Back in the studio tonight to put the finishing touches on the new Rebellion tracks before we mix - some tambourine (th' secret weapon!), shaker and a couple of backing vocals we didn't have time to do the other night. This stuff sounds nice, real nice.
I designed an ad for the wax.on wax.off and Visitors records that will appear in the new issue of Punk magazine. I wanted it to look like one of those mid-'70s Punk interviews where they would lay it out like a comic strip, with photos of the band and little word bubbles; I even went so far as to digitize pages from my back issues and create a Holmstrom handwriting font. We strive for authenticity! It came out great thanks to an intercontinental photo assist by wax.on wax.off. I won't spoil the ad - pick up Punk the second week in October and see for yourself (yeah, that's right, I'm tellin ya to buy a magazine for an ad. The ad is that fuckin good!).
This looked like it was going to be a killer week at the magazine - our biggest issue of the year due at the printer Friday, plus a prototype of the redesign I've been working on. Last-second reprieves in both cases bought us a little breathing room. Just a little. But still a relief. I'm trying to monitor my pace and my health a bit more seriously than I did last time the work schedule got nutty.
Joe Schepis says that from now on there will be a comma in the datestamp on blog entries. Is this true? Let's find out: POST!
V tired. Had a pretty good rehearsal. Working on songs for recording dates as well as stuff from puddleskinwaving. Spoke to Jed. Radio is picking up. That's good.
Went on a cleaning frenzy the other day and came across a binder of old university stuff of mine. In it were the study notes for an English class I took in my second semester:
name of the course: Oral Skills II
instructor: Dr. H. Lovejoy
There is a mist settling in the tiny valley where Totnes is situated on the River Dart. There are little halos around each street lamp and lit room. I’m looking out over the town from my apartment on the hillside as I type. It is a beautiful place, if sometimes confining and frustrating.
Summer has hung on for a long time here. The rainy season has not quite arrived, but the lightning last night suggests it may be coming with a vengeance.
It’s not particularly cold but I have a fire going. It is damp here, as always. It is the UK after all.
I have been rehearsing quite bit. I’m adding more time as I go. At this stage, I’m adding some time in the morning to work on guitar parts I’m not happy with. My voice, at this stage, is not as strong as I would like. It is, however, getting stronger. I’ve gone for five days straight with full rehearsals. I’ll feel it out tomorrow. I might take a day off the voice and just deal with the guitar. We’ll see. I’m getting this kind of raspy sound in my voice as I get older. I kind of like it. Getting more worn, like an Andalusian singer, or a blues singer. Fuck it. I’m a bit tired of the clean, clear thing. Kinda like a distortion pedal. It’s about time.
Started messing around with the electric today. Really love it, but the acoustic is the thing this time out. Have to focus on that.
Fuck knows how this blog will turn out. I’ve never been good at keeping a journal or even doing website updates. Jed will strangle me if I don’t at least do this. I understand, but I am shit at it…
Recently, I was saddened to learn of the death of a great American composer and theorist. James Tenney passed away on the night of Thursday, August 24th, 2006. I was fortunate enough to have met Jim a number of times (through my MA tutor, Bob Gilmore). My MA thesis was a study and discussion of Tenney’s four major theoretical contributions to Western music. The paper is titled “The Theoretical Writings of James Tenney: An Overview and Examination.” I have posted a PDF of this paper at my website as a tribute to Jim. The writing of this paper was one of most interesting and challenging projects I have set for myself. Dealing with Tenney’s theoretical outlook expanded the way I approach the world of music and sound radically. During my work on the thesis, Jim was kind enough to allow me two extensive interviews. He proved to be as charming, interesting and inspirational during those interviews as he was in person. I am glad to have had the opportunity to meet James Tenney, and to have studied his work during his lifetime.
Here are a few links to obit pieces and writings posted on the net following Jim’s passing:
My first real post on the Eschatone blog. There have been a couple test entries but those will probably be deleted before the site goes live. Shit, maybe this one'll get deleted too. If you're reading this post, congratulations to the post. Post, baby, you made it. You're #1.
Eschatone HQ is in a frenzy! We're trying to get everything perfect for our first releases. Lisa and Sputnik broke their asses getting Michael Bassett CDs out to radio and the distributor last week. I'm wrapping up designs for wax.on wax.off and Visitors packaging simultaneously so we can get 'em both to the printer by Wednesday. Joe Schepis and I are hammering frantically away at the website. (Well... I am; Joe can't ever really be described as "frantic".) Something in the topnav was glitching in Internet Explorer on PCs—perfectly fine on all Mac browsers but fucked on the most popular platform in computerdom. We're a Mac-only shop; last night Crazee Joe had to come by and install a PC so I could check my repairwork.
