what is going on in your musical life

way to go LL!!

what is going on in your musical lives? how was your year?

I just picked up music for our annual lessons and carols service. I have no idea when I'm going to have a chance to look at it before our first rehearsal on Sunday.

have recorded quite a few tracks with one of my friends for our rap duo Skiv3n & Pi5 (he's the dj, I'm the mc) - very happy with the results, hope to do some live gigs and release an ep in 2016.

still trying to figure out how to make our presence known, not very good with social media yet, and not sure how important it is - was recently dissapointed my hotline bling cover did not instantly go viral (now realize this to have been a somewhat naive/megalomaniac expectation) but it got us a few new followers, and my friends were really into it so that's nice

the last six months have been a bit quiet. i moved, my computer died, i thought i'd lost everything but i got it back.

recording recording recording. also dealing with a string session that turned into a disappointing fiasco. The cello player was nearly a quarter tone flat on every take, and when I pointed this out to the engineer his response was "we can fix it in the mix". guess what it was not fixable in the mix. Another session booked in January will probably be the last one for this "album", assuming people are still into buying albums when we're done...

Ugh, that sounds awful.

Got a new classical guitar last week, a Larrivée spruce top from 1976. I love it. Also, recently cranked out a trio piece for flute/tuba/piano (seriously) that will be played in Ottawa in April. I'm not really sure how it will come out but am curious. Working on some new effects in Max for Live.

Btw, this one is a 660 mm scale, which they apparently don't make as much anymore. For my longer fingers, it feels like a godsend. I've never felt so comfortable with a classical instrument before.

it took a few hours, but I finally figured out (with help from my bandmate) how to use my electronic drum set as a midi input in ableton. it was really amazing how little (basically none) documentation there was online.

Sang a really great Xmas eve service where my wife sang I Wonder As I Wander as a solo. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to record it. Still need to edit the Messiah excerpt recital we did.

Got three paid caroling gigs in this year. Every year keep trying to improve little things re: harmonizing, regulating vibrato to improve blend.

Feel like this year was a success in that regard!

being screened (approved by the hippie musician collective that run it) for a slot at a sweet jamspace very close to my house

I busted out my 'new weird America' falsetto at family singalong yesterday, it was a hit

(Sadly I can't project it for much and my regular tenor is v boring)

I picked up the guitar for the first time in months and played a few grateful dead songs. Felt good!

Still trundling through my songs from ~6 years ago, remixing, remastering.

I recorded an album with a huge hero of mine three years ago, which is always an edgy thing to do; validating on the one hand, and on the other, your internal editors kick into high gear in a way that can be kind of unhealthy. at one point he said 'if an album takes more than six days to finish, it's usually not a very good album' and I responded 'unless it takes more than a year, I think', and he just gave me this shaken look and then said 'I wouldn't know about that'. but then he smiled and said 'I know for you editing is the same thing as playing, so go ahead'

I waited six months before even doing anything and the word came he had cancer, so the next nine months was this bizarre race torn between the most pressure I've ever been under to try a record that ranks with some of my all time favorite records -- which is completely impossible -- and to finish something he could enjoy. His last email was simply 'it's been finished' and I am completely haunted this morning about how poisonous perfectionism can be and how in this case it conflicted with basically being a good collaborator and friend

Assuming this is the album I think it is, consider it downloaded by me when my next emusic refresh comes along. Not to diminish what you just wrote but it sounds amazing from the description I just read

this one's not out yet, that's the sadness. just needed to vent obscurely online somewhere, listening to blackstar it hit me what a huge difference it makes when an album is not posthumous, even if only by two days.

I was just reminded that I'm supposed to sing tomorrow night. Oops

Xpost haha sorry! Well I'm still going to get the album I wrongly thought was the one in question.

did an interpretation of 'Revolution 9' for this White Album tribute show (despite never listening to the Beatles really). obviously it was the odd one out, of the night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN3g4QIFevQ&list=PLiTjrHx70WItIldi4-VxcIbGIxAKr_Yqo&index=27

also trying to write a string part for one of my tracks, for one violinist to overdub all the voices. i've got the lead line and a passable little lower harmony, but because i am a dumb drummer, i have no idea what to do for other voices to thicken it up.

