So What Am I Doing?

It might seem from this blog that all I'm doing T-mouse-wise is shopping for clothes. It's not true. Every morning I go into my studio and try to sing to a couple of the songs we've recorded.
One issue is that these songs we recorded almost without exception never did have words or vocal melodies put to them. We just played them as instrumentals and figured we'd come up with lyrics and melodies later. One song had a melody with no words. Two songs had both melodies AND words (which really makes them stand out, let me tell ya) and at least two songs had neither melodies or words.
So I'm trying to rectify that. In a song which used to have the name "Thing in A" and now seems to be called "Ice Maiden" I'm having some trouble because I very stupidly decided to do something weird with the phrasing. Well, the phrasing is interesting but it's very difficult to get from the verse to the chorus. And whose fault is that? Oh. I guess it's my fault.
Via.

More Mouse Things, Boots and Jackets

Maybe it's THIS that belongs on my amps.

FC Sutlery makes Civil War reenactment boots. At $210 they're not such a bad price.

I think I already mentioned that BNP does custom engraving of amplifier badges and such. They use lasers! I was thinking it would be amusing to have some Tyrannosaurus Mouse badges made -- to put on amps and road cases and what-have-you.

Sutlery also makes these nice coats. Even fully outfitted you can barely pay more than $300 for one. But the thing is that I really want that Mandarin collar in a cutaway. I really don't want buttons on the front that will scratch the guitar and I want cutaway because I want tails to swish behind me but an open coat will simply be way too warm.

And while I'm going on about random things Samplitude's "strip silence" feature is EXACTLY what you need for cleaning up tom tracks and deleting the parts in-between the tom hits.

Jackets, badges, and lasers

Panzai makes custom jackets. Perhaps they make custom psychedelic jackets.

This belongs on my amplifiers.

BNP Lasers makes custom-engraved nameplates for amplifiers and things.

Hooray for Earth

Speaking of Pitchfork, Hooray for Earth is reviewed on Pitchfork. I've known Noel for... egads... 10 years?

"Surrounded By Your Friends" by Hooray For Earth from Johnny Woods on Vimeo.

Russian Chamber Chorus of New York

For other things that are cool, here's the RCCNY Bandcamp page. They recorded this album long before I became associated with them. The music is beautiful.

Russian music seemed to take a very different course than the rest of Western music in the 20th Century. You'll note that most of the composers whose names you actually know -- or are willing to listen to more than once -- (if you're not a music student) after, say, 1940, are almost exclusively Russian -- Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovitch, etc.

Is it because Stalin hated Schoenberg? Is it because the Schoenberg became too powerful in the West? I dunno. But you'll want to listen to the music at the link above.

The Cooligencia

One problem with music, which is something that I've never really understood (Ha! I never understood music or the following problem) is how much of people's taste in music is based on what they think would be cool to be seen listening to.*
The fact is that nobody's come up with a new melody since the 1920's or so. And arguably all pop music is now actually more conservative than it was even 50 years ago because it's basically all tonal in 4/4 with the accent on the 2nd and 4th beat. The Hot 100 used to be filled with salsa and jazz. I find it difficult to really get too up-in-arms about pop music because after all, it is just pop music. It's all relatively conservative.
There's a difference in the way music can sound, of course. But that's created a culture inside the music-making industry of just making the guitars playing the same three damn chords they've been playing for a hundred years sound "louder" or "more" or "better" or whatever. And sometimes, in some variants of pop music, the kick drum must sound EXACTLY the same. But that's another matter.

The other odd thing though, which is the point of all this, is how much the opinions of other people matter to one's own taste in music. I tend to think that other people's opinions don't tend to affect me, but I suspect I'm an exception. Well, maybe I'm not such an exception because honestly once you're inside the music-making part of the industry you probably tend to listen to a wider variety of music with less prejudice. Or maybe not, I don't know.
What I do know is that "tastemakers" in the music industry (like, say, Pitchfork) are vastly more powerful than the equivalents are in, say, the movie industry. It's much more important to be "cool" in music than in other entertainment fields. So far the imprimatur of "cool" ain't been bestowed upon me. But that's maybe kept me from having a drug problem so far...

