fghfghfghfgh

Any chance of getting Matt May in on this project-- or at least inviting him to the blog for some feedback on our ideas?

What about a schedule of events, when you get Micah's scratch tracks we can get the drums and piano recorded right? I'm just worried if we let this drag out to long you guys will start getting bored or whatever and nothing will ever get done.

I'm sure this would be easier if we could just get together and jam but that's not really an option right now. What's next?

i don't have any new modest mouse. as much as i love "the moon and antarctica" and a little of their older stuff, i'm a horrible fan and haven't really paid much attention to anything the've done since. but if you have anything cool of there's i wouldn't mind taking a listen. i just get stuck listening to that one album obsessively. it's almost unhealthy.

Avatar

Esta compañía hace alguno de gabinetes que miran lo más mejor posible tasados y más agradables que he visto en un rato largo. ¿Pensado le pudo estar interesado?

http://www.avatarspeakers.com/

off topic

Nate, Did you ever get the new modest mouse album? If you have it could you send me a backup copy. Also I have everything they did except the newest release so if you need backup copies of anything we could trade.

:)

i am looking forward to what i hear, klotz.

Upload?

Can you upload the tracks in mp3 format to rapidshare and send me the link. It's cheaper (free) then mailing CDs. www.rapidshare.com

thanks

Scratch Tracks

Jesse & Nate,

I got in the studio on tuesday night. I only had a couple of hours because they were pretty booked all week. Anyway, I finallly got two scratch tracks around. The first song is a scratch track for " Once Upon A Time" and the second is a new song called " Like The Wolves." I mailed two cds to nate's address:
N Swygert
30w084 Capistrano Ct. # 103
Naperville, IL 60563

Hope that is the correct address. Well here are the lyrics for " Like The Wolves."

Like The Wolves

It's been a long night

but we put up a good fight

Do you miss the simple light

of the fireflies at night

Everyone's been licking their wounds

Everyone's staring at the wall in their rooms

Like the wolves we've lost our fight

Ive lost my fight

Ive lost my fight

Stare them down

Stare them down

The creatures that live underground

Stare them down

Stare them down

Anyone who puts you down

Stare them down

Stare them down

Anyone who will put you down

you should let me find out how much a fender jazz master is and how much we could could get it to you for. i'll try to remember to check into it sometime soon for you. maybe give you something to think about in the future.

Gear

If you ever had a Roland Jazz Chorus 120h (that is the head not the 2x12 combo) in decent condition I would probably buy it.

Also thinking about getting a guitar with a floating tremolo. A Fender Jazzmaster would be ideal but they are so damn expensive.

that was cool stuff on that neumann history you sent me, hibbs.

anyway, i thought i would mention to you guys that the place i work has become a miniature guitar center for high end guitars and amps. we used to be just gibson, but we've added a ton of lines over the last year. i have no idea if either of you had any plans on buying any nice gear in the future, but if you are interested in gtrs or amps from any of these companies let me know:

gibson
fender
prs
taylor
martin
gretsch
guild
yairi
don grotsch
new orleans

i could probably get you guys near blow-out prices on this stuff. not quite the employee discount which is simply cost (unless i blatantly lied and said i was buying it for myself), but probably somewhere in the range of %10-%15 above cost on any of their products.

Low on National Public Radio

Low. Complete live performance and interviews on NPR. I think you guys will like this if your not already into them.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9432230

i love paper thin and think we could really do it the justice it deserves by re-recording it well. and i agree that a couple of extra measured somewhere in that first section would be cool to help build the vibe more. i'm down. we just have to make sure the bass player nails matt may's part.

Song Structure

While we are waiting for Micah's demo recording I thought we could begin discussing song structure and direction for this project. I'd like to take Nates advice and keep our thumbs out of places they don't belong. Of course I would like to play what I enjoy listening to; lengthly songs that focus on repetition and evolution of structure. Most of the music I spin doesn't strictly follow verse chorus verse structure, it drones, gradually building layers and textures. Listen to Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine or if your in a heavy metal mood Isis and you will hear what I'm talking about. What are your thoughts, where do you see this going. Maybe a good place to start would be with Paper Thin. This song already has a basic skeleton we could build from. My first suggestion would be to extend the into riff a few more measures. Give the song a little more time to build (but not enough to get boring) and it would make a decent opener for the CD.

hagstrom

micah said...

