posted on 12.06.09 History Lesson #3: Inventions, Schminventions

Last night at 3:47 AM, while doing Baal runs with my level 78 magic find Sorceress and eating a plate of potatoes covered in ranch dressing, I realized that I hadn’t posted a history lesson in weeks. Weeks! What have I been doing with my time? Here’s a smattering:

- I’ve been making outlandish claims about Pink Floyd, still.

- Salt is way cheaper than I thought. $0.69 for a friggin’ pound and a half. Makes me sad that I held out so long. I thought it’d be like $2.39.

- Max wanted to bring his Epiphone Casino into the studio; I said “I dunno, man, isn’t that kind of a gamble?”

- I finished Don Quixote. Decent. Twilight was way better, though. Shorter sentences, a movie to help me understand the plot, etc.

- I was chastised publicly for failing to tip on a $0.50 beer.

Anyway, let’s get to it. Though I like to call myself a history buff, my real area of expertise is in the history of inventions. Do you know your inventors?

We all know that Harriet Tubman invented the tub:

Eli Whitney invented gin:

Ben Franklin invented the kite:

And Miss South Carolina Teen USA 2007 invented the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator at the European Organization for Nuclear Research:

But who invented the bass trombone?

I’m still trying to figure this out. Please help.

~ Kevin

posted on 05.06.09 Day 36 - Guitar Team Extraveganza

weather: great

reading: fargo rock city

eating: pb&j

drinking: coffee

heyyy.  first of all, thanks to everyone who came out to the powerspace/kill hannah double door show!  that was a great night.  particularly exhausting for me doing double duty on guitar for two bands, but a fabulous success nonetheless.  thanks to the double door staff for being cool, and the fans for putting up with our studio-weary set.  good times.

so it’s day 36 of our new record.  by day 36 of the last record, I think we were pretty much finished.  haha.  we’ve spent the last few days going over live takes of drums, bass, and guitars.  lots of good stuff.  lots of ‘vibe’ as our engineer Asim (pronounced “Awesome”) would say.  Monday our producer Johnny K gets back from LA so we can start experimenting with new sounds for guitar leads and such.  

been spending nearly all our time in the studio.  haven’t seen daylight in a while.  the studio has no windows and bad lighting.  every time i go outside in the afternoon i feel like Paul Walker in that scene in Varsity Blues when they leave the strip club at 8am and walk out into the glaring sunlight.  you know, like…’what time is it?? how long have i been in there???’ kind of vibe..

listening back to ‘don’t stop’ right now.   just a live take of kevin, jake, max, and i.  sounds so cool.  i think bands our age don’t realize you can record ‘live’ like this.  i never even considered it til I met Johnny K.  this sounds really awesome, there’s no effects or processing on it, just a take of the four of us playing together.  it sounds full, rocking, and best of all - it sounds real.  it sounds like 4 buddies rocking out, cuz that’s what it is.  

Also, Jake found his doppelganger.  (Also, you know how when you are typing and trying to listen to something at the same time sometimes you type what you are hearing instead of what you are thinking?  Isn’t that weird?  (I just typed ‘territory’ instead of ‘doppelganger’ because Max was saying ‘territory’ when i was typing)).  Anyways, here it is.  Apparently Jake has been modeling in his spare time.  

-tom

posted on 21.05.09 Day 20: Tracking

weather: awesome

listening to: the who - who’s next, def leppard - high n dry

watching: true romance

eating: yogurt

drinking: coffee

as i type this alec is stacking a bunch of computer monitors on our back porch.  great, now we are officially the neighborhood freaks.

we’ve started to do some live tracking, which is exciting.  we’ve recorded all of the songs live probably dozens of times each - perfecting parts, tones, arrangements, etc.  we won’t be using any of these takes but now that we’ve got some kickin drum, bass, and guitar tones we are closer to doing final takes.  

this way of recording is so different from how we’ve recorded in the past.  it’s an exciting and eye-opening experience.  our mega-producer johnny k is forcing us to take our time and do everything right.  and that means everything.  this is a good thing.  it’s really easy to want to just jump right into tracking these songs.  we’ve had some of them written for over a year and we’re all pretty anxious.  but we’re going to do this one right, and that’s going to take a while. (by day 20 of the last record we were about 2/3rd’s done tracking. we haven’t really even started yet!) we’ve been working every day, all day and all night, and it will be worth it.  

we’ve been listening to a lot of great rock recordings to get pumped up.  boston, the who, def leppard, van halen, etc.  these records were done the hard way, no computers to fix every little thing, with guitars and bass bleeding all over the drum mics and such.  yet, sonically they are far and away better than many rock albums coming out now.  take the focus away from the computer, put it back into the playing, the vibe, the band.  that’s the goal.  

and now, some random pics from my cell phone:

most recent amp setup: 

raw power:

my sisters dog digging a hole:

-tom

posted on 15.05.09 Day 15

Day 15 of Preproduction: Round 1 is complete.

