el deth

Posts Tagged ‘guitar’

Click to download the tracks:

“Aquanaut”
“Dive”
“Sea Leveled”
“Floating Ghosts”
“Dirty Ocean”

This is a session I recently did with the ever-so-underground, Inertia  (AKA Andy Jaynes) of Immaculate Hedz.  I have to give it to him.  He was definitely in control of the skeleton of this thing.

One commonality that he and I share is that we are both Aquarius by birth.  He digs into this right away on the opening track.  Keeping with the spirit, I took the liberty of giving each track a name that sounds watery.

Because this is more or less a DJ kind of deal (with live instrumentation), you’ll notice some of these mp3′s are long.  I wanted them to be downloadable individually, without disrupting the flow of the thing.  That’s why some are more ever-changing than others.

Anyway.  Consider this my going away present to you before I head up north to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.  Hope to see you there!

Inertia – records
Arrison Kirby – guitar, keys

Thursday used to be the new Friday. Now Friday is Friday again. Like a foolish fool, I have been sleeping through my Fridays habitually and consistently. I absolutely need to break this habit. I missed some really good stuff last night.

In any case, I always end up waking up right around 3AM. This morning was no different. Having felt pretty shitty for missing the night’s fun, I decided not to waste the rest of it. Plus my emotive and creative faculties were running pretty high. So this video is basically a partial document of what I did when I awoke.

I know it’s nothing particularly interesting, and also that it could stand for a bit less talk and a bit more rock. Bare with me though. I wanted to make sure my video making and uploading process was solid. Since I now know it is (thanks to this video), you perhaps should be able to expect more videos to come.

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Click to download the tracks:

“Right Time”
“Santa Daemon”
“Stress Square”
“Afraid of the Ghost”
“Gentle Waves”
“Quantity”

So a while back, Aaron and I collaborated on a few tracks and called it memetics (Aaron’s name idea…and a good one).  I really should mix those down and get them out into cyberspace.  But for now, you have this.

This is all recorded live, which is the opposite approach we took on those tracks you have not heard.  Those we tracked out.  This live session was much easier to deal with.

Aaron sang on most of the tracks.  I presume it to be improvisational, but in any case, some of the song titles were just plain obvious.  My dog, Remy, sang on “Santa Daemon.”

I sang on “Afraid of the Ghost.”  It’s a complete departure from the way it’s been performed in the sessions with Pocket Strength (that’s our band name, right?).  This one is very true to the “memetics sound.”  I’m particularly fond of its minimalism.

I’m not sure what else to say about the rest of the tracks.  They’re pretty droney at times.  It definitely throws back to earlier days of being in Obadiah with Aaron.  I really like the piano / guitar interplay at the end of “Gentle Waves.”  If you don’t care anything else about this artsy fartsy bullshit, then at least lay back into that for a minute.

Aaron Shugart-Brown – guitar, effects, percussion, vocals
Arrison Kirby – guitar, keys, beats, vocals
Remy – vocals

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Click to download the tracks:

original artwork by Antony Gormley

“Bristol (Bare Bones)”
“Afraid of the Ghost”
“New Beginnings”
“Bristol (Katie and the Drums)”
“903″
“Anemone” (Brian Jonestown Massacre cover)
“Untitled as Yet”
“Bristol (Katie and the Bass)”
“Katie’s Waltz”
“Feedback”

This is actually an accumulation of material from two sessions, each with it’s own unique processes for evolving the material.  Of course, that could really be said of any series of sessions involving the same material with the same people.  Here, however, the session from 9.1.2010 had us fleshing out a newly written song, and trying new arrangements on older songs.  The later session, from 9.8.2010, revolved around a thick underbelly of “organized improvisation.”  Several of these tracks contain vocal direction as we worked them out on the spot.

“Bristol (Bare Bones)” - I introduced this song acoustically in my office at first.  This is the first time it was played in the studio.  I like the minimalism of this version and kind of hate that I cut it off before finishing the song.  The interplay between ukulele (Katie), bass (Dane) and guitar (me) is particularly nice in the first verse.

“Afraid of the Ghost” – This was one of those sudden improv deals.  The entire track consists of three chords, borrowed from the bridge of a song I wrote called “Sarabeth.”  It was Katie’s idea to “jam” on this, I believe.  The lyrics are freestyled right out of my head and not entirely on key…also a bit loud.

“New Beginnings” – Anyone who has ever seen me play live a few times is familiar with this song.  Dane played bass on this version.  His idea.  Worked out well.  I kiss the tips of my fingers, in fact.  As to the abrupt ending of this track, it came at the precise moment that a glass of beer totally flew off a speaker.  We chalked it up to vibration.  Though I have set plenty of bottles and glasses there in the past with no problem.

“Bristol (Katie and the Drums)” – We had an early inclination on this song to try Dane on the bass with Katie on drums.  You know…just to see.  We let her begin the drumming and we filled in around her.  It totally worked until we got to the arena-rocky, time changed chorus that didn’t happen.

“903″ - This was another improvisational tangent.  I don’t know why everything is all “devil and hell” but I think it works for the overall themes that emerge in these sessions.  Anyway.  Dane called out the time.  9:03pm.  When he said it twice and there was a quality to the way he said it that made it sound like it came out of a rap song.  Thus I suggested we do a rap song.  We picked a single key and went with it.  The “rap” is completely free-styled.

“Anemone” – This was recorded on the earlier, more focused session.  Yes.  The Brian Jonestown Massacre cover returns.  This one is much fuller than the previous one, with Dane playing bass (check out the badass slide shit toward the end) and a good grainy underbelly to the guitar.  Not to toot my own horn, but I handle my improvy little guitar solo bridge thingie pretty well, too.

