Neil Fein's Blog

Photos taken by random folks, using Brushwood's camera:


Brushwood performing, and me as the Heartbreakers





Me playing the opening set to the show to an audience of tens of thousands of molecules





Grazina, Adam, Karen at Labyrinth





Bruce with yummy Old One cupcake



Click on the pictures for a larger version and more information.

Labels: music, notbike, wicked

It's been a while since I've posted on music. Here are some of the things I've been listening to lately:

OK Go, Oh No


OK Go's second studio album is great fun, filled with well-produced and just plain catchy songs. Their first, epynonomus album sounds a lot like The Cars and REO Speedwagon had a child, but the band is finding its own voice. Their sheer energy is comperable to that of No Doubt before they became a dance-music band. There are shades of the Joe Jackson band, particularly in "It's a Disaster" and "Good Idea at the Time".

OK Go has a very distintive "band" sound. These tracks sound like they were recorded live as a band, uncommon in this age of overdubbed studio magic. A slight distortion warms the sound, particularly on the vocals. (This may have been intentional, or may be a mastering error. Either way, it sounds great.) And the band has a great telepathic-musician thing going on.

They're best known here on Teh Net Of Tubes for their video of the band doing a heavily choreographed dance on eight rented treadmills. The music is hardly groundbreaking, but it's fun stuff, making good use of the rock toolkit.

Samples from the band's site



Apocalyptica, Cult


"Harmageddon" off their album Inquisition Symphony got my attention this past spring, but the cello metal band comes through awesomely on Cult, an album of original material (as opposed to the metal-muzac covers of previous albums). Edit: All but three of the songs on this album are originals.

The band's musicianship is superb. The cello metal sound is distinctive, and I could listen to it all day; but there is a tendency for all the songs to sound kinda the same on the first listen. Cult benefits from repeated, attentive listenings; the material is well-composed and distinctive. (Oddly enough, the iTunes store lists this album as "Explicit", even the instrumental songs which are most of the album.)

If you haven't listened to cello metal, imagine cello, viola, etc. blended seamlessly with a distorted guitar-like sound. The result is a powerful, dramatic sound mixing speed metal with a classical string trio listen-and-feel, and almost-gratuitous alternate time signatures thrown in just because they can.

Samples from the band's site



Gentle Giant, Gentle Giant

Hardly new music, but new to me: This 1970 album is a tour of where progressive rock could have gone. Smart, tight, and well-performed, but hardly opaque songs.



Dixie Dregs, What If


Billed as fusion jazz, the Dixie Dregs sound an awful lot like Kansas to me. The forceful, poppy progressive rock album What If was retreading old ground in 1978. The album is uneven, but Take It Off The Top and Travel Tunes are great songs, mediated by the mellow title track and Gina Lola Breakdown, an odd stompin' southern country hoedown.



Spock's Beard, Beware of Darkness


Flat-out prog rock, this is my first listen to Spock's Beard. Wonderfully complex and memorable songs, four out of the 7 tracks are long-form works. The material builds on progressive song staples, and even goes beyond them a little. Thoughts, my fave so far, reminds me of Kevin Gilbert's work on The Shaming of the True, which, unsurprisingly, drummer Nick D'Virgilio completed after Gilbert's death.

There are a few filler songs (Walking on the Wind springs to mind), but the album is mostly evenly good.

Labels: music, notbike

Bruce and I been rehearsing a lot this week for our set on Saturday, and I rehearsed last weekend and tonight, for my solo set. This is for a gig where I am sound guy and play two sets during a 13-hour show. I've already started obsessing over my packing list. (Stuff like the PA, speakers, mics, duct tape, and, oh yeah, the guitar would be helpful.)

Meantime, I pulled my bike out of the shop I had it in; seems they won't get the parts in until at the earliest Thursday the 4th. I told them to keep the parts (tires and right shifter) on order and I'll bring the bike back then. I spend the drive to the bike shop seething and calming myself down. No use antagonizing one of the better bike shops in the area. But they could have called me about this.

Labels: audio, bike, music, notbike

I'm playing a gig -- performing a set and doing sound for the rest of the concert at Labyrinth. I think letting me perform there is the bribe the organizers give me so I'll keep doing their sound, which is cool with me. Corruption and a gig in one package.

Labyrinth is an all-day renaissance/goth/other festival, held here in Edison, on September 29th. I still don't know the time I'll be on (will post that when I get it), but the location, etc is on the calendar page.

I also asked for a slot at an open mic this week on Wednesday, but I haven't heard anything back yet; there may not be any spots left. Or I've somehow pissed off the organizer (naaah).

Also...

Since this is a relatively unknown site, a personal blog of interest to only me and a few friends, I figured there were maybe a handful of people looking. Looking at the traffic logs, there are more of you reading than I thought -- not huge crowds by any definition -- but I am getting visitors, 56 this past week. More than the three or four I expected. Given the few if any comments, I'm pretty surprised by even this much traffic.

