Should This Noose Unloosen
Found this track on the BIRP October 2012 playlist, and promptly downloaded the album. I like this track because of how the two vocals blend. It reminds me of Ben Gibbard (from Death Cab for Cutie) and Ethan (from the Archers – a local Victoria band). I’m excited to investigate the rest of the album.
Oh the nostalgia
The sounds are a little funky and it takes a while to get going, but super awesome and mellow. OoT was probably the first game I ever got immersed in. And I didn’t even finish it. I sat and watched my brother beat the last 3 temples and beat Ganon. Twas good times. Great soundtrack.
BADBADNOTGOOD – TITLE THEME / SARIA’S SONG / SONG OF STORMS – YouTube.
Best of 2012
Here are some of my favourite songs from 2012. While not necessarily released this year, this is when I discovered them. So if you’re looking for some samples of some new tunes. Enjoy.
Lemme know what you think and what you enjoyed! Add your own!
And if you’re too lazy to sit through these videos, you can go to:
http://2012.jamodyssey.com/SilenceAsSound
You’ll get bite sized snippits of some of my favourite songs of 2012.
“Lady Adelaide” – Benjamin Gibbard – Former Lives
“I Am Europe” – Chilly Gonzales – Ivory Tower
The video of this one is pretty weird, but totally worth it.
“Home” – Gabrielle Alpin - Home EP
“Make the Money” – Macklemore - The Heist
“Don’t Move” – Phantogram - Nightlife
“Electric Pow Wow” – A Tribe Called Red - A Tribe Called Red
“Reaction” – Acres of Lions - Collections
“They Are Filled” – Bison - Quill
“Write It All Down For You” – Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows
“First Breath After A Coma” – Explosions in the Sky - The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
“Call Me In the Afternoon” – Half Moon Run - Dark Eyes
“Take Me With You When You Go” – Jack White - Blunderbuss
“Seeing the Glass as Half Broken” – Mayor Mayor - If We Don’t Move They Can’t See Us
“Gettysburg” – Ratatat - Classics
Drive
Oh remixes. This guy does some cool stuff with punk/rock tunes.
The Essentials
So last week, the other four workstudies and I decided to trade music. We had to fill a 16 gig USB stick with as much of our favourites as possible. Here’s my list.
Jason’s iTunes Essentials:
Alexisonfire – Screamo/Post Hardcore
Acres of Lions – Canadian Pop Punk
The Arkells – Canadian Post Rock
Band of Horses – Indie
Billy Talent – Canadian Punk
Brand New
Broken Social Scene – Canadian Indie
Childish Gambino – Rap
City And Colour – Canadian Folk
Citizen Cope
Dan Mangan – Canadian Indie
Dave Brubeck – Jazz
Dear and the Headlights – Indie
Eisley – Indie
Elbow – Indie
Elliott Brood – Indie
Explosions in the Sky
Final Fantasy
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
Great Lake Swimmers – Canadian Indie
Half Moon Run – Canadian Indie Rock
Hey Rosetta! – Canadian Indie
Jack White – Rock
Jaydiohead – Jayz+Radiohead
Jets Overhead – Canadian Indie Rock
Joel Plaskett Emergency – Canadian Indie
Kathleen Edwards – Canadian Indie
Macklemore – Rap
Manchester Orchestra – Rock
Matthew Good – Canadian Rock
Matthew Good Band – See above
Monsters of Folk – Indie
Nicole Byblow – Girl + Piano
Not By Choice – Pop Punk
The New Pornographers – Canadian Indie
Of Montreal – Ambient
Obhibjou – Canadian Indie Folk
Paper Lions – Canadian Indie
Plants and Animals – Rock
Pride Tiger – Rock
Propagandhi – Post Hardcore
Protest The Hero – Post Hardcore
Rise Against – Punk
Robert Janzen – The Cave Remix
Said the Whale – Canadian Indie
Sam Roberts – Canadian Rock
Secret and Whisper – Canadian Post Hardcore
Shiny Toy Guns – Canadian Indie Rock
Spill Canvas – Indie
Stars – Canadian Indie
Stars of the Lid – Ambient
Stephen Kellogg – Indie Folk
Straylight Run – Indie
Sufjan Stevens – Indie
Taking Back Sunday – Pop Punk
The Antlers – Indie
The Besnard Lakes – Indie
The Bird and the Bee – Pop
The Cinematic Orchestra – Indie
The Constantines – Canadian Rock
The Early November – Pop Punk
The Forecast – Indie Rock
The Head and the Heart – Indie
The Raconteurs – Jack White
The Rocket Summer – Pop
The Rural Alberta Advantage – Canadian Indie
Thousand Foot Krutch – Rock
Tim Hecker – Ambient
Timbre Timber – Ambient Indie
Tokyo Police Club – Canadian Indie
Visioneers – House
Watsky – Rap
We Were Promised Jetpacks – Indie
The Happiest Place on Earth
At least it is for guys like me.
