Almost Ambient CD

Laid out the Kill Switch...Klick - Almost Ambient CD. I need more material. Thought I'd have about 60 minutes worth of music completed, but the disc clocks in at around 45 minutes. I need to add a few more tracks and write a few more. Started recording a new ambient style piece for it called His Restraint (a working title). Since there's not going to be any words the title can be anything that fits the mood of the piece. The title is vaguely about the Presidents actions going into Afghanistan. I'm surprised President Bush is acting as thoughtfully and restrained as he is. I thought for sure he would dive into any conflict and send us straight into WWIII first chance he could. Glad that one wasn't an "I told you so..." , still the conflict is young.

KEXP Rockabilly Ball

09/29/01- Spent the afternoon cleaning the old guitars and slambar. I was going to go to the KEXP Rockabilly Ball today at the Tractor Tavern but I threw my back out on Thursday. I injured my back working on the dock at the University Bookstore a few years ago (yea- I still have a part-time day job...all is not fun and games in the life of a working musician) and now it seems it doesn't take much to re-injure it. We had planned on shooting some footage for the Go-Kustom TV Show, but I'm just not feeling up to it. Still it's cool of KEXP (formerly KCMU) to host such an event. Seattle is becoming quite the hotbed for Alternative Country, Roots Rock and Rockabilly bands. I've always had a soft spot for the stuff, even though electronic music is my main interest. As far as recording goes, I've finished Courtney Hudak's & OmBili Troupe's songs for the Teen Feeding Frenzy! CD. I'm hoping to get this one out by early next year. It takes several months to get everything ready for a proper CD release. You have to send out promo copies and radio copies and get the distribution all set. It's alot of work, but it's what I love to

Teen Feeding Frenzy!

Busy weekend. Courtney Hudak and her band came by to record a cover of 'N Sync's song Girlfriend for the upcoming Teen Feeding Frenzy! compilation. The band tracked Saturday afternoon and Courtney and her brother Alex came by today to finish the vocal and acoustic guitar overdubs. Haven't mixed it yet but it is an excellent addition the the rest of the CD. I also did some guitar work for my wife's band OmBili's cover of LaBamba for the same CD. Both songs are the last ones for the disc and both should be mixed by middle of next week. Unrelated to recording...

I heard a guy on the radio the other night who had written a book about the cycles of generations. How one generation helps to define the generations around it. How we are in the same cycle as the 1930's generation moving into a war (like WWII).It made sense. Then a commercial came on with a man screaming about savings and coming to his mattress outlet and I thought,"This commercial must have been made before the Terrorist attacks." It irritated me, as if the guy was saying,"I don't give a fuck if thousands of people died and we're on the edge of a war...come on down and spend your money!"We are all going to have to find a new media language. The old one doesn't work anymore. Thousands of people died.Thousands more were injured. How can some idiot in a commercial say anything other than "I'm sorry...this shit sucks!" This writer guy on the radio (not commercial guy) said that if we are in the cycle he thinks we are in- that the concept of "celebrity" will fade. When a society has to turn it attention to survival (physical as well as economic) who cares what "celebrities" are doing. Who cares if Madonna got a new dress that cost 1/4 of a mill or that one of the Back Street Boys has a drinking problem And we all know that without an audience "celebrity's" don't exist. They don't get money to make big hit records or buy new homes or star in that latest blockbuster. If the economy tanks, we can't support them.Most of us will be scappin' for food and rent. We'll have to wait and see how this turns out.

Hold The Vocals

Went over and dropped off a box of CDR's to Bill Wolford to master into the Teen Feeding Frenzy! CD.Looks like it'll have to be a real late 2001 release or early 2002. I still need to get two more tracks to him in the coming weeks to finish it, but at least this way he can get started loading it all into his computer. Mastering is a complicated process in which all the audio tracks on a CD are polished, normalized and eq'ed to give the album a finished sound. This is especially challenging when you have many tracks recorded by different bands,in different studios. Bill did a great job on the Hold The Vocals... compilation, and know he'll make this one sound real purty. I also worked on my vocal tracks for Lost Like Innocence. I'm only backing Jennifer Hope's vocals on the chorus, but I couldn't get the right sound. Sometimes the devil is in the details. I'm also slowly building my inspirational steam after watch CNN all week and thinking about planes falling out of the sky and terrorists and New York and... now it's time to turn in.

