How Does It Know?

Dan, Ian and I recorded with John in Lansing this past weekend. We got all the drums done and Ian laid down most of the bass, which he’s going to finish when he has free time and can get together with John. So the new EP is going well. I’m going to be practicing my guitar parts and coming up with some keyboard stuff in the coming weeks and then I’ll head back up and record those as well. Also need to finish lyrics on a couple of the songs. I need to mine through my basement demos for any lines that stick out as usable.

Other than that, I bought an Alesis ControlPad, because I’ve been frustrated by my lack of ability to make loud drum noises (with real drums) at our condo. And inputting fake drums with a MIDI keyboard is tedious and unnatural. I’ve only messed around with the ControlPad a bit, but it’s pretty fun so far. I figured out how to set each pad to a different sound within FL Studio and worked on some drums for a idea I had a while ago. Nothing to share, but I’m pretty optimistic about the things I can do with it. It will never sound like real drums, obviously, but at least the input of fake drums will be more natural and make more sense using sticks-on-pads instead of fingers-on-keys. I plan to do some songs with it and post them at Part Time Songs really soon — hope to have some time to work with it over this long weekend. I’ll let you know how that works out and talk more about the ControlPad when I get a chance.

Anyway, just a few more hours of work! Have a great long weekend!

I put up some new songs at Part Time Songs last night. Please check them out, they’re right at the top under “Check Your Pockets”.

I’m also sick again… bad cold and cough. Coughing frequently and loudly enough to not go into work. Right after my damn vacation, which was right after my damn car accident. Great timing, body. Grr.

So I’ve been back since Monday and getting back into the swing of things. I miss Paris already. It was a great trip. But back in reality, things are pretty good too. Flew kites with wife this afternoon, which was pretty fun. Made chicken parmesan. I’m getting caught up and back into stuff at work. Wife has been working really hard to put up photos of the trip. And I’ve been working on recording for the little thingy I’m putting up on parttimesongs.com this Tuesday. Turns out it’s going to be a single (A-side AND B), instead of 3 songs. I just won’t have the time or energy to do the third one. Oh well. The two songs I have are sounding good to me, so far, though.

That’s about it for now…

My original intention was to be done with the newest Part Time Songs EP before we left for Paris, but alas, that is not going to happen. I still have vocals to sing and bass parts to redo, and a tambourine part that just won’t work. But, I have decided that once I get back, I am working on it every night till it’s done, and the done date will definitely be April 29th. So check out Part Time Songs then for that.

Also, Wife made us a Blogger blog for our Paris trip. I dunno how much I’ll actually be writing in it, but we are bringing a laptop, and there will at least be some cool photos. That’s at Ou Sommes Nous (literally, “where are we?”). So there’s that.

I really haven’t ANYTHING to say lately. I am really busy with work lately, but also have been finding the time to work on a new little EP for Part Time Songs… It’s gonna be a song we played live in the Low Hello, a song I demoed for the Low Hello and a brand new one. The previously written songs being re-recorded. My first 3 song EP. Can you even call that an EP? Seems like it should be illegal. I’m hoping to finish that before me&D leave for Paris.

Oh yeah! We’re leaving for Paris on April 13th! I am très surexcité. (I am not sure if that French is a correct construction. Or if this parenthetical note is, either). It could not come soon enough.

After that, the plan is to put down final drums on the studio EP we’re working on. I wish I had something more solid to let you listen to, but I don’t at the moment.

Oh yeah! Check out Google Sky. I really like how it lets you overlay a historical sky map. Nice touch.

Till next time!

So I have this now:
Part Time Songs

Visit for the full post, but basically it’s a way to release music all in one place, without regard for band names or proper projects. Basically a nice sense of freedom to do whatever I want.

In a similar vein, I will probably be migrating this site over to howdoesitknow.com, since that is now the title of the blog, and I’ve always felt just a SLIGHT bit silly having a blog whose URL was my full name. So we’ll see when I get that done. I need to back everything Wordpress related up (including the mySQL DB) before I do anything, I suppose.

So I mentioned previously that I’m obsessed with Scrabulous on Facebook. Here are a few more things I am liking right now.

