Tuesday, December 21, 2010

ohio, mixing, and a new instrument

so.  i once again have gone multiple weeks without a blog entry, and now have to play catsup.

i finished my work at Eventric and moved back to Ohio the same day.  it was a good time, mutually beneficial and educational like last time.

the drive back to ohio was my easiest yet.  probably should've burned some more cds, but i ended up listening to my old standbys, The Replacements' "Let It Be" and "Tim," and The Clash's "London Calling."  Joey made fun of me once, because by the time i finish up with 6.5 hours of those albums, my voice is hoarse from all the singing.

left my bed in chicago, took the record stand.  my life's story.

saw Tommy Johnagin on dec 9.  he put on a good show, his opener did too.  i think her last name was Ashley.  she had a first name for her last name, i know that for sure.  after the show, i took big bro and his wife to see a Bonnie Prince Billy secret show, and proceeded to my roommates' end of the quarter festivities.

day after that, Joey, Zack and I started mixing the first two songs from The King's Jetfighters.  i made a pretty odd mistake with that.  i didn't eat for nearly 24 hours.  i'm one of those people who loses track of all basic needs when i get really involved in a project.  so, when i started mixing at 11 am, i wasn't terribly hungry.  when i finished mixing at 6 pm, i was on the verge of fainting.  healthy, right?  but then we got chipotle and went to a show at the Monster House.  Spooktober, Seascapes, and a couple others. i liked Seascapes best, i'll be keeping an eye out for them.  also saw a group who seemed to be composed entirely of transsexuals, singing songs mostly about the plight of transsexuals.  they were pretty solid too, their bassist was from Spooktober and did some ridiculous bass lines.

since then, i've met with my research advisor, done some data analysis, went to my mother's preschool class' christmas program, watched a ton of the simpsons (half of season 4, all of season 5), chopped wood, shoveled 3 driveways, and slept an average of 10 hours a day.  this large amount of sleep has actually led me to start dreaming again.  i haven't dreamed much for the last couple of years, probably due to the lack of sleep and excess of stress, but these past two weeks of relaxation have led to nightly dreams, ranging from meeting Eminem at a race track to being a sailor in the 17th century.

Zack recorded his vocals for The King's Jetfighters in his dorm room, and i mixed both of the songs fully.  learned a lot about mixing and mastering this week.  we'll almost certainly be rerecording his vocals, but it was good practice.  it's sounding great though (from a completely unbiased perspective, as the band's producer and Alien Orders bandmate), and i'm very optimistic about recording an Alien Orders EP on our own.

i'm now living at my parents' house.  i thought that when i left last summer, i'd never be back, but i haven't been able to make contact with my subletter to talk to him about when he's moving out of my room.  so, without a place to stay, i've been living with my parents.  livin the dream... on the plus side, i've had a place where i can practice trumpet and guitar loudly without neighbors hearing.  i'm starting to pick up trumpet, slowly but surely.  wrote my first song with trumpet in it yesterday.

by now, i'm tired of writing and you're tired of reading/skimming disinterestedly.  so i'll end with a video:



this video is from The Replacements' appearance on SNL.  they were banned from the show after getting massively drunk, switching clothes between bandmates between their performances, yelling "fuck" on national television, and joining forces with Harry Dean Stanton to trash their SNL dressing room so thoroughly that their brand new major label (Sire Records) reportedly had to pay for repairs upwards of $2,000.  not bad for an hour-and-a-half-long show.

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