I drank coffee at 10:30 and blogged the fuck about musical dinosaurs all night.

Well, I guess it's been a few days. Goldangit! has slowly but steadily been cranking out guitar tracks for the remaining two songs (one is finished save for vocal mixing, I will probably be all showy-offy on Thursday or so). Our ghetto drum recording apparatus (apparati? there are multiple thingies after all) has also continued to work successfully and with each day we become proficient at panning, leveling, and other -ings unique to the world of people who push levers around for fun.

Last Wednesday my jazz group performed at NMS's annual winter recital, a short two days after our first gig of the season at the Peabody Museum. If Blogger had a cool little audio insert function I would show off some recordings, but until I find the motivation to get that shit on Youtube you will just have to use your imaginations.

As far as music that I am not directly involved in, two days ago I downloaded the most recent effort by Motion City Soundtrack, My Dinosaur Life. Upon first listen I was more than a little disappointed, but that's what I get for continuing to expect I Am The Movie Part IV when Justin and the gang have created two squeakily-cleanly-produced pop albums since then. In terms of musical progression, this album is an obvious next step down the path that Commit This To Memory and Even If It Kills Me have taken the band. I'll admit I literally laughed out loud at the audacity they had to cram as many cliched pop-punk conventions as they could into twelve songs. However, Motion City's creative streak has not faded completely, and I sense a lot of good singles, if not classics, coming from My Dinosaur Life.

My main problem with this album, though, is the lack of crunchy synth leads that set MCS apart from their peers during the early 2000's. This seems to be a trend with bands of this ilk lately: as the members age/mature/settle down/what have you, the music tends to draw closer and closer to a generic guitar-driven pop rock sound. I had the same complaint about Less Than Jake when they had the balls to release In With The Out Crowd but at least Motion City have retained certain aspects that give them their edge; notably, Justin Pierre's style of witty, observational lyrics has not eluded him in his age of sobriety, and in fact his "new beginning" seems to be the overlaying theme of this album. He references his past addictions and failed relationships in most songs (and alludes to "Indoor Living" among other motifs that have carried over among records) but the pop sensibility is still there. He certainly has a knack for hooks, but it's clear that his preference over the years has shifted from angry minor-key shouts to cheerful refrains that never fail to elicit a head bob or three.

The first single, "Disappear," is a bit of an anomaly for the band. Its heavy, edgy, guitar-driven sound is a far cry from the super-polished power pop that made MCS popular. Personally, I love it, as it's a great example of what a combination of the best elements from I Am The Movie and Even If It Kills Me would sound like.



I haven't decided if these can be counted among my favorite tracks or if they're just too catchy to get out of my head, but "A Lifeless Ordinary" and "Her Words Destroyed My Planet" are definite standouts of the album. The chorus of the former is almost unbearably cliche but the lyrical content and groovy verses save this tune, along with Justin's admirable verbosity.

"Pulp Fiction" is another favorite and the one song on the album that actually has a lead synth hook. "Stand Too Close" is my current #1 for no reason except it's catchy, smart, cute, and just in case Mrs. Frumento gets over her fear of the interwebs, I could really get into it.



I realized that I could easily write a synposis of every damn song on the album, which is ultimately a testament to its pervasiveness despite its tendency to breach the dreaded terrority of triteness. In summation, Justin Pierre's ability to write a clever verse carries this album out of the hole it dug itself by abandoning Jesse Johnson's trademark Moog sounds in favor of lead guitar riffs. I would suggest this album for fans of newer Motion City or anyone who enjoys catchy power pop. I can't say how quickly I'll grow tired of it but I've definitely gotten over my initial reaction of disappointment.

A day's adventures in the basement.

