Arrison Kirby

Posts Tagged ‘2010’

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lowdowndownlow

“Gotta Get Down With the Passing of Time” – Damon Albarn
“Box Elder (live) ” – Pavement
“In Asking Land” – Talking Heads
“Inside Out” – Beck
“The Old Plantation” – The Minus 5
“There There (live acoustic)” – Radiohead
“My Death (live)” – David Bowie
“Runners Dial Zero” – Beck
“Blasting Fonda” – Wilco
“Lifeline” – Harry Nilsson
“Did You See Me” – Ween
“Riding to Vanity Fair” – Paul McCartney
“Sunset Coming On” – Damon Albarn, Toumani Diabate, Afel Bocoum, Ko Kan Ko Sata Doumbia
“I Love My Car” – Belle and Sebastian

This past week had a lot of emotion in it.  I blame the movement out of the ever emotional Cancer into Leo.  It seemed to result in misunderstanding and mini crises…and not just for myself.  It’s something like the air of a funeral where such intense emotions may act in kind.  A funeral for Cancer, if you will.

Now, though, it seems these weekend wounds have healed or are healing.  Today, in Knoxville, in particular, we had this wonderfully cloud covered, sunny day.  The evening capped by a stellar performance downtown by Wu Tang’s Killah Priest.  A small reward for working through the darkness of Cancer.

I made this mix a few years back.  I did not feel any kind of darkness in my life at the time, but wanted to make a saddish, emotionally driven mix.  This was the result.  It does not carry a negative message (except maybe the Paul McCartney song), but certainly expresses loss and learning while sounding “summery.”  I think it’s perfectly fitting for this time of year.

Click to download the track.

“Untitled as Yet”

So recently I have been working on a new project that’s mostly still under wraps.  The scope of the thing is yet to be seen, but so far the music is being sculpted by myself, Megan Driscoll and Katie Collins.  We began with some stuff I had written, got it downish and reconstructed here and there.  Last Wednesday, however, we ended up with this track, which was a completely collaborative process.

We’re not entirely certain what to do with it yet and it’s definitely rough around the edges, but it’s really come together well to this point.   You do have to forgive the levels on the thing.  It was recorded very simply, which did not leave me a lot of room to work with when it came to mixing and mastering.

Recorded on July 21st, 2010.

Katie Collins – omnichord
Megan Driscoll – flute
Arrison Kirby – beats & guitar

I just came across this video a few hours ago. Good to see it out there.

I believe American Panda and Star Mountain also played that gig. Caleb Wilson provided the visuals. This video can be found on mysweetjenna79’s YouTube Channel. The birthday girl was…

…having a birthday. I’m glad she spent it there.

“The Goal”
“Kill Party”
“First Time on the Moon”
“Major Miner”
“Shhhhh”
“Brine Shrimp Defecating on Your Trousers”
“There”
“Supersonic Tony”
“Cover Your Face”
“Boy vs. Wife”
“Seventeen Michaels”

I want to make two things perfectly clear to you before you listen to this.

1) The piano is not in tune. If you know how to tune a piano and are willing to do so for free, then please contact me.

2) I am out of tune. But this is why…

This session was created on a whim. I felt a free flowing creative energy around me, so I set up microphones around the piano. Then I randomly made everything up. All that you here, both musically and lyrically, is completely from the moment. Noting that came out of my mouth or hands had been composed prior to the session itself. This is total improv.

So the singing sucks at times. The piano is mostly always tolerable though…and the singing did improve as the session barreled on. I must say, though, that if these “songs” were to become worked into a polished album, I think it could be decent. I don’t really have much complaint about the lyrics or chord progressions, themselves.

It is for this reason that I contemplated this session a lot before posting it here. First I intended to mix, master and post. Then I didn’t want to share it at all. Then I wanted to run it though an autotuner. Then I wanted to just recreate the whole thing, altogether (and still wouldn’t rule this out). Then I went back to just wanting to mix, master and post. Then I just decided to post it as is…grit in tact.

It did have some light mastering done to it…but that’s about it.

As for the content, there are a good handful of swears in this session. Nothing sexually over the top. Just good ol’ American cursing. It’s also rather personal since it’s all completely improvisational. You sing what you think you know…you know? Though listening back, I’m not entirely sure where all this shit comes from.

This also kicks off a new section here: Sessions.

More to come, I hope indeed. Email me if you’d like to be a part of one.

Click to download as a continuous mp3:

illumination

“Ohio” – Chin Chin
“Jet Engine” – Forest for the Trees & Beck
“Crooked Dub / Obscured by Clouds”  -  Gorillaz vs. Spacemonkeyz vs. Pink Floyd vs. Arrison Kirby
“Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping” – Air
“Roche” – Sebastian Tellier
“Noir Blues to Tinnitus” – of Montreal
“Video Tapez” – Radiohead vs. Del The Funky Homosapien vs.  Amplive
“Great Gig in the Sky” – The Flaming Lips & Peaches
“Speak, See, Remember” – Pavement
“One Fine Day” – Cracker
“The Great Western Road” – David Byrne
“Cloud of Unknowing” – Gorillaz, Bobby Womack & Sinfonia ViVa
“Sleepyhead” – Senryu

illumination was submitted for the Tapeworms March theme:  “Wake Up.”  I am posting it today because it’s Easter Sunday and I find this to make for a pretty good Easter mix.  My only regret is that I didn’t have it posted this morning so that someone might wake up to it.

Click to download the track.

photograph by Caleb W.

“Inklings (Two Missing B’s and a Microphone)” – Senryu vs. Arrison Kirby vs. Beck

“Inklings” was the first song from the new Senryu album to REALLY hit me.  It did the first time I heard it and the effects lasted a good deal beyond that time.

Its BPM is just a little bit faster than that of some bonus beats from Beck’s “Where It’s At” session.  So I slowed down Beck and stuck the two together.  After a little bit of tweaking, editing and remastering,  the result is a “clubbier” version of “Inklings.”

I think there is something psychic intertwining these two pieces of music intrinsically.  The imposition of one over the other is nearly dead on as the course of each song changes.  Perhaps it’s merely a fanciful, random intermingling of sounds in time with each other, but I think there is something more veiled and godlike at play.

Senryu
Inkling
2010

“Missing Page of Memory”
“MorningKidNightKid”
“Inklings”
“The Best Weak”
“A Trail of Asterisks ”
“Up We Go”
“Obsess Much”
“Fang X Fang”
“I Hope You Don’t Burn in Hell (Just Kidding)”
“Natural Regretter”
“Can You Hear Those Trumpets?”

Produced by Zoe Ruth-Erwin & Senryu

Wil Wright – guitar, vocals, music
Steven Rodgers – drums, music
Dan McCormack – guitar, music
Andres McCormack – bass, music

Additional recording by Arrison Kirby, Eric Harvey & Wil Wright.

Cecilia Miller – cello
Daniel Hart – violin
Natalie Kimbro – violin
Ariel Saldivar – duet vocals
Zoe Ruth-Erwin – duet vocals
Jeff McClain – additional vocals
Zachary Fallon – additional vocals
Savanna Ellis – reading
Ruth Carey – reading

Art Direction by Jordan Noel at GingerGroupDesigns.

Recorded around Knoxville, TN.
Drums recorded at El Studio.