...posts that is. This is for Sleepybomb, where ever he may be.
As posted on April 29th, 2005. "Another great musician and a friend / co-conpirator of Billy Harvey (they help each other out in the studio). Ladies and Gents', tables and chairs, please give a big hand to song-writer extrordinare, Bob Schneider. Here is the Amazon.com link to B. Schne's works. It seems I gravitate toward artists who work with other artists I like, such as guitarist Tim Pirce. He has worked with, among others, Toy Matinee and Tim Finn."
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Monday, May 02, 2005
Not So Turbo-Quick...
UPDATE: So yesterday turned out to be a quagmire, kinda like the one after the first week of the Iraq war, sans sand storm; a quagmire only because I wanted everything to be done NOW and that wasn't going to happen. I rented an engine hoist (cherry picker) on Saturday and they didn't give me an engine sling, which makes the hoist useless when trying to lift an engine. I called them and they didn't have one, so I returned the hoist and got my money back. I ended up buying a hoist for $150 (and of course the hoist didn’t come with a sling either but I found a way to improvise. Thank God for bungee cords. Just kidding … I used high capacity tie-downs). I could have rented one, with sling, from another company in town, but the realization hit me that the engine / tranny swap was probably going to take several days, and the rental fees would have come close to the purchase price. Plus, in a couple of months, my lead vocalist will be swapping engines in his Pontiac Fiero and was planning on buying a hoist for the job. When he starts his project, he’s agreed to buy this one from me, and if he doesn’t, I can sell it on e-bay.
Then I started shopping for the bits and gaskets that I need to do this right. But again fate was against me. Each auto parts store had only one or two of the needed parts in stock, so I had to go all over town to get the stuff, and I’m still a piece or two.
So now it’s 5 pm. Had to assemble the hoist.
So now its 6:30 pm. And I’m too tired and frustrated from the lack of progress to do anything else.
I did manage to get a little prep work on the new(er) engine last night. But dinner called… AND the new season of Family Guy started at nine. It Rocked!!!
sonicfrog
Then I started shopping for the bits and gaskets that I need to do this right. But again fate was against me. Each auto parts store had only one or two of the needed parts in stock, so I had to go all over town to get the stuff, and I’m still a piece or two.
So now it’s 5 pm. Had to assemble the hoist.
So now its 6:30 pm. And I’m too tired and frustrated from the lack of progress to do anything else.
I did manage to get a little prep work on the new(er) engine last night. But dinner called… AND the new season of Family Guy started at nine. It Rocked!!!
sonicfrog
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Turbo-Quick Post
Dateline: Sunday 05/01/2005. Today is the day I fix the $500 '87 Subie Turbo Wagon I bought last month. The engine is dead and I'm putting a new(er)one in today. While I'm at it I figured I'd replace the tranny as well. The replacement engine and tranny have been sitting on a pallet in my garage for over a week (it is really cool to have a garage). I have been very busy with school and haven't had the opportunity to do this until now. Well, I'm off. Wish me luck and pray that I don't squish my fingers.
Friday, April 29, 2005
Another Great Musician....
And a friend / co-conpirator of Billy Harvey (they help each other out in the studio). Ladies and Gents', tables and chairs, please give a big hand to song-writer extrordinare, Bob Schneider. Here is the Amazon.com link to B. Schne's works. It seems I gravitate toward artists who work with other artists I like, such as guitarist Tim Pirce. He has worked with, among others, Toy Matinee and Tim Finn.
Gotta go write a couple of papers for school now!
Gotta go write a couple of papers for school now!
Monday, April 25, 2005
Change the Channel
Saturday, April 16, 2005
More Music From The Past
Here are a couple of tracks from my Sand Diego band Rare Form, circa 1993. This is the cover band that I still belong to even though I now live in Fresno, 348 miles away. The tape this came from has four songs on it, but two are still missing the vocals. We only had a four track recorder and a few hours, so each song was recorded in one or two takes. These songs were pulled from an old cassette, so the sound quality is not as good as I would like. But I have spent a lot of time trying to improve the sound of the tracks using an audio editing program called "Cool Edit Pro". It amazes me what technology has brought to the average Joe's fingertips.
