So there wern’t computers in the cool down tent at Coachella. And I wasn’t going to spend time writing about my time at my friends place in Vancouver, when there were 420 demonstations to be attended, and beautiful vancouver scenery to be experienced.
However, after all the dancing and crowd participation, and seeing acts such as Cut Copy and The Chemical Brothers (who stole the festival), I got a little inspired again to go back working on Heislingburg material at home. I’ve started a new band with a couple of friends, but we jam so much and come up with so many new ideas, and we haven’t finished any of them yet! It’s fun to be playing with people again but a large part of my livelihood still rests on recording music to feel good about myself. So I started recording again(all my gear has been at our jam space for a couple months) by myself just to fill that void until we really get rolling with that band. Actually I’ll still be recording once the band gets rolling too. That, and it’s fun being dictator over your own shit, as anyone who’s done that will know. I think once im done this song, and another, I may package it up and release it physically somehow, start up the bancamp pages, twitters, myspace etc. get the artwork done and finally fire up Heislingburg! Maybe do a 1 song and B side at a time thing. This time around, I won’t be putting it on the shelf vocal-wise like the others, I’ll be laying them down right after i feel I’ve completed the instrumental portion.
So here’s what I’ve been working on lately, this is “what I’ve been up too” and I hope you dig the sound! Please feel free to constructively criticize or tell me what you think.
In exactly one week, I’ll be dancing around in whatever festivities coachella has for the camp grounds the night before the festival starts (provided we make it on time for the pre-liminary stuff, which we will). We leave wednesday morning, and it’s not coming soon enough. Expect brief but hopefully semi-frequent updates from the cool down tent.
minor threat with henry rollins dancing checking the time
Might I mention, Henry Rollins is one guy that I would let beat me up. I’d just take it, and revel in the bad assness.
Went out and bought some new books today! with my chapter gift cards from Christmas. Portnoy’s Complaint is a monologue of a sexually frustrated jewish mamas boy to a psychoanalyst, and The fry Chronicles is Stephen Fry’s autobiography. I’m not too familiar with Stephen Fry’s films but I’ve seen a few speech’s of his on the internet , and his wisdom and charisma is really something to admire, so why not learn more about him.
GREAT NEW BANDS: Hunter, Gatherer
This is one of the best bands I saw this live year, opening up for Holy Fuck and Indian Jewelery. They are called Hunter, Gatherer and they are from calgary, and they put on an incredible show. They are all very young guys (20-21 I’d guess) and their songs range from this kind of sound, to more Animal Collective sounding, in vocals, and in loop build ups. I also found myself thinking of The Beach Boys and Neutral Milk Hotel (in a dystopian future) on some songs. Their live set up was quite extensive, with even the drummer having his own little station of sample/looping hardware, and a microkorg beside him. It was a multitude of blinking lights, I couldn’t quite se what he had. One of the highlights was watching each member looping his voice or synth (through a moutain of pedals usually), and listenening to the loops eventually building up and meshing into eachother. PSYCHEDELIC STUFF! There was also some instrument switching in regards to synth/guitars and basses. To say it was surprising would be a little back handed, but you never quite expect the first band on the bill to be THIS good.
Last night, I put together a soundcloud account to upload rough drafts of songs I’m working on at home as part of my BRAND-SPANKIN-NEW-BORN-AGAIN-SOLO-PROJECT!!!! I wanted to used soundcloud just to show select friends what I’ve been working on, and it’s easy enough to upload, and not as final or popular as say myspace or bandcamp (who would put a half finished song on myspace?). I’m not doing myspace or bandcamp until i ahve 3 or 5 songs all 100% confidently finished and then I can come up with artwork etc. and send it out all over the internet and insert it in status updates on facebook. But everytime I upload a file to soundcloud I will post it on here for you all to see what I’ve been working on. This should end some of my friends complaints that my blog is boring and inactive all the time. The title of me working by myself will be Heislingburg I believe, and I get very excited about it. So please listen, share constructive criticism/thoughts if you’d like, and enjoy! Thank you!
Tape #5 Liams’ Psychedelic/Dance tape
I asked Liam if he either wanted a tape full of great psychedelic tracks, or dance tracks, so he said both! Looking back I could’ve done a little bit better on the psychedelic side, because I’ve been listening to alot more texturized music lately, but it’s all great nonetheless. And the dance side is full of some of the first electronic dance songs I ever heard/loved like shit by Busy P, Digitalism, Boys Noize etc. My taste in dance music hasn’t really progressed too much since I got into a handful of artists in 2008. The psychedelic side gets pretty droney at some points but I made it to trip too, so obviously it will be enjoyed. It’s a multi-faceted tape! You can drift away on the tails of sonic textures on side A, or flip it over and dance wildly to side B! Tracklisting is:
Sundialing- Caribou
Ode to Street Hassle- Spacemen 3
Intro- Deerhunter
Dead Plane- No Age
Any Color You Like- The Flaming Lips
Lucifer Sam- Pink Floyd
Minors- Toro Y Moi
Phantom Limb- Fuck Buttons
Side B
Drugs In My Body- Thieves Like Us
Lava Lava- Boys Noize
Rainbow Man- Busy P
Heaven (Picture Plane Remix)- HEALTH
Pogo (Digitalism’s Robotic Mix)-Digitalism
Leave House- Caribou
Glitter Pills (Toxic Avenger Remix)-HEALTH
I’m very proud of the cover art, it’s unfortunate I’ve had to resort to using photobooth to show the artwork now (but they it’s better than using photobooth to take pictures of you and your sweet whoever kissing, “heeeey look i have a boooyfriend seeee? we’re kissing it’s for real!” Seriously, I hate that shit on facebook, I mean I’d be proud to be in love too but I wouldn’t feel compelled to show an entire album worth of me and whoever making dumb faces and kissing). I have 2 cameras. one, i have the charger for, but I lost the USB cable. The other, I have the USB cable but no charger, and its fucking dead!!!!! AHHHHHHH!
HAPPY OF MONTREAL DAY!!!
It’s one of the most exciting days of any year, the album release date of one of my all time favorite bands of Montreal. The latest full-length, False Priest, moves further in the funk direction of Skeletal Lamping. I can’t find a torrent right now (and have no money for the record store until Friday), so I’ve been listening to this link on another blog, and so far I like the first 2 new tracks. I believe Skeletal Lamping was very under appreciated by the critics, so I’m hoping of Montreal get the acclaim of Hissing Fauna back once again. I prefer Kevin Barnes’ more romantic and melancholic lyrics over his Georgey Fruit-funky-sex machine lyrics, but either way, there’s always great flashes of genius on whatever song he conjures. Not to mention, I really dug the contraditions between love and lustfulness on Skeletal lamping, something that mostly everyone can relate and throw themselves into. I’ve already heard Sex Karma, and Coquet Coquette, the former I love, the latter, I’m rather neutral on. Overall, I don’t think Kevin barnes is going to dissapoint. Take a listen to the link below, which is what I have to listen to for now.
Yeah, I heard Shark Week was a week ago, I don’t give a shiiiiiit because I am a shaaaaark and I do what I pleeeease! I heard there were catfish in here and I’m gonna kill 100 of them! KABOOM I’M A SHAAAAARRRRRKK!! (picture via giarose)
