Pro Tools problems and solutions. | Setlist | Current Pedalboard
2024 (6th album done. On to 7.) 121024 Johnny Marie music getting
plays this week on
Tony Ross Radio and
Oak Grove Radio 98.5 FM.
120924 Bobby on The Sound Labs
Spotify Playlist.
120324 I was talking to someone
(Italian) who was wreslting
with the defining the genre
for one of my songs. He
asked about influences
and I shared a lengthy list.
He replied: "There are
millions of sound worlds in
your artist head!"
Thank you Indie Planet for sharing Bobby on your playlist.
120224 Girl for Samson's
Winter Mourning out now.
120124 Evaluate 29 will begin
rotation on Radio Wigwam's
BANDwagon show starting
this Wednesday.
112924 Another AI summary
of your humble narrator:
Musician
Johnny Marie is a rock
musician with songs like
"Evaluate 29",
"Irene Ironweed", and
"Sweet, Soft Gollum".
Their albums include
Sweet, Soft Gollum and
Blind Cat Missing. You
can listen to Johnny Marie
on Spotify and Apple Music.
Songwriter
Johnny Marie is also the
name of a Kansas City
songwriter who has worked
with artists like The Real
Flower Pots, The Lonesome
Petunias, Girl for Samson,
and Big Perm
112824 Set up the Ludwigs in
my recording space.
Tuned and towled.
112624 Had dinner at Tom's
before jamming most of
the night.
Our reharsals are 50%
playing stuff we know
really well and 50%
trying to re-learn songs
from our discography.
Jerry always wants to
play stuff from Land Ho,
the last album from our
catalog that he didn't
play on.
112424 Obliged to Warrior Radio
for playing The Man Who
Kills the Ants.
112324 New Girl for Samson song
You Better Run now up on
Bandcamp and Soundcloud.
112524 Appreciate Prospect Radio for
playing Evaulate 29!
112224 Irene Ironweed on Lonely Oak's
New Music Show today along
with Girl for Samson's
Cigarette.
111824 And to Radio Wigwam for
sharing Evaluate 29.
111724 Thanks Warrior Radio for
playing Jackson Browne
and Lonely Oak Radio for
putting SAURO! in rotation.
111624 Some of the new AI
Overviews are humorous.
These aren't bad:
Johnny Marie
Kansas City songwriter
Johnny Marie is a songwriter from
Kansas City who has written songs
for artists such as The Real Flower
Pots, The Lonesome Petunias, and
Girl for Samson.
Johnny Marie
Alternative/indie musician
Johnny Marie is an alternative/indie
musician with songs like "Evaluate 29",
"Irene Ironweed", and "Sweet, Soft
Gollum". Their albums include Sweet,
Soft Gollum and Blind Cat Missing.
You can listen to Johnny Marie's music
on Spotify and Apple Music
110524 I'm checking out
Done for the day
I'm going to move my team to L.A.
I'm checking out
Down for the day
I'm going to drive my Ford to Norway
No matter what I do
I'm still scared of you
110224 Anacrusis. You can't
imagine how affirming it
was to discover a word
that describes my habit
of creating melodic lines
that start on the upbeat
before the 1 of a measure.
Upon further reflection I
realized that it is a
common practice with
Frank Sinatra, Paul
McCartney, Stevie Wonder,
Elvis Costello, Marvin Gaye
and Elton John. Hey 1,
I'll get to you when I get
to you.
110124 Thank you again to
underground and college
radio for playing Evaluate
29 from Sweet, Soft Gollum.
These kinds of Thank You
posts are often thinly
disguised self-promotions.
I think this one is too, but
the gratitude is heartfelt.
102930 Boisterous rehearsal. I have
all of my guitars off site in
non-standard tunings so every
rehearsal with my EBGDAE
Jazzmaster is like being
reunited with an old friend.
102624 Still grinding out music, friends.
Waiting to sort out some
technical issues and settling
on who we want to mix and
master the finished product.
In the interim there is a lot
going on with Girl for Samson
and The Real Flower Pots.
101224 No more Real Flower Pots posts
here. Copied everything to-date to
RealFlowerPots.com
092424 A joyful Petunias session. Played:
Adorable Deplorable
Who Is This Plumber?
Little Something
We Don't Do That
You Set It Off
The Cats of Summer
Long Dry Walk
Land Ho
Ordinary Guy
It's My Island
092324 Two new Girl for Samson songs out today: One Pass and Get Off That Stake.
091724 Bit of inventory. Songs for
new JMLP album:
Adorable Deplorable
Everybody Does It
Lethal Portions (close)
The Last Moth
Laundry Day (close)
Merry Blaze (close)
Open Sack
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
Swimmer's Shoulders
Who is this Plumber?
June Trilogy
091624 Pigeon Falls out now.
The Real Flower Pots getting
plays today from
The Scene with Pretty Boy
and
The Local Show on Warrior Radio.
091324 Got the final mix of Pigeon Falls
from Patrick. I had a dream
about this song on the 12th of
August, started work on it on
the 13th and it is finished on
September 13th. Will get
a master and release early
next week.
091224 Got a 2nd Pigeon Falls mix
from Patrick. Sent him a
few minor revisions.
090324 I discovered Pentangle from
their live performance of Wedding
Dress. Listened to the album
on the way to rehearsal and was
underwhelmed. It did inspire me
to go dig up Winter Song by
Lindisfarne which reliably leads to
tears. Jane Siberry (Bound by the
Beauty) and Petty Lee (Mirrors) are
also reliable if I ever need to do a
tear test in order to get a job.
The Mournful Begonias went deep
into the catalog this evening. Lots of
Green Piano stuff.
Boyfriend
We Don't Do That
Christian in July
Merry Blaze
Everybody Does It
Hats Off, Extraordinaire
That Doesn't Turn You On
Swimmer's Shoulders
083124 Got a mix of Pigeon Falls back
from Patrick. It turned out great.
082924 Thanks KKFI for playing The Real
Flower Pots' God's Horn.
Sent Patrick Fake as Straw (from
Jam #9) for Real Flower Pots. I
added words, melodies and a few
synth parts. He's going to sort out
the arrangement and then make me
come up with a chorus.
082824 Send Patrick DEFACE for Real Flower
Pots. This was built from all of
my discoveries during my obsession
with the DFEACE tuning.
Added a verse to Pigeon Falls.
082724 Thanks to The Scene w/
Pretty Boy for spinning The Real
Flower Pots' Holiday last night.
Some of Danny's friendscame to hang
out during "practice". Always fun having
interesting people around.
082524 Added bass and drums to DEFACE.
082024 Petunias sessoin. Dave brought fried fish
and beer. What does your bassist
do for you? In addition to food and beverages
he gave me a line to a GFS song when he was
singing gibberish to Dolemite. I always hear
something in gibberish and walked away
with "more cheap than tight." Does your
bassist bring you fish, beer and lyrics? You
may want to consider upgrading.
081924 Sent Pigeon Falls to Patrick yesterday for Real
Flower Pots but now I am agonizing over "pews of
sleepy proles" vs "rows of sleepy proles".
081724 Got a middle-of-the-night verse for Pigeon Falls.
Pretty much have it finished. Need to add a few
more vocal takes and tinker with the drums
but will send to Patrick on Monday. Sent him a
reference file today.
081624 Words and vocals for Pigeon Falls bridge.
Found out that Jason Beers used a Behringer
Super Fuzz on The Man Who Kills The Ants.
Patrick also used one on the outro of Oily
Rainbows.
081524 Added a bridge to Pigeon Falls.
This is an unverving act but I
almost always survive it. I think
it came out really well. Added
piano solo, acoustic guitars, bass,
conga (back of classical guitar)
and vocals. I think this song
is too far along to make it a
Real Flower Pots production.
081424 I dreamed the a chunk of a
song a few days ago (Pigeon Falls)
and as always tried to capture
the spirit of it in Pro Tools. I
rarely get the feel of the dream
but I always get something.
Patrick helped with me some
MIDI connectivity issues so
now it's all plonky, sparky and
tinkley.
081324 Added better bass and acoustic
guitar takes to Pigeon Falls.
081124 KC radio station KKFI playing
something from The Real
Flower Pots on 08/29/24.
080924 Decided to celebrate my
birthday by getting some
JMLP and other jams that are
on my phone set up as songs
in Pro Tools. Session-70,
Session-76 and Deface now
share a birthday with me. I
love you guys.
080624 Dug up more old stuff. Played
Rattle, The Green Piano, Wrong
Star, Long Dry Walk, Shut Up
You Crazy Diamond, Land Ho,
Repeat, The Cats of Summer,
Gardenaire, Adorable Deplorable,
Lethal Portions and The Man Who
Kills the Ants.
080124 Had a sleepless night which
was useful for coming up
with better words for Drain
the Last of the Sand.
073124 Patrick working on Quatro.
073024 Fun JMLP practice.
Celebrated our 2 Leo
birthdays.
072824 Spent a couple of days on
Drain the Last of the Sand.
Spent most of today on the outro.
Sent it to the man who has to mop
up after me.
072624 Added melodies, bass and
percussion to Drain the Last of the
Sand and sent to Patrick for
feedback.
072424 Started on Real Flower Pots
song #6 currently titled Sound
Hold but soon to be titled Drain
the Last of the Sand.
072324 I lost my voice after we started
with nothingood but it slowly
came back after a few songs. I
learned that when this happens
to continue singing but go soft
until it comes back.
Mark came by to watch. It's
always nice when someone is
there because we focus better.
Set up distribution for what will
tentatively be titled "Here Come
The Real Flower Pots".
071724 Holiday is available for
doing stuff to right this very now.
071624 Heard the final mix of Holiday
Should have the master tomorrow.
Worked on melodies and synth
stuff for song #9. This will likely
go on the 2nd album.
071324 Finally got the drum machine
sequencer talking to one another
and sending audio to the DAW.
A triumph and a waste of time.
071224 Patrick sent me a rough mix
of Holiday.
071124 Look Who's Come to Call out
now.
071024 Got the final mix for Look
Who's Come to Call from
Patrick. Should be out
this week. May also have
Holiday out in the next
week or so. These are
really good songs.
070924 Rehersal cut short by the
cops. No, really.
070824 The Scene is playing some
Real Flower Pots music on
their show tonight.
070724 Strained my limbs trying to get a
bunch of MIDI devices to talk to
each other AND to communicate
with Pro Tools. Some losses, some
victories, and some victories that,
for reasons unknown, became losses
again.
070224 Saturnine is available for streaming
and downloading.
Patrick will start on Holiday next.
Fun JMLP rehearsal right up until
my Jazzmaster died.
Decided this morning that it makes
sense for me to finish all of the Real
Flower Pots stuff I have on hand
before starting another solo album.
And finishing all of the Real Flower
Pots stuff I have on hand I shall do.
Started on song #9.
070124 Saturnine will be the next Real Flower
Pots release.
"Of a person: having a tendency to be
cold, bitter, gloomy, sarcastic, and slow
to change and react."
063024 Sent P. a mix of Saturnine with my
new parts added. Let the hand-wringing
begin.
062924 Got inspired and recorded some alt
drum and bass parts for Saturnine.
Also add some jumpy piano.
062724 Patrick sent me Saturnine (this was
Ravioli in my unfinished songs box) to
consider for any additional parts.
Thank you Barry Lee and KKFI
for the spin. Every time somebody
plays Dingus
on the radio grumpy Thomas gets a .
valentine.
062624 KKFI's Barry Lee always puts together a
fun mix of local artists for his playlists
but this one is especially meaningful to
me. Lots of brothers, sisters, cousins
and neighbors in this lot of weirdos. If
you miss Thursday night's show you can
always scramble off to the archives for a
few days after.
"Homegrown music at it's finest with new
tunes and music from the vault. Artists
include Jason Beers, Chris Hudson, BCR,
Johnny Marie, Parlay, John Greiner, The
Jubilee Mystics, Todd Wiseman, Til Willis,
Action Man, Grumpy, Mr. Marco's V-7,
Psychowelders, and more......"
https://www.facebook.com/events/1002158794841939
062524 On 07/11/21 a neighbor with Irene
in her name came by to get some
Ironweed plants. Later, I had to save
bit of music and, as always, I had
to dream up a title on the fly. Came
up with Irene Ironweed as a memento
of the day and a nod to Syd
Barrett-era Pink Floyd. The woman
with Irene in her name contacted me
on the weekend about some Baptisia
and I sent her the link to the song.
isn't that kind of fun? I think it is.
062424 I'm circling the airport:
JMLP: waiting for Daniel to get
the studio set up and are inactively
in search of someone to mix and
master what we've already finished
and what there is to do. Much of it
is COVID era.
JM: Patrick is choked with songs
so waiting until we get more of
the Real Flower Pots stuff out to
resume writing. My phone is
clogged with ideas!
RFP: Patrick is working on some
of his contributions and mixing
mine.
GFS: We still record bits every
week but again, Patrick is backed
up so we still have things from
a few years ago waiting to be
tidied up and released.
Summary: Don't bother Patrick.
He's super busy.
061524 I use a gitchy/synthy pedalboard
with Girl for Samson. I've revisited
a couple of pedals that I initially
had a hard time getting sensible
sounds out of - The SuperEgo+
and Syntax Error. Spent more
time with the manuals and
added expression pedals and am
now well-inspired. Now I need
to spend some time with the EHX
Mainframe.
061224 God's Horn now
available on SoundCould.
061124 I bought a Boss SL-2 last weekend.
That and this stupid DFEACE
tuning are about to make me go mad
with bits. Do I make a 20 minute
song out of this barrel of bits or do
I make 4 reasonably-sized songs?
060724 First Real Flower Pots single
"God's Horn" available today
exclusively on BandCamp.
060624 06/27 KKFI's Signal to Noise
will be playing something
from the Johnny Marie
catalog along with a track
from Grumpy. Thomas was
the bassist in Grumpy and
later became a member of
Girl for Samson and also
played on several Johnny Marie
tracks including White Girl,
Wake for Wanderers and
Gardenaire.
060524 Got a mix of Look Who's
Come to Call back from P.
052824 Did random things from
our catalog just to keep
fresh for a possible
summer performance.
052224 Got the first God's Horn mix
back from Patrick.
051824 I have a lot of songs stuck in
post. When I have songs
stuck in post I stop recording
music. When I stop
recording music I get blue. I
was especially blue yesterday
but had a delightful burst of
song sales right at the end
of the day. That made me
less blue. I still won't record
but at least I'm a different
color. Or shade.
051724 It's painful listening to past
recordings. All I hear are
my influences. I would like to
think that I have finally found
my own "voice" but I'll wager a
future review will prove me
wrong. I wonder if Burton
Cummings feels this way.
051424 Allen Johnston in town for
a hang and a sit-in tonight.
Had a great time with
Allen and Jerry switching
back and forth. Heinz
hung out with us for
the evening.
050724 Rehearsal with Joelle,
Michael and Stephanie
in attendance. Next
week Allen Johnston
and Heinz will be hanging
out. After we left the kids
sat around and watched
one of our last Colonial
Gardens performances.
050424 Still trying to find a legible
recorded performance of
I Be Safe. Popped in 3
different Big Perm/Guttersnipes
tapes from 1995 and they
ALL started in the middle
of takes of I Be Safe but
with NO VOCALS.
Delicious irony.
050224 While pawing through a
mountain of Boxes of Love
performance and rehearsal
tapes (looking for a missing
line in I Be Safe) I was
repeatedly startled by a
data cassette for either
the Roland TR909 or
MicroComposer.
043024 Started work on one of the
DFEACE songs. Going with
Sonny Philip's Magnet Box.
I check Spinitron for
Johnny Marie radio plays
now and then and without
fail the search results
include "Baby Don't Hurt Me"
by David Guetta & Anne-Marie.
The performers explain a
portion of the results. The
real answer is in the
clunky list of writers, which
includes both a Johnny and
a Marie:
Akil King
Anne-Marie
Rose Nicholson
Coi Leray Collins
David Guetta
Dee Dee Halligan
Ed Sheeran
Feli Ferraro
Johnny McDaid
Junior Torello
Mikkel Cox
Steve MacTobias
Frederiksen
There are more
contributors to this song
than I have albums as a
Girl, Petunia AND a
Real Flower Pot.
042924 Unweildy pile of ideas
using DFEACE turning
and freshly learned 9th
chords swaying in my
head fruit.
041224 Did a bit more editing
on God's Horn and sent
a V3 mix to Patrick.
041124 Bravely added a 40
measure bridge to
God's Horn . It was
terrifying and exhilarating.
040824 Danny and I got
together and cobbled
some chords together
for a song.
040524 First mix back for
God's Horn . This is
going to be glorious.
Started fooling around
with some 9th chords.
Tenatively titled Here
Come the Ants.
Scheduled some time
with Danny to write a
song ala Seven Little Eyes.
033124 Sent Patrick the session
for Real Flower Pots
song #6 - now named
Storm Shelter #6 after
adding some alt takes
of bass, lyre and lap
steel.
Girl for Samson "12"
and "sleepnovox"
remixes available
everywhere tomorrow.
032924 Added lyre, bass,
cabassa, hi-hats,
snare, lap steel and
lyre to song #6
currently titled
Shelter Jam #6.
032824 Added a xylophone,
lyre, set of triangles
and a pair of UFIP
hi-hats to the arsenal
today. I have fantasies
about worming my
1970s blue sparkle
Ludwigs back into my
space. I don't think I've
used them up here since
I record the drums for
juiceboxberries.
032624 JMLP session.
032524 Sent Patrick the session
for Real Flower Pots
song #10 - now named
Look Who's Come To Call.
That puts 3 of his that I
fleshed out in the queue:
God's Horn
Holiday
Look Who's Come To Call
and he is in various
stages of completion
with 5 of mine.
032424 Getting after RFP #10.
This is one Patrick
knocked off in a day
but was never moved
enough to come up
with a vocal melody.
One of the advantages
of not having much of a
melodic range AND not
being a perfectionist is
that any collection of
3 to 5 notes is enough
to inspire me to the
mediocrity you've come
to love and deserve.
Added vocals, classical
guitar and harmonica
and sent him P. a mix
before I write words and
get better takes of things.
032324 Recording whistling is
hard. Your lips go dry
straight away. Such a
neato and historically,
under-utilized
instrument though.
Especially in "modern"
music.
032224 Came up with lyrics in
like 3 seconds for RFP #12.
which is now Holiday.
Sent a copy to my comrade
for review.
032124 Added loads of hand
percussion to RFP #12.
Also added a lap steel
and sampled a didgeridoo
for some warped
melodies.
032024 Sent P. my ideas for
his Real Flower Pots
demo DFAM-fun.
031924 The Mournful Petunias
began sorting out The
Last Moth, Open Sack
and Swimmer's Shoulders
for recording soon. We
already have ready-to-mix
versions of Merry Blaze,
Laundry Day and Lethal
Portions and Jerry is
managing the production
of Who is this Plumber?
This would leave us with
just Adorable Deplorable,
Everybody Does It and
Shut Up You Crazy
Diamond to record and
finish to have a 10 song
album and finaly be shed
of all of our COVID-era
compositions.
031524 Started on another
Real Flower Pots song.
#12, I think. Trying to
find an inspiring melody
using an instrument that
only has 4 note holes.
031424 I've written, recorded and
released over a hundred
songs the last 20 years
with another 20 ready to
start on or nearly ready
to be mixed. That seems
like a lot but it's just 6.75
songs a year.
...and for all of the Where are
the lyrics people:
Lyrics.
031324 Sent P. the God's Horn session.
Came home from a GFS session
with the famous Roland GP-100
that The Girls used exclusively on
"12".
031224 God's Horn: Re-sang everything
and started the process of trying
to get better recorder parts.
Tracked the bass recorder right
before a Petunias practice.
031124 Sent Patrick a mix of God's Horn.
031024 Blind Cat Missing now
on Spotify & Pandora.
030924 Blind Cat Missing now
up on YouTube, Apple Music
and Amazon. Still waiting on
Spotify and Pandora.
Started fiddling with vocals
on Real Flower Pots
Groove 3. Added cello,
viola, recorders, bells,
banjo and classical guitar.
Bought a nice recorder set
that included a soprano
and bass for sugar on top
later this week.
Note to future self: research
how to stop Pro Tools from
incrementing the input channel
assignment every time you
create a new track.
Note to future self: buy viola
dope.
030824 Blind Cat Missing available
everywhere tomorrow.
Starting work today on Real
Flower Pots stuff. Groove 3,
for the record.
030724 Fiddled with some sampling
using Structure. Fiddled
with recording with Boom.
Fiddled with recording the
Sire. Fiddled with getting
my cello up to code. Made
a fiddle out of a two liter
coke bottle and a dust
pan.
Got a pile of beautiful grooves
from Patrick for Real Flower
Pots.
030624 Real Flower Pots songs are
officially in progress. My
demo Ravioli is currently
under construction and I'll
be starting on something
new today.
030524 Patrick sent me the mix of
Irene Ironweed. Made a
few revisions and then ran
it by Chris Ruzich and Jerry
Riccardi. Once I get the
master Blind Cat Missing
will go live on BandCamp
and I'll submit everywere
else later today. And I did.
Had the joy of playing
Blind Cat Missing to the
Lonesome Petunias for the first
time. I don't get to witness
a lot of face to face first
listens so this was very
rewarding.
030224 Blind Cat Missing track order:
Irene Ironweed
Dingus
Tsunami
Lighthouse Eve
I Can Walk
030124 Started setting up Blind Cat
Missing for distribution. This
will be the 3rd release in a row
that will only be available
electronically. No vinyl or CDs
printed. Feels vulnerable.
022824 I've been struggling with the
Blind Cat Missing artwork.
I stumbled upon a wonderful
photo yesterday and bullied
it into a square this morning.
022724 First Petunias session in a
few weeks.
022624 Irene Ironweed in Patrick's
hands.
022524 Mr. Muzich slipped over early
to do Irene bass parts.
022424 Sent Jerry Who is this Plumber?
tracks.
Scheduled Chris Ruzich for
Monday night for Irene bass.
022224 Tsunami available now.
022124 Imported Jerry's drum tracks
for Irene Ironwood and sent a
mix to Chris Ruzich.
Comped Dave's bass parts.
Will get some better vocal
and guitar takes and send the
whole Plumber mess (9:54) to
Jerry this weekend.
Patrick indicated that he thinks
Tsunami will be completed
tomorrow.
022024 Dave coming over to track bass
on Who Is This Plumber.
Got drum tracks and finger snaps
from Jerry for Irene.
021924 Added some melodic bits on a
slightly over-driven guitar to
Plumber to give it some more
life.
021824 Another day working on Plumber.
021724 Worked on sorting out Plumber
for much of the day.
021524 JMLP are gonig to do a "live"
version of Who Is This
Plumber? but I also want to do
a studio take so I've been fleshing
out my demo intro a proper song.
Dave is comong over next week to
track bass.
021324 Gave Chris Irene Ironweed for bass
once I get drums back from Jerry.
020924 I Can Walk available
now.
First two responses:
"Damn...an 8 minute long song. You feelin all right?"
...and:
"How the hell did you make an 8 minute song
without an extended guitar solo? Oh, I see -
words and stuff."
020624 A wobbly effort until we did
The Man Who Kills the Ants
and the rarely played Glad to
Pass On. Funny how a song
or songs can light a fire.
020224 Thank you to Scott Stanton
and KKFI for playing Failure
to Rise. Every time somebody
plays Failure to Rise on the
radio an angel is disappointed
by the film adaptation of their
favorite book.
Was poking around in the
mountain of demos and found
a sweet little instrumental I
may try to squeeze onto
Blind Cat Missing as credits
music. This will likely push
the completion date into late
March or even early April.
020124 SAURO! now available on:
Spotify
Pandora
Apple
Amazon
YouTube
012924 Pronounced sow-row.
012624 SAURO! the album is
now availble for streaming and
purchase on Bandcamp. Rest
of the world soon. Onward to:
Adorable Deplorable
Everybody Does It
Lethal Portions (close)
The Last Moth
Laundry Day (close)
Merry Blaze (close)
Open Sack
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
Swimmer's Shoulders
Who is this Plumber?
012524 Thank you Signal to
Noise and KKFI for the
spin. Every time
somebody plays Dingus
on the radio Thomas gets to
eat some of his grandmother's
angel food cake.
Done with Tsunami.
When Jerry is done
with Irene Ironweed this
little monster will be out
of my hands and I can
start nurturing a new
monster.
012424 Still fiddling with
Tsunami.
Found a "demo" of
Everybody Does It
that was made from me
singing over a live
jam with the obligatory
unrelated outro tacked
on. I love it. Will sort
out the words tomorrow
and sing a proper take.
012324 Added a lyrics and credits
display to the site.
This will be useful when
we are re-learning old
songs. It also shows
me how often I start
lines with "So," and
reference mothers.
012124 Ground away at Tsumani.
Got a few keeper vocal
takes, sorted out the outro
and tidied up all of the
tracks. This song along
with Lighthouse Eve,
Dingus, Irene Ironweed and
I Can Walk will be released
as an approximately 30
minute EP by Spring. It
will be titled Blind Cat
Missing.
011324 Sorted out the lyrics
for Tsunami and
recorded some good
takes. Just need to
have something sexy
happen in the outro and
I can get this to Patrick
when he finishes I Can
Walk.
011224 I try not to work under
headphones on the day
before and after live
performance/rehearsal
so did some Tsunami
editing using the
monitors.
011124 Dave brought spring
rolls to practice.
That did not make
anyone sad.
011024 Going to get after
Tsunami today. I need
to shorten it, come up
with an alternate melody
and develop something
sexy for the outro.
100924 Sang more takes of
Irene Ironweed.
010424 Thank you, DJ Mason.
I feel like every time a radio
station plays Beat Box Caveat
Thomas eats some wings.
010324 Sent Jerry Irene
Ironweed.
Resuming work on
Tsunami with the first
objective being replacing
the temporary line "dick
inside a donut and you
see that's all it took" with
something a bit more
coffee table-friendly.
010224 No keyboard player with
the sacred scrolls tonight
so of course we went
lawless. Re-learned Three
Bells and took a couple of
stabs at Sink Down.
Had a chat about how to
best resume recording
the balance of the album
we have rotting. Looks
like six left that are
waiting for flesh:
Adorable Deplorable
Everybody Does It
Lethal Portions (close)
The Last Moth
Laundry Day (close)
Merry Blaze (in Patrick's queue)
Open Sack
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
Swimmer's Shoulders
Who is this Plumber?
...and for the record, here
is what's has been finished:
SAURO!
Dolemite
Ring of Stars
Failure to Rise
It's My Island
No Limes
010124 Irene Ironweed, Tsunami
and I Can Walk are now
2024 releases.
2023 (WHAT??? We're STILL rehearsing and recording 6th and 7th albums!) 122923 Thanks to KKFI's "The Real
Deal" with Mike Lytle and
Rick Dodderidge for sharing
our music last night. I feel
like everytime a radio
station plays Reach Around
an angel wishes it had its
business back again.
Irene Ironweed Angst
Actually put all of the rock
instruments on one bus
and the disco on another
so that I can A/B them.
Once I am done with Irene
it's off to Tsunami, which
is only unfinished because
I ran into the same struggles.
122623 One of those rehearsals
where we dig up stuff we
no longer play or have
never played. We fooled
around with Reach Around
for a while. I think when
I constructed that song I
imagined it being like a
song about a dance like
The Mashed Potato or
The Watusi. "Everybody's
doing the Reach Around
lalalalalala."
122423 Struggling with a groove.
Whenever I meet people I
ask them if they can sing.
If they indicate that they
can't because they have
pitch issues I always tell
them that if you can hear
that your notes aren't
lining up with what you're
listening to then it is
curable. I need to heed
my own advice.
122323 Worked on the pianos and
re-cut the guitars in Irene
Ironweed. B6 to C#6 is
what has been eluding me.
Sent Terry Gann a mix of
Am Again for pedal steel
and whatever other bit of
loveliness he wants to add
to it.
122223 Thanks to everyone who
tuned in to hear our show
on KKFI. We're still
fine-tuning how to get
5 instruments and 5
voices to sound right in
that studio. Next time will
be better from the start.
Special thank you to
Keith Washburn who
relentlessly interfaced
between us and listeners
throughout the show (handing
notes to Dave so that he
could adjust things mid-song)
so that we could tweak levels.
That was beyond the call of
duty. I am told that it was
working pretty well by the
2nd hour.
Another thank you to Mike
Evans for suggesting songs
for the setlist.
See you somewhere soon!
Recorded Music for Set-up
It's Your Thing (Land Ho)
Falstaff (juiceboxberries)
White Girl (Gardenaire)
Land Ho (Land Ho)
Set
7 Little Eyes
Ordinary Guy
Dolemite
Who is this Plumber?
Little Something/It's My Island
Sauro!
The Cats of Summer
Blue in the Veins
No Limes/You Set it Off
Ring of Stars
Repeat
nothingood
Recorded Music for Tear Down
Beat Box Caveat (The Green Piano)
122023 I don't know where I have
credited some of the album
cover photographers so I'm
going to do it here:
juiceboxberries - Walter Wade
Her Bows - Walter Wade
Gardenaire - Vernon Dale Stanton & Doris Jean Stanton.
Land Ho - Walter Wade
The Green Piano - Dave Scwiercinsky
Sweet, Soft Gollum - (Kapoho, HI) Unknown
William G. Cox's photographs
were used for many of the
single covers.
121923 Had a band fried-fish dinner
and then sorted out Thursday
night's setlits and logistics.
121823 Got slide parts from Danny
for Irene Ironweed and mixed
them in.
121723 Recorded final vocals for
Irene Ironweed. Should be
able to turn this over to
Patrick and got back to
finishing up Tsunami by
Christmas.
121223 Sent Danny Irene Ironweed
for some slide guitar. Still
tweaking lyrics, drums,
piano and other parts and
learning how to sing it.
Fine tuning our setlist for
next Thursday on KKFI.
120923 While digging around in
the seed bag I re-discovered
Irene Ironweed and am
committed to bullying it into
a song after I am done with
Tsunami.
Re-cut guitars with a
Nashville tuned acoustic.
Wrote and sang words and
harmonies. Recorded
drums and piano. Fucker
just needs some tidying up
and it's ready for Patrick in
4 months when he's done
with I Can Walk.
120823 Sent some partial songs
to someone to develop
for a collaborative project.
Am Again
Brand New Guitar
Cherry
Pox
Put the Bins Out
Quatro
Ravioli
Shrinky
Sound Hold
Supper Pie
Teeth Filed
Turkey (Chris Ruzich)
120723 Dingus available now.
This little jig was considered for
Girl for Samson's "sleepnovox"
but we already had a nice pile of
songs so it was abandoned.
Started over from scratch a few
years ago and got Patrick to
grab a shovel and chip in and
this is the result. Trivia:
Thomas came up with the chord
progression for the outro. Later
Mike Tankersley learned that part
but made the chords minor and
we turned that into "Blue in the
Veins" on "Gardenaire".
I had never heard the word Dingus
before when I was composing the
song. I had found a striking picture
of a custodian at a High School
named Mr. Dingus and stored it
away in the back of my skull
cantaloupe. I think Nelson Muntz
referred to someone as a dingus
in a Simpsons episode after the
fact.
120623 Working out acoustic,
electric and pre-recorded
sets for 12/21 on KKFI.
120123 Started over on drums and
bass for Tsunami. Finally
got it feeling better. It's
scary deconstructing
something with the hope
that you will improve it,
but maybe you won't.
112923 Talked a bit about what
we are going to do on
KKFI in a few weeks.
Settled on a vague
combination of our recorded
music mixed with acoustic
and electric sets of live
music.
Still hammering away on
Tsunami. Recorded more
drums and keyboards.
Starting to subtract some
parts. Still need words.
112823 Tsunami starting to feel better.
Added some vintage synths
and an intro. Also different
approach to singing it.
112723 More bass takes for Tsunami.
112523 Took at stab at drums and
bass for Let Her Run and
Tsunami.
112423 Doing an hour set at Tom's
tonight. Setlist:
June (cha cha cha)
The Man Who Kills the Ants
SAURO!
The Cats of Summer
Seven Little Eyes
Who is this Plumber?
No Limes/You Set It Off
Wrong Star or Little Something
Had to raid my larger
home pedalboard for the
tuner and Spark for a
little board for these mini
shows. This way I can
leave one at the JMLP
practice space and the
two at the Girl for Samson
space.
Decided to pop open Let
Her Run to work on at the
same time as Every Night.
Took a shot at a couple of
tracks of drums and
implemented a piano part
I worked up on the Fender
Rhodes at practice while
everybody was talking.
112323 Started workon Every Night,
soon to be re-titled Tsunami.
Cleaned up the mixes
directory, which had songs from
the new Girl for Samson album,
the Lonesome Petunias, Sweet,
Soft Gollum and the current
Johnny Marie solo album. Did
the same with some of the Pro
Tools session folders.
112223 Sent Patrick "I Can Walk"
(formerly known as "I Can
Walk").
112123 Danny's neice and nephew
were at our practice and
bounced on a ball (in time
with the music) at my
elblow for most of the
evening. I tried to also
jump in rhythm (during
non-singing moments)
as a show of solidarity to
the delight of my heart
and dismay of my knees.
111923 I said that and then put
6 more hours in on it
including fixing
annoyances and adding
horns and wah-wah.
111823 Finished I Can Walk.
111723 Finally have the music
sorted out for I Can Walk
and now only need to
compile some takes
and write and sing some
lyrics. Shooting for
getting this 8 minute
season of depression to
Patrick on the 20th.
111523 One of those rehearsals
where we are vulnerable
to donig cowpunk and
polka versions of the
catalog. Also dug out
a bunch of songs we
never play including
Reach Around, Sweet
& Low and Beatbox
Caveat. Also ran
through some of the
that is mired in
recording limbo which
includes Leathal
Portions, Swimmer's
Shoulders, Open Sack
and Last Moth.
In fact, let's just
document what's left to
record:
Lethal Portions
Laundry Day
Lethal Portions
Who is this Plumber?
Open Sack
The Last Moth
Swimmer's Shoulders
Everybody Does It
Merry Blaze
Merry Blaze is in Patrick's
queue.
Already recorded:
No Limes
Doelmite
SAURO!
Failure to Rise
It's My Island
Ring of Stars
Doing an hour set next
Friday at Tom's.
111423 Sweet, Soft Gollum is
finding its way back
to streaming platforms.
Should be everywhere
by the end of the week.
Sweet, Soft Gollum on Spotify.
Sweet, Soft Gollum on YouTube.
Sweet, Soft Gollum on Amazon.
Sweet, Soft Gollum on Apple Music.
Sweet, Soft Gollum on YouTube Music.
Sweet, Soft Gollum on Pandora.
101223 More drum work on I
Can Walk. Coming
together nicely.
101123 Re-submitted Sweet,
Soft Gollum to streaming
services.
Worked on vocals and
drums for I Can Walk.
Doing an hour set at
Tom's Bar & Grill on
Friday at 9 PM.
101023 Made strides with I Can
Walk. Have vocal
melodies and harmonies
down. Just need proper
words, replace Simmons
drums with acoustic and
add some jizzy jazzy
spices here and there.
Patrick is working on
Dingus so I should have
this one ready to go by
then.
Heard back from the
distributor. The issue,
as I suspected, was
with crediting the songs
as Johnny Marie with
Patrick Meagher and
Johnny Marie with
Jason Beers. Also
discovered that Thomas
Hill is going to suddenly
start getting pennies a
month for Rattle due to
an oversight on my part.
God bless him and his
offspring.
110823 Distributor still hasn't
sorted out the Sweet,
Soft Gollum on Spotify
issue. Meanwhile months
go by and I'm still not
getting my .0000004 cents.
110723 Short rehearsal and then
ate a rack of ribs that Dave
bought. Mark was in
attendance.
Getting beat up by I Can
Walk. It's 7 minutes long
with multiple time change
markers. I want to remove
the first section and
whenever I do it throws the
balance of the song in
disarray.
110323 First Johnny Marie track
from 2nd solo album
Lighthouse Eve available
for download and
streaming.
Patrick is mixing Dingus
next. Dingus was a Girl
for Samson song that
never saw the light of
day - mostly because of
resistance from Thomas
who was never fond of it.
I think Allen drummed on
this version.
110123 After working on
Bobby we ran through
some stuff from our
old sets that we no
longer do like That
Doesn't Turn You On,
Christian in July and
Mother. I guess that's
mostly stuff from The
Green Piano. We
still do You Set It Off
and Seven Little Eyes.
Lighthouse Eve is
nearing completion.
This will be the first
song from the 2nd
Johnny Marie solo
album.
For some reason
Sweet, Soft Gollum
didn't take at Spotify
so it's being
re-submitted by the
distributor.
103123 No Limes available for
download and streaming.
102923 I post this for my own
amusement. I found a
little noise that I liked
and knew there was a
specific song that I've
had on the stove forever
that would benefit from
it. I couldn't remember
the working title so I had
to go through everything
in my ideas folder (and
brother I tells ya I have
a lot of ideas) to try to
unearth it. I found a lot
of bits that could be
finished for my next solo
album during my search.
That list is below, including
the song that I was looking
for which I found last. I
actually listened to it
during the search but I had
tacked on an intro at some
point that I didn't recognize.
Cherry
Click Like
Every Night
Everybody Does It
Expression Petals
Fat & Nappy (ideas)
Gneecough
I Can Walk
Irene Ironweed
Joint
Let Her Run
Old Clothes (ideas)
Pox
Quatro
Shhhfrost
Two for Tangles
Turkey
When the Money
102723 Did a 20 minute set at
Tom's. The Man Who Kills
the Ants, Who Is This
Plumber?, 20,000 Days
and Seven Little Eyes -
possibly exhausting songs
from our catalog with
numbers in the title.
102523 Started work on covering
Bobby. Just ran through
all of the parts.
Jesse hung out with us.
He was a drummer with
Dave and Jason Curteman
just before JMLP was
born.
Had a good meeting with
Jerry. Talked about
reversing the way we are
currently recording drums.
102023 Talking to some Lawrence
bands about sharing bills
there and here in the late
winter early spring.
101823 Sent Patrick a couple of
edits for No Limes.
101723 The beast looks confused
and is swaying unsteadily.
Will it recover? Will it
fall? If it falls, where
will it land?