When I listen to the bass line on "Inspire Me" I almost believe that I might just be able to play the contraption. I am very proud of that one. I actually goofed a couple of times in the recording. At the beginning of the solo, on the second note, I play a "B" but I meant to play a "D". I used to be mad at myself for that, until one day (probably two years later I'm so dense) I realized "Hey, That actually works better than the thing I wanted to do!” Recording is like that. There are also some tasty slidey bass bits going on toward the end of the second verse. The funny thing is, I did not remember doing it when we recorded the song. Recording is like that. Sometimes you get in a groove while playing a good song and do little thing you're not aware of, but it's caught on tape. I had to sit down and learn the new part I created, but I didn't know how I did it! I just knew it sounded really good. And Cliff's guitar solo on this song is simple yet stunning. I never tire of hearing it!
When I listen to the bass line on "Inspire Me" I almost believe that I might just be able to play the contraption. I am very proud of that one. I actually goofed a couple of times in the recording. At the beginning of the solo, on the second note, I play a "B" but I meant to play a "D". I used to be mad at myself for that, until one day (probably two years later I'm so dense) I realized "Hey, That actually works better than the thing I wanted to do!” Recording is like that. There are also some tasty slidey bass bits going on toward the end of the second verse. The funny thing is, I did not remember doing it when we recorded the song. Recording is like that. Sometimes you get in a groove while playing a good song and do little thing you're not aware of, but it's caught on tape. I had to sit down and learn the new part I created, but I didn't know how I did it! I just knew it sounded really good. And Cliff's guitar solo on this song is simple yet stunning. I never tire of hearing it!
New CPG Song.
"Lucky" is one of the songs that will be on the new CPG album. Keep in mind this is only a rough track with almost no mixing or engineering. To those not familiar with music record techniques, this means that what you hear on this song is about the way it sounded when it was recorded. It hasn't been altered much at all. For example, when you hear a song on the radio, or play one from a CD, many of the sounds and / or instruments you hear on the recording has been modified in some way or another to get the music to sound a particular way. When you turn up the treble or bass controls on you stereo to get the music to sound better, you're mixing the song to get it to sound better (to your ears). Except in the studio we have a lot, and I mean A LOT more dials and knobs and things we can use to make a guitar or bass or vocals sound different. You may ask "Why bother. Doesn't it sound good enough already"? All you have to do is think back to the first time you heard your own voice played back on a tape recorder. You probably said something like "God, Do I really sound like that"?! And musicians are really anal about the way things sound, so this is one of the reasons that it takes a year or more to record an album.
Another reason albums take a long time to record is because the master recordings get destroyed due to a PEBKAC error, or as the Mate says, divine intervention (God is trying to tell you "YOU'RE BAND SUCKS!!!"). The hard drive our master tracks were stored on died. We lost three songs. Another band lost a whole album. Nothing could be recovered. This version of "Lucky" was one of these songs that got erased. When we record a song, each instrument and voice is recorded on its own track, keeping each part separate from the other. This is called Multitrack Recording. You do this so that you can change or alter the sound of one instrument or vocal (by using the dials and knobs mentioned above), or if you don't like the performance, you can re-record this track with out having to re-record everyone else's parts. The more instrument and / or vocals you have on a song, the more tracks you will have. We mixed all those tracks into two channels, left and right, and burned them to a CD. When you do that, you lost the ability to manipulate the recording because the separate tracks are on longer there. Remember when you were kids and had "Play-Doh" sets with four colors. And when you played with it, and made things, and then mashed all the colors together because it was fun. But then you couldn't make anything else 'cause you mixed all the colors and can't unmix them and get them back again? This is what this version of "Lucky" is --- mashed up "Play-Doh". We were going to do more work on the individual track to make the song sound better, but since the tracks are lost, this is what we have for you. So enjoy.