Aside from the locations where I can pretty much guess who it is, I'm seeing hits from outside the US: Dublin, Norway, quite a few from England, Paris... pretty cool. Not that I'm expecting any response, but if anyone wants to let me know how they found the blog I'd love to hear it. (If I know you personally, of course I know how you found it.)

Labels: admin, audio, blog, gig, music, wicked

Commuted home again on my bike, and also rode 1/3 of the way to work that morning, the last third. (Martha dropped me off in the car with my bike.) The ride home was a lot easier this time, I was able to pedal for longer without getting tired. Reducing the weight on my bike helped: I was carrying a godawful amount of stuff last time, including boots.

I kept a good pace, and didn't go too fast on the long straightaways no faster than, say 18mph, or I'll be in granny gears on the next hill. Since I don't know all of the route yet, I kept having to stop last time I did this to check my directions. I got smart this time and made myself a cue card holder:



Since you brake with your hands, you can't exactly hold directions while you ride a bike.

I also found a somewhat better route this time, mostly by looking more carefully at satellite views, but also with the advice of a fellow commuter from work, who I ran into on the way up. While I missed the turn for the back way he suggested, even riding nearby it was a much easier rise -- e.g., streets that have shoulders but not a lot of traffic. Shade is also nice.

---

The HP musicians' coop's first "demo clinic" was today, a free demo recording session to area musicians. It went rather well. I hope more people sign up for this. And completely unrelated to the clinic, except that it inspired me to do a demo after the musicians had left:

I recorded a demo of a song I recorded today and wrote earlier this week: Knobbies, MP3, not dialup-friendly.

---

Edit: I almost forgot; here's my commuting route:




Click on the pictures for a larger version and more information.

Labels: bike, commute, HPMC, music, notbike, work

Nate's song is starting to get reaction on the CourtTV boards. Out of the comments here about the song (almost all are rabbiting on about how this is a sick, disgusting song, one person seems to like it), this one is my favorite:

I think that's disgusting and in poor taste...it ridicules WM about where's his @$$? Gross. More of the too much time on their hands crowd, I suppose. Who sits around all day composing songs/ballads about a murderess? Bizarro.

...this is from someone with 2,004 posts in the last 4 months. At least it's well written with the rare quality of proper spelling in a web board post.

It you actually read the lyrics, Nate is expressing an opinion that Melanie McGuire is, well, a murderer. I really though that to be out of the range of opinion. Oh, there are a few bad words in the lyrics. As the guy who performed the instruments in the song and sang backing vocals, I though Nate wrote a funny lyric.

What a slap in the face to Bill's memory and to his family and friends.

If any of these folks find this page, I imagine we'll see some entertainingly hateful comments. Woo hoo!


Edit: CourtTV has taken down the comments I linked to above. (See the comments.) But some folks were defending the song as borderline tasteless, but getting the point that the song is criticising a killer, not disrespecting the victim's memory.

Labels: music

Rock Creek (Electric 3) MP3, ~7mb

I'm not good enough to play this on electric yet. And there are parts that are still sketchy. But the spirit is there.

Labels: music

Nate and I have finished up a parody song. Warning: It's funny, but pretty tasteless.

It's posted up on Nate's blog. Take a listen, then leave him many comments.

Labels: blog, music, parody

Kevin Gilbert, Thud

An amazing collection of songs by multi-instrumentalist and composer Kevin Gilbert, who sadly died after completing this. Think rock tinged by pop with a little prog thrown in and you're in the ballpark, but Gilbert's style was all his own. Most of the production on Thud is pretty sparse, but there are moments of appropriate complexity in almost every track.

It's worth buying the albumn for All Fall Down or Shadow Self alone, but When You Give Your Love To Me, The Tears of Audrey, and Goodness Gracious (my personal favorite) are all excellent, and there's not a bad song here.

Edit: I was thinking about this last night, and I think the best way to describe Thud would be "post-progressive" rock. No longer experimentation for the sake of being radical, it's applying the best bits that came out of the lab. (Also check out King Crimson's work after the Projekct tour discs, it shows the benefit of an "R&D" period.)

Brian Wilson, Smile

I've written about this before, so I'll be short. Smile is a legendary "lost" album project that Brian Wilson abandoned, although the Beach Boys recorded some of the songs here and there.

It's a bloody shame this didn't get finished by the Beach Boys. As amazing as this album is, I can only imagine what they'd have done with this material in their heyday. That said, this disc is a masterpiece.

The orchestration is far ahead of anything else done in the 60's - and most of what's being done today. And the album sounds amazing enough to make me thing that it was worth waiting for modern studio recording to do justice to the material.

Jason Webley, Against the Night

I first met Jason Webley when I did sound for him at a concert in Raritan Center. His music impressed me enough that I bought one of his CDs, Against the Night. I had heard a lot of new music that day (a 12-hour live event will do that) but this was the only CD I came home with.