The Rebellion was in the studio this weekend. Six new tunes will be comin your way in just a little while.
Last time we wrote about how we as a band successfully conquered this crazy new thing called "The Internet". But hey, we wouldn't be Germany's No.1 top-notch new technology band if we weren't continuing to push the envelope. And since the sky's the limit we are now working on our first English podcast! Yeah, you heard right, the Ramones once wanted the airwaves and we now got them. Well, at least somehow or other. Because as one can imagine there are a few problems for a German band about to make its first English podcast.
Obviously first and foremost: the language. Since English apparently is not our mother tongue we now have to find a way not to make complete idiots of ourselves. A task made even more difficult by our not so light accents. Imagine Henry Kissinger, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sgt. Schultz from Hogan's Heroes talk music: "I sink sees new songs vee made is very goood!" "yes, Steffen, I sink vee hit se nail on se head wis sis ones!" "It's better sen Falco!"
Then: What do we actually want to talk about? I mean, let's face it, we can't just plug our great and sensational new album "A Lecture on Geek Mythology" (out on Eschatone Records November 14th, 2006)with its 13 killer songs and the additional US-only bonus track sung in German for a whole show. Band stuff? Hm, who actually cares what we do - half of the time we don't even pay attention to the stories swapped during practice. And most of the time we are talking right out of our behinds anyway. We also can't get into politics because cross-atlantic relations are bad enough as they are without us talking right out of our behinds. Cultural differneces? Yeah, like there aren't already enough lousy stand-up comedians doing the have-you-ever-noticed-that-in-Europe-bla-bla?-routines. (Well, come to think of it, there aren't too many doing that. So maybe there's something we can do in the future).
Anyways, we did come up with a universal topic: girls. It's what we sing about all the time anyhow so why not devote a whole podcast to our favorite subject?
Now all we needed was a cool name to go with it. Girlcast? Podgals? Chickcast?
Then it hit us: Broadcast! Get it?!
Man, do we suck!
thorsten, olli, and steffen
album out Novmeber 14th, 2006
www.eschatone.com
www.waxonwaxoff.de
www.myspace.com/waxonwaxoff1234
As a band we always try to be ahead of the game. Not only musically - we recently added a fourth chord to our repertoire - but also when it comes to bitchin´ new technology. Just after reorganizing our punch card filing system and getting our fax machine hooked up we think we are now ready to spearhead the next hot thing in communications technology: Something we here at the wax.on wax.off-headquarters just refer to as "The Internet".
Way too complicated to be explained here in detail it is this crazy thing where you can hook up with 3 or even 4 computing devices via the telphone line to swap data in large amounts (like up to a whole 5 1/4" floppy disk full of data and stuff!!!). We do firmly believe that this Internet will one day drastically change the entire way we live our lives. Like, once the problem with fitting your whole computing devices in the back of your -by then pobably hovering- car is solved we'll all be able to contact anyone from like anywhere via a payphone and stuff. Just imagine sending huge ASCII based pictures or even small BASIC programs to your friends in even another county from on the road! Way to go future!
That said we are also among the very first to use The Internet for making new fans and friends all over the place. We are dreaming of some sort of an all-virtual-networking-friends-community kind of thing that will let your new amber monitor flash with excitement. We'll probably call it OurSpace or MyRoom or something. We know it sounds all mental and cuckoo at the moment but just imagine a place where you can keep in touch with your old friends and even find new ones that for example appreciate those fancy new graphing calculators as much as you do. Well, we'll make it happen! We really do.
bye for now
thorsten, olli, and steffen
album out Novmeber 14th, 2006
www.eschatone.com
www.waxonwaxoff.de
www.myspace.com/waxonwaxoff1234
This is a test blog, so lets discuss the Mets & the playoff race. The Mets will win the NL East in the next 2 weeks & after that I hope they play the Padres. Once we're done with San Diego, & the yankees (who have become the Braves of the AL) lose in the first round, all the Met haters will officialy join the bandwagon. Dont be fooled. We know who you are. I can still see the Yankee imprint on your foreheads. See you suckers in October!
CART