Johnny K has opened all 10 of our eyes (12 if you count my contact lenses, 11 with all the winking) to the errors of our song-writing ways, namely songs where the pre-chorus skips the chorus heading straight into the post-chorus (wtf?) or using celebratory guitar solos as a way to avoid writing anything else (which we all secretly think is still kind of sweet, don’t worry, there will not be any missed guitar solo opportunities). 

That said, we have this: 

A collage of excellent songs, still slightly rough on the edges but a mere mega break-through or 19 away from this:

Can I end this post here? Stay fresh, unlike Alec and I after throwing up some major weight. 

jake

posted on 03.05.09 Mega-Breakthroughs

weather: awesome

reading: slaughterhouse-five

listening to: boston, cheap trick, the beatles

Day 5

The first week of pre-production for our new record is over.  Basically, we spent the week locked in the studio by ourselves rehearsing, rewriting, rearranging, and generally tweaking out.  The ‘mega-breakthrough’ tally is rising steadily.  I think the mega-breakthrough is my favorite feeling of all time.  

The mega-breakthrough is a complex beast.  It is not something easily accomplished.  It’s also not something that can really be done on purpose.  It also cannot be done alone.  The mega-breakthrough only occurs when at least two people ‘enter’ really hard, vibing out at a dangerously high level, brain waves mingling like the feet of those rollerblading dudes with the cones out by lake michigan.

I remember the first mega-breakthrough I ever experienced was outside of The Middle East in Cambridge, MA.  Max and I were writing a song by our trailer outside of the venue.  We combined a verse he wrote with a chorus I wrote and it was working pretty well, but the lyrics were ruining it.  Then four things happened in quick succession:

1. We realized one of fake titles on our list of ‘classic songs that haven’t been written yet’ fit perfectly with the chorus.  Bang.

2. We realized we could do a huge key change at the last chorus.  Bing.

3. We compromised on an idea about the chorus, making it so the last chorus had an extra half measure break, or ‘fake out’ as we like to call it. Bonk.

4.   We asked Ace Enders which way of ending the song sounded better to him, he never answered the question, but instead stared at us and said plainly: “you guys are gonna be huge” and proceeded to give one of the most inspirational speeches about rock and roll that I’ve ever heard.  Boom. 

Then Max and I freaked out for about 4 hours.  

…that’s pretty much the criteria for a mega-breakthrough.  We’ve had 3 in the studio so far.  BAM

-Tom

posted on 01.05.09 An Open Apology
Hey, all.  Kevin here.


Not too long ago, I was downloading torrents and surfing my favorite album review sites when I decided to bask in nostalgia for a moment and check out the Rush page on a site called Cole Reviews.  I read his introduction and then scrolled down to see a flame from a very typical Rush fan:

“I read you’re whole review page of Rush’s career. In conclusion, you are a moron. Obviously there are some aspects of Rush you can’t comprehend. I suggest you give up trying to understand why Rush’s early albums are absolutely amazing, and go listen to Poison or something. You have no right to even listen to music,”

I smiled and chuckled and thought “Heh.  Classic.”  Because I remember being that kid.

Then I noticed the email address and realized that I actually was that kid.  As in, I sent that email.  That was me.

Shivers ran down my back and I almost blacked out from humiliation.  I can’t remember the last time I felt so mortified.  I X’ed out as quickly as I could, hoping that no one nearby had noticed.

So this is an open apology to Cole.  Listen, man.  You know how Rush fans can be.  Plus, that was like seven years ago.  I’ve changed, really!  I’ve chaaaaaaaaaanged!

In my defense, though, early Rush albums are awesome.  Listen to Caress of Steel, 2112, A Farewell to Kings, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, and Signals if you don’t believe me.

The site:

http://colereviews.tripod.com/rush.html

Check out my email address.  Two separate Rush song references—and @aol.com, to boot.  Cole should’ve known who he was dealing with (check out the hat):



“Neil Peart RULES!!!”


~ Kevin

posted on 28.04.09 Time to Get Serious.

Day 1 - Monday April 27, 2009

location: south side of chicago

drinking: coffee

listening to: tom petty and the heartbreakers, cheap trick

weather: wet, windy, mid-70s

Today was the official start of the making of our second record, and it feels really, really good.