It's all about the lyrics and Jason's voice, I think. Goth accordionist meets Tom Waits, maybe?

A word of warning: If you buy this, you'll end up getting all of his albums (4 and counting) and they're all excellent. You can check him out on Youtube I'm in the audience for a Redbank performance, the guy to the left of the idiot guy checking his cellphone. All his work is great, but If I had to pick one (which I don't) it's Against the Night because I love that 2AM credits vocals to a particular pub. See this guy live if you possibly can.

Tori Amos, Under the Pink

Pretty Good Year, The Wrong Band, Cornflake Girl... a perfect album. Sophisticated piano/vocal music, with a flair for the dramatic. (Tori Amos fits somewhere in between emo, folk, and a broadway musical revue.)

Her amazing voice is pretty much taken for granted, but it shouldn't be. Fortunately she writes her material even better than she sings.

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue

This album is not exactly new, but it's new to me. Amazing emotional jazz from one of the biggest innovators in the field. There are standout tracks, but you need to hear the whole disc. If you're not into jazz (I wasn't), this is a great place to start.

Labels: music, notbike

Last night's HPMC open mic wasn't as bust as the last one, but a great time was had by all! Performers included myself, Bruce, David Slade, Artistic Differences (including Grazina Strolia for the Bile song), and a guy who played very good spanish guitar (whose name I can't recall, sorry). Pics to be posted soon.

Songs I played solo:
When I Was a Monkey
Eyes Up Front
Woke Up On the Fourth
Welcome Home

...and with Bruce:
Hold on Loosely
There's That Song
Ouch
Bugs

...with ArtDiff:
Bile
Baby Driver

...and more solo songs (I think this is all of them):
Time in a Bottle
Flowers on the Wall
Never Had a Brother

The next HPMC open mic is on May 17th at PJs.

Labels: HPMC, music, notbike

Folks have been asking: The Highland Park Musicians Coop open mic at PJs is now the third thursday of each month. (Will post updates to my calendar.)

More info, directions

Labels: HPMC, music, notbike

I Don't Get It - 3:46
Sunday - 2:30
Old Post - 1:48
Mitch & Emerson - 2:25
Tacks - 1:48
Hoyland - 2:14
Of - 0:44
UV Black Velvet - 1:40
Choose This - 1:30
Swamp Gas - 1:15
Notch - 2:32
Ride - 2:04
Roto-Tiller - 3:29
The Sidewalk and the Sunflower - 2:44
Total - 30:29

Ride is one of the first things I ever recorded on a computer, with a wordless vocal run through an amp simulator. Roto-Tiller is a straight-ahead prog-rock instrumental. The Sidewalk and the Sunflower is a theme-driven piano/strings/brass piece.

Tags: music, R+D, recording

Labels: music, notbike, R+D, recording

Bruce and I just got back from seeing Jason Webley perform at the Internet Cafe in Redbank, NJ. This is the best local show I've seen since... well, the last time I saw him play.


Photo by Bruce Meyers

Bruce took some pictures, I'll post a link when they go up and here they are.

Technorati tags: music

Labels: music, notbike

Have significantly simplified my home studio setup, mostly in an effore to keep the signal digital as much as possible. If you're not an audio gearhead, dull techie stuff ahead. Here are pictures of the studio setup..

This is an update to the studio rig I posted last year. (This is mostly for studio central folks.) Some of this stuff is old and doesn't have product pages any longer. Some of the software links to a later version than what I'm using.

• Apple iMac G5 1.8 (gen.1), 1gb of RAM


• M-Audio studiophile SPB5 monitors. Good but one has a problem with the power indicator LED.


• M-Audio Firewire 410 audio interface. Just got this. It's much faster and cleaner than the PowerMate I was using before.


• M-audio iControl (GarageBand control surface)


• LaCie Porsche FW drive


• Apple GarageBand 2 3. Seems a little more unstable and less responsive than version 2.


• Jam Pack 4 (Symphony Orchestra), also numerous freeware instruments


• Peak LE4


• Kawai ES-X 88 key weighted


• Mesa/Boogie Subway Rocket


• Line6 Pod 2.0


• Shure SM58, SM57


• MXL 2001 condenser mic


• Studio Projects C1
  condenser mic.


• Furman PL-8 power conditioner


• Various percussion, too many guitars

Aaaand... stuff I no longer use for recording:

• Behringer UB1204FX. Decent board with lousy on-board mic preamps. Putting this in the closet.


• 2 Alesis Nanoverbs Haven't used these in some time, keeping processing in the digital domain.


• Samson S-com plus stereo compressor/limiter Using plug-ins to do this in software.


• Griffin PowerWaveReplaced with a FW 410


• Griffin PowerMate (for triggering) replaced by an iControl


• Rolls HA43 headphone amp
  The FW410 has 2 independent headphone controls, I guess I'd pull this out if I had more than two people recording at once.

