Solo @ San Fran 27/01/2010

Intro

Dog with a bone

Over you

How do I live (without you) ?

Foolish man

Was it something I said?

Jesus & the man

Not my best show, but focusing on the positives. 'Intro' is always an arresting way to start so I had people's attention. The next track was a new one 'Dog with a bone'. It's a good song but has some intricate guitar work that needs to be heard properly to be appreciated. I didn't think the guitar was loud enough & it felt like it was being missed & sure enough, the people I'd grabbed with the opening track started to drift away. You can always tell when an audience has shifted focus & it definately happened during this track. You can't let it throw you though so I played through, the song got stronger in it's second half but by then I'd lost half of the audience. Literally. They walked out! 'Over you' suffered from the lack of momentum from the previous song & it wasn't till I slowed right down with 'How do I live?' that I started to feel reconnected to the audience. It's a lovely slow number about a friend of mine who fell in love with a women while he was on holiday. It has one of my favourite lyrics in it:

"I'd paint your picture/but what good would colour be to me?"

'Was it something I said?' is another song I enjoy playing which isn't particularly suited to the band so it was nice to break that out. I'm planning on visiting the above mentioned friend later this year & recording a solo record. These tracks will all be recorded then. I finished with 'Jesus & the man' which is a song based on the film 'Apocalypse now'. It's quite a confronting song with the film character Kurtz renamed 'Jesus'. For those unfamiliar with the film Colonel Kurtz is killed by another soldier, Captain Willard (renamed 'the man' in the song) after he locates Kurtz in his compound in Cambodia. It's a surreal, vivid & confronting film about madness & the hypocrisy of war. It's also a stunning film & I wrote this song within a day of seeing it, it came very easily. I love playing it but it's not the easiest song to listen to & if you didn't know the back story to the song you'd just be hearing about Jesus being killed. Definately open to mis-interpretation. But I was determined to play it because as a piece of art/music it's a powerful piece that deserves to be heard. & the point of art isn't always to be nice & safe, sometimes it's uncomfortable & confronting so I definately put this track in that category. But it doesn't make it any less valid.

Colonel Walter.E.Kurtz

Anyway, enough justifying my song choices, overall it was good to be playing again, my voice got through ok, it took a few songs to warm up but it was fine by the end.

Next up is a slot with my friend Caleb as 'The late greats'. We play covers, he does most of the singing so I get to sit back & work on my guitar playing & backing vocals. It's nice to just be the support guy sometimes. : )

Till then..

Recording 2: Lordy, Lordy, Lordy

Here's some pics of our recording day last year:


This first one is, from left, Allan, myself & Graeme. Allan is the vocalist/songwriter/main man of Graeme's other band the Rodrigoe Brothers. He's built himself a studio in his basement. Quite cool to be there recording..


This is the band, the main thing we recorded on the day were Mikes drums. He's on the left there.


Finally, this is the equpiment it all gets recorded on. That's the reel to reel tape in the middle of the picture with the mixing desks in front of it. I'm helping myself to the complimentary toast & coffee during a short break in recording. We pretty much blasted through the tracks in order to get as many as we could get done in the one day. I think we only did three double takes the whole time otherwise the rest of the songs where recorded in one take. It was a great effort for Mike to get 10 tracks done in one session. Hopefully it'll lend the final sound a 'live' quality.

I went back in on the 23rd Dec & did guitar, vocal & harmonica for 'Portrait', I used a 12 string guitar which was lying around (you can see the neck of it behind my arm in the last photo above). It lends itself quite nicely to the song. I've always been a fan of 12 strings they just have that awesome ringing tone to them. It was quite difficult though because we only started using click tracks to count in from the fourth song we did so I had to try to time the early part of the song before the drums start. I think I got the speed wrong so it sounds a bit funny. I'll listen to it again the next time I'm there, if the spirit of the song has been captured I won't worry about it.


I've been toying with the name 'Lordy, lordy, lordy' for the record. It an expression that has a kind of blues feel/connotation to it. I'll run with it for now & see if anything else inspires me.