1. Flight of the Conchords - This is probably totally old news to most of you, since the first season has been on DVD for a while already, but this show follows a couple of New Zealand musicians and their novelty band as they try to make in the NYC. This is perhaps the funniest series I have seen in a long time. I am obsessed with it in a way that I haven’t been obsessed with other things since, like, high school. I am even into the silly parody music (which I am generally not a fan of), because they do such a good job of it and the lyrics are excellent.*

2. I got a Blackberry Pearl 8130 recently, and I am really enjoying it. At first I thought maybe I had made a horrible mistake and that I would never need or use any of the fancy features I was paying for. But after a week, I’m enjoying receiving email on it while away from the computer, reading my Google Reader RSS feeds while, let’s say, on the toilet, and syncing up my task list and notes (which can be exported to various organizer programs, but I am just using Comma-Separated Value files) with my laptop. I also am going to get a microSD card for it, which will turn it into a limited-space MP3 player and photo/video storage. You can also just dump text files, etc onto it for viewing. Very versatile. And I got a $50 rebate on it.

3. Phosphorescent - I know nothing much about this guy, but this track (by way, again, of You Ain’t No Picasso) has been bouncing through my head on and off since I downloaded it last month… It’s such a simple song… The bridge-y/breakdown/slowdown portions with horns remind me a bit of Neutral Milk Hotel, and the actual meat of the song is a simple repetitive (what is that little instrument in there that’s playing the constant subtle high notes in there? Is that just a guitar?) structure with few lyrics. But dammit if I don’t love it. I should check some more of his stuff out.

* One that comes to mind is a song that starts off about all the evil and bad things in the world, but includes this gem:
They’re turning kids into slaves
just to make cheaper sneakers.
But what’s the real cost,
cause the sneakers don’t seem that much cheaper.
Why are we still paying so much for sneakers
when you’ve got little kid slaves making them?
What are your overheads?

It sounds, and is comedically, a lot better when it sounds like anything (and you’re not reading it), and with Jemaine’s emotive soul-style singing.

So I was digging around my hard drive and FTP space for old songs and things to make sure I kept safe in a pile of stuff to eventually become the first Part Time Songs EP. The regular EP is going well, too, but now that things and ideas for that are falling into place, my mind is starting to wander towards future songs.

Anyway, I thought I’d post these couple of songs… They are the Low Hello related… One was a demo I made for the band and the other is jam at the beginning of a practice (while I’m not all that great at freeform jamming, this one sounds pretty all right in certain parts):

File Under Sole (uses my melodica in an actually pretty nice way)
Jam (ROCK!)

Good stuff happening on the musical front, folks. I’ve already mentioned that Dan and I and Ian recorded some demos up in Lansing at the end of December. Well, I’ve taken those demos, and layered on some more parts, and chopped up and restructured a couple of the songs to make them more song-like, and added some awesome new guitar lines and bridges and solos and such. It’s all sounding great and I’m still totally excited about the project. After a couple more practices, and maybe some drum practice recording/arrangement in Dan’s basement (I recently purchased a souped-up new laptop for portable music recording, along with a new USB 2.0 audio interface* that is sounding AWESOME so far; I love that my entire recording setup is portable, and doesn’t even require a power outlet if my laptop battery is charged up), we might be ready to head back up to Lansing for round 2 of the actual recording process.

I keep meaning to write an entry about the way I came about the final structures for the 2 songs I felt were too long or repetitive (basically, I had three good parts for each of them, and just strung them together in sequence; doesn’t make for such a great song that way), and I will do so soon. Basically I made myself some nice visual aids that really helped.

Anyway, that’s about it. I’m glad it’s Friday. Another hour of work and then relaxation. And probably some more music fun in the basement studio this weekend.

* People have said I should’ve gone for a FireWire audio interface due to its faster speeds, etc… BUT! If you’re a PC laptop user, you’re stuck with a 4-pin FireWire port (which doesn’t provide power), as opposed to a 6-pin FireWire (which DOES provide power), which means you’re always going to need an available electrical outlet. Mac users win on this one, since Apple’s laptops provide 6-pin connections. Therefore, it’s USB 2.0 for me.

Dan and I recorded with John in Lansing this weekend. Ian, a new friend, joined us on bass and got the hang of the songs really well considering the not knowing him before. The drums sound great. Too bad we’ll have to redo some of them once I change the song structures a bit and add bridges and whatever. But yay for progress!