Technorati tags: music

Labels: music, notbike

I Don't Get It - 3:46
Sunday - 2:30
Old Post - 1:48
Mitch & Emerson - 2:25
Tacks - 1:48
Hoyland - 2:14
Of - 0:44
UV Black Velvet - 1:40
Choose This - 1:30
Swamp Gas - 1:15
Notch - 2:32
Total - 22:12

Downloaded some faux analog synth modules, and I seem to be in a synth mode. I'm also playing with accordion sounds. Added Swamp Gas and Notch, and added some buts to other songs.

Tags: music, R+D, recording

Labels: music, notbike, R+D, recording

posted by Neil  # Thursday, March 08, 2007 0 Comments

I Don't Get It - 3:43
Sunday - 2:30
Old Post - 1:48
Mitch & Emerson - 2:25
Tacks - 1:48
Hoyland - 2:14
Of - 0:44
UV Black Velvet - 1:40
Choose This - 0:36

Total - 14:28

Being at the halfway point is kinda cool, but I should be a little past that to allow time for mixing. I'm running anothe rsongwriting circle next week, so I probably should write something non-R&D over this weekend! Tags: music, R+D, recording

Labels: music, notbike, R+D, recording

R&D

Tracks completed: 5/10
Completed (time) 34.95% (of 35 minutes)

I wrote and recorded Tacks, 1:48. Percussion-based industrial with flutes and clarinet. I started with a free-tempo kettle drum beat and layered on top of it.

At this rate, if I keep up with tracks of this length, it'll take a little over 14 tracks to get me to 35 minutes. I'm aiming for maybe 15 tracks if the average length stays more or less the same. I'll try to do some longer pieces as well.

Technorati tags: music, R+D, recording

Labels: music, notbike, R+D, recording

R&D

Tracks completed: 4/10
Completed (time) 29.81% (of 35 minutes)

Did Old Post, 1:48, an old piano piece I wrote years ago in the old MIDIGraphy program. Slowed it down some, used some stuff from an older mix, added a few instruments and removed others. Also did Mitch & Emerson, which is essentially a piano riff with a jazz band backing it up, mostly.

Technorati tags: music, R+D, recording

Labels: music, notbike, R+D, recording

R&D

Tracks completed: 2/10
Completed (time) 5.63%

Did Sunday, 2:30, piano, trance bass, bassoon, tuba, timpani, hip-hop fake percussion. It sounds kinda soundtracky and atmospheric, mellow but ominous.

Technorati tags: music, R+D, recording

Labels: music, notbike, R+D, recording

R&D

Tracks completed: 1/10
Completed (time) 9.42%

The RPM 2007 challenge is a web thingy where you register to write and record an album in a month. Similar to National Novel Writing Month, but with music. I registered on the site in a fit of idealism.

Later, I thought that rather than do a finished album, (at least 10 songs and 35 minutes long), since I already have half of my album recorded it would be cool if I did an album of "sketchbook" music bits. A few songs of mine have later grown out of the snippets I leave on my hard drive. The trick is, they have to be brand-new extrusions of sound. So I cancelled the contest, and I'm doing this on my own, since it won't be a finidhes album by any stretch of logic. I want to concentrate on getting the basic tracks down, even if they are rough. It's easy for me to spend time editing, not so easy to spend the time laying the music down in the first place.

A couple of years ago, I hadn't come up with a new song in some time. So I called up a friend, and asked her what I should wrote a song about. She suggested cheese, and I wrote a song immortalizing swiss cheese. It was pretty abysmal, but it got me thinking creatively again. Similarly, I'm thinking that working fast on R&D might rub off on the "real" recordings. In other words, R&D is my swiss cheese album.

I wrote and roughed out the first song in the R&D project tonight, in a little over an hour. (I came up with the title and went from there.) I Don't Get It clocks in at 3:43, piano, guitar, flute and string trio. I managed to do tempo changes in GarageBand. Oddly enough, the tempo is 4/4 throughout.

It's pretty exhilarating to write a song and specifically not follow "the rules". I'll have to do a running tally of the R&D songs at some point, and post MP3s, but it's more important to finish the songs first. Speed, then polish, then post.

At some later point, I suppose I can mine these ideas for songs or scoring or whatever. Or nothing at all. But hopefully I'll look at the work I have left the "Neil Fein" album and say to myself, "That doesn't look as tough as I thought."

Technorati tags: music, R+D, recording

Labels: music, notbike, R+D, recording

I'm guest-hosting an open mic:

VALENTINES DAY AT P.J.'s
Date: Wednesday, February 14th

6:30 p.m. - sign up
7:00 - 9 p.m. - open mic

Place: PJs Cafe, 315 Raritan Avenue, Highland Park

PJs is currently my favorite cafe in Highland Park. And the owner is a musician himself, they have a lot of good music.

