Sunday, December 30, 2007

woo, sorry for the lack of updates, I don't know who I am apologizing too no one actually knows about this let alone reads it, whatevs.


Anyway, Keely is almost finished just have to mix it and rearrange a couple of the parts then comes vocals, and voila finished song.

Other then that the shoegaze is going a long at a steady clip and I am on my way to purchasing a bunch of new boards.


so yeah things are on the upswing.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

wow, haven't updated in like 2 weeks. Well I went down to Klamath with a mission for some clarity as to where I was going. Planes as just me is/as/was is always a big crapshoot I never know where I am going with it. What's funny as I am better at handling direction when there are other people in the band. I ran most of the myspace/website/promotion with Travis, yet by myself I have no direction. It's weird. Anyway, I went down to get some direction and I did. I figured out the cover of the CD The track listing and the all around concept of the album. I came back and have promptly done nothing for two weeks. Well not nothing I wrote a lot of lyrics. I was trying to record vocals but my voice has been super tore up from having a cold, and then I tried to quit smoking..or am trying..it's going...ok. Vocals should be got going this week. I changed my mind it isn't going to be 2 e.ps it's going to be one full length. Shooting for 12 songs. I have 14 in the works, but most likely will have to bag at least two for lack of motivation or general flow issues.
So there it is.
I have a prototype of the cd, but I am not going to put it up here. I like how the booklet came out. Still some sizing and etc. issues, but it doesn’t need to be actually done for a long time so whatever.
So yes, expect some song leaks soon.
The shoe gaze band is going along at a steady clip it seems whenever we get together we record something new. Paul and I have gotten together 4 times and we have 2 finished songs, and one partial. I have to record another string part for a song. Layering 3 string parts sure is fun let me tell you. 1 reason one, one from the ESQ1 and one from the M1 = LOUD
I also finally get to use the ESQ1 minimoog bass line that I have been wanting to use for like ever.
For some reason the multimix works BEAUTIFULLY at Paul’s but not at all at my house. I don't fully understand that.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

The Common Law Marriage

Well, going down to Southern Oregon over the next few days, no updates from down there, as I won't have intertubes. Which is good. I want to rejuvenate myself. I have been pretty down on working on stuff. Even though I DID write the most amazing piano part for Escapism last night, I am now referring to it as "Away with Words".

I was complaining to one of my roommates about not knowing how to solder and how I wanted to fix the broken ESQ1, but couldn’t afford to/didn't want to pay someone to look at it, and he says, "I can solder anything." So I pull out the broken ESQ1 and he solders it in and voila I now have two ESQ1’s. The keyboard doesn’t work for some reason, but I wasn’t willing to look at it last night. When I get back I am going to try and get it at full specs then probably flip it and buy back my DW8000.

Back to Escapism, I never fully liked the song. I thought there was more we could do with it but we didn't. I am bringing the little midi board and the laptop with me; so hopefully on some down time I am going to fix up Escapism some more. I have MOST of the lyrics written so it's on the chopping block.

This weekend I am going to be putting the finishing touches on Separation Anxiety and Away with Words. I keep telling Tara I am going to work on Manhattans but I haven't got around to it yet. Sorry Tara :-/
I was discussing with Paul about how to do the album, if I should do two eps or one full album, a lot of the songs reference the same things and the ones that Travis and I were working on had been written AFTER the original songs, so they reference the original 5 songs. I can't really release the 5 songs, as it won't make much sense in the grand scheme of writing things.

So Paul suggests two EP's one of older stuff rewritten now. What that means I need to think of names for two e.ps that sort of go together or at least are a running theme. The songs that are going to be involved are, as of right now:

E.P 1

Keely
The Santa Monica Pier
Subtle Changes of The House
A Cartoon Sketch of a Decent Sensitive Guy
Arkham
Rabbits
Tennessee


E.P 2


Manhattans
Separation Anxiety
Alternate Separation
Malachi
Away With words

I will go through figure out what will work what won't etc, and well basically see what happens.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

My Sunny Day Diary of The Rising Tide of Circles

Ok, well we finished two of the shoegaze songs. I guess not TECHNICALLY finished due to Sam needing to record his bass parts on both but hey I mean that's something write? two songs in like 3 weeks? Shit yeah.

Anyway, I spent the past 4 hours trying to record a violin part the multimix kept fighting with me and I guess Cubase doesn't understand 6/8 time signatures so I couldn't get the metronome to work like at all. Finally though at a little past 3 it worked and I mixed it in finished some mixes on the other parts and here we have two new songs:

Http://www.myspace.com/thecanceryears

Monday, November 12, 2007

weeaboo

woo no updates for a bit, I was a little sickish. But I'm feeling better. Still feel like I got kicked in the junk though. Anyway,
Tremendous headway on the Shoegaze project tentatively titled The Cancer Years. Yes I am reusing a band name I have used in the past, bad form? I doubt it.
Sam has to come over and record a bass line and we have one shoegaze song finished. I have to record another synth bass line and we have 1 and a half songs finished. Hopefully doing that tonight.





Planes has been off to a rocky start, mainly I have been concentrating on the shoegaze so much I haven't had a chance to work on it.
I finished the new lyrics for Manhattans, having some issues with For Hannah, which is probably going to be called separation Anxiety. I can't get the feel I want. As it is I am recording the Marimba for that tonight since I have the main progression finished. I really need to clean up the prechorus/chrous's and I'll be done with those.
I also need to write the guitar part in the new key.




Then it's off to reworking Manhattans, I don't really have much to do on that one, Pretty sure I handled a majority of the parts. so that one should go quick.
Still trying to get the parts right for Keely, need to clean up my playing A LOT.
Regular updates will commence this eve.




If I get the shoegaze song finished tonight, I will pull down the one on the myspace as it isn't EQ'd and the lead part is off.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Da Tube

Ok so finished moving For Hannah..to it's new key, have to run it by a few people before I record the pianos + marimba. I was working on a guitar part until I moved it to a new key. Now I have to start over with that. I'm thinking about subbing out the bass for a different...bass, aswell. Then I have to finish up the lyrics that are slowly coming together and that song will be done.

When Travis and I were working on it, I think he suggested we name it Separation Anxiety jokingly, I suggested muchausen syndrome. Now that the lyrics are shaping up the way they are I am thinking about renaming it that, Separation Anxiety...not Munchausen Syndrome. We'll see I guess.

Manhattans is next, finished the lyrics today, I am sure I will end up changing them but I atleast have a really good feeling of where the song is going, taking out the janky guitar part and violin part at the end and subbing in something...interesting if I can get it to work right that song will be equal if not above awesome.

Lastly, I haven't been handing this address out but I have told a few people. Does anyone actually read this? If so, please leave a comment.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Well Paul and I recorded one of the shoegaze songs, it still needs a bit of work, so I am sure I will be taking it back down again at somepoint. Sam needs to record the bass line on it.
But it is something.
I am still knee deep in doing changes to the planes songs I am going to work on. Currently For Hannah is on the chopping block, hoping to have it done in the next day or two, then gotta record guitars and vocals and move on to Greyhounds(manhattans).
Anyway:
Shoegaze.
Http://www.myspace.com/thecanceryears
feel free to add that.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Jesus Tapdancing Christ.

The mono synth in reason 4:



Good lord people. I may just have to upgrade. The Arp. alone makes me want to, but this is a whole new animal here. They didn't just add some more shit in like they did with three. They rebuilt the motherfucker. This seems to be the main shot they are throwing around the internets.

I also got Midiquest XL going(I say also even though I don't have Reason 4, it will only be a matter of time before I jump ship though) I haven't..well...plugged it in yet. Mainly cause I am too lazy. I can see the midi cables in the back of the M1 from where I am sitting, but I don't really feel like plugging it in. I'm sure the damn thing isn't going to work right so I'll have to fix umpteen things just to get it to trigger. Which causes me to not want to get up and just sit here.


Saturdays my big day for all this.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

My boat is great

I spent last night again fighting with the multimix, finally got an update and it seems to be working ok. Alesis finlly got their isht together and did an update that works. It seems the issue that Travis and I had before was well documented. It seems that these mixers do NOT like dual core laptops. Since Travis and I both used dual core laptops, it never worked. I am tempted to break out the old superchili black box, put it back toegther and run everything through it. I do have very limited space, and the desktop is MASSIVE, due to my server racks and what have you. That is a metric ton of work though just to record some damn guitars.
Either way, don't buy the multimix if you want to use it for a laptop. On the plus side, they finally came out with the rack ears for the thing.
After my hour and a half fight with the multimix, I got it to work. When I moved into my house the guy who lived there before me left this takamine guitar, you can see it in the post below this. I dunno where he got the idea but he gave it a "wicked" and "phat" paint job. The guitar itself sounds amazing, however it's ugly as sin. I used that with the SM57 Travis let me borrow and got some amazing sound out of it. It just sucks that by the time I got everything setup I didn't want to deal with the damn thing anymore. I persevered and got something down. I played in punk bands for so long I could afford to be a little sloppy of a player and hide it under distortion. Now I play the acoustic and my sloppiness comes through. Working on that more than anything else right now.
I Spoke to Alec for about an hour last night, I got the original version of "I have a boat" which was Alecs song about my 1973 Lincoln Continental I used to drive, also talked to him about re-rerecording Untitled number 4. We both remember how to play it so I am going to try my hand at redoing it in Reason, recording the rhythm parts and having him do the leads. Alec wrote the guitar parts for The Cancer Years way back in 2003, he was 17 at the time, and the song was phenomenal, and I had written these random lyrics and they matched up perfectly, though sadly we never go to record the damn thing. So we discussed it last night and it's time we do the song proper. He's damn and I'm down so why the hell not.
It's kinda like the Postal Service, only he's in Meheeco.
I have been slowly pulling apart the planes songs. Trying to get a feel of how I would like to do them. It's slow, but there are so many other things I am working on that the older songs are taking a big back seat to everything else.
we shall see how it will go.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

I suck at teh htmlz

what the hells going on with my pictures.

edit:

Oh.

I gotta use this template to put them in.

Stupid.

I ran out of bullets

Well, I got a little of what I said done. Paul and I and sam worked on the shoegaze song. It went really well. I am going to try and post a link. It has no guitars or bass so at this point it's kinda pointless. So, maybe I won't

Pictures from that:




Paul next to the synths.



Sam in Pauls garage.



More Sam in Pauls garage.



I'm an amazing photographer.



That was Friday, Satruday I bought an M1, my second. I sold the first to get weighted keys, and regretted it constantly, so I picked up another one. The guy who sold it to me had basically formatted it, no sounds, no combis and even the mod joystick didn't work. It DID come with a memory card though(hello 100 bucks on ebay) So it was a steal.

Generic Picture:

I spent 2 hours using midiox tryign to get the sysex back in and nothing, 10 pages of googling later I found a little program that did it in two seconds. I know have a fully functional m1 for dirt cheap.

One of the keys is missing, so gotta put in an order to, of all places, a guitar parts website. 10 bucks for one key? wtf.

Sunday today, was spent recording guitars at Pauls, I got most of Keely recorded and am going to finish what I can here, or wait till I go back for more shoegaze work.

I have a boom mic now, so shits WAYYY easier.

Anyway a few more pictures:



The broken SQ-1, on its way downstairs




This is what happens when you date a musician.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Tentatively I am continuing on as Planes solo. I am not making any huge plans with it, but out of the 8 songs we as Planes did I am going to rewrite and redo:
Manhattans(greyhounds)
For Hannah
Keely
Escapism( Maybe, I am not such a huge fan of this one)

I am also going to do a Cancer Years song and a Pinguino song

Untitled Number 4, and The Santa Monica Pier.

I am taking care with which Planes songs I am going to do, I am not going to use the ones that had a more heavy input by Travis so as I don't step on any toes. that is the reason I am not doing, Karma, or mass, or Insomnia.

I also have a few other ideas I am kicking around. I don't want to go into any huge details as I am notorious for forgettign what I am doing and not doing the things I speak about. Let's just say if I can pull it off it will be fun, and it will help my vocal abilities.

As it is tearing apart greyhounds tonight, depending on who is home I might try my hand at rerecording the vocals.

I did some takes months ago, and let me tell you they were BAD.

I need to speak to Paul about recording guitars at his place, I have an acoustic at my house but it's..just an acoustic I can't seem to get mic placement right with it so i can't record it. I was considering throwing some things down on tape..like real tape..cassette tape, but I dunno how I feel about dry vocals.

