Well it’s been two months since my last update! Oops! It’s not because there hasn’t been any action, either. I’ve just been forgetting to update. So yeah, I’ve been recording (mostly a new new new song called “A Different Story” and more “Bad Vibrations”) and I played three shows in December, including one last night at the Banana Stand. The Banana Stand show will be mixed by myself soon enough. Tiger House is recording right now so I’ll have to split my recording resources with that project for the next month or so. Mayhaw Hoons and I have been hatching a plan to record a CD of four track recorded songs along with Jeff Lehman’s William Oaktree project. It would be a split CD or something. All new stuff. It’s not set in stone or anything, but I’ve been wanting to do a four track EP anyway so there’ll be something along those lines happening soon regardless.
I suppose that’s it for now. Public Domain Rainbow is coming along and I still have no idea when it will come out. Do you have an idea? If so, tell me about it!
Rarely,
Alex
I just updated the reviews page with a couple of reviews for “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” one from the Portland Mercury and another from Rich at Eartaste. Consider this the overture for the shot heard ’round the world called Public Domain Rainbow, coming out in 2009.
I wrote back in August that I was going to spend all of my caloric intake on writing and recording ONE SONG. Well, I did just that (yet somehow a bunch of those calories still managed to find their way to my midriff). It’s called “Bad Vibrations” (haha!) and it will definitely end up on Public Domain Rainbow. It will blow y’all away. I am always hesitant to make such claims, but I really think it’s a good song. I have spent way more time on this song than pretty much any other song I’ve recorded, and I’ve made sure that every second of it is engaging and radical. It’s not 100% finished yet, but even in its 90% finished state, it pleases me, and I hope you too eventually. Again, I don’t want to set expectations too high, but I just want to say YES, it’s as good as I was hoping for. It should end up being a highlight on PDR.
Parfly,
Alex
New Project: THE SONG. Time to get out the sand box, because I’m going to spend the next while working on only one song. But it’s going to be the best song of…well, 2008 hopefully, but I’ll accept 2002 or even 1997. I’m thinking “Good Vibrations” meets “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” for dinner where “Jesus Of Suburbia” is the sommelier and “Sowing the Seeds of Love” is the overly-jolly restaurant owner. If you can make any sense out of that, you’re probably thinking, “Oh it’s going to be one of THOSE songs.” But no, it’s not going to be “epic,” prog or pretentious at all. It probably won’t even be any longer than 5 minutes tops. The project is more of a method thing than anything, but it should have a cut-up kind of sound like the aforementioned “Good Vibrations” and “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.” I kind of already did that with “McCain Campaign,” but this time it’ll be more developed, as well as being an ACTUAL SONG. I just thought it would be interesting to see what happens when I make one song in the amount of time I’d normally spend writing and recording an album. The end result will be on Public Domain Rainbow, which is otherwise finished now. I started writing THE SONG on August 8 and I’ve come up with a handful of killer melodies so far, so get ready and fearful for THE SONG.
Last Thursday Mayhaw Hoons and I went to the KINK studio and recorded two songs for broadcast at a later date (Sept. 2 and 3 I believe). It’s to promote their new Plug In Portland sampler that I’m on. We recorded “Coldplay Got Eaten By Piranhas” and “Not Salman Rushdie.” Mayhaw’s bassing was exquisite. We were in and out of there so fast that it makes My Aim Is True look like Chinese Democracy. It was a total musical invasion of South Ossetia.
Prolongedly,
Alex
Next Wednesday July 30, I’m going to play on the KPSU program “That Sound.” It’s on @ 9 pm and you can stream it for free from kpsu.org. Host Dave Cusick also releases his shows in podcast form every week, which you can get from thatsoundradio.com. Mayhaw Hoons will also be in tow, providing the necessary “second instrument” in whatever form it might take from song to song. See also: “second vocal cord.”
I haven’t mentioned anything about my new album for a while have I? Well it seems like a while anyway. I’m done recording it, and mostly done mixing it, too. So basically, it’s just about finished. But finishing an album is kind of like that math/physics anomaly where you can never actually touch anything, you can only just get infinitely closer and closer. It seems like every time I’m done, some other thing pops up that needs to be fixed, or remixed, or whatever. I’ll consider it done when I can listen to it and not need to fix anything. Seems like a no-brainer, but it’s harder than it sounds. Even when it’s done, it’ll still probably lay around for a while before I have the money to get it mastered and pressed/printed. Unless you know — or are — a wealthy label that wants to spend YOUR money on such a thing.
*crickets*
Defreshingly,
Alex
I found out today that Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, made a presentation before the Library of Congress last Monday about the cultural value of YouTube and included a good chunk of “Bomb Iran”! He told me he’s going to post the presentation on YouTube soon. He’s also the author of a well-known YouTube video that I’d seen and liked about “Web 2.0.” So that’s amazing. It amazes me how much mileage I’m getting out of that cheap-ass “Bomb Iran” video.
Some other guy named Milo made a video for “No Wonder.” It’s basically just clips from the movie High School USA, but that is kind of the genius of it.
As for new album news, I’m just about finished. I’m in the fixin’ and mixin’ stage now. I don’t know when it’ll come out because I kind of just want to wait for the right time to release it. I’ll need moneys and stuff for that. Too bad we don’t live in a socialist society where the government gives everyone equal amounts of money to release their albums. I think there’s a campaign angle for you there, Obama.
I am playing at the Mt. Tabor Legacy on July 20 with The Study and maybe another fellow band of minstrels. Mark your calendars and stonehenges!
Lastly,
Alex
I decided to compile a free “digital album” of all the Missing Briefcase demos. Click here to download it as a ZIP file. I arranged the running order chronologically in the order that they were recorded, so you can get a different perspective on the album. In fact, some of the songs sound very different from the album versions. Some are super rough, some are more produced. If you know the MB songs at all, it should be a fun listen!
I’ve started recording the next album. I’ve done a lot of work on it the past several days. I find it is like unloading a grocery bag full of various Mesopotamian artifacts. You know what I mean. It’s going to be an excellent album — very tightly focused and arranged. There should be some cool experiments on it too. Good ones though. Not crappy indulgent ones.
Rigidly,
Alex