101623 Got the first mix back for
No Limes. Now circulating
amongst the team
members.
Patrick was OK+ with the
drums on Lighthouse Eve
so upward and further
upward and also onward
if nothing bad happens.
101023 Met Reba and Paul at
rehearsal. Paul sat in for a
few classic Johnny Marie
songs.
100923 Cleaned up Lighthouse Eve
and am ready to make it
Patrick's problem.
100823 Dear Johnny or whatever,
Whenever the rhythm
sounds fucky in your
recordings mute the
acoustic. It's always the
acoustic.
100723 Recorded the final lead
vocal takes for Lighthouse
Eve. Will clean up and
send to Patrick on Monday.
Song 1/X for the next
Johnny Marie solo ablum.
100323 Hammered the dents out
of Swimmer's Shoulders.
It's tough re-learning songs
we haven't recorded yet
because there's no reference
point. A quality moment
when Dave said that he
thought I was singing
"apropos" instead of
"Boo Radley's toe".
100123 Got after Lighthouse Eve
this morning.
Experiemented with some
different rhythms and
added a new bass part.
093023 There are two tracks on
Sweet, Soft Gollum that
are credited as Johnny
Marie with Someone -
Patrick Meagher and
Jason Beers specifically.
I didn't realize that this
would cause a wrinkle with
digital distribution but it
certainly has. Any track
with a second artist in the
credits gets shoved into
the Various Artists
category. Fortunately I
fumbled the setup and
had to resubmit everything
resulting in Patrick and
Jason's names appearing
on what I consider lesser
tracks. This means those
songs show up correctly
and the lesser songs
disappear into Various
Artists oblivion.
092523 Finally got around to buying
the second Crystal Skulls
album which immediately
pays dividends when I hear
a kick/snare combo that I
need for something I'm
working on.
092223 Didn't like the Rolands
so am trying a Simmons
kit with some upgraded
heads/triggers and kick
trigger. Finally got them
set up and the latency
sorted out so that I can
starting trying to track
toms, kick and snare with
them. Starting on a tricky
song which is ill-advised
since I haven't lain wood to
skin in quite a long time.
091923 Added Wrong Star and
Long, Dry Walk to the
set.
Current setlist:
Little Something
Repeat
Seven Little Eyes
Who is this Plumber?
Ordinary Guy
Ask
Ring of Stars
Laundry Day
No Limes/You Set It Off
The Cats of Summer
Dolemite
Failure to Rise
nothingood
On
It's My Island
Sauro!
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
20,000 Days
Capers
Trashbag Launderette
Wrong Star
Adorable Deplorable
The Man Who Kills the Ants
Wrong Star
Long, Dry Walk
091823 Took the Roland drums
home from the studio. I
think we used these to
develop drum parts for most
of Harriet.
091623 Re-working Lighthouse Eve.
I think it's a good song but
there is some bit of poison
that's spoiling the taste.
090523 A short list of versions of The
Man Who Kills the Ants.
The Sad Petunias learned The
Man Who Kills the Ants and
relearned Adorable Deplorable.
Current setlist:
Little Something
Repeat
Seven Little Eyes
Who is this Plumber?
Ordinary Guy
Ask
Ring of Stars
Laundry Day
No Limes/You Set It Off
The Cats of Summer
Dolemite
Failure to Rise
nothingood
On
It's My Island
Sauro!
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
20,000 Days
Capers
Trashbag Launderette
Wrong Star
Adorable Deplorable
The Man Who Kills the Ants
090123 There are a few free download
codes from last night's show
still available here.
If the code you have chosen
has already been redeemed just
grab the one below it.
Albums include Sweet, Soft
Gollum, The Green Piano,
Land Ho & Gardenaire.
083123 Did an hour set on KKFI on
Keith Washburn's show.
Earlier in the day Barry Lee
gave 20,000 Days a spin on
Signal to Noise. What a
great resource for local
artists.
Setlist
Little Something
Repeat
Seven Little Eyes
Who is this Plumber?
Ordinary Guy
Ring of Stars
No Limes
Dolemite
Sauro!
083023 It's My Island should be out
tomorrow. First new JMLP
track since the end of August
2022.
082923 Last rehearsal before doing
a live set at KKFI on
Thursday. We timed a
fistful of songs so that we
can make educated
estimations about what
we can get away with
playing.
082723 Set up to play outside but
the rain wouldn't give us a
break so we moved everything
inside the chuch and set up
again. Did Little Something,
Repeat, Seven Little, Eyes,
Who is this Plumber,
Ordinary Guy, Ask, Ring of
Stars, No Limes and The
Cats of Summer. Shannon
did a couple of Joni Mitchell
songs with the band at the
end.
082323 Did a few songs at Tom's Bar
& Grill tonight. Played Little
Something, Sauro!, Repeat,
Seven Little Eyes, Ring of
Stars and Who is this
Plumber? Carl Cherrito sat
in with us.
082223 Quality rehearsal. Added Land
Ho, Wrong Star and Ask back
to the list.
Little Something
Repeat
Seven Little Eyes
Who is this Plumber?
Ordinary Guy
Ask
Ring of Stars
Laundry Day
No Limes/You Set It Off
The Cats of Summer
Dolemite
Failure to Rise
nothingood
On
It's My Island
Sauro!
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
20,000 Days
Capers
Trashbag Launderette
Wrong Star
081923 Doing a few acoustic versions
of JMLP songs with Danny at
the Brookside Farmers Market
at 10 AM. Dave ended up coming
and Shannon played a melodica
so we nearly had a full band. Did
Seven Little Eyes, Repeat,
No Lines and Who Is This Plumber?
Doing another short set next
Wednesday before doing a two
hour set in Olathe on Sunday and
then a one hour live set on KKFI
the following Thursday.
081723 Sent Patrick It's My Island.
081523 Sweet, Soft Gollum on YouTube.
Sweet, Soft Gollum on Amazon.
Sweet, Soft Gollum on Apple Music.
Sweet, Soft Gollum on YouTube Music.
Sweet, Soft Gollum on Pandora.
Second birthday celebration
rehearsal in a row so more
pizza and more pies.
Planning on doing a few JMLP
songs with Danny at the
Brookside Farmers Market
the 19th. Will also do a
couple of songs with a full band
at Tom's Bar & Grill on the 23rd.
Our last outing was 10/09/21 at
Gaslight Gardens.
081123 Submitted Sweet, Soft Gollum
for digital distribution after a
revision to Oily Rainbows and
Show Me Your New Contacts.
Now working on new Girl for
Samson and The Lonesome
Petunias albums.
080923 Sweet, Soft Gollum now
available on BandCamp. Should
be available everywhere else in a
few days.
080823 Excellent rehearsal as we try to
build back up 2 hours or more of
original music to perform at the end
of the month.
080723 Off with the Ropes mixed and
available for amusements.
080623 Sang some harmonies for
Its My Island.
080523 Sang a bunch of lead vocal
takes for Its My Island.
080223 Tracking listing for the album
Sweet, Soft Gollum:
Sweet, Soft Gollum
Bobby
Evaluate 29 with Patrick Meagher
The Cats of Summer
The Man Who Kills the Ants with Jason Beers
Rattle
Gulch
The Blue One
Kitchen Matches
Show Me Your New Contacts
Off with the Ropes
Oily Rainbows
080123 Added more staples to the
live setlist. Playing longer
between breaks.
073123 Began working on finishing It's
My Island. Need to add some
more vocals and comp a bass
part.
Listened to a little of Lighthouse
Eve to see what specifically is
keeping me from finishing it. No
answer. It's a decent song.
073023 Started the process of distributing
the album. Sent two revisions
to Patrick for Oily Rainbows
and Show Me Your New Contacts.
072723 Got The Blue One back from
Patrick. Ready for consuming!
072523 Ran through the set. I missed
last week because I was sick
and forgot about 30% of the
chords to the songs.
072123 Got The Man Who Kills the Ants
back from Patrick and it's wonderful.
He's now mixing The Blue One.
071723 Playing a private event on the 8/27
and a live set on KKFI on 8/31.
071123 Having a longer must-do setlist
is already paying dividends. We
get through more material every
session than we did in the past.
I can tell because my arms are
noodles and my voice destroyed
the next day.
071023 Added flesh to the demo for
Two for Tangle.
070723 Gulch available for streaming/purchase now.
070323 Lengthened the Must Do Weekly
set to include:
Who is this Plumber?
Sauro!
Seven Little Eyes
No Limes/You Set It Off
Ring of Stars
Repeat
It's My Island
Laundry Day
The Cats of Summer
nothingood
Capers
On
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
Failure to Rise
This gets us almost two hours
of live material. We're well
rehearsed on staples like:
Land Ho
We Don't Do That
Little Something
Sultan Eyes
Dolemite
20,000 Days
Hats Off, Extraordinaire
Billy Corgan's Cadillac
NowHere
Merry Blaze
Gardenaire
Maryland Mansion
Ordinary Guy
Trashbag Launderette
Wrong Star
which gets us into 3 hour
territory.
Songs you may have been
familiar with when we were
playing out regularly that we
no longer know:
That Doesn't Turn You On
Christian in July
Blue in the Veins
The Green Piano
Kitty Can
The Kids are Alright
One More
Three Bells
062923 I recently found a thrift store that
consistently produces the kind of
yield that my friends in the UK are
always sharing. Got a lovely pile
of CDs today that included
"The Shape of Jazz to Come" by
Ornette Coleman which immediately
got two full listens. On the other side
of the rainbow I was left puzzled by all
of the love that the Jesus & Mary Chain
get for Darklands.
062823 Petunias rehearsal. Listened to Miles
Davis' tribute to Jack Johnson on the
way. Dave has found us a live poportunity
the weekend of August 25/26.
062423 Listening to Barry White, Curtis Mayfield,
Neutral Milk Hotel, Charles Earland,
T. Rex, Joe Jackson, Philip Glass,
Morrissey, Dream Syndicate, Tracy
Chapman, This Mortal Coil and so on.
062123 Petunias rehearsal.
062023 Going to comp vocals in the cover
I'm working on with Jason Beers and
send it off to Patrick to sit in the queue
behind Gulch.
061923 Got some fuzz guitars from Jason.
Tracked a dozen more vocals. Recorded
some cymbals.
061823 Got bass, keys and banjo from Jason.
061523 KKFI's Signal to Noise playing new Girl for Samson today.
061423 Practicing at Danny's again. The team members are starting to get itchy to go play somewhere.
061223 25 O'Clock is spinning Bobby on on June 24th and 26th. 100.9 on the FM dial if you're in Ontario.
061123 Being in the middle of finishing
3 albums seems like a great time
to start working on a cover. Finally
got it fleshed out with a scratch
vocal to send to Jason Beers for
some earthy Beeriness.
060623 Acoustic JMLP rehearsal.
060523 25 O’Clock is going to play Bobby on their June 24th show with a repeat broadcast on June 26th.
060323 Obsessing over Connie Converse and
Thomas Hill.
Committed to the artwork for The Blue
One and Dingus.
060223 Kitchen Matches available today.
Started working on recording a cover.
060123 Barry Lee played Bobby today on KKFI's
Signal to Noise.
Got the first mix of Kitchen Matches back
from Patrick.
Current status update:
MIXED JMLP
Sauro!
Dolemite
Failure to Rise
Ring of Stars
MIXED SOLO
The Cats of Summer (solo)
Show Me Your New Contacts (solo)
Evaluate 29 (with Patrick Meagher)
Pheromone Beanie (solo)
Oily Rainbows (solo)
Rattle (solo)
Sweet, Soft Gollum (solo)
Bobby (solo)
Kitchen Matches (solo)
Gulch (solo)
The Man Who Kills the Ants (with Jason Beers)
The Blue One (solo)
BEING MIXED
Dingus (collaboration)
No Limes
Merry Blaze
Its My Island
PROCESSING
Lethal Portions
Laundry Day
Lighthouse Eve (solo) - vocals, bass
TO DO JMLP
Who is this Plumber?
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
Open Sack
Adorable Deplorable
Swimmer's Shoulders
The Last Moth
June
Everybody Does It
The Salty Way
TO DO JM
I Can Walk (solo)
Irene Ironweed (solo)
Expression Petals (solo)
Every Night (solo)
Cherry (solo)
Let Her Run (solo)
052823 Still listening to jazz, reggae, vintage afro
funk and stuff from the 4AD catalog. I'm
not smart enough to steal anything I'm
listening to, but seeds are being scattered
so ideas will pop up later and I will swear
in a court of law that they are my very own
precious.
052223 A very special Monday night session before
a short break. Adding Swimmers Shoulders
to the must-do list. Cats of Summer coming
along nicely.
052023 A friend bought a statue for my gardens at
an estate sale so I drove out to pick it up.
She indicated that the sale was still going
today and that everything was half price so
I bopped over hoping to find some CDs (I'm
especially interested in jazz right now) or
yard tools. I poke around for 5 minutes and
then walk into the living room where a guy
has compiled a stack of 30-40 CDs, leaving
about 8 in the stand. I started talking to
him and discovered that THEY WERE ALL
VINTAGE JAZZ AND HE WAS JUST BUYING
THEM FOR THE CASES! Now, I can dig
that as I have bought lots before just to cull
the cases, but they were like holiday and
novelty CDs - not Miles Davis, John Coltrane,
Dave Brubeck and Charles Mingus. He
graciously let me pick what I wanted from
his pile, rejecting any offer of payment or
any other compensation. Imagine that.
051823 Lovely review of Gollum:
"Ethereal sound scapes put to a Eastern
European waltz style beat . Good melodic
singing, almost chilling but warm at the
same time. Very European in approach.
Good, even mixing. Overall a win."
051723 We had a guest (Mark) watching our
rehearsal so everybody tried a little
harder. Ironed out the major transition
in Who is this Plumber? Spent some
time on Windy, That Doesn't Turn You
On, Laundry Day, Merry Blaze, Repeat,
20,000 Days, The Cats of Summer and
Sweet & Low. Found a new bit for The
Salt Trilogy.
051623 Finished The Blue One & Off with the
Ropes and submitted them to the
mixing queue.
I thank the fat angry sky whale every
day that I'm not a perfectionist.
051523 Sent Patrick Gulch. Going to try to
finish The Blue One by the end of the
week.
051423 Same some Gulch takes using the Kermie
voice.
051123 Bobby is out today.
I'm not sure I can do any better than this.
Johnny Marie - Vocals, Keyboards, Guitars
Chris Ruzich - Bass, Vocals
Leon Kopilevich - Piano
Jerry Riccardi - Drums
Bill Ryan - Guitar
Dave Storms - Percussion
051023 After getting the staples out of the
way we went rooting around the
catalog. Started working on
The Cats of Summer.
050923 Recorded more vocal takes for
Gulch and The Blue One.
Listened to:
Betty Davis - They Say I'm Different
Lee Scratch Perry - Return of the Super Ape
John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band
050723 Felt like I was lazily falling into some
melodic patterns so sang some more
takes of The Blue One and Gulch.
050623 Listened to:
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall
Mingus - Ah Um
Return to Forever - Light as a Feather
Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera
Dolly Parton - Jolene
Dusty Springfield - Dusty in Memphis
Soft Machine - Third and Fourth
050523 Listened to:
Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
Booker T & the MGs - Green Onions
The Jam - Snap!
Eno/Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Eno - Another Green Planet
050323 Did our 5 song set and then
ran through random selections
from the archives, including:
Windy
Trash Bag Launderette
The Salt Trilogy
Parasol
Gardenaire
On
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
050223 Sent Chris Ruzich new reference
files for Lighthouse Eve.
050123 Still trying to catch up on music
I've overlooked. Recent purchases:
Eno/Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
Cavarn - In the Land of Grey & Pink
The Byrds - The Notorious Byrd Brothers
Big Star - Big Star
Fleet Foxes - Shore
Betty Davis - They Say I'm Different
Dusty Springfield - Dusty in Memphis
Kevin Ayers - Original Album Series
Soft Machine - Fourth
Lee Scratch Perry - Return of the Super Ape
Dolly Parton - Jolene
Miles Davis - Birth of The Cool
Chick Corea - Light as a Feather
Thelonious Monk Quartet at Carnegie Hall
Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band - Plastic Ono Band
Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
Brian Eno - Another Green World
Alice in Chains - Dirt
Pulp - Different Class
Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera
Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger
Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing
Jethro Tull - Living In The Past
The Ramones - Rocket to Russia
Derek & the Dominos - The Layla Sessions
Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
Mcyoy Tyner with Stanley Clarke and Al Foster
Stereolab - Sound-Dust and Dots & Loops
Wire - Pink Flag
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Nuggets II - Original Artifacts from the British Empire & Beyond 1964-1969
042023 Jerry sent me some backing
vocals that he had done for
Failure to Rise that had somehow
escaped my attention when we
finishing it, so the parts never
made it to the recording. I'm
going to see if I can do something
fun with them, a kind of Failure to
Rise Reprise. If. You. Will.
I listended to a batch of the latest
stuff and found myself wondering
why everything had to have quirk. I
remember Dave Gregory saying that
he felt like sometimes Andy Partridge
sabotaged what could have been
commercially accessible songs by
adding quirk. I wondered if the
reason why songwriters (myself
included) add quirk is so that you
can't be compared to bands that
have excelled at a specific genre.
Criticism would be easier if you
were comparing my compositions
with just Miles Davis or Carly
Simon or speed metal or modern
country. There is a code.
In pursuit of:
Joe Meek & The Blue Men - I Hear A New World
Betty Davis - They Say I'm Different
Faust - The Faust Tapes
Al Green - The Belle Album
Herbie Hancock - Sextant
The Homosexuals - The Homosexuals' Record
Kevin Ayers And The Whole World - Shooting At The Moon
Alvin Lucier - I Am Sitting In A Room
The Modern Lovers - The Original Modern Lovers
Hugh Hopper - 1984
The Human League - Being Boiled / Circus Of Death
The Residents - Satisfaction
Sun-Ra And His Astro Infinity Arkestra - Strange Strings
042023 Listening to:
Dr. John: GRIS-gris (so good!)
Prefab Sprout: Two Wheels Good
Genesis: Foxtrot
PJ Harvey: Rid of Me
Pulp: Different Class
041923 Listened to Gardenaire (album)
on the way to practice. It's
a really good record.
041423 New song day:
Sweet, Soft Gollum
041323 Listening to:
Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding
Spin Sampler from 1996
Suzanne Vega - Nine Objects of Desire
Parliament Funkadelic - compilation
Was struck by the snare drum
tuning, recording and playing on the
1996 stuff. It all sounds the same.
Looked around the web for someone
who shared my perspective and found
an article about how the assy
soundning drums were a reaction to the
over processed drums from the 1980s.
There was an art director at a
marketing firm I worked at back in the
day who dismissed Dylan as "king's
new clothes".
It's interesting where one looks for
reward sin a scenario where rewards are
few. Last night Jerry and Dave were
proudly listing the other bands that come
up when they play us on Spotify/Apple
etc. Frank Zappa after Windy made
Dave especially happy.
041223 Faithfully did our 5 song set before
playing around with the discography
the rest of the evening. Spent some
time learning Windy.
040923 Got Kitchen Matches drum tracks
back from Jerry.
040823 Had another go at bass parts for
Lighthouse Eve. I always forget how
inspiring new strings are.
040723 Listening to
Tom Waits - Mule Varieties
Billy Preston - Compilation
Marvin Gaye - I Want You
STP - Core
Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs
Fiona Apple - Tidal
Tim Buckley - Happy Sad
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
The Allman Brothers - Eat A Peach
Ultra Bra - Vesireittejä
on tap:
Blur - Parklife
Buffalo Tom - Sleepy Eyed, Let Me Come Over
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Son Volt - Straightaways
Flaming Lips - Hit
The Pretenders - Learning to Crawl
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
Brian Eno - Discreet Music
The Libertines - Up The Bracket
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
033023 Danny, Dave and Jerry are on
KKFI tonight talking about the
10,000 bands they are in and
playing some selections from
The Green Piano.
032923 Lighthouse Eve needs a proper
bass part and Chris is tied up
so time to put new strings on the
P-bass and practice counting to
4.
We missed an opportunity to do
a live set tomorrow night because
our rehearsals consist mostly of
randomly picking stuff from the
nearly 80 song catalog to either
play, learn to play or re-learn to
play - so we never really have
anything prepared. We tried
starting with a setlist 4 months
ago but it got too unweildy. So,
we decided last night to just
pick 5 songs that we make sure
we run through every week so
that we have the guts of a list
that we can get through and
still have time to go exploring.
We chose:
Stinker
Who is this Plumber?
Seven Little Eyes
Ring of Stars
No Limes/You Set it Off
The last song was mostly for
You Set it Off because that
song can be attached to any
other song, which we intend
to do.
032223 We missed a couple of weeks
of rehearsal so we were pretty
rough (lost my voice in like 30
minutes) and my freshly strung
Jazzmaster wouldn't stay in tune
so this session does not get a
gold star.
Patrick is currently pretty
overwhelmed and we still have
tons of songs that need to be
mixed and mastered so we
talked about some alternatives.
Jerry played me a mix of his
drums on Kitchen Matches.
Marvelous! This was the last
song that needed drums. Just
need bass for Lighthouse Eve
and some better vocal
performances for the remaining
songs and then I can send
the balance to Patrick.
031823 Current input:
Miles Davis - On The Corner
Gene Clark - No Other
Curtis Mayfield - Curtis
Maria Muldaur - Maria Muldaur
Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker
Gilbert O'Sullivan - Himself
Genesis - Nursery Cryme
Marvin Gaye - Trouble Man
Marvine Gaye - Let's Get It On
Moby Grape - Listen My Friends
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
My workout generally ends (out
of boredom) before the end of
the first track on On The Corner.
Really dig the Gene Clark album.
It sounds like Pink Floyd in a
country band.
031623 Sent the now-available
Jerry Kitchen Matches.
031523 Got drum tracks from
Jerry for The Blue One.
031123 Got drum tracks from
Dave Storms for
Lighthouse Eve.
030123 Spent the evening listening
and playing along with
Gardenaire and Land Ho.
I usually don't listening to
my stuff once it is finished
so there were lots of fun
surprises.
022823 Thomas loved
Gardenaire and would
often tell me that there
wasn't a stinker in the
bunch. I hate to admit
it, because it was nearly
three albums ago, but
he is probably right. It
is one of our most played
albums. Also the album
with the fewest tracks if
you don't count
juiceboxberries which
streaming services
consider an EP. So, with
that in mind I have
determined to not just
release every recorded
and mixed track for the
solo album, just because
they are recorded and
mixed. I have 8-10 that I
think are the best and
that's what will end up
together on the album.
Look at me with something
bordering on a conviction.
022623 Spending too much
time on the lead vocal
for Gulch. I have an
associate who plays
Paul in a Beatles
tribute band we were
talking about the songs
that he does in a Kermit
voice - see Get Back.
So, not being afraid of
small adventures I gave
it a try. Results are
intersting but man its
hard to control your
voice with your throat
all knotted up.
022523 Current state: 100
recorded ideas, any
single one worth
developing into a good
song. 100 songs to
finish up and send off
for mixing. 100 days
left on the planet. 100
devices with recorded
ideas, any single one
worth developing into
a good song in plastic
bags destined for a
landfill..
022423 Finally got around to
developing the Giallo
guitar melody I originally
heard in Spain.
022423 Still agonizing over the
lead vocal for Gulch
Took the sick Jazzmaster
to Mathew for new jack
and switch.
022223 Added a bit to The Salt
Trilogy and came up with
another little chord sequence.
Ran through Plumber, It's
My Island, Hats Off,
Extraordinaire, The Last Moth,
Parasol and Stinker. At the
end my Jazzmaster conked
out so off to Matt's it goes.
Got a rough mix of Kitchen
Matches back from Patrick
and promptly sent it to Brad
Buckner for drums.
Listened to In Rainbows for the
1st time. Over the weekend I
listened to Boz Scaggs' Silk
Degrees and Gerry Rafferty's
City to City for the 1st time. I
did not film my reaction for our
YouTube channel.
022123 Still tracking vocals on Gulch.
021923 Sang more takes of Gulch.
Patrick tends to mix my vocals
higher that I do so I hear nuances
in his early mixes that I missed
when tracking. Trying to listen
to isolated vocals before sending
now. "You don't know what pain
is!"- Buffalo Bill.
021823 Got Gulch cleaned up. Just want
to sing one more take tomorrow
before handing it off to Patrick.
He is currently sexing up Kitchen
Matches for Drums by Brad.
021723 When I get a notion, a series of
chords or a sound that I think are
interesting, I will dash off a
recording and save it for a rainy
day. I have to make up a name
when I save it so I quickly come
up with something topical or
nonsensical that may change
when the idea is developed or I
may build the words around it
if it is inspiring. I have a folder
with maybe 30-40 of these bits
just waiting to be planted and
watered.
When I decided to make a solo
album I knew it would be comprised
of songs that might grow from these
seeds, songs that I had mostly tracked
but not finished and brand new ideas.
Sweet, Soft Gollum was one of these
idea songs. I did not keep the original
title. The original idea was just a
rhythmic classical guitar and a dreamy
slide guitar part. I was knocked out when
I heard it again a year or so after getting
down the idea. Not because it was
amazing, it just did not sound like
something I would typically come up with.
It was more sparse and feely. It was
felt foreign and everytime I heard it I was
certain I had stolen it from somewhere.
Yesterday I listened to it a dozen
times as I was cleaning it up to go to
Patrick for mixing. I sent it off and then
a few hours later had an overwhelming
deisre to listen to John Barry's Follow
Follow from the film Follow Me!/The
Public Eye. I was in the middle of
watching a another movie when the
notion struck me and planned to go
dig it up as soon as we were finished.
20 minutes later it started to dawn on
me that there was a similar feel
between Follow Follow and Sweet,
Soft Gollum, especially if you strip
SSG down to the essential bits. Not
the melody or instrumentation, just
the vibe. This is why the demo
sounded so familiar to me.
I was really moved by how this
revelation came to me so organically
and it absolutely justifies my current
obsession with listening to as much
unfamiliar music as possible because
at some point some bit of somebody
else's magic will wriggle free and
become mine.
PS I finally figured out that the
similarity is some wobbly noise
Barry used and my slide part. They
serve the same purpose.
Follow Follow
Tidied up Bobby and sent it to Patrick.
021623 Sweet, Soft Gollum sent to
Patrick.
021523 Dave played us some stuff
that he had recorded in the
past. Also listened to my
solo releases thus far.
Had a good rehearsal
running through Corky Finds
Something, Who is this Plumber?,
20,000 Days, We Don't Do That,
Mars, Repeat, Now Here and
Tambourine.
021423 Rattle now available for
streaming/download.
Allen Johnston - drums
Daniel Button - electric piano
Dave Scwiercinsky - bass
021223 Got tracks from Jerry
for Bobby, Gulch, Sweet,
Soft Gollum and Off with
the Ropes. The Blue One
is just around the corner.
021123 Chris Ruzich generally
records his bass parts
first and then the song
gets submitted to a
drummer. He's always
wanted to reverse the
process so he is going
to track his part when
Dave Storms is done.
Resuming getting
Kitchen Matches ready
for Brad Buckner before
the end of the month.
Listened to Arcade Fire's
Funeral, The Who Sell
Out and a bunch of
Belle & Sebastian.
020923 The power was out for
8 hours but I recently
bought a portable DiscMan
style portable CD player
that runs on batteries so
I listened to Frank Zappa's
Hot Rats in the cold.
020823 Sent Dave Storms
Lighthouse Eve.
020623 Added some vocals and
brass to Lighthouse Eve.
Imported Dave's new bass
part into It's My Island.
020523 Imported Danny's jazzy guitar
bits into Lighthouse Eve.
020423 Listened to Wilco's
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and
enjoyed it very much.
020323 I've been listening to the
first album by Yes. It
would annoy me when
sometimes people with
limited context would
compare our live stuff
to them. After finally
listening to them I
figured out that the
comparisions weren't
because of how we sound
or how we play, it's just
because the songs are
often long with a lot of
changes. This also
seems to (to people
unfamiliar with the songs)
like we are just jamming
rather than following a
structure. Being called
a "jam bad" is also
hurtful but not entirely
without truth Grateful to
not be dead
020123 Listening to the first
Stone Roses album and
digging it..
012723 Masterpieces from the Indie Void
has included two Johnny Marie
& the Lonesome Petunias song
in their list of 100 unknown
masterpieces: Seven Little Eyes
and Reach Around, both from
The Green Piano .
Listened to the Stone Roses
self-titled debut for the first
time. Really good stuff.
012523 Petunias rehearsal. Stuck to
the stuff likely to appear on a
setlist.
Listened to CSNY's Deja Vu,
Harry Nilsson's Son of
Schmilsson, One More for
the Road by Jackson Browne
and the Incredible String Band's
Changing Horses.
012323 I'm going to try to like
Jackson Browne by
listening to some of his
most renowned work. I
owe him that much.
Still fleshing with Lighthouse
Eve.
012223 I am fully on board with Love's
Forever Changes now. So
tasty.
012123 Added acoustic guitars to
Lighthouse Eve.
012023 When tweaking lyrics that
were gifted by spirits are
you taking the ball and running
with it or are you defacing
a miracle?
011823 I've been getting Lighthouse
Eve lyrics in the middle of the
night all week, which is the
preferred method. Re-cut
some piano parts, re-sang
some vocal parts and sent
a mix to Chris for basso
consideration and to Danny
for jazzo guitaro garnishes.
Iffy practice highlighted by
rum and chocloate beer.
011423 Fleshed out Lighthouse Eve
and came up with a fistful
of lyrics. Then to Ruzich.
Then to Riccardi. Then to
Meagher.
011323 Pheromone Beanie available for
streaming/download/ignoring.
Started work on Lighthouse Eve
which I've been worrying for a
week or two.
011023 How did I live this long without
anybody telling me about
The Monks? Where is the
payoff for maintaining human
relationships?
010923 Got the first mix of Oily Rainbows
back from Patrick. Marvelous.
010423 Wandered through the pile of songs.
Came up with an alternate ending
for Corky Finds Something.
010123 Gave Traffic's Mr. Fantasy a listen
yesterday. I've listened to Barleycorn,
Low Spark etc. and I think this is the
most interesting album of the lot. Very
nice. Also listened to the FemBots'
Small Town Murder Scene and Moody
Blues' Days of Future Passed but this
was the highlight.
Happy birthday, Harold McPherson.
Harold provided the lovely tappa tappa
on Nellie Ordinary.
Received a Happy New Year .gif via
text from Thomas.
2022 (STILL rehearsing and recording 6th and 7th albums!) 122922 Listened to Family's Music in
a Doll's House. Loved it
except for the singing. I find that
folk-influenced warbling off-putting.
Paul Rothschild told the Doors that
if they wanted their music to not
sound dated in future they
should avoid gimmicks like wah-wah
pedals. Singers should have received
the same advice. I think British
bands (mostly blues-influenced) were
less inclined, hence the lasting presence
of Kinks, Stones, Who, Zep, Fabbies,
Stones etc. Love's Andmoreagain sung
straight? Mmm hmm! More please!
122822 Randomly ransacked our
discography for 4 hours. A
personal favorite was a reggae
version of White Girl.
Had a good chat with Jerry
about our process of
developing drum tracks for
my solo and GFS stuff.
122622 Sang some more takes for
Gulch.
122522 I discovered the YouTube channel
Yesterday's Papers about a week ago.
One of my favorite features, besides
the reading of vintage reviews of psychedelic
singles from various British music publications
from 1967-1968, is a kind of celebrity review
bit from Melody Maker, called Blind Date,
where a pop star of the day (Lennon, McCartney,
Jagger, Zappa, Donovan, Hendrix - you get the
picture) listens to singles from the British top 40
and comments on their quality and speculates
how they might do in the charts. The reviews are
actually very insightful and of course extremely
entertaining. I've also discovered and purchased
music from bands I either didn't know about or
that warranted a deeper dive. Recommend.
122422 Got Gulch drum tracks from Jerry.
Merry Christmas to me.
122222 Thank you KKFI for the Gardenaire
play. Fit right in with Scott Hrabko
& The Rabbits.
122122 Short, aimless holiday practice.
Did work on sorting out live versions
of Corky Finds Something and
Who is This Plumber?
122022 Listened to Bobby Jameson's
(Chris Lucey) Songs of Protest &
Anti-Protest.
Got some fun greatest hits
collections:
John Mayall
The Bee Gees (early)
Donovan
The Small Faces
Humble Pie
The Hollies (early)
Cream
The Troggs
Eric Burdon
121722 Listened to The Move's Shazam
for the first time. Good stuff. Will
buy more.
Listened to Van Morrison's Astral
Weeks and I absolutely don't get
it. All of the vocal coloring he does
is repetitious and off-putting. The
whole thing feels like one long
miserable song. I don't see this
being one of those albums that I
listen to 6 times and then a light
comes on. There is no electricity.
121422 Practiced deep cuts. Corky Finds
Something, White Girl, Gardenaire,
The Wall and Rattle. Even took a
half-hearted stab at Windy.
121312 Sent Pheromone Beanie to Patrick.
120722 The Dukes of Stratosphere stuff
is the best of 1960s British
psychedelic music despite being
born in the 1980s. I think it's even
the best of XTC. I was already
aware of many of the influences of
the Dukes but decided to tidy up my
resume and listen to the Pretty
Things' S.F. Sorrow and Ogdens Nut
Gone Flake by Small Faces. Lots of
fun and loads of trip factor (Laid awake
last night trying to think of how I could
get a microphone to my piano to run
through a wah-wah pedal.) but the
thing that surprised me was hearing
how this (or Small Faces in general)
likely influenced the Sex Pistols.
You can hear it in that vocal delivery
on Lazy Sunday. BTW, I have a
staunch policy on talky bits in songs.
The King, The Doors and oddly the
Stranglers are frequent violators. Ian
Dury and Patti Smith get Get out of
Jail Free cards. Kevin McDermott
gets one for sweetly whispering "It's
been a grand day."
120522 Listening to Love's Forever Changes.
This one was compelling to me because
mortals don't know who or what it is and
the music elite rate it with a billion yellow
stars. I've had three listens and am having
a fourth today. The fourth listen is like
required reading. I wouldn't feel dead inside
if I never heard it again. I've been wrong
about great music before so due diligence etc.
Liking it more after listens 4 and 5.
120422 Listening to Trout Mask Replica. This
speaks to me, brothers and sisters.
Not the spoken word stuff, not the horn
battles and not the singing - though
there are always some fun lines on
Beefheart records. It's those trademark
grooves. It's the rhythm and not the blues.
Like a fever brained Don Quixote in a suit
of crows unsteady in a glass saddle on a
powerful three-legged stallion dragging four
empty Igloo brand coolers - red - down a
gravel road. Like a wounded troll crashing
blindly through the forest squashing
chainsawing lumberjacks until it bleeds out
at the foot of a mountain. I swoon every time.
I think I came about him the best way -
AFTER organically discovering a lot of the
artists that he has influenced. Like gateway
drugs. I bumbled upon him in the '80s when
he was doing stuff from Doc at the Radar
Station and I had already cut my teeth on
The Residents/Snakefinger, Alternative TV,
The Birthday Party etc. I don't think I would
have been up for his stuff when it was being
released during the Beatles heyday.
Sent Patrick a mix of
Pheromone Beanie to see
how he felt about not using
a full drum kit for the song.
He and his team felt like the
hand percussion could carry
the tune.
120322 Ruzi-Q tracked bass and
some harmonies for Pheromone
Beanie. We also pulled up
Turkey (something we started
on a few years ago) for
consideration.
113022 Boisterous rehearsal.
112822 Added sitar and more cymbals
to Pheromone Beanie.
112722 More vocal and classical
guitar takes for Pheromone
Beanie. Added a ride
cymba, snare druml and some
back-of-the-guitar conga parts.
Sent a copy to Chris Ruzich.
By the way, I referred to him
as Ruzi-Q in my correspondence.
Obviously I was quite pleased.
112322 Listening to Hunky Dory
made me want to write a
song on the piano. Came
up with a fistful of chord
chanes yesterday and
recorded them today with
some guitar parts.
Pheromone Beanie.
112122 Just back from a road trip.
Took some albums that I
either hadn't heard or
required a deeper dive.
Dug everything but the Peanut
Butter Conspiracy. Hunky
Dory made me want to write
some songs on the piano.
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy - It's Spreading
Garden State - Soundtrack
Duke Ellington - Money Jungle
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Shakti - with John McLaughlin
Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic
Martin Sewell/Andy Partidge - The Greatest Living Englishman
Recently purcased for the
next trip:
The Monkees - Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., Headquarters
Incredible String Band - Changing Horses, Wee Tam and the Big Huge, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Lindisfarne - Nicely Out of Tune, Fog on the Tyne
Family - Music In A Dolls House
Fembots - Mucho Cuidado, Calling Out, Small Town Murder Scene
The Move - Shazam, Looking On
Procol Harum - Best of Procol Harum
Pink Floyd - Meddle, Delicate Sounds of Thunder
Various Artists - Insane Times: 25 British Psychedelic Artyfacts
Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
Bee Gees - Best of the Bee Gees
Traffic - Traffic, Mr. Fantasy
Joy of a Toy - Kevin Ayers
Love - Forever Changes, Da Capo
Faces - A Nod is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse
Small Faces - Ogdens Nut Gone Flake, 10 Hits
Humble Pie - Best of Humble Pie
Eric Burdon - Best of Eric Burdon
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
Alvvays - Blue Rev
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
The Hollies - The Hollies Greatest Hits
Public Image Ltd. - Second Edition
Wire - Chairs Missing
Donovan - Donovan's Greatest Hits
Pooh Sticks - Million Seller
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica
The Tom Tom Club - The Tom Tom Club
Tres Hombres - ZZ Top
Who's Next - The Who
Hounds of Love - Kate Bush
The Troggs - The Best of The Troggs
John Mayall - Silver Tones: The Best of John Mayall & The Blues Breakers
111622 Tidied up Dingus and sent
the session to Patrick.
2ND full band rehearsal.
Added a few more songs
from the discography.
111522 Talked to Patrick about
making Dingus another
collaboration and he agreed.
Sang more vocal takes,
Need to comp them,
re-cut the bass, or at least
provide an alternate take,
and comp the piano parts.
111422 Beginning the process of
re-working Dingus.
