Statistical Energy
Here’s my first experiment with GarageBand. Â I added some distortion to the rhodes and some nice chorus to the guitar. Â The drum effects also added some crispness to the snare and some fullness to the kick drum. Then, I added several synth pads over top of everything to even out the sound.
11.18.08Happy and Low
Happy and Low is just a bright little jam we did at the beginning of a session a couple of weeks ago. I love playing little arpeggiated chord structures on the bass sometimes to warm up. I think I’d actually used the basic chord structure in a song years ago but it’s long been forgotten so it works to approach it from a fresh point of view again. Suddenly the other guys jumped in and the next thing I knew, we were off.
Along the lines of Austin and Slow Like Fish, this song is another happy ditty to listen to on a cold Tuesday morning.
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Ask Me Later
Our instrumental pieces tend to be some pretty epic journeys sometimes. Usually, one of us just starts playing something, the others join in and then we mutate bit-by-bit until we find ourselves in a totally different feel or progression. This is one of those situations.
I think the primary aspect of this kind of song is just listening to each other closely and playing off each other’s slight changes. I guess this is what people often refer to as “chemistry”.
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Looks Like Rain
I always loved the Grateful Dead while growing up. Jerry’s lines often dawdled about in brilliant ways always feeling unattached yet somehow connected on an organic way.
Obviously, the Dead had their hits. However, they had quite a few songs that were under the pop radar. Looks Like Rain is one of those. It was often played brilliantly in concert yet often seemed to be one of those chill-out songs that people often went to the vendors when it was playing.
Our version of the song is pretty chilled out, much like the original. Jeremy’s keys glide through the song alongside Neil’s quietly intense drum line.
Note about last week’s song, Red Rain. I have to apologize for the mixdown of Red Rain last week. I remixed the song properly this week and reposted it in the same place. Please give it another listen to hear the difference.
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Red Rain
Peter Gabriel’s 1987 album, So, was a huge influence on me at the time. It’s the first album I remember truly loving from beginning to finish. “Sledgehammer” was all over MTV at the time and was a critically acclaimed video, but one of the key songs for me was always “Red Rain”.
In an attempt to present the lyrics in a different light, we played the song in a more aggressive manner here. The lyrics speak towards violent subject manner so, we just presented that in this piece in a different way.
Musically, Jeremy’s keyboards are providing the trip-hop rhythm here with Neil providing textural complexity with doumbek percussion work.
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Echo Lake
Here’s another long instrumental work this week. Typically, I’ve been trying to mix things down in smaller chunks so they’re more easily digestible to listeners but the real representation of what we do is often more typical in these epic instrumental works in which we often move from motive to motive through exploration and playing off each other’s sounds.
10.13.08Gun Street Girl
Tom Waits has always been a favorite lyricist fo mine for quite awhile. Part of his draw is due to his unique voice, which always has that desperate “lived-in” sound that is either really appealing or completely revolting, depending on how you feel at the moment you hear him. The other part of his draw, for me, is the way he paints a situation. Many of Waits’ songs, if read one line at a time, sound utterly ridiculous and pointless. However, when heard in succession, along with the odd characters of sound playing with him, it describes an interesting moment in time.
Gun Street Girl is a perfect example of this, in which many of the lines may not make sense out of context but the way Waits’ describes things makes it feel you understand and have been there anyway.
Additionally, this is a unique song for us as Bob joins us on the drums and Neil is playing bass. Together they form a solid walking feel with Jeremy’s atmospheric keywork in a way that Waits’ words could simply just be spoken in an almost matter-of-fact style over top.
10.6.08Slow Like Fish
“Slow Like Fish” is the perfect Monday morning song. It’s a nice bright jam that ambles along at a nice steady pace. For some reason, it somewhat reminds me of the feeling of getting up early on a quiet morning to watch the sun rise. Give it a listen to brighten up your day.
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