For the past few months, I’ve been working on some new theme music for theidiotcast.com‘s podcasts and video content. They have three different categories for their content: the IdiotCast Says, the IdiotCast Plays, and the IdiotCast Reads. I figured each could have the same melody and construction, but be recording using different instrumentation.
First, I used LoopStation on my phone to record a chord sequence and melody idea. It’s a pretty neat multitracking program that Blonski turned me onto. Works surprisingly well for how simple it is. Here’s the raw result:
I figured an acoustic arrangement would work well for Reads, the book club podcast, but that the Plays and Says intros should be different. For Plays, I went with a pretty standard rock sound.
For Plays, the obvious choice was to make it sound like an 8 bit NES chip. I used the peach and toad VST plugins from Tweakbench to recreate the feel being six and sitting on the floor, cursing at Megaman 3.
Finally, I revisited the original acoustic version for the Reads podcast. The video below chronicles the recording adventures!
Buried deep inside a confusing and ill-thought-out labyrinth of directories, I found a treasure trove of melodies and arrangements. OK, there were a few decent ideas and a variety of curiosities ranging from listenable to embarrassing. Still, it’s the journey, not the destination.
If nothing else, it helps explain why we’ve released so little music in the last few years. In addition, it’s kind of impressive that we found a way to release more music while doing even less work than two hour challenges. Just don’t finish the songs. It’s so obvious now.
In 2008, Steve and I decided to follow up 3 Strip Meal with an epic Space adventure. Steve would be the star, naturally, and we would chronicle his journey through two episodes – each handled by one of us. The album was close to completion, but by 2008 Funk Shits and Black Velvet were taking up more and more of our time.
Recording was done mostly independently. I worked from the Black Velvet house in Manchester, while Steve wrote and recorded at the Vienna House in Danbury. We collaborated occasionally, but the music came together with less direct input from each other than we’d ever done previously.
Fun facts: We originally intended on making an episode of the “show” using Adobe Flash. I also created a section of Episode 2 in RPG maker, complete with reverse penguins and a crashed spaceship. Weird!
Steve’s Episode… Episode 01: Steve Blonski and the Rubble Rumble
Plot:
Traveling out beyond familiar territory, Steve stumbles across what he believes to be another belt of asteroids. He gradually realizes that it is in fact a large cloud of space debris/junk, some of which is ships parts and everyday objects from his home world. Within the dense junk Ross Leg, the infamous space pirate, stalks Steve’s ship. Steve is eventually confronted and a battle ensues, his ship is badly damaged, and he is forced to land on a small green planet within the field of garbage.
Steve learns that the planet he has landed on is called [Pleasiness]. He finds it to be none of the sort, as he makes his way through a harsh terrain in search of life. Steve stumbles across the Mother Possum and her temple of confusion. After a series of trials, Mother Possum teaches Steve what he needs to know to defeat Ross Leg and put an end to his junk hoarding.
Returning to space, Steve’s ship now looks like a piece of garbage, partly from his defeat earlier and from decorating his hull with more junk. Confusing Ross Leg by blending in, Steve gets the upper hand and rams his ship into Ross’s, causing their ships to become fused together.
Upon returning home, Steve is commended for apprehending Ross Leg and discovering [Pleasiness], his ship fixed up and good as new.
SBGO Steve’s Intro “Uncharted Territory”:
Steve’s Intro with Vocals:
Steve’s A Section “Drifting Garbage”:
Steve’s A Section with Vocals:
Steve’s B Section “Ross Leg’s Powerful Mallet-craft!”:
Steve’s C Section “Pleasiness Breeds The Monther Of All Confusion”:
Steve’s D Section “Steve Blonski Recycles”
This section has no audio recorded that I can find; I know I had some musical ideas for it, with a kind of back and forth between the heavier style of Ross Leg’s song and the poppy style of Drifting Garbage and the intro. I also had plans to tease a little of the Pleasiness melody in it as well.
Steve’s Epilogue “The Long Ride Home”
Also no audio, but this was to be a recapitulation of the intro music with some variation thrown in, and a more triumphant ending.
