download it.

it's done

the album is mixed and mastered and all done. i will post a link to it here in a couple of days when the artwork is done.

tracking is over

Everything is tracked for the record. All that remains is some mixing. Hurrah!

On Friday night and this morning, my friend Brett helped me out by supplying vocals for Float and what used to be called The Drive, but is now called The Winter Mourning Song. I added another acoustic guitar to the latter to finish it off. I also wrote and recorded a short interlude song called You Know, I am Just Not Myself Today last night. It has four acoustic guitars and a heavily edited-together track of chairs moving, coughing, chatter, and other noises.

Today is a relieving day.

only loose ends to tie

Saturday evening saw the addition of horns to Drill Sergeant Evans by the lovely Satish. So that song is done. After that, I took Sunday off and spent the day goofing off with Sabbath and Hendrix riffs and writing some off-kilter rock stuff that I plan to flesh out in March. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Yesterday I re-wrote lyrics to Excerpts From the Hospital Diary and re-named it The Drive. I also constructed a noisy guitar piece called Into the Bloodshot Sun that is meant to directly follow The Drive. After that, I got the basis for a tune called Afternoon Coffee and then laid down some guitar tracks for my friend Ian's record. A very productive day.

Today began with mixing and then quickly starting and finishing a new song called H is For Hospital. This means that I've got all my basic tracks down for all the songs (thew total is 11 songs/36:55). So all that's left is to track some vocals this week, finish up my mixing, and then send it away to be mastered. Booya.

a good start to the weekend

Started this morning off by re-tooling the acoustic guitar mix on Torrealba! It sounds a little better now. The song still needs something to fill it out over the main riff. I think.


Anyway, after tinkering with my cheap ukulele for a while and not coming up with anything useful or in tune, I turned back to my good friend Fred Orcana (the organ). I came up with a really simple riff, set up a slow slow click, and recorded two layers of organ. Then I added some effected organ underneath and three electric guitars (two of which come in as the organs die out). Pretty neat little mood piece, and so quick to put together. I think I'll try vocals and trumpet on it.

The new song is called Drill Sargent Evans and brings my total to 8 tracks at 30:14.

Two songs/04:36 to go.

much progress through backtracking

Yesterday I finished up Float but for vocals and maybe one more acoustic track. I also added another guitar to Dealer Bear, and may be done with that one. This morning, I went back and had a good listen to Torrealba!, and subsequently scrapped the main guitar track. I recorded a slightly different, and in my opinion much better, main guitar part, added a complement to the beginning of it, and then added an acoustic part more for rhythm than anything else. It sounds much better and is nearly done. It still needs vocals and it may get a trumpet or mandolin yet.

After I finished tracking the electric guitars for the day, I got a noise complaint. Oops. I think it's back to the sleepy songs now.



Feb 8, 2008: 24 mins 35 sec recorded over 7 songs either finished or nearly finished.

the new boris is neat.

Took some time to relax last night with some music and hockey. Listened to the new Boris, some Torche, Black Cobra, and King Crimson. I find this to be a much more suitable soundtrack than the commentary of the TSN bunch.

Anyway, today has been moving well. Frequent short breaks, but progress on Float and Dealer Bear. The bulk of the guitars for Float are finished, but it needs one or two more overdubs through the head and maybe one on the bridges. I also put an organ on the long bridge that will provide a little platform for the vocals to sit on.

I'm still a little stuck on Dealer Bear and Torrealba!, and I think the problem is percussion. I'm going to appeal to some friends for drum loops to see if that helps.

Also, Saturday is tentatively scheduled for vocals. This should finish up Hospital Diary, the intro to Torrealba!, and the end of Float. Hopefully it will produce some fruit on some other songs, too. Fingers crossed and all that.

hit the wall, rested, jumped over the wall

Started today by tracking an acoustic scratch track for something called Float. It's basically just a bunch of riffs that I've come up with in the past few days sewn together, but I think it'll end up sounding pretty cool when I put some work into it.

The initial recording was a real pain in the ass. Partially because the song has a few time signature changes and I, being incredibly lazy, did not make a tempo map for the track, opting instead to record to a click in 1/8 at 300 bpm. The other parts are just my natural sloppiness on the guitar, and that it's hard to keep track of a 1/8 300 bpm click for five minutes. For me.

After finally getting the track compiled from several takes and punches, I laid down two organ tracks on the one minute intro, and then nothing. Staring at the computer screen and idly wondering, "I wonder what would work here," and, "I bet this would be neat...". Opening the internet browser every few minutes to surf the usual haunts. The dreaded wall.

As it turns out, a little bit of Thai leftovers, a shower, and sitting in a sun room listening to Lord God Bird and High on Fire does the body and mind good.

After my brief rejuvenation session, I now have the intro finished and some electric guitar tracks for the next two sections. Progress floweth over.

Also, the intro sounds a bit like King Crimson, which I enjoy.

a small breakthrough

Just finished recording an improvised piece for hammered dulcimer. I think I'm going to call it Back in the Throbbing Heart of the City.

Now the inspirational juices are a-movin'. Time to lay some guitars down.

waiting for the water to boil...

Yesterday was productive!

Got all of the acoustic guitars and the organ bit down for Excerpts From the Hospital Diary, and got the main guitar for A Moment Under The Shadow of Dealer Bear.

I got up nice and early today with the intention of working on Dealer Bear, but no ideas have come. It's been a frustrating three and a half hours.

I think the problem is an extreme lack of caffeine, so I am making coffee and grabbing my acoustic guitar and heading for greener pastures. It may be time to track a weird swing-ish piece or make some ambient noise. Then back to the clusterfuck that is Dealer Bear.


