what is going on in your musical life

so the exhibition I mentioned upthread was on Friday and I managed to put together just over half an hour of music for it. I wasn't completely thrilled with what I finished - another few days to work on it both in terms of song and sound design would have really helped - but everyone seemed to appreciate it and I got speaking to a guy who asked if I would be interested in doing something for his science fiction event, which is exciting (despite my lack of knowledge about science fiction). It was a real buzz, to be honest - there were people there who I didn't know who seemed to be actively enjoying it and the friends I brought along for support said they overheard some nice things said. I was happy with how it sounded on the night, in the room, and it's 30 mins of music I can develop I didn't have three weeks ago, so I'm considering it a victory.

It's also motivated me to get a bit more serious about this. I've been to so many local things where people play music that I think is on a par or worse than stuff I'm doing, and if I thought I could make my laptop loops come alive on stage then I would definitely start looking into trying to play gigs.

joy, that is outstanding! I would love to do something similar with my music, as "soundtrack" is basically where I see my music heading. Of course, I'd really have to buckle down and practice a lot more before I would be ready to play out.

Couple more "new" songs from this weekend here and here. Really pleased with my recordings lately.

That's great bj. Having a forced deadline to generate material sounds very appealing rn.

very cool boxedjoy

thanks DJI xpost

We recorded the set from Friday -- here it is! Someone said it sounded like a lavender-scented bog, feel free to decide for yourself. Drums/percussion, harmonium, electric guitar <3 https://bit.ly/2EnyvOv

that's me on guitar

recorded by tarfumes!

whoa...

thta shit drones so hard. i love it!

damn, that sounds really, really good. I especially like when you can't quite make out what the percussion is doing and it all blends together. Looking forward to giving it a listen in better conditions/headphones later.

yeah, great job you all! love the NAP trio name, too :)

yes

thank you! i am hoping we can scoop up another gig or two. as a frequent show-goer, i think this would be comforting to hear on a cold wintery night.

Enjoyed the drone jam.

LL were you micing the drums through some kind of processor/pedal setup? Sounds very cool.

the drum set was un-miked (miced?) but the kalimba/tongue drum was being run through amp+ delay iirc? i was playing that somewhere in the middle for a few minutes (you can tell it's me because the drum set stops). otherwise it was manned by the harmonium player.
thank you!

the band i've been playing with recorded at electric audio with steve albini last week. in 20+ years of playing music i've never recorded in a pro studio before so i was pretty nervous but it turned out good. we recorded live to tape, so no mixing after the song was on tape, which actually ruled because obviously he knows how to get good sounds in his studio with his gear (the drums in particular sound amazing) and it means no mixing. unfortunately for me this band has a whole album they did before i joined that they haven't released yet, so they're going to try and get that out first before we put out the stuff i'm on, but i still think it might come out sometime this year?

― na (NA), Tuesday, May 8, 2018 9:19 AM (five months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so six months later and the album i am not on is still not released (and neither is the one i am on). my bandmate has been trying to set up an album release show for months now so it can be officially released. he's now aiming for december or january. so i guess the albini-recorded album that i AM on will come out sometime in like ... 2022? never? it is mastered now at least. meanwhile my bandmates want to get together to write new songs and i'm like why? we have two whole albums that aren't even out yet, why are we writing new songs? tied up in this is that i kind of want to quit the band but feel bad doing it before the album i'm on comes out

That's a shame. Hope you can get everything sorted.

I made a little jam on my Circuit last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1KLVo2HITE

n/a that is frustrating -- idk what the solution is but the problem is clear

well i offered to help with booking the album release show and shortly after venting the above got back an offer for some decent dates at a couple of decent clubs, so maybe we can at least get the album without me on it out in january

good job!
apparently that is the part of the equation that they had been stalling on
get that record out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58xH2NqLejs

We recorded the set from Friday -- here it is! Someone said it sounded like a lavender-scented bog, feel free to decide for yourself. Drums/percussion, harmonium, electric guitar <3 https://bit.ly/2EnyvOv

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Monday, October 15, 2018 3:23 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's me on guitar

― na (NA), Monday, October 15, 2018 3:46 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

recorded by tarfumes!

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Monday, October 15, 2018 3:46 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You all rule. That was such a killer set, and I really hope NAP continues to be a thing.
(And I'm sorry I didn't get the first minute of your set on the recording.)

I very much enjoyed listening to that set yesterday!

thank you!! i am strategizing what we should do next, where, and with whom. i always figure that winter months are actually good for local bands because there are fewer bigwigs coming through.

good in terms of opportunities, less advantageous in luring people out to see the show

the drum set was un-miked (miced?) but the kalimba/tongue drum was being run through amp+ delay iirc? i was playing that somewhere in the middle for a few minutes (you can tell it's me because the drum set stops). otherwise it was manned by the harmonium player.
thank you!

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Tuesday, 16 October 2018 16:46 (yesterday) Permalink

Ah cool. I wonder if I'm hearing the drums getting picked up by other mics?

tbh i don't think there were any mics aside from the tiny contact mic on the harmonium

I have something semi-big deal-ish (well, to me anyway) coming just around the corner. I don't want to say much at this point, but after the next couple of weeks, I hope to have a pretty significant (again, probably moreso to me personally) announcement. Watch this space, I guess. Or don't.

!!!

So, things moved along pretty well this weekend. Enough to the point that I feel like I can post this:
https://i.imgur.com/khRWbYu.png

No release date yet, as this release will coincide with another one which is not quite ready to go yet. Will post more details as they become available.