Tried some less barky
vocals. Used the old
Boss GT-6 to add some
swirly modulation and some
heavy riffs. Tried some
different drum beats.
110922 Back to building a live set.
This process is difficult for
me as I quickly forget chord
changes without repetition
and brother I tells ya we
haven't run through these
songs in over a year. I'll
pick them all up again soon
enough and then only forget
them in a live setting.
110822 Evaluate 29 (Johnny Marie with
Patrick Meagher) available for
streaming.
110722 Got the first mix of Evaluate 29
back from Patrick. Decided to
add a verse.
110622 Recorded the basic track for
Shame.
110522 When we finished recording
drums for everything we intended
to record we dashed off recordings
of a couple of under-rehearsed
songs just to capture them -
The Salt Trilogy and June.
These are good candidates for
the set list so that we can
develop them further. Danny
sent me June last night to
start sorting out.
Sent The Blue One to Chris
Richards for trumpeting.
110422 Sent The Blue One to Jerry.
Bought another Mel9 because I
want one on my live board since
I use it so much in our recordings
but I don't want to lose the one on
my home board because I use it so
much in our recordings.
110322 Chris Ruzich popped over to record
some bass for The Blue One. Off to
Jerry tomorrow.
110222 Had a State of the Union meeting
and determined that we would go
back to recording at my space and
use Danny's space for rehearsing
for future performances. Ran through
an hour's worth of JMLP stuff.
110122 Started on Dingus and ran out of
gas just listening to it. May have to
start fresh with it. I first introduced this
song to Girl for Samson in September
of 2004. We worked it up but never
got a recording that we were happy
with so it's one of THOSE songs. Not
sure why I keep it on the table since I
could churn out two new songs a month
if pressed.
102722 Show Me Your New Contacts now available
for streaming, downloading or just looking
at.
Sent Patrick the session for Evaluate 29
for a collaborative effort. Again, this was
built from a snatch of Laundry Day.
102522 Got the first mix of Show Me Your New
Contacts back from Patrick.
Finally replaced the foam in
my Sony MDR-V6 headphones.
Current status update:
MIXED
Stinker
Dolemite
Failure to Rise
Ring of Stars
The Cats of Summer (solo)
Show Me Your New Contacts (solo)
Evaluate 29 (collaboration)
Pheromone Beanie (solo)
Oily Rainbows (solo)
Rattle (solo)
Sweet, Soft Gollum (solo)
Bobby (solo)
Kitchen Matches (solo)
BEING MIXED
Dingus (collaboration)
No Limes
Merry Blaze
Gulch (solo)
The Blue One (solo)
Off with the Ropes (solo)
PROCESSING
Lethal Portions
Laundry Day
Its My Island - bass
Lighthouse Eve (solo) - vocals, bass
TO DO JMLP
Who is this Plumber?
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
Open Sack
Adorable Deplorable
Swimmer's Shoulders
The Last Moth
June
Everybody Does It
The Salty Way
TO DO JM
I Can Walk (solo)
Irene Ironweed (solo)
Expression Petals (solo)
Every Night (solo)
Cherry (solo)
Let Her Run (solo)
101622 Got after Sweet, Soft Gollum
first thing in the morning. Tried
a few vocal takes not using my
head voice exclusively. My
5 AM voice was not up to my
sad code so will try again later
in the day.
Added a low harmony idea to
the chorus of Evaluate 29.
101522 Guts are knotted from suddenly
realizing I could have found a
way to rhyme "feng shui" with
"kung fu sway". I need to drink
some 7Up.
Auditioned a non-galloping bass
part for Laundry Day from
Laundry Dave. Feels better.
101322 Sent Chris Richards Off
with the Ropes and Rattle
for trumpeting consideration.
Fiddled a bit with Evaluate
29.
101122 More IMI vocal takes.
101022 Sang more takes of It's My
Island. Still tweaking some
of the lines.
100722 Fooled around with some
melody ideas for Evaluate
29.
100622 Saw Fanny play at the
RecordBar last night.
Their cover of The
Beatles' Hey Bulldog is
a joy. I thanked June for
including it in their short set
and she laughed and said,
on the charming side of
cockily, "You liked that
one, eh?"
Also met the lovely Chris
Richards so Johnny Marie songs
meet trumpet parts!
Fleshed out Evaluate 29 a bit.
There is a percussive bass
part Dave does in Laundry
Day that I knew would make a
glorious loop. Grabbed a
chunk of Jerry's drums and
chickaboom! - a foundation
for a song.
100522 Off to see Fanny play at
the RecordBar.
I had to come up with
words and the rest of the
melody for the chourus
(just the chourus, mind you)
for It's My Island and the
weight of it was like
needing to go to a hardware
store to address a
mysterious plumbing issue.
Finally got it done and feel
that it is good.
100422 Saw a screening of the
Fanny documentary. Why
didn't David Bowie give
them some good songs if
he loved them so
goddamned much? That
would have changed
everything for them.
100322 I have a U-shaped pedal
board setup that I've been
dying to intergrate with the
DAW but because it has
nearly 30 pedals on it I
can't get it into the small
space I have to work with.
Finally figured out a way
around the space issue
and now get a nice,
noiseless signal in. Took
some more stabs at It's
My Island. Still working
on the differences between
how pedal settings sound
with the studio monitors
vs how they sound on a track.
100222 Tried re-cutting some of the
guitar tracks in It's My Island
with the Decimator and it
seems to work a little
better than your run-of-the-mill
noise gate.
100122 Worked on It's My Island a
bit. Bought a Decimator to
help with the pickup noise.
093022 Took a few stabs at the intro
for It's My Island with the Tele
but with two computers near by
it's entirely too noisy. Have to
sort this out.
092922 Sent The Blue One to Chris
Ruzich for bass and to Leon
for pianio.
Determined to finish Rattle
today and send it to Patrick.
And I did.
092822 Coming up with new things
to write about is challenging.
Some topics already covered:
The delights of having sex in the afternoon
Not liking Mondays
Not being satisfied
There are 8 days in 1 week
Purple Rain
Europe being free of radios
and so on
Recorded cowbell and
tambourine for Lethal Portions.
092522 Made new reference mixes
with fresh bass parts for
Jerry to work with.
092422 The Cats of Summer is now
available for consumption.
Chris Ruzich popped over and
recorded bass for SS Gollum,
Off with the Ropes and Gulch.
092322 Got the first mix of The Cats
of Summer back from Patrick.
Juicy work as always.
Still poking around the new
stuff for places where I need
better takes of things -
especially vocally.
091722 Added tambourine and more
vocal takes to Sweet, Soft
Gollum.
Danny got a Fender Rhodes
from the beloved Dave Estes
so I asked him to re-cut his
EP parts on Rattle with it.
Did I ever tell you the thing
about Dave Estes being at a
Porps show in the 1980s?
091622 Got piano parts from Leon for
Gulch and Sweet, Soft
Gollum.
Didn't get Rattle touched up
in time to get it to Patrick
today so will work on it this
weekend and send to him
on Monday.
091522 First get-together last night
in a couple of months. We
listened to Laundry Day and
Lethal Portions to see what
else needed to happen to them
before handing them off for
mixing. Recorded some
backing vocals for Laundry
Day.
I looked at the set list and
it appears that we only have
7 more songs to finish once
LD and LP are handed off:
Everybody Does It
Open Sack
The Last Moth
Who is this Plumber?
Adorable Deplorable
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
Swimmer's Shoulders
091422 I think I have Rattle beaten
into submission. Will listen
a few more days then submit
to Patrick on Friday.
091022 Still cleaning up Rattle.
Should have it ready to go
next week. Allen Johnston
on drums, Dave Swiercinsky
on bass and Danny Button
on keys.
090922 Sang more takes of Rattle.
Listened to Laundry Day and
Lethal Portions and made
notes for our session on
Wednesday.
090822 Of course someone posted
a link to God Save the Queen
today and it was a glorious
listen. I could totally hear
Thom Yorke singing this.
090722 Tried re-recording some of
the guitars in Rattle and
Off with the Ropes using
different setups.
090622 Considering what to start
on next. Listened to Rattle,
The Blue One and It's My
Island - all very neato. I
Think Rattle is closest to
being finished so will wrap
that one up.
Tidied up Rattle a bit and
sung a few more takes. This
will go on the solo album as
will The Blue One. It's My
Island features all of the
Lonesome Petunias so
it will go on the next JMLP
album.
090522 Had another go at vocals
and guitars for Off with the
Ropes.
090322 Mac is now Off with the
Ropes. Sent a copy to
Mr. Music for bass
consideration.
090222 Reggae ended up working
nicely. Move the keyboard
chords over to where the
snare would be and come up
with some pussmepullya
washboard parts on the guitar.
Any daylight inspiration is
forced - based on history
and experience. During
the sleepless and soggy
night the real stuff comes,
and sadly I'm almost always
awake and ready for it.
Today Mac will transition form
rock ballad to dance song to
reggae. Reggae is actually
a shorter hop from the source
than disco.
090122 Mac is starting to annoy
me. The groove is too
much like Isn't it a Pity?
Experimenting with how
much I have to change to
make it dancy.
083122 Should have Mac ready
to give to Chris, Leon and
Jerry this coming
weekend.
082922 Ring of Stars now
available on BandCamp.
082822 Sang more Laundry
Day takes.
Getting closer to lyrics
for Mac. Added a
bridge and a scratch
melody for it.
082522 Resuming construction
of Mac today for the
solo collection.
Added a bass and a
percussion idea. Made
up some dummy words
that I kind of like. This
one is going to fall qickly
if I don't dick with it too
much.
082422 Got the first revision of
Ring of Stars back from
Patrick. Gosh damned
close!
082222 Fooled around with the
percussive outro on
Bobby and dig it.
Sang some more takes
of Sweet, Soft Gollum.
I have to sing in a falsetto
because of where the
melody sits and I
discovered that is sounds
better coming from the
chest/guts vs the neck and
shoulders. Sent a mix to
Jerry,.
Need to tidy up Oily
Rainbows and get it to
Patrick. And I did.
082122 Imported Dave Storms'
percussion bits into the
outro of Bobby and
added and subtracted
sounds. Will either keep
or build another song
around it.
081922 Picking the next thing
to start on. Listened to
Cherry and Irene
Ironweed but was moved
by Sweet, Soft Gollum.
081822 Sent Jerry Gulch and
Bobby.
Imported Leon's piano
parts for Bobby.
Imported Jerry's drums for
Oily Rainbows. This guy
always hears what I'm
hearing.
081722 Sorted out Gultch and sent
a copy to Chris Ruzich for
bass prep and to Leon for
piano.
Got piano parts from Leon
for Kynd of in My Mynd -
now Bobby.
Received a pass of drums
from Dave Storms to let me
know where he was going
with the song.
Dave sent me a fresh bass
track for Lethal Portions.
Jerry Riccardi sent Oily
Rainbows tracks so will
get Gulch ready for him.
081622 Still struggling with a bridge
for Gulch. There is a point
sometimes when creating
cheap pop songs that you
have to decide that
something isn't working and
scrap it. It's difficult
deciding to pound your shitty
looking flower pot back into
a lump of clay and start
over after worrying over it for
days and thinking that you
saw glimpses of something
good.
This occurred to me
immediately after I had
already uploaded the
previous paragraph. The
value of aborting something
you've spent time on is
that now you understand
what won't work for the
song. That is helpful.
Upon further reflection, once
you determine that red isn't
the right color you can improve
your return to the drawing board
by reflecting on WHY red doesn't
work.
After all that preaching I came
up with a delightful bridge.
081422 Worked on bridge and lyrics
for Gulch.
Chris Ruzich recorded bass
and vocals for Bobby.
081322 Got some sweet acoustic
guitar parts from Bill Ryan,
engineered by Dave Storms.
081222 Worked more on getting Gulch
sorted out. Close on the
arrangement. Came up with
some temporary words to
help with phrasing
consistency.
081122 I think I can knock off Gulch
this weekend. And I mean
knock it lovingly, tenderly.
Just need words and add a
verse/chorus repeat.
I have some great
musicians putting fresh paint
and curtains on Bobby.
I could potentially
get it to Patrick less than 3
weeks after making it up.
080922 Listened to a half dozen
hastily recorded demos and
found some good stuff.
When Bobby
is done I'll start on Irene
Ironweed and Gulch if I
can't get my wheels on
the ground with I Can Walk.
080822 Sent Bobby
(I'm already sick of this
working title) off to Dave
Storms for drums and
Bill Ryan for whatever
he feels like doing to it.
080722 Bobby
was built on a 4 chord
thing using really odd
open chords. How do
I justify calling them odd?
When I add the fingering
to chord ID sites they
return "Why are you
doing that?" I built a
bunch of stuff on top of
these mystery chords,
muted them and then
tried to add proper
guitar chords on top.
That was a bit of an
exercise as the vocal
melody required altering
the chords as the song
advanced. Part of the
process when you're a
gigilo.
080422 Got bass parts from
Dave for Lethal Portions
and Laundry Day.
Sent Patrick Show Me
Your New Contacts.
080322 Got drum tracks from
Jerry for Show Me Your
New Contacts and The
Cats of Summer.
The Cats of Summer now
in Patrick's capable and
loving hands.
080222 Came up with proper
words for Bobby.
080122 Sent Leon Bobby for some
sexy keyboards.
073122 Created Kynd of in My
Mynd (now Bobby) rather
than work on I Can Walk.
073022 Adding guitar and fresh
vocals to Lethal Portions.
Talking to some more
drummers for my solo
stuff and Girl for Samson.
072922 Still tidying up the
arrangement for I Can Walk.
072822 More struggles with sliding
meter markers but finally
got a good scratch track
for I Can Walk down.
072722 Spent more time trying to
flesh out I Can Walk in Pro
Tools. It bounces back and
forth from 3/4 to 4/4 so
getting the markers right
is making me crazy. Got
close so tomorrow I'll tweak
it to make sure all of the
intervals and rests are the
right duration before laying
down a proper scratch
guitar.
072622 Wrote some words for the
bridge of Show Me Your New
Contacts and sang some takes.
Tried a different vocal approach
on Kitchen Matches. Got all
of John's guitar parts mixed in
and sent a copy to Chris Ruzich
for direction.
Talked to Patrick about doing a
pre-mix of Kitchen Matches
before giving it to Brad. He
agreed and it is now in his
hands.
Getting close to artwork for
Merry Blaze, Ring of Stars and
No Limes.
072522 Cleaned up Merry Blaze and
handed it off to Patrick.
Failure to Rise is done.
072422 Sang more Merry Blaze
takes. This one should go
to Patrick tomorrow if I
get the piano parts today.
Imported John McConnell's
guitar parts into Kitchen
Matches.
Bumbled upon an idea
for the artwork for Failure to
Rise. The old pile-the-junk-
drawer-contents-on-the-table-
and-start-removing-things-
until-you-are-left-with-a-can-
opener-and-a-bright-red-
lighter technique.
072322 Tried doing the galloping
rhythm on Laundry Day.
Managed to squeeze
off two takes before
switching to a more
straight-ahead approach.
Sent mixes to Dave for
some at-home tracking.
Current status:
MIXED
Stinker
Dolemite
Failure to Rise
Ring of Stars
The Cats of Summer (solo)
BEING MIXED
Show Me Your New Contacts (solo)
Rattle (solo)
Oily Rainbows (solo)
No Limes
Merry Blaze
Kitchen Matches (solo)
PROCESSING
Lethal Portions
Laundry Day
Gulch (solo)
Bobby (solo)
Sweet, Soft Gollum (solo)
Off with the Ropes (solo)
The Blue One (solo)
Its My Island
TO DO JMLP
Who is this Plumber?
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
Open Sack
Adorable Deplorable
Swimmer's Shoulders
The Last Moth
June
Everybody Does It
The Salty Way
TO DO JM
I Can Walk (solo)
Irene Ironweed (solo)
Expression Petals (solo)
Every Night (solo)
Cherry (solo)
Let Her Run (solo)
Dingus (solo)
072222 Ring of Stars tidied up
and sent to Patrick.
Replaced some of the
Jazzmaster parts with a
Tele.
Got the first mix of
Failure to Rise back.
Mercy.
072122 Had to sort out a
misaligned synth issue
in SAURO! Got it
lined up and uploaded.
Prepped No Limes and
sent it to Patrick. Hoping
to send him Ring of
Stars in the next few days.
072022 SAURO! now available
for streaming and purchase on
BandCamp.
Recorded bass for Ring of
Stars and bass and backing
vocals for No Limes.
071922 Tried to re-cut the guitar
melody for Laudry Day
and failed. Got enough for
Danny to have a reference.
Note to Wednesdayself: No
Limes is 140 BPM and Ring of
Stars is 130..
071822 Got SAURO! (formerly Stinker)
back from Patrick. It is
quite jaunty.
Going to see if I can get No
Limes close to ready to
ship. Should just need bass
after I add some more vocal
takes.
Did some work on the Kitchen
Matches arrangement.
071622 Removed some of the splashes
from Show Me Your New Contacts
and sent to Jerry.
071522 Recorded guide vocals for Lethal
Portions and Laundry Day.
071422 Added guitars and some vocals
to Merry Blaze. Cut another
ending for Ring of Stars with
the Tele.
071322 Two Petunias with birthdays
today.
Sent John McConnell Kitchen
Matches for some guitar ideas.
Sang a scratch lead vocal for
Merry Blaze so that we can
work on it tonight.
Added Nashville tuned
acoustics and the guitar outro
part to Ring of Stars. Have a
jacked drum track that I need
to sort out while waiting on
Dave's bass part.
Recorded bass, backing vocals
and organ for Merry Blaze.
Jerry indicated that he thought
he could track drums for The
Cats of Summer this weekend.
071222 Comped Danny's Ring of
Stars guitar parts. Learned
a hard lesson about dragging
bits of an interleaved stereo
track onto a mono track if
there is another mono audio
track below. The hard lesson
is that Pro Tools will put one
channel where you desire
and the other on the tack
below it - which in this case
was a tom track.
071022 Sorted out the ROS vocals
so they are less wincesome.
Shannon tracked a few
keyboard parts. I think I'm
going to be getting some
guitar parts from Daniel
shortly which will put a
fresh bass part between
Patrick having the song
and not having the song.
070922 Steve Robinson sent me
a track from his new album
and it was lovely. It was
also deflating because he
has a radio-ready voice
and I'm right in the middle
of trying to croak my way
through a 7 minute dopus.
I can only do what I can
do. I can love and admire
someone else's work.
It doesn't have anything to
do with my work unless
it inspires me.
070822 Sang more takes of Ring
of Stars.
Working on lyrics for
Kitchen Matches so that
I can get this to Brad.
Came up with 3 good
bits for KM and one that's so
goofy and alliterative that
it's either a must-use or I
should delete any reference
to it and re-format my hard
drive.
Also added more guitars
because guitars are good.
As Danny Button says:
"Let the guitars do the
talking."
070722 Married the Ring of Stars
live parts with the best of
the demo parts. Need to
sing a new lead vocal.
I may have scored another
drummer for the live project
courtesy of Chris Ruzich.
We'll see if the new guy truly
appreciates what thankless
means.
Worked a bit on the arrangement
for Kitchen Matches.
Sang more lead vocal takes for
Ring of Stars.
070622 Recorded backing vocals for
Ring of Stars.
070522 Got vocal tracks from Jerry
for Failure to Rise. Promptly
prepped the session and sent
it to Patrick.
070322 Stinker will be released as
Sauro. It's just the right
thing to do.
063022 Dolemite available on 7/1/22
062922 We had a few listens to
Dolemite and then ran
through the catalog for
the rest of the evening:
Sweet & Low,
Capers
Land Ho
Beat Box Caveat
Parasol
Dingus,
Who Is This Plumber?,
Open Sack
We Don't Do That
Little Something
On
Ordinary Guy
Swimmer's Shoulders
Dolemite,
Gardenaire
Billy Corgan's Cadillac
Seven Little Eyes.
Next week we'll finish up
Ring of Stars.
Got the first mix of Dolemite
back from P. He's so good.
062622 Andy Gill and Hugh Cornwell
spoke to me as guitarists.
Andy for his jagged attacks and
Hugh for his flat delivery and
lovely, jarring note choices.
062522 Shannon tracked some more
vocals for Failure to Rise.
062422 Danny added some classical
guitar takes to Failure to Rise.
Jerry is going to do some of
the ooos and ahhhs at home
so that I can get this to
Patrick by Tuesday.
062322 Added guitars and vocals to
Failure to Rise. Came up
with some more backing
vocal bits so will try to
coax Jerry and Shannon to
replace some of my parts.
I really dislike hearing a
singer also doing all of the
backing parts. Love Elvis
but I never liked hearing him
donig his own ooos and
ahhhs. His voice is too
distinct. Marvin Gaye and
Paul McCartney can do that
shit all they want.
062222 Band dinner at our one of
our regular venues
rerouted because of Health
Department violations.
Found an alternate source
and then tracked drums,
bass and backing vocals for
Failure to Rise. Should give
it to Patrick on Tuesday.
062122 Fooled around some more
with the outro of Kitchen
Matches and sent a copy to
Chris.
062022 Oily Rainbows now in
Jerry Riccardi's capable
and flexible hands.
Chris Ruzich recorded a
couple of bass takes for
Oily Rainbows. We
also listened to Kitchen
Matches and played
through I Can Walk.
Tried some Muffy guitar
melodies during the Kitchen
Matches outro.
061822 Sent Patrick Strinker. 39
active tracks and that
includes two drum takes.
Transposed the 5 instruments
in the B section from my
demo of Who's That Plumber?
into our live session that is
longer and at a different tempo.
Added a mellotron vibraphone to
Show Me Your New Contacts.
061522 Recorded bass and backing
vocals for Merry Blaze.
061422 Finally sent Patrick Dolemite.
35 tracks. Will start prepping
Stinker next.
061322 Fiddled with Kitchen Matches
a bit. Need an instrumental
or vocal melody for the C
section. I need to finish
I Can Walk so that the
people around me are
spared the endless searching
through the chord sequences.
060822 Recorded drums for Everybody
Does It. Now we move on to
culling best takes of the songs
and then overdubbing.
Current recorded to partially
recorded song list:
Merry Blaze
Stinker
Dolemite
Ring of Stars
Who is this Plumber?
Lethal Portions
Laundry Day
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
Open Sack
Adorable Deplorable
Its My Island
Rattle
Dingus
No Limes
Failure to Rise
Swimmer's Shoulders
The Last Moth
June
Everybody Does It
060522 Sent Show Me Your New Contacts
to Leon for Keyboard Konsideration.
060422 Sent Jerry Show Me Your New
Contacts and The Cats of
Summer.
Chris Ruzich tracked parts for
The Cats of Summer, Show
Me Your New Contacts and
took a couple of swings at
Oily Rainbows.
060322 Whacked the Show Me Your
New Contacts section out of
the I Can Walk monstrosity
and now I have a 4 minute ditty
Chris can bass up tomorrow.
060122 Took some earnest stabs at
recording June. Next week
we'll do Everbody Does It
and then move on to step 2.
052522 I try, awkwardly and painfully
try, to avoid the crowd, avoid
trends, and yet there sits an
Altoids case velcro'd to my
pedalboard. A pedalboard
purse.
Scheduled Chris Ruzich for
Oily and Cats.
We recorded some takes of
Failure to Rise. Had some
issues so will rinse and
repeat next week.
052322 I don't think that I've ever used
the word "difficult" organically.
052222 Added a new section to I Can
Walk since I'm having trouble
with it.
052122 I can't work out all of the time
changes in I Can Walk and
now I wish I was a little bit
dead.
051822 Recorded more live takes of
Swimmer's Shoulders and The
Last Moth.
051522 Sang some more takes
for The Cats of Summer
and roughed out another
arrangement for I Can Walk.
051222 Recorded drums for
Swimmer's Shoulders
and worked out The
Last Moth for next week.
I think that will just leave
Failure to Rise to do.
051022 Back from a visit with
John McConnell. Had
great fun dicking with his
guitars and boards and
several song bits were
born. Immediately bought
a Line 6 M5 and a
TC Electronics Spark
upon my return.
042722 Recorded drums for
Adorable Deplorable. I
was amazed to discover
that we just have a 2-3
left before we can actually
start tracking other
instruments.
042422 I saw an ad on a music
forum - a mother begging
for a studio opportunity
for her daughter. She
ended the plea with "TIA."
Type "Thanks in advance."
you lazy leech.
042122 Recorded some more
variations for I Can Walk.
I want to finish sketching
this one by early May.
042022 Got off a decent version of
Open Sack. 420 Day was
brutalized and left lifeless
near the old quarry.
Got piano tracks from Leon for
The Cats of Summer. This is
our first collaboration since
Porps in the 1980s.
041622 Made myself clean up the 13
pedal board by properly
routing all of the power cables
underneath. Looks snazzy.
My neighbors have a male
and a female dog. The male
dog isn't long for this world.
In order to ease its suffering
they have been giving it
cannibas butter. This has
dramatically improved its
quality of life. I went outside
this morning and the male
was lying lifeless on the
ground while the female
was grinding her groin
mercilessly on his head. It
was very disturbing. I wasn't
sure if it was a demonstration
of mourning for his passing or
a celebration dance. I
struggled to think of what to
tell the neighbors. "Your
dog is dead and getting skull-
fucked." I went inside and
hugged all of my cats,
lamenting the day I will be
faced with their passing.
I went back outside an
hour later the dog was sitting
happily on the deck. He
hadn't died. He was just
passed out from the edibles.
041522 Found a neat sound. I have a
Mono Synth pedal that I've
just never been able to
justify the space on a board
for. I put it back on and set
the effect very low so that
when I play chords it makes
wonderful random glitchy
noises.
Replacing my Canyon
delay with a Memory Man
Deluxe.
041422 Must have a Mercury7 and a
Rainbow Machine. Must.
041322 Recorded live versions of Shut
Up You Stupid Diamond and
Merry Blaze. Rehearsed Open
Sack for next week.
041022 Added another long section to
I Can Walk.
040722 Record the layout for I Can Walk
because I need another unfinished
9 minute song on my to-do list.
040622 Got a couple of good live takes
of Laundry Day. I think this
means we have live drums
with Jerry Riccardi for:
Stinker
Dolemite
Ring of Stars
Who is this Plumber?
Lethal Portions
Laundry Day
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
Open Sack
Adorable Deplorable
...and tracks from Allen for:
Its My Island
Rattle
Dingus
No Limes
...and that leaves:
Failure to Rise
Swimmer's Shoulders
The Last Moth
...and still needs some work:
The Salty Way
Spain
Everybody Does It
....still to be done.
(updated 4/27/22)
040422 The Walrus Audio Slö is now
my official over-used pedal.
Big. Dark. Oily.
040322 Sent Chris Ruzich The Cats of
Summer.
For my records - songs for
consideration for "solo" album
thus far:
Gulch
Pox
Oily Rainbows
The Cats of Summer
Stealing Books
The Salty Way
Kitchen Matches
Chris and I worked on something
last year that I can't find. Time
to wring some value out of the
journals.
...and the journals pay dividends.
The song is Kitchen Matches.
040222 Finally getting my voice back,
such as it is, after a severe
month-long sinus infection.
Tidied up Oily Rainbows and
sent Leon a version of The
Cats of Summer.
033022 Recorded a live version of
Lethal Portion and got
Laundry Day ready for
next week.
032622 The Lord Dr. Fennel gave
me lyrics for Cats of
Summer, rendering Cats
of Summer not suitable
as a title.
032522 Recorded the guts of The
Cats of Summer for the
solo album. Talked to
Leon Kopelivich about
adding some piano to
some of the songs.
032322 Finished recording the 2nd
half of Who is this Plumber?
Talked about starting on
Lethal Portions next week.
031622 We had a go at recording
Who is this Plumber? It's
made up of 5 sections with
varying tempos and time
signatures so we decided
to approach it one section
at a time. Got mired in
section 3.
031322 I've been struggling to find
meaningful ways to employ
my Syntax Error pedal.
Found two neat spots in
oilyrainbows.
Before this I was using
the DM12 as a MIDI
controller for guide drums
for one bit and as a synth
for another. Discovered
tapping out MIDI drum bits
while the synth is recording
on an audio track. Inspired a
nice romp for an outro.
031222 Sent what I had so far for
Oily Rainbows, now to be
referred to as oilyrainbows,
for drums and bass. Sauced
up a riff section by using the
Tele instead of the Jazzmaster.
031122 I love that thing where the
lyric you heard is better
than the lyric they used.
I found one of these tidbits
in Vietnamerica and will
be employing it in the
intro of Oily Rainbows.
031022 Week-long sore throat
now in the lungs so the
voice is Barry White
through a fuzz pedal,
Will catch up finishing up
Oily Rainbows in about a
week.
030822 Have Oily Rainbows
arranged. Just need to
tidy up the vocals before
sending to Chris Ruzich
and Jerry.
Got a note from Danny
indicating that he's got
the live set up in our
space now going directly
to Pro Tools. We should
really start churning out
music now.
030222 We're inching towards a
system for recording live.
Had a go at Ring of Stars
with my wobbly guide track.
Everybody was a little cranky
but a listen to the results
afterwards was healing.
I have loads of songs that
need to be recorded so
I'm going to start putting
them out by myself while
the Petunias get caught
up with our to-do pile.
022622 Finished getting stuff out of
our previous space. Sooooo
many keyboard stands.
022322 Had a run at recording live
bass, guitar and keyboards.
022222 Sent Danny some of the
guitar parts for Ring of
Stars to marry with Jerry's
drum bits from last week.
Going to try to record the
remaining instruments live
together.
021822 Same more takes for Ring of
Stars.
021622 Recorded some live takes of
Ring of Stars, mostly to harvest
some lively drum tracks.
021122 Girl for Samson's Old into Young
is now up on Bandcamp.
Available everywhere else on
Monday. My contributions for
this album where originally
intended for juiceboxberries.
020622 Danny and Dave made some
progress on Danny's studio.
Our first rehearsal with everybody
using headphones.
020522 Finally came up with words for
Ring of Stars. We've been
performming that one for about
2 years with 6 mintues of gibberish.
012522 I want to use the word dynamite in
the Dolemite lyrics. Perhaps
"Dolemite, big disco dynamite".
012422 Bumped the Ring of Stars tempo
up to 130.
012222 Set the Ring of Stars demo to
Dave and Jerry for rhymic concerns.
Of course it's agonizingly slow
compared to the version we've been
doing live.
011922 An away game as our current host
is on holiday.
011222 The day the man who killed the
ants came by. East-West Pipeline.
011122 Sent Danny the framework for the
Salt trilogy.
110921 Sketched out The Salt Trilogy - three
chunks of songs that we have been
fooling with at rehearsals. Having fun
tweaking a ZOOM G1 Four that I got
for a hundred clams or dollars or
whatever.
010622 Had a dream that I was chatting with
Andy Partridge and just through
saying things out loud to another
human (in my head) I felt shame for
not being more aggressive with getting
these albums finished. I hearby resolve.
010122 Learning new songs at the same rate
that we're forgetting old ones. Current
rehearsal setlist:
Everybody Does It
It's An Open Sack
Laundry Day
Lethal Portions
The Last Moth
The Salt Trilogy
Who Is This Plumber?
Songs that we played live for the last 2
years and now have likely have forgotten,
and still haven't recorded:
Adorable Deplorable
Dingus
Dolemite
Failure to Rise
It's My Island
Let Her Run
Merry Blaze
No Limes
Rattle
Ring of Stars
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
Stinker
Swimmer's Shoulders
The Blue One
2021 (recording 6th album/playing out again?) 122821 Came up with the rest of the words for
Laundry Day - formerly Ladle & Savor.
122521 Recorded Ladle & Savor and came up
with some melodies.
121921 Had a kind of holiday party. Introduced
melody/lyrics to Switchblad Sisters.
120121 Another night of arranging, rehearsing
and jamming. Three new seeds for
me to start on and not finish.
112821 Got together and recorded backing
vocals and keyboards for Dolemite.
Fiddled with new stuff afterwards.
112721 Sang some more Dolemite takes.
112221 Pizza practice. Added Sushi (Lethal
Portions) to our practice routine. Plan
to finish up Dolemite and get it to
Patrick this weekend.
111721 Still just rehearsing the newest stuff.
Did a little set review at the end. Jerry
always wants to play Rattle and Billy
Corgan's Cadillac.
111121 Added some simple melodies to Sushi.
111021 It seems like every rehearsal produces
the guts to a new song. Dave brought
sushi so what do you think the working
title is?
110421 Imported a bit of Everybody Does It
into my workstation and played with
melodies and keyboard parts.
110321 We accidentally came up with a
Cramps-sounding tune currently titled
Everybody Does It.
100321 Still fleshing out and refining new stuff. We
managed to play The Last Moth all the way
through. A section and a few chords away
from finishing what is currently a new
instrumental.
102021 Our first time with The Last Moth. Worked
on the other new songs and talked about
strategies for getting the recording process
rolling. Also talked more about adding a
hand percussionist but decided not to fiddle
with the vibe we have right now.
101621 I re-worked The Last Moth without the
original drums and think I have something.
101521 Hung out with Michael for a few hours.
100921 One of the best things about having
a few bands play before us is meeting
new people. Loved the cats in Flash
Floods. Sweet boys who live and love
music.
Sevrin was a delight as always. You need
to scramble out and catch his set the next
time he performs.
The sets were halted occasionally by power
outages which became increasingly frequent
by the end.
We've ony played in Lawrence twice but
both times people were attentive and
enthusiastic. At some of the other venues
we have played takes an hour for the crowd
to get over the disappointment that
we aren't a blues or classic rock band
before we can win them over.
100621 Came up with a couple of bits last night
that will turn into something. Session-78 and
Session-79.
092321 Married Who is this Plumber and The Pig
in the Sky in Pro Tools. Tempo/meter change
and all!
092221 Married Who is this Plumber and The Pig
in the Sky for the live set.
092121 Had some bass/rhythm ideas for Pig that
I recorded.
091521 Introduced Who is this Plumber? and The
Pig in the Sky and nearly got them all
sorted out. Also fleshed out a thing we've
been fooling with at practices.
091421 Changed the tempo for The Pig in the Sky
to 150 and tacked Somebody's Intro onto
the end ala Adorable Deplorable.
091021 Doing another KKFI interview in late
September. These guys do SO much
for Kansas City artists.
090521 Dashed out to our new rehearsal space
to set up.
090321 Got away with one! Came close to
having our third cancelation at
Colonial Gardens but the rain stopped
long enough for Scott Jelinek to do his
set and for us to knock off an hour and
a half before it started again. Had a
great time and made new friends.
083121 Fleshed out The Pig in the Sky.
082821 Had a lot of fun playing with Sevrin
and Major Matt Mason. Very
inspiring sets. Thank you to everyone
who came out.
082621 Thanks to KKFI's Keith Washburn for
spinning Mars and Seven Little Eyes.
082521 Our show tonight at Colonial Gardens
is postponed until September becase
of the heat.
We have rescheduled for Friday,
September 3rd with Scott Jelinek.
082321 Had an acoustic practice in my
livingroom with the full band. Sorted
out stuff for upcoming shows and
the future.
082021 Backed up the 25 songs and chunks
of songs using the Save Copy As
because for some reason my current
setup is putting all of the audio files from
all of the sessions in one Audio folder.
080921 Fully intended to complete our live
calendar for 2021. This includes 2
outdoor gigs.
080721 I've not been a fan of my Boss SY1
and it's been demoted to a rarely-used
board. Then I got the notiion to put it
in the effects loop of the superego+.
Bliss.
072721 Picked up COVID-19 from the Belton
DMV last week so the bill for Friday's
show will be covered by the Mystics
and The Splatter Pattern.
072021 Only 1/2 of Distant Cousins
(Jill Westra) will be joining us on
the 25th.
071721 Got the album database caught up
with some of the new stuff. Fiddled
with Mac including re-singing the
full song and adding some alt parts.
071621 Sevrin Eldred will be opening the
show on August 28th at Mike Kelly's
Westsider.
071521 I've recorded chunks of 4 songs (Mac,
Mr. Cooper, Sweet, Soft Gollum, Irene
Ironweed) over the last week. It's a drag.
I'm talking to a few people about co-writing
on some of the songs just to spread the
burden around.
071421 People are always like "mrjohnny,
mrjohny, what's on your magificent
pedalboard?" and I'm all "Hi, I don't
usually go for this sort of thing but
here they are in this order:"
Soul Preacher
Soul Food
Attack Decay Tape Reverse
Synth9
Mel9
B9
Ravish Sitar
Superego+
Cathedral
Oceans11
320 Looper
Quilter Phantom Block
"but mrjohnny, mrjohnny, what about
your other board?" and I'm all like
curt and put off and shit and flatly
spit:
Joyo American
Twinote Fuzz
Boss SY1
Mono Synth
Mod Modulator
Hall of Fame
Earthquaker
Afterneath
071321 Thank you to everybody that made the
trip to Blue Springs to hang out on a
Tuesday night. Thanks so much to
Jill and Kelly for a fun set and to Chris
Ruzich for sitting in on some songs.
We'll do it again in August.
We talked a bit before DC's set about
setting up our rehearsal space for
recording in the Autumn and start
churning out some albums.
See you at 6:00 tonight when Distant
Cousins take the stage.
Two Forlorn Petunias have birthdays on
this date. I shan't tell you who.
070921 Recorded an interview with Barry Lee at
KKFI in advance of the July 30th show
with The Jubilee Mystics and Splatter
Pattern at the Westsider. I always have
fun talking music with Barry.
070721 Grim rehearsal, which is good news
before a show. Highlights: Chris Ruzich
swung by to run through Glad to Pass On
and Mars - the first time he and I have
strapped on instruments together - and
Dave's absurdly percocious nephew LJ
hung out with us.
070621 July 9th show at Harley's Hideaway
has been cancelled due to a
scheduling conflict. We have never
cancelled on a venue before for
any reason.
062921 Distant Cousins added to the 7/13
show at Colonial Gardens.
Flash Floods added to Gaslight
Gardens bill in October.
062621 Sevrin Eldred added to the Gaslight
Gardens bill in October.
062421 We've cancelled the show tonight
due to inclement weather. Will
reschedule for July. Likely July
13th.
Josh Loper will be joining us at
Harley's on the 9th.
Scrambling the outfit to LC's on
18th to do a fistful of songs.
Skated through Dolemite, Adorable
Deplorable and Repeat.