Goldangit!, having been bitten by the "we're graduating in five months, screw high school, let's get famous" bug, has taken on the task of recording a decent sounding demo on a budget of $0. Given that half of us are veterans of the perpetually debt-racked Flu Season, this should be no problem. Unlike Flu Season, though, we've opted to revisit the issue of recording acoustic drums. And this is where most of the work supposedly lies. Open yourself a new tab, cue up your favorite search engine, and type in "how to record drums." The results will invariably mention at least fifty billion Shure microphones (upwards of $100 each), a truckload of soundproofing, and a producer who knows what the fuck they're doing. Goldangit! has none of this.

Things that Goldangit! does have:
-One Toshiba laptop equipped with the finest in free shitware, aka Audacity.
-One Peavey four channel mixer
-One condenser microphone, two dynamic mics (technically three but one is borked), with a boom stand and a... not boom stand.
-More cables, cords, plugs, and adapters than we could ever know what to do with.
-One drum kit

An afternoon spent tinkering with the aforementioned has revealed that unless you're going for studio quality, all the gear we have is all we need! One mic inside the bass drum, one duct-taped to the top of the bass and angled toward the snare, and one centered overhead to pick up cymbals. Switch some switches, slide some sliders, and a decent mix is suddenly attainable! Even Audacity, a program which has endured due to its ease of use and certainly not for its reliability, manages to handle the influx of signals relatively well. I would personally prefer Mixcraft since it has a sleeker design and more mixing options, but carrying a computer tower all the fuck around town is not something that's ever grown on me.

I think our success ultimately comes from the Peavey mixer, which has fared me well for the past three or so years. The controls are minimal but what it does offer is plenty. All that's left to mess around with is panning the cymbals but for an hour of working and three of bullshitting, we managed to accomplish and learn a lot today. Perhaps I'll post another "studio" update tomorrow while drums are tracked and lyrics are written.

And yes, Goldangit! is always stylized with the exclamation point. Might as well try to force some subconscious excitement, right?

Scary Stories To Traumatize Children And Ruin Their Formative Years

Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark is a series of children's books written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Most children of the eighties and nineties are familiar with these books, which include such family friendy gems as "Wait Until Martin Comes" and "Room For One More." But unlike most childhood memories, which induce nostalgia accompanied by either fuzziness (aww, I miss when Daddy took us out for Happy Meals) or embarrassment (track suits were actually a thing?), the consensus of most readers is that these books did little more than send them into a downward spiral of clinical madness. Now, that's not actually due the content of the stories, which are neither scary nor pornographic, but the fucking illustrations. Seriously have you SEEN these things?

Behold the nightmare fuel:


WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS GODDAMN CORPSE BRIDE BULLSHIT, I LITERALLY HAD TO COVER THE SCREEN WHILE I COPIED THE URL JESUS



This was the COVER of one of the books, as in, A BOOK WHICH WAS DISPLAYED IN CHILDRENS' LIBRARIES AROUND THE FUCKING COUNTRY. As in, parents somehow got past this acid-trip-gone-wrong and decided Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark would be totally appropriate for their small child. This image was actually the inspiration for this post, as I am currently experiencing a dramatic reading of its collection of tales.

I'll edit in a video later, but for now I will conclude with the following: This Lifetime drama about a dumb bitch and her alcoholic husband(?) who rape and torture people is actually preferable to previewing this post and having to see Stephen Gammell's horrifying rendition of a goddamn clown tree. So now I shall go be absorbed by what will probably be the subject of my next entry.

Until then, discourage your children from reading!

Goldangit equals...

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Something like that, anyway.

On an unrelated note, the HHS (mis)guidance department seems determined to keep me from getting into college. At least this semester is over. In a week I'll be replacing expository writing (hallelujah) and music composition with Shakespeare and baking! Affectionally nicknamed Shake-and-bake, they will ensure that I have another work-free five months in my non-AP classes.

A Quick Analysis of "Joy Spring"

...And in record time, I've found a surefire way to alienate all three people who might read this!