Jesse,

I think thats it !!! I just remember hoe Cecil was so happy !! The guitar looks like it should kick ass but sounds like it got its ass kicked by some umpa lumpas or
something....

Yeah, but I think mark arm from mudhoney played one, and it sounded a little less umpa lumpa ish.

video

kevin shields (of mbv fame) and gemma hayes.

I love the tone, I'd like to try and get this sort of a sound out of what we are doing. Thought maybe micah could look at a more clean folky accoustic or electric tone and I could work on my own take of shields reverse reverb/floating trem thing. any thoughts?

ummm......nice.

i like, hibbs.

celestion

Wow, so you own a u87 now. That's fantastic.

I'm considering buying just one or two greenbacks for my cab before we record anything. That way your not waisting that mic on a set of 20 year old ampeg speakers that suck tone like nobody's business.

gentleman, we're in business.

thanks to ebay and american express we now have our neumann u87. klotz, get your ass over here and lets start making some music.

god damn it...shut up jesse!

so how is everyone? any progress recording those scratch tracks klotz?
i like some of your lyrics quite a bit, jesse. i'm interested to hear how you would fit them with your cool guitar lick.

shhh

Paperback Sci-Fi

These are lyrics to go with a song I've been writing, we can use them for this project if we need them or I can save them for my own projects. The first line is the title.

Paperback Sci-Fi

Staring into the heart of the sun
Like moths swarming into the light
One hundred thousand insects scatered
One hundred thousand fireflys in the night

There is a gear inside my stomach
And when it turns there is perfect motion
My tired heart is dressed
In love and razor wire

I'll dress in Red for the funeral.
I'll Sing this dirge for all of us.

careful, jesse. i just might chain you and micah to my stove amd make you both record guitar until you each get a perfect take of "cecil the pimp".

wooka chika yeah

Maybe writing two new songs is too ambitious? We could write one new song and choose a second old song.

Here's an idea for new lyrics :P

LaShawn is not a pimp anymore
He's not white or black or anything else
He doesn't care for marvin gay or barry white or anything else funk
But he is still real smooth


:P

(i hope you know I'm kidding)

what are we actually going to do?

and what should i be focused on right now?

first, i'm guessing i should wait to hear micah's scratch tracks for the "lion in my heart" song. and from there maybe we put our immediate attention on working out all the parts for that song along with the "wasteland" song and a redo of "paper thin"??? are we agreeing to focus on those 3 songs at first? i'm asking here, i'm not telling. if we get basic piano and/or gtr and vocal tracks arranged and recorded as we like them for those three songs, then sometime this summer i can track the drums and bass with my guys up here. those 3 songs could probably be accomplished in one long weekend session. but remember, they're only around here when college is out so it's not like we can sit around with our thumbs up our asses and do this any old time. after a while our window of opportunity passes and we have to wait a while before it reopens.

One More :)

Sorry I know this is my third post in a row. I just saw Micah's comment about trading in his guitar and wanting to work together on "Once upon a time".

Yes, I'd love to work on the song with you. I don't know what you have so far. I have a cool riff I've been attempting build a song around for the last few weeks. Nate heard it I sent him a video. Maybe that would fit I'll try and find the video or rerecord it or whatever.

Also SGs are great if that's what your into. I think we can make it work either way we just have to shape the tone through equalization, amp and effect controls to make everything sound copasetic.

What is it you like about the SG the sound of the guitar or the way the instrument feels? I always liked the thicker darker tone that you can get out of Gibson guitars like a Les Paul or an SG. When I actually play one they feel awkward because I'm so used to a Stratocaster. The solution for me was that I gutted my Strat, removed the three single coil pickups and replaced them with a single mild output Gibson PAF style humbucking pickup in the bridge position. Now I have a guitar that plays and feels like a strat but sounds more like an SG.

It's a cheap alternative to trading guitars and you can always swap the pickups back if you don't like the guitars new sound.

Sorry for the slow response to this one I overlooked your comment somehow.

-JPH

Pedals and Effects

Micah asked about gear, specifically pedals, in his comment. I've been using a lot more rack mounted gear then pedals these days. Only pedals I still use are the ProCo Turbo Rat (Can't live without that) and a DD3 for more for weird space sounds then delay.