Mike’s Episode… Episode 02: Steve Blonski and the Membrane Calamity
Plot:
Steve is investigating the space just beyond the asteroid belt when he is pulled into the eleventh dimension by a spasming membrane! He emerges unharmed and lands on what appears to be Jupiter, only to find it is inhabited by reverse penguins who look like they’re wearing white tuxedos. They take him on an adventure to the center of planet Arctica in order to capture the fabled Equator Bear. The Equator Bear is a legend passed down by reverse penguins. He is believed to be responsible for every disappearance on planet Arctica. Inside the core Steve and his brave reverse penguin guides uncover a terrible secret: the lost penguins have been living inside the planet alongside the Equator Bear in harmony. Not only that, they have just completed creating a gateway through the eleventh dimension. With their help, Steve finds his way back home.
A: To the Stars!
This track finds Steve sucked into a spasming membrane that takes him to the eleventh dimension. The spasming membrane and traveling through spacetime motifs are established. Look for the latter to return in the final track as he returns home!
I was heavy into the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson’s Smileas I was writing and recording is GO!, and it’s evident in the way the songs are constructed from multiple disparate sections. I think I may have also been reading about string theory and m-theory. That doesn’t mean I understood it, though.
As Steve emerges from the portal, he is knocked unconscious only to awake for track 2.
B: Rendezvous with Who?
On the second track, you can hear the smile on my face as I mess with Devin’s gigantic Line 6 effects pedal. The computer-trapped-in-a-echo-chamber sound of the guitar lends this track a distinct sound.
This is the track where Steve meets the reverse penguins and learns of their lost friends. The jam in the middle would have been a montage if this was a soundtrack to a tv show or short film. There’s even some decent sad sounding vocals at the end.
C: With Glix and Plig as Guides, he Travels to the Core
Wailing guitars contrasted with acoustic strumming! Steve ventures deeper to the core of the eleventh dimensional planet Arctica to find Glix and Plig’s lost friends and, hopefully, a way home.
In my lyrics notes, after the line “Glix and Plig, was that you?” I have written “(Chase sequence).” That sounds cool.
D: The Matter of Matter (or: A Bridge in the Eleventh Dimension)
Unlike the other tracks, this one is narrated by the Equator Bear. I tried to differentiate his tone, and he certainly comes off as being boisterous. There’s another montage here when the overdrive guitar kicks in. This time, the equator bear is showing Steve, Glix, Plig, and the other reverse penguins around his lab. The missing penguins are there, working on the machines that will eventually help Steve get back home.
The travelling through spacetime motif returns without the spasming membrane, since Steve went through the Equator Bear’s machine this time. It’s friendlier sounding than the first time, as Steve returns home.
The final section was meant to be credits, and I think I even used a banjo. Fun stuff!
As a way to stay in touch and stay music-talkin’, Jefim, Blonski, and I decided to start a monthly music discussion “group.” The plan is that one person will send a recommendation near the beginning of a month, and then all three of us will listen to it and send along our thoughts. We’ll see where this ends up, but it certainly was fun thinking critically about music and talking about it again!
The first album up for discussion is Painted Shut by Hop Along (listen here or purchase here). Emails are below:
In late 2012, I began recording a followup to Vacation, which I ingeniously titled ii. The resulting unfinished tracks are some of the best recorded and produced that I’ve done. Certainly some potential in a few of these. Not much cohesiveness, though.
AAA: Not sure what these lyrics are supposed to be about. That’s definitely a theme among many of these unfinished tracks. I’m messing around with mixing acoustic and electric here, trying to update the original sound of Vacation. As I continued recording, I realized I missed the raw-ness of the original album. The breakdown on this one loses focus and the drums never received the cleanup work to the MIDI that they sorely needed.
Electric: The beat for this one is a direct ripoff of a Name track. Not sure that I did it on purpose, but it happened anyway. Some of the synth and guitar interplay here is kind of fun, though.
Funk: This track fulfills my urge to play something a little groovier and funkier about once or twice a year before I realize I can’t pull it off without Blonski and Devin. I assume the whistling was a melody idea. Not sure.