My french press beckons...

having fun with plug-ins

I began today by scrapping all the guitars i previously had for Excerpts From the Hospital Diary (which was only three tracks).

Five and half hours of sweaty and caffeinated writing, recording, and mixing later, I have all of the guitars and one organ done. I added a middle 8 that I hadn't planned on and had some fun with the cubase plug-ins. Lots of delay, ring modulator, and bit crushing going on. Now all I need are vocals and a little more instrumental depth. It may be time to call up some horn playing friends and/or pull out the hammered dulcimer.

And now, a shower.

lazy pre-tracking update

Well, yesterday was a day of zero productivity, but at least the Pats lost.

Wasn't able to get any vocals down on Saturday night, so those will wait until later this week. I did do some tracking for Hospital Diary, but the main guitar isn't quite right, so this morning I'm going to start by re-tracking that part with a steel string acoustic rather than a nylon string. Then we'll go from there (finish up all the instruments).

I'm feeling adequately productive and I have a huge coffee in front of me, so I should be able to get guitars for one or two more ideas down as well.

time for a dinner break

It's been a slow day so far. A lot of writer's block and goofing around with Black Sabbath riffs. Although, Dave came over and recorded some more ghetto percussion for And Now The Runners Can Go On a Wet Track In Denver. We also added an organ line. I think this song is pretty much done, but I'm going to try a few layers of vocals and maybe one more organ on it.

We also started the electric guitars for Torrealba! Torrealba! Got the main guitars down for the intro and the body, and put a guitar loop on the intro. Intro needs vocals and whatever else we put on it. Main part needs...everything. I'm having a hell of a time coming up with stuff other than the guitar riff. At least we got some guitars done.

In an attempt to break the block, I'm leaving the rest of Torrealba! until later on. In the meantime, I've tracked the main guitar for the aforementioned sleepy piece, which is going to be called Excerpts From the Hospital Diary. After dinner I plan to spend the rest of the evening working on this song. Hopefully Dave will return with Singer Brett and we can put the vocals down on it (and Torrealba!)

Time for some food.

a new morning, changing weather

Well, technically it's the afternoon, but I've been at work since the morning.

Yesterday was a fairly productive kick-off day. Finished a track, almost finished another, wrote some lyrics and riffs for the rest of the record.

I'm hoping today will be even more productive as I have now obtained more borrowed goods. An actual mic stand will help immensely with guitar tracking today, and some killer headphones make mixing and monitoring a treat.

So far today I've written the main guitar for all of A Moment Under The Shadow of Dealer Bear, and stitched together the riffs for Torrealba! Torrealba! Today's schedule is to start and finish tracking for Torrealba, and hopefully start tracking either Dealer Bear or a quiet song in D that doesn't have a title yet (I was leaning towards Sunday Morning, but it isn't as good as the VU song, and I'd rather not invite the comparison).

Off to work!

oh so fickle

Well, I've already renamed the first song. What was once Dealer Bear will now be called The Staredown. I needed to change the title to fit the concept of the opening suite, which is about Yorvit Torrealba's 6th inning home run in game 3 of the 2007 NLCS. I know, I'm lame.

It's 15:00 now and I've got all the guitars for part two of the suite finished (I think). Tonight and tomorrow I'll work out some more percussion, some organ, and maybe vocals. As for now, time to put pen to paper and write a bunch of verses for the sleepy song in D. Hopefully my friend Brett will come over tomorrow and he can make them into good lyrics, and then sing them.

lunch break! (a moment to explain what the record will be like, and my first update)

I figure I should give some sort of idea of what I want to do with this record.

First off, I am going under the name Leatherback, because, like this kid, I like turtles. I don't know what the record will be called yet.

At first, I wanted to make a metal record, but my lack of a band and ability to play bass and drums put a bit of a damper on that idea. So, I'm going to spend my time layering guitars, organs, ukelele, melodion, horns, and found sounds until I come up with something that sounds kind of like The Books or Yo La Tengo. Yes, I want to make an album that a record store clerk would enjoy (but only until it started getting noticed by his or her friends).

This morning I woke up far too early (for me) and got to work. After three hours of writing, tracking and rudimentary mixing, I have the first part of a three-song suite down. It's a very simple, short ambient piece called A Moment Under the Shadow of Dealer Bear, comprised of two electric guitar loops and an organ drone. I also have the skeleton of the next two parts (called And Now The Runners Can Go On a Wet Track in Denver and Torrealba! Torrealba! respectively). As it stands, I think this suite will be the record opener.

Well, I'm done my banana and carrot. Back to work.

collected thoughts on the eve of a big deal (to me)

In a few minutes, I'm going to bed. When I wake up, I have to start making a record.

I have signed-up for this year's RPM Challenge, which means I have to write and record an album's worth of original material between February 1 and 29. It means that I'll spend hours and hours tucked away inside my kitchen closet and small office "studio" trying to learn how to make a record on my computer. It means that I'll actually have to write (and finish writing) enough music for an album. Neat.


I've decided to do this because, frankly, I have a lot of time on my hands and watching sports talk shows and jeopardy only gets you so far. I've been playing music for a long time now. Nine years, which is over a third of my life. In all that time, I've never actually completed a record, nor have I really been a significant part of any musical endeavor. Too much jamming at home, not enough creating and writing. Time to kick the laziness habit and do something. And other confident boasts.

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. I have a couple of ideas upstairs, but really, I have no idea what this is going to end up sounding like. I guess that's the fun part.


To use the words of a friend, I'm freakcited.