Another Leslie Night

ughh... 

So I stayed up late recording guitars for the song "Do the Math".

Since I'm a (douche) I don't know how to just embed the file to play here and I don't want to take the time to figure it out today,  (I still have to head off to federal court to get a copy of some brief and 30 pages of exhibits.) just stroll over to our (Leasure Suit) page... and listen to it there.  I also put up new 3rd pass versions of "USA #2!!!" and "Universal Quantifier".  I don't know how the band will feel about all of that, but then again, they've ignored my feelings for years.  

Like all things in my life, it's not how I imagined it would be.

In other news, I purchased a copy of Laura Marling's Alas I Cannot Swim.  I haven't yet listened to the whole thing, but I heard the song "Failure" on my new interest, All Songs Considered.  (Tip my hat to my insurance agent for that one.)

But yeah... Tonight is the beginning of Madison's first Forward Music Fest. I've got my wristband and I'm rearin to go (home and crawl into bed) for the Leslie & the Lys with Dan Deacon show.  I'm not a big Dan Deacon fan (who is? a lot of people I guess...) but it promises to be kick ass.  I may also slip on over to the Gusto performance as well.  

The Greatest nation on earth

This doesn't prove that this is just around the corner, but it makes me feel a little less comfortable when you look at the way bathtub drugs like meth spread.

I could go on about this but I'd be just throwing out ideas that other people can explain more clearly and accurately with more gusto and earnestness.

I'm being lazy today.  Sitting at work and not working is the best when you have other things you would much rather be doing.

Guitar work tonight... tweaking a bridge to smooth it out.  Redoing Do the Math.  That's about it.

Weekend update...

Andy Samberg did an nice job as Cathy, the stressed out cartoon character.

Yovee put a few new songs up on their myspace page.  They recorded these songs a long time ago.  We're finally getting to hear some of them.

I spent early Friday evening putting myself through third passes of the mixes for the album.  Then spent the later part of the evening getting drunk, the last three drinks being "Wild Berry Wine Coolers".  I could feel the sugary hangover before I went to bed.  

Joe and I recorded some vocals on my computer at the rehearsal space.  Then we listened to each of the new mixes and he decided to only record vocals on two songs next weekend.  (One of them being Jerkwater.  He probably had 70 takes on that song between February and April.  I honestly feel that he'll never be able to sing that song the way he thinks he should and will never be satisfied with it.  The trick then is to make mix good enough to get him to accept the way it is.

I'm going to re-record guitars on one song completely.  It sounds like crap the way it is now.

I also wish the humidity would go away.  It's never a good thing in my opinion.  (No one asked.)

It's not pretty...

I've been coughing up huge piles of phlegm in the mornings.  Not fun.

It's all because I'm not getting enough sleep at night.  Over the summer, I could stay up till five in the morning and then get up at quarter to noon and head to work... but not anymore.  Gotta make money sometime.

With that said, I'm low on energy.  I keep thinking about the line from the classic movie, Wayne's World, where Wayne says to Cassandra, "I once thought I had mono for an entire year.  It turns out I was just really tired."  Shaa...  I have been trying to get sleep this week but football last night (Packers and Bronco) made sure I stayed up for a while.  (And what was that guys deal with the "Zappa scored everyone's part.  He was a genius!!!"  I get it, you like Zappa and your lonely and you don't have anyone to talk at... leave us alone dude!)

I'll eventually get caught up this week.  A laundry list of things to take care of in the evenings... thanks to the band, and laundry.  Always gotta make time to get to the gym, too.  Especially on Tuesdays.  Love my Tuesdays.  

And I was telling Alison and Leah about this on Saturday...

Strait up Sewercyde

The picture that this article paints makes me think that McCain should be her vice president.

It would make for a more interesting election.

This thing called "blog"

It's what been only ten days sense that last post. Chickity checkity... got some new old music last week.