I have a good feeling about this recording, if we get it right it's gonna souond awesome.

Pisces LP: Recording 01

Saw 'Avatar' today. Was pretty cool, Sam Worthington's the man. It was a bit long but overall a stunning movie to look at. & Michelle Rodriguez is all kinds of hot..

We started recording a first Pisces LP yesterday at Graeme's singer from the Rod's, Allan's, place. We got 10 drum tracks down:

Lover

Secret Garden

Potrait

I'll wait

Only a fool

Fallen

Hope

Jimmy Jones

In the meantime

City streets

Carly came & did the vocal for Jimmy Jones & Graeme & I were happy with our guitar parts on it as well so the song is pretty much done barring tamborine, it sounds fantastic. Carly's vocal is brilliant & gives the song so much more emphasis. It really is a track that only she should sing, I don't think I'll be attempting it anymore.

I'm heading back to Allan's on Wed to record 12 string guitar on Portrait, it should give the song an interesting sound. A 12 string guitar has a brightness to it that 6 string's don't have so it'll be interesting to hear how it comes out.

Overall the recording went well. We blasted through songs only doing double takes on three or four of them. The rest were one take wonders, mistakes & all. I'm hoping that the final recording will have a live vibe, quite loose but hopefully the songs are strong enough that they shine through regardless. I want it to be a special recording so a lot's gonna come down to what happens from here. I'm going to try to work on it steadily & get it finished over the summer. One night a week Allan willing. A lot will depend on how often Allan's gonna be able to handle me coming round.

Anyway, I'll keep posting as the recording continues.

The State of the Art 2009

Favs at the moment;
Them crooked vultures - Nobody loves me & neither do I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M89qz4aWbBo
The Dead weather - I cut like a buffalo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhPhV7Z7_3o

I like these two songs cause a. they fucking kick arse & b. they show two song writers at such a high level they're starting to write rediculously easily. Jack Whites writing & guitar playing has gotten to a stage he's just lethal. That White Stripes single from a couple of years ago, 'Blue orchid' was an amazing piece of minimalist knife point writing & you can hear it in this Dead Weather track. The way he's messing with timing & his arrangements are top notch. Them Crooked Vultures has a similar fell to the Queens album that Dave drummed on, 'Songs for the deaf', again there's a minimalist feel, with absolutely no fat on it. The tempo change half way through the song is brutal & you can almost hear the fun Dave is having playing those massive beats to such a big riff. The song builds to a climax similar to 'A song for the dead' from 'Songs' - my favourite tune from that record. It's great to hear Dave doing what he does best.

Speaking of Dave Grohl, another of my favourite tunes this year was the new Foos single 'Wheels' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wTBp7aQokM I think it's a really nice change of pace for the band. It shows Dave's confidence in his songwriting ability to be able to release a nice standard tune & not have to hide behind massive guitars & screaming vocals. Really like this track.

Nicest surprise of the year: Karen O's return to form with the 'Where the wild things are' soundtrack. After the lackluster YYY albums since Fever to tell it's nice to hear her doing something interesting again.

Fav kiwi tracks: Loving the new Phoenix Foundation track 'Everybodys money'. The Nok track 'Magic' is great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qODcxtsiTy8 I heard it driving one night playing on Active. As soon as I got home I jumped on their website & found out it was the Nok. At first I thought it was Fat Freddys but once the MC started I knew it was someone else. A promising start, I'll be keeping an eye on them. Speaking of FF, their performance of 'Boondigga' at the NZ music awards was a definate highlight. They were far & away the best performed on the night. Awesome track. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRuRcgA057A

Most inspiring: Living with War - Neil Young. What a fucking awesome record. I missed this when it was released a few year back & discovered it via the CSN&Y DVD 'Deja Vu'. It's an albums worth of protest material , but that in itself would be pointless from a musical standpoint if the songs weren't any good & that's why this records so great. The tunes are fricken awesome. Simple but sooo effective. & it's fucking great to hear someone speak out against the 'War on terror'. Love it. Here's an amazingly brave track from the album 'Let's impeach the president'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3_cS_iQ-w0&feature=related God bless Neil Young!

