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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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



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



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



Artistic!



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.

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.