And Miles To Go Before I Sleep..

PS

2009-10-03T01:20:00.000-07:00

I finished Blood and Gold, the ending was better than I expected. Currently reading John Irving's A widow for One Year and Finishing Ramses, the Damned. I never did make it through Dionysus. Mainly cause it's a goddamn text book and stupid hard to read or comprehend.

Too many ideas right now. Tempted to email a publisher and say "don't be a bitch, Kerouac sucks." That might not be the best way to start a relationship. ha..ha..ha.

Sarah is asleep next to me, and snoring. I should be sleeping but I'M NOT

eh whatever.

2009-10-03T01:12:00.000-07:00

“So what the hell are we doing?” I asked.
“Going to Florida?” He responded not taking his eyes off the TV.
Rephrasing the question I asked again, “Why are we going to Florida, How are we getting to Florida?”
Still not even blinking or removing his gaze, from the lights and colors swirling around in front of him and continuing to hit button combination's that I am sure only he knew he responded matter-of-factly “Jackie’s going and we are invited along.”
“Is Whitney going?” I asked hopefully.
“No, she couldn’t get the time off and you wouldn’t work for her.”
“ohhh….Never getting in her pants now.”
“Yep, you fucked up.”

With that we left for Florida.

2009-09-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

It's really awesome when my work Microsoft Word is older than the one on my computer and my work one gets all pissed at it and won't open my docs.

Drinkin'

2009-09-26T21:27:00.000-07:00

Drinking and listening to About Tess. I officially finished a short story today, which is good. When I'm at work I am like write, write, write. I get home then....nothing. So whatever. At least that got finished.

Working on another one, that was one of the more interesting nights in Nashville. I'm having an issue with the dialogue though, don't want it to seem forced.

That's about it.

Well.

2009-08-12T23:55:00.000-07:00

Sarah's playing guitar in front of the G5 and talking about how vain her friends are. I don't know them so...I don't know what to say. I am constantly being reminded about how she is such a better guitar player than I am. The Cancer years are moving at a steady clip, that is nice. It's nice just being able to think about small parts instead of the larger whole. We have more people now to do those things so it takes a lot of pressure off of me.

I got really sick so I haven't been writing anything. Sinus infection(first one ever) turned into two ear infections so much so that the doctor I went to see couldn't see into my ear canals. Lots of pills later and I am ok. I really really hate ear drops though.

I have been reading in the off time I haven't been writing. I started and finished The Vampire Lestat and Memnoch the Devil. I can't make it through Blood and Gold. I keep trying but its just not happening. She cannot make me care about Marius at all. So instead I am making my way through "Dionysus, Myth and Occult" which I have to put down like ever two pages because it's a heavy read.

I always wonder if people add in labels as they type on here. I do. New subject add in a label. Makes it easier to remember? I dunno. Sarah, Selena, Sam and I are all moving into this house next month. So we will be free to do whatever it is that we do. I suspect it won't be very much.

Also, I have started obsessively watching True Blood.

Hopefully the game plan right now is to finish the Horror short story, which is turning into a longer story that i am tying into certain other things in my head. We shall see how it turns out. I need to stop planning things cause they never go how I think they will.

ok! Time to go cuddle with Sarah.

PS. The Japanese band Mono is absolutely amazing.

2009-07-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

Well Sarah REALLY liked the short story, that's encouraging.

So did the Kalona, even though I only sent her pieces. Sending to a few others before I finalize it all.

The Ps3 died. That's discouraging.
We are havign band practice tonight, that's encouraging.

The Horrors of Victorian Apartments.