Bum stiggedy bum stiggedy bum, hon, I got the old pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
But I can fe-fi-fo-fum, diddly-bum, here I come
So peter piper, Im hyper than pinochios nose
Im the supercalafragilistic tic-tac pro
I gave my oopsy, daisy, now youve got the crazy
Crazy with the books, googley-goo wheres the gravy

Superior rhymes there is not.

Summer is coming to a close with teacher friends returning to work. No more Wednesday nights till five in the morning watching movies I've never seen before, like the Rose or Coal Miners Daughter or listening to music from the seventies that I've not had the pleasure of being overly accquainted with... what you have and so forth.

But this week has shown itself to be a test in longevity. Longevity in the since that I've had two nights with only three hours of sleep (mostly by choice) and my eyes still manage to keep open. I started filling in at the old part-time job again on Monday also. This means that I don't get to sleep in after a weeknight out. Up and dizzy and out the door. A dark cloud covers my eyes as I avoid the people on the sidewalks in their gaze and their stride. Students are back. State street has become more unbearable than ever. god bless this town.

(More late summer madness descent may be posted later... who can really know?)

Where the i Divides Wear

Over the weekend we listened to the latest versions of the mixes I've lovingly (hatefully) crafted.  Things are moving along quite smoothly as far as I'm concerned.  Joe still wants to rerecord songs.  I don't want to try.  He also wants me to add some more backing vocals.  I might be doing that tonight.  He said he doesn't want me doing all of my backing parts that I do live but I'll probably end up doing all of them if I think the quality of the recording I can do is good enough.  That way, if he says "add those other ones as well," it's already done.

Early, early this morning, Travis and I were interviewed on student radio with a friend of ours from our days of playing shows at the Klinic.  I don't know if it's possible to get a copy of the show in podcast or archive streaming or what have you as of yet.   If I find out any more info, I'll be sure to post it so all of the band's adoring fans (with fangs?) can listen to Travis and me divulge where the name of the band came from and how I convinced Joe to start the band with my by giving him a bag of Fritos. 

In the end, the damn flies that keep landing on my arms and head are driving me crazy... like everything else.  Bugger.  Can't wait till "this" is all "done."

I've picked up some new music recently.

Blue by Lucinda Williams.

Tears Are in Your Eyes by Yo La Tengo

Strings of Nashville by Pavement

These have made it onto the new playlist entitled I Like This Song.

Three days from now, I'll not want to listen to it.  I'll be demanding something with an overcompressed breakbeat and some tweaky moogs or whatever.

But in the end, I'm really just trying to keep my head down during the week.  Getting all of my weekending done on Friday night/saturday morning and then floating to Monday morning study jam...  Already done with that... now just killing time until work.

Wishing I could just keep playing guitar since it takes the swirl of unfocused thoughts and squeezes them into the moment.  Something I'm never fully a part of generally speaking.

I'm being lazy this week... big american party!!!

I love the fact that the dream ends when the guy runs out of bananas.

Edgar Winter

Where was I when someone was talking about Muppet Babies?  Hmm... I want to say it was at Travis' apartment and he was talking about some messed up story involving puppets that were a rip-off of the muppet babies... and no not the MST3K Edgar Winter Babies.

Ha ha ha... I had forgotten about the indoor funny car.  And Killer Shrews!  Absolutely the WORST MOVIE I've ever watched.

Atruckalypse

"Fruit don't talk, fruit just listens."

Many thanks to my sister for the squidbillies for my birthday.

...and "Rocks are boring".

So it's someone elses fault

This article caught my eye as I was checking my email.

" President Bush, on a campaign to open offshore waters to oil drilling, said Wednesday that the Democratic-run Congress was letting down the American people by refusing to allow votes on the matter."

I guess I'm not part of the "American people" since I'm not let down about the vote not happening yet. The president should stop assuming he knows how I feel. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a complete picture.

"'The American people are rightly frustrated by the failure of the Democratic leaders in Congress to enact commonsense solutions,' the president said."

This statement is hilarious. It implies that the blame for high fuel costs is now the fault of Democratic leaders since they can't fix the problem by snapping their fingers (or better yet, counting a show of hands on who wants to draw oil from off-shore wells ten years from now.)