Rubble

Still no survivors found alive in the rubble that used to be the World Trade Center since last Wednesday.Looks like we'll be invading Afghanistan in the next few days or weeks. Going to war doesn't mean what it used to after the Persian Gulf War. It doesn't seem as serious as it did back in WWII. I could be wrong, but it just doesn't feel that way. Maybe it all hasn't sunk in yet. I can't stop watching the damn TV and CNN. Waiting to see what's happening. They keep playing the same clips over and over. And then they'll break through with a little tid bit of new news, like another person of interest detained, etc. I tried to do some vocals today...decided instead to watch a video with the wife and kids. Times like these makes you want to be with friends and family...times like these...how much things have changed since Tuesday. Still the sun was out and we went running errands. People seemed a bit melancholy- everywhere we went today.

Can't Understand

All this is very hard to understand. Why would someone, a terrorist, have such a disregard for all human life, even his own, as to train for years so he could pilot a plane full of people into a building full of people. I really don't understand.

9/11

A friend called our house this morning at 7:15 AM Pacific Time, hysterical saying planes were falling out of the sky and the Pentagon was in flames. I didn't believe her at first. She said, "turn on the news...it's all over the TV."I handed the phone to my wife and turned on the TV. The first thing I saw was the World Trade Center broken in half and then the screen cut to the Pentagon on fire. My wife came back into the living room. I looked at the TV in disbelief.I had to turn it off. Turned it back on a few minutes later. How do I explain this to my kids. They think it's a movie, it doesn't sink in. I've been in a daze all day. It doesn't sink in to me. I can't get my head around the whole thing. People celebrating in the streets of Palestine while people crawl out of buildings in New York. It doesn't seem real. There are no commercials on most TV stations. This doesn't seem real.

Anxious

I've been anxious and irritable all day. Didn't get any music done. Went to bed early.

Her Trembling Hands (2001)

Mixing and finalizing Her Trembling Hands (2001). Pretty much finished.

Her Trembling Hands

Arranged Her Trembling Hands (2001). Got Courtney Hudak's vocals all set and adjusted, and now I just need to mix it. All that's left to complete the Kill Switch...Klick-Almost Ambient CD is this song and Lost Like Innocence. Such a beautiful day and I'm inside working on the computer. The artists sacrifice. Speaking of artist sacrifice, my wife's performance troupe OmBili played at the Newcastle Festival today. I didn't go(working on the album and watching the kids). She came home with her feet in bandages, seems that the wood stage she was dancing barefoot on got extremely hot and she suffered 2nd degree burns on the bottom of her feet.She didn't realize how hot it was until she stopped dancing and finished the performance. Another member of her group called the paramedics over, who said it was pretty bad, wrapped her feet in bandages and told her she shouldn't stand for prolonged periods for several days. Now that's sacrifice!

Mementos

Rented Mementos on DVD. What a trippy film. Very unique and disturbing. I highly recommend it.

Go-Kustom TV

Went over to Al Adonolfi's drum shop (Boom Theory) with Mike Ditmore to interview him for Go-Kustom TV. The interview went great, but one of the cameras levier mic wasn't working properly so the audio might need some repair. Also Eric Cooley of Faith & Disease came by, later in the evening to dump a CDR from a DAT of a live show they did opening for Julie Cruise (of Twin Peaks fame). He also lent me a copy of their new videos. Very good stuff. We'll be airing them on Go-Kustom TV later on.

Ambient Kill Switch...Klick CD

Taking the three day weekend to get some serious work done. Did some arranging on Her Trembling Hands and Lost Like Innocence. So now the Ambient Kill Switch...Klick CD is almost finished. Also did some gif animations for the website.