2009-07-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

Falling asleep last night, having just watched Death to Smoochy with Sarah and Gene, I started thinking about this idea I had….Ages ago. About a screen play I had thought about writing. Mind you I was 16 at the time. I would have had no idea what I was doing. Not that I do now, but anyway. It started with someone (me, duh) waking up as the credits roll, getting ready for the day, showering, and brushing their teeth etc. Grabbing a skateboard having a shot from behind of this person running out the front door for something (school we’ll assume). Making it out the front door and immediately being shot dead. Next scene same person wakes up screaming in bed, covered in sweat wondering what just happened. Suffering from Night Terrors or something along those lines. It obviously never went anywhere but the ideas been in my head for something like 10 years. For some reason Death to Smoochy set it off, and I have no idea why.
Anyway, as I was falling asleep, I was thinking about Nicks apartment (her ex has this cool apartment on 13th and Belmont that is all sketchy and Victorian and weird) and how it would be neat to stage some sort of short story there, and the two ideas warped into one idea about a guy being left by a girl (for whatever reason, I didn’t think too hard about that part) and having this dream, then shaking it off. Going about the rest of his day, this time on his way to work somewhere in a Downtown setting. Riding the bus and getting into an accident. Then everything spirals from there. We’ll see if it happens or if I leave it the way it is.
Well that is the idea, this one is done, even though it has nothing to do with anything else I am doing, writing is writing. Hopefully it’s a good omen and more things will get finished.

tut tut tut

2009-07-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

So I wrote up this thing the other day about how The Cancer Years was playing a show and how we had some new members and what not, but then I forgot to post it. I left it alone on my work computer and I went off to the wonderful world of Woodburn for a wedding. Well it's technically old news now and old news is no news thanks to Michael Jackson. So I will post it just because, here it is:

I have been writing like no other, pouring over journals and notes and little scraps of paper. I’m trying to write my Moby Dick. There is no great whale though. Or there is, depends on how you look at it. Though, there really wasn’t one in Moby Dick either if you really think about it, but I digress. Erick seems to think the books a great idea, though he thinks I should shorten it into a Novella. I am on the fence about that as I don’t really want to cut out the bulk of it which is Nashville. I could do it without Nashville and make that separate but it all has to go together for it to make any lick o’ sense. I don’t know. While all of that simmers (and I keep writing.) I have been writing some short story companions. I have been trying my hand at different writing styles. So far receptions been warm to everything, the only person who hasn’t liked it has been Sarah, but I think she’s biased. So yeah things are going as well as they can. I would imagine.

The Cancer Years got two new band members, Jesse on keys/bass and Sarah on keys/violin/glockenspiel. Were also playing a bunch of shows soon, one this weekend, right after the wedding. So that is something. The Venetian School is taking part in a remix contest put on by Sage Francis’s record label Strange Famous Records. I'm trying to see if any of the original members of the band want to get in on it with me, two heads are better than one. Asking Gene and maybe Sarah, wish I could ask Sam but it seems he has washed his hands of the project. So, we’ll see how that will go. I am actually trying to use Logic as more than just a recording suite on this, so it’s a learning process.

Crystals wedding is this weekend, and I have another two hours of work then I am off for five days. So I will spend my time writing guitar parts for The Cancer years, writing in the book, and trying my hand at remixing.

So….There we go.

WELL, we are now a week later. Played the show, It went…ok. Dudes from the Beautiful Mistake really liked it which is nice as they are like “kinds of famous.” We are playing another show in like eight days. We need to practice. We tried to play a song none of us knew and it sounded like a mess, or what Butt Trumpet sounded like from what I remember. Still writing still trying to pull ideas, ideas are the easy part execution is another. Planes had the same problem, I was all ideas no follow through. So I am trying to make sure everything I want to do end up happening. It seems I keep getting stuck though. The caveat I am trying to do is no easy task, but hell of Kerouac can do it so can I right? What did he have that I don’t?

The roommates are in Belize and I pretty much have the house to myself which is nice and quiet. Hopefully that means I can get a whole bunch done. I am fighting to not spend the whole time Killing 12 year olds in CoD Death match. I might force myself to finish at least one of the short stories first. Or at least write another thousand words in one, after that I could play.

I often find myself thinking about who designed the Microsoft Word Dictionary. Who had the job to go in and make sure that every word in the English language is in it and spelled correctly? I want to speak to this person … or people.

Oh and the remix was a complete waste of time. Why did Sage have to pick the song that’s like 300bpm. Seriously.

2009-06-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

Steadily making my way throught the Mexico part of the book, which is so far leading to be the toughest part. There was a lot of information proabbly too much to really use, but I got it all in there. Atleast what I could remember. A year down, a year to go.

Im at 27 pages right now, hoping to break 30 before I go home tonight. We shall see what develops, depending on how fast I get this all done, I am going to hand it off to Eric soon so I can see what he thinks.

ok!