Rock Dance: Rock! This definitely doesn’t fit the sound that was defined on the first Vacation release. That album’s sounds grew organically, mostly around the restriction that only one microphone be used throughout the recording. Without that restriction this time, these tracks varied wildly in style. Decent solo-y thing in the middle of this one.
Slow Rock: Looking back on this one, I really like most of the sounds I got out of the instruments. The guitars are crunchy and satisfying, the bass is defined, and the synth layers in the background. I purposely broke with expectations for structure for this track, which gives some parts of it a little bit of a Tool vibe. I think I was looking to channel Rated R era Queens with the ending section. Would’ve liked to see a good singer finish this one – which is why I didn’t bother and it remains unfinished.
Summer Vacation: No bass and some hastily thought out guitar parts make this the least finished of all of these unfinished tracks. Could have been decent, but it’s hard to tell from this early edit.
Meat Without Feet – WPOP scrapped initial sessions:
Track 01: This was the long version of what ended up being “Introduction” on the final album. The “verse” section mirrored the outro track from the original Meat Without Feet album, but it ended up getting cut from the final release.
Track 02: Kind of unremarkable in most ways. Some acceptable grooves, but obviously not much came of it.
Track 03: The first track with some vocals. As mentioned earlier, I have no idea what these are supposed to be about. Meat Without Feet has a vague focus on romantic lyrics (see “In this Town” and “I’ll be There” from the first album), but they’re neither very relate-able nor interesting. The chorus vocal performance is decent and the outro is somewhat interesting.
Track 04: This song was appended to the conclusion of the previous track. I like to think of them as a pair and this was to be a response of sorts. This might be my favorite of the unreleased WPOP tracks. Had I thought of a melody, it could’ve made it to the final release.
Track 05: The vocals on this one are somewhat unlistenable, but I’m glad I was trying to get out of my comfort zone. The lead guitar line in the chorus is pretty neat – both in tone and writing. Most of the lead makes me happy, actually. As long as I don’t think much about the words (which I assume was intended to me some kind of parody?), this track is enjoyable to listen to. The drum parts in the middle and end are fun and the half time bridge-y thing is kind of cool.
The Name remains one of my favorite projects Blonski and I have ever worked on. The combination of samples, live performance restriction, and multiple-meaning-laden lyrics make it one of the coolest concepts we’ve come up with. On the first release, an EP with only two original songs, we explored a few different sounds without knowing exactly where we were headed. This second album was even more groovy and we were pushing what we could accomplish with our live setup.
The Name 2 or The Sequel to the Band: The title of this song perfectly sums up why I love this band. They named a song as the sequel to the band itself. It hurts my brain. It’s also possibly my favorite song we wrote as The Name. Mix one part funky guitar and bass, one part pottery/sensuality, and one part breathy vocals and you get this obvious “single” from an album that was never completed. Luckily, this one was nearly finished and is totally listenable. I think it was only missing a trumpet solo? Maybe?
Blonski Says: "The Name sessions definitely stand out as the most fun collaborative recording endeavor Mike and I have done recently. This track was a strong beginning to a second offering... unfortunately the live performance aspect wasn't realized for the newer material, and we stopped short of another EP. Very fun to listen to!"
The Quench Incident or: We couldn’t even come up with a second title for this one. The rap section would have been epic if we ever did final vocal takes. This one sounds like a combination of Jamiroquai and later-era Parliament. It’s also about the Large Hadron Collider, so there’s that. Worth noting is that Blonski claims to be the “Higga Man.” Be sure to listen for my groan of disgust at the quality of our scratch vocals!
Blonski Says: "Yikes, my rap verse! I really liked our experimentation on this one, and you can hear the fun we had recording the scratch vocals. This was maybe a bit too much to pull off without a lot more polishing, especially live, but if we had it would have been great. Gotta dust off the sampler!"
Here’s the no vocal version as a bonus:
Blonski Says: "Listening to the track without the vocals makes me think the track was a little thin sounding, but we really didn't mess much with playing it live to kinda evolve and 'fill in' the canvas. It grooves though."