The solution to this puzzle isn't as easy as casting a vote and then letting oil companies dive on in. It seems that the President (and many others in certain political camps) thinks it is... but he's one of those oil men himself (if not a very good one.)

Now, I'm not very confident in my political acumen, but it would seem to me that rather than listen to another word the president has to say about anything, the Democratic led congress should sit tight and wait until a new, less incompetent executive is elected (that may never happen, and if so, good.)

two long weeks

It be long time since I posted here. Busy. Went to Bloomington, Indiana for a weekend. Had a birthday last week. Being Semi-employed keeps me away from locations designed for onlinery.

I almost posted something last night but decided to take care of some small things around the house.

Word. Word is on the street.

Madison is going to seize an apartment building because it's owner doesn't give a damn if the renters sell drugs as a profession. Good for them.

And the homeless guy on the radio is drying out my brain with his theories.

Dear Photo Diary

I just finished the first pass mix of Believe.  It's an Effin' Masterpiece.  While I was bouncing the mix, I went and took a couple pictures around the rehearsal studios.

"Squalor Alley"

This is where Travis and I come to throw rocks while Joe and Danny smoke inside.  It's very reminiscent of the days when we jammed in the barn.  The best times were when we would grill turkey dogs.  We don't do that anymore.  'The alley' doesn't lend itself to grilling good times.

"The Magic Room"

If I had Photoshop on this thing or a way to network with my PC here, I would splice these two together.  Anyway.  The chair in front of the drum kit is where I've been sitting, with my Mac on the stool in front of me.  Notice the Leslie Hall autographed sticker.  That wasn't cheap.

"Mixing with Headphones!?"

I know, I know.  But like I've mentioned before, I don't have quality studio monitors and I'm not about to run out and buy some.  

"Future Ethanol"

I took this a few days ago.   I love the fact that I can still drive past fields on my way home.  If the economy hadn't taken a huge dump, I would only have given these fields three years before they were track homes on roids.  (Actually, these fields are testing new hybrids and their resilience to herbicides and pesticides.)

"4:30 A.M."

I have turned Wednesday nights into my new Saturday for some reason.  I think I'll remember this summer (if I remember it at all) as Wednesday Nights with Tom.  My friend Tom runs Karaoke on Wednesday and I usually show up right after he's done.  Then we drink and talk.  Last week, we went back to his place and listened to some of his songs from his Opera he's writing.  Then we watched the new Hairspray movie twice, followed by highlights from the second half of the Les Miserables concert DVD.  (He's kinda into musicals.)  I drove home as the sun was coming up.  

I think this is the only benefit of being semi-employed in summer.

I'm not a salesman

I've discovered my photobooth program.  Now I can document my mixing time with a photo of myself every fifteen minutes.

If I looks bored, it's probably because I am.  Mixing isn't usually done with headphones.  A nice set of studio monitors and a quite room are the ideal set up, but I'm working with what I got.  Only two songs left.  One of them I will have to return to the studio to pick up the tracks.  For some reason that folder didn't transfer with the rest.

Other than that, I've been going ridiculously crazy trying to solve "the next big step in the evolution of me".  I go to the rehearsal space (where I am right now)

 and sit and import a spindle

 of CDs into iTunes while drafting re-re resumes about how awesome I am and etc., etc., vomiting all over myself with negativity and disillusion.  I'm not a salesman.  Never have been, never will be.  If you asked me poi

nt

 blank if you should hire me in an interview I would respond, "There's probably someone more qualified in 

your pool of applicants, but you're getting predefined character if you choose me."

In the meantime, friends and others are tossing their ideas my way.  Most of it is nice to hear, but I'm always on the brink of loosening my tongue to give thems the what-fer bizzness of "keep yaw i-dee-yuhs to yaw-self"  (as C&C Music Factory kicks into gear.  It's just such an infectious groove, so smooth... I can't help but dance to it.)

that's what I call prime distraction.  What was I complaining about??? oh yeah... nothin'.

