More drums

Drum Machine

Misc.

Several things to mention briefly:
1. I recently saw the band Dr. Dog perform at the Double Door here in Chicago and I was VERY impressed. Really great live show - Lots of energy, great songs, vocal harmonies and dual guitar solos... They are coming back to play the Taste of Randolph festival and I will have to attend.

2. I meant to post PRIOR to April 18th to remind you all to purchase some music at your local record store to celebrate Record Store Day. I managed to drop by Laurie's Planet of Sound for a little while. They were sold out of the few items I was looking for, so I settled on a couple used metal albums (Yngwie Malmsteen, anyone?). I'll be back soon though.

3. It was also Earth Day yesterday, but I nearly forgot and didn't really do anything memorable to celebrate the Earth. In fact, I'm feeling pretty guilty that I still haven't fixed my running toilet. Doh!

4. This weekend is reunion weekend for the particular university I attended. It turns out a lot of old friends will be around. Should be pretty fun, as long as Pat doesn't come. Aw crap, I just found out Pat's coming! Ha, just kidding, Pat. As long as I don't have to pick you up from the airport or anything.... Aw, crap. Well you better get your own hotel room cuz you're not stay in my.... DAMNIT!

Haha. I kid, I kid.

5. Next Thursday I'm going to see Mastodon again. I hear they are playing their new album in it's entirety. Maybe that will make me like it more. It's good, but is taking a while to sink in.

TTFN! TTYL!

What happened to March?

Somehow I let all of March slide by without posting. Sorry. The RPM Challenge ended up pretty well. Andy and I finished the CD and mixed it on the last day allowed, and mailed it off the next morning. In retrospect, we should have planned ahead and given ourselves a few days to listen to the mix and make adjustments. The mix we sent in is too bass-heavy and drum-light. I'm in the process of re-mixing each track just for our own listening enjoyment, but I'm fairly unmotivated now that the deadline has passed.

Now it's April and I've got a whole list of other things on my mind, including Baseball, Fantasy Baseball, Softball, and, uh, work, I guess. Mostly I'm just getting antsy for Spring. C'mon, nature, BRING IT.

Deadline looming

The March 1 deadline for the RPM Challenge album project is racing at me like a speeding train. I've got one more guitar part to record tonight or tomorrow, and then I need to spend some time mixing and sequencing for the final CD. I haven't had much time to sit and think about "extras" that could be built in to give some songs more depth. I think the CD is pretty much going to the be uncluttered and straight up Guitar/Bass/Drums (or in some cases, Bass/Bass/Drums). No time for keyboards, horns, vocals, tambourine, etc... Bummer, but it all still sounds pretty good. We'll probably make it available to anyone who wants a copy.

Oh and I think we're spelling our name "Wyld Pytch" as an ode to Bill & Ted.

Wild Pitch album taking shape

So Andy and I have been working on recording this album (see previous post) and it's coming along really well. We've essentially finished one song, and have 4 more songs that are getting pretty close to complete. The more songs we record, the better we're getting at the process of recording.

I have a lot of work to do before it's done, but I'm pretty confident this album will be enjoyable and something I'm proud of.

RPM Challenge

Last year, a friend of mine ("For Privacy's sake, lets call him Pat S...Wait thats too obvious. How about P. Stura") suggested our "band" try to participate in the RPM Challenge, a non-competitive invitation to record an entire album in one month's time. Specifically, the month of February.

The rules are pretty simple - record ten songs or 35 minutes of music, burn it to CD and mail it to the RPM HQ with a postmark no later than March 1. It does not have to be professional quality, or even remotely good. There is no prize for being first, being best, or being cool. The whole project deadline is really just an excuse to get people off their butts and be creative and productive, with whatever means they have available.

At that time, we gave it a little thought but realized, due to scheduling conflicts and lack of material, it would not be feasible. But this year I've decided I want to give it a shot.

My friend Andy and I have about 20 hastily written and recorded bare-bones songs from the past 8 years or so. As a side project to our primary band, Kemman, we call ourselves "Wild Pitch," and we've decided to record full-band versions of at least 10 Wild Pitch songs over the month of February for the RPM Challenge. It will be a DIY affair, as we don't have money for professional studio time. We're not expecting it to be perfect, but we can surely improve upon what we have, and hopefully enjoy the process.

If it goes well, I may try to do an entire album by myself next year. Finally there's something in February to look forward to.