So, coupled with my last post, here's a very early sneak peek at what I have in store:
https://i.imgur.com/A22EDFX.png

Again, no release date yet because we're not quite ready on all fronts, but stay tuned.

Whoops, already see some mistakes in those proofs. Oh well, plenty of time to fix them.

Got through my high-pressure jazz gigs with no notable regrets, musically speaking. Here's a video that a friend took from one of the last tunes on the second night, sort of an encore when some other friends were sitting in (swapping out the bass player for sousaphone):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxS19MZ55_o

And away we go!

really excited for you doing this Austin, and also very happy in a selfish way!

I never fail to be amazed by the talents and creativity in this thread by everyone, it's hard to keep up properly with everyone's adventures and experiments but I've never clicked anything in this thread and not felt pangs of envy and aspiration

I really do think it contains the crux of my best work, so I'm really happy with how it's come along so far. Maybe someone besides me will listen to it.

Also, very flattered that you would say that, even if it wasn't about my music specifically.

i feel like a dumbass but i can't figure out how to play the songs! i mean i know how bandcamp works, but for some reason in my browser the background is black and i don't see any play buttons beside any of the tracks?

i don't have that issue with anything else on your bandcamp, just the new one you just linked to

will be released friday 26 october.

Sorry for the confusion!

I wanted to try and build some chatter about it, so I posted it as a "forthcoming" release for now. Songs will be live on Friday. After that, I plan on doing a VERY SMALL BIT of promotion for the bigger releases by using the single as a teaser. I wanted to make something useful, so the "A side" is actually exclusive to the single. The remix on side B is on both of the albums, but not as its own indexed track (as it will be on the single). Hopefully it will serve the purpose of drumming up some anticipation.

In the meantime, I've removed most of the "demos" albums from my bandcamp, as I took all of the recordings I'm using for VERSIONS / MENTAL ILLNESS from those albums and I didn't want to be redundant. This means that those songs will be available again (in a slightly different configuration) when the albums are released in November (this was intentional, as I felt like it may help grow anticipation a little). Some of the stuff was so new, I'm not sure many people noticed when I posted it on the 2018 demos page. The last few songs were literally only days old when I took everything down, so probably not a lot of people heard those newer songs on MENTAL ILLNESS. In addition, there will also be five brand new, not yet heard "remix" recordings to be included at the end of VERSIONS.

So, even though most of it has, not all of the contents of these upcoming releases (I would reckon about ten songs total) have been posted before.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpVejh7ARTU/

Because I'm lazy and it's already Friday on the east coast and overseas, the single is now live.

No more self-promo for a while. Promise.

nice work Austin!

Sounds good and chill.

Fuck, my drone game was on point yesterday. One of those times you really wish you'd recorded your noodling.

Hi y'all. So for some reason I've been extremely prolific lately. I have two albums of material I am going to be putting up on Bandcamp soon. The first is from a seafood/ocean-themed grindcore project called Dead Crustacean, which I have been working on for a while. I may have even linked to it here during its earliest stages.

The project started as kind of a goof but it was so satisfying to work on that it became a fairly serious endeavor. The vocals were the hardest part to get right, and I now have a much deeper respect for metal and punk singers. The album (titled Boiled Alive) is completed and almost ready to go. I am just waiting for the cover illustration to be completed before I publish it.

As an appetizer, here's the title track:

https://soundcloud.com/user-540588050/boiled-alive/s-dFaUp

The second project is called The Snickerson Brothers, it's also something of a "concept band" but a lot more freewheeling and less bound by genre. This allows me to be less perfectionist about the production aspects-most of has been recorded on an iPhone with GarageBand.

The album (which I am still in the process of finishing) is titled Peaches N' Sour Cream. Here's the first son, also named "Peaches N' Sour Cream" (yes another title track, lol).

https://soundcloud.com/user-540588050/peaches-n-sour-cream/s-xhvSx

Also here's some artwork for both projects. I had a lot of fun designing and making these:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpNIl3NAJOE/?taken-by=sexymollusk

Can't wait to share the final products with y'all!!!

LISTEN: https://t.co/b300HN2TKT
START TALKING: #mentalillnessbygaa #mentalillnessawareness #therapythroughmusic

— Gregory Austin Anderson (@gaustinanderson) October 29, 2018

I recorded a new one yesterday evening and it's seriously one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.

I have no idea what to do with it.

So, over the past five days, I've recorded two of the best, and most gorgeous, things I've ever done. I'm unsure what to do, as I have Mental Illness and Versions to be released in a few weeks and that's basically three albums' worth of material.

But, now I have these two multi-movement, eight to ten minute songs that each contain a few minutes of some of the best music I've ever created and I'm just like. . . I dunno. I have this album that I'm really proud of, but it now seems a little bit less significant because I have these two songs that I'm really enthusiastic about — I've probably never been more excited about something I made ever before in my life. I know it's borderline tacky to be so into something I made, but I really do think I've created some of my absolute best work.

I think people should be more into their own work. If you aren't making music you are excited about, why should anyone else be excited?

Thanks, Moodles. That does make me feel better. I mean, the past year or so I've come into the thought that I make music that I like to listen to — but, I don't know, that has always been a slippery slope for me. Maybe it's the way I was raised, but it just doesn't feel sincere at all to be like, "Hey, here's my favorite song right now" and it's one of my own songs.