Best finds of the year: Benji Hughes - A love extreme & Bon Iver - For Emma, forever. Fricken awesome albums from two extremely talented writers. Love the fun side of Benji & the serious, romantic side of Bon Iver.

Nice to hear they still got it: Rizzer Adams - 'Cardinology' & 'Little Honey' by Lucinda Williams. So nice to hear two old favourites still doing their thing.

Coolest song I heard while driving: This gem from Guy Clark http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1577193349654584847&postID=8382462922403877554, followed closely by 'Magic' by the Nok. See above.

Not as good as as their first record, but still pretty cool: FOTC - I told you I was freaky. Particularly this gem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bte1M8d2Mu4 Brabara... I love it. : )

Best crazy man: Daniel Johnston - Covered, Uncovered. Fell in love with DJ's writing with this record. Disc 1 are Daniels originals & Disc 2 are covers of the same songs. How can you listen to 'Story of an artist' & not have your heartbroken? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_RbSAwMa3U, also attached is M Ward's cover. Equally beautiful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GOoccNI6pM&feature=PlayList&p=1B2C5E3ED80C1C09&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=24
Honestly, if you want to hear some absolutely beautiful, heartfelt, painfully honest songwriting, you'll go a long way trying to find a better set than this disc. Heartbreakingly sad.

Coolest song: 'Quiet Dog' - Mos Def. Great track, great MC, dope beats. Check it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuwVP1WoIhg

Coolest use of alternative instruments: Beirut - 'March of the Zapotec/Real people Holland' & TV on the Radio - 'Dear Science'

Nice to know I still like blues: Bessie Smith http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go6TiLIeVZA

Favourite book of 2009: Naomi Klein 'The Shock Doctrine'
Favourite movie: Tie between 'Coraline 3D' & '(500) Days of summer

Well, that's about my 2009 summary for my favourites for the year, I'm sure I've left stuff out, but like someone smart once said 'everything that's supposed to be there is there'

Ka kite

Pisces @ The Engine Room 20/11/2009

Success! The show went off without a hitch. The entire night was a success (as you can see by my smiling face in the accompanying picture!). I decided to play sans a distortion pedal & not having the added complication made life a lot easier. Stu the soundman had my acoustic plugged directly into the P.A so that was another thing I didn't need to worry about. It meant I could leave my electric plugged directly into my amp & just leave the tuner on while I was playing my acoustic.

Overall it was an amazing day & I'm just so stoked with the way it all came together. Being a Friday meant I was in mufti at work which always makes the day a bit more pleasant. I knocked off at 12 & met Mum & Wayne for lunch. From there we met Graeme up at our place & we loaded the gear up & took it down to the Engine room. Just walking into the venue was exciting, Bonnie came down & we started setting up. There were a few hiccups (I forgot my amp! : ) so a few round trips were needed, but by 5pm eveything was good to go so it was home to eat & change & come back for soundcheck at 6.

People started arriving about 6.30 & the place slowly filled, it was a steady stream of people until it was standing room only. Bonnie kicked the night off with a solo set of her own songs & a couple of nice covers, Radiohead & Ryan Adams from memory. It was good set & was ideal to get things started. Eva Prowse was up next accompanied by her father on guitar & a bass player. She played a country tinged singer/songwriter set. It was another step up & the crowd warmed to her. I had a lot of positive feedback about her set so I guess she managed to reach people, which is what it's all about. Euphony were third on, a five piece band fronted by a jazz school friend of Bonnies. Caitlin was her name I think. They suffered from bad sound due to their numbers & the
limited P.A capabilities. It's a shame cause Caitlin had a nice voice but her songs got lost in the mix. I'd like to see them in a more user friendly environment cause it was hard to get a grasp of their tunes under the circumstances.
We hit the stage at about 9.45pm & kicked off with a new track, Comin home. It's a blues/rock song which needs to be belted out but due to my voice issues from screaming at the All White game last week I held back to try to get through the entire set. I thought it sounded awful having the vocal sung so low but the instrumentation made up for it. We hit our marks & managed to get through fine considering it was our first time playing it. From there the set took off, we played:

Comin home

Secret Garden

Lover

It's just a joke

Only a fool

Fallen

Hope

Deja Vu

I'll wait for you

Over you

In the meantime

Highlights were Secret Garden, where we really got going. On Lover I sang the third verse in a stacato style which I'd always wanted to do, it worked & I was stoked. The cut at the end of Only a fool was flawless, it prompted a 'whoa' from Stu on the desk. We tried to do the count during the break in 'In the meantime' & completely screwed it up.. but it was fine & we played through it.

Overall I give the gig a 8/10. It was the best we've ever played & considering it our biggest show & the first time we've headlined & our first paying gig it was better than I could of hoped for. I think congratulations is due to everyone involved in the night. : )

Finally, below is our mystery photographer who took the photos. Angie...

Two days to go..

Well, in 48 hours I'll have my gear set up at the Engine Room & I'll be counting down the hours till soundcheck at 6. Mum & Wayne are coming down for it so I'll meet up with them before to try to kill some time. Here's the venue, it's a converted tugboat which is parked on Oriental Parade in Wellington.

You enter from the unsighted side & the deck above is a restaurant and below is the venue/bar.

The band is almost ready, we had that rehearsal gig last week at San Fran. It went pretty well, we played 'Fallen' for the first time in a while. Graeme got a bit lost in the middle section but we picked it back up ok. We have our final rehearsal tonight so fingers crossed we can iron out the final kinks. The soundman's also coming over tonight to check my gear, hopefully it's held up ok after a year in my damp wardrobe.. It freakin better have cause I spent about $7K on it & it's the first time it's been used.

I've cut the set down to 12 songs from 14 which is still about an hours worth of material. I wrecked my voice screaming at the All White game on Sat night so I don't want to sing longer than necessary. Here's the setlist:

Comin Home/Secret Garden/Lover/It's just a joke/Jimmy Jones/Only a fool/Fallen/Hope/Deja Vu/I'll wait for you/Control*/Over you/In the meantime

*We'll only play this if things going ok

It's a fairly upbeat set with a good mix of rockers & slow numbers. I'm not gonna play using my distortion pedal just to cut down the chances of things going wrong. I'll just try to find a nice clear tone through my amp & hold on that.

Anyway, I'll see if Ange can take a video & post it on my next entry.

Pillage & plunder at the tugboat

There's a few things coming up that need commentating on:

San Fran, Thurs 12 Nov.
We have a rehearsal gig at San Fran this Thursday night. Generally speaking we're using it as a chance to go over songs which need work before our big gig at the Engine room on 20/11.

Setlist:

Control

It's all just a joke anyway

Fallen

Hope

Deja Vu

Jimmy Jones

Over you

Our biggest gig is nearing & I'm getting nervous. The show at the tugboat is the first time I'll be playing using my elctric guitars, pedals, amp & PA system. A lot more ways for things to wrong when all I've used in the past is the in house PA. I'm not worried about the performance but I am worried that it's going to sound amateurish & we lose credibility. Apparantly the sound man is coming round this weekend so I'll feel alot better about things once he's seen my gear & we've given it a run through.

Set:

2 Days (First time we've played)

Secret Garden

Lover, what do you take me for?

It's all just a joke anyway

Only a fool

Fallen (lovers lament)

Hope

Deja Vu

I'll wait for you

Jimmy Jones

Portrait of the young man as an artist

Over You

In the meantime

I have a lot vested in this gig, it's the first time we've played a show which is being advertised around town, we're closing the show so there's the pressure of us sending people away happy they've received their money's worth. Mum & wayne are coming down for it. It's the first gig people have to pay to get into that we've played. All I want is to play as well as I know we can & there be no technical difficulties. If that happens then I'll be happy.