Tag Archives: Original Music

Cover art revised

I liked the look of my Anagrammatic Pseudonyms cover art, but I realized it just didn’t look that much like a real publication. The map design was cool, but you’d never get a publication that just had the map like that, with the map part itself full-bleed on the page and no micro-text at the bottom. So this revised design is an attempt to remedy that. I also changed the creases to make it look like a tri-fold. See if you can spot all of the changes from the original!

Anagrammatic Pseudonyms cover (revised)

First RPM track complete (I think)

Anagrammatic Pseudonyms coverI’m never totally sure a song is finished until I’ve had a chance to listen to it several times on different sets of speakers, but I’m liking “Tornado Scents” so far.

This is one of three songs that are fairly far along already, though it’s the first one I’m ready to tentatively call “done.” The others should be to that point within 24 hours and I’ll post them here.

“Tornado Scents” is set to be track 4 on the album. The other two I’m currently working on will be tracks 3 and 5, so when they’re all done, it will be possible to imagine a good solid chunk of the track sequence. I especially like the way the preceding track is going to lead into this.

Enjoy!
[audio:http://blog.room34.com/wp-content/uploads/underdog/room34_ap03_10.mp3]

RPM Challenge: Day 1

So far, so good. Well, maybe not so good. But… so far, anyway.

I made up my mind a few weeks ago that I was going to start at it right away at midnight on February 1, so that’s what I did. I plugged away at a brand new idea for about two hours, but at the end felt very disappointed with my progress. I blame two things:

1. My piece of $#!+ electric guitar (MIM Fender Strat). Pickups buzz (minor problem) and the damn thing won’t stay in tune long enough for me to even finish tuning!!! (Yeah yeah… new pickups, shielding, locking tuners… no I haven’t done any of those things and no it’s not going to happen this month!)

2. Steve Martin. Yes, Steve Martin. I spent the 90 minutes leading up to midnight watching one of my childhood heroes systematically dismantle every remaining scrap of respect I had for his work while hosting one of the most miserably bad episodes of SNL I have ever seen, culminating in an appalling performance of a song from his new banjo CD. Yes, his banjo playing is competent, not great, but the song was crap! It wasn’t well-written, his singing is, well, not even singing, and it told a lame story that wasn’t even remotely funny. Boo! Why, Steve, why?

So, I slept on it. I think a good night’s sleep helped. I listened back to the bare bones of the song I started last night (because I had deleted a few instrument tracks from it in frustration), and it’s actually kind of cool, so I think I’m going to use it.

I started two other new songs today that seem to be going well. One of them is almost done, the other is maybe 50%.

My electric guitar is also being more cooperative today as well, and my bass sounds great! Unfortunately my bass plucking fingers are no longer up to the task — I’ve slacked off on bass practice too much and I’ve lost my calluses. 30 minutes of bass playing and I have a big nasty blister on the tip of my index finger! :o

Oh well… although I used to be very anti-pick on the bass, I’ve since mellowed and now probably use a pick 60-70% of the time when I play bass. And on this album, it looks like that’s going to be somewhere in the ballpark of… 100%!

Time to call it a day, with the kids returning and my parents coming to watch the Super Bowl on the big TV. But I may resume again tonight after kids go to bed.

One disappointment with myself overall so far: I haven’t branched out with instruments or recording techniques. But I think that will come.

The last word on concept albums… for now

The last thing I’ll say about concept albums, and I’ll try not to go on for 47 paragraphs this time, is that I think it’s easier (and maybe more necessary) to do a concept album when your music is more abstract and/or experimental.

I think my approach would be a lot different if:

a) I could sing
b) I could adhere to a recognizable song structure
c) I could write lyrics about something other than science and man-made disasters

In other words, if I were a better songwriter, I would probably focus on crafting songs. As it is, my music is more sprawling and chaotic, and the only way I can rein it in at all for the purpose of producing an album is by coming up with an overarching concept.