The 30 Day Marching Band: Public Spectacle Review

Well, it is all finally over. Last night, between 10:30 and 11:15, Biggles Koskov, Mr Rascal and I regaled a small crowd of about 15 with a select number of our recently crafted songs. The size of the crowd was noticeably smaller due to the André Rieu concert in the city. The 75-100 year old demographic was noticeable scarce at Ric’s for a typical Wednesday night.

Assisting us on drums was the flamboyant front man of Deux Garsons, Mikey. I can’t believe how quickly he managed to learn these songs, much quicker than I did.

Overall, the night felt like a success, with minimal problems. I managed to forget approximately 10-15% of my lyrics, but by channelling the spirit of great ad-libbers, Tim Graham and Alex Dunlop, I fumbled my way through. Also, my bass efforts on Mr. Rascal’s songs were abysmal. Surprisingly, the only thing I was truly happy with was my vocal, who’d have thought.

Highlights;
1. A poorly executed joke that worked hilariously in the practice studio, but backfired horribly on stage (Moist….algorithm)
2. Biggles comical tuning banter whilst Mr. Rascal tuned a bass.
3. A song inspired by Arthur ‘Two Sheds’ Jackson
4. Clapping.
5. An inoffensive attempt by a punter to make us stop talking on stage and start playing again. From memory he said something like, ‘yeah it’s it great, we like what your doing now, keep doing it’, whilst making a rolling action with his hands.
6. People asking for CD’s, in particular a compiled CD with everyone’s stuff on it. When I say people, I really mean person.
7. More clapping.
8. Almost crashing my van into a bus getting to the gig.

Overall, now that the stress of the impending gig is over, I can declare that the process has been great. Until I attempted this, I had never written and performed a song publicly. In fact, I had barely written an entire song at all, preferring to write small parts for a band setting. Also, learning some of the basics about recording was quite fun and I think that with some better gear, more time and a little more ability with certain instruments, I could probably make quite a good solo album. As I said to Biggles last night; the execution and equipment were poor, but the ideas were good.

Yes We Can…

Fin.

Wrap-up

My wrap-up speech is up at http://blogs.myspace.com/sonofsea

I fear it's so long that it would hog this blog.

Good luck tomorrow night gentlemen!

Out.

Behold…the Dirty Lungs

Done, with a day to spare. The mixing and mastering is rubbish but I didn’t have the luxury of bouncing it down and playing it on a million different speakers. I intend to upload some of them onto myspace when I get time.

Overall, this is a very anti-climactic ending. Like the various things I have written, when it’s done you can’t stop thinking about all the things you could have done better with a little more time. Anyway, I hope I can pick it up in a few years and think that it isn’t too bad. I am too close to it now to be objective.

Fin.

I give you ... WORMS!

I'm all wrapped up here, well nearly - just doing a final master of the audio before i upload it.

It's called WORMS, for several reasons, but mainly because of the rather cool bunch of leaves i found silhouetted against the recent stormy skies.

Anyway, i'll just get this completely finished then i'll write some more rubbish.

M.

Day 24 Roundup

The sky is purple for some reason. It's a funny old sunset anyway.

So here's the Son of Sea roundup at Day 24, 6:30pm. These songs (not in order yet) are either finished (pending a final mix), or just missing a guitar solo or something small:

1. Cow's Breath
2. Weird Earthling
3. When It All Comes To Nothing
4. A Thousand Years a Day
5. In The Midst Of An Opinion
6. Squeezed Beyond
7. Life Is Too Short
8. Always Vacating

All coming out to about 23:51. More work to do yet!

Recording breakthrough #2

As I posted an early recording breakthrough, and over enthusiastically called it #1, I though I should post at least one more.

Poorly sung, deep vocals + fuck-loads of reverb = passable vocals

Moist Algorithm

Well, I am almost home. I have 6 more or less completed songs that take me up to 30ish minutes with one more half completed, comfortably getting me over the line. The last two songs have been unnecessarily hard to write for some reason, and when I say the last two, I actually mean four or five as many ideas/half written songs were aborted on the way. I think that I simply ran out of ideas and so had to write songs from a new angle. For example, two of the last three songs I have written were based on a bass line, and built up from there. I have never done that before, but it’s fun. Also, I have been using the in-built drum machine in my recording station quite a bit. It is also a lot of fun, but some more varied beats and drum sounds would be nice.

I am particularly fond of the last song I am piecing together. At present it is bass, drums and some unsung lyrics, but, it is about a seafaring lifestyle which I like. I normally hate my lyrics, but, I love the following verse;

My scurvy’d liver.
My aching teeth.
My kingdom for,
a pound of beef…

Well, hopefully my next blog will be the wrap-up. Although, I may not get to work on it much this week, so it may have to wait until the final weekend. Also, I still have to work out how to master properly on my recording unit.

Fin…