But I've "hatched" a new plan that requires some serious work in the next few weeks (right after I get the damn album finished).  The new job will be nothing more than a temporary endeavor while I put the pieces into place for the next big thing in fried pine booby dance tracks... or my life, what have you...

And AG what are you Muwaaah-ing about?

With high regard form heavy metal country

I used to listen to this album while driving 191 south to West Yellowstone through the park. Whenever a song off of it plays on my 'MONSTER JAMZ' playlist, all I can think about is winter elk at midnight with the full moon by the side of the road while I'm driving in my Hyundai Accent. Good memories of better, less responsible times.

I read this article a while back (in paper form when it originally ran) and the idea of a one man project has been simmering on the backburner ever since.

The reality of the situation with Where the i Divides is such to keep me locked walking in a circle while looking down at the ground. I feel like what I'm doing right now is enough to keep me moving (in a circle) but not quite enough to pull me out of that path.

So couple that article with recent acquisitions from bands such as Poster Children, Norfolk & Western and Three Mile Pilot and I'm left with my head pulled up and my eyes agazin' at the curved horzion of the earth.

Yesterday I finally figured out how to track guitars on my new computer. I'm guessing I'm going to be stuck working with drum loops for the time being. That's not a bad thing. If anything, I'm just not locked in by convential drum set rock drumming or the lack of punctuality of a real drummer. Auto-Trav is interested in bringing his signature bass sound to the mix and I've got a second guitar player willing to give it a try as well.

Once the Where the i Divides album is completed (four songs left), I'll have some time to devote to crafting some "instant hits". And then Joe can spend all of his time doing whatever it is he does best (read: PROCRASTINATE) and it won't bother me as much since I will have one iron in the fire (read: Solo Project) and a side project with my friends (read: Where the i Divides).

All that's left is figuring out a career direction for the work-a-day real world version of myself that hates being semi-employed.

Title this "Whatever"

If you can release a new album roughly 20 years after you were hot, and have hype surrounding it, there has to be something up.

Starting around 1996.

I don't listen to radio.  I'm sure this song will be on it.

And if I'm lucky, when I stream the student radio station, I might actually hear something that I like instead of college-age exploration of music that they've never 

heard before.  "Here's some terrible stuff that I've never heard before but since I've never heard it before, it's got to be cool?  ::Lenny Kravitz's Stop Draggin' Around plays::"

I suggest you seek out Junior Citizen.  

connections

Not really... so I made a totally cool post about how "cool" I'm playing it...

Whatever.

Go see "Lars and the Real Girl" at your local DVD player.

I dare you to ball your fucking eyes out as much as I did.

Loneliness is the most powerful force that drives human existence.. Try and argue with me. I FUCKING dare you.

Chitty Chitty

In case you didn't know...

I don't really remember what it was I said in my last few posts.  I'm pretty sure there was a thanks nod to B.Pilgrim and maybe some whining and complaining about whatever.  I've got a lot of that to spread around.

No progress on the mixed bizzness yet.  Tonight promises to offer a few free hours post workout baring any sort of chaotic mindriot that will most likely swell up sometime this evening.

I had one of those while I was making copies at the court of appeals today.  Standing at a copier with hot-glue bound briefs.  All glasswork.  It's the easiest.  Their machine is also coin-op.  It takes bills, but only singles.  So every ten pages, I have to put in another dollar.  Let's just say I was perturbed by the situation.  There have been times when I've made over 2000 copies at that location.  It takes a long time.

Anyway.  My brain started making a checklist of things I wanted to get done today.  That set me off since I was standing at a copier instead of getting them done.  And then I remembered that I was getting paid like a king to make those copies.  The checklist could wait... which it did.

I have two things left on that list.  One of them will be taken care of tomorrow since the post office is closed.  The other thing will be taken care of after the gym.  The interim?  Listening to Three Mile Pilot's Na Vucca Do Lupo.