Click to embiggen.

In other news, Ethan told me to listen to this Richard Thompson "Put It There Pal" because the guitar seems to be going to a double-amp setup similar to how I've been recording. It sounds great. I was only familiar with his stuff from Fairport Convention. Ethan is cool. Ergo, Richard Thompson is cool.


*I actually knew someone once who would argue for or against different bands based on her opinion about the people she knew who listened to them.

Here's an Example of Awesome Notes

So I made a first - pass temp kind of thing with a song that's now called "Ice Maiden". Here's Ethan's notes:

"I like the melody line for the B section.  I don't think the A (main) section's melody moves enough.  It's kind of static.  

Lyrics are promising.  P'raps some revisions and tune-ups... p'raps not...

Obviously it's a scratch vocal, but in general it sounds like you're holding back a lot.  It doesn't sound natural... like your breathing is not in sync with what you're singing.  Just something to look out for.

More to come...."

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why Ethan is paid the big, big bucks. Those notes are exactly what I need to make the tune work. Now, I'll note here that the singing is stilted because I'm still working out the melodies -- that's why the breaths are in weird places. But the important thing is to betterize the "A" section. That actually shouldn't be too hard to do. It likely involves the vocal stealing some of the keyboard's lines. Ha! That's why it's a band, people! So that different instruments can steal one another's melodies.

Interview with a Vampmouse

Cutaway coats and Mandarin collars are not from the same century.

Past and Present Creations does a variety of "movie inspired" costumes, including Interview with a Vampire (where Tom Cruise has a very interesting frock coat.) I've been looking at a lot of pictures from that movie and I can't figure out what the bottom of Cruise's coat does. I, of course, want that collar but as a cut-away coat.

This IWAV jag I've been on is entirely the fault of Lou Clark. He was the one who pointed out the costume design in that picture as being a possible Tyrannosaurus Mouse direction. Of course, as the drummer, he'll likely want to wear something lighter and cooler on stage himself...

How DO You Do Rock Vocals Without Hurting Yourself?

I don't really understand this WikiHow article.

I think I'm just not going to sing that way.

You and Me and the Labour of Love

Today's big discovery is that the figure 8 pattern on my AKG C12a, inside my tiny Whisperroom, with my voice, and a healthy reduction of 500Hz (somewhat wide) and a reduction of 200Hz (fairly narrow) is what's needed for me.

That, and some Autotune. Look. I'm not proud. Sometimes I'm sharp, sometimes I'm flat. And no, it's not set to be terribly aggressive with that vocoded "I'm a 16-year-old-pop-star" sound. But it do make my notes more in tune. And it's either autotune or me sitting and doing it manually* and you know that's no fun.
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I really liked Frente. I actually saw them opening for They Might Be Giants in Philadelphia sometime... back in the olden days.
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*Or practicing, and you know that's not going to happen.

I'm reaching into the depths of boring now

Here is my desperate attempt to make Tyrannosaurus Mouse a 16-track band. It won't work. It won't work mostly because there are separate "overheads" from "room microphones" and the toms are on different tracks, as well as the hi-hat and the ride being on separate tracks. We could comp the toms to two tracks but that really only saves one track. We wouldn't bother comping the ride and the hi-hats together into stereo because they'll still take up two tracks so why do it?

We ARE going to comp the dang rhythm guitars and right now the bass takes up three tracks. Personally I like the three bass tracks just mixed all together straight up. But if I don't run that by the bass player he'll put out a contract hit on me. You'll notice that even with the comp tracks listed below we still need tracks for things like vocals and lead guitars and possibly solo keyboards or what-have-you. So we'll be doing nigh on 20 or up to 24 tracks. But 24 tracks is absolutely where I draw the line. No more. If we do that it'll take forever to mix and we just don't have the time.

1. Bass comp
2. Stereo guitar comp L
3. Stereo guitar comp R
4. Keyboard L
5. Keyboard R
6. Kick comp
7. Snare comp
8. Hats
9. Ride
10. Tom 1
11. Tom 2
12. Floor
13. O.H. L
14. O.H. R
15. Room L
16. Room R

Via.