“Untitled as Yet” – Despite it’s missteps, this may be my favorite version of this song so far.  Dane’s deep, concussive drumming juxtaposed with the reverb-soaked club beats is of particular bounce.  I also am fond of the second half where I find myself able to channel my inner Jeff Tweedy (or was it Neil Young?) on guitar.

“Bristol (Katie and the Bass)” – It’s not perfect but, so far, it’s the best recorded version we have of the newest written song.  This one has Dane back on the drums and Katie playing bass.  On the omnichord is Rachel Jae.

“Katie’s Waltz” – This was initially “just fuckin’ around” while I got the levels kind of correct.  But how could anyone resist the call of a waltz?

“Feedback” – If the beer flying off the speaker was not a supernatural experience then maybe this was.  There was a small but not unbearable microphone feedback going on.  We all joined in, harmonizing with it.  As we moved around the feedback stopped, but we all kept yowling or whatever.  When we all ceased. there was a new feedback, louder than before.  It was none of the microphones.  Then we realized it was the guitar, which none of us had been standing anywhere near.  So either the guitar string struck itself or the vibration of our voices caused the guitar to vibrate with us.  I’m not certain but it feels magicalish.

Katie Collins – ukulele, omnichord, drums, bass
Megan Driscoll – vocals, flute
Dane Hill – drums, bass
Rachel Jae – axillary percussion, omnichord
Arrison Kirby – guitar, beats, vocals

Click to download the tracks:

“Anemone” (Brian Jonestown Massacre)
“New Beginnings”
“Clap Hands Jam” (improv on Beck)
“Untitled as Yet (Down)”
“Really Horrible Shit is Popular”
“Single Politician”
“Family Affairs”
“Untitled as Yet (Up)”
“Hymn”

This session was primarily practice for the Pilot Light show with Katie and the Bass Drums coming up on August 25th, as some – if not all – of the players in this session will be joining me that day.  This is also the first session recorded in which Rachel Jae and Dane Hill were present.   It was interwoven with a lot of surprise sounds coming to the forefront. Ideas too.   Some of those surprise sounds and ideas are as follows:

“Anemone” – As noted above, this is a cover of the Brian Jonestown Massacre song. The first or second time we got together under musical pretense, Katie gave me a mix CD with the original version as the starting track. I immediately loved it. It’s not too complicated of a song. So Katie, Megan and I picked it up really quick and then laid it down after Dane and Rachel had left for the night. The first take wasn’t too bad. This was the second and it’s slightly better.

“Clap Hands Jam” – This is just one of those goofy little segues that sometimes rise up when live recording. Dane and the girls had a good little percussion section going. I tried to enter with Beck’s “Clap Hands” but could not remember the order of the notes right off. So I bounced around between them, hence being but a “jam.” I did actually find the correct order, but only momentarily before we decided to send itg to its grave.

“Untitled as Yet” – Two versions here. The “down” version was actually recorded immediately following the “up” version. I reordered them and spaced them out in the track listing for the sake of flow. The down version incorporates no electronic beats, only minimalist percussion from Dane and Rachel – plus a little off kilter theremin from me. Also, notice that both versions contain “lyrics” now. We needed some way to signal when we wanted to do the key drop. Looking at each other and nodding is fine, but not always so interesting or reliable. Rachel suggested we all say “Make a wish” right before the drop. We all were in agreement, but then we did not know how to signal the wish, itself. We worked that one out too.

“Single Politician” – Dane is playing a full kit on this one and it sounds grand. We went through a few different alterations to get to this version. Mostly based around the drums, as Dane had two different modes for this song, both of which worked well. With two drum modes and two sections of the song so far, we decided to try a different mode for each section, but run them together. I think this is the best version of this song yet.

“Hymn” – If you are offended by this song, then you might want to consider downgrading your church. Perhaps to a model without an ATM machine.

Katie Collins – omnichord, ukulele, words
Megan Driscoll – flute, omnichord, vocals
Rachel Jae - shakers, wood blocks, words
Dane Hill – drum kit, hand percussion, wood blocks, words
Arrison Kirby – guitar, beats, vocals

Click to download the tracks:

“Family Affairs”
“Single Politician (one take)”
“Single Politician (another take)”
“Untitled as Yet”

I’ve been working on this project, playing music with Katie Collins and Megan Driscoll.  I’m glad to announce that Rachel Jae and Dane Hill are also involved and likely someone else soon, as well.  However, our weekly assembly  from August 3rd knocked us momentarily back to just we three for the night, as Dane and Rachel were out of town, filming a movie.  We worked on only a handful of things, including the performance of a new song, completed only the night before.  Keep in mind that these recordings are rough. Levels are not perfect. You can read descriptions of the surviving takes below.

“Family Affairs” – This is one I have been playing live for a while now. I’ve never been that great at nailing the chorus, vocally, and I did a piss poor job here. Plus my mic volume was too high and I was trying something different on the guitar than what I usually did at that part in the song. Each distracting. If you can suffer that, it’s all worth it for the gritty breakdown at the end.

“Single Politician” – This is a song I started several months ago and finished the night before this session. The girls picked it up really fast and the beat was just a straight and constant punch stolen from something else. Nothing fancy. Just a fun song. I posted these two different versions (of about eight) because they each have opposite strengths and weaknesses. On the first one, the vocals are better, but the lyrics have some mistakes and the omnichord and flute are not as present as they should be. On the second one, the vocals are a tad too loud and not always so tonal, but lyrically correct. The omnichord and flute are crisper. Take your pick.

“Untitled as Yet” – Another take of our new collaborative classic. This version is a bit grittier and clunky at times.

Recorded on August 4th, 2010

Katie Collins – omnichord, ukulele
Megan Driscoll – flute, omnichord, vocals
Arrison Kirby – guitar, beats, vocals

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