I recently moved out to Banff to attend the Banff Centre of the Arts. The week preceding my move was one whirlwind after another. I received an email a week before I had to be in Banff requesting me to come be a part of the program. Within that week, I cancelled my bills, changed my address, gave notice, sold my furniture, and in the last three days before moving, I worked 36 hours as a production assistant at the Rifflandia Music Festival.
It definitely sucked leaving all the people in Victoria. Every time I had left before, it was more a temporary thing, and a return flight was always booked. With this trip however, there’s no certainty to where I’ll end up after this program. So that day and flight out was quite hard on me. Luckily I was surrounded by great people and a great girl to make it a little bit easier on myself. She went above and beyond in that last week and it made everything much easier on me.
But that’s the boring mushy stuff. Holy smokes the Banff Centre is awesome. This place fucking rules. The amount of great people here, the setting, the gear, the access to studios, microphones, musicians, and everything is super fantastic. I’m so excited to get working on projects here and becoming a better engineer. The thing I think I’m most looking forward to is being an engineer for a full-time job. Not like in the past where I got to go into the studio after classes or when I could find time, but that it’s my primary requirement that I be in the studio as much as possible. That’s a very exciting realization for me.
The new people here are awesome as well. I’m impressed how quickly and how well I get along with the other work studies. It must have something to do with the air and the environment that just makes people so friendly. We spent the last week going out nightly and just hanging out most of the time together. I’ve taken it upon myself to show these guys (2 brits and a yank) the greatest of Canadian stereotypes. We’ve done Tim Hortons, and today we’re going to go have some poutine. It’s going to be a grand ol’ Canadian time. Maybe I’ll get them to say eh and wear toque’s too!
Beck’s New Album – Not what you think!
So Beck is putting out a new album in December, but it’s not an album of music! It’s an album of sheet music. I think this is actually a really cool way of distributing your music, similar to that of the 1800′s and what have you. And with the advent of YouTube and people doing covers of every song as it is, it will allow for the extremely creative to do their own take on the song and it make it entirely their own.
Definitely want to be getting this!
But that doesn’t mean that anyone will ever get to hear Beck actually play a lick of them: According to the press release, “If you want to hear ‘Do We? We Do,’ or ‘Don’t Act Like Your Heart Isn’t Hard,’ bringing them to life depends on you.”
via Beck’s new album isn’t really an album at all | Music | Newswire | The A.V. Club.
#GoListenTo Voxtrot – The Start of Something
Voxtrot The Start of Something – YouTube.
Another lovely song from the Million Dollar Deli playlist – if you haven’t gotten on it already, you should do so.
Fuck that noise, No way no how
Really like this song, mostly for the chorus and Watsky’s delivery. I think that’s what makes him stand out for me as a good rapper. His backing band is really good too. Definitely better than the recorded version.
Makes me wish I was more motivated to do my audio work. I wish I was up every night til 4am mixing and getting better. Gotta find a way.
Midas Touch of Music
Ben Howard – Empty Corridors – YouTube.
I have fallen in love with Ben Howard, love his style, his voice, etc etc. Everything he touches turns into musical gold.