This is put on by the Highland Park Musicians Cooperative, the same group that held the one I went to in December.

So come and listen! Cheer us on, or throw rotten fruit, as suits you.

Technorati tags: music

Labels: music, notbike

Today I recorded Eyes Up Front, the "kinder, gentler" version (or call it the slow fingerstyle version, I guess). This is basically the version I played at the last open mic I was at (21 Dec 2006), with strings and a few other instruments. The vocal is a dummy, those are always hardest for me to lay down. Although it's heartening that even a dummy vocal of mine is this good.

Studio version ("Kinder Gentler" version), 3:34, 4.9mb


Still learning to use my new microphone, which I used for the acoustic guitar track. The levels came out very well, and the sound of the guitar is very clear and full, although a bit hollow. And it picks up the fan of my iMac far too well. I don't want to make an isolation area, but I may have to.

Technorati tags: music, recording, microphone

Labels: microphone, music, notbike, recording

Arecibo On the Air - In progress version, bars 1 through 33 (out of 419).

The Arecebo interstellar message of 1974 was part of the SETI program, and the first (and so far the only) radio message intentionally sent to interstellar space. (Here's an the Wikipedia article about the message. Carl Sagan also has accounts in the books Cosmos and Murmurs of Earth.)

I came up with this idea in 1990 or 1991, but could never make it work. I even contacted Frank Drake (I think I heard back from his assistant).

The general idea is to take the message and turn it into music. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this. I'd like to send a copy to Frank Drake when it's done.

Technorati tags: music, astronomy, SETI

Labels: astronomy, music, notbike, SETI

At the open mic tonight at PJs in Highland Park, the Mens room has a speaker where there's either recorded music playing or you cvan hear the performers. Today, you heard both simultaneously. Dylan with a techno beat, dude.

Set list:

There's That Song
Eyes Up Front (slow fingerstyle)
When I Was a Monkey

Some feedback issues, and I think I had a half-dead battery. (Rassafrassa Peavey PA speaker...)

Tags: music

Labels: music, notbike

Playing at PJs open mic tonight. I'll be on stage at 8:30.

Tags: music

Labels: music, notbike

Progress on Audio Drama:

• Script:
  • Pursue an original script idea, until the end of November
  • If no original script is forthcoming by 30 Nov, adapt an out-of-copyright story.
  
  
  • Have written first draft of "Morning: The First Day". Halfway through second draft. Targetting finished second draft by 17 Dec 2006.


• Director:
  • Still unknown.


• Actors:
  • A great, big, unknown. Casting after there's a script. (2w Dec2006?) 17 Dec 2006
  
  
  • Nest step: Start sending out feelers for casting.


• Hardware:
  • The proof-of-concept is direct-to-hard-drive location recording. Need to use an older G3 Mac. Are any available for use? No. Would involve upgrading Bruce's G3 iMac.
  • BTF has a G3 iMac, but it needs more RAM.
  • Would Audacity work with the current RAM on the G3 iMac?
  • If no Macs are available, use my G5 iMac, although it's not exactly portable. Now that's it's the only option, the G5 iMac seems amazingly portable.


• Mics:
  • Use the C1 if it shows up on time (on order)
    The C1 has arrived, but may be a little too sensitive. Will try using the C1, with the MXL2001 as a backup mic.

Tags: audio

Labels: audio, music, notbike

After being attacked by a bread knife, I have a nasty cut on my left hand, so playing guitar has been tough. I can play piano fairly well, if a little clumsily.

I've got a few songs in the hopper, one new one that I'm still playing with -- Midtown, the newer of them, is mostly done, I think. I played it live the other week, and I think it needs a little practice.

There are also two older songs I've resurrected -- The Art of the Pause, and Let's Pretend.

The Art of the Pause is difficult lyrically. It's about someone I used to know who tended to get lost in social overcomplications, so the words are appropriately convoluted. But this has the tendency to lose the listener, so I need to mitigate that.

It used to be a slow song, but I seem to be headed towards a livelier implementation. It sounds good on electric guitar with 60's fuzz-box sound. (I was able to play electric guitar a little on Sunday night, so my finger is healing.)

Let's Pretend is another story. The song is very good, I think, but the chorus is too much of a cliche. Unfortunately, I don't know what to replace it with!

I like the music -- a slow, insistent tango -- but I need to bring the key down to G. Which sucks, because I recorded a trumpet track version a few years back by Steve Fineman. Unfortunately, that's in A. Grumble grumble. I suppose I could always pitch-shift the track, but that on top that I'd need to transfer it from minidisc (via analog)... well, I might as well have Steve re-record it. Will start on the new basic tracks as soon as I finish the lyrics, since I'm not certain how long the chorus is going to be.

Tags: music

Labels: music, notbike

Great fun playing at Wicked Good Time! Did a nice warming-up-the-crowd set, about 40 minutes long, and premiered a new song of mine.