Had a great concert of musical settings of Shakespeare on Sunday, including a completely bonkers piece for men's chorus and soprano soloist called "Your sister's drown'd" by Ingof Gabold about the death of Ophelia and Ralph Vaughn Williams' stunning Three Shakespeare Songs. I had a solo verse in a Swingle Singers arrangement of "'Twas a Lover and His Lass". Can't wait for the recording.

xpost do you want the 'string ensemble' to give a homogenous impression or more contrapuntal/multitextured?

djp that sounds like a really good program!

Yeah, the rest of the program included Morley, Wood, Martin, a premiere of a commissioned piece by a local composer and friend of our group named Graham Ramsey, and some crazy pieces by another Danish composer whose name I'm blanking on. I think I tossed my program otherwise I'd just write it up from that. :-(

you know what shakespeare setting I really love, and it's part of an opera but it has also been extracted in standalone voice-piano form, is Britten's "I know a bank..." from A Midsummer Night's Dream for countertenor

well Britten in general rules (IMO the best all-around composer of the 20th Century)

xpost do you want the 'string ensemble' to give a homogenous impression or more contrapuntal/multitextured?

i think more homogeneous, because there is already a lot going on with the main vamp & beat.

Oh, I have also set up my first voice lesson with a new teacher; in keeping with my general "study with someone who doesn't sing my voice part" vibe, this dude is a countertenor

Here's an example of his work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXtnKajtrts

I am really fucking excited and hope I come out the other side of this with a reliable high baritone range and maybe some of my low notes back

That reminds me of reading somewhere that roles like Pelleas call for a special type of French voice known as a 'baryton martin' that falls in the zone between bari and tenor

been working on this for a while. it's an instrumental electronic grindcore project loosely themed around seafood. 5 songs in under 3 minutes!

http://deadcrustacean.bandcamp.com/album/dead-crustacean

recorded those violins today and we ended up just doing 11 unison tracks, incl. three an octave down and three an octave up. sounds great!

i bet that sounds cool. Did the mismatch in vibratos create a chorusy effect?

a bit, but not as much as you'd think, since it was one violinist playing all the parts. definitely enough variation for color & thickness. it was pretty fun to hear it come together.

Were you adding strings to a beat-oriented electronic track or to a jazz tune?

(Or something else?)

The former, it's a pretty intense electronic track.

dead crustacean is A+, would play again

the band i quit last fall is playing Int'l. Noise Conference in Miami this weekend, and imagining being "on tour" with the bandleader is really making me confident I made the right decision.

Sounds cool, Jordan.

I got a lot of classical guitar practice in over the Christmas break and I think I've finally got down a classical guitar piece I wrote a year and a half ago or so (that I, um, performed last year). I hope to record it, probably over the summer. I want to record a noisy prepared guitar thing soon-ish too. I've been writing something for Pierrot ensemble + percussion on and off but am not feeling that excited about it atm.

I am certainly excited to hear about Pierrot ensemble + percussion! Was just thinking about the idea of that combo a few days ago. It's a good idea!

Oh, thanks. I wrote one short movement in 2012 and thought that I'd give a try to continuing it when I have time on my hands + am away from my gear. There's no real performance in my mind but I figure that there are always opportunities for this instrumentation.

*recently thought

anyone know any drummers in the Bay Area who would be interested in playing drums for a psych/country rock sorta band

my new voice teacher is super rad and is making me realize exactly how little I know about singing

sund4r what's your classical guitar piece like?

since moving and leaving my old band behind i'd been itching to start playing with other people again. managed to get a couple of near-strangers into a practice room at the weekend and forgot what a challenge it can be to start all over again, get to know each other's style, what people are into, trying to avoid bad stoner rock impressions blah blah.

thanks sund4r. you should write something for your processed guitar setup + percussion. :)

Ha, actually, I sometimes think about adding some kind of rhythm/percussion layer.

sund4r what's your classical guitar piece like?

It's a fugue in the octatonic mode in 5/4. I wrote a similar fugue for piano some years back that has been performed/recorded a couple of times but I think I'm a little more excited about this one.

I'm eagerly anticipating news of a recording