We moved in all our best gear to Johnny K’s fortress of solitude (aka Groovemaster Studios) on the South Side of Chicago this morning.  K’s studio is incredible.  It is an old 6-story brewery that he’s converted into a five-star recording mecca.  We are in a studio on the first floor that will be Powerspace-only until this record is complete.  We can lock it out, have 24-hour access, eat, sleep, and work there all day and night. The place has a great vibe.  Vibing out so hard.  Also, any recording junkies like me would practically throw up at the sight of the recording set up.  Vintage Neve consoles, rack after rack after rack of preamps, compressors, and vintage and high-end outboard gear.  Way too much to even comprehend right now.

Speaking of gear, we spent most of yesterday cherry-picking amps.  Max, Jake, and I are trying out some unconventional setups as well as some classic Fender and Marshall combinations.  Trying to find some ‘signature’ tones to set us apart from the crowd.  Johnny K has hundreds of amps to choose from, so that’s a good start.  ;)

“in the freight elevator, aka, tower of terror”

The set up is much different from how we’ve recorded in the past.  We have a ‘live’ setup, which basically means we will be playing alot of the record together.  Most times these days things are recorded track by track, you know, like drums by themselves…then fix it with the computer, then bass…then fix it with the computer, then guitar…etc, etc.  Nothing wrong with that, but we’re doing it old-school.  This means lots and lots of rehearsing, re-arranging, and tweaking until Kevin, Jake, Max, and I have all our parts perfect and are perfectly in sync with each other.  Kindof like a group zen thing.  The vibe helps here.  I think this is where some of the ‘magic’ of old recordings comes from, and I think that magic has been dissappearing.  You know what I mean?  If you don’t believe there’s a difference between playing together and just doing it track by track, then why bother?  We think there’s something special about doing things this way.  We’re fine with having bass and guitar bleed over into the drum room mics.  We’re fine with doing hundreds of takes of the same song ‘til it’s perfect. This is the hard way. (Especially with these songs)  But we’re cool with that.

It seems like we’ve been waiting forever to get in here and start working.  We have so many demos, it’s insane.  We’ve gotten really attached to alot of the demos, but we started picking them apart today.  Looking for anywhere to improve anything.  I was worried because alot of the demos are amazing, but I feel good letting go of them.  Like, if we can make these songs even better…holy shit.

Alright, that’s enough for now.  I’ll write more about Johnny K and how we ended up with him later, as well as his guitar collection (wow).  Also videos and better pictures I promise.  We’ll keep you posted.

-Tom

posted on 27.04.09 Sing Like A F***ING Man and sound like a girl

Hey all, Alec here with some really important imformation about stuff. Let me start off by saying that I am a singer in this band, and as a singer it is my job to sing songs and such to different people including you, and my friends, and sometimes animals, and various plantlife because singing promotes healthy growth.
Anyway, this morning I was listening to some very, very early demos that we did a very long time ago and I found one that has my very first recorded track that I ever did. This will probably never be heard by anyone, and quite frankly should be burned, deleted, destroyed right now, but for nostalgic purposes I will allow it to survive. I realized, however, that i have come a long way since then and for that I am proud. Hopefully I will continue to grow and kick ass as a singer, but I suppose only time will tell. My point I’m trying to make is this: Just because you might suck at first, or think you suck, doesnt mean that you actually do suck. Everyone has got that something inside of them that is waiting to be tapped into and let out. I urge you, go find that vein of gold flowing through your soul. Go let out that ocean of emotion deep within your universe and bask in it. Let it soak you in its glory.

Singing is about letting the beast out. Here is some inspiration:

Remember…It’s not how well you can sing, but how high! Until Next time, Cheers.

-Alec.Michael.Cyganowski

posted on 06.04.09 Just when you thought life wasn't worth suffering...

…this man enters

(To save you some time: Lee Sklar girls and boys)

jake (obviously!)

posted on 01.04.09 The First of April
Happy The First of April, everyone!

We dunno about you, but The First of April has always been Powerspace’s favorite holiday.  Mostly because we’re now allowed to park on the street by our apartment without getting towed.

So by this point, you must be wondering: Kevin, what’ve you been doing lately?  Well, for one thing, I’ve been shamelessly abusing the free WiFi at Starbucks.  There’s this program that lets you download entire websites so you can view ‘em offline.  I’ve been doing that.  Websites I’ve downloaded in their entirety:

http://www.birdhouses101.com/

Anyway, that’s about it.  I leave you with this picture.  This was taken a few months ago, when Max accidentally experienced the Rapture, on stage, in front of everyone:



How embarrassing!

Oh, and one last thing.  In the spirit of The First of April, we wanna take this opportunity to inform everyone that we’re not breaking up.  For good.


~ Kevin