Schedule for this week:

Tonight:
Greyhounds, pull apart put back together.
Shoegaze stuff
Untitled #4 drum beat.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Didn't see that coming....

since my last update, Planes has effectively self destructed, by my own doing. I don't really want to go into all the specifics but planes is goign to be recworked into a solo project by me.
The shoegaze band is moving at a slow clip. I am still wrappign my head around it. I am slowly gettign things.
I still need to make a whatever/planesmusic.com website thing for it. I might do that today if I remember.
Pauls solo project is a collective of a bunch of musicians and I am trying to create an umbrella of what we all do, I am goign to try and rework planes as a collective of the musicians I know. It's going to be my main project and I can finally do what I want when I want how I want.
Tha is not to say Travis's roll is to be downplayed he did a lot, I would never say otherwise, but for this band to be how I want it to be I need to have a lot more freedom.
I think kid fusion just went down, as Gene dosen't really knwo what he wants to do, I invited him to be one of the Planes players so as to do something, I suppose we shall see how that goes.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Late night

ok well finally got a track up for the Shoegaze project, it's very sparse and very well...nowhere near anything, but it's something.

So direct your browser this way:

www.myspace.com/planesdemos


Also while your there, listen to keely and Mitch Clem cause they are both Planes demos....as the myspace says

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Random things around the room this eve.

Gene came over to work on Kid Fusion, which consisted of me doing laundry and him checking his myspace. Who knew hip hop beats were so hard to make? Lil' Jon makes it look easy

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The act of, with the broken ESQ-1 in the background...I like Propagandhi....so what?

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Cz 5000(which I am selling, if the 0 people who read this are interested) and the working ESQ-1

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Artistic!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

One of my favorite pictures ever, My buddy Jesse's senior picture, it's obnoxious and I love it and I've carried it around for some 4 years or so it's now attached to my amp...that I'll probably never move. Seriously, why do keyboard players need 300 pound amps? Why don't they all just run into the PA? I don't get it, yet I have one.

Makes no sense.


On another note, the shoegaze project is off to a rocky start I can't wrap my head around it. It's the opposite of planes. Slow, atmospheric, not-fast. Hopefully, it will come to me over the next week.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Numero Uno

I guess I should introduce myself, My name is Matthew.


I was in various bands across Oregon and Nashville Tennessee. these bands is/are/were:

The Cancer Years, Pinguino, Planes, untitled shoegaze project, Kid Fusion, and the original Morning After Spring.

I played guitar, in most, synths in some, and wrote a lot in others.

These are all bands no ones ever heard of unless you know me, so take that how you will.


That should be good enough for now.

As it stands, yesterday bleeding into today, Paul and I have started an unnamed shoegaze project. It will feature us and a guy from the band airplane to nowhere/Twilight Army who is moving up here.

He's on drums, I'm on guitar/synths, paul is on guitars/synths and most likely vocals.

We started preliminary tracks yesterday, and ended up with a short string part over some automated noise. So far so good.


Planes, is the main band I am in. I seem to have forgot how to do direct links. When I remember there will be links to everything.

Planes has been going on and off for about a year and a half. we have 8 songs that are all around 78% finished. Travis and I finished up the instrumentals on all but one Saturday and so tonight - Friday I am mixing and mastering the two that are now ready for that then hopefully finishing the 3rd(which makes 8) guitars on saturday.

track listing is as follows, in no apparent order:
1.Insomnia
2.Karmic Debt
3.For Hannah..
4.Greyhounds/Manhattans
5.Keely
6.Silversmithing
7.Escapism
8.Massachusetts

All in all, not bad for a demo.


THe last project currently in the works is Kid Fusion and Prof. Boom, which consists of MC Gene, and me on the whatever we think of. Basically a hip hop project in the veign of MC Chris, Grand buffet.

We haven't worked on it yet, I am awaiting Gene to get going, not sure if it will go anywhere and I am not sure I can be in three bands, work full time, and go to school.

I suppose, we shall see.

And here we go again....

I am starting this as a chronical of what we as Pinguino Productions(sometimes with Championship Vinyl records and sometimes without) are doing...I just made that name up, anyway, it will encompass what Planes, Kid Fusion and the un-named shoegaze band are all currently doing/recording/destroying, on a day by day basis. Hopefully I will keep it going. I like this effort more than I have liked previous efforts, as well. You can come and go and I can do what I will. There is no pressure. I can assuer you I will try to keep it as entertaining as possible. If all Goes well, maybe Paul or Travis will have a hand in the updates, and maybe whoever else I wrangle into joining.