P.S. For Linux users, here is a more direct approach to get Lucky!
Another reason albums take a long time to record is because the master recordings get destroyed due to a PEBKAC error, or as the Mate says, divine intervention (God is trying to tell you "YOU'RE BAND SUCKS!!!"). The hard drive our master tracks were stored on died. We lost three songs. Another band lost a whole album. Nothing could be recovered. This version of "Lucky" was one of these songs that got erased. When we record a song, each instrument and voice is recorded on its own track, keeping each part separate from the other. This is called Multitrack Recording. You do this so that you can change or alter the sound of one instrument or vocal (by using the dials and knobs mentioned above), or if you don't like the performance, you can re-record this track with out having to re-record everyone else's parts. The more instrument and / or vocals you have on a song, the more tracks you will have. We mixed all those tracks into two channels, left and right, and burned them to a CD. When you do that, you lost the ability to manipulate the recording because the separate tracks are on longer there. Remember when you were kids and had "Play-Doh" sets with four colors. And when you played with it, and made things, and then mashed all the colors together because it was fun. But then you couldn't make anything else 'cause you mixed all the colors and can't unmix them and get them back again? This is what this version of "Lucky" is --- mashed up "Play-Doh". We were going to do more work on the individual track to make the song sound better, but since the tracks are lost, this is what we have for you. So enjoy.
P.S. For Linux users, here is a more direct approach to get Lucky!
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Monday, April 04, 2005
Oh, Canada :-(
I stumbled onto this Canadian mess thanks to Glenn Reynolds @ Instapundit, who has more info about the scandal than I could possibly link to. It's a government scandal that has pitted a whole political party against the blogosphere. Guess who's winning.
Now governments, as a rule, can declare documents and testimony as classified or senitive, especially if they are deemed by the powers that be as damaging to national security and what. Many a conspiracy theory is based on lack of evidence due to restricted documents. For some, the less evidence you have, the more certain they are of the conspiracy. JFK, Jimmy Hoffa, and MLK assassinations are some examples. They were killed by dissatisfied secret organization within the government. There are even a few concerning 9/11. Either the Israelis did it to get the US to go to war in the middle East, or the US did it to either:
a) help bring more government investment to the military industrial complex (MacDonald Douglas and the like),
b) grab more oil from the region and help VP Cheney's pals at Haliburton (in which case GW should be impeached on his miserable failure to snag the oil, thus leading to $2.47 per gal. price of unleaded),
or
c) so Bush would be able to take out Saddam, revenge for plotting to take out his father, Bush the first.
The anthrax incidents were planned and executed by the Bush administration. Then there are the WMD's, or the lack there of. Bush lied of coarse, defining "lie" as a statement made KNOWING that it is false. But you wonder, if the US could pull of an anthrax attack in this country, and knowing that Saddam had no WMD's, couldn't Bush have planted a few WMD's and /or anthrax in Iraq to offer proof that he was right all along... SUCKERS!
Sorry, I was having fun at the expense of the paranoid. Anyway, can you imagine if the US government tried to put a gag on important info concerning Watergate. Oh wait, they did. BUT, processes were in place that allowed the free press enough access to get to the truth. In Canada, the state controls the press and its content, therefore has the potential to squelch information that would be harmful to those in charge. In the US, it's usually the other way around. The media will go out of their way to find and present info damaging to those in power, even if the information is taken out of context, does not amount to criminal behavior, or can't be verified (that's a nice way of saying they're fakes, Dan). Faulty sib's or children are a favorite: Patty Billygate (Carter), Davis-gate (Reagan), Neilgate (G. H. W. Bush), Rodgergate (Clinton), Jeanna-gate (G. W.). Anyway, thought the press tends to favor one party or candidate over another, or sometimes ignores things or gets it wrong, I'm damned glad we have the transparency of power (mostly) coupled with a free press in the United States.