062321 Jazzy Jazz will be sitting in on a
few songs tomorrow night at
Colonial Gardens.
062221 Added Distant Cousins (J. Kelly
Dougherty & Jill Westra) to the
bill at Colonial Gardens on August
25th.
062021 Fleshed out Gulch. I absolutely
do not need any more starts to
songs or even whole songs. I
have to stop at some point and
start managing the growing pile
of unfinished material.
061621 Tried the new Ring of Stars bit
at rehearsal and it seems to work
fine. We came up with some mods
that I'll have to go back and apply
to the demo.
061321 Working on lengthening the outro
of Ring of Stars.
061221 I have an Electro Harmonix-Synth9
and a Boss SY-1 on my pedalboard
because sometimes I am more useful
replicating synth sounds from the
recordings live than proper guitar
sounds.
.
I just haven't been able to find a useful
sound on the SY-1. At least not useful
enough to justify the rectangle it takes
up on the board so I am picking up an
Electro-Harmonix Mono Synth. This
will be a useful upgrade for the presets
alone. The SY-1 and Synth9 don't have
presets so I have to line settings up
before each song, which is not optimal.
061121 One of my favorite things about being
in **stupid rock bands has always been
bringing in a demo of a new stupid song
and watching it come to life as the
musicians sort it out. It never gets old.
It's like planting flower seeds and
watching the plants burst above ground
minutes later. I still clearly remember the
thrill of first introducing my early stuff to
players in bedrooms, living rooms and
basements across the metro. Nervously
showing everyone the chords to my stupid
song, timidly humming the stupid vocal
melody, steeling myself for the negative
reaction/criticism that never came - even
when it probably should have! I was (and
still am) so fortunate to be in situations
where everyone accepted my stupid songs
and made them better. Thank you for that.
** I'm annoyed by much and sub-genres
absolutely qualify. If the snare hits on two
and four then it's likely a stupid rock/pop
song. The Eagles, The Sex Pistols, Bruno
Mars, Marilyn Mansion, Herman's Hermits,
Artic Monkeys, Marvin Gaye, Bobby
Goldsboro, Blur, ABBA are all stupid
rock/pop bands. I like stupid rock/pop
music, but if you're trying to put together a
stupid new band, don't list a bunch of stupid
sub-genres in your ads. Why limit yourself
and your music by only auditioning people
that wear cuffed jeans or are only
influenced by 3 stupid artists from 1994?
061021 Android "Download Not Allowed"
when trying to save an MP3
attachment to my phone.
Strugged with this for an hour.
Found nothing on the internet.
Turns out I had to have WiFi
connected to successfully save
an MP3 from an e-mail to my
phone. I guess that's a Verizon
thing to save bandwidth?
060921 Having an all acoustic session
this evening. Weird at first but
was rolling nicely by the end. I
think we'll still go mostly electric
for most venues but pull out the
acoustic lineup for the Westsider
since sound is an issue there.
060821 Both Jerry Riccardi and Allen
Johnston replaced my drum
parts on the new Girl for Samson
album. Patrick played thee
tracks for me last night -
Cigarette (Allen), Dust (Jerry)
and Present Always (Jerry).
060321 I don't want to be that band that
is painfully loud. I really don't.
I am committed to making
playing at the best volume for
each venue a priority.
060221 Added another date at Colonial
Gardens.
Band had our first live run at
Merry Blaze. Feels good.
053121 Tidied up Merry Blaze for Allen
to drum to and to use for the
band to rehearse to so that we
can get it into rotation because
every new song I compose is
possibly the greatest song ever
written and must be poured
into ears as soon as possible.
053021 We had a great time last night.
Thanks again to Josh Loper and
The Underdogs for sharing their
music and to all the people that
showed up. Wonderful to play
to a chunk of people again!
A couple of notes about future
dates. The 7/31 show with The
Splatter Pattern and The Jubilee
Mystics has been moved to 7/30.
We've added August 28th at
The Westsider with Major Matt
Mason and Josh Loper.
BTW, I noticed that we are likely
to hit our 50th live performance
some time this year or early next.
That feels noteworthy.
052921 Playing at Mike Kelly's
Westsider in Westport
tonight with The Underdogs
and Josh Loper. Show starts
at 7 PM. Cover is $5.
052821 Woke up in the middle of the
night and came up with all of
the words for Merry Blaze.
Hope to show it to the band
and have it ready for the
June 24th gig at Colonial
Gardens.
052521 1978-1979: The Jam cover
David Watts, The Pretenders
cover "Stop Your Sobbing" and
Van Halen do "You Really Got
Me".
052321 Finished Who Is This Plumber?
Just need to replace temp
parts with permies.
052121 Obsessing over Who Is This
Plumber?, forsaking all others.
052021 Added another section to
Who Is This Plumber? I
actually anguished over the
chord progression and it
feels really nice.
Talking to some other bands
about some multi-band billings
this Summer/Autumn.
051921 Rehearsed and worked what
Saturdays were open for
future gigs.
051721 Headed back Lawrence this
Autumn. Gaslight Gardens on
October 9th.
Decided to work on Kitchen
Matches and before opening
the session found Who Is
This Plumber. Last week
I found Cherry. More
chunks of songs cluttering
my to do list.
051321 Adding Josh Loper to the
May 29th show.
The Splatter Pattern and
The Jubilee Mystics will
kick off the evening of July
31st.
051221 Beautiful night working on
music and eating great food
with Joelle and Mike.
051021 Set Allen Johnston a demo
of Merry Blaze to add drums
to. Danny sent me some
piano riffing.
050921 Lengthened Merry Blaze.
Got more Dolemite bass
takes from Dave.
050721 Roughed our a version of
Merry Blaze to send to
Danny.
050521 Roughed out a version of
Somebody's Intro to send
to Danny. Shannon charted
it along with Industrial Debris.
050421 Working on a date at
Harley's.
050321 Tried a different approach
to some of the vocal lines
in Adorable Deplorabe.
Recorded the guts of
Somebody's Intro.
050221 Settled on The Underdogs
for support for 5/29.
042921 Getting closer to having
multiple bands for the
next two Westsider shows.
042821 Great rehearsal. Lots of
ironing out troubling bits.
042421 Pre-set up music - The Sparks
"Kimono My House" and the
rarities from The Kinks' "The
Village Green Preservation
Society".
042321 Sad Ballroom Rock in a Major Key
042221 A venue is requesting a band photo.
Just about everything associated with
band-business/promotion is regrettable
to me. The only posed band photo I
think I could stomach would be taken
underwater or perhaps an overhead shot
of the band in different checkout lines,
mixed with other people at a store. Or
maybe eating tacos. Or perhaps
brooding in an alley with graffiti with our
unplugged instruments. The drummer
would hold his sticks. How come the
singer never holds an unplugged mic in
those kind of shots?
042121 Scheduled a show for us at
Colonial Gardens in June. They
have a beautiful outdoor stage.
The date is 6/24 from 6-9 PM.
It costs $10 to reserve a table.
042021 Painful start to our last rehearsal
before going back to the Westsider
on Saturday, but we got in sync
after an hour. Decided to postpone
introducing live versions of Boyfriend
and Glad to Pass On until May.
Sent some designs to a proper
graphic design artist for t-shirts
etc.
041921 Fooled with the Pox arrangement
rather than finishing the 20 other
songs in the basket.
Essentially there are two kinds of set
lists - fixed and loose. A fixed set list
is like a playlist that you follow in order.
Consideration has been given beforehand
to which songs sound good together and
everybody in the band knows what's
coming up next. A loose set list is
delivered by feel. You refer to the
collection of songs at the conclusion of
every tune and determine what would
work best based on how the band is
doing and how people are responding. I
find this method more desirable. The
downside is that if you don't quickly come
up with a song there can be awkward lulls
in-between numbers because the
musicians need time to adjust their
settings to prepare for the song. I
generally try to come up with the next
title during the last 45 seconds of the
current tune. The panic should be visible
even from the back of a small, dark bar.
041821 Recorded the framework for Pox
and sent a copy to Danny.
041421 Spent a good chunk of the
session sorting out Boyfrind and
Glad To Pass On. Also
introduced some ideas for
Swimmer's Shoulders, including
lengthening the last section.
041321 So many bland
recommendations lately.
David Bowie's Heroes,
The Beach Boys' Sunflower &
Roxy Music's Avalon. After
that dull trio I bought The Kinks
Are The Village Green
Preservation Society 3 CD set.
I'd rather listen to slight variations
of good songs then mediocre
new songs. Also going to go after
Scott Walker, The Isley Brothers
and Prefab Sprout next.
040921 The June date at The Westsider
has been moved to July 31st.
040721 Started on Boyfriend and
Glad to Pass On from Land Ho!
040521 Started shipping copies of
The Green Piano.
040321 Going birding this morning
and taking Leonard Cohen's
"Songs of Love and Hate",
Beta Band's "Heroes to Zeros"
and Laura Nyro's "Eli & the
Thirteenth Confession".
Loved Beta Band and Robyn.
Found Nyro and Cohen a
litte dated and corny.
040121 Listening to the New
Pornographers and
The Shins.
033121 Worked on new songs.
Worked on stuff we know but
don't practice very often
(Sweet & Low, Beat Box
Caveat, The Green Piano,
Rattle etc.), tunes from the
new album and songs from
older albums like Boyfriend
and Glad to Pass On.
The Green Piano CDs are
here.
Danny sending me Dolemite
parts.
Listened to the Las album.
I thought it was quite good.
Bought Beach Boys
"Sunflower" & "Surf's Up".
Also bought Isley Brothers
"3 + 3".
033021 A few times Saturday I
would hear Carl, Jerry and
Dave in a nice groove and
just stop and let it run.
What a luxury.
Bought some of Scott
Walker's work today. That's
a long overdue listen. Today
I'm listing to Bitches Brew
by Miles Davis and Closer
by Joy Division.
032921 Listening to Suzanne Vega
and Shonen Knife.
Had a little march fall into
my lap. Going to fuss with
it a bit instead of finishing
the 16 songs that are sagging
on the kitchen counter.
032721 Fun night. We did 40
originals, playing from 7 to
9:30 and then 10:15 to
11:00. Made some friends,
sold some CDs.
Had some volume issues
that we finally sorted out
by just using our monitors
and shutting off the mains.
Gave little eyeglass thingies
to all of the eyeglass wearing
members of the organization.
032621 My little eyeglass thingies
are awesome!
032521 Ordered an important stage
accessory that will be here
before Saturday - a variety
pack of bits of silicone to
prevent glasses from sliding
down your nose when you are
engaged in the act of rocking
too much.
032421 Last rehearsal before Saturday.
Focused on new stuff and
classics we haven't played in
a while.
032321 Got a bag for the Yamaha
MO6 to replace the coffin.
032021 See you next Saturday
night in Westport.
031921 Listened to Television's
"Adventure" for the first time.
I wish I had a fresh take but
my first impression matches
most reviews. Coming up -
The Las, The Pogues,
Suzanne Vega, Snow Patrol,
Shonen Knife, Franz Ferdinand,
The New Pornographers and
PJ Harvey.
031721 We're doing that thing where
we are trying to run through
everything in the set in advance
of our Westsider appearance
while still learning new stuff.
If you are planning on coming
make sure to bring roses and
rotton tomatoes. That way you
can make a game time decision.
Listening to the Raveonettes,
PJ Harvey, Joni Mitchell and
just now getting to Television's
"Adventure."
031421 Chris Ruzich swung by to
add some bass to Kitchen
Matches. He also recorded
some piano and bass for a
song he showed me a year
or so ago.
031321 Re-sang some bits of
Adorable Deplorable.
031221 Green Piano CDs are being
manufactured.
031021 First time running through
the Adorable Deplorable/
Area 51 merge. Getting it
figured out. Collected funds
for starting production on
physical CDs for The Green
Piano.
030821 Did some more
maintenance on Adorable
Deplorable. It's now
10 minutes long but
could easily be 12-15 live
if we don't play it like a
Ramones song.
030721 Set up The Green Piano
with DiscMakers for CDs.
Will pull the trigger at the
end of the week.
030521 Finished building the
grander Adorable Deplorable.
9 minutes exactly.
This weekend I need to sort
out The Green Piano artwork
and get a CD order started.
030421 Decided last night to have
Adorable Deplorable go
right into Area 51, making
the whole mess Adorable
Deplorable and a significant
editing chore today for your
humble narrator since they
are different tempos.
Listened to Pretty Things'
S.F. Sorrow and disc one of
Todd Rundgren's
Something/Anything?
030321 Productive rehearsal. DJ STP
made some beautiful pasta.
Talked again about making
CDs for The Green Piano.
I just need to tidy up the
artwork and submit the order.
030221 Confirmed again with Patrick
that we are going to give him
one song at a time for
mixing and mastering.
Listened to Stereolab's
Emperor Tomato Ketchup.
022421 Picked up Hunky Dory, Ziggy
and Aladdin Sane because I'm
only familiar with the "hits".
Charted out some backing
vocal parts with Shannon for
Area 51, Adorable Deplorables
and Simmers Shoulders.
022321 Still gorging on other people's
music rather than working on
my own. Recent titles:
The Kinks: Aurthur
Monade: Monstre Cosmic
Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic
Neil Young: After the Gold Rush
10,000 Maniacs: In My Tribe
Jane Siberry: The Walking
The Byrds: Fifth Dimension
Gentle Giant: Octopus
U2: War
Nick Lowe: Dig My Mood
Edith Piaf: Compilation
021621 Enjoying Soft Machine's
double album "Third"
"Here on the BBC
We're free to play almost as long and as loud
As the foreign language classes
and the John Cage interview...
And the jazz groups
and the orchestras on Radio 3"
021521 Listening to Monade, Helio
Sequence, Gentle Giant and
Matthew Sweet. Gentle Giant
is dangerously close to
listening to Yes.
021221 Sweet & Low on KKFI.
021021 Did some editing on Every Night,
Failure to Rise, Area 51 and
Adorable Deplorable in advance
of tonight's rehearsal.
020921 I have at least 16 songs with 1 or
more parts including chords and
a melody. Maybe 10 of them are
only partially completed and it's
overwhelming managing where
I'm at with them, especially since
I keep making up new stuff. SO,
I created a spreadsheet with
the deets for each song and
uploaded it to Dropbox so that
we can monitor our progress
for each song.
020821 More notes to self. Arranged,
Lyrics, Drums, Bass, Vocals.
x=To Do
Adorable Deplorable Axxxx
Area 51 ALxxx
Dingus ALAxx
Dolemite ALJDV
Every Night xxxxx
Failure to Rise xxxxx
It's My Island AxJxx
Kitchen Matches xxxxx
Let Her Run xxxxx
No Limes ALAxV
Rattle AxAxx
Ring of Stars AxJxx
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond AxJxx
Stinker ALJDV
Swimmer's Shoulders ALAxx
The Blue One AxJxx
When the Money xxxxx
020421 Talked to Dave about some
performance opportunities this
summer.
Tweaked the melody in Adorable
Deplorable and re-learned how to
play Let Her Run, not knowing that
Dave, Danny and Jerry worked on
it last night.
020321 Confirmed upcoming dates at Mike
Kelly's Westsider.
Dave, Danny and Jerry had a
rehearsal at Danny's. Worked on
Let Her Run.
012820 Listening to some artists that I am
not that familiar with: The Sundays,
Monade, Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
King Crimson. I'm also exploring
catalogs of artists that I know like
Flaming Lips, Radiohead, The Kinks
Gentle Giant, The Moody Blues and
Stereolab.
012721 Down a team member which made the
session awkward but we powered
through and got some stuff done.
012621 I've been listening to a lot of music
to get out of my head for a bit. Some
of the stuff I've been consuming is so
good that it's deflating. This happens to
me occasionally and I have to remind
myself that I'm not them and they aren't
me. No harm in being motiviated by
quality work, but no point in being
knocked off course by it.
012021 Still splitting rehearsals between
learning new stuff and keeping fresh on
the older material so that we can
play live for 3 hours again.
011321 Good rehearsal with a full band.
Added Adorable Deplorable to the
setlist. Still spending half of the
sessions working on new material.
011221 Worked up a new section for Swimmer's Shoulders.
Fleshed out Adorable Deplorable.
010821 Sent a rough arrangement for Area 51 to the
team.
010621 Productive rehearsal. Still working out all of the
new stuff, intergrating Carl and toying with
lighting.
010521 Finally got a new Johnny Marie t-ship design up
in the Merch shop.
010121 Still futzing with a section of music in
Swimmer's Shoulders. Also need to
import a little jammy thing we did from
last rehearsal that seemed promising.
2020 (recording The Green Piano/6th album/Covid cancellations) 123120 Love you, Allen.
123020 Worked on new stuff and fiddled with
the cans and slide projector. The new
songs are coming along beautifully.
122820 Worked out a vocal melody to help
transition to the last section of Swimmer's
Shoulders.
Image projector came so began the process
of figuring out how to exploit it.
Optimistically scheduling some spring
dates and will cancel or honor based on
the the state of the pandemic.
3/27/21
4/24/21
5/29/21
6/26/21
122320 I have an ending in mind for Swimmer's
Shoulders that has been keeping me awake
at night. I'm going to flesh it out today and
send it to Danny.
Lights came and everything works.
For future me - here is the current list of
songs for the next album and who will
be administering drums.
Dingus (Allen)
Kitchen Matches (Allen)
No Limes (Allen)
Rattle (Allen)
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond (Allen)
Swimmer's Shoulders (Allen)
The Blue One (Jerry)
Dolemite (Jerry)
It's My Island (Jerry)
Ring of Stars (Jerry)
Stinker (Jerry)
122120 Saw a tease for the Let It Be re-do and was
knocked out by the green-red-green spot
pattern on the walls in the studio. I want
to replicate that in our rehearsal space for
future live videos.
Had a dream we were working on a schlock
rock song that had the line "the 7th frame of
the Super Bowl."
122020 Thanks to "Release Radar" & "On Repeat"
for including Johnny Marie & the Lonesome
Petunias songs in their playlists. Every
ear is a triumph.
121620 Rehearsal with full band. Spent the first
hour or so working on new stuff. Introduced
Swimmer's Shoulders. When we're able to
play out again the people that were regulars
before the pandemic will hear a full set of
new-to-them songs.
One of those nights were words and ideas
kept coming to me and I bothered to
document them as they arrived. Finished
off most of Swimmer's Shoulders and will
introduce tonight so that we can work up a
live version.
121420 Spent the morning finishing the Swimmer's
Shoulders demo. Sent it to Danny for
fleshing.
121120 Massaged Ring of Stars to reflect changes we
discussed at last rehearsal.
120920 Ran through all of the new stuff. Implemented my
idea of making Shut Up You Crazy Diamond a
tango.
120820 Fooled around with some of Danny's ideas for the
outro of Let Her Run and added a vocal idea.
120220 Spirited practice. Ran through a lot of the new
stuff like Stinker, The Blue One, Ring of Stars,
Shut Up You Crazy Diamond, Rattle, It's My Island,
No Limes, Dolemite and some new additions like
Sweet & Low, Beat Box Caveat and Juno Contacto.
Renamed No We Her to Shut Up You Crazy
Diamond and the first Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
to No We Here. It will all make sense when you
No We Hear them.
120120 Nearly 1,000 listens at BandCamp since the start
of November. That's the result of the band and
friends of the band sharing the weekly releases on
their social media platforms.
113020 Shannon charted the piano parts for No We Her.
112820 Recorded the guts to Shut Up You Crazy Diamond
and now want to swap names with No We Her since
No We Her strikes me as more Shut Up You Crazy
Diamond than Shut Up You Crazy Diamond does.
112520 Need to cement the foundation of No We Her so that
I can introduce it tonight. And I did.
112420 Still fooling around with the arrangement of No We Her.
112320 Lengthened the intro to No We Her. Did another
Moog solo take and tried a different bass line.
112220 Got the JohnnyMarie.com thing straightened out.
It was supposed to bounce to JohnnyMarie.net
and never did, unbeknownst to your humble
narrator.
Put the singles from The Green Piano up on
SoundCloud.
112120 Thank you to Barry Lee at KKFI for giving Sweet & Low
a spin on his show Signal to Noise tonight.
111920 Confirmed with team members that we aren't playing
out again until the city's Covid Restrictions have been
lifted. Hoping for March or April.
111620 KKFI's Signal to Noise will be playing another
selection from The Green Piano Friday night.
111420 Added vocal ideas to No We Her.
111320 Pushed Reach Around off of the boat.
Sketched out No We Her.
110620 The Green Piano is now available everywhere.
Thanks to Barry Lee for opening Signal to Noise with Reach Around.
110520 I let Mars out today. I had planed to release
it tomorrow but want to get it out ahead of
the conclusion of the US Presidential election.
110420 First full practice with percussionist
Carl Cherrito. It was wonderful.
110320 Shannon charted Dave Estes' keyboard parts for One More and worked on Danny's piano part at the end of Hats Off, Extraordinaire.
103020 Seven Little Eyes from The Green Piano
out today.
102920 KKFI's program Signal to Noise will be
playing something from The Green Piano
at the start of their show on 11/6/20 at
9 PM Central.
Picked up my water-soaked Strat from Matt.
102820 Album release party with nearly all of
the contributors. Made a joyful noise
after an amazing dinner.
102620 Digital distribution under way. I'm going
to run out of highlights soon and have to
resume working on the next album.
102520 Met at Danny's and played a bit before
The Big Game. Had another go at
halftime. Ran through Ring of Stars and
Rattle.
102420 Played for 3 hours at The Westsider with
Allen Johnston and Jerry Riccardi switching
between hand percussion and drums. Carl
Cherrito sat in on a few songs. Thanks to
everybody that came out and made the
night special.
102320 Made Mother available to the world today.
Had multiple dinners with Allen & Joelle.
102220 2nd rehearsal with both Allen and Jerry.
I've coaxed Danny into setting up a keyboard
so that he can play some of his wonderful
recorded parts live.
When we last played in Colorado, John
McConnell came up with a Time Is On My
Side-feeling solo for Mother that I dug. He
recorded a few takes but as the song got
more stringy we decided not to use it. Last
night we were casually playing the song at
rehearsal and I, for some reason, started
simulating John's bit and Danny, who had
never heard it before, excitedly exclaimed
"What's that???" The song is due to release
tomorrow.
Winstead's tater tots on the way back to
Allen's lodging. Drinking is bad.
102120 Danny and I are picking up some percussion
gear from John Bara's shop today and then
having a full rehearsal tonight with Allen and
Jerry.
102020 Listened to The Green Piano this AM
after a few days of not.
First rehearsal with Allen Johnston tonight
for the 2-drummer show at The Westsider
on Saturday night. Ran through his set and
had time left over to do a set with Danny.
101820 Thank you for the plays, downloads and
feedback for Sweet & Low.
Got the artwork ready for the next 2 singles
that will be released on 10/24 and 10/30.
We are going to do some recording before
Allen heads back to San Diego Sunday. I
originally thought we could do something
from the 6th album but then it occurred to
me that it would be fun to record live
versions of That Doesn't Turn You On and
You Set It Off to release later to reinvigorate
interest in The Green Piano.
101720 Digital distribution for The Green Piano
launched for 11/6/20.
101620 The Green Piano has been mastered
and the first single is up exclusively on
BandCamp.
101520 Revisions reviewed, approved and now
we are in mastering mode.
101420 Got revisions back from Patrick. You
need to use this guy to mix and master
your work.
We worked on new stuff and old stuff
that we'll be doing on the 24th that
doesn't get included in the set very
often.
Sent Patrick a few more revisions.
101320 Spent a lot of the day sexing up our
BandCamp page. I hope that if you
follow us anywhere, you'll follow us
there. There are so many opportunities
for sales, free downloads, single
releases etc.
101120 Sent Patrick my first wave of revisions.
101020 We're back at Repeal 18th on Friday,
November 20th for a full show.
Listening to Patrick's amazing work on
The Green Piano and making notes for
some revisions.
100920 Got The Green Piano mixes back from
Patrick. So beautiful.
100720 Trying to learn new stuff while keeping
the stuff we don't do very often (Wake
for Wanderers, Parasol, White Girl)
fresh.
Talked more about a full time
percussionist (depending on venue/
stage size) and plan to try out someone
specific we have in mind for a month's
worth of rehearsals to see if it will work
out.
100620 Going to do some acoustic sets with
a full band in November. Will post dates
later this week.
100320 Sent Allen and Dave a reference track
for Every Night so that we can record
some live drums and bass after our
show at the Westsider on the 24th.
100120 Had an amazing time playing at
Repeal 18th. The whole experience
with Mary, her staff and the crowd was
very nurturing. God bless any club
owner that takes care of bands that
only do original material. Can't wait
to come back! Thanks also to Carl
for turning us onto the gig and for
sitting in with us. We really enjoyed
it.
093020 Everything is loaded up for
tomorrow. I love our haunts but I'm
very please to go play in a different
part of the city.
092920 Patrick is working on You Set It Off,
12 of 12.
092820 Dong a full night at Repeal 18th in North
Kansas City on 10/1/20.
092720 Added more songs from the first
4 albums to our BandCamp page.
092620 Working on words today. Also
decided that at the October 24th
show it would be fun to do whole
albums in sequence. I don't
know if we would do the albums
in order.
Sent Jerry Ring Of Stars (Got One)
and The Blue One to start
developing parts for.
092520 Decided to rename Got One to
Ring Of Stars (Got One).
092420 Starting to convert the gibberish
lyrics in the 5th albums to purposeful
gibberish.
092320 Getting good responses from the
percussionist ads.
Danny sent me guitar parts for Stinker
and Dolemite.
Spent the whole rehearsal learning The
Blue One, Got One (gotta change that title)
and Rattle.
092120 Trying an Electro Harmonix Big Muff for
the fuzz solo in Dolemite. Also picked
CUVAVE an Twinote PI pedals to try
because the Big Muff is so noisy.
Still collecting responses from the
hand percussionist ad:
5-piece band asually looking (we're in no
hurry) for someone to play hand percussion
on recordings and live performances of original
music. We rehearse once a week and perform
once or twice a month. Prefer someone whose
tastes and approach are left of center - more
Radiohead than Grateful Dead, more Elvis
Costello than Elvis Presley, more Captain
Beefheart than Captain & Tennile, more Patti
Smith than Patti Smythe. Ability to move
around to other instruments and sing would be
amazing. Way more interested in character and
reliability than talent. Pay is shit - generally
1/6th of the door.
092020 Thanks to everyone who came out
last night. We had a blast playing for
you.
Added e-flyers to our gigography.
091720 Talked to Chris Ruzich about how to
get a bass part from him for a song for
the 6th album during the pandemic. Sent
him demos for Every Night, Failure to Rise,
Kitchen Matches and Got One for
consideration.
Patrick wrote to say that he was missing
some guitar tracks from The Green Piano,
betraying that he was now working on The
Green Piano. Did a Save Copy In to
capture all of the audio tracks and uploaded
to DropBox.
091620 Put feelers out for a hand percussionist
again.
Last rehearsal before Gaslight Gardens.
It's pretty amazing to have 50 songs
rehearsed that we can pick from. I plan
to have more for the 10/24 Westsider
appearance.
091520 Patrick is at That Doesn't Turn You
on. He recorded some trumpet parts
today.
I brought up mixing the next album
as I get done with the songs and he
agreed that it would be less
overwhelming.
Recorded some vocal melodies for
When the Money and uploaded a
new version of Kitchen Matches with
new vocal takes.
091420 Uploaded When the Money and Kitchen
Matches with a vocal idea. Got guitar
harmony tracks from Danny for Dolemite.
090720 Went on a short road trip today and took a
few of the mixes from the 6th album to
contemplate. Was dismayed to discover
that the MIDI EP in Rattle was suddenly
off by several measures. Checked my
backups and they are the same way.
090320 Joelle's birthday so pizza and cake.
Michael came by, perhaps for the first time
since the pandemic.
090120 More runs at the Dolemite solos. The
fuzz dies after 10 minutes and then works
intermittently after that so super annoying.
I need to learn the solos using some
different pedals and then when I have it
down quickly record it with the homemade
boxes.
083120 We are confirmed for Gaslight Gardens for
September 19th. Tell you Ma.
Danny loaned me some fuzz pedals that
his friend Leonard made. I tried them
for the Dolemite solos and love them.
Imported the last takes of Stinker and
Dolemite from last night in to the sessions.
083020 Off to try to get a live recording of Stinker.
Got bass and drums for Stinker and Dolemite.
It took about 6 hours to get everything set up,
partially because Danny put fresh heads on
everything.
Looking at rescheduling at Gaslight Gardens
on September 19th.
082920 Worked on re-arranging Red & Brown/Dolemite.
082720 The Gaslight Gardens show double booked
the 12th so we are going to reschedule for
another Saturday in September. Will
update the calendar in a few days.
082620 I know that Patrick is mixing the album
in alphabetical order. I casually mentioned
One More in our last Girl for Samson session
and he was familiar with it so I knew he was
at least that far into the album. I brought up
Reach Around last night and again I got a
"Hit!" Here's what left after Reach Around:
Seven Little Eyes
Sweet & Low That Doesn't Turn You On
The Green Piano
You Set It Off
081920 Mostly worked on new stuff. Introduced
The Blue One, Rattle and Got One. We
also played a lot of stuff from Land Ho
that we don't do live like Boyfriend,
Bon Voyage and Is This Your Thing?
Shannon added a TC Electronics HOF 2
reverb to her keyboard rig just for the
shimmer effect in an effort to more
accurately represent Dave Estes'
recorded parts.
Decided to go ahead and do a small
run of CDs for The Green Piano. Will
still do digital distribution.
081720 Sorted out Got One enough to post it on
Drop Box for my mates to hear. Had
another song fall out of my bottom that I
named Expression Petals. This summer
has been good to me.
Bought a SuperEgo+ so my pedalboards
are now in disarray.
081520 Finally linked up some bits for Got One.
Added some more vocal takes to
Swimmer's Shoulders.
081420 Showed Shannon the keyboard parts for
The Blue One and Rattle.
081220 Scheduled October 24th with the Westsider.
081120 Joelle made a beautiful dinner to celebrate
the August birthdays in the group. Worked
some new or not-often-visted songs like
It's My Island, Parasol, Repeat and Wake for
Wanderers. Going to start work on
Rattle and The Blue One next week.
080920 Thank you to everyone who came out last
night for our 32nd performance. We had
a great time playing for you.
080720 Waiving the cover for tomorrow's show
at the Westsider. Buy hamburgers and
beer!
073120 Patrick did something very special with
Mother today. I mention this for future
self to reference.
073020 Came up with a 3rd section for The Blue One.
072920 Spent a few hours tidying up things we don't
play very often. Talked about putting all of
the albums on the hard drive on the PA so that
we can learn the proper arrangements.
Also debated whether to put The Green Piano
out on CD or not.
072820 Talked to Patrick a bit about his progress with
the album. He spent a month on Hats Off,
Extraordinaire and is now working (in
alphabetical order) on Mars.
072720
I just saw an upcoming event share on
Facebook where one of the bands cheered
something to the effect of "Let's pack this
place!" with the hashtag fcovid. I understand
if you are the act you would want to play to
a full house. I also appreciate what a full
house might mean to any club likely
struggling right now. I do question the
science behind the hashtag, though I share
its sentiment.
Self-promotion in the new age (from
MySpace to now) has been a painful thing
to watch - not excluding myself. One of my
favorite scenes in the film Rivers Edge depicts
the media interviewing high school students
about the death of their classmate and one
lad, after boasting about being friends with
the victim, hastily adds "I play guitar."
072620 Got a nice bass part from Dave for Rattle.
072420 Got drums from Allen for Rattle.
072320 When we scheduled our August 8th
appearance at the Westsider it was
intended to be a CD release party for our
fifth album "The Green Piano" with Allen
Johnston sitting in and Girl for Samson
doing a short opening set during a pandemic
recovery period. Now, none of these things
are true ("The Green Piano" now set for a
September release, Allen and Girl for
Samson staying home while the plague
continues to dully grind away) except
that we're still going to play a full evening
and do it as safely as possible.
Masky smooches.
Sent Danny a mix of Red & Brown that
approximates last night's arrangement.
072220 We were short a bass player so we
spent the evening reviewing stuff that
we haven't done in a while. Also worked
up Red & Brown.
072020 The Wine Crawl on 8/1 has been
cancelled.
Scribbled down bits for The Blue One.
071820 Had fun playing an hour set at The
Roxy last night. Introduced a few
new tunes from the 6th album and
did lots of songs from The Green
Piano. Thank you to everybody
who came out. You sounded like
a hundred people!
071620 Allen sent me drum tracks for Rattle
and some ideas for Failure to Rise.
I haven't had a haircut since late
January. Be prepared to laugh at me
with a mask on if you come to see
us at the Roxy on Friday.
071320 John McConnell and Chris Ruzich
both have birthdays today.
Got drum tracks for Rattle from Allen.
071120 Fooled with Failure to Rise and sent
the session folder to Danny to
fiddle with. Hey Danny, no fucking
fiddle! I mean, unless that's what
you're hearing.
071020 Recorded some ideas and called ti
Failure to Rise. I think I got the
water too hot and it killed the yeast.
070820 Still doing 5 hour rehearsals like we
have a bunch of safe, uncancelled gigs
coming up.
070120 Another spirited rehearsal. 4th since
the shut down. We're probably
spending too much time learning new
stuff when there is so much material
from the other 5 albums to learn but
it's kind of invigorating.
063020 Was hoping to get The Green Piano
back from Patrick in August but it's
looking more like the Autumn now.
062620 Dear future me: when the Mackie isn't
getting output press the FW 1-2 button.
Just do it. You'll be delighted with the
results. Filing this under troubleshooting
the Mackie/ONYX.
062520 Fun rehearsal. Very loose.
062420 Sent Allen reference tracks with more
lead in time for Terry for You Set It Off
and That Doesn't Turn You On. Also
sent him some different mixes of
Rattle to drum to.
062320 Terry recorded some horn takes for
You Set It Off at Allen's studio.
062120 Checked in with Terry about horn
parts.
062020 Gaslight Gardens in Lawrence in
September.
061720 2nd rehearsal since the pandemic.
We've a lot of rust to sand off.
Trying to get No Lines, The Green
Piano, One More and It's My Island
ready for live. Trying to keep the
sheets clean and the pillows
fluffed.
We may have a guest for the
Westsider show in August. Hint:
It's the same guest that we have
everytime we play at the Westsider!
Talked to Terry and he plans to get
me horn parts this weekend.
061520 Sent Danny a rough demo of Let
Her Run.
061320 Allen sent two more Sweet & Low
takes.
Playing at the Roxy on July 17th.
061020 Our first rehearsal since the
pandemic. Rusty but you can still
see some shine. Introduced a
few of the songs from the 6th
album.
Discovered that my Deluxe Strat
case was full of water. Not sure
how it happened but it was most
assuredly a boo hoo moment.
060920 NOW Patrick has the whole album
in his hands. The power flashed on
and off tonight and for a second I
was panicked about perhaps
having a session corrupted before
I remembered that everything is
somewhere else.
060820 The last vocal takes for The Green
Piano.
060620 Tried some first-thing-in-the-morning
vocal takes for The Green Piano.
060520 Received The Green Piano drum
tracks from Jerry. As I prepare
to audition them I discover that
the project for the song does
not exist. After a frantic search
I found an older version that was
missing recent vocal takes.
Recorded a few new tracks.
Will record more tomorrow and
have another shot at the
backing vocals.
060420 So now it looks like:
The Green Piano
============
Beat Box Caveat
Christian in July
Hats Off, Extraordinaire
Mars
Mother
One More
That Doesn't Turn You On
The Green Piano
Seven Little Eyes
Reach Around
Sweet & Low
You Set It Off
Sixth Album
=========
Dingus
Stinker
It's My Island
Red & Brown
No Limes
Rattle
Every Night
Dingus has been getting shoved to
the next album since Her Bows.
060320 Girl for Samson won't be playing with
us at the next Westsider show.
Recorded a sketch of Red & Brown
and sent it to Danny
060220 Got another Seven Little Eyes take
from Jerry. Should have The Green
Piano take in a few days.
Added everything to the hard drive for
Patrick and am ready to move on to
the next album.
Handed the drive to Patrick. Still
have a chance at getting some horn
parts from Terry Powers.
060120 Got drum tracks from Jerry last night.
Still need The Green Piano from him
and maybe another take or two of
Sweet & Low from Allen before
passing this off to Patrick.
053020 Woke up and immediately after
attending to the 3 maidens I tracked
several husky vocals on You Set It
Off.
Danny sent me some harmony
ideas for Seven Little Eyes that
I incorporated.
052920 Back to thinking Mars and Reach
Around should be on this album.
Sang new lead and backing vocal
takes on Seven Little Eyes. Had
another go at an acoustic all the
way through with the RODE on
the bridge and an SM57 on the
neck.
Allen thinks he can get horns this
weekend for That Doesn't Turn
You On and You Set It Off.
Jerry is promising the balance
of his drum tracks by Sunday. I
plan to hand everything over to
Patrick on Monday night when
have our first Covid-era
GFS session.
052820 Sang more lead vocal takes for
Mother and Seven Little Eyes.
Sang more harmonies for Hats
Off, Extraordinaire and That
Doesn't Turn You On.
I initially used guitar organs on
No Limes. Added a proper
keyboard organ today.
052720 Sang more takes of Hats Off,
Extraordinaire and added more
solo variations to One More.
052620 Got drum tracks from Allen for
Sweet & Low and No Limes.
Added more guitars to That
Doesn't Turn You On.
052420 Sang new takes of Hats Off,
Extraordinaire and The Green
Piano. Need to do harmonies for
both and work out the transition
from the B to C part in Hats Off.
052320 Got bass parts from Dave for
Sweet & Low, Stinker, The Green
Piano and Christian in July.
051820 Thanks to WFMU's Nick The Bard
for giving Capers a spin.
051620 Met with our host to discuss
our June resumption of rehearsals.
Sent Danny a sketch of No Limes.
051320 Danny and I are still working on
new stuff while waiting on bass
and drum parts for a few songs
on The Green Piano. For my
own records:
The Green Piano
============
Beat Box Caveat
Sweet & Low
Mother
You Set It Off
That Doesn't Turn You On
The Green Piano
Seven Little Eyes
Christian in July
Hats Off, Extraordinaire
Mars
One More
Reach Around
Sixth Album
=========
Dingus
Stinker
It's My Island
Every Night
Rattle
No Limes
051020 Trying to get some of my phone
ideas into Pro Tools for future songs
while still making some progress on
The Green Piano. Fleshed out
Rattle and sent it to Danny for
some love.