Here’s a song called Empty Corridors. I wish I could play guitar like this.
His Voice Doesn’t Match His Body.
This guys has gone viral, and for good reason. A white kid with the voice of a 60 year old black guy? I’d listen to this again. He’s a great arranger and guitar player too!
Noah Cover of “Sexy and I Know It”
#GoListenTo See You Later, See You Soon
Just a song I’ve had stuck in my head a lot lately. Hope you enjoy.
See You Later, See You Soon – YouTube.
Shot through with adrenaline to fire up my excited heart
Help me believe in myself, get the starter to start
Fifteen burning balls of fire, ten days since we left
No one understands me like the whiskey on my breath
It’s ten minutes to showtime, baby stop your crying
Everybody knows why, there’s just no time
See you later, See you soon
See you later alligator, I will see you in the moon
The suicide club’s on a mission ’cause they hate their jobs and other guys
Everything’s tougher than it has to be, another cliché from the wise
Somewhere east of that solo and a little bit west of the bridge
Was the singular kind of moment that you remember as long as you live
Sometimes just before showtime, I swear I might end up crying
Letting go of my fears and my landlords, that’s the difference between
living and dying
As kids we’d pretend to be pirates
And talk about starting a band
But the older that we got, the more that we forgot
That greed and treasure go hand in hand
See you later, See you soon
See you later alligator, I will see you in the moon
See you later, See you soon
Are the words I always say
See you later, See you soon
Maybe on some sunny day
See you later, See you soon
Little button, I will try to get home soon
Try Honesty
Billy Talent – Try Honesty (Video) Radio Edit audio – YouTube.
Top Comment: “Talented band, all with horrible haircuts.” I lol’ed.
This song is still good 10 years later.
What Good Am I?
This Bitter Earth On The Nature Of Daylight – YouTube.
This bitter earth
Well, what fruit it bears
Ooooh, This bitter earth
And if my life is like the dust
oooh that hides the glow of a rose
What good am I
Heaven only knows
Lord, this bitter earth
Yes, can be so cold
Today you’re young
Too soon, you’re old
But while a voice within me cries
I’m sure someone may answer my call
And this bitter earth
Ooooh may not
Oh be so bitter after all
This bitter earth
Lord, This bitter earth
What good is love
Mmmm that no one shares
And if my life is like the dust
Oooh that hides the glow of a rose
What good am I
Heaven only knows
CD Review: West My Friend “Place”
West My Friend “Place”
Grammar Fight Records 2012
http://www.westmyfriend.com
West My Friend is:
Eden Oliver: Vocals, Guitar, Flute
Alex Rempel: Mandolin, Vocals
Jeff Poynter: Accordion, Vocals
Steven Taddei: Bass, Vocals
Place represents a milestone in the relatively short life of West My Friend. Their first full length album, following up on their self-titled EP released in 2011 will be available for wide-spread release on April 5th 2012. I’ve had the pleasure of working with West My Friend before to record backing tracks to BFA: The Musical in the summer of 2011, and I am excited to bring you a sneak peek of what you can expect to hear on Place.
The 4 piece consisting of guitar, bass, accordion, and mandolin bring a unique style. The 13 song album comes in at just under 50 minutes, making each song just shy of an average 4 minutes each. A unique aspect of the creation of this album is that the band used the fast-growing site IndieGoGo.com. It allows for groups such as West My Friend to let their fans donate money to their cause. In this case it was recording this album. Their campaign using YouTube helped them with the funding of Place.
The first track on the album, “Tic-A-Toc,” is a great opener and sets the tone for the rest of the album; a slow build to the first chorus that introduces all the elements of the band. This instrumentation is not one that the average listener will encounter on their everyday music-going experience. The mandolin and the accordion bring a distinct feeling to the band’s vibe and musical structure, the shuffling drums carry the momentum of the track throughout, and syncopated lines between the band members provide a back and forth swaying motion (dare I say pendulum like?). “Tic-A-Toc” closes with a fantastic melodic line – with the male members imitating the ticking, and Eden, the lone female and lead vocalist, leading with “Ding Dongs.”