Mexcio DF -> Boca Del Rio

2009-06-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

So it's been awhile, I am swtiching blog...ideas...as it were, since someone took Nostophobia I'll just have to use this one, since it's already done. I had been for years kicking around ideas for writing a book. It's hard...I dunno how Gaiman does it.

BUT, I am making headway, and this will hopefully show some effort on my part.

2009-01-15T00:55:00.000-08:00

As usual it has been a while. Were about to play a show in two days...well...one day now. Our first for this band. So that is good.

Just recording,recording,recording. Not much else going on.

2008-12-24T23:16:00.000-08:00

Sitting on Pauls couch, Rerecorded Advent as it turns out I can't seem to remember what key we write things in. Go me.

I have to pull all the tracks out of Reason and throw them into logic....which I keep putting off cause this song has a lot of tracks in it, but you know..whatever. Gotta do what you gotta do.

Hopefully get it worked on tonight, and then that's done.

YEAH

2008-12-23T17:55:00.000-08:00

Long time no see.

Ive been busy with school and life, I could make up some excuse but it woudl just be a lie. THe Venetian broke up, so it goes.

The majority of the songs were assimilated into The Cancer Years, what coudl be saved was saved, what couldn't will be held onto. The Cancer Years is all up and away. We finished 3 songs in the past several weeks and are going strong to have en EP finished soon. I am pushing for us to make a 2 song ep and just give them away. No point in really charging for two songs. As it stands we have 5. which is well enough to start playing shows, now to practice and get an actual set together and get out there.

Planes is really intermittant as I am focusing so much on The Cancer years, the plus side of all this is I am a much better guitar player(much is a relative term).

So...you know. Whatever.

Presently I am stuck at work, I keep going back and forth on Planes wanting to work on it and wanting to focus more on The Cancer Years.

I am hoping to start playing Cancer Years shows then slowly work on Planes, I am in no hurry. The songs are mostly written. I'd like to find some other people to work on it. I don't want The Cancer Years to seem like the band Paul sings on and Planes to seem like the band I sing in.

+12 90's techno

2008-07-31T00:20:00.000-07:00

He wears a lot of purple for a white guy

2008-07-08T01:47:00.001-07:00

OK. So the Venetian School of Painters is a go. We made buttons, I don't remember what I said in the last blog I posted but we did. Even made a
craptastic Myspace
I am going to make a website, but I want us to be ready to play shows before I launch the thing. Its in the works next month I believe.

If you are too lazy to click the link the video is at the bottom of this.

Tentatively(I wonder how many times I have written that in here) it's Sam and I doing just about everything. Gene is filling in on synths and bass, Sarah is on Violin and synths, Paul is playing guitar and alt. percussion.

It's like a full band for once. The goal is to finish 6 songs and start playing shows come August. We have two instrumentals finished, Paul and Sam are actively writing guitar parts for those two and Sarah is writing a violin part for one.

I am knee deep and finishing the third, which is going to be played...first. Its the intro or maybe the outro, depending on how it ends.

basically. we are doing a lot of work in no time. Thank god I took this term off.

My buddy Scott who runs
a record label was talking about putting out a 7" for us. I guess more on that as it develops, Sam wants it to happen, and I want it to happen so it probably WILL happen. As we are running this here...school.

Planes and The Cancer Years are both on an indefinite hiatus...cause...damnit if I wasn't sick of working on Planes, and Paul and I lost a member in The Cancer Years, so it was put on hold.

Though, one of the songs we are working on, its backburnered at the moment, but its a Planes song. That should be entertaining.

As I said up top, heres the video for the "teaser" Venetian songs.

I'm in the process of making another as I type this.

2008-07-01T21:13:00.000-07:00

everytime I sit down to write something I lose all the words.

we started a new band, The Venetian School. We have buttons and other stuff and videos.

9 songs.

2008-05-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

wow, haven't updated in a while, I have been busy with school and work and life.

I am going to do a for real update tomorrow.

Im super tired.

Pendletones

2008-04-05T14:22:00.001-07:00

ok well, I joined Cicero, which is Pauls band, "90's Christian Emo...back when it was good" according to them. I play keys(duh) and we played our first show last night. It went pretty well, the Triton dropped out during the second song for some reason I never figured out. but we kept on and it turned out ok. The nice thing about being the new guy, no one knows your parts, you can really just play whatever you want and no one knows the difference.