Now governments, as a rule, can declare documents and testimony as classified or senitive, especially if they are deemed by the powers that be as damaging to national security and what. Many a conspiracy theory is based on lack of evidence due to restricted documents. For some, the less evidence you have, the more certain they are of the conspiracy. JFK, Jimmy Hoffa, and MLK assassinations are some examples. They were killed by dissatisfied secret organization within the government. There are even a few concerning 9/11. Either the Israelis did it to get the US to go to war in the middle East, or the US did it to either:
a) help bring more government investment to the military industrial complex (MacDonald Douglas and the like),
b) grab more oil from the region and help VP Cheney's pals at Haliburton (in which case GW should be impeached on his miserable failure to snag the oil, thus leading to $2.47 per gal. price of unleaded),
or
c) so Bush would be able to take out Saddam, revenge for plotting to take out his father, Bush the first.
The anthrax incidents were planned and executed by the Bush administration. Then there are the WMD's, or the lack there of. Bush lied of coarse, defining "lie" as a statement made KNOWING that it is false. But you wonder, if the US could pull of an anthrax attack in this country, and knowing that Saddam had no WMD's, couldn't Bush have planted a few WMD's and /or anthrax in Iraq to offer proof that he was right all along... SUCKERS!
Sorry, I was having fun at the expense of the paranoid. Anyway, can you imagine if the US government tried to put a gag on important info concerning Watergate. Oh wait, they did. BUT, processes were in place that allowed the free press enough access to get to the truth. In Canada, the state controls the press and its content, therefore has the potential to squelch information that would be harmful to those in charge. In the US, it's usually the other way around. The media will go out of their way to find and present info damaging to those in power, even if the information is taken out of context, does not amount to criminal behavior, or can't be verified (that's a nice way of saying they're fakes, Dan). Faulty sib's or children are a favorite: Patty Billygate (Carter), Davis-gate (Reagan), Neilgate (G. H. W. Bush), Rodgergate (Clinton), Jeanna-gate (G. W.). Anyway, thought the press tends to favor one party or candidate over another, or sometimes ignores things or gets it wrong, I'm damned glad we have the transparency of power (mostly) coupled with a free press in the United States.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
With the assistance of Shirley McClaine (off camera, left) Howard Dean channels Ozzy Osbourne.
Hat Tip: Caption This">Caption This
sonicfrog
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
P.S.
Not that I know from personal experience, but the methodology stated below works as well as any other when naming a human baby. And judging from some of the names I have encountered I think this method is used quite often!
How To Choose A Name For Your Baby.
A long time ago, when my sister was pregnant, I wanted her to name her soon-to-be-born daughter Bountiful. I thought, when coupled with her married last name "Beene", that it had a nice ring to it. Anyway, she ignored my advise for some reason or another. But that's not important now. Oliver over at ThoughtNot is facing a dilemma that all musicians must face in their musical journey; choosing a band name! As far as choosing the name goes, here's how that works. You go to a bar with your band mates. Get somewhat drunk (or more), and pass around a napkin to write down potential band names. Said napkin will be crammed with names, front and back; all of which will be really stupid and inane. And, whether it's because you're drunk or just a musician, you'll choose the stupidest and inane-est (?!) name as the band name. And the next morning you'll wake up with a nice little hang-over, and you'll look at the band name you chose last night, and think "My God! That is the most stupid and inane band name ever!", and wonder if you were really so drunk that this name actually sounded good! But the more you look at the stupid / inane name you chose the more you'll realise that it's a perfect name for the band. It's a perfect fit. And then you'll repeat the process over and over again for the next two months untill you get tired of trying to decide on a name and you'll go with the last one chosen, even though the bass player liked the other one better, but everyone else in the band will ignore him even though he's always right because, well, apperently that's the way things work in a band. This IS the method nine out of ten musicians use to choose a name for a band. How do I know all this? How have I come to be so wise? Because I live the dream, baby.
...or you could scroll down to the second post below that and steal my orphan band name!
...or you could scroll down to the second post below that and steal my orphan band name!