I get most of my modulation and reverb out of a yamaha fx500 and a Line6 POD PRO. The Fx500 is a great buy if your looking for spacey effects and digital reverb. They used to retail for about $1100 in the late 80's but now you can find them on eBay for around $70. It's got every kind of reverb you can imagine, even a good reverse reverb. Also has great trem, delay, chorus, flange, and a really shitty sounding distortion (oh well what do you want for a digital box made in the 80's). Theres also this really weird symphonic modulation that eliminates all of the pick attack out of your playing and makes it sound like keyboards or strings underwater or something strange. I don't know how to explain it but if you ever listen to Slowdive (and you should) Christian Saville (sp?) abuses the symphonic modulation and dense reverb of the Fx500 on about every song they play.

The POD PRO is good for more modern (heh heh) sounding distortion, emulation and effects.

Sorry I don't know what type of weird guitar that that you gave Cecil, It never had a label on the headstock and my memory of it is fuzzy at best. Maybe a Hagstrom?

Set List

How many songs are we recording, how many will be old songs?

I want to record Paper Thin. That's the most important song on the list for me. Some other songs I would consider revisiting are "Paranoid", "Pulse", "Chrysalis", "Never Change" and "Bored and 20". And of course "It Feels Right" if Nate will allow it. Some of these would need some restructuring.

Also can I get the chords for the tracks you mailed and for Paper Thin. I don't need tabs, I can find my own voicings I just want to make sure I'm hearing everything right. Usually when I'm trying to pick songs off a CD I'll here a C or a Cmin but not more complicated stuff a maj7 or add9. Get what I'm saying?

jesse,

the u87 isn't important for guitar. between my good old shure sm57 and my fancy neumann tlm 103, we have guitar amps covered. the u87s would really only be a rent option for vocal tracks. not that they'd be bad on an amp...just unnecessary for all the trouble.

More on Mics

I don't know as much as I should about mics. Maybe this u87 is a good all purpose mic but I know for me I'd rather spend my money on buying a mic designed for recording guitar amps then renting a u87. In any case this is your area of expertise so it's going to boil down to you telling us the best options then us telling you what we can afford. Really I wouldn't ask you what type of guitar I should play so I'm not going to tell you what type of recording equipment to buy.

wow

i can't believe this! i found a place downtown that rents original u87s for $40 a weekend. that's pretty awesome. of course, we (or maybe just me) would spend $40 in gas and 2.5 hours in traffic driving roundtrip into the city to pick one up. could be well worth it though.

RENTING MICS

i checked into renting some stuff a couple of years ago when i was just getting started. there are a few places around here that do it. however, i didn't see any of them willing to rent out stuff as nice as a neumann u87. and it's hard to imagine who would rent one of those out since they're so damn pricey. but who knows, i'll check around again tonight after i get off work.

Sending Music

Nate & Jesse,

I emailed Bailey in Columbus and put in a request to record some scratch tracks for Once Upon A Time. I dont really have anything here to record it with. I am really hoping to get there on friday to record some scratch stuff for you guys to work with. Please note any changes or ideas that you feel would add to the song. Jesse could you post your address so I can mail you a copy?

Nate: Perhaps I could rent some of the equipment you speak of when I come to Chicago. Is that even a reality ? Forgive me as I know very little about recording equipment.

Micah

also, i really just sent along the other song (around you) so you guys could hear the drummer and get an idea of the level of production quality i'm able to turn out at this point. any critiques on the mix would be greatly appreciated. i get so caught up in it, eventually i lose all real perspective and need to hear from someone on the outside to know if it's only me who thinks something sounds good.

i can see that my take on wasteland did go in a bit of a different direction than your original idea, micah. actually, that happens to me when i'm writing my own songs sometimes. i start off wanting to create a song about a very specific thing or idea and then the songwriting process just kind of carries me away to a slightly different place. now i never would have thought to go in the direction i did with wasteland on my own, but your bit of inspiration kind of kick started me down that path for better of for worse. maybe there's still a way to tie in your more specific idea with the other verses or a bridge or something.

as far as making the vocal melody more exciting on the chorus i wrote, that might not be possible in the context of what's there now. but we could just as easily scratch that chorus and do something entirely different.