Throughout the record, Eden’s voice has the ability to rise above the instrumentals and then sits comfortably, meshing with the gents in harmony. The production is generally consistent over the course of the record, with the accordion in your left ear and the mandolin in your right.
One of my favourite tracks on the album is “Shakes and Rattles.” It starts stark with just the mandolin and the lead vocal. The reverb suggests a large empty space, bordering on cavernous. The pseudo-sloppiness of the drums works fantastically with the reverb, and this track marks, albeit briefly, the introduction of the flute for the first time. The climax comes when Eden’s voice returns in the chorus with “Shakes, Rattles, Shakes,” and the track denouements into black with a trailing cymbal.
(“I Refuse” – with Chris Ho)
Although the band is able to maintain a high level of energy on all of their tracks, I feel that the ones with drums backing them tend to be more cohesive and convey the style of the song just a bit more. A track like “I Refuse” would benefit from a solid beat behind it, as well as smooth fills in the syncopated bits where the music drops. A few tracks later, the band shows off their strict music talent doing a version of the “Pin Oak Reel.” Each member takes the lead, with Jeff on guitar and Eden on flute, while Alex provides some rather slick mandolin lines.
“Home By The Sea” provides a change of pace from the previous mainly upbeat tracks. The male vocals, provided by Alex, are a welcome variety, the lyrics describing a dwelling the title refers to. Swelling accordion and vocals combine for a captivating timbre as the percussion rises, causing the track to lean toward a bobbing motion while boomy drums rise, wave-like, which was one of the stand-outs for me on the album.
The album closes with what feels like the music that would be playing during the credits of the West My Friend movie. “Oh Future” is a blues and folk infused track with a crunchy piano that fits into the half-ragtime style of the song. It is definitely the perfect track to end the album.
West My Friend provides a great outing on their first full length album, Place, drawing inspiration from many different styles and showing off their ability to play create lush indie, emotional folk, with a bit of roots-twang here and there. The upbeat and downbeat tracks provide a fantastic contrast in sounds that the classically trained band is able to produce. If you wish Mumford and Sons had an accordion and a female lead singer, West My Friend is the band for you. You can pick up Placeon April 5th, 2012 from their website http://www.westmyfriend.com/apps/webstore/ or at their CD release show (featuring the Kovich String Quartet) at Hermann’s Jazz Club.
Amy Wood: Not-Love Songs
“IN A SEA OF LOVE, ONE SINGER SONGWRITER TRACKS MEANING BEYOND ‘YOU’”
I’ve been meaning to write about Amy’s album Cinnamon Heart for a long time now, (which you can get for free at http://www.amywood.ca) but never found the time to do so. So I’d like to show off and talk about her latest work. Amy helped us out for Music Track Day and her song “Symphony” is finished and being mixed by Jesse Bell, so stay tuned for that!
Amy’s current project is called “Not-Love Songs,” where she creates and records covers of songs that aren’t focused on love. Surprisingly, there are fewer out there than one would expect.
Each week previous had been someone else’s material, but for her latest release, Amy showed off an original track, “Universe.” Teaming up with Julia Gummo of Gumo Productions, Amy set out to create her first music video.
Now with “Not-Love Songs,” there are three things that we need to take into consideration:
- The Video
- The Song
- The Project
I think it would be better to look at all these parts individually, as opposed to clumping it together into one whole.
Starting with the song, Amy provides us with her signature style – her lone voice accompanied by her piano. Having heard Amy’s album, I feel that “Universe” is a pristine example of how Amy composes, writes and sings.
With quick arpeggios and bouncing bass notes making up the verses, the dynamic range of the vocal is captivating. Some lines are sung at a half-whisper, while some are sung quickly, the variation appealing to the ear. Amy’s voice rises above the piano and draws the listener in, especially after the second chorus into the bridge. A held note falls and then climbs pulling you into the ending of the song.