There's That Song
Coming Into Los Angeles
She Told It To Me Twice
From the Beginning
Hold Up the Wall
Good Company (First time live)
Never Had a Brother
When I Was a Monkey
Eyes Up Front
Midtown (New song debut)
Minorly Disconcerted
Welcome Home

I was also running the live sound for one of the event's two stages. Special thanks to Sara, and Grazina, whose help was invaluable tonight. And to Bruce for working the board during my set. And of course to Martha, my lovely wife and business manager.

Larissa's body paint designs were quite striking, will get a few pictures up soon.

Tags: music

Labels: music

The starter mic placement I set up for the flute recording session that never happened tonight. (I got the dates mixed up.) We were able to reschedule.

Labels: music, SETI

New recording! When I Was a Monkey, MP3, about seven megs.

Please listen if you have broadband and/or patience, and let meknow what you think of the arrangement. I know that Bruce at least hates it.


Tags: music

Labels: music

Good set, from all accounts I think we sounded good, although we couldn't hear ourselves. Due to feedback problems, Dennis (filling in for Spook) had to turn the stage monitor almost all the way down. Millicent also had tuning problems, although that could have been an illusion of almost-feedback on stage. ("I sound out of tune", "sounds fine to me", etc.) Set list:

Good Riddance (Time of your Life) [vox Neil]
Hypothetical Twist [vox Bruce]
There's That Song [vox Neil]
A Day in the Life [Vox Bruce/Neil(bridge)]
When I Was a Monkey [vox Neil]

EDIT: Pictures!


Tags: music

Labels: music

Bruce and I played a fun set tonight. (Bruce on bongos and vocals, me on vocals and guitar.) We showed up about half an hour early, and had half of dinner. Set list:

There's That Song
Hypothetical Twist (ballad version)
When I Was a Monkey
The Rainbow Connection
Wild World

Lead vocal alternated from song to song.


Sketch of the Gazebo that houses Spook's New Open Mic in Freehold, NJ

Tags: music

Labels: music

Have you always wanted to see me play, but didn't want to schlep all the way to my area for a 20-minute set and a cup of bad coffee? (Most cafes do, indeed, have terrible coffee. Which is why we must patronize the good ones, of course.)

In any case. From 25 August to 3 September, I'm going to be on vacation, mostly staying in New Jersey. My plan is to do an open mic set every night, or as close as I can come to that ideal.

Check the schedule to see what I've booked so far. It's all still pretty changeable, with one exception.

Need to figure out timing of local open mics? openmikes.org is an excellent site, even if they do get the name wrong. I'll get back to that.

Open mics change quickly -- a bar gets tired of smelly hippie folksingers, or a local cafe's upstairs neighbors doesn't like people playing loud 'till midnight on a Tuesday, or the chruch decides that music is the spawn of the devil. And the open mic has to find a new home. The good ones almost always do.

How to get in touch with me? If you don't have my email handy, use the handy contact page and put "open mic" in the subject so I won't trash it.

Why is it spelled "Open Mic", yet you can "mike the guitar" or "hand me a mike"? Because "Mic" is how "Microphone" is abbreviated on mixing boards. And you can't be micing a drum set or whatever. Unless you're proposing to it.

(With sue respect to Samuel Bayer, who has posted a rather long-winded explanation of why this is wrong, I think that current usage trumps in this case.)

Tags: music

Labels: music

After stopping at the comic books store, Bruce and I arrived in Freehold at about 7:30, more like 7:40 after finding parking. We got some dinner, listening to music from the open-air open mic all the while. Jeff, our piano player from the old improv group, found us sitting at an outside table, as did Arthur.

Although Bruce's tomato with tuna fish was pretty unappetizing. I scarfed down a sandwich and left money for the tab, while Bruce (or "Fred", as Spook calls him) got something else to eat.

The area restaurants have a lot more people! Spook is getting a bigger crowd than two weeks ago. I sat on the street with my guitar and listened to some more songs. Eventually, I went on stage (on gazebo?) and did a set:

There's That Song
Here Comes The Sun (cover)
Woke Up on the Fourth
Coming Into Los Angeles (cover)
She Told It To Me Twice
From the Beginning (cover)

I had realized that the 15th, 16th, and 17th of August are the anniversaries of the three days of the concert at Woodstock, in 1969. So I wore a tie-dye shirt and picked a song that was played there, in the summer of drugs. Coming Into Los Angeles is also about smuggling drugs on airplanes. "Don't touch my bags if you please / mister customs man" is pretty topical now. Arlo Guthrie, better known for Alice's Restaurant, probably wasn't thinking about anti-terrorist screening against yesterday's threats when he wrote the song.

Whenever I play my song She Told It To Me Twice, I'm always pleasantly surprised that people like it. All I can hear is the high-school lyrics. But it's a nice bouncy rhythm (in 13/8 swing time) and a simple, cheery story of romantic rejection and futility.