i am flattered that you like "feels right" so much, jesse. i like it, too and i'm pretty proud of it. i'm not totally against us doing a recording of it, but there are some reasons why i would be hesitant to attack such a thing:

1. the original recording somehow managed to capture a kind of magical quality (at least to my ears) that could probably never be recaptured
2. the original recording was mixed by me and two other guys whos engineering ear and abilities still outreach my own. and i was an asshole in pushing them both very hard to make everything as dynamic and cool as possible. i'd be afraid of failing miserably in trying to top or even equal what they did.
3. a lot of the hi-fi sound of that original recording comes from the fact that we had access to neumann u87s. those are $3,000 mics. that's why the vocals and cymbals on the drums sound so pristine.

now on the other hand, i always wished i could have recorded feels right with a REAL PIANO and i felt like that simple little gtr part on each chorus is under-emphasized. that and some of the equipment i have now would be an upgrade from the original session. so it's not like there aren't some things that could be improved upon if we redid it.

Thanks for the CD

I appreciate you mailing the CD. In the future you could save yourself some money and just upload some high quality MP3s to a file sharing sight like rapidshare. Then I could download it and burn my own CD. Probably Micah could to, but I don't want to speak for him.

As far as the arrangement goes, I liked what I heard, I actually like the lyrics revision (sorry Micah) I think it gets the same point across w/out being as direct. I was actually well aware of the situation in Uganda, and I believe anyone crazy enough to be listening to our music would still make the connection. Lets face it this shits not going straight to the radio top 20 so there isn't any reason we have to spell things out for the listener.

I really loved your lyrics for "The Lion in my Chest", If Nate tries to screw those up I'll have your back, but this time I'm with Nate.

Also I think the vocal melody of the chorus on Diamonds needs a little help, I'm not a singer so I can't tell you specifically what needs to be done, it just drags a bit to my ear.

One more thing; is there any chance we could steal "It Feels Right" for this project. I absolutely love that song, more so then anything else the three of us have managed to write. We could give credit to Patton in the liner notes or whatever, I don't care, I would be so happy to rerecord that song.

-JPH

Strings on wasteland

Real strings would be great ! I like the arrangment you created for them on the chorus scratch.

I recieved the CD. Thanks.

Hi nate and jesse,

You guys know all of our names could be no more german than they are. Hibbs, Swygert, Klotz...They almost border on Klingon sounding. Anyways.....

Nate,

Around You: We dont stop enough to realize what we have. You are absolutely right ! A wonderful song. She definately would remember him or at least I want to believe that. I like the concept of addressing the moment with the conversation about time travel. It created a nice visual to explain the abstract. You do that really well.... I like the chorus musically. Especially the guitar !

Ideas: If it were accpetable to the nate... I would like to attempt to add a bass line. Something simple and subtle but resonant and full.. appropiately of course. I just think a nice bass melody could a touch to the song that is if I could write one worthy. I would also like to try and add some background vocals. In a sparse fashion but in a few places. Or at least try it out and see if it adds.

Wasteland: I really like the rhythm and nucleus. I like the words as well. It is sort of Nick Drake and Moody Bluesish. You can see the story. I think the verse and chorus work well with the idea I had musically. I wanted to explain the line

Who will get your diamonds now
That I am dieing of aids

* I wrote this line about the war boys of Uganda. The ones that are forced to work in the Diamond caves and feilds . Those diamonds are sold to dealers to fund genocides and we buy them here in the united states during christmas time. This whole phenomena made me horribly sad. These boys have no voice. I just saw this imagery of this wasteland with on part of the world in tolkiean ruin and the other in streets of white gold with lavish jewelry. Who will get our diamonds for us if the boys that mine them are dieing of the aids virus ... It is definately meant to be sarcastic towards our own sense of consumerism. It is an oxymoron that I cant believe truly exists. It breaks my heart. I definately agree with you that the line about diamonds works best in a chorus but I would like to try to work in the whole line. I love your melody on verse and chorus and think it works well. I would like to see what it sounds like with harmony . I am so sorry that all I really have is one line and no ideas for music. I just wanted to share the original vision of the half-baked half assed attempt at writing a song that I made. I really like what you did with it but I would like to incorporate some of the ideas I just discussed. I think you have just built upon it very nicely. I am sorry I suck so bad guys.....

Micah