Monday, March 28, 2005
Paul Hester, RIP
The drummer from Crowded House was found dead in a park in Melbourne over the week-end. Apparently he committed suicide. C.H. is one of my top musical influences, and many of the songs I have written were molded by their song styles. You know that period in your life, in your teens and 20's, when you latch onto a band: wear its badges, hang its posters on the wall, put its stickers on everything, and wear the same concert t-shirt everyday without wash until it's soo dirty that you can't tell what the band on the front is, which means it's time to wash the shirt. OK I never was a "badges, posters, stickers and t-shirts" kind of guy (thank you Mark Knopler for the phrase), but I did play the first C.H. LP to death (bad choice of words and yes I'm that old).
A typical "Paul Hester" moment:
Joan Rivers: How did you decide on the name Crowded House?
Paul Hester: It was the only one we could spell.
What is it about drummers and their sense of humor (think Ringo, Jeff Porcaro, Prarie Prince from the Tubes)? C.H. put on one of the funniest shows I've seen. Part of that fun was watching Paul Hester jump from the stage to follow two young "lasses" into the bathroom while the other two band mates were left stranded on stage. Paul came back with the trash can from the women's bathroom and dumped it on the stage floor. Neil Finn, the ring-leader of C.H. said: "Pretty zany Paul!". This is my Paul Hester memory.
My best friend in San Diego, Paul a.k.a. "Puppy-Cat", is going to be devastated. As much as I am a C.H. fan, he is ten fold. When I go down to visit, we spend hours doing nothing but sing to the Crowded House CD, Woodface, while driving the San Diego freeways. He does the Neil Finn vocals and I do the Tim Finn bits.
Anyway, I hope that Paul Hester is now in a place where his demons can't follow.
A typical "Paul Hester" moment:
Joan Rivers: How did you decide on the name Crowded House?
Paul Hester: It was the only one we could spell.
What is it about drummers and their sense of humor (think Ringo, Jeff Porcaro, Prarie Prince from the Tubes)? C.H. put on one of the funniest shows I've seen. Part of that fun was watching Paul Hester jump from the stage to follow two young "lasses" into the bathroom while the other two band mates were left stranded on stage. Paul came back with the trash can from the women's bathroom and dumped it on the stage floor. Neil Finn, the ring-leader of C.H. said: "Pretty zany Paul!". This is my Paul Hester memory.
My best friend in San Diego, Paul a.k.a. "Puppy-Cat", is going to be devastated. As much as I am a C.H. fan, he is ten fold. When I go down to visit, we spend hours doing nothing but sing to the Crowded House CD, Woodface, while driving the San Diego freeways. He does the Neil Finn vocals and I do the Tim Finn bits.
Anyway, I hope that Paul Hester is now in a place where his demons can't follow.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
New Band Name
If I were starting a new band, I would call it.... drum roll please....
CHEARLEADER DEATHSQUAD!!!!
CHEARLEADER DEATHSQUAD!!!!
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Busy Revisited!
It's 2:05 in the AM. I have about a thousand words to go....
HOLY SHIT I'M TIRED!!!!
HOLY SHIT I'M TIRED!!!!
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Busy, Busy, Busy
The gig in Long Beach went really well. And no one died!
There are a few things I will write about in the future, kinda funny, hope I can remember them. But life, work, and school dictate that I do other things first. Last week, on Thursday and Friday I got a number of calls from new customers wanting their spas fixed. I have approximately 6000 words worth of papers due on Saturday (day of finals @ National Univ.), so I'm waisting precious time while typing this. And now the Pat Benetar song is stuck in my head.
There are a few things I will write about in the future, kinda funny, hope I can remember them. But life, work, and school dictate that I do other things first. Last week, on Thursday and Friday I got a number of calls from new customers wanting their spas fixed. I have approximately 6000 words worth of papers due on Saturday (day of finals @ National Univ.), so I'm waisting precious time while typing this. And now the Pat Benetar song is stuck in my head.
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