050920 Got some bass parts from Dave
for Hats Off, Extraordinaire and
keyboard tracks from Dave
Estes for One More.
050820 The May 16th show at the
Westsider is postponed.
050420 I think The Benton County Wine
Crawl has been re-scheduled for
August 1st.
043020 Got final tracks from Allen for
Dingus and It's My Island.
042620 Had some overnight ideas for
Every Night that I implemented
upon waking. Songs are made
up of a series of problems that
have to be solved. It's that kind
of shit that keeps me awake at
night.
Got guitar parts from Danny for
Every Night and some drum
takes for It's My Island from
Allen to audition.
042520 Got bass tracks from Dave for It's
My Island and One More.
042420 Danny sent some more ideas for
the solo in It's My Island. Twin
slide attack!
Uploaded a mix of Every Night for
Danny to futz with.
042320 Danny came up with a nice
transition for It's My Island. I came
up with a temporary bass part.
Recorded another song rather than
finishing what I have. Every Night.
042220 Got new tracks from Allen for That
Doesn't Turn You On. Perfect!
Danny is working on sexing up
the transitions in It's My Island.
042020 When taking a break from recording
The Green Piano I like to fiddle with
my pedal board. It mostly consists
of Electro-Harmonix stuff because I
dig them. They are made in the USA
and they will repair any pedal and
ship it back for $25. It's not loaded
with boosts and distortions. In fact,
while looking at reveiws for the
Boss SY-1 I was delighted to see
a demo that included the sub-title
"No guitar solos or blues licks."
Here's my current chain:
Electro Harmonix Soul Food
Electro Harmonix Soul Preacher
Boss SY-1
Electro Harmonix Mel9
Electro Harmonix B9
Electro Harmonix Canyon
Electro Harmonix Mod11
Electro Harmonix Oceans 11
Electro Harmonix Cathedral
Electro Harmonix HumDebugger
Pedals that have spent some
time on the board and then were
demoted, ususally because there
is limitied space (so no under-
performers) or they one were one
trick ponies:
Electro Harmonix Ravish Sitar
Electro Harmonix Small Stone
Electro Harmonix Key9
Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi
Electro Harmonix Silencer
Electro Harmonix Analogizer
Electro Harmonix LPB1
Loads of Mooer, Joyo and
Donner stuff
There, we talked gear.
041920 Got Danny's Hat's Off parts and they
really sex up the song.
041820 Finished cleaning up all fo the songs for
The Green Piano and what we have for
the 6th album.
Added a few more parts to Hats Off,
Extraordinaire and requested some
more parts from Danny. This song
is nearly 9 minutes long. That's
right, I told you that the song is
nearly 9 minutes long.
041520 Cleaned up The Green Piano, Christian
in July and One More for Patrick.
041420 Sketched out Sound Hold.
041120 Added some bass ideas to Christian in
July.
Thinking that The Green Piano might be
a 9 song record and the rest will go on
the 6th album.
The Green Piano
============
Beat Box Caveat
Sweet & Low
Mother
You Set It Off
That Doesn't Turn You On
The Green Piano
Seven Little Eyes
Christian in July
Hats Off, Extraordinaire
Sixth Album
=========
Mars
Dingus
Stinker
One More
Reach Around
It's My Island
040920 Recorded more rhythm guitar tracks for
Christian in July. Having a hard time
getting it to feel and sound right. I did
switch from sitting the RODE NT1-A in
front of the amp to draping a SM47 in
front of the speaker with reasonable
results.
040820 Sang a half-dozen takes of Christian in
July. Imported some nice piano parts
for The Green Piano from Danny.
040720 We have a couple of shows coming up
in early May. If the distancing order is
lifted on 4/24 this will give us one week
to rehearse after having not rehearsed
for I don't know how long. Tricky stuff.
040420 Lengthened the end of The Green Piano
and added guitars and organ.
Shannon sang harmonies on Beat Box
Caveat, Sweet & Low, It's My Island
and Seven Little Eyes.
Danny is recording some more piano
takes for The Green Piano.
Jerry has one GFS song to finish
before he helps finish up the drums
on this album.
040120 Added more guitar bits to That Doesn't
Turn You On and It's My Island.
033120 Sang more takes of That Doesn't Turn
You On. Comped them and the takes
I did yesterday of Seven Little Eyes.
033020 Sang more takes of Seven Little Eyes
after finishing the lyrics last night.
Got bass takes for One More from
Dave.
032920 Got drums for Beat Box Caveat so
that one is ready to ship.
032820 Got bass part from Dave for Beat Box
Caveat and guitar bits from Danny
for It's My Island.
032520 Everybody, including Allen, working
on The Green Piano tonight. I
spent time writing words for It's My
Island and straightening out one of
those freaky Pro Tools issues that
caused a timing issue in the song.
032420 Still tidying up sessions for Patrick.
Added a jazzy C section to It's My
Island and came up with a scratch
vocal melody to play with.
032220 Kansas City has instituted a ban
prohibiting non-essential social
activities effective for 30 days.
That finishes off our April performance
schedule. The Benton County Wine
Crawl has been postponed until
September.
Cleaned up a bunch of sessions for
Patrick this weekend.
032120 Starting to think about cutting down
the length of this album and getting
it out. It feels like the more recent
songs have nothing to do with the
original topic.
Uploaded new versions of just about
everything so that Dave can cut
some tracks from home.
Added some new guitar and bass
parts to It's My Island.
032020 Still grinding away. What else can
I do? Sent Danny a demo of It's My
Island to play with. Recorded more
vocal takes for You Set It Off.
031820 Life During Wartime: Day 57
Sang more takes for Mother
and got Reach Around ready to
hand off. (That bit of word play
was purely organic and magic.)
Sang more ideas for It's My
Island.
031720 Worked on getting Mother and YSIO
ready for Patrick. Tracked some
more guitar parts.
031620 Kansas City has instituted a ban on
all gatherings of 50 people or more
for the next 8 weeks due to the
Covid-19 outbreak. This will most
likely wipe out our schedule until
August. On the upside, there will
be nothing preventing us from
finishing The Green Piano unless
it ends up requiring toilet paper.
031520 Thanks to the audience at Christine's
Firehouse last night for surviving
the transition from cover band to
Johnny Marie & the Lonesome
Petunias back to cover band. We
got through it together. This was
our 30th appearance together.
031420 Doing a little pop-up set tonight in
North Kansas City. Danny has
another gig so we'll be doing vanilla
versions of some of the songs.
On the upside, for the first time it
will be socially acceptable to wipe
off the microphone before using it.
I've waited a lifetime for this day.
031220 Playing on Saturday, April 18th
at 7 PM at the Roxy.
031120 We've decided not to tavel to San
Diego so our next shows will be
in April.
030820 Got some guitar parts from Danny
for the temporarily-titled "One More"
030720 Sent horn info to John Legge and
Terry Powers in San Diego for
You Set It Off and That Doesn't
Turn You On.
Dave on his way over to track
some bass parts. I want to
be done with this album and
start writing about something
other than You Know What.
Ended up tracking bass parts
for You Set It Off, That Doesn't
Turn You On, Reach Around and
Mother.
030520 Booked 8/8/20 at the Westsider
for an album release party for
The Green Piano.
Edited One More to reflect
the changes we've made
at rehearsals.
For our drummers - here are the
songs that Allen has finished and
that Jerry needs to track:
Allen
Hats Off, Extraordinaire
Christian in July
You Set It Off
Reach Around
Beat Box Caveat
Mars
Mother
Jerry
Stinker
Seven Little Eyes
Intro
Dingus
Sweet & Low
The Green Piano
030420 The Green Piano and the other
new songs coming along nicely.
022620 Taught the new Hats Off bit to
the Sad Petunias and it came
off better than I had hoped. We
also worked on The Green Piano,
Glad to Pass On and Juno
Contacto. Joelle and Michael
made loads of food for Fat
Tuesday.
022520 Came up with a 46 second intro
to Hats Off, Extraordinare. We've
married White Girl to the end of
the song live, making the whole
pile of music about a third of a
set in length.
022420 Posted Now Here from the 2/2/20
Westsider performance on our
YouTube channel.
022320 Band breakfast. Swung by a
thrift store afterwards to see
if I could find a vintage piece of
luggage to house my unweildy
pedalboard. Found an
American Tourister that fits it
perfectly for 75 cents.
022220 Uploaded a full version of Stinker
from the Westsider on YouTube.
022120 Sent Allen reference files for
Stinker and Seven Little Eyes
and horn files for You Set It
Off and That Doesn't Turn You
On.
022020 Dave wants to run everybody
into the PA in the future so
that we can do a better job
blending music and vocals
SO, I bought a Quilter
Phantom Block Interface.
Might be handy for San
Diego too.
021920 Supporting the Groove Pilots
and this year at the 2020
Benton County Wine Stroll
in Warsaw, Missouri.
021620 Saturday, April 4th marks
2 years since our first live
performance at McGuire's
Tavern. I think we should
commemorate it with
another show somewhere.
021320 Re-staged our rehearsal
space, took a few stabs at
Glad to Pass On and then
squirted off to have a few
drinks at the Piano Room
during their open mic hosted
by our friend Karen
McCorkindale Baum.
021220 Cris Walkinshaw died today.
Cris was the drummer in
Porps. He was a true
artist behind those Gretsch
drums and a marvelous
lyricist. Love to you.
020820 What a wonderful night at
the Westsider. A small
venue stuffed with very
enthusiastic and musically
savy listeners. A dream
scenario for a musician.
Click here for a brief bit of
video.
020620 Sharing a bill at the
Westsider on 5/16/20 with
Ghost Tapes from Denver, CO.
020520 Last rehearsal before
Saturday night. Very
productive. Continued the
dangerous habit of seeking
out hamburgers at
11:30 PM.
020320 Another run through the
set. As you know, we will
be using two drummers at
our appearance at the
Westsider. The non-
drumming drummer will
be playing hand percussion.
It does wonderful things to
the songs and has renewed
my interest in looking for
someone to do it full time.
020220 Watched the Super Bowl
at Danny's with rehearsals
before and after the game.
020120 Andy Gill's machete hacks
have unconsciously
become instinctual for me.
013020 Croaked my way through
a refresher set. Excited
to introduce some of the
new/old stuff on Saturday.
012820 Incapacitated by some
virus. Dr. Brown brought
over soup.
012420 Aborted the drum session
until after the Westider
gig. Just couldn't get the
QSC to monitor Pro Tools.
We recorded drums for
Gardenaire using the
ONYX and 4 microphones!
SM57 above the snare,
SM57 above the rack
toms, PG52 on the kick
and a near the floor tom
and ride cymbal, acting
as an overhead.
Thought I had thoroughly
test the QSC with Pro
Tools but I found a
monitoring issue that
cost me two hours of
futzing before giving up.
Waiting on a response
from Patrick before
going to Plan B.
Michael gave me some
ideas for fonts and font
colors for the album
artwork so I got started
on the layout in Illustrator.
Patrick's plan for drum
recording setup for
future self. We're using
Dave's QSC TouchMix-30
Pro as an interface.
OH - 2 Audio-Technica AT4040s
Kick - Shure PG52
Snare - Shure SM57
Tom 1 - Shure SM57
Tom 2 - Shure SM57
Floor Tom - Shure SM57
Room Mic - RODE NT1-A
Hi-Hat - Shure Beta 58
Bottom Snare - Electro-Voice ND96
012320 Made some edits to
Seven Little Eyes and
Green Piano per
suggestions made by
team members last night.
Spending the rest of the
day getting my space
set up to record drums.
Finally got a conversation
going with someone at
MusicTribe. Of course
they asked if I had reset
the keyboard. I brought
it home from the studio
and of course now the
issue is mostly gone. No
noise in the LR out, just
in the headphones. I
recorded the noise for
them, per their request,
and reset the keyboard.
Of course it had no
impact on the issue.
012220 Confirmed doing a night at
Gaslight Gardens on 05/02.
Focused on new stuff and
got a lot done tonight. We
can now confindently add
Wake for Wanderers, Hats
Off, Extraordinaire, White
Girl, Nellie Ordinary,
Blister Beetle and Seven
Little Eyes to the set. I
don't think Green Piano is
going to be done in time
for the 8th.
011720 I sold my Juno 106 in 2017
to help finance Her Bows.
There wasn't a live version
of the band at the time so I
figured I could get good
synth sounds out of software.
As the live band became a
thing I bought a Behrigner
DeepMind 12 to replace the
Roland and a Korg X50
for some basic piano
sounds. In less than a
year I have had 3 issues
with the DM12, two that
required a ticket. The
keyboard has a 3 year
warranty. It can take
weeks for Music Tribe!
to respond to the claim
- despite indicating that
someone will respond in 24
hours - so I figure once I
send it off for repair it will
be gone a long time. So,
I bought a Yamaha MO6
hoping that it will have a
decent piano and enough
classic synth sounds to
replace the often-out-of-
commision DeepMind12.
It's also appealing to
consider replacing lugging
two keyboards and a two
tier stand with a single
board and stand.
MO6 has arrived and it
seems like it is going to
do the trick, though the
piano doesn't seem
dramatically better than
the X50.
011620 Have Jerry and Patrick
scheduled to track drums
for the long-overdue
Girl for Samson album and
the balance of the current
JMLP album.
011520 Long, raucous rehearsal.
Having a difficult time
getting in as many new
songs as I would like
before the next
performance.
011320 Got a Yamaha MO6 to
replace the Korg X50.
Getting some nibbles from
Lawrence venues.
011220 Just got a message from
Danny confirming that he'll
be availble for Artist of the
Week at Navajo Live! in
San Diego. Still hoping
to take more Kansas City
Sad Petunias with me!
Figured out how to get
the White Girl intro saved
onto the looper for live
performance.
011020 Bumped the tempo of
Green Piano up from 116
to 124.
010820 Excellent rehearsal.
Finally have Sultan Eyes
worked up like the
recording. Seven Little
Eyes is nearly done.
Several other new ones
and old new ones are
a week or so away.
Contacted a bunch of
Lawrence venues
about weekend
opportunities this spring.
010620 Sang some Green
Piano takes. Still
have some words to
sort out for Seven
Little Eyes.
010420 Determined to finish
all lyrics today and
come up with a set
list for the Westsider.
And I did. Who's a
good boy?
010320 Shannon has started
to re-do her parts and
charts so that we get
closer to sounding like
the album arrangements.
010220 The DM12 is making a
noise. Still under
warranty but don't want
to be without it until
after the Westsider on
the 8th. Going to put
a limiter on it and then
ship it off via Priority
Mail the day after the
show.
2019 (recording The Green Piano/growing live and recording lineup) 113119 I want to start getting
our feet wet in Lawrence
venues. Looking to
share the stage on
2-3 band bills.
Last night Dave had an
idea about the music
leading up to the bridge
in Seven Little Eyes.
Danny agreed and added
an ammendment that I
edited this morning and
uploaded.
Made myself write words
for Green Piano.
113019 Long practice in Danny's
studio - which includes a
proper bar and sinister
but effective sound room.
Still working on new things
and sorting out some old
stuff.
Took the Korg X50 to
Wilburwerkes Audio. Not
powering up correctly,
screen blank.
112919 Changed the Christmas
Ornaments to Green
Piano.
122819 Went to Mesobi to see
Chris Ruzich play with
New Common Ground.
Such a rock.
122519 Spending Christmas
digging out a space in the
studio to set up and
record Jerry for the balance
of the Girl for Samson and
Johnny Marie material. If
Jerry happens on this
post before I can break it
to him, I would remind
him that we recorded all
of Allen's parts for
Gardenaire and chunks
of Land Ho (I think) here.
122318 Introduced Green Piano
to the Forlorn Petunias.
Shannon's Korg X50 bit
the dust so need to find
another affordable digital
piano option. May go
Yamaha CP50.
We are Artist of the Week
at Navajo Live on 3/19/20.
Also doing a private party on
3/21/20 while we're in San
Diego.
122219 Handed off charts to Erik.
Ran through Green Piano
keyboard parts with
Shannon.
122119 Printed horn charts for
Erik. Printed the parts
that Dave Estes submitted
for Mother and You Set It
Off for Shannon.
122019 Erik Hulse is going to
contribute horn parts for
That Doesn't Turn You On
and You Set If Off!
Fooled with Green Piano
all day.
121819 Focusing on some fresh
material tonight - Seven
Little Eyes, Whte Girl,
Wake for Wanderers,
Nellie Ordinary and
Hats Off Extraordinaire.
Still fleshing out Green
Piano.
121619 New bit fell out of my bottom.
Initially titled Christmas
Ornaments in honor of the
dozen Northern Cardinals
that dot the Rose of Sharon
that borders my backyard
gardens. Ultimately titled
Green Piano.
Imported Dave's MIDI for
You Set It Off and Mother.
Really lovely stuff!
121419 Had breakfast with Shannon
and Danny before doing some
tracking. Recorded guitar
parts for Seven Little Eyes,
That Doesn't Turn You On
and You Set It Off.
Sent Allen a That Doesn't Turn
You On refrence mix to drum
to.
Listening to a Dave Estes
solor for Mother and then
printing out charts for
Shannon for Seven Little Eyes.
With the Davey's gig out of
the way we are now looking
at 6 blissful weeks of adding
new songs to our set and
refreshing some material that
we used to do. It will be
great fun to be able to throw
a out a lot of surprises in
future shows.
121319 Confirmed a full show at Mike
Kelly's Westsider with Allen
Johnston & Jerry Riccardi on
Saturday, February 8th, 2020.
The recorded version of That
Doesn't Turn You On is still
different than the live version
so I spent some time today
prepping the recording for
more drum takes. Lengthened
the "set feet prove to be wrong"
section and added the repeat
of the carnival bridge to the end.
Danny will come over tomorrow
and add his bits.
121219 Thank you to all of our friends
who bothered on a Thursday
night. We are so grateful for
you.
Got a backup J. Mascis
Jazzmaster just in time for
tonight's show.
121119 BBC Sound Effects
120919 At this point we are starting
the show at Davey's on
Thursday and playing for
a little over an hour.
Picked up keyboard tracks
from Dave Estes for You Set
It Off. Beautiful stuff.
120819 The lineup for this Thursday
is in flux. Will post updates
here and on social media.
120419 Good rehearsal. Worked
on a potential set for
Davey's but also fooled
around with some old
and new stuff like Her Bows,
Seven Little Eyes and
Hats Off, Extraordinaire.
Celebrated Michael's
upcoming birthday and
Joelle, as usual, made
something awesome to
eat.
Got some keyboard
parts from Dave Estes
for You Set It Off.
120319 Taking the stage around
8:30 PM at Davey's Uptown
Rambler Club on 12/12/19.
Tickets are $7.
120119 Seven Little Eyes: made
minor adjustments to the
arrangement and tracked
more vocals, bass and
acoustic guitar. Made up
a melody for the bridge.
113019 Danny came over and we
added some guitar tracks
to Stinker/Love. Also
added classical guitar,
acoustic and keyboards to
Seven Little Eyes.
Dave Estes came by
to get the album on a
thumbnail drive so that
he can add some keyboard
parts.
112919 OK, I back to making an
album in earnest now.
Finshed making the
Stinker arrangement
match the live version.
Imported drums for Mother,
Christian in July and Hats
Off, Extraordinaire.
Shannon recorded her Moog
solo in Mother and sang
her live parts in Christian
and That Doesn't Turn You
On.
Ran into an issue with
Mother. I sing the "Can
of fruit..." line differently
live than on the recording
so I must choose!
112819 Manged to smash Love
onto the end of Stinker.
For this, I am thankful.
112319 Today is a come-to-jeebus
day for me. I created two
loose instrumentals (Stinker
& Love) that we have
developed in rehearsals.
Developed differently than
the recordings. Today I
need to create a single
session that agrees with
our live template (including
tempo changes) and
includes as many of the
good parts already recorded
as I can. Fortunately there
isn't much of this kind of
editing left to do before
I punt this album into
hyperspace.
Ugh! Recording music
with a computer is stupid!
In Pro Tools, delete an
unwanted tempo marker
by left clicking on it and
dragging it off of the screen.
You'll see the cursor turn
into a trash can. Now off
to relearn how to remove
partial measures from the
start of the song.
Notes from Patrick about
how to merge two sessoins
with different tempos in
Pro Tools:
Joining two sessions with
different tempos can be
challenging, that's where the
track warp feature becomes
a burden. The best way to do
it is, for the session you'll be
importing from, turn off "ticks"
on all the tracks, including
MIDI, and set them to samples.
Then open the session you're
importing to and open the
"import session data" dialogue.
Import the tracks from the other
session (the one you set to
samples), move them where
you want them on the timeline,
making sure the start point for
the new track is on the grid.
Then add the new tempo at
the start of the new track and
then set everything back to
"ticks."
112219 Got the balance of the drum
tracks that Allen and I
recorded in San Diego.
112019 Practice without Shannon.
We sorted out all of the
bits in Stinker and Love,
the two instrumentals
on this album.
Took a stab at Nellie
Ordinary with Danny
singing. Sounded great!
Joelle and Michael made a
beautiful soup.
111319 First rehearsal as a 6
piece. Dave Estes is
now playing keyboards,
guitar and hand
percussion.
Some more movement on
the December 12th thing.
111019 Thanks to Tim Kelly and
our friends in the Groove
Pilots for inviting us up
for a couple of numbers
at Jake's Place. It was
exactly one year ago to
the day that we shared
the stage at Mike Kelly's
Westsider. Pictures from
the peformance are on
Instagram and Facebook.
110919 Going with Jerry and
Shannon to see the
Groove Pilots tonight.
Going to visit with Dave
Estes beforehand to
talk about becoming
the 6th Forlorn Petunia.
Dave plays keyboards,
guitar and percussion.
I've started to feel
like there aren't
enough good songs
to complete this album.
This is probably partially
because the material
has been laying around
so long. I'm used to
spitting out albums
without the extra
6 months of reflection
and trudging activity.
One of the things
bothering me is having
two instrumentals.
Today, while lengthening
Stinker, I'm going to
add Love on at the
end. That should make
for a peppy little
musical journey.
110619 Practice without
Shannon. Dave Estes
sat in on keyboards for
a few songs. Jerry
dragged a microphone
over to his kit for the
first time.
I need to:
Add lengthened parts
to the end of Stinker.
Extend F# in That
Doesn't Turn You On
Chorus.
Speed up Mars.
110319 Danny and I roughed
out a song with the
banjo and guitar.
110219 Rehearsal with Danny,
Brian, Allen, Shannon
and I. Did our set at
6:30. Shannon and
Danny sat in on some
songs with Dogfish
Bark.
110119 Finished tracking
drums for Hats Off.
Jerry will do the balance
of the record.
103119 Recorded drums for
Christian in July,
Hats Off, Extraordinaire
and Mother.
103019 Got drum takes for
You Set It Off and
started on Christian
in July.
102819 Another practice with
Brian Marshall.
102719 First practice with
bassist Brian Marshall.
102319 Danny Button will join
us in San Diego for the
show on the 2nd with
Dogfish Bark.
102219 I have drum takes from
Allen for:
Beatbox Caveat
Christian in July
Mars
Reach Around
That Doesn't Turn You On
You Set It Off
Still to do:
Hats Off, Extraordinaire
Mother
Sweet & Low
Stinker
Dingus
Love
...and for Girl for
Samson:
Bossa
Breeders
Dust
Fountain of Youth
Miss Majesty
Puff Adders
Still to do:
Cigarette
Hiding a Slave
The Wall
Little Shootin' Elvis
Present Always
Old Into Young
102019 Shannon learned the
keyboard parts for
Wake for Wanderers.
This one is on the
list for the California
set. We'll sort out Her
Bows when we get
back.
101919 First outing with
Jerry Riccardi on
drums and our last
Brookside Farmers
Market appearance.
101719 Doing a short set
opening for Dogfish
Bark on 11/2/19 at
BNS Brewing &
Distilling Company
in Santee, CA.
Allen Johnston on
drums and Brian
Marshall on bass.
101619 Fun rehearsal. Dave
Estes and Victoria
hung out with us.
Joelle made us an
amazing snack at the
end. I'm used to
shouting out the
starting tempos to
songs - a practice that
is danger as Jerry
insists on us following
the time on the records.
101219 Added more guitars to
Hats Off, Extraordinaire.
Added more backing
vocals to Christian in
July.
Relearned the 2 chords
and 12 words for Her Bows.
Shannon will be doing all
of the heavy lifting on this
one when we do it live.
101119 Recorded lurchy guitar parts
for Christian in July with
the Telecaster and
Jazzmaster. Probably
needs another pass of
drums now.
100919 Second session, but first
full practice with Jerry.
100519 Spent the morning
auditioning submissions
from Danny and John.
100419 More Brookside Farmers
Market pictures featuring
the classic lineup on our
Facebook page. These
were taken by our friend
Dave Estes.
100319 First session with Jerry
Riccardi.
093019 Loaded Danny's electric
piano and guitar parts for
a bunch of songs.
092819 Brookside Farmers Market
performance pictures from
this morning. Highlights:
generator dying midway
through the set and a
vendor (to our delight)
tipping us with fresh garlic
cloves.
The whole pile of us
(including Jerry Riccardi,
Joelle St. Pierre and Dave
Estes) scrambled off to
Chelly's Cafe afterwards
where, as usual, we
marveled over Gabby's
ability to take a huge
order without writing
anything down and
always getting it right!
Thanks to the lovely
Cara Mace for working the
camera.
#brookside #chellyscafe #waldo #kansascity #farmersmarket
Rain should be finished by
9 AM this morning so we're
still planning on playing an
acoustic set at the Brookside
Farmers Market starting
around 10.
092519 Thank you Heinz Rodgers,
Michael Myers,
Sue Murphy-Andrus, Chris
Ruzich and Company, Jerry
Riccardi, Angela Litner and
Richie, Lea, Laura Clark for
coming out on a Wednesday
to hang with us. Thanks
also to Peaty Bog Water for
a fun set.
092119 Had a great time running
through our discography
at the Englewood Tavern.
All of the boys in
Switchblade Johnny were
super sweet.
091319 Doing a short Johnny Marie
& the Lonesome Petunias
set with Shannon Swift and
John McConnell on 09/21
at the Englewood Tavern
(4386 South Broadway,
Englewood, CO 80113) in
support of Switchblade
Johnny.
091119 Our last practice with Bryan
carrying the load on
percussoin.
091019 Finished lyrics for Hats Off,
Extraordinaire and sang a
half dozen takes.
090919 Danny uploaded misc.
tracks for Christian in
July.
090619 New live lineup coming in
October. More on that
once legal is done with
all of the paperwork.
090419 Ran through a prepared
1 1/2 hour set with some
more of the new material.
Joelle served us delicious
crabs and cake. No, not
crabcakes.
090319 Imported drum tracks for
Reach Around, Beat Box
Caveat, Christin in July and
Hats Off, Extraordinare.
090219 Tomorrow I plan to start
importing drum tracks and
getting things sorted out
so that I can start tracking
bass parts.
090119 Made some click track
adjustments for Stinker for
Allen.
083019 So, the tempo (120) of
Christian in July has been
bothering me but I have been
loathe to begin the process
of re-recording all of the tracks.
Decided to give Elastic Audio
a try, since all of the parts are
still in demo form. Set
everything to ticks, guitars
to Polyphonic and vocals to
Monophonic. Wresltled
with removing a marker
that was fouling the starting
point and eventually won.
Changed the tempo to 130
and the results are flawless.
What a horrible and glorious
time to be alive.
Took my strat to be set up.
I also, I'm a little embarrassed
to say, had Matt swap out the
white pickguard for a red torti.
The guitar is black. McConnell
already scolded me with a
picture of Clapton playing a
black and white strat. I just
had to have some way of
separating myself from
Slowhand. Hamhand plays
a strat with a red pickguard.
082919 Bryanless session but we
carried on. Worked on
new stuff - Christian in July,
Stinker, Parasol, We Don't Do
That, Juno Contacto and
Blister Beetle. DJ STP's
birthday so booze and cake
were consumed.
Played the Jazzmaster most
of the night and loved it.
Played the new Telecaster at
the end and dug it too. Great
time to be me. Except for my
wretched tennis elbow.
082619 Re-recorded the C section
` of Hats Off, Extraordinaire
and re-cut the guitars in
stinker to be more
aggressive.
082419 Got drum tracks for
Beat Box Caveat, Christian
in July and Hats Off,
Extraordinaire from Allen.
Already planning our next
live show with him at The
Westsider. Maybe in
December.
082319 We tend to do up-tempo,
fiercer versions of our
recorded songs live. I
think at some point I need
to actually record the songs
that way. I may try to
record Christian in July
live and see if we can
capture more of the edge.
Went to see Broken
Arrows with Majors &
Generals at The Brick.
082219 Cleaned up Poison and
renamed it
Hats Off, Extraordinare.
Sent versions to Joe to
replace my wooden piano
playing.
082119 Futzed with Stinker and
tweaked and re-sang bits of
Christian in July.
082019 I am desperately in love with
the Jazzmaster. Songs just
keep plopping out of my
bottom. Can't wait to pair
it up with the Fender Excelsior.
081919 Thank you for the recent burst
of merchandise sales. Have
more designs coming soon.
Trying a new guy for guitar
set-ups. Took the new
Telecaster to him today.
081819 Danny must have his studio
tweaked to his satisfaction
because I've started to
receive tracks again!
081719 Jazzmaster came today.
Flipping' love it.
081619 Tried the new Telecaster at
practice. It sounded great but
it wouldn't stay in tune and the
intonation is dreadful. Will
get it set up soon.
We focused mostly on new
songs. We even played around
with White Girl.
081519 Doing a 9-10 PM at the Roxy
on 9/25.
081419 Have had to pass up some
opportunities for shows because
of scheduling conflicts. This
is not all bad because we are
trying to add a fresh set of old
and new music. It takes a
little while to sort out new
additions, even when they are
ours.
081319 Bought a J Mascis Jazzmaster
and an American Performer
Telecaster.
Added 16 measures to That
Doesn't Turn You On after the
first chorus for some additional
guitar work.
081219 Shannon learned Chritian in
July (working title).
081019 Got a nasty tendon strain
from doubling our practice
days while using Bryan's
low-slung Telecaster.
080919 I think it would be fun to do
some sets with the songs in
chronological order, including
track sequences. It would
also be an opportunity to
whore each album as the
set progressed.
Taught Shannon more bits from
Juno Contacto and the primary
part on We Don't Do That.
080819 Had a good session adding new
songs to the set list. Also
celebrated our multiple August
birthdays with pizza and such.
Forgot to add We Don't Do That
to the list. Will add that next
week.
Getting Allen click tracks for
Christian in July, Love, Mother
and Poison.
080719 Printed keyboard charts for Juno
Contacto for Shannon.
080519 Sent out Christian in July demo
to everybody. Also plan to add
Juno Contacto, Blister Beetle,
White Girl, Nellie Orginary,
Dingus and clean up Parasol.
The goal is to be able to
present the people that come
to see us regularly with more
variety and to easily entertain
for 3 hours.
080419 I've been posting some of your
pictures from the performance at
Mike Kelly's Westsider on our
Facebook and Instagram pages.
Now we're going to focus on working
up another big pile of songs to add to
the live set so that we can entertain
comfortably for 3 hours.
080319 What an amazing crowd last night!
You made the night really special.
080219 See you tonight!
080119 Last rehearsal with Allen. He got a
little surprise when the lovely Mel
flew in from San Diego unannounced
for the show tomorrow.
Bryan brought his Tele for me to use
again and I nearly made it to the end
of the set before breaking a string.
072919 Third rehearsal with Allen. Things
are coming together enought that
we can now see smaller issues that
need to be ironed out. Worked up the
proper ending for Repeat and added
Three Bells to the set again.
I asked Bryan to loan me his Tele
again for the last rehearsal and
performance. Again, I have too
much ham in my indelicate fists.
072819 Allen wanrts to do Three Bells
Friday. And so we will.
072619 Second rehearsal with Allen tonight,
minus Danny. Bryan brought me his
Clasic Vibe 1950s Tele to try. I am
a hard, ham-fisted player and easily
bang and wrench Strats out of tune.
The Tele worked great, I didn't really
need to tune it the whole 4 hour
session. Will pick one up in the
Autumn.
Allen and I ran to John Bara's shop
to look at drums. John graciously
loaned him a 1960s set of Ludwigs,
hardware and cymbals.
Allen has been working with
Mark "Buzz" Collins, a long-time,
seasoned Kansas City sound
engineer, on getting our sound
tweaked for the show on the 2nd.
Found a bit of missing code that
was fouling the CD Sales link. All
better!
Woefully behind finishing this album.
May I offer future me this to-do list
for motivation?
Beat Box Caveat
Bass and more drum takes.
Dingus
Bass, guitars and drums.
Love
Needs to be played live for a bit
with the current arrangement to
see if anything magic happens.
Mars
Add some backing vocals.
Mother
Add bass and drums. Recut all
existing parts.
Poison
Needs a cohesive arrangement
and lyrics.
Reach Around
Bass and backing vocals.
Sweet and Low
Oi. Vocals, bass and drums.
That Doesn't Turn You On
Vocals and bass.
You Set it Off
Vocals and bass.
Christian
Arrangement. Lyrics. Parts.
072319 First rehearsal with Allen Johnston
on drums. Glorius.
072119 More t-shirts, hoodies and other
apparel added to our merchandise
page.
072019 Thank you so much to everybody
that came out to the Brookside
Farmers' Market this morning. We
dig seeing people wriggle while they
shop. Special love to Mama Tu's
Farm for always making sure we
go home with a big pile of beautiful
vegetables. Marvelous seeing new
faces and ecstatic to see our San
Diego-based drummer and his
beautiful companion surprise us
with an early appearance! He'll be
rehearsing with us for two weeks
and then playing with us at the
Mike Kelly's Westsider on Friday,
August 2nd.
071819 Last rehearsal before an acoustic
set at the Farmers Market
tomorrow. Next week we'll start
rehearsing with Allen Johnston for
the Westsider show.
Added more designs to our
apparel partner.
071719 Got an Oceans 11 to get me by
until my Cathedral is repaired.
I'm going to have a difficult time
kicking the 11 out of bed when
the Cathedral comes back.
Sounds great and has lots of
gimmicks for your nincompoopy
narrator.
071619 OK, I'm going with these guys for
our merchandise. You can buy
t-shirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs
etc. with a wide variety of logos,
colors and styles.
071519 Head back from Electro Harmnoix.
Dig: I send them the pedal and $25 -
they repair it and return it. Gosh
dang that's a helluva policy!
Friends are asking about t-shirts
so I'm determined to find a
print-on-demand service that will
also ship the merchandise and give
me a page and a link rather than
making me set up a page on Shopify
or Etsy. I might have found it.
071419 Keyboard is done! Will post name
and contact of repair person once
I get it back and test it. He couldn't
repair the Cathedral so I sent a
message to Electro Harmonix.
071319 Took the Korg X50 and Cathedral
reverb to a person who does repairs
in Parkville.
Got a larger folding cart for the
guitar and keyboard cases. Should
be able to get them from the vehicle
to the stage in one trip now.
071219 A series of power reboots trashed
my Electro Harmonix Cathedral so
I picked up an Oceans 11 to get
me by.
071119 Trying to coordinate some extra
rehearsal time with everybody
when Allen is here in a few weeks.
071019 Starting work on the 5th album
again after a long break.
What an amazing turn out last
night. That was such a thrill for
us. Special thanks to Emilee,
Rachel, Kevin, John, Patty, Peg,
Mike, Wanda, Terry, Mike,
Joelle, Victoria and Cara for
your regular attendance. It's no
fun without you.
070919 Hope to see you tonight at
The Roxy. I will post our
start time on Facebook and
Instagram. Our next
scheduled appearances are
a full acoustic set at the
Brookside Farmers Market
and a full set at Mike Kelly's
Westsider.
070719 Thank you again to The
Landing Bistro & Lounge for
hosting us and our friends The
Groove Pilots last night. We
had a great time and the food
was amazing!
070519 Added another verse worth
of music to Mother.
Made Shannon make
photocopies of her charts.
Dave's wounded paw feeling
much better.
Ordered a set of files for
cleaning up the bridges on
my guitars. Also bought
extra bridges because I'm
certain to foul the first
two that I attempt to repair.
070419 We're finding out our starting
time on the 9th at 6 PM. I
will share here and Facebook
as soon as possible.
070319 Got together to smooth out
the bumps on the new stuff
before our appearances on
Saturday and Tuesday.
Dave has a dinged wrist
and took it easy tonight.
062919 Shannon and I worked on
the piano solo in Now Here
and layed the groundwork
for re-introducing White Girl
from Gardenaire.
062819 Still struggling to get timely,
if any, replies from Behringer
Customer Service for my
issue with the DeepMind 12.
keyboard. Again, good
instrument, very poor
support.
062719 My strategy for tonight is to
polish up the new or rarely
visited stuff to see what we
can include in our 2 hour set
in Warsaw. Then next week
we'll run through everything.
Broke the E string on my
Strat while play Mars for the
3rd time. Will find a local
luthier to get it set up before
the 6th.
062519 Having a difficult time with
Behringer Customer Service.
Love the keyboard, but the
support leaves much to be
desired. Fortunately the
DeepMind 12 is functioning
again.
062419 Back at the Roxy on July 9th
for the final round.
062319 Thank you to everybody that
came out to see us at the
Roxy.
Listened to drum takes for
Beatbox Caveat and sent off
feedback.
062219 Scheduling snafu at the farmers
market but we sorted it out and
just did one set. Thank you to
our friends who stopped by to
say hi and a special hug for
the vendor that gave us loads of
amazing produce.
We all had lunch at Chelley's
Cafe afterwards - a casually
observed post-farmers market
performance tradition. First
time for Danny.
061919 Danyless session. Solidified
some of the new songs and
worked on some stuff we haven't
played in a while.
Was dismayed to discover that
the first F & G keys are glitchy
on Shannon's DeepMind 12. I
am not in love with the notion of
packing it up, sending it off, and
not having access to it for a couple
of months while they repair it. I
love how it sounds but Behringer's
customer service is horrible.
