Tag Archives: RPM Challenge

Endgame

Room 34 - Anagrammatic Pseudonyms (front)This is where a musical project gets rough. Especially when you’ve got some rigid plans for the final product, and you’re running out of steam.

The fundamental problem and challenge of my RPM album this year is that the number of tracks, and their sequence, was established from the outset. And given the nature of the concept, there is absolutely no room for changes. The exact style and duration of each track was certainly negotiable, but in order for the concept to work, there had to be 13 tracks, and they had to appear in a specific order (with the exception of the songs whose titles start with N, O, S and T, as there are two of each of them).

Here’s the track listing. Songs in bold are completed as of right now.

  1. Scantest Rondo
  2. Candor Stetson
  3. Orcas Don Tents
  4. Tornado Scents
  5. Tartness Condo
  6. Actor Sends Not
  7. Narcs Tote Dons
  8. Dancers on Tots
  9. Enact Rod’s Snot
  10. Radon Contests
  11. Sorta Contends
  12. Oats Tend Corns
  13. Notated Scorns*

* I think I’m done with “Notated Scorns,” but I might change my mind.

It’s down to three tracks. They have to have the titles they do, and they have to appear in the order that they do. Sure, “Sorta Contends” and “Scantest Rondo” could trade places, but the imagery the titles evoke suggests that they be in the order here.

I’ve got a fairly good idea of what I want to do with each of these tracks, but the execution has been lacking. “Scantest Rondo” needs to be a musical rondo (i.e. a “round” — think “Row Row Row Your Boat”), and a short one at that. “Radon Contests” is going to be an electronica thing. “Sorta Contends” is the one that’s giving me the most grief. It really feels like it should be acoustic guitar-driven, kind of folky almost. I even have a chord progression for it. But aside from the fact that it’s extremely derivative of a pair of songs by The Decemberists, I’m just not getting the sound I want.

Now I’m leaving for a 3-day weekend. I’m taking my 2-octave MIDI keyboard along, and my laptop. I really… really… want to finish these last three tracks while I’m gone. But that pretty much eliminates the acoustic guitar from the equation. But I have too much “real” work to do to be preoccupied with RPM much longer. It has to happen this weekend.

But am I putting too much pressure on myself, and on the project?

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)

In the studio

I just spent a couple of hours working on my newest track, the one that inspired the whole project in the first place: “Candor Stetson.” I’m not quite ready to reveal it to the world yet, but I did want to share these photos I took of my gear at the ready. (Note the pile of children’s instruments on the desk at the far left of the first photo… these will be used… soon…)

Sorry for the quality (or lack thereof) in these photos. The iPhone’s camera is adequate at best, less so when there’s a film of whatever’s in my pocket on the lens.

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.