Amy’s style can draw comparisons to many of the female artists who base their music around a piano. Sara Bareilles immediately comes to mind for me, as the vocal liking and the piano both sound similar.
Next, let’s take a closer look at the video. There are a few things that immediately catch my attention, and not necessarily in a positive way. In a music video, it is very obvious when a musician is lip syncing with a song as opposed to having the audio being included in the video recording during the shooting process. I understand this is usually not possible and that lip syncing is the only feasable manner in which to record videos, but that’s the focal part for the viewer and it needs to be done spotlessly. In “Universe” there are a few moments where the song and the video don’t line up, and it makes the video seem unnatural.
The message of the video is spelt out for us, quite literally in fact, as we see the words “Follow your path” and “and let them talk” written out on scraps of paper. I like the stop motion effect during these parts as the papers travel. It adds congruency to the other stop motion style parts – particularly the bench scene. The synchronization between the piano line and the cutting frames also works at this point.
My favourite scene occurs at 1:45 when Amy is silhouetted on the blue sky backdrop. I think this scene works because of Gummo’s composition as well as the natural elements that create the natural universe Amy is singing about. The birds that fly through could not have been timed any better, and the visual element matches well with the sonic, creating a lovely scene.
The video as a whole seems to be built of a few parts – that don’t necessarily relate to each other.
- Amy singing on a mountain
- The words on paper
- The bench scene
- Some slow motion parts
I think it would have been nice if there was a unifying tie to these visual elements. Perhaps the words could have found Amy on the mountain – and she would have followed them down to the bench, where they get caught in the tire and she rides off into the distance. The video is just missing the glue in which holds together all the composite parts.
Lastly, the project as a whole is a unique experience, inspiring us to look into the music we listen to every day, and examine how much of that involves love. Songs in which a lover’s heart was broken, or a ballad preaching one’s undying love to whomever fill a majority of our musical libraries.
Amy defines a “Not Love Song” to be:
“[A] Song that doesn’t deal with ‘before you’ ‘you’ and ‘after you’ in a romantic way. I don’t think I’m gonna write-off songs about human connection…. The point is to level the subject matter playing field out there in the [musical] world.”
I am kind of embarressed to admit – but I’ve just looked up the entire track listing of Justin Bieber’s My World 2.0, and there is not one “Not-Love Song” on the entire album. This album is certified double platinum in Canada. I think Amy’s onto something here with this idea.
Already, Amy has covered “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Steer,” and, “Life is a Bowl of Cheeries.” Accompanying each song is another music video. So far, all videos have been live – using the sound from the actual performance, with “Universe” being the first to use a pre-recorded track. Amy’s fallen off her once-a-week upload schedule (and understandably so) to finish her music performance degree, but that doesn’t mean she’s given up. Hopefully we will get to see at least 40+ Not-Love Songs over the course of this year.
You can head over to her Facebook page and offer up your own suggestions for Not-Love Songs for Amy to cover! My pick was City and Colour’s “Happiness by the Kilowatt”.
It’ll be interesting to look back once this project is done and see how the videos have evolved and if Amy ever runs out of Not-Love Songs to play! I’ve started to look into my iTunes at all the music I have based on love, and this is just one more thing to add when listening critically.
Amy Wood has set out on an ambitious journey to show the world you can sing about more than love, and her song “Universe” is a perfect example of that. If you’re looking for a fresh take on popular, check out what Amy is doing with her “Not-Love Songs” project. See the other Not-Love Songs here!
http://notlovesongs.tumblr.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Amy-Wood-SingerSongwriter/
http://www.youtube.com/user/Amywoodsings
(Update: Here’s Amy’s latest Not-Love Song, with West My Friend! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agsJlmTsBAg)
Eerie Nirvana Cover
This cover has just fascinated me lately. So spacey and lovely all at the same time. I love it when artists do this.