061319 Energetic session. Stephanie and
Joelle hung out with us on our first
annual Bloody Mary Night.
060819 Got a note from Dave wanting to add
Blue in the Veins and Now Here to the
setlist. Printing off charts for the
piano player as we speak.
060719 We're going to play with The Groove
Pilots at the Dam Experience
Fireworks event in Warsaw, MO.
They will be shooting fireworks off of
the Truman Dam!
060619 Good rehearsal. New stuff coming
together nicely.
060519 Confirmed that Allen is here from
07/24 to 08/04.
060119 Shannon and I worked through
some of the new stuff. Decided
to knock the A section to Posion
from D down to C for a variety of
reasons.
053119 Bought a second Monoprice 15 Watt,
1x12 Tube Amplifier with Celestion
Speaker & Spring Reverb.
053019 Petunias practice. Working in
more stuff from the new album.
052919 Arranging Reach Around and
Poison today.
052819 Got the Korg X50. Piano sound is
OK. Will go with it until I find
something better in the same
weight and price class.
052719 Worked on arranging Poison.
052519 Tried some different guitar parts
throughout Poison.
052419 Had a party for Shannon at Craig's
pad. Joelle, as usual, prepared an
amazing dinner. Bryan brought
his mandolin and Danny his guitar
and we had a Beatles sing-along.
052319 Learn New Stuff Night. Ran through
Poison, Mother, Love, Dingus, You
Set It Off and Beat Box Caveat.
052219 Bought a Squier Classic Vibe 1957-style
Stratocaster for broken string scenarioes.
051819 Made it through the first set before
the rain made it impossible to play
anymore. The tent provided us with
some shelter but some pretty hearty
streams were running across the stage
and down the stairs in front. Lovely
moment when a little girl ran up to put
a couple of dollars in the tip jar and
emptied the water out of it first.
051719 Got a Korg X50 to give us better options
for piano and organ sounds. Still intend to
use the DM12 for pads.
051619 Last practice before doing 2 hours at the
Brookside Farmers Market on Saturday.
051319 The isolated power supply and Hum-Debugger
did the trick! I'm library-quiet now.
051219 Shannon learned the keyboard parts for
Little Something, 20,000 Days, On and
Billy Corgan's Cadillac.
051119 Bought an Asmuse Isolated Power Supply
8 Isolated DC Output for 9V / 12V / 18V
Guitar Pedal Power Supply with Isolated
Short Circuit and Over Current Protection
to help with my noise issues.
050919 I had some noise issues with my guitar and
pedalboard (I use 8 Electro Harmnoix effects)
last night that were frustrating. Did some
troubleshooting today. I isolated the noise
issue to the Mel9 and Sitar. They were being
chained on a standard 9V 100mA power supply.
I tried using the Electro Harmonix 9.6 200mA
supplies (one for each) and they seemed to be
quieter. The problem is that those mofos are
HUGE and I can only get 2 on a power strip.
I tried chaining them all with an Electro
Harmnonix 9.6 200mA adapter and the Canyon
freaks out, but works fine chained to a standard
adapter.
I bought a Electro Harmonix Hum Debugger Noise
Cancelling Pedal for the noisy Strat pickup issue,
which means another giant power supply. I also
ordered some 3-way chain cables to see if I can
power smaller number of pedals with a single EH
adapter instead of greedily going for 8.
Suddenly the acoustic guitars breaking strings all
the time doesn't seem like such a big deal. Not
the first time Dylan mislead me.
050819 Recorded the piano bit from yesterday and
experimented with some melodies.
Petunias practice.
050719 Bumbled on a little piano bit that I like.
042919
Have some confirmed dates coming up and
lots of almosts, maybes and possibles bubbling
in the pot.
042819 Thank you again to The Groove Pilots for
sharing their stage and gear with us yesterday.
The people were great. Warsaw, especially
the view from the stage, was lovely. We had a
wonderful time
I must acknowledge the young man who, when
choosing a CD from our catalog, had the courage
to go with the first album rather than the last. Salute!
042419 Re-sang harmonies on Mother and fleshed
out Love to include the riffy bit. You'll see
what I'm talking about.
042119 Pulled the trigger on a Monoprice 15 Watt,
1x12 Tube Amplifier with Celestion Speaker
& Spring Reverb. Bought a Tung-Sol 12AX7
for the V1 slot. Was told to try a JJ as a
substitute if the Tung-Sol is too bright.
I wanted to try something lighter to drag
around instead of the Fender Excelsior or
the Blues, Jr.
042019 Got a piano part for Dingus from Danny.
Still talking over artwork and album
title with Michael. I think we have our
cover image. Meeting tomorrow.
041919 A beloved team member burdened with
having to learn our live set has created
a playlist on Spotify:
Johnny Marie Live Set List
041819 Worked on the Benton County Wine
Stroll set. Introduced and did a
couple of runs at Mother. Danny
and I worked on merging a couple of
frisky bits into something.
041719 Had a long chat with Allen. He's
submitting drums from half the US
away for two recording projects
that I'm in and we need this calls
occasionally to keep organized.
I'm so fortunate to have him
participating on both albums!
041519 Back from vacation. Recorded
some vocals for Mother. Michael
came by and we spent some time
talking about artwork.
041419 Got a lovely review of Land Ho
from a songwriter I greatly admire.
040519 Thanks to Sounds of Springfield
for playing "Land Ho." Tune in
next Friday for another Johnny
Marie & the Lonesome Petunias
track.
033119 Got an EHX Synth9 yesterday.
Tried the Mini Mood on the intro
to Mother and was satisfied with
the results.
032919 Thanks to Sounds of Springfield
for playing "Blister Beetle."
032819 Tune in to Sounds of Springfield
on Friday March 29th from 2 PM
to 4 PM to hear tracks from local
artists, including something from
our last album "Land Ho".
Good rehearsal. Got through the
two sets and the third set of new
stuff. Ran through Beat Box
Caveat. Highlight: I sweated a
single stream of sweat while
playing "Reach Around." Simple,
elegant.
032519 Came up with a melody for
Mother. Changed a few chords
so re-recorded it and uploaded
to the Demos folder for my
teammates (Bryan) to listen to.
032419 Played Michael everything
I have for this album so far:
Dingus
Mars
That Doesn't Turn You On
Sweet & Low
Beat Box Caveat
Mother
You Set It Off
Reach Around
Talked about artwork.
Got first wave of piano parts
for Dingus from Danny.
032319 Sent a version of Dingus sans
piano for Danny to play with.
Had a nice hunk of a song fall
out of my bottom while fooling
around with the Cathedral reverb.
Shannon and I ran through it a
few times.
032219 Scheduled time with Michael
to listen to what we have for the
5th album so far and to discuss
artwork.
Got my Electro-Harmonix
Cathedral reverb pedal. Love it.
032119 Got together and worked on
stuff from Land Ho and the
new album. Introduced Dingus.
Talked to Danny about the all-or-
nothing issue I'm having with the
JBL EON 515s. They are too
quiet at LINE setting and too
noisy and wild at the MIC
setting. Danny reccommended
gonig with the LINE setting
and maxing out the mixer.
032019 Thank you to Tim and Ben Parson
at WERU radio in Bangor, ME for
giving "Capers" a spin.
031719 Got drum takes from Allen for
You Set It Off.
031619 Paris showed me how to print
MIDI scores from Facebook
earlier this week so I was able
to give Shannon proper piano
parts for Land Ho and Push Past.
031419 Full rehearsal at our original
space. Focusing on stuff
from Land Ho (Parasol and
Nellie Ordinay) and new material.
Talked about doing a short set
at the Benton County Wine Stroll
which our friends the Groove Pilots
are headlining.
031319 Borderline racist blog entry from
3 years ago:
The lord done bless me with another
chile. World, meet and ignore
"Juno Impacto". So much easier to
write new songs than to finish existing
songs.
I only reposted it because I like the
"World, meet and ignore..." line.
030919 Ran through some of the songs in
the set with Danny and Shannon.
030819 Used a an Electro-Voice ND96
at Danny's last night and I loved it.
Bought one post haste. It will
be interesting to side-by-side it
with the Beta 58a.
030219 Talked to Dave about using both
an upright and traditional bass
going forward. The upright is so
dark and beautiful but the
traditional bass really sets fire to
the more aggressive stuff.
Sent click-track versions of Beat
Box Caveat, You Set It Off and
Sweet & Low for Allen. Reach
Around has a Pro Tools issue
that my Lord and Savior Patrick
Meagher will eventually gently
guide me to resolution.
From P:
Sounds like you added an extra
tempo marker. Make sure the
tempo ruler is showing (edit window/
tempo ruler) and then delete the
offending maker. Or, you can drag
the tempo ruler down and it will show
you the tempo automation written.
You can select it all and delete it.
Loaded a Classic Synth Sysex set
on the DM12. So long bank H.
You can join the original bank G in
hell.
030119 Bought a Ravish Sitar to replace
the one Dave loaned me. I use it
on Sweet & Low.
022819 Practice at Danny's.
022519 Preparing to add Parasol to the
live set. Getting close to
introducing Mars and Beat Box
Caveat.
022419 Used Midi-OX to add some new
presets to the DM12.
022319 Shannon and I working through
the presets on the DM12 to find
sounds that approximate the
recorded material. We've added
keboards to a dozen songs so
far, including 4 from the upcoming
album.
022219 Got the DM12. Sounds wonderful.
Having problems with the saving to
favorites option so already have a
customer service request pending.
021619 Thank you Mark Manning for
sharing Capers from Land Ho
on the Wednesday MidDay Medley
Bandcamp page. Mark is well
known in the Kansas City area
for turning people on to local
talent.
021519 Patrick Meagher has a
beautiful new album out.
Patrick is my bandmate in
Girl for Samson, and mixmaster
and co-producer of 3 of 4
Johnny Marie albums,
You can read about it on my
Facebook page and at
GirlForSamson.com
Bought a Behringer DeepMind
12 True Analog Polyphonic
Synthesizer to use for live
performance.
021419 Re-staged our rehearsal
space and ran though a big
chunk of the sets. Worked a
little on You Set It Off and
That Doesn't Turn You On.
021319 Worked on Reach Around
most of the day.
021119 Re-recorded scratch drums
for Beat Box Caveat and
Sweet & Low. Sorted out an
arrangement for Reach Around.
020819 Playing at Mike Kelly's
Westsider on 08/02/19
with Allen Johnston on
drums.
Got drum tracks for That
Doesn't Turn You On from
Allen.
Got the first piano parts from
Joe Salvato for That Doesn't
Turn You On. Thrilling to have
keyboard parts from a real
player verses my one hand/
three finger style of playing.
020719 Have a venue confirmed for
one of the performances with
Allen Johnston in late July and
early August. Working through
a few more details before
sharing.
Worked on keyboard bits with
Shannon for That Doesn't Turn
You On and You Set It Off.
Brookside Farmers Market
appearances confirmed.
Wrestled with a groove for
Beat Box Caveat.
020619 Sent You Set It Off and
That Doesn't Turn You On
to the team to familiarize
them with the arrangements.
020519 Thanks to our friends for
braving the lousy weather
to add some life to our
two sets at the Roxy Bar.
It really meant a lot to us.
Pictures of the show on
Instagram. Hope to be back
soon.
Still on target to play
for two hours tonight at
The Roxy, despite the
percipitation. Still
starting at 7 PM,.
020419 Teeth Filed is now
Reach-Around.
020319 Chris Ruzich came by to
add bass and vocals to
Mars. Such a lovely
man and player.
020119 Setting something up in
late July/early August with
Allen Johnston on drums.
013119 Romped through the set.
First session with Shannon
on keyboards. See you on
the 5th.
013019 Added several tremolo
guitars to You Set It Off.
Sent slide parts to Danny
for Repeat. Worked up
bits for Land Ho, Capers,
Repeat and Gardenaire
for Shannon on the
microKorg.
012819 Worked on Teeth Filed
all day.
012719 Sent Chris Ruzich Mars.
Sent Danny isolated guitar
tracks from Capers, nothingood,
Ordinary Guy, Billy Corgan's
Cadillac, 20,000 Days and
On for live stuff.
012619 Good session with all five
players. I broke an A string,
dashed off 25% of a fingernail
and got a large blister on the
inside of my forearm.
Sent Joe Salvato some mixes
of That Doesn't Turn You On
for piano parts.
Shannon added harmonies
to You Set It Off. I added
some reference drums to
That Doesn't Turn You On.
012419 Another full rehearsal
with Danny. He brought
keyboards and a guitar
processor to bring some
of the hooks and melodies
from the recordings to
life.
Bryan brought a new
shaker that he created.
The shaker was new,
but not the phenomenon.
012319 Spent most of the day
finishing up You Set It Off.
Only needs bass, drums
and a better vocal take.
Even though I am
generally no longer the
drummer or the bass
player I still like to come
up with parts when I am
building a song so that
I have a clearer vision of
how it might move. Some
times I play the drum parts
and then use the Steven
Slate Sampler to
compensate for all of the
non-engineering set-up I
performed. Here's the only
reason I mention this - I
can never find the plug-in,
and when I do, I forget to
blog about it to help future
me. It lives in Dynamics
and is called Trigger2.
012219 We have a schedule
conflict for the new
Midwest Fashion Awards
date.
012119 Worked on You Set It Off.
Lengthened the solo section
and lengthened the solo.
012019 Ran out to FM Music to
talk to Herb & Faron about
carrying our last 2 albums
and perhaps doing a show.
011819 Worked all day on You
Set It Off. I wasn't happy
with how my Big Muff
records so my friend
Dave talked me into
trying a cheapo
Vintage Tube Overdrive.
I liked how it sounded
but it didn't have the
sustain the Big Muff
does. Ended up using
Muffy in a potentially
throw-away guitar solo.
011719 First full practice with
Danny Button. Danny
brings guitar, keyboards
and vocals to the table.
We plan to present the
new 5 piece lineup at
The Roxy Bar in February.
We are now decidedly
less Violent Femmesy.
011519 Playing at the Roxy on
February 5th.
Will have the Brookside
Farmers Market schedule in
a few weeks.
011419 Contemplated daring to
repeat a verse three times
in That Doesn't Turn You
On. Determined to struggle
through a new verse today.
I don't like bullying lyrics.
Later: wrote and recorded
new lines.
011319 Had a little bit tumble out
of my bottom last night.
Futzed with it some more
today. Currently named
You're Untitled. (You Set
It Off).
011219 Why can't I remember
the name "Fender
Excelsior?" I always
want to refer to it as
"Fender Excalibur."
Did some more work
tidying up the 4 mostly-
completedly songs.
011119 Pulled up Quatro
` and sang some
reference melodies.
Quatro was a dummy
title I made up because
I thought this was the
4th album. It's the
5th. So yup, it's a
dummy title.
011019 Sweet & Low
Added more guitars
Added more vocal takes
of chorus.
Started paring back
instruments.
Beatbox Caveat
Added more guitars
Came up with a 2nd
verse and sang it
Added tamby
Tightened up the mix
Recording a Big Muff
sucks. Big Muff.
010919 Thomas Montgomery, my
long-time friend and
contributor on nearly all
of the Johnny Marie
albums, has died.
Thomas was a brilliant
musician. A true
artist. He worked for
several years at
Mad Hatter Studios in
Los Angeloes after
going to school in
Florida. He came back
to Kansas City when his
mother became ill.
Thomas played in
The Waldinis, Mongol
Beach Party, Grumpy
and Girl for Samson.
010819 You can now buy Johnny
Marie & the Lonesome
Petunias CDs at some
local Kansas City record
shops:
FM Music Vintage Sounds
Mills Record Company
Starting the search for
another backup singer.
010719 Sorting out the 2019
schedule for Johnny Marie
& the Lonesome Petunias
at the Brookside Farmers
Market.
The KC Midwest "Peoples
Choice" Fashion Awards
has been moved to April
13th at the Scottish Rite
Temple.
010619 I don't understand the first
thing about markers in
Pro Tools. I do know that
sometimes there is an
unknown marker at the
start of a section that I
want to work on and I am
unable to put the major
marker (red or blue arrow)
over it. I've since learned
that holding down the Ctrl
button will place the arrow
over the mystery marker.
Pro Tools seems to be
randomly or automatically
creating groups. Haven't
licked that one yet.
Did some more tweaks to
the first four songs. I want
to use the Electro-Harmonix
Big Muff driving the Electric
Mistriss flanger on a few
things tomorrow.
010519 Finished the lyrics and
sang new takes for all 4
of the current songs.
Received more Mars drum
takes from Allen.
010419 Got two takes from Allen
for Mars. Imported them
and datadada, song!
Added some better vocals
and harmonies to Sweet
& Low. Also added an
intro wash with the Ravish
Sitar. Used the String
Ray to replace the
synth bass in Mars.
010119 An incredibly well-timed
kind word from my friend
Brannon.
2018 (recording Land Ho/live performances/adding new players) 123118 More Pro Tools Insertion
Follows Playback
nightmares. The option
is right below the little
pencil icon. If enabled,
your recording point isn't
where you set it but rather
where you last pressed
stop. Maddening.
Link Timeline & Edit is
also evil. It's right under
the little hand icon.
123018 Sent Allen versions of the
4 songs with no drums,
just clicks.
122918 Did 2 long sets at a
private party. Played
nearly everything we knew.
Wonderful having Danny
Button sit in for most of
both sets. Pictures up on
our Instagram, Twitter and
Facebook accounts.
122818 I don't try to write popular
music and my music is not
popular. You might think
this is liberating. It is
not. Making descisions is
difficult when anything goes.
Often I am in a field, not
on a path. I find that, for
me, the real craft is
creating a unique trail for
each song. This involves a
lot of flailing, floundering and
failing. This is the part
where I'm might say "...but
it's worth it." Well,
sometimes it is.
Upgraded vocals on Sweet
and Low, Beat Box Caveat
and Mars. Sent all 3 along
with That Doesn't Turn You
On to Allen Johnston.
Every Penny is going back
to Girl for Samson.
122718 Dug out the Cry Baby and
Electric Mistress and added
guitar bits to Sweet and Low.
Also added acoustic drums
and more vocal takes. By
the way, this song was built
from some noodling I did on
John McConnell's resonator
guitar in September. The
instrument was tuned to
open D.
Looks like the KC Midwest
"Peoples Choice" Fashion
Awards are being moved to
March 2nd. Venue still in
play.
Again, note to future self -
SSD Trigger is located in
the Dynamics list.
122618 Spent the day at war with
Sweet and Low. Getting
close to an arrangement.
122518 Spending the day getting 5
songs ready for Allen and
other contributors to work
on by the weekend. This
mostly means getting
everything tight and, while
I still don't have words for
anything, making sure the
scratch vocals don't hurt
anyone. The 5 songs are
Sweet and Low, Mars, Beat
Box Caveat, Every Penny
and That Doesn't Turn You
On.
122418 Worked on Mars.
Bought a power supply for my
Electro-Harmonix Electric
Mistress flanger. Sounds great
and I'm sure I'll use it once and
then pack it away.
122318 Midwest Fashion Awards have
been postponed until March 1st,
2019. Watch for more updates
as the venue may also change.
Up early and whispered
reference melodies for Sweet
& Low and Mars.
Much of the spam the Johnny
Marie e-mail account receives
concerns finding hot women for
hot sex in my town. The static
variables in every subject are
Hot, Sex, Women & Town. I
love the focus on supporting
local businesses.
122218 Bryan, Shannon and I got
together to hammer out some
vocal arrangements. Bryan,
with my encouragement,
introduced a "snare" to his
set-up. Why is snare in quotes?
Because it was one of the 7,000
tambourines from his collection
with snare bands stretched
across the head. It sounds
great but with Dave now playing
exclusively playing upright bass
it's too much so he switched
back to the classic Mace
set-up.
122118 Worked on Mars most of the
day. Tried some vocoder bits
on Sweet and Low.
121718 Recorded more backing
vocals for Beat Box Caveat.
Added some melody sketches
to Mars.
Got my Electro-Harmonix
power adapters. Fooled
around with the Electric
Mistress, Doctor Q and
Small Stone phase shifter.
Added the Small Stone
to my pedal board.
121618 Added loads of guitars to
Beat Box Caveat.
121518 Finally added a noise
gate at the end of my
pedal board chain.
Bought some power supplies
for some of my vintage
Electro-Harmonix pedals.
121418 How do I mark the end
of a song in Pro Tools so
that bounces aren't padded
with silence?
Mark the end of the song
by going to the start and
pressing Control/Shift/Tab.
Then select the portion
of the song you want to
bounce by highlighting
the song in the measures
bar. Bounce that mofo.
121218 Mailed out another pile
of CDs to local radio
stations.
Sometimes the identity
of the song is revealed
straight away. Is This
Your Thing? was Is This
Your Thing? the moment
I hit the first guitar chord.
Beat Box Caveat is
proving to be a bit more
challenging. Should it
be super synthy or
drums and wirey? All
I can do is thrash at it
until I see a face I
recognize. That's where
faith plays a role in
songwriting. Not faith
in Jebus, Martin or
Buddy. Faith in the
birthing process.
121018 Worked on Beat Box
Caveat and Blind
Jehovah Monster.
Reviewed Every Penny,
Doesn't Turn You On
and Sweet and Low.
Adjusted the email
handing program. I've
been getting spammed
pretty relentlessly and
was perhaps a bit too
aggressive with the
barbed wire.
120918 Mailed out another pile
of "Land Ho" CDs to
community radio stations.
120818 Sent out another wave of
CDs to radio stations.
120718 How lovely that Barry Lee
played "20,000 Days"
leading into a block of
Buzzcocks/Pete Shelley
songs. Thank you to
"Signal to Noise" and
KKFI for promoting local
music.
Signal To Noise #695 "Winter Dreams" playlist 12/07/18
SIGNAL TO NOISE - SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2018
Farewell to Pete Shelley
1. Cassandra Wilson//Beneath A Silver Moon
2. Iron and Wine//Someday The Waves
3. The Cocteau Twins//Great Spangled Fritillary
4. Courtney Barnett//Sunday Roast
***********************************************************
5. The Essex Green//Sixties
6. Donovan//Celeste
7. Volebeats//September Spell
8. Desi & Cody//She's No Good For You
9. The Splatter Pattern//Raining
*************************************************************
10. Leon Redbone//Diddy Wah Diddy
11. David Bromberg//Mr. Blue
12. John Prine//Eggs and Daughter Nite, Lincoln Nebraska 1967
13. Tony Joe White//Can You See The Lightning
**************************************************************
14. Jason Beers (Mrs. Helen Marf)//The First Noel
15. Howard Iceberg//Christmas In Missouri
16. The Monkees//Snowfall
17. The Forty Nineteens//It's Christmas Time Again
*********************************************************
18. Yo La Tengo//Shades of Blue
19. Janelle Monae//Afraid
20. Jack White//What's Done Is Done
21. St. Vincent//Slow Slow Disco
22. Girlyman//Caroline
*********************************************************
23. Gullywasher//Returning Softly
24. Ryley Walker//On The Banks of the Old Kishwaukee
25. David Bowie//Weeping Wall
26. Johnny Marie & The Lonesome Petunias//20,000 Days
*************************************************************
27. Buzzcocks//Lipstick
28. Pete Shelley//Twilight
29. Buzzcocks//I Don't Mine
************************************************************
30. Mark Rubin//Spin the Driedel
https://www.facebook.com/notes/signal-to-noise/signal-to-noise-695-winter-dreams-playlist-120718/10161108794100184/
120618 I don't know why but
Pete Shelley's passing
has really struck me.
He was a very underrated
tunesmith and if you
aren't familiar with his
work start with Singles
Going Steady. This
is not punk rock. This
is pure pop.
120318 Tune in to Barry Lee's
"Signal to Noise" on KKFI
this Friday night at 9 PM,
because it's good and
because he'll be playing
a track from "Land Ho".
"Slip sliding deep into
winter with warm music
and good thoughts.
Bolstered by Iron & Wine,
Cassandra Wilson,
Volebeats, The Splatter
Pattern, Leon Redbone,
John Prine, The Forty
Nineteens, The Monkees,
Howard Iceberg, Jack White,
St. Vincent, Gulleywasher,
Johnny Marie & The Lonesome
Petunias, Courtney Barnett,
The Cocteau Twins, Jason
Beers, Janelle Monae, Mark
Rubin, and more.."
Got a Roland Jupiter 6
sample pack and love it.
Already smearing it on
songs.
120218 Experimenting with some
vintage synth sample
packages.
120118 Recorded scratch vocals
and keyboard parts for
Beat Box Caveat and
Sweet and Low. Added
synths to That Doesn't
Turn You On.
113018 Bought a Ibanez TA 35
acoustic guitar combo
amp. I like how they
sound with the Epiphones.
Also bought the Samples
From Mars set for some
of the cool vintage synths.
112918 Worked on Turn You On
bridge and some backing
vocals. Added too new
chord/melody bits to
another unnamed song.
Petunias pracitce. Focused
on vocal arrangements,
112818 Re-cut all of the guitar
parts in Doesn't Turn You
On with the Strat. Added
new percussion, bass and
scratch vocals.
112518 12/1/18 private party in
Kansas City, MO moved to
12/29/18.
112418 Upped the tempo of That
Doesn't Turn You On and
recut demo guitar and
vocals.
Worked out some melodies
last night for another song
and recorded a few takes.
It started off sounding
Pink Floydie but I'm inching
away from that with the new
bits.
112318 Sent out another large load
of promotional CDs.
112218 2nd to last rehearsal before
playing a private party on the 1st.
That's right, if you are having a
party in the Kansas City metro
you can hire a quirky, energetic
band to play original music in the
corner of your living room without
fear of neighbors buzzing the fuzz.
111918 What I do today? I came up with
two chords and a melody on the
piano for a bridge in That Doesn't
Turn You On. Lord.
111618 First rehearsal at our new space.
I want some real keyboard players
for the next album. I'm talking to
a few people but am delighted to
announce that I got a commitment
from Joe Salvato. I'm excited to
write some songs that will feature
two-handed piano parts!
111518 "Land Ho" has been out a month
and there still isn't a single
counterfeit copy of the CD on
eBay. They still have plenty of
bogus copies from the rest of our
catalog, so hope is strong.
111418 Started mailing out CDs to Kansas
City radio, clubs and electronic
media. Normally I just move right on
to the next record but I want more
for this album than just abandoning
it to chance listens.
111318 I was researching what we should
charge to play at private parties.
The first result from the search
inquiry read:
"Local jazz combos or acoustic
bands may cost between $750 and
$1500, while the region's most
popular and exclusive party bands
may cost $10,000 or more. On
average, most great dance bands
for weddings or special events are
likely to cost between $2500 and
$7500."
We must be the Dollar Store option
of "Local jazz combos or acoustic
bands".
111118 CDs are ready to go out tomorow
morning for website sales. Also
sending out packets to local radio
stations.
110918 Went to see the The Groove
Pilots at Mike Kelly's Westsider.
They graciously invited us to do a
few songs during their break. Bryan
wasn't there but Danny Button joined
us for Sultan Eyes, Kitty Can,
Trashbag Launderette and Land Ho.
Terry Gann mimicked his beautiful
pedal steel part on a lap steel.
Thanks as always for a good time,
Terry, Tim, Joe, Danny and Dave.
110718 Did "Capers", "20,000 Days",
"Repeat" and "Kids Are Alright"
at the Piano Room.
110618 "Land Ho" CDs will be here
on 11/9. Will begin shipping
on 11/12.
110218 Adding some new titles
to the live setlist this
afternoon. Oh Nellie from
"Land Ho", White Girl from
"Gardenaire", something that's
still hatching intended for the
5th album and Brandy by
Looking Glass.
103118 CDs ordered and should
ship on the the 5th.
103018 Doing a short set in-between
presentations at the
Midwest Fashion Awards at
The White Theatre at the
Jewish Community Center on
January 5th, 2019.
102818 Submitted artwork and masters
for CD printing. Still on target to
start shipping CDs in early
November.
102618 Noisy electric guitar practice.
Decided to do a few songs from
Land Ho at The Piano Room on
11/07/18.
102318 A reminder that the only place
you can find Johnn Marie & the
Lonesome Petunias CDs is here.
"Land Ho" was only distributed
digitally. We'll have plenty of
CDs on hand just after
Halloween. Boo.
102218 Pro Tools: The minutes and
seconds ruler option annoys
me greatly. Sometimes if you
click on the drop down menu
to remove it the option is
grayed out. Just click on the
bars and beats ruler and then
you can uncheck minutes and
seconds from there.
Heck yes!
Another one. Pro Tools keeps
starting at the beginning of the
song rather than where you place
the Timeline Selection Point.
Just go to options and check
Link Track and Edit option.
Dammit. Pro Tools. The
grid lines have disappered.
Go to the Grid/Nudge/Counter
and click on Grid.
102118 Will set up an option
today for selling physical
CDs.
Had brunch with Allen
Johnston.
Friend listening to "Land Ho"
in Tel Aviv.
102018 Great time playing at
the Brookside Farmers
Market. It is so moving
how generous all of the
vendors are. It's really
touching.
Land Ho release day.
It's already starting to
find its way around the
world:
Spotify
Pandora
Napster
Slacker
Deezer
YouTube
Band Website
There is a topic linking
issue with YouTube that
I have contacted the
distributor about. Songs
are up, just not on our
channel.
YouTube issue is fixed.
101918 I am planning on
re-releasing a few of my
favorite songs from Her
Bows with fresh mixes
drums and other
performances. I'll drip
them out as singles while
working on the new album.
Thinking Billy Corgan's
Cadillac, Ordinary Guy
and nothingood.
Talked with Michael and
he confirmed that he wants
to release physical CDs.
Should have those by
Halloweenish.
101818 Last rehearsal before
playing on Saturday.
Shannon Swift will be
singing with us.
101718 Added and replaced bits
on some of the new
material.
101618 Pre-order Land Ho on Amazon.com
101518 I have 7 hunks of songs
in the works for the 5th
album. Today I added
bass and piano to Better
and guitars, bass,
percussion and harmonica
to Blind Jehovah Master.
Found out that Michael
is coming later this
week to listen to some
of the new stuff so
cleaned up a few things
and added a scratch
vocal to That Doesn't
Turn You On.
101418 Last of the YouTube
samples of songs from Land Ho.
101318
Posted another collection of
five 45 second samples of
songs from "Land Ho" on
our YouTube channel.
I have a free day so going
to record the guts of 5 or
6 new songs, sing a Girl
for Samson song and work
on getting Land Ho
distributed.
And digital distribution
launched.
101218 Kind of a dark day in JMLP
history. We ordered a large
pizza during rehearsal and
they brought a medium.
Despite the significant
disparity in size everybody
still politely refused the
last 2 pieces. For a
minute.
101018 Posted five 45 second samples
of songs from "Land Ho" on
YouTube.
Bryan re-mastered Blister
Beetle, Long Dry Walk and
Capers to address some
minor issues.
100918 I have Land Ho masters and
a commitment from Patrick
to mix and master the 5th
album. It's a good day.
100518 Bryan sexed up my Strat
so I went electric for part of
our rehearsal last night.
Michael hung out with us
and shouted at us like a
personal trainer. "DO IT
AGAIN!"
100218 Signed off on the mixes so
now Patrick will begin
mastering all 15 songs.
092818 Bryan sexed up my Strat.
Now I'm thinking Newport
1965.
092718 Bryan and I listened to the
Land Ho mixes last night
and I sent Patrick a few
more revisions this morning.
And revisions are done!
092618 Sent Patrick notes after
listening to the second set
of mixes. It sounds so good.
092518 Got the 2nd mix of Land Ho
songs back from Patrick.
Heck yes!
Recorded the guts of a
song I made up on John's
resonator when I was in
Colorado.
Had a dream that provided
the missing Blister Beetle
line. Sung it as soon as
my morning voice evaporated
and sent it off to Patrick.
092418 Struggling with replacing a
line in Blister Beetle. I
want to but don't having
anything inspired to
put in it's place.
092018 Sent mixing notes to Patrick.
I miss things from our live
versions of the songs that
aren't on the recordings so
Dave and Bryan sang some
of their parts from 20,000
Days and Repeat.
First rehearsal in a couple
of weeks. Crusty but fun.
Renamed "It's Wandering"
to "Wake for Wanderers".
091918 Michael coming over to
listen to mixes before I send
notes Patrick.
091118 Listening to Land Ho mixes!
090518 Should have Land Ho mixes
to listen to next week.
090318 Thank you to our friends who
spent their Labor Day holiday
with us at the SantaCaliGon
Days Festival this afternoon.
You're amazing.
083018 Good rehearsal ironing
out some of the newer
stuff for theSanta Cali Gon
Days festival.
082818 Patrick indicated that he
thinks he can have Land Ho
mixes for me in 1 or 2 weeks.
082518 Thank you to the Brookside
Farmers' Market and it's
vendors for hosting us for a
few hours today. It was
wonderful getting tips in long
beans, beets, Asian eggplant,
potatoes, okra, peppers and
sunflowers! Thank you also
to the people who toughed out
the set in the relentless heat.
It was great seeing all of you.
See you next holiday weekend
at the Santa Cali Gon Days
Festival.
080918 Productive rehearsal. Spent
some quality time on
harmonies.
080518 Someone suggested that
we should take credit cards
when we're selling CDs. I
have a PayPal business
account so bought one of
their credit card readers
and while waiting for it to
arrive, attempted to load
the POS software,
PayPal Here, on one of our
phones. Doesn't work on
my 2 year-old Android or
4 year old tablet. Aborted.
Signed up with Square Up
and was able to process
credit cards in about 10
minutes.
080418 Doing a long set at the
SantaCaliGon Days
Festival on September 3rd
at 2 PM in the middle of
the square.
Sent Allen the guide file
for Every Penny to record
drums to. Fifth album is
officially under way.
072818 Bought a card reader to
marry with our new sexy
CD sales stand.
072718 Lovely album feedback on Twitter.
072618 Made it through the full
set. Bryan thinks we have
about an hour and a half of
material.
072518 Important update about our
CD sales.
Spent the day tracking vocals
for Girl for Samson songs. I
think I'll resurrect The Wall
for our live set.
072418 "Land Ho" is now "Land Ho"
and should be available
around the world and in your
town in Autumn 2018.
072318 Playing at the Brookside
Farmers Market from 11 AM
to 1 PM on 08/25/18 and
10/20/18. The market is
located at 6321 Wornall Rd,
Kansas City, MO.
072218 Got the guts of Every Penny
down and added a few piano
parts.
071918 Lovely turnout last night.
Perhaps our largest
gathering of friends and
well-wishers to date. Thank
you to everybody who
took the time and troubel to
be there.
071818 Doing a few songs from the
new album tonight at the
Piano Room. Drop by to
express your appreciation
for our marvelous catalog or
to throw something potentially
injurious.
I think I have finally bumbled
upon the right artwork for
the new album.
071618 Some of our European
friends are suddenly able
to listen to our catalog
on YouTube. That's a
good thing.
071318 Did the first bit of recording
for the 5th album.
071218 Good rehearsal. Added
Push Past and Long Dry
Walk to the set. Doing a
few songs at the Piano
Room next Wednesday.
070918 Added 957 more vocal
` takes of Long Dry Walk.
All shite. Writing the
session files for the whole
album out now to take to
Patrick tomorrow.
070818 Sang more takes of Blister
Beetle and Wrong Star.
Will do more takes of
Wrong Star and Long,
Dry Walk tomorrow before
writing every thing to an
external drive for Patrick.
Michael came by to show
me some guitar bits he has
for the next album. Played
him Push Past for the first
time.
070718 More vocal takes of Nellie
Ordinary and Push Past.
Kevin added harmonies to
Is This Your Thing?,
Boyfriend and Blister
Beetle.
For tomorrow - add a few
more vocal takes of
Blister Beetle.
070618 Planning on doing a few
songs at the Piano Room
on 07/18.
Sorted out some issues
with Blister Beetle and
sang a few more takes of
Land Ho!
070518 First rehearsal in almost a
month. Added Long, Dry
Walk and Push Past to the
set.
5 days left to finish this album.
I think these songs will make
the final cut:
Land Ho!
Blister Beetle
Repeat
Capers
20,000 Days
Nellie Ordinary
Parasol
Is This Your Thing?
Push Past
...and 2 or 3 of these:
Glad To Pass On
It's Wandering
Long Dry Walk
Wrong Star
Boyfriend
Bon Voyage
070418 Covered a bit of a Bruno Nicolai
song in the bridge for Boyfriend.
Got a new follower on Twitter
that had a Bruno Nicolai song
pinned to his feed and I recalled
how much I liked his stuff.
Rachel came over and recorded
vocals on Long Dry Walk, Boyfriend
(soon to be Bidanzato?), Capers
and Push Past.
070218 Countdown to Turd Polish Day
looms. Added guitars to Boyfriend,
Long Dry Walk and Is This Your
Thing?
There is a thread about one of
my early bands on a Facebook
page deditcated to the first wave
of local punk/alt clubs in Kansas
City. It's interesting to see
what people recall about the
band and the music. Clearly,
the more you repeat a phrase
the more likely people will
remember it for the rest of their
lives. "I didn't know about 3797,
3797, 3797, 3797..."
070118 Probably spent too much time
trying to get Boyfriend up to
code. I think tomorrow I need
to bravely chop out some bits
that are troubling me rather
than trying to make them
work.
062818 Chris Ruzich added harmonies
to Capers, Wrong Star, Long
Dry Walk and Push Past.
Added chimey guitar parts
to Wrong Star, Capers and
Long Dry Walk. Vocals after
lunch.
062718 After some hand-wringing
I decided to rebuild the
song around Bryan's part.
Dave came over and added
more bass parts.
Committed to capturing a
tight vocal today.
062618 And now tornado
warning sirens howling
mercilessly.
More vocal takes for
Long Dry Walk. Having
a go at Push Past once
the thunder stops. Real
thunder, not digestive
issues.
062518 Found another Long Dry
Walk Take. This one by
Allen incorrectly named as
Blister Beetle. I might be
able to salvage this song
with just a few tweaks.
Made sure that all of the
songs have at least one
drum take imported and
that the take is named so
that Patrick can match it
with the folder of drum files.
Still need to re-sing a lot
of things.
062418 Starting to clean up sessions
for Patrick.