In December of 2014, I decided to write and record some tracks using existing poetry as lyrics. I started with “Life is Fine” by Langston Hughes.
Langston Hughes – Life is Fine: The music and arrangement is too melancholy for the true tone of the poem, but it was freeing to not have to worry about writing lyrics. I like some of the harmonies as well, though some more vocal consistency was necessary for the sparse nature of the track.
Song 02: Not sure what this one was supposed to be. Wish I remembered which poem was attached to it. This marks the return of real drum recording too, I think. The guitar work in the second and third sections and the interplay between guitar and ukulele is pretty good. If you listen close in the last part, you can hear my son saying something.
After working on Crossroadsas the band Predicament, Jefim and I attempted to record a few other songs. The idea was that I would write and record most of the music (with Blonski occasionally pitching in on bass) and that Jefim would write and record lyrics, melody, and vocals. With him living in Boston, this seemed like the only way to stay productive. We had two tracks half baked before abandoning the project.
Runner: For this track, I tried to keep things very simple so that Jefim could take the spotlight with his vocal performance. The guitar/bass line changes in each verse to keep things interesting, and it was probably inspired by some Army of Anyone. I think had we polished this one with some harmonies and improved mixing, it could have been pretty decent.
The Traveler: This is me messing with some lead guitar effects. The chorus was supposed to evoke “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart,” which was a favorite of ours from the Black Velvet days.
Bonus version with no vocals, but higher quality and with Blonski pitching in an improved bassline:
I didn’t grab a pic, so this is a depiction of what Predator would see when looking at a band of clay models. Relevant!
My bass hands, they are rusty. These past couple months have been the longest stretch in a while that I haven’t been in at least one group, holding down the low hertz waves.
Slow Blues:
My co-worker Fred and I have jammed occasionally over the years, with a rotating cast of his friends. Fred sings and plays a mean guitar, and even though his musical tastes diverge somewhat from mine, I love getting to learn and play some more old school stuff.
Born On The Bayou:
This time we got together at my place and rocked it with Brian (Guitar and some sick CCR-charged vocals) and Billy (Drums and all around great guy) to see if we could maybe get a thing going, and possibly play out some time. While the results were a little rough, there was a lot of cool stuff in the recordings, and it was really only a first shot together, with no plan or songlist really. Very cool to see everyone kinda lock in a figure out a song on the fly.
Spooky:
Mike had generously let me borrow his 8 track recorder, which worked great! Unfortunately, I took the effect out from the PA for vocals, so the tracks have an ethereal quality sometimes. Balance was an issue too; I had set up 1 room mic, 2 drum mics (overhead and bass), direct in on bass, and the aforementioned vocals from PA. I had hoped to get the guitars pretty good from the room, but it was loud and the mic picked up one guit more than the other. Definitely would direct out or close mic the guitars next time, and if that happens I’ll be sure to share the end product too!
I like playing Steve’s drums and the way that they sound and I like hanging out with Steve. I told him we should do those things. The text messages went as follows:
I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get to his place before 8:30, and so I requested caffeine.
Steve obliged and also had chicken nuggets. Later, we reflected on what could be done better the next time.
It’s not a challenge if there were never any failures. Besides CRAXYBRAIN, a few other one or twohourchallenges have fallen to the wayside and were left unfinished for a variety of reasons.
The first is one written by Jim and I while messing around on my son’s guitar. Sort of a bossa nova, but the rhythm and strumming is a little wonky because both Jim and I played during different sections. In the end, we were out of time, didn’t have lyrics done, and weren’t totally happy with the progress so far, so we let it slip.
The second track is one that I wrote just after Blonski finished Blizzard last winter. I wanted to get back to recording live drums in the style of Vacation, but didn’t want to go through the trouble of setting up my full set. I resorted to using my son’s toy drum set. The results were predictable. Still, I like some of the guitar writing and Blonski’s bass and keys are solid as always.
I still have to get around to mixing down the initial unfinished WPOPtracks, but after that my vault cleanup should be nearly complete. Looks like my house is almost ready for Windows 10 clean installs!