I'm part of the Premiere Jazz Ensemble at New Haven's Neighborhood Music School. As part of our "curriculum" (we function during the school year) we're required to appear at so many community performances. One of our annual gigs is coming up this Monday, the MLK celebration at the Peabody Museum. In preparation we ran through some tunes at tonight's rehearsal, one of which was Joy Spring by Clifford Brown. Aside from being one of my favorite standards, I became painfully familiar with this song after using it at my Berklee audition last month. The reason I chose it, though, is due to its interesting harmonic structure (and technical complexity on the bass guitar), and since everyone has to be nerdy about something, that's what I'll be discussing now.

The head is an AABA form, really A1 A2 B A1 if you take into account the key changes. It starts with a I7 vi7 ii7 v7 progression in F, then foreshadows the modulation with I7 ii7 iv7 and the addition of an Eb7 which prompts the use of the F dominant scale. Bars six and seven go chromatically back to ii7 (F/A, Abdim7, Dmi7) and finish off the V7 I7. But instead of staying on I for the last bar of the phrase, the key change is anticipated a bar early with ii7 V7 in the key of Gb. This brings us into A2 which repeats the exact same progression in the new key. This is slightly more obvious if you look at the melody, which is the exact same thing moved up a half-step.

The B section is interesting. In keeping with the pattern so far, the B section uses ii7 V7 in G to modulate up another semitone. Rather than repeat the melody again, which by now would be cheap trick on Mr. Brown's part, the progression becomes a cycle of fourths. Simplified (since there are a few "flair" chords tossed in): Gmaj7, C7, Fmaj7, Bb7, Ebmaj7, Abmi7, Db7, back to the familiar Gbmaj7 from B2, and... wait for it... ii7 V7 I7 in F! The final A section is a well-deserved resolution, going back to the original key and finishing out our first chorus.

Joy Spring is not intended to be a complex arrangement (the harmony is enough to handle!) so the solo section simply flows right through the head changes. The out chorus brings us to a coda which plays with the half-step modulation for a couple bars before ending on a nice F9 chord. All in all a good exercise for the novice player, since the overall structure of the changes within each key is diatonic. Recognizing and anticipating the modulations while soloing is what gives this piece its challenge and its character. As my mentor Jeff Fuller would say, "If Brownie writes a tune, you better play it!"

Post Script

I should mention that the URL, flowlesslivingbittertaste, is from a Victor Wooten song called The Loneliest Monk. As a bass player I implore you to check it out.

The beginning (I abuse parentheses).

I'm known for being silently peer-pressured into trendy shiz like skinny jeans and underground hip hop so it was only a matter of time before I made a blog. At least I don't have a Twitter account.

Eleven-days-into-the-new-year-resolution: Don't make this like Livejournal. Emotions don't belong in this corner of the internet.

If this blog has a theme it sure isn't apparent to me yet. For now I'll work on rediscovering my creative writing chops and making some (hopefully) witty observations about life.

For the sake of consistency I'll try to talk about some musical thing within each post. For any strangers who might happen across this page, I'm aiming to make something of myself via a music education degree (currently a high school senior in the middle of audition season, woohoo!) and therefore have no other hobbies. On that note (haha, music pun), my favorite album of the moment is Blink 182's Take Off Your Pants And Jacket. If we ignore their self-titled release (which in my opinion lends itself to a totally different mood than what "traditional" Blink tends to evoke) then TOYPAJ is probably the guys' best balance of creativity and production. The musicianship is much stronger than Cheshire Cat, for example. I'd say it's probably tied with Enema of the State but that album has less nostalgic value so fuck it. The record itself sounds fantastic, as much depth of recording as you can get with four-chord pop punk. Yeah, the lyrics are sophomoric but nobody listens to Blink for intellectual stimulation. They may not have been the first to make incest jokes, but they did it best, and 90% of their current listeners probably only continue to do so because they were the first "real band" they ever discovered back in middle school. If I liked this album for purely nostalgic reasons, though, I doubt I would have spent all weekend listening to it; it's the squeaky-clean-yet-angst-filled production plus the damn catchiness of their hooks that keep me interested in this one.

Remind me never to become a music critic.