062218 Going to try to start over
on Long Dry Walk and see
if can match the spirit of
Bryan's drum part.
062118 Dave knocked off 7 songs in
a 4 hour session: Capers,
Repeat, 20,000 Days,
Blister Beetle, Bon Voyage,
Push Past and Boyfriend.
Bryan sent me takes for all
3 songs that I sent him. Will
give him Push Past tomorrow
to toy with .
Added piano to Push Past.
062018 Did more work on Push Past.
Dave coming over tomorrow to
finish bass parts.
061918 Sent Bryan a mix for Blister
Beetle and a tighter mix of
Long Dry Walk.
Recorded more vocal takes
for Nellie Ordinary.
Added more vocal takes to
Push Past. Also added
acoustic guitars, bass and
acoustic drums. If I can
learn how to sing it well
it should make it in time
to be included for
consideration for the new
album.
061718 Sent Bryan fresh mixes of
Boyfriend and Long Dry Walk.
Reviewed everything I have from
Allen and sent him some notes.
I like this record.
061418 Bryan Mace is going to drum on
Boyfriend and Long Dry Walk.
061318 Tried a couple of new songs live
tonight. It's Wandering was, but
Capers came off really well. Play
live and learn.
In the last mile of a head cold and
sporting fresh stitches in my lower
lip.
061018 Got everything that Allen was able
to finish minus Long Dry Walk and
Boyfriend. May do those myself or
find another contributor. If I scrapped
them for this album I would still be
giving Patrick 12-13 songs.
060918 Regarding performance set lists:
060818 Songs I want you to hear.
060718 Croaked my way through some of
the new songs. Trying to see what
we can get away with playing next
Wednesday.
060418 Strugging with words for Push Past.
Add vocal takes for Capers and
Around the World in 20,000 Days.
060118 I've discovered that people residing
ouside of the United States are
unable to listen to our music on
YouTube. According to Google:
Video not available in my country
Some YouTube videos may not be
available in your country for the
following reasons:
1) Video owners have chosen to
make their content available only to
certain countries (usually due to
licensing rights)
2) YouTube may block specific
content in order to comply with local
laws
053118 Spent four hours really working
on some new stuff for our live
set. Decided to do another short
set at McGuire's Tavern, the
only planned performance for
June.
053018 Recorded the frame for another
sad song for the new album.
052418 Piano Room Video | Pictures
I realized this morning that we've
performed half of our one hour
set over the past couple of months.
With a few more rehearsals we
should have an hour ready soon.
052318 Very short set at the Piano Room.
We did Brought A Little Something
Down, Kitty Can and Trashbag
Launderette. Lots of good
performers.
051918 I have hundreds of performance
and rehearsal tapes from my
music history (The Wilsons,
Porps, This Jungle, Boxes of
Love, The Waldinis, etc.) stored
on cassette tapes. I'm torn
between just discarding them,
digitizing them and then
discarding them or digitizing
them and keeping them. Or
stuffing them somewhere in my
house and letting my heir sort it
out.
051718 Did Maryland Mansion, End of
Summer, Kitty Can, Toast &
Marmalade For Tea, Trash Bag
Launderette and 20,000 Days.
Danny Button sat in for Trash
Bag, though I neglected to give
him any cues for when to play.
You can identify pros by their
reaction to nincompoopery.
Pictures on Facebook and
Instagram.
Piano Room next Wednesday
sans Button.
051618 Set list printed, gallons of water
dumped into my torso, salad and
poor sea creature consumed, voice
warmed up to near croaking - get
me to the arena, Mr. Henry.
051018 Added a couple of dates for May.
Got through the whole set and was
able to give some attention to On,
Capers, Maryland Mansion and
Blister Beetle. Sang along with
Bryan playing Beatles songs after.
042518 Did 4 songs (Billy Corgan's Cadillac,
Kitty Can, Around the World in 20,000 Days
and Trashbag Launderette) at the Piano
Room. Thank you to Karen Baum for
accommodating our larger than normal
set-up.
042218 Dave and I went to see Bryan's
other group give a performance.
Bryan is absurdly talented and
it's laughable and marvelous
that he's our percussionist!
041918 Book Johnny Marie & the Lonesome
Petunias live shows here.
Number 2 on Reverb Nation's KC
alternative charts.
041618 "Dear Johnny, where can I get
replacement tuners for my Epiphone
John Lennon signature model EJ-160e?"
About a month ago I broke a tuner
on my Epiphone EJ-160e John Lennon
acoustic guitar. I searched forums for
a tip for a suitable replacement and only
learned that the brand was Kluson. I
gambled on a used set taken off of a
Gibson Les Paul and failed because of
a collar that prevented the post from
making it through the hole in the
headstock. I then found a vintage box
of Klusons on eBay and they fit perfectly
and the key is exactly the same shape
and color. You can't tell the difference
between the originals vand the replacement.
There isn't much information on the box,
but there is a hand-written model number
which is SD90SLN. This model number is
your friend.
041418 More drum takes from Allen.
Here's where we stand:
20,000 Days (6 drum takes) [no bass]
Around The World In 20,000 Days (3 drum takes) [no bass]
Blister Beetle (0 drum takes) [no bass]
Bon Voyage (4 drum takes) [no bass]
Boyfriend (0 drum takes) [no bass]
Capers (3 drum takes) [no bass]
Glad To Pass On (7 drum takes) [has bass]
Is This Your Thing? (0 drum takes) [has bass]
Its Wandering (2 drum takes) [has bass]
Land Ho! (0 drum takes) [has bass]
Long Dry Walk (0 drum takes) [has bass]
Nellie Ordinary (1 drum takes) [has bass]
Parasol (0 drum takes) [has bass]
Wrong Star (5 drum takes) [has bass]
Number 6 on ReverbNation's Alternative rankings.
I suspect that has more to do with content and
distribution than popularity.
041118 Added Blister Beetle to the live set.
040718 Video stills from the McGuire's Tavern
performance up on Instagram
040518 Cellphone video of our set last night
up on our YouTube channel.
040418 Just finished our set at McGuire's.
Yay for us.
040318 Doing a few songs at McGuire's Taven
tomorrow evening.
040118 Finished arranging Blister Beetle and
putting down some basic parts. Still
needs more words. Even I know that.
Fished out the Takamine for the live
set on Wednesday since the Epiphone
has a wonky tuner key.
033118 I'm still waiting on bass and drum parts
for several songs before this album
can be put on Patrick's plate so I'm
going to try to dash off one more song.
Will record the bits for it today and think
about how it should be arranged.
032918 Ran through the set and the repeated
the stuff for the live set that we'll do
next week. We'll probably have to
cut something but the current set
list is:
Little Something
Sultan Eyes
Kitty Can
20,000 Days
Around The World In 20,000 Days
Trash Bag Launderette
Ask
Wrong Star
031518 Ran through the set. Picked some
songs for a shorter set.
030918 A raucous but spirited performance
of the set last night and now the boys
are getting anxious to go do this
somewhere in front of something other
than dusty living room furniture. Look
out thin, disinterested crowd in a small,
brackish bar somewhere in the city!
Your day of reckoning is drawing nigh!
030118 Rehearsal with Dave and Bryan.
Listened to more takes from Allen.
022818 Listened to some of Allen's recent
takes. Some of the songs are really
starting to come together.
022418 Had a chat with Allen about yesterday's
notes. The "20,000 Days" and
"Around The World In 20,000" days
thing is already creating headaches.
022318 Getting drum takes from Allen again!
Sent off some notes.
022218 Ran through all of the songs live again.
Bryan insisted we rate what is working
and what isn't so that we can focus on
the troublemakers next time.
021418 Ran through the set with Dave and Bryan.
Michael came by to check on our
progress. Added Maryland Mansion
to the set.
020818 Rehearsal with Dave and Bryan.
013118 Hey Pa
Time to leave us all
It's a short flight
See the feathers fall
Forgive me for saying
But you lead the way
And though I'm behind you
It's too soon to join you
012918 Struggling with Capers. It's in danger of
getting the Pool treatment. Pool was a
Costello-esque rocker that got over-thought
into electronica.
012818 How do you work a new song into a setlist
without a vote? Pretend to play it absent-
mindedly in-between songs. If someone
joins in then you can add it to the list with
confidence. If everybody stares at you
blankly then you have failed. Again.
012518 Ran through the set with Bryan and
Dave.
012218 Worked on the call in response in
Is This Your Thing to my satisfaction.
Recorded the guts of a new song.
012018 Added piles of Capers vocal takes.
011718 Yes, sang more lead vocal takes for
Glad To Pass On. Added some
harmonies to Capers. Taking some
mixes from Allen's Glyn Johns set-up
to Patrick for feedback.
011618 Added some more convincing vocal
takes to Glad To Pass On. Also added
backing vocals and hand claps.
011518 Worked a bit on the lead vocal for
Glad To Pass On.
011218 Learned how to use Beat Detective vs
Quantizing to adjust the timing of
audio rhythm tracks.
011118 Sorted all of the buses and committed
all of the mellotron parts. Added some
shakers and cabasa to Nellie Ordinary.
011018 Added another dozenish takes of the
lead vocal for Land Ho!
Listened to 30+ It's Wandering lead vocal
takes. Drilled it down to 21 that have useful
moments.
Teleconference with Allen. Tweaking
the balance of click track and reference
drums.
010918 "It's Wandering" needed a better vocal
take so of course I added a cabasa
track instead. And maracas.
010818 Allen sent 6 takes of 20,000 Days
for my listening pleasure.
Finished lyrics for Capers and tried
a few vocal takes.
Settled on verse lyrics for Boyfriend
and sang about16 takes.
Had to upgrade my DropBox account
to accomodate Allen's drum takes.
010718 No blog entries means nothingood.
010418 Bryan and I ran through the set.
010218 And I did. He now has
everything until somebody tells
me I need to write more songs.
Sent Allen:
Wrong Star
Long Dry Walk
Boyfriend
Need to sex up It's Wandering
and Capers before sharing.
010118 Allen sent me some test files to
make sure we were going to be
able to communicate.
And I did.
Intend to send Allen 4 or 5 more
songs today. Likely:
Nellie Ordinary
Glad To Pass On
Parasol
Bon Voyage
Is This Your Thing?
I still need to do work on all
of those but they are together
enough to drum to. That just
leaves:
Long Dry Walk
Wrong Star
It's Wandering
Capers
Boyfriend
2017 (recordong Land Ho/assembling live lineup) 123117 Had a good state of the union
review with Michael. I need
these.
122117 Had a little groove pop up in my
brain. Recorded bass, drums,
guitars, organ and some vocal
ideas.
Dave sent me a sample of factory
machine noise that I had asked for.
Fooled with resampling it with the
SSD Trigger, which is in Dynamics,
for future self.,
121617 Strung up the battered Yamaha
in a Nashville Tuning and aped the
acoustic guitar parts in Capers.
121517 The two same-age, bass-playing
Daves will be at the Rundgren
show tomorrow. They have yet to
meet.
121417 Rehearsal with Bryan. Working
out Capers. Bryan brought his
mandolin and Seagull acoustic
so of course we had a Beatles
sing-along after. Note to self:
Listen to Spooky Tooth's version
of I Am The Walrus.
121317 Finalized the arrangement for
Capers (Harbor Breeze) and sent
off a copy to Dave and Bryan.
120917 Still futzing with the arrangement
of Capers. Need to re-cut nearly
all of the parts.
120717 Rehearsal with Dave and Bryan.
Dave and Bryan sang Beatles
songs afterwards.
Sent Dave a demo of Capers.
120617 Michael's birthday!
Bryan turned me onto Nashville
tuning. Ordered some strings.
Gauges are 10-14-09-12-17-25.
120517 Got the new solos back from
Danny Button. Way good!
120417 Smeared the Kent Americana
all over Bon Voyage. Not sure
if P will keep any of it.
Still trying to muscle Capers
into something. Getting awfully
close.
120217 Going to try to put down some
keeper parts for Capers today
and squeeze it in for Land Ho!
113017 Good rehearsal with Bryan and
Dave. Should have several
contiguous sessions in before
Christmas.
112917 Talked to Danny Button about
getting some additional takes
of the Is This Your Thing solo
with more of a dirty 1960s
vibe. I thought he might be
annoyed but, as always, he
was positive, enthusiastic and
committed to coming up with
the best part for the song.
112717 Spent some time arranging
the different parts in Capers.
Tried some different approaches
to the opening line of
It's Wandering. Considering
resurrecting Sue's Green Dress
for this album as a Her Majesty
add on somewhere. It fits the
theme nicely.
112617 Sent the first three songs
off to Allen for drums -
20,000 Days, Land Ho! and
Around The World in 20,000
Days.
112517 Shannon added vocals to
20,000 Days, Land Ho! and
Around The World in 20,000
Days.
112417 Rachel tracked vocals on
20,000 Days, It's Wandering,
Around The World in 20,000
Days and Land Ho!
112217 Going to start sending
Allen songs this weekend.
Going to try to have 6
ready by then. Added a
half-dozen vocal takes to
It's Wandering.
112017 Michael and I ran
through some artwork
options and then
listened to what we
have ready for Land Ho!
He felt like we should
include Wrong Star and
Long Dry Walk. We'll
at least send them to
Allen and see how they
feel with some marvelous
drum parts.
111717 Sent Dave the last
of the three songs
that need bass parts.
Contemplating
producing a multi-band
show for our first
outing.
111617 First rehearsal with
Bryan and Dave in
3 weeks. Bryan
surprised me by playing
Around The World In
20,000 Days on an
acoustic guitar just days
after I sent him the demo.
The practice went
surpisingly well. The
holidays will probably
slow us down but we're
getting awfully close.
111517 Potentially have a flautist
(Jazzy Jazz Miyagi)
lined up for Nellie Ordinary.
Sent off the current version
of the song for consideration.
Got Land Ho! pedal
steel parts back from
Terry Gann. Land Ho!
indeed!
Added shaker eggs,
maraccas, tambourine
and wood blocks to
20,000 Days. Added
more vocal takes.
111417 Started to lather flesh
on 20,000 Days. I like
where it's going. Both
it and the reprise are
Get Happy sparse in
terms of changes.
Sorted through some
more images looking
for inspiration for
Land Ho! artwork.
111317 Added a million slide
parts to Around The World
but they seem to
clutter an already noisy
song. Will let P decide.
Set copies of the rough
draft to Dave and Bryan
so that we can pop it
in the set.
111217 Fixed an error with the
lyric display application.
Finished AWI2KD but
now am thinking about
editing in a bridge. I hate
editing in bridges.
111117 Got scratch vocals and guitar
down for 20,000 days. It's
going to go fast.
Have nearly finished Around
The World In 20,000 Days.
Just need to comp a lead
vocal.
Here's the current track listing
for Land Ho! in my mind.
Kill Me (now Bon Voyage)
Land Ho!
20,000 Days
Parasol
Is This Your Thing?
Nellie Ordinary
Glad to Pass On
It's Wandering
Around The World In 20,000 Days
Thanks means pushing
Wrong Star
Long Dry Walk
Boyfriend
into the box where Dingus
and about 30 other partially
recorded songs live. Potential
Bomb Pop Innuendo material.
111017 Fluffed up Around The World.
110817 Talked to P about adding
accordion to Land Ho!
Added SoundToys Little
Plate reverb to Pro Tools.
Recorded the framework
for Around The World In
20,000 Days. Will do
20,000 Days tomorrow.
110417 I dreamt of some puns
about biblical characters
for Around The World
In 20,000 Days. I was
given the title too.
110217 Got guitar parts back
from Danny for Is This
Your Thing. Good stuff
as always.
110117 Asked Patrick if he
wanted the completed
songs for Land Ho as
they were finshed or all
at once. Decided on all
at once.
I've traded recording for
rehearsing for the last
few months but need to
get ready to start sending
Allen songs for drums
before Thanksgiving. Am
committed to going through
everything over the next
10 days and evaluating
which songs are finished
and which still need bits.
Still need to write a few
more too, which fortunately
is happening organically.
Her Bows one year-old
today.
101917 Added 20,000 Days to the
set. Dave brought a Shure
SM58 Beta for me to try
out, which I dug.
101217 Ran through the 19 song
set with Bryan and Dave.
Broke a string on the
Ephiphone less than a
week after re-stringing it.
Talked with Bryan about
contributing parts to
"Land Ho!".
100617 Fourth rehearsal with Dave
and Bryan. Should have an
hour of stuff ready to go in
early November.
093017 Adding Three Bells, Ordinary
Guy and Girl for Samson's End
of Summer to the set.
092817 Talked with Michael about
a title for the 4th album and
artwork. He's on board with
Land Ho! for the title and
my concept for the front
and back covers.
Third rehearsal with Bryan
and Dave. Bryan is ready to
add a few more songs so
will learn Three Bells and
something else.
092217 Second rehearsal with Bryan
and Dave. Added Puff Adders
and Falstaff to the set.
091817 Still rehearsing a 45 minute
set instead of recording.
Land Ho and Is This Your Thing
are out getting guitar parts.
Will probably start sending Allen
songs for drums in October.
091517 Played around with a cover
for the new album. Going with
Land Ho until something
better happens along.
091417 Dave and I ran through the
set with multi-instrumentalist
Bryan Mace. Very excited
about the potential.
091317 Patrick Meagher signed up
for mixing and mastering
the 4th album. Big relief
for me.
083117 Dave and I romped through
the set.
082817 Chris Ruzich came by and
helped flesh out a song
he submitted as a bass idea
earlier this year.
Michael brought the congas
by for our rehearsals.
082517 ReverbNation chart plummet.
Held the number 5 spot
for our city for about 6 weeks
but have since dribbled down
to number 10. I think all this
means is that I need to post
new content. A new picture
and a blog entry would probably
stave off our disappearing
entirely from the front page.
082417 Dave and I ran through the set.
Trying to get the science-y bits
worked out so that we can get
it to the place where we can
drink while we play.
082317 Still trying to run through the
set once or twice a day to get
in playing shape
Please consider this public
record proof of ownership of
the following band name:
Touch Manly & the Bomb Pop Innuendo
While I am googly-eyed by the
thrilling possibilities of writing
songs as TM, I am not made of
wood and will consider any
obscene offer for purchase. And
by obscene I mean a figure high
enough that my bank won't allow
me to cash the check at the drive
through. Like, they would need
me to come in and show a bunch
of credentials. Which I totally
have.
082117 Filmed the changes in the sky
during the eclipse for incidental
footage for White Girl but there
were dust spots on my sensor.
Sang another dozen takes of
Land Ho.
081917 Sent Dave (bass), Terry Gann
(pedal steel) and Michael (piano)
a demo of Land Ho!
Michael and I went shopping!
081817 Ayo McPherson tracked congas
on Nellie and Is This Your Thing.
Worked on the B section of
Land Ho.
081717 Ran through the set with Dave.
John Bara sat in on congas.
Yahoo suggests that, while
searching for Johnny Marie
& the Lonesome Petunias,
you may have intended to
search for:
breanne marie & the front porch sinners
jan marie & the mean reds
donny & marie
marie & the papaya girls
beautiful day marie & the redcat
marie & the misfits
marie & the boys dance band
andrea marie & the magnolia band
I don't agree. I think you were
spot on.
Here's a whimsical look at the
current "Similar Artists" list from
Spotify:
The Delta Riggs
888
Rann
Akron/Family
Revolution, I Love You
Paul Weller
I think Paul Weller is on the
list because we both fret
over gum recession and bone
density.
081617 Did some base touching
with the videographer.
Sending Is This Your Thing
off to Danny Button. Talking
to conga players.
Current live setlist clocking
in right at 30 minutes without
jibber jabber, tuning or
replacing broken strings:
Little Something
Sultan Eyes
Kitty Can/nothingood/White Girl
Billy Corgan's Caddilac
Ask
Gardenaire
My Sweet Lord/Toast & Marmalade For Tea/Trashbag Launderette
Wrong Star
It's Wandering
081517 Gardenaire (the song) now
has over 1,000 streams on
Pandora Radio.
081417 Recorded demo-y parts for
Land Ho and Melody
Maker. Recorded more soft
lead vocals for Nellie Ordinary.
Fooled around with the solos
in Is This Your Thing.
081317 Added some chaotic solos
to Is This Your Thing.
080917 juiceboxberries is now one
year-old.
080617 Lots of stuff going on. I'm
so focused on this new
album that I'm startled
whenever something good
floats down the river from
Gardenaire - which has only
been out for 3 months.
080517 Michael may have scored
us a conga player for
recording and performance.
080417 Michael added backing
vocals to Is This Your Thing.
080317 Dave and I ran through a
dozen songs for our
future set. Afterwards
he added backing vocals
to Is This Your Thing,
Wrong Star and It's
Wandering.
080217 The "White Girl" video
project is still alive. Please
not-too-long live the
"While Girl" video project.
Tom Bowman doing what
Tom Bowman does.
080117 Official YouTube page for Johnny Marie & the Lonesome Petunias music and videos.
073117 Made some tweaks to
It's Wandering. Allen
Johnston is ready to
start listening to songs.
073017 Thomas added bass and
vocals to It's Wandering.
072917 Rachel added some
vocals to Is This Your Thing?
Got up at 4:30 to quietly
capture the B part to
It's Wandering. Got chords,
melody, words - the whole
pile. Thank you Giant Man.
072817 Fleshing out It's Wandering.
Thought of a B part right
before bed that will haunt
me all night.
072617 There is a clerk at the local
grocery store that I used to
"know" a long time ago when
he worked at a now-defunct
music store. Whenever I see
him he always asks after my
musical pursuits. I recently
answered him by giving him
a copy of Gardenaire, which
he immediately tried to buy.
After a few weeks he asked
for one of the other albums,
which I delivered today, and
again, he insisted on paying
for it. How stand up is that
shit?
072417 MTV Italy treating us
better than the US. Fake
news.
Cregg optimistic about
the new t-shirt designs.
072217 Sent a new t-shirt
design to Cregg. Got
the first rough cut of
the video for White Girl.
072017 Dave add more takes to
Parasol. I used a bass
mistake from Is This Your
Thing to build a loop in the
outro. He had a few live
runs at that. I decided to
have it morph from loop to
live like We Don't Do That.
071917 Talking to another artist
about a video for White
Girl.
071817 Finishing up a long
droning ending to Is This
Your Thing?
071317 Dave and Michael came
over and we mostly talked,
drank and sang. Ran
through some stuff I
imagine including in an
open mic set.
Song list up for consideration
for number 4 thus far, or so far:
Wrong Star
Long Dry Walk
Kill Me
Glad To Pass On
Is This Your Thing?
Nelly Ordinary
Parasol
Boyfriend
Old Clothes
071217 I've been posting some old
CD artwork mock-ups on
Instagram and Facebook.
071017 Played with Is This Your Thing?
some more.
070917 Started fooling around with Is This.
Your Thing? Also lathered some
vocal flesh on Wrong Star.
070817 On this day last year I was listening
to the juiceboxberries masters.
Added piano and backing vocals
to Wrong Star. Re-sang lead
in Nellie Ordinary.
070617 Dave came over and tracked bass
on Wrong Star. We ran through
Kitty Can.
070517 Finished up the Kitty Can demo
and added a million softer vocal
takes to Parasol. Dashed off
some guide tracks for Wrong Star.
070317 Look at how MTV is spoofing users
by using a redirect for
Johnny Marie on MTV.com
(https://www.mtv.com/artists/johnny-marie-the-lonesome-petunias/)
link to bounce to their homepage.
Number 5 on Kansas City's Alterntative charts at ReverbNation just for being organized.
062917 Michael came over and
listened to the mostly-finished
and just-started songs. He
really liked Kill Me and wants
to open the album with it
I forgot about Long Dry Walk
and Wrong Star so suddenly
we have 7 songs in the bank.
I would like to develop at least
another 7 before we call it
soup or whatever you call a
completed collection of songs.
Is it soup?
Smoothed out the changes
in Boyfriend. Have 4 songs
nearly ready to ship to Allen
for drums.
062817 Played around with a live set
arrangement. Doubled the
length of Boyfriend and added
some guitars and bass.
062617 Spent the afternoon setting up
proper buses and naming tracks
for the 4 songs that are nearly
ready for Allen while "The Trip"
from 1967 droned. I'll watch
anything pre-disco era Bruce
Dern picture. The wah-wahier
the better.
Michael brought by Gardenaire
t-shirt samples. Had a meeting
in the gardens about quantity,
sizes etc.
062517 Rachel and Shannon added
vocals to Nellie Ordinary, Parasol,
Boyfriend and Glad to Pass On.
Spent the early morning working
up some covers to worm into
a live set. Both Bee Gees-related.
062417 Tweaked Wrong Star, Parasol
and Boyfriend.
062217 Dave and I put down a scratch
track for Wrong Star. Talked
about doing some 4-5 song
set shows together.
Was unfollowed by a handful
of people for this tweet:
"On social media, unsigned bands
are as vulnerable as the sick and
elderly and as invasive and toxic
as Giant Hogweed."
062017 That moment when you realize
you've been mixing with the
isolation headphones on.
That moment when you
realize that there is a
pair of hot headphones in
the room that have been
bleeding into your tracking.
Number 5 on ReverbNation's
Alternative charts for Kansas
City. It's a tin tiera.
061917 Chris came by and recorded bass
for the outro of Parasol. He also
Sang harmonies for Glad To Pass On
and Boyfriend.
061717 Sang more takes for Boyfriend
and fooled with the arrangement.
Storms overnight. Trees down.
Power outages. Pro Tools
computer wouldn't power up.
Dig this - ends up that a single
plug on the surge protector, the
very plug the computer was in,
was fried. Tried another plug
and protector and the 4th
Johnny Marie album resumes.
061617 I have musicians scheduled to
come over and track over the next
week so am trying to see which of
the 6 half-cooked songs (Parasol,
Nellie Ordinary, Glad to Pass On,
Long Dry Walk, Old Clothes,
Boyfriend, ) are ready. I also
need to frame out a rollicking
version of Wrong Star.
061217 Number 7 on ReverbNation's
Alternative charts for Kansas City
in mid-June when the winds are
gusting from the South.
060917 juiceboxberries now available at
Target.com
060817 Dave tracked bass on Nellie Ordinary
and Parasol. Micahel popped by
and we talked about some t-shirt
designs.
060717 Worked on Boyfriend and Old Clothes.
060617 Popped Three Bells up on ReverbNation
060317 Gardenaire now playing on Pandora Radio
060217 Hung out with 5 Johnny Marie
contributors sequentially.
053117 Another re-tooling of Boyfriend.
Got an idea to make it less
Violent Femmesy when I
heard a sort of reggae song
in an episode of Better Call
Saul. Didn't work.
052917 Picked up a six string banjo.
You're thinking "Oh, banjo
and a mandolin! I know
what you're up to!" No you
don't.
052717 Finally got a chance to sit
down and paw through
Danny Button's guitar
tracks for Parasol. Delightful
range of tones and feels.
Will be difficult settling on
just one or two.
Monkeying around with a
mandolin.
052317 Received the approval notice
from Pandora for Gardenaire.
Took two weeks this time.
Took 1 day for juiceboxberries
and Her Bows. Should be live
sometime in June.
052017 Finally picking up a banjo.
Already have my eyes and
ears on a song for it.
051817 Layed down a foundation for
Boyfriend.
051717 Sat outside watching birds with
my 1/2 classical guitar and
came up with the chords for
Boyfriend.
051617 Touched base with Terry Gann
to make sure he was still
available to contribute some
lap steel/pedal steel parts.
Looking forward to dreaming
up something worthy of
Terry's work.
051517 Sent Parasol off to Danny
for some of his sweet
noodling.
051217 Delighted to get Danny Button
to agree to submit some
guitar parts. Between he and
Terry Gann I now have some
shiny new tools in the box.
051117 Re-cut all of the falsettos
in Nellie Ordinary. Sounds
much better.
051017 Just got in a fresh batch of
"Her Bows" CDs.
050917 YouTube links are now working.
050817 Physical CDs are here and
should be available online in
about a week.
050617 Album is finding it's way around
the world. Currently up on iTunes,
Spotify, Amazon, iHeartRADIO,
Slacker Radio, Napster, Google
Play and Microsoft Music.
YouTube is slowly adding songs.
Pandora will take a few weeks.
050317 Worked s'more on Old Clothes.
050217 Started work on Old Clothes.
043017 Sent MP3s of Glad to Pass On
to Chris so that he can develop
a bass part.
042617 Pre-order "Gardenaire" at
Amazon.com
Dig: I'm thinking about
building a set comprised of
a song or two from each of
the three albums and doing
a few open mic nights to
try to "move some units."
I have mentioned this to my
circle of friends so many times
over the last month that more
than once I have heard "Yeah,
you were saying something
about that." in reply.
042517 Digital Distribution launched.
On target for a May 5
release.
042417 Issue with the resolution of
one of the images so I went
back to the lot and pulled the
image to re-scan it. While
looking through the slides
from the roll of film I found
a second shot that was
wonderful and I'm using it
for the CD image. A
Passion Play.
042217 Order placed for Gardenaire
CDs. Also ordered another
box of Her Bows.
042017 I have the masters, they are
gorgeous and they will be
submitted to be printed
tomorrow. I think we are
having a May baby.
041917 Allen is starting to put
together something that
will enable him to record
drums for us from afar.
041817 Still working, very slowly,
on Parasol, 123&4 and
Nellie Ordinary.
041717 I get many lines for
JMLP songs when I
have awakened in the
middle of the night and
have just about drifted
back to sleep. The
challenge is capturing
the line without
waking myself back up
out of the sweet,
sweet woozy state.
Sometimes I can
memorize it and
scribble it down when
I awake. I gambled
on that last night
and failed.
040917 Michael and I fooled
around with the lyrics
for Nellie Ordinary.
I've been hammering
away on Nellie Ordinary
& pining for the
Gardenaire masters.
Still hope to get it out
in April.
040217 Worked most of the
morning painting
noises on the current
pile of songs. Started
work on a sequence of
guitar chords that
Michael brought a
few weeks ago.
033117 Ready to track some
vocals and there goes
somebody's house
alarm. There are a
variety of incidental
environmental sounds
that make their way
onto vocal tracks -
roofers, dogs, loud
cars, wrens and
cardinals.
032917 Bought and installed
UVI's Mello.
Michael came by
and listened to the
latest stuff. We
decided to go ahead
and order more copies
of "Her Bows" when
we submit "Gardenaire".
032617 Still slapping it on.
032517 Ladeling flesh upon
Parasol, 123&4 and
Am Again.
032417 Fooled around with
some mellotron
bits in 123&4 and
Parasol.
031917 I want an M-Tron Pro
because Andy
Partridge uses one.
Worked s'more on
123&4.
031617 Heaped a bunch of
guitars and pianos on
top of one of the bits
that Chris brought.
Then, 3 or 4 months
from now, we'll pay
somebody to strip it
all way.
031517 Michael dropped by to
share a collection of
guitar chords he has
been fooling around
with. I may try to use
some of the parts to
supplement Parasol.
031417 Worked on Parasol.
Mainly trying to find
the melody hidden in
the naked chords.
Discovered that the
masters are still a few
weeks away from
being in my paws.
Poor world.
030517 The first optimistically
over-priced Johnny Marie
counterfeit CD just
showed up on eBay.
030417 Chris came over and tracked
a fistful of grooves he had
been saving up.
030317 Went out with the gang to
see Dave's cover band play.
Got to meet Danny Button,
Tim Kelly and talk Terry Gann
into doing some pedal/lap
steel work for future Johnny
Marie projects.
030217 Need to do something with
the phrases "unlaunderable
funk" and "Virginians and
Mohicans".
030117 Dave recorded bass for
Long Dry Walk. Hung
out with Michael, Shannon
and played our hits until
well past my bedtime.
022717 Thomas sent me a track
order. I forwarded that
along with Michael's to
Patrick.
022617 Made arrangements with
Allen Johnston to drum
on future Johnny Marie
albums.
Made plans with Chris
Ruzich to get some bass
grooves to play with
later this week.
Talked with Patrick about
shortening the intro to
Trash Bag Launderette.
022417 Taking the AIFFs
to Thomas (co-produced,
mixed and mastered
"Her Bows") for some
track order feedback.
Michael came by and
gave me his suggestions
for track order.
022317 Got the Gardenaire
mixes back from
Patrick - including
all of the edits and
Jackson Browne.
I'm still wrestling
with the intro to
one song before
sending this thing
off to print.
022017 Fluffed up Long Dry
Walk with demo
bass, drums, organ
and backing vocals.
021917 Roughed out Long
Dry Walk structure
with piano chords
for number 4. I've
included a Johnny
Marie classic along
with new stuff on
each album so
far.
Comped the drums
from last night's
session and am
starting to zip it up
for P. There are so
many "OK, this is the
last *" moments in
completing an album.
BTW, taxes were
submitted within
about a minute of
the zip file upload
completing.
021817 Chris came by and
recorded several drum
takes for Jackson
Browne. Also added
some harmonies and
cow bell. A proper
cow bell at that. I'm
talking wooden clapper
that had to be held
with his left hand while
he sticked with his
right.
Sent mixing notes to
Patrick.
Site player feeds are
still down.
021717 Got the mixes for the
first nine songs back
from Paris. Stunned.
So lucky to have this
guy in my corner.
Had a listen with
Dave straight away
and then later with
Michael.
The feeds for the MP3
players are currently
unavilable. Should be
back up soon.
021317 Sang a few more rounds
of the bridge so Patrick
has plenty to work with.
Chris is coming on
Saturday to add
drums and then this
thing is off to the
doctor. (Patrick is the
doctor.)
Falstaff now at 300 views
while We Don't Do That
is threatening 600. All
you can hope for these
days are ears.
021017 Decided on the 7th to
have Chris Ruzich have
a go at the drums for
Jackson Browne and
sent him an .mp3 to
work with. Originally I
wanted Gary Boyle to
play drums on the song
but felt like I was running
out of time. The idea of
Chris drumming to his
own bass tracks appeals
to me too. Working with
Gary will be a pleasure
I'll save for the 4th album.
020717 Chris Ruzich tracked
bass for Jackson Browne.
020617 Michael signed off on
the Gardenaire artwork
and the lastest version
of Jackson Browne.
020517 Michael brought over
the Mackie ProFX12
because my ONYX820i
doesn't have enought
XLR inputs to accomodate
all of the microphones I
want to use on the drums.
More finishing touches on
the artwork.
020417 Sent a Jackson Browne
mp3 to Dave for
possible Swiercinsky
Sounds.
020317 Finished laying out
the artwork for
Gardenaire. Just
need to settle on
fonts and a track
listing.
Touched base with
Gary Boyle about
drumming on Jackson
Browne.
020217 Jackson Browne
MP3 sent to Chris
so that he can
develop a part.
013117 Added new takes
for just about
everything in Jackson
Browne. Just needs
bass and drums
before heading to
Paris. Have a bass
player lined up next
week.
013017 Re-sang most of
Jackson Browne
and worked some
more on the
arrangement.
012917 Made progress
finishing up
Jackson Browne.
Worked up a
bridge and a lyric
and added some
slide guitar and
keyboard bits.
Tomorrow I'll start
replacing idea
parts with proper
parts.
012817 We Don't Do That
now has over 500
views on YouTube.
Added guitars and
more pianos to
Now Here and
whisked it off to
P.
012717 Lost my nerve with
Jackson Browne and
reverted back to the
initial notion rather than
trying to implement
older bits into the song.
This inspired me to
dig up one of the earlier
versions of Pool
that will work better
with the temporarily
discarded bits.
012617 Imported Dave's stand
up bass part for NowHere.
012517 Windy sent to Paris.
Worked more on
Jackson Browne.
Thomas came by and
tracked bass for
Windy with the Percision
fretless and the Music
Man Sting Ray.
012417 Talked to Gary Boyle
about drumming on
Jackson Browne and
he's up for it! Now I
need to finish it.
I found a harmony
and a vocoder part
that patched up the
bit that was
annoying me in
Windy. Scheduled
Thomas to come track
bass.
Getting close on
Windy. Got
NowHere Again
tidied up and just
waiting on a bass
part.
Uploading the
outro for Windy.
Now to finish
Windy. Did another
bass take with the
Music Man.
Things I learned about
Pro Tools today:
The Insertion Follows
Playback button is
EVIL! Make certain
that it is not highlighted.
Control click on a bus
track will enable
individual track
soloing.
Control = is the antidote
for an indadvertant
Control W.
012317 Smushed Intro into
the start of Jackson
Browne. May also
try to wedge in Bloof,
another little bit that
was born in Houston.
Intro and Jackson
Browne sessions were
set at 110 and Bloof,
with a guitar track,
was at 115. What to
do? If I change the
tempo it will screw up
the audio data, right?
Here's where Paris
once again pays
dividends. He told me
once to use Elastic
Audio to convert the
audio data to clicks
which preserved the
quality of the track
during the tempo
change. And it did.
012217 Sang a dozen takes
of the intro to Trash
Bag Launderette and
sent it off to Paris.
012117 Dave has started to
upload takes of
Trash Bag Lauderette
to my DropBox. By
the way, he's using
Stu Cook's 1999
Modulus Genesis 5
string bass. Stu of
course is the bassist
for Creedence Clearwater
Revival and Creedence
Clearwater Revisited.
012017 I'm giving Paris Three
Bells. Made some
progress on Windy but
still needs some love.
Working today on
resurrecting Windy. This
was a song Jason and I
fooled around with in
the early days of this
project and was one of
the first songs we worked
on for Her Bows. I'll
be giving it a better piano
performance today and
re-cut the vocals and
bass.
The outro for this song
is an old demo of mine
called Today. I will give
Paris the option of using
my original stereo demo
or the reworking of the
song I did last year.
I need to learn how to
use the Solo Safe function
in Pro Tools today. This
will strengthen and lengthen
my relationships with
sound engineers who are
tasked with mixing my
work.
011917 Uploading Sink Down
for Paris to mix. Should
have Three Bells ready
this weekend.
011817 Uploading White Girls,
Gardenaire and Blue in
the Veins for P to mix.
011717 Added some more
vocal parts and bass
lines to Jackson Browne.
Re-sang all of the bits
in Blue in the Veins.
011617 Trying to get a couple
of songs to take to
Paris tomorrow. I
decided on Gardenaire
and White Girls.
Trash Bag Launderette
and NowHere (again)
are waiting on a bass
parts from Dave,
I need to add a few
more vocal takes to
Blue in the Veins
and Three Bells and
Sink Down needs
some stretching.