Tags: music

Labels: music

Ever since installing a pickup into my guitar Millicent, I keep getting comments on the preamp. It looks like this, but less blurry:



Noticable on stage, to say the least. From farther away, the electronics look larger relative tot he soundhole. (This is a close up picture, not a zoom, and the perspective is a little distorted.)

The story is that you need to have the preamp here so you can reach through the soundhole and adjust the gain and balance between the mic and pickup. With a screwdriver. The battery at least is harder to see, the black thing to the left of the seagull logo sticker. And it's an ordeal to change the battery, even with the strings out.

Tags: music

Labels: music

Played a fun open mic tonight. Spook Handy's new open mic is outdoors, in Freehold, NJ. It was hot and humid tonight, I sweated all over my guitar after a 20 minute set.

Eyes up Front
Woke Up on the Fourth
Mood for a Day
From the Beginning
There's That Song

I think I did well, particularly after not performing for a month (bicycle injury) and using a new pickup in Millicent, for the first time in front of real people. And new brands of picks and strings. I'm happy! (And sweaty.)

Need to learn the words to the monkey song, and need a new cover.

Tags: music

Labels: music

Here, There and Everywhere
by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey

"The Beatles exist apart from my Self. I am not really Beatle George. Beatle George is like a suit or shirt that I once wore on occasion and until the end of my life people may see that shirt and mistake it for me."
George Harrison

While it's George Martin, the Beatles' producer, who is often called the "fifth Beatle", the contribution of Geoff Emerick, engineer on most of their albums, is not as well known or understood. Here, There and Everywhere is Mr. Emerick's memoir of his career as audio engineer.

Stories of the Beatles in the studio are, of course, the mainstay of the book. Much of them require a knowledge of -- or an appreciation of -- basic recording techniques to fully appreciate, but understanding is not hampered by a lack of studio knowledge. Studio politics, outdated "state-of-the-art" recording facilities, the British concept of knowing your place socially are all important themes in this fascinating volume.

The authors deftly avoid one of the most common errors when writing about celebrities -- they do not presume to know John, Paul, George, or Ringo beyond their actions in Mr. Emerick's sight. (With the possible exception of Sir Paul.)

When the authors speculate on motives, it's always very clear that this and a pound will buy you a cup of coffee. The book also avoids crucifying the lads -- and the producer, for their flaws. The closest to a vile villain in this is the studio management, although Mr. Emerick is obviously grateful to them for his first studio job as a boy just out of school.

Mr. Emerick is at once the very visible and insecure main character of this story, an unquestionably reliable narrator, and a multitrack monkey in the control room, utterly out of the way save when his experience is needed for a thorny problem. This is a difficult and fragile balance, and it's impressive writing on the part of this team.

Recommended to Beatles fans, and to anyone who's every recorded on a portastudio. (Also of interest: Ticket to Ride by Larry Kane.)

books, music

Labels: music

Problem solved. Turns out I had it hooked up all wrong. Some back story:

There's an entire guide to recording music, up at Tweakheadz Lab. The article I was reading on how to set up a mixer like the pro studios links to a diagram, which I foolishly followed. Turns out that the diagram is incorrect. I read through the article thoroughly, and read through my manual switch-by-switch, fader-by-fader, potentiometer-by-potentiometer.

I recorded three tracks of guitars and one of bass on All I Remember, and some more guitar/bass on a cover song that will never see the light of day, unless a major TV show decides to send me rights to their theme song out of the blue.

--

An aside: Nate asked me why there's no commenting mechanism here. If you want to reply to these postings, email me (my address is here) and, if enough people email me, I'll restore the commenting mechanism. I got sick and tired of people telling me they like m blog, but every entry indicating "0 comments".

Tags: music, blog

Labels: music

My mixing board is defeating me! I re-hooked it up Friday night after doing sound at a movie (where I ended up using someone else's board that I was unfamiliar with, but that's another story) and now it's recording the tracks I'm monitoring onto the track I'm recording. Arrrrgh! I need a studio-quality sledgehammer.

The tracks I recorded yesterday (for When I Was a Monkey) are likely toast.

I confirmed that the rig is wired correctly. I now will go through the manual and check that every single button and dial is correctly set. I hate mixer manuals, they're all terribly tersely written. They make programming books look like beach reading.

Tags: music

Labels: music

Maybe you didn't hit the note you wanted, but the note you hit may be better.

Harvey Gerst

Tags: music

Labels: music

My rig. Some of this stuff is old and doesn't have product pages any longer. Some of the software links to a later version than what I'm using.

• Behringer UB1204FX. Decent board with lousy on-board mic preamps.


• 2 Alesis Nanoverbs


• Samson S-com plus stereo compressor/limiter


• M-Audio studiophile SPB5 monitors. Good but one has a problem with the power indicator LED.