Planes finished a song, it's up on the Myspace, peopel seem to like it. It finally grew on me and I can play it for people without cringing. So that is good.

working on another song, which may or may not get worked on this weekend, we haven't touched the gaze stuff in so long that it is time to get back on that.

Not really much else to report, sloww week. Links to follow:

www.myspace.com/cicerosoundlab <-- Pauls band

www.myspace.com/planestheband <-- New song I did

Everyone thinks they will be the one to save you.

2008-03-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

So again, lack of updates. What can I say, the terms ending I have been busy. I am sitting in an MSD class, which is a one day one credit class. 8 hours sitting in a room listening to a lady talk about "Team Building" I was hoping it would have something to do with teamsters...but that doesn't look like the case.

Planes, finished a song, that is some crazy news. As planes hasn't finished a song in over 2 years.

I should be paying attention, more on this later.

wow I'm lazy

2008-02-27T22:56:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in about a month cause I have been in and out of Portland, I went to Nashville for a week. Talked shop with my stepfather, got some ideas on better drum placement.

I picked up my two guitars while I was there. One is an Epiphone Les Paul II, which is a total piece-o-junk BUT, I am hopefully going to do a KP1 mod to it, and if so it's going to be amazing.

Then I bought a Lawsuit Gibson Les Paul, which is basically an Identical copy of a regular les paul for about 1200 dollars cheaper. Dude was kind enough to put in some really awesome pickups so now I have an amazing LP.

So I got it and I was like WTF I need an amp. So I went down to trade up and bought a Peavey Stereo Chorus 212. Which is basically the amp I wanted(I used to have one). So that worked out nicely.

The shoegaze hasn't been worked on, but Planes has a bit. I am getting ideas for things. Just been knee deep in Math homework so i can't do anything.

Gods last name is not DAMN

2008-01-26T10:56:00.000-08:00

Ok, well I was saying something about new developments, and either A: I posted it somewhere else or B: I completely forgot to post it. Anyway, it's been an interesting few weeks around Planes world HQ, IE my bedroom. I bought a rack sampler. An EMU ESI-32:

It's nothing super fancy, it's not expanded but the memory is maxed out, at 32 megs so that is nice. I also got about 7 disks with it. Surprisingly the Strings sound better than the M1 does.

Moving along:

I went to trade up with Paul, and we were toying aroudn the idea of rack gear and I foudn a monstro rack nox with hinges and awesomeness that I can't seem to remember the name of so I can't find a picture, I will update later with it though. I also picked up a rack light for it. It's red. Sup @sex lights, and so I threw everything in there it's nice to have a cable management system and only have to run out one power outlet.

Lastly, the major purchase, I have spent a really long time trying to save up or have enough money to get out of the bargain basement synths. I have waited YEARS to be able to get something really nice and finally after a really long time and plenty of comparing and a/bing and reading

Matt bought a motherfucking Triton:

And it is amazing, it came with the Studio Essentials, which as far as I can tell has a bunch of EP's and choir sounds....less than impressive. BUT I can max out the sampling and have a total of 96 megs of ram at my disposal between this and the EMU, that's a whole lotta sampling. That and I mean....seriously...It has a touch screen. What more could you want?

I spent about 20 minutes with it last night and almost rewrote the Keely violin parts in it, it's just ridiculously easy to work with and I love it.

I was thinking of buying an RM1x, but my gear lust only goes so far, I have the money for it...I just wonder how much use I will get out of it.

2007-12-30T14:52:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-12-06T17:27:00.000-08:00

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.

The Common Law Marriage

2007-11-21T11:39:00.000-08:00

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.

My Sunny Day Diary of The Rising Tide of Circles

2007-11-15T04:38:00.000-08:00

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

weeaboo

2007-11-12T15:26:00.000-08:00

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.

Da Tube

2007-11-07T18:16:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-11-06T15:48:00.000-08:00

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.

Jesus Tapdancing Christ.

2007-11-02T03:45:00.001-07:00

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.

My boat is great

2007-10-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-30T03:33:00.001-07:00

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

2007-10-30T03:17:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-10-25T14:32:00.000-07:00

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....

2007-10-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-18T03:30:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-10-16T03:58:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

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....

2007-10-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

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.