Gave back Jezebel's
Rode NTK.
Worked more on
Michael's new song.
011517 Got down the guts
of an idea Michael
had.
011417 Dave had a go at
the bass for Trash
Bag Launderette.
Latest "Similar Artists"
from Pandora Radio:
The Delta Riggs
Akron/Family
888
Revolution, I Love You
Rann
011117 Sent Dave an MP3
of NowHere Again
with Allen's drum
tracks so that he
can build a bass
part.
Woke up early and put
some finishing touches
on Sink Down. Will
run by Michael tonight
before handing off to
Paris.
011017 Sink Down is starting to
sound like Bananarama.
010917 Worked on the outro
of Sink Down and added
new vocal takes to
Gardenaire and White Girl.
Futzed around with vocal
melodies for Bloof.
010817 Have a dozen drummers
to audition but ran out of
songs that need drums.
Allen drummed on the
first 6, I did Sink Down
and I am thinking of
reviving Windy, which
already has Allen's parts
on it. That leaves a couple
of songs to prepare for
percussion.
I think the right way to
go about this is to
schedule drummers in
2 hour blocks to
track the 2 songs.
Then we can decide
who we got along with
and had the best
performances.
010717 Borrowed Jezebel's Rode
NTK while my mic is out
on loan and am determined
to track vocals for all 7 songs
with it.
There's a time when a man
has to ask: "Will more
songs fall out of my bottom if
I buy a 6 string banjo OR a
hulusi?"
Getting some great drummer
responses from the ad. Also,
Dave gave me the numbers of
a couple of people he has
worked with.
010617 Added some bass ideas
to Sink Down using
the Music Man.
Dave came by and
hung out for a bit. Now
I want a Hulusi.
010417 Re-cut a sloppy acoustic
in Gardenaire and the
Kent Americana in Trash
Bag Launderette.
010217 Got drum parts from
Allen (with engineering
help from Thomas
Montgomer) for White
Girl, Gardenaire, Three
Bells, Blue in the Veins,
NowWhere (again) and
Trashbag Launderette.
An amazing talent
as you will discover
once the amazingly
talented Patrick
Meagher has mixed
and mastered our
work.
010117 So excited about Allen
coming am I, that I
put out some feelers
for drummers to
contribute on a more
regular basis.
Tuning Drums Day. Ew.
2016 (recording Her Bows/Gardenaire) 123016 After enduring months of
sass and shaming from
Dave and Thomas I finally
invested in some quality
guitar and mic cables.
122916 Thomas had another go
at bass (fretless Percission
and Music Man Stingray)
for White Girl, Gardenaire
and Three Bells.
Need to buy Allen sticks
for Monday. 5B-7A.
122816 Thomas had a go at bass
parts for White Girl and
Gardenaire. Michael
came by and we ate
tacos.
122616 After trying every gimmick
I could think of to occupy
a moment in White Girl
I finally settled on just a
classical guitar and piano
and I like it super much.
122416 "juiceboxberries" Similar Artists
list on iHeart Radio:
David Gilmour
Dave Lee Roth
Mountain
I don't know whether to
laugh or whimper or wheeze.
122216 Scheduled time with Thomas
next week to record bass for
White Girl and Gardenaire.
122116 Michael and I pawed through
the fragments of songs we
have saved up to see what
is worthy of pursuing.
Re-cut all of the guitars in
White Girl to my satisfaction
only to discover that a mic
in the room wasn't completely
muted so there is significant
bleed because I used the
monitors instead of
headphones. Still, the
arrangement of the song
is complete and I only
need to up the quality
of some of the parts.
121916 Big boxes of guitar tracks
on White Girl. I am in the
removing spices stage of
arranging the song.
121816 Still dry humping White Girl
trying to create sparks.
121716 Smashed two ideas together
and What a Day for the White Girl
is born.
121316 Her Bows on Pandora Radio
121016 The juiceboxberries cover
has magically re-appeared
on Pandora. Long live
magic.
120916 Michael and I spent the
evening listening to
songs and making notes.
Both took a couple of
stabs at drunkenly
bellowing parts during
the outro of Trash Bag.
120716 The chalky little turd that
is my muse gave me
enough words to finish
Gardenaire today. Added
better vocal takes on
Three Bells, Gardenaire
and Trash Bag Launderette.
120516 Focused on getting some
good takes of the Trash
Bag Launderette intro
with the new verse.
Patrick Meagher is going
to be mixing and mastering
the next album.
120416 Gardenaire, Three Bells,
Trash Bag Launderette &
Blue in the Veins sent to
Allen.
120316 "juiceboxberries" and
"Her Bows" now at
Mills Record Company
in Westport.
http://millsrecordcompany.com/new-releases-1125-mills-record-company/
Added loads of guitars
to Three Bells.
Set up a basic template,
cover image and fonts
for the alternate album
title.
Always enjoy watching the
JMLP Similar Artists list
on Pandora Radio evolve
as we add albums:
Similar Artists
Temples
Angels & Airwaves
888
The Delta Riggs
Brad Laner
120116 Cut some Blue in
the Veins vocal tracks
with the new lyrics,
made the Three Bells
arrangement match
my latest revisions
and re-sang the intro
to Trash Bag Launderette.
I've been getting lyrics
in the middle of the night
lately. Got a verse for
Launderette on the 30th
and 3 verses for Blue
in the Veins last night.
Sleep would have been
nice but some people
can't sleep and get
nothing in return for
their suffering.
113016 Dave played around with
bass parts for Gardenaire,
Three Bells and Trash Bag
Launderette.
112816 Lathered more meat upon
Gardenaire, Three Bells and
Trash Bag Launderette.
112616 Fleshed out Gardenaire and
sent Dave a copy to use to
develop a bass line. Then it's
off to Allen for drum consideration.
Going to try to finish Three Bells
next.
...and worked on Trash Bag
Launderette instead.
112416 Had a little challenge today.
Gardenaire was built from
some bits I recorded in Houston
on a MacBook. I guess when
I imported them into Pro Tools 12
the session defaulted to 44.1 kHz
instead of 48 kHz, which is what
I use for everything else. So,
when I would exit a Gardenaire
session and load something
else Pro Tools would freak out
about the difference and I
would have to continually exit
and restart. How could I
convert Gardenaire to 48 kHz?
I tried creating a new session
at 48 k and then importing the
44.1 project. This fails because
the import screen (and this is
a well-documented issue) is
longer than the computer screen
and if you attempt to resize it
it disappears. Went for a walk
to think about it. Came back,
opened up Gardenaire, launched
the Save As process and
discovered that it had an option
for the frequency! Worked
like a charm. Rock and also
roll.
112116 Added a moog solo to
Gardenaire.
112016 Back from a short trip south.
Took one of the old MacBooks
for Garageband and a half-sized
classical guitar to write with.
Got the guts of Gardenaire.
111116 Made a new project out of the
old NowHere ending and fleshed
out a new little guitar ditty. I'm
starting to feel juicy again.
Saving some time today to explore:
Indian Run - Spindrift
Everything Happens for the Best - Dick Flood
Going Nowhere - The Nukes
Tid Tom Ta Lai - Man City Lion
Floating on a Cloud - Christopher Blue
Poo Yai Lee/Green Onions - Louis Kennedy
Suppanahong - Johnny Guitar
Brave Awakening - Terry Reid
Dont Worry Tracy - Christopher Blue
Close to Me - Charles Manson
Dreaming Casually - Little Willie and Thee Midniters
You Said I'd Never Love Again - Faye Tucker
Baroque #1 - Ultimate Spinach
Nom Sami Mai - Saknatee Srichiangmai
110916 Physical CDs available at cdbaby.
The moment you find yourself believing that somehow
you can survive this, visualize how happy Ted Nugent
is right now.
110716 Physical CDs mailed off and should be available
online in a few days.
Working on resurrecting Windy, Starting by
striking the intro and upgrading some of the
inserts.
110416 CDs should arrive today. CD release party tonight.
"Her Bows" should be up on Pandora in a few
weeks.
110316 Her Bows now on YouTube, Spotify and
Slacker Radio.
110216 Got together and ran through Three Bells
several times live. Shannon showed up
and we retired to the piano with Dave's
stand up bass and ran through Carly
Simon songs.
Michael pointed out how similar
the colors for the album artwork
of "juiceboxberries" and The Uncle
Devil Show's "Terrible Beauty"
are. This pleases me.
110116 Allen Johnston coming on Jaunary 3rd
to record drums on the 3rd album.
Her Bows now
available at Amazon.com
Her Bows now available
on iTunes.com
...and no, I don't have an issue with Billy
Corgan. Billy Corgan's Cadillac just sounds
awesome together, it rhymed with the
gibberish that was holding its place and
he does happen to be a popular music
rebel who ended up doing pretty well
financially. It wrote itself.
103116 And we have liftoff.
Day six of waiting on the review results
for digital distribution of Her Bows. It
took just 3 days for juiceboxberries.
102816 Player and store
for Her Bows now
up! Physical CDs
available in about
2 weeks.
Already lobbying for "Trashbag Launderette"
as the title for the 3rd album. Current
response from Forlorn Petunioideae
is frosty.
102716 You can listen to Her Bows and
Billy Corgan's Cadillac here and
here.
I always forget how long the CDBaby
Digital Distribution process takes to
finalize. It took 4 days for juiceboxberries
so we are probably looking at Her Bows
being dumped on the planet by 11/01/16.
102616 Final master in hand and uploading the
songs to be printed. If I can get the
artwork done today this little monster will
be leaking onto the web by the weekend.
102516 Now that I am about a day away from
pulling the trigger on this album I am
getting cold feet on the artwork. I sent
a PDF to Graeme Walker for feedback
yesterday and he helped me with
some justification issues. Just
wringing my hands now over the title
font.
102416
Track 1 "Her Bows"
0:00.000/4:38.980 (4:38.980 runtime)
Track 2 "Juno Contacto"
4:38.980/7:54.231 (3:15.250 runtime)
Track 3 "Billy Corgan's Cadillac"
7:54.231/12:21.826 (4:27.594 runtime)
Track 4 "Jacob's Ladder"
12:21.826/16:21.575 (3:59.749 runtime)
Track 5 "nothingood"
16:21.575/21:13.187 (4:51.612 runtime)
Track 6 "Pool"
21:13.187/24:41.704 (3:28.517 runtime)
Track 7 "Cleo the Liar"
24:41.704/27:48.240 (3:06.535 runtime)
Track 8 "Maryland Mansion"
27:48.240/30:25.837 (2:37.597 runtime)
Track 9 "NowHere"
30:25.837/34:14.464 (3:48.627 runtime)
Track 10 "Ordinary Guy"
34:14.464/36:47.991 (2:33.526 runtime)
Track 11 "Corky Finds Something"
36:47.991/38:49.237 (2:01.246 runtime)
(38:49.237 total runtime)
Graeme Walker is giving me
some 11th feedback on the
CD artwork.
102316 Got mastered album back from
Thomas. Gave it one run through
today. Will listen s'more tomorrow.
102116 Waxing nostalgic listening to the
nearly completed 2nd album. We
started writing and rehearsing songs
for Her Bows in early December of
last year (with Allen recording drums
for Windy and Corky on New Years
Eve) and finished with Ordinary Guy
on October 7th. I've learned so much
during the making of this album. Corky
was started on the MacBook using
Garageband (the same setup we used
for juiceboxberries) so I had to learn Pro
Tools 12 and a lovely variety of plug-ins
during the making of. I think it was more
fun to make because we were starting to
get more comfortable with the writing and
recording process. Less flailing around.
Listened several times to the tracks in
sequence to get a feel for how the album
will flow. Thomas is now working on the
mastering.
Got the track sequence for Her Bows from
Thomas:
Her Bows
Juno Contacto
Billy Corgan's Cadillac
Jacob's Ladder
nothingood
Pool
Cleo the Liar
Maryland Mansion
NowHere
Ordinary Guy
Corky Finds Something
102016 Worked up a guitar solor for MTTROM.
Single mixing adjustment from last
night's session sent to Thomas.
101916 Listened to Her Bows mixes with Dave
and Michael. Dave had a run at bass
on the temporarily named Michael to the
Right of Me.
Purchased the Vahalla Vintage reverb and
like it. Room and Plate will follow.
101816 Paris and Thomas have talked me into
getting te Vahalla Plate, Room and
Vintage reverbs.
101716 Played around with some vocal ideas for
Michael to the Right of Me.
101616 Added an M-Audio SP-Triple Keyboard
Pedal with Sustain, Soft, and Sostenuto
Functions to the studio. Pretty sure I'll
only ever use the sustain.
101116 A horrific escalation of tinnitus symptoms
after spending most of the day under
headphones. Going to take a break
for a week and then ease back into aural
abuse.
101016 Listened to the latest mixes with Thomas.
We're very close.
Played around with Hashtag Laundromat
for a few hours. Added piano, drums,
acoustic, tamby and some scratch
vocals.
100916 Pick up a copy of juiceboxberries in
Japan for just ¥ 1,400.
100816 Ran into Dennis Jones at
a party. Dennis recorded
one of my early bands at
Hear Hear. My first time
in a studio. He recorded
us on 4 track. Tape.
With a spring reverb.
Added Slate Digital
Trigger Platinum Drum
Replacement Software
to the JMLP studio.
I'm just old enough
that I'm still uneasy
about spending
money on something
that you download vs
something gleaming
and blinking in a rack.
Speaking of racks,
I almost bought a
used Roland GP-100
because GFS used
one all the way through
"12". It then struck
me that we didn't
use it on "Sleepnovox"
because it had died.
Reset shopping cart.
100716 Ordinary Guy
handed to Thomas.
Future moments to
celebrate: completion
of mixing, completion
of mastering, CDs in
hand and digital
submission.
100516 Added one last
Ordinary Guy vocal
take and have the
files ready to go to
Thomas on Friday.
100416 Added an Ordinary Guy
vocal take.
100316 Got a decent vocal take
for Ordinary Guy. Wasn't
happy with the tube preamp
settings so will have another
go tomorrow and then off
to what we in the business
calll "Post Production" or
"Thomas."
Thomas is having a difficult
time replacing the piano
parts with the new samples
because they have already
been slip-edited and/or
automated. This makes
it challenging to import
and lineup the new parts.
Fortunately it only
involves 4 songs.
100216 Since we are about done
with Her Bows I began the
process of adding some
of the ideas that I had
on my phone to Pro Tools.
We already have about 8
songs in various states of
undress so it's not going
to take long to come up
with another 10 good
ones for our third album.
More Ordinary Guy vocal
takes. Thomas may have
to build this syllable by
syllable.
100116 Met with Thomas. Gave
him NowHere and talked
about mixes.
Paris told me to get the
Native Instruments
Alicia's Keys sample
package for piano. And
I did. Big memory hog
but the samples are nice.
Converted the pianos in
Billy Corgan, Juno Contacto,
Jacob's Ladder and Cleo
the Liar.
093016 Had a bit of a cookout
with most of the key
players in attendance.
Everybody signed off on
the alternate NowHere
ending. Will give that
to Thomas this weekend.
Artwork has also been
approved.
092716 Three more Ordinary Guy
vocal takes.
092616 Got the recording of
the machinery from
Dave and it fits better
than I had dared to
imagine. Or something
like that. Nice fit.
Going to track a few
more vocals for
Ordinary Guy today
and then hand this
albatross off to Thomas.
This will just leave NowHere
and it's mystery ending as
the last problem to solve.
092516 Becoming more
sure-handed with Illustrator
and the album cover is
looking more like an
album cover.
092416 Now that I'm responsible
for my own product I
recall with new eyes
Paris hastily cross-fading
and consolidating regions
before Thomas could see
them during the Sleepnovox
sessions. That little trick
resides somewhere
between wearing a padded
bra and changing your test
score from a B to an A.
092316 Sent Thomas notes for the
mixes. Had a few more runs
at Ordinary Guy and the end
of NowHere.
092216 Dave recorded some clanky
and hissy machine sounds
that we want to use in
NowHere.
092116 Set up Her Bows as a new
project with DiscMakers so
that I can test my work as I
learn Illustrator 10. Have
created the jacket and CD
artwork and added text
and everything looks good
so far,.
Listened to the NowHere
ending over and over and
finally threw up my hands
and just cut the swing part
and tripped out the ending.
Now I have to sell it to my
associates.
I want to try some voice
doubling on the lead for
Ordinary Guy at the end
of the week.
092016 Thomas printed (vs bouncing)
me new mixes of the
stuff he's finished and it is
amazing. The difference
between printing and bouncing
is amazing and his work is
amazing.
Dave feels like the swing
part in NowHere may not
require a team of Super
Friends to make it work
so I will play with
re-cutting some drum
takes over the next
few days so that we can
get it to Thomas.
091916 Recorded drums for an
idea I had and a B part
for Three Bells. Tried
some more Ordinary
Guy takes but the
work over the weekend
was better.
091716 More vocal takes for
Ordinary Guy. Hit the
128 audio tracks maximum
and had to go on a
killing spree.
091616 Still trying different vocal
approaches to Ordinary Guy.
Thomas plans to have mixes
for Pool and Billy Corgan
early next week.
091516 Fresh box of juiceboxberries
CDs arrived.
091416 Dave had a gig so Michael
and I spent the session
going over album cover
mock-ups. Agreed in
principle on a title,
cover and back cover.
091216 Worked some more on the
Ordinary Guy vocal. That
song will be ready to go
once I get a good take,
leaving NowHere and its
swing part at the end as
the last song to finish.
091016 Did some album cover mockups.
Kristen ITC for JMLP and Vijaya
for the title both using #DDD771
and Mangal for the 2nd option
using #D7E0E9 for JMLP and
#F6F9FD for the title. Toying
with Her Boys, NowHere and
nothingood as titles.
090916 Thomas came by and recorded
a piano part during the Billy
Corgan outro and a bass part
for Ordinary Guy. He took
home Billy Corgan for
mixing. Two to go.
090716 Dave had a go at the verses
Ordinary Guy and added a
a few more bass passes to
Billy Corgan. We listened to
some of the finished mixes.
Thinking this album could be
done by Thanksgiving.
Dave left a microKORG
at the studio. Look out.
090516 Did another 3,000 vocal
takes on Ordinary Guy, a
song challenging my Three
Blind Mice comfort zone.
Finishing up Jacob's Ladder
to give to Thomas tomorrow.
That leaves Ordinary Guy,
Billy Corgan's Cadillac and
NowHere to tidy up before
mixing.
090416 Sent off a current version of
the swing bit at the end of
NowHere to Dave Bostwick.
090316 Rachel and Shannon added
backing vocals to Ordinary Guy
and Jacob's Ladder.
090216 Ordered another pile of CDs.
090116 ...and Pool delivered to
Thomas.
Thomas brought over a mix
of nothingood and we talked
about it. I played him Pool
and Ordinary Guy.
Re-sang Pool and added
some harmonies to Jacob's
Ladder.
083116 Michael and I listened to
the balance of songs to
be mixed but the important
thing is that he actually
said "...jazz, to the point
of stripper."
Thomas dropped off an
extended version of Her Bows
to audition. It's growing
on me.
082716 Another session working on
Pool. Getting close.
082616 Spent some time trying to
sex up Jacob's Ladder. I
don't think that I succeeded.
Also spent some time
working on Pool and think I
may have gotten closer to
improving the chorus.
There is that moment, at the
height of deconstruction, that
panic sets in and you wonder
if you should try to refill the
hole you just spent an hour
digging. I kept digging.
082516 Added more vocal takes to
nothingood and whisked it
off to Thomas.
082416 Dave and I listened to mixes
and decided that nothingood
and Billy Corgan's Cadillac
were ready to send to Thomas.
We talked about how the
swing part at the end of
NowHere isn't working and
he suggested getting some
proper musicians together
to record the bit and set
the wheels in motion. How
neato is that?
According to Pandora, similar
artists include:
Angels & Airwaves
888
The Delta Riggs
Brad Laner
"To start things off, we'll play a
song that exemplifies the musical
style of Johnny Marie & the
Lonesome Petunias which features
punk influences, mild rhythmic
syncopation, mixed minor & major
key tonality, a vocal-centric aesthetic
and slide guitars."
082316 Did a few more vocal takes on
Pool with the tube pre-amp.
Also tried some alternate takes
on the chorus. Still need to iron
that out and a percussion bit
that is annoying me.
082216 More vocal takes for Pool,
Ordinary Guy and Billy Corgan.
Added fresh acoustic guitars
to Billy.
082116 Shannon added vocals to
Three Bells.
Thomas has the first 4 mixes
ready to sign off on.
Added loads of harmonies to Three
Bells when I should have been adding
loads of chords and verses. Or
finishing the 6 remaining songs for
the 2nd album.
082016 Added some slide guitar ideas to
BIlly Corgan and created a demo
session for Three Bells.
081816 With the keyboard and Pro Tools
working in harmony I had yet
another go at tightening up
the end of NowHere.
And here is what finally worked:
Disable the Unknown device
Power off computer
Unplug computer
Plug in computer
Power on computer
Correct device found
One variable that may have been
critical: I originally had a multi-USB
port adapter in-between the keyboard
and the USB port that I removed
for troubleshooting purposes.
Apparently Windows wanted to
see the adapter???
081716 A couple of days spent wrestling with
what appears to be a common problem.
Suddenly, after working for months, the
M-Audio Keystation 88 Pro is no longer
recognized. I either get the malfunctioned
error or the device unknown error. I've
dealt with this before but apparently did
not document the solution. Schmer.
081316 Shannon added harmonies to parts
of Ordinary Guy and Billy Corgan.
081116 Physical CDs are now available. Check
out the Links page for retailer options.
BTW, these are not CDRs or Pro CDRs.
These are proper CDs produced at
DiscMakers.
081016 Michael and Dave recorded harmonies
for Billy Corgan's Cadillac and the
bridge in Ordinary Guy.
Someone complimented the backing
vocal arrangements on juiceboxberries
yesterday, and I realized that we
haven't done a lot of band harmonies
on the 2nd record. So, tonight...
080916 Submitted We Don't Do That and Falstaff
to Pandora.
080816 More vocal takes for Ordinary Guy, Pool
and Billy Corgan.
080716 More vocal takes for Pool and Billy Corgan.
080616 Thomas starting on Her Bows in earnest.
080516 Physical CDs sent to distributors.
Took a picture of Dave recording bass
for "Ordinary Guy" and realized that
nearly every picture of him on the
site is with the 76 Percision. This
despite the fact that he shows up
every week with an armful of bass
options.
080416 Still waiting for that magic moment when
someone other than a team member refers
to our organization as JMLP. Michael
Jackson taught us that sometimes
you need to start your own fires.
080316 Juiceboxberries is now available in the US.
080216 Juiceboxberries is now available in Russia.
Still re-working Pool.
080116 Ratdrangea. There is your band name,
debut album title and opening track.
073016 Tore Pool a new one. Note to future self,
if there are mutinous cries from your
comrades you can revert to the version
from 07/29/16.
072916 Talked for a bit tonight about what we
should put on the 2nd album. Thomas
is already working on Corky, Maryland
Mansion, Juno Contacto, Cleo the Liar
and Her Bows so that just leaves 5
songs. We decided to go with
Jacob's Ladder (just need to comp bass)
NowHere (EQ swing section)
nothingood (all good!)
Ordinary Guy (comp bass, sing a few
more takes)
Pool (try live drums and substitute
guitars in middle of song with something
else)
That will leave Billy Corgan's Cadillac,
You Should Be Dancing, Windy, Heron,
Dingus and Minor Dingus as starter
meals for the 3rd album.
072716 Dave tracked bass parts for Billy Corgan,
You Should be Dancing and Ordinary Guy,
formerly One Million Chickens.
Got new mixes of Corky, Cleo the Liar,
Juno Contacto and Maryland Mansion
from Thomas.
072616 Digital Distribution process launched.
Horrors. Loaded Billy Corgan's Cadillac
into Pro Tools and it errors out. Apparently
it was corrupted when the power went out
yesterday. I had a day old backup but
lost a few things. Fortunately I remember
what they were and they are easily
re-created.
072516 CDs ordered. Estimated delivery
date is August 3rd. Got started on
the digital distribution. Just waiting
for the ISRC codes.
072316 Today is Upload the Album to be
Printed Day. A little intimidating
as my colleagues in Girl for Samson
have always taken care of this
stuff in the past.
072016 Hair is gone and artwork is done.
The printers and digital distribution
are the only thing standing between
me and pennies a day.
Michael and I worked on something
we cooked up a couple of weeks
ago and Billy Corgan's Cadillac for
the 3rd album.
071916 Got the artwork revisions back from
Carrie. I think we found a font for
the title we like. Sent back a text
mod and a request to remove an
vintage, errant human hair that
apparently was on the slide,
narrowly avoiding a butcher cover
controversy.
071516 E-mailed font revisions for cover art.
071416 Artwork in hand awaiting a handshake
before calling it done.
071116 Added a few more vocal takes to
Her Bows and got it packed up and
ready to go to Thomas for mixing.
Got a new version of the masters
for Juiceboxberries from Paris to
listen to.
071016 Sent Carrie the text for the back
cover.
070916 Taking Cleo the Liar to Thomas for
mixing. That's 4 of 10.
070816 I have mastered tracks to listen to!
070716 Track order for Juceboxberries sent to P.
Little Something
We Don't Do That
Falstaff
Sultan Eyes
Industrial Debris
Tambourine
On
062916 Dave tracked bass parts for One Million
Chickens. Paris sent the last mix of
Tambourine so we are down to track
listing, artwork and production.
062716 Have mixes of Corky and Maryland Mansion
back from Thomas. Taking him Juno
Contacto tomorrow.
061816 Listened to mixes with Michael. We
were talking a little about the artwork
when he abruptly decided that he
liked the mouse cover more than the
cake.
061716 Got the lastest mix of On and Tambourine
from Paris. We are a sign-off and track
order away from having this thing mastered
and printed.
060916 Paris sent me a mix of On. He did
amazing things.
Gave Thomas Maryland Mansion to mix.
Contacted someone about doing the artwork
for Juiceboxberries.
060816 Played Michael the One Million Chickens
demo.
Patrick is starting on the last song
(On) for Juiceboxberries.
060116 Dave tried some noodling bass parts
on the fretless during the outro of
Her Bows.
053116 Re-worked the outro to Pool. Gave it
new guitars. Probably needs a new
bass part.
I've had a string of chords and a melody
sloshing around in my head that I
finally got down in demo form.
Throw-away title of One Million
Chickens as a temporary nod to the
Cincinnati Zoo incident.
052816 Thomas is nearly done mixing Corky
and Paris has just about finished
mixing Tambourine.
I want to make a video for
We Don't Do That. I have a fistful
of Canon DSLRs that shoot video
but wonder if a dedicated video
camera would be better. Trying
to identify any human resources
that I may have to assist in
making this happen.
051816 Michael and I worked on the
piano for the swing section of
NowHere. Dave came by and
had another go at bass parts for
Her Bows and Maryland Mansion.
Determined that those two songs
are ready to go to Thomas.
051216 Working out some issues that
are the result of recording with
Pro Tools 12 and mixing with
Pro Tools 11.
050316 Handed off On and Tambourne
to Patrick and Corky Finds
Something to Thomas.
050216 Finished prepping On and
Tambourine for Patrick to mix.
042916 Changed the bass and drums in
Tambourine. You just can't give
me a song back to before it's
done because I will dick with it
and dick with it thoroughly.
042816 Replaced some vocal harmonies
in Tambourine. Got the
new laptop loaded up for
Thomas to start mixing with.
042616 Listened to Jue Box Berries
mixes with Dave, Michael and
Shannon.
042516 Worked on the rough mix of
Tambourine. Have most of
the instruments sorted out.
Just need to check the vocals
and I can turned it over to
Grand Master P.
042216 Sent Patrick some mods for
Industrial Debris and Brought
a Little Something Down.
Played Thomas most of the
songs from the 2nd album.
Hope to start sending him
tracks to mix by next weekend.
042016 Michael and I listend to Patrick's
Juiceboxberries mixes and
the bulk of the current album.
Picked up some equipment that
will get Thomas started mixing the
2nd album late next week.
041916 Patrick sent me mp3s of the
5 songs he mixed. Listening
wtih Dave and Mike tomorrow
night.
041216 Worked on the NowHere outro.
Michael and I reviewed some things
and worked on his 2 songs.
041116 Re-recorded some of the vocal,
piano, drum and bass parts in On.
Somehow we lost a bass track in
the B section. Tried a few more
vocal takes in Her Bows.
040616 Dave added a bass in the bridge of
Cleo the Liar and in the bridge of
NowHere. Michael showed me
a new idea for a song. That now
makes Michael to the Left of Me
and Michael to the Right of Me.
040216 Rachel tracked vocals on Cleo the Liar,
Jacob's Ladder and Maryland Mansion.
040116 So much to do so why not come up
with another ditty? Cleo the Liar,
born this day, 2016.
Annoyed by a Pro Tools quirk that
has kept me from mixing On and
Tambourine. Let me tell you about
it now. I have been recording this
album at 48k but the two Juice Box
Berries songs 44.1. This means
that every time I load one of them
Pro Tools has to be restarted, and
then restarted again when I load
one of the new songs. Did the
Save Copy In option that Paris
taught me to convert them to 48k
and it seems to have worked without
any glitches.
033116 Worked s'more on Jacob's Ladder.
033016 Renamed Fried Fruit to Jacob's Ladder.
Replaced vocals with fresher versions.
Had a listen to On and gave the tracks
meaningful names. A little painful
listening to everything dry. Poor Paris.
Listened to some guitar solo ideas
that John McConnell sent for the
outro of Pool.
032816 Worked on Fried Fruit vocal parts.
032716 Picked up Steven Slate Drums. I'm
learning that you can spend hundreds
and thousands on home studio
enhancements and nothing in the room
changes.
Rachel coming over to replace sampled
vocal parts in Her Bows.
032616 I'm going to have a go at mixing
On and Tambourine from the 1st
album. Starting with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btj1GDXK0XI
Worked on words and melody
for Fried Fruit.
Learned a couple of Pro Tools
tricks from Patrick:
I moved my session files from
one computer to another and
now have "missing files" errors
that won't go away. P taught
me to load the session,
suffer through the errors, and
then use the Copy function
to save the session as a new
project. The new project
loads without errors.
I run into timing issues when
using too many Xpand2
loops and had been using
bus routing to convert them
to audio files. With Pro Tools 12
all I have to do is use the Commit
option to convert them. Worked
great.
032416 Sent Pool off to John McConnell
for some guitarwork at the end.
Played with some melodies in
Fried Fruit (which desperately
needs to be renamed) and
laid out some bones for Michael
to the Left of Me.
032316 Michael and Dave suggested
some changes in Pool, which
I implemented. Dave sang
a harmony in Juno Impacto
and recorded a scratch bass
for Fried Fruit.
032116 Worked on Pool. Added drums
and more vocal takes.
Also re-cut vocals for Her Bows.
I'm having a difficult time with
that one. You can't sing the
word f****d, especially at the
height of a melody, without
sounding like you are
emphasizing it. Please see
Currie, Justin's When Raymond
Comes Around and the word
c**t for more information.
032016 Pro Tools has been blowing up
after I close a file and go to
open a new project or even
exit. The drag is that I have to
reboot the computer. The
normal system returns after
the error but ProTools.exe is
lodged in memory and can't
be removed or re-run. This
might be due to having to
search for missing files
on a few of the projects upon
startup. It never finds them
but everything is there.
031816 Still managed to get some things
done. Took out a drum build
in Dingus that didn't work and
synched up the live drums with
the percussion loop. Added
tambourine to Juno Impacto
and took the bass out of the
intro of nothingood.
Spent the most time on Pool.
Added a guitar, organ,
tambuorine and re-cut all
of the vocals. Tweaked the
tones and effects so that it
sounds more like the demo.
So, I made a list of things
that need to be done for
each song and a checklist
for the day to force myself
to see this though. Then
I saw a squirrel sniffing
around a hole in a tree that
I knew contained a Starling
nest. Are you saying that
you wouldn't have grabbed
a chair and your coffee and
watched what happened
next? You think I'm made
of wood?
Going to make at least one
improvement on every song
today. Hopefully that will
keep me from making up
something new instead.
031716 Worked a bit on converting Pool
from an interlaced stereo WAV
demo to a proper Pro Tools
project file. That just means
re-cutting all of the parts in the
WAV file. That's easy enough.
Getting all of the feels and tones
right is not.
031616 Played the 'tunias Juno Imacto.
Wrote out the 8 "completed"
(Corky Finds Something, Windy,
Her Bows, Maryland Mansion,
NowHere, Juno Impacto, nothingood
& Dingus) songs for Dave to ponder.
Thinking of creating a sample using
Structure Free in NowHere today,
just to learn how to use it. I did. I
replaced an annoying part in NowHere
with samples of the intro and the "shake"
in the verse. I like it.
031416 Re-sang main vocal and harmonies for
Juno Impacto. Also re-cut piano.
031316 Had a run at the drums in Juno Impacto
for the first time on the Mackie. Not bad.
031216 Annoying issue with Pro Tools 12
clipping note duration when quantizing
MIDI tracks. Someone suggested
going to Events and using the Remove
Duplicate Notes before quantizing to fix
the issue. And ta-da.
031116 The lord done bless me with another
chile. World, meet and ignore
"Juno Impacto". So much easier to
write new songs than to finish existing
songs.
030916 The Beatles made me want to play
guitar. George Martin made me want
to record it backwards.
Got the Mackie mixer and the
FireWire card. Didn't take long to
get everybody talking to one another
but now I have to learn what all of
the stupid buttons do.
030516 Got off some decent vocal takes
for Maryland Mansion. Bought
a Mackie mixer and some good
mixing headphones.
030416 Michael worked on Dingus again
today. Dave came by later and
listened to the 2 new songs.
030316 Michael came by a had a few runs
at the piano on Dingus.
030216 Michael came by and had a listen to
Maryland Mansion and Her Bows.
022716 Rachel and Kevin came over to record
more vocals.
022616 Rachel came over and recorded backing
parts on NowHere, Corky, Windy and
nothingood.
Was playing with some melodies and
phrasing for the New Guitar Song demo
and realized that the bits from Pool work
perfectly. Just have to arrange it.
Dear Jimmy or Johnny or whatever,
How do I delete volume automation from
a track in Pro Tools?
Hi. How are you? You can delete the
automation points by selecting a point
and pressing Alt and Delete. Goodbye.
022516 Went through all of the songs on the new
computer and corrected all of the "broken
while moving" issues with the exception
of the missing input errors. Worked on
sequencing Maryland Mansion. Tried
singing actual words to replace the
knock-off bit and still can't best it.
022416 Second Rokit arrived so I unpacked the
stands only to discover that the bases
are too wide to fit in my old configuration.
Additionally, the old stands were made of
wood so they were sturdy enough for carpet.
These wobble terribly so I'm going to have
to find another solution. Until then, they
sit on the floor. *sags*
Spent a long time getting the new computer
to play nicely with Pro Tools. It was handy
having a working set-up on the old computer
to compare settings. Finally whupped it.
Got one of the KRK Rokit 8 monitors yesterday.
The 2nd should wander in today so that I
can return Dave's Yamaha HS8s.
022316 Replaced the M-Audio 49e with an M-Audio
88 key controller courtesy of Steven Brown.
022216 Got the Dell OptiPlex 3020. Everything
works fine except that it doesn't see the
Behringer. I initially had this issue with the
original computer so hopefully futzing will
address the problem.
Added a scratch vocal with dummy words
to Maryland Mansion and as usual I really
like the performance and am not sure I
can best it. There's something about those
let-me-just-knock-off-this-vocal-idea-for-
reference-later performances.
022116 Instead of finishing the 6 partially-completed
songs I started a new ditty. Maryland Mansion
for now since nobody gave me $10.
022016 Had a listen to a few of the unfinished
Juiceboxberries mixes with Patrick.
Pretty exciting.
More studio upgrades to consider:
Replace Behringer with a Mackie Onyx
1220i FireWire Production Mixer.
Replace M-Audio 49e with an M-Audio
61 key controller.
Maryland Mansion. That's mine now
and you can't use it. Unless you give
me money. Like $10. Or $20. No,
no, wait - don't go! $10 is cool.
021716 Michael had a few runs at the piano
during the outro of Dingus.
021616 Starting to get intermittent stutters in playback
that doesn't effect the recording. Might be a
plug-in but I think it's time to start looking for
a cheap computer to dedicate to Pro Tools.
Thinking Dell OptiPlex 3020 Pentium G3240 3.10GHz
500GB HDD 8GB Ram Windows 7 Pro 64Bit.
021516 Played Michael a guitar/bass demo last week
that I set up in Pro Tools today. This was
another stereo demo in a WAV file from
several years ago. For sketching purposes,
I imported the WAV file into Pro Tools
and hacked up the bits to create an
outline. I thought of Paris everytime
I heard a click where I didn't cross-fade.
021316 Met Michael at Joelle's World of Love Benefit Concert.
Talked to Victoria about coming by and tracking
some vocals.
For Michael and Dave:
Zeta One Theme by Johnny Hawksworthy (1969)
Tried recording some drum tracks
for Dingus. Will try again Monday.
021216 Went to war with Dingus - added a
scratch bass part, piano track and did
loads of editing. Should be in good
enough shape to show the Lonesome
Petunias on Wednesday.
First order of business, make sure that
the instruments are all grouped together
and that the comments are useful in
all of the songs. That little task unearthed
a missing drum track so restoring that will
be added to today's menu.
021116 Yesterday I came up with an intro for
Dingus that I'm now considering giving
life as its own song. That's they way
this shit is supposed to work.
021016 Ate hamburgers for a pre-game meal.
Dave (who shudders everytime he
has to plug something into my cheapo
Behringer mixer) learned and tracked
bass partsfor nothingood.
020916 Kept after nothingood all day. Loads
of editing, added more vocals, guitars
and keyboards. I'm going to try to get
Dingus this far tomorrow so that we
have 5 nearly done pies. Nearly done
pies are better than a sack of flour
and an unopened can of dead fruit.
020816 More vocals and first wave of drums
for nothingood. More outro vocals and
drums for NowHere. More vocal tracks
for Windy and Windy outro.
020616 Lord have mercy. First day recording
with Pro Tools 12 and the