Tuesday 25 December 2007

DJ Shadow...


...talking about crate digging (from the film Scratch)

Friday 15 June 2007

Guitar Army

Glenn Branca is seeking 80 guitarists and 20 bass players for his upcoming performance of "Symphony No.13 (Hallucination City)". This performance will be in Dublin on July 15 at Grand Canal Square as part of Analog.

I'm seriously considering doing this - the avant garde (ahem) leanings might not be to the likings of Stuckists like Rob Matthews (he knows who he is), but I reckon it would be an amazing thing to see, nevermind take part in.

Original Press Release

Rhys Chatham - A Crimson Grail (Part One) (400 guitars)

Monday 28 May 2007

Neurovision

Take three musicians. Sit them down to watch the spectacle that was the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Soak in alcohol. Add instruments and a dash of Tull. Record.

Neurovision (7 songs, 63MB zip)

Thursday 10 May 2007

And now, ladies and gentlemen, SKING!

Here's an oldie from a fried Mars bar eating mate of mine. I can't figure out the lyrics for the life of me, but I think they have something to do with the vertical movement.

DJ Sking - Can't Go Up, Can't Go Down

Friday 30 March 2007

etree Friday

I've been meaning for a while now to put together some kind of post about the etree/archive.org Live Music Archive - a monstrous collection of live bootlegs that you could get lost in for weeks. It does skew slightly towards the jam band side of things, but there's enough variety to guarantee that you'll find something you like.

My Morning Jacket - Gideon - Bonnaroo, 2006-06-16

The Dismemberment Plan - Sentimental Man - The Middle East, 2003-07-24

Gomez - Get Miles - Cleveland Odeon, 2003-05-08

Rogue Wave - California - Bimbo's 365 Club, San Francisco, 2006-03-30

By the way, the above photo is of a random Nigerian guy hugging commentator Eamonn Dunphy during Wednesday's Ireland/Slovakia match in Croke Park. With thanks to Wes Gorman.

Thursday 22 March 2007

A model of restraint

Buddy Rich was born in 1917. This was filmed in 1981. Not bad, old man.

Tuesday 20 March 2007

De Blues

Rob Matthews (seen here on the left) would have you believe that this is not the work of his own hands, but an unearthed gem from 1926, talking about an old Dave Dineen, and not any contemporary person of the same name. Affectionate mockery or vicious satire? You decide...

Blind Lemon O'Hara - Dave Dineen (1926)

Sunday 4 March 2007

Loops of fruit

Right, Mullen, listen up. Here's how I put together drum parts in Fruity Loops:

  1. Play the main bit of the song on an acoustic guitar, taking particular care with regards to timing and feel
  2. Using the wave editor of your choice, make a one bar loop of it. Note how long it is
  3. Make a new project in Fruity Loops and set the bpm to match the length of your one bar loop. bpm = loop length / number of beats (probably 4) * 60.
  4. Put the loop on one of the tracks. Now you can add drums on top until it sounds good.
  5. The most important thing to get right is probably the swing. I usually put hi-hats all the way across (i.e. 16th notes), and nudge the swing slider until they're in time with the guitar
  6. Add your favourite drum samples. Often for, say, a kick drum, I'll layer an acoustic sample (for some gritty warmth/feel) with a drum machine kick (for a serious low-end smack). I've heard Mylo is a big fan of this method

Here's one I made earlier (no vocals yet though):

The Ecuador Three - Easy (Thus Do All)

And that's it...

Tuesday 27 February 2007

A blast from... a while back

Here's a random jam recorded in a living room way back in November 2002 (we're only playing Tony Hawk 2, and those are video tapes on the windowsill). The muffled small room sound was pretty strong in the original recording, so I've tried to tart it up with some reverb. Your truly is on acoustic, Shano (see below) is on bass, and electric guitar is provided by none other than Norman, inventor of the world famous SLiMDisc software. Peter Smith provides random cupboard closing sounds towards the end as he goes about cooking his dinner.

Dav, Dave, Shano - Riders on the Slide

Thursday 22 February 2007

Introducing Shano

Here's a tune by a bass playing ledge I used to live with - funk, soul and reggae is his usual sort of thing, but this is his first foray into more of an abstract mellotron electronica type yoke. Whatever. The bassline is still great.

Mantekka - Private Space

Wednesday 21 February 2007

Wednesday 7 February 2007

Here's the plan...

Well, I hope to get into this whole home recording yoke, hopefully culminating in the recording of some kind of Psychedelic MasterpieceTM. As a means towards this end, future entries may include:
  • fragments of tracks to try out certain recording techniques
  • full, original songs (yay!)
  • random YouTuberry
  • usual mp3 blog stuff - rare tracks etc.
  • mp3s from friends' bands and so on
Entries will not include: