The Flame
The Flame is our release for this week which features a really nice flowing jam session between the three of us.
Much of the beginning of the song primarily features Neil’s use of my wife’s doumbek hand drum. Jeremy has some nice understated key lines and I’m primarily concentrating on just rolling out some groove oriented bass lines.
About halfway through, the piece changes as Neil rotates onto his full kit. We move into a kind of blues groove with some nice weaving between the different instruments.
James Dean
Wow, it’s Thursday already! Sorry about the delay this week guys, I’ve been in the midst of swapping out my day job for another one so there’s been a lot going on for me.
Anyways, this week’s song is an unusual one for us. “James Dean” is a piece sonically illustrating the crash that ended James Dean’s life. It’s a pretty relentless piece with Neil’s drums drilling out the rhythm with fury and aggression. The effects are layered generously on just about every instrument here mutating through various parts through to the abrupt and jarring ending.
07.16.08The H Mart
This week’s song is “The H Mart”. Â Near our houses, is a Korean foods grocery store that always has a nice selection of foods from all around the world.
Yes, it’s kind of a strange subject for a song to be about but for some reason it occurred to us to do it. Â Basically, there’s a nice asian feel to the song with an almost koto-like vibe to Jeremy’s keys. My guitar work has a heavy phaser on it with some distortion to add some texture to the piece. Neil’s drums as always are on point with a nice laid-back almost behind-the-beat swagger.
Enjoy!
07.7.08Turner
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZTyfrg06Xc]
A couple of weeks ago I saw the above video on YouTube (redirected from a story on Digg.com at the time). Something struck me in watching and listening to Jon Turner’s testimony of his first confirmed kill in Iraq. It’s a chilling video to watch. I felt a chilling mixture of emotions in it.
In any case, the idea stuck with me the following Sunday as we played music and at one point I started coming up with a kind of picture of perhaps how Turner, or another soldier like him, might feel in any wartime situation. Perhaps I had it all wrong, as I’ve never been in combat and couldn’t hope to fully understand what one would feel in this kind of situation, but these words just sort of came out as we were jamming.
I love the tone of the music Neil and Jeremy set here. Neil has some crushingly oppressive and militant drums pounding and Jeremy’s keys feel ghostly reminiscent of some of Ray Manzarek’s darker moods with the Doors.
07.2.08The Waiting
This week’s song is “The Waiting”. There’s some interesting chaos as the song starts up with some excellent digeridoo playing from Jeremy. Then suddenly the song kicks in full swing with some deep resonating bass and flowing melodic lines.