago) … Outlaw … Adventure … No Escape … Lost Luggage … Demons to Diamonds. That was the first batch. There were some other ones that didn’t quite make it so I might have to do another batch.

I went downtown Palouse tonight to see some live music. This was strange. You have to realize that Palouse has a population of 800 and is 15 miles from the nearest gas station. The Green Frog (where I get my coffee every morning) is a little cafe that has helped revitalize my hometown.

These high school kids played there tonight and reminded it me of when I would play music with my old friend Rafe back in the day. We would play Guns n’ Roses covers at the Palouse Ice Cream Social. Here is a little video blurb of them jamming down at the Frog. I think this may have been the first live performance of a Radiohead song in Palouse.

… Brain Games- a challenge of the mind …

I woke up thinking that I might just cut this song from the record. I went down to get my morning cup of coffee at the Green Frog and popped on a rough mix on my D2. I thought to myself … “How am I going to make this song make sense?”

My goal in writing songs for “Bits” has been to keep the songs simple and true to my mindset I had when I first played these games. “Brain Games” is easily the most bizarre and complex of the bunch.

I pulled the song out of the muck today and I feel pretty good about it. I transposed some guitar lines from the beginning of the song into a point further inside the song … changed a bass line … created some melodies …

It’s starting to make sense…

In some ways, it’s very straight ahead. I had to lose some angular chords. I recorded with my Delta Blues 210 cranked to $h1t and all the overdrive came from blasting the clean channel with tons of gain from a Zinky Master Blaster.

Listen to the a short clip of LOUD guitars from “Brain Games” {lacking vocals … of course}

Brain Games clip:

Trust me on this one … it will all work out … really!

… Demons to Diamonds (guitar) …

The song “Demons to Diamonds” was from my first batch of songs for “Bits”. I spent the day tracking some guitar parts for the song. My Blackheart amp worked all day with no fizzles … and sounded good.

I’m thinking I’ll have to re-record the intro and possibly the outro of the song. They have totally different sounds and I couldn’t quite fill out the midrange the way I wanted using the 414 on the Blackheart.

It looks like I’ll have a bunch of vocal work to do when I get home … and a fair share of guitar overdubs. This was to be expected.

I still plan on getting this thing done by the end of summer. I have four songs left to work on while I’m here; each one getting it’s own day. Reflecting back on the past week and a half … it seems like this time has been about getting these songs into shape. I have the rest of the summer to get the right takes. Heck … two of the songs don’t even have lyrics yet! Others have melodies in spots but no words.

I’ll keep going …

(Why do I have two songs with the word Demon in them?)