• Apple iMac G5 1.8 (gen.1)


• Maudio iControl (GarageBand control surface)


• Griffin PowerWave


• Griffin PowerMate (for triggering)


• LaCie Porsche FW drive


• Apple GarageBand 2


• Jam Pack 4 (Symphony Orchestra)


• Peak LE4


• Tempo 0.2


• Rolls HA43 headphone amp


• Kawai ES-X 88 key weighted


• Mesa/Boogie Subway Rocket


• Line6 Pod 2.0


• Shure SM58, SM57


• MXL 2001 condensor mic


• Newest addition: Studio Projects C1
  I'm still figuring out how to use this without overdriving the mic pre.


• Furman PB-40 patch bay


• Furman PL-8 power conditioner


• Various percussion, too many guitars


• Ego

Tags: music

Labels: music

There's a moment, when playing a song I recently wrote, that it becomes no longer about writing and rewriting the damn thing, and about rehearsing and learning the words. I can think of ways to fiddle with When I Was a Monkey, but nothing about it seems substandard, and mostly I like it. That's a very good time.

Will post a demo as soon as I have one. Will play it live tomorrow, at the Red Lion.

I also have two other new songs I'm working on. I'm, I think, deslumpified. If that's not a word it should be.

Tags: music

Labels: music

...this Saturday, April 22nd at 2pm. http://www.demarest.cjb.net/. There will be a coffeehouse, and I'll bring a guitar.

If you don't know what Demarest Dorm is, you don't need to worry about this.

Tags: Demarest, music

Labels: music

I stopped off at Central Jersey Music on the way home yesterday, and they confirmed that the best way to rout out the extension under the bridge was to use a dremel bit and then file it smooth. So that's what I did when I got home.

Threading the pickup in was easy compared to hooking up all the electronics and, oddly enough, installing the battery for the first time. But it works well. I can play it loudly without feedback (as my neighbor will attest to!).

There's a crackling sound when I change the volume or thebalance between the pickups, though. Will play it for a while and if it doesn't do away, will call the manufacturer for advice.

Tags: music

Labels: music

I was worried that, if I measured wrong, I'd end up drilling through the mic installed under the bridge, but all is well. Drilled the hole through the bridge that I'll use to thread the pickup through. Still need to drill a horizontal hole, about 1/8" deep and 2.2mm wide, on the other side of the bridge to hold the slack.

There's a little crack in the bridge, so small that it might even have been there before. I think I should fill it in with some putty or something before proceeding, actually. (I thought of that I was writing this.)

I love my Dremel!

Tags: music

Labels: music

So far, Millicent seems to be in one piece. Huzzah!

Yesterday I reamed the endpin jack hole out. I had borrowed a drill from Craig, but as things turned out, I didn't need it. The Dremel did the job of drilling a pilot hold just fine. (Although it did create some smoke from the wood as I was doing it... Seagull uses some damn hard wood in the endblock.)

The tool I used to enlarge the hole to just what is needed is called a reamer. (I also used a circular file to do the fine touches.) Fitting the endpin jack into the guitar... well, it's a tiny, tiny guitar, and I see why three folks declined to work on it. Much thanks to Martha for helping!

We got the microphone element stuck on underneath the bridge. I'm more than halfway through the installation, although the trickiest part is next. More to come...

Tags: music

Labels: music

The tools and glue I ordered from StewMac arrived in the mail last night. This is all towards the end of installing a pickup in Millicent. Wish me luck that I not destroy my own guitar.

Still waiting for a reamer to arrive, that I won for five pounds on eBay. After that gets here, I just need to borrow a drill and I'm all set to destroy my guitar. If I don't by chance destoy it, will post pictures of the process on the Millicent page. Although if I mess up, it could make for a more interesting story.

Tags: music

Labels: music

Did... tolerably at the Red Lion open mic. I could barely sing (still getting over that sore throat), and I couldn't hear my guitar at all.

Spook saw Bruce in the audience, and recognized him from when he played in his old band. So Artistic Differences-- all of whom were there-- played Ouch, thoroughly confusing the audience.

Before packing up for the open mic, I was flipping through my songbook to put together a set, and decided I was in the mood for covers that night.

Time in a Bottle
Never Had a Brother
Here Comes the Sun
Tears in Heaven
The Rainbow Connection
Dance In My Kitchen
Ouch (with Artistic Differences)

Much of this will make for a nice second, mellow set to counterpoint more energetic first and third sets. Yes, I'm looking towards building up my act.

I need more instrumental songs for sore-throat situations. Bringing a littler, guitar guitar does help me sing more softly, since I'm not trying to compete with a louder guitar, like Kate. I won't bring
Millicent to a performance again until get the pickup installed. (That's an entire saga, now. Will post about that later.)

Tags: music

Labels: music

Beta page is up on Millicent, my fingerstyle guitar.

Tags: music

Labels: music