Actually LISTEN to your Music
People buy more records than they can listen to. They stockpile what they want to find the time to hear. Use- time and exchange-time destroy one another. [...M]usic is no longer heard in silence. It is integrated into a whole. But as background noise to a way of life music can no longer endow with meaning. - Jacques Attali
This quote is taken from an article “Looking at Records” by Philip Auslander (link), where he quotes Attali’s paper “Noise: The Political Economy of Music”. Auslander’s paper speaks about the commodification of music, and how the simple act of viewing a record, or looking at it is what the consumer derives pleasure from. I see this all the time in people of my generation, especially with vinyl records coming back into popularity. As no one has the time to listen to all the music they own, we begin to stockpile. And continue stockpiling for the sheer enjoyment of the view of our stockpile. I know countless times I have compared the size of my iTunes library with a peer, and felt that satisfaction when my number was much larger than theirs.
But just because you have all this music stockpiled – does not mean it gets listened to. Maybe you put it on, and go make dinner, just to have something on. And this is when the music loses all meaning.
I am guilty of doing this all the time. I just put on my music, get busy doing something else, and forget it’s even on. I want to begin trying to actually listen to my music more now. Focus on what about it makes me happy and what I enjoy about the piece.
One thing I’m going to try to do is consider all musical entities a “piece”, instead of a song. Even the shift in a title changes your perspective on the art form. It takes it out of the realm of casual, passive listening and into that of active, critical listening. I think popular music in general has turned into more of a hobby/craft for some people and has lost it’s creditability.
From studying at a music school, I’ve begun to gain a new respect for the process of composing and creating a piece of music. And it’s a “piece” – not a “song”. A part of a whole that may be an album or a symphony or an opera. Moving farther in my career, dreaming of being a recording engineer, I am hoping this change in mindset from “song” to “piece” will help me gain a further understanding of my art.
I urge you to do the same. Give your music the listening it deserves. Don’t just place your music on in the background, to consciously listen and be actively involved in your own musical indulgences. I’m interested to see what others will find when they start to critically listen as well.
Here’s a Matthew Good track that I’ve been listening to a lot lately to get you started.
Non-Populus
Brand New Day
Just a new song I haven’t heard for a long time. Enjoy.
via Forty Foot Echo – Brand New Day (OFFICIAL CLIP) – YouTube.
Black Tornados | Danny Michel
Black Tornados
Meanwhile in LA traffic
The crowd looks drastic
There’s hell to pay
Car tires crushing plastic
And all those things we throw away
Above the engines stalling
The sky is falling on everything
I heard the waves are breaking
The earth is quaking
So I spread my wings
I’m coming home
I’m coming home
And I’m coming home
Back to your sweet potatoes
And black tornados
Tourists are picture taking
This town is faking
But it don’t fool me
The waitress is sick of waiting
So she sells gun shells by the sea
I turned the car back over
The engine smoldered
The sky was charred
It was somewhere in Flora Vista
I really missed ya, and it hit me hard
So I’m coming home
And I’m coming home
I’m coming home
Back to your sweet potatoes
And black tornados
I can hear – your boots on hardwood floors
I can hear – your heart and I want more
I can hear – your voice ignite the chorus
I can hear it, I can hear it
Meanwhile in LA traffic
My hands look plastic
It’s time to flee
So I’m coming home
I’m coming home
I’m coming home
Back to your sweet potatoes
And black tornados
I’m coming home
I’m coming home
I’m coming home
Back to your sweet potatoes
And black tornados
The First Ever Music Track Day
Ben Parker recording in the PTY Hall
Music Track Day was yesterday. It was one of the most ambitious things I have ever done. It was also one of the most successful things I’ve ever done.
The concept is crazy and I am still in awe about how we pulled it off. Inspired by “Hack Days”, which is where people get together and spend the entire day hacking a project and then they show it off at the end. You’re in a room with lots of people and you spend the entire day – usually 10am – 10pm just having fun and interacting. Our Computer Music Course Union (http://uvicmucs.wordpress.com/) had done a “Music Hack Day” at the beginning of the previous semester, and I had wanted to do something similar with recording.
I wanted to get in as many bands as possible, spend all day recording them, and have one or two songs done to show off to everyone when we were done. The concept is the same, but we quickly learned that the logistics of a Track Day vs a Hack Day are very very different.
In the works since October of 2011, Thor and I have been planning out just about every thing we can think about. We contacted at least 10 different bands to gauge interest in our idea. I wanted to get a range of sonic groups, so we settled on Bucan Bucan, Ben Parker, the UVic Jazz Combo, and Amy Wood.
The bands had been locked down, and now the logistics of how everyone would flow came next. We were able to book three different rooms for the entire day of Saturday the 14th, so this gave us some options. We decided to do bed-tracking in our Phillip T. Young Recital Hall, doing piano, drums, guitars, and the entire jazz band there. The second room was used for overdubbing and the third for mixing. The biggest challenge was planning how each group would rotate from room to room.
We slotted 3 hour sessions in each room, and surprisingly each group was finished before their allotted time was up. By keeping the drums set up in the hall, with the mics adjustable for each group, we were able to quickly switch from group to group – this turned out to be very helpful in keeping the day flowing.
The schedule went as follows:
Hall (Tracking)
9 – 12 – Jazz
12 – 3 - Ben Parker
3 – 6 - Amy Wood
B037 (Overdubbing)
9 – 12 - Bucan Bucan
12 – 3 – Bucan Bucan
3 – 6 – Ben Parker
6 -9 – Amy Wood
B008 (Mixing)
9 – 12
12 – 3 – Jazz
3 – 6 – Bucan Bucan
6 -9 – Ben Parker
9 – 12 - Amy Wood
The bands and the plan was in place. We had 4 lead engineers, 12 people who were interested in being involved. Each lead engineer was assigned 2-3 assistants to help with their session. Once the sessions got going, people were able to flow and see what was going on in the other sessions happening simultaneously. I was there at 7:45 to set up our 100 foot snake from our mixing studio to B037 where we did overdubs. Unfortunately the session I was running wasn’t until 3pm, so I was a little tired when that came around.
Overdubbing a stomp clap
Bucan Bucan did a rambunctious track with loud horns and shout choruses, whilst the Jazz Band laid down some great tunes. Ben Parker brought in soulful blues song and Amy Wood played a lovely ballad for us. So much great music and great musicians in one place.
I got to work closely with the fantastic Amy Wood as she recorded a beautiful piece. I’ve listened to Amy’s music before and will hopefully be providing a review of her CD “Cinnamon Heart” (which you can get for free – here) shortly!
I can not imagine how an event like this could have gone better, all the people I worked with made things so easy. The bands were great, and were incredibly patient with us as we moved mics and tried out new things. The biggest problem we had was that the coffee I had brought wasn’t ground fine enough, and we had the wrong filters. Other than that, the entire day was great. Our mixing engineer spent 6 straight hours mixing 2 different bands and did a great job with all of that.
For a crazy and outlandish idea, I was so amazed at how well it went over. I will add some of the mixes of the bands as they get posted.
Thanks to everyone who was involved, the bands, the techs, the assistants, Kirk McNally, Shawn Trail and a host of others who had their hands in on this. You can see all the tweets from the day with #MusicTrackDay
Bands:
Organizers:
Tracks:
You mean to tell me?
I really hope this becomes a new meme. I lol’d. Also – song I like. I feel like I may have posted it here before… or written a blog by this title. Oh wells. Old post-emo stuff will always have a special place in my heart. Maybe I’ll look up what Circa Survive is up to these days.
Music Track Day
Watching this video reminded me a lot of our upcoming Music Track Day. The concept is basically the same, but we’re not coming up with the ideas/writing a song in 8 hours. But we’re taking existing bands and recording their track in one day. We’ve given ourselves a massive challenge of 4 bands, and 9 hours per band. Hopefully it turns out to be a success! Stay tuned for all the music that will come out of next Saturday.
RePost for Goyte!
I feel like any time I see a remix, or another version of this song I really like, I haz to reblog it.
Thus! This! Featuring Sarah Blackwood, Walk Off the Earth and one guitar!
Also.
Alison Brie or Shenae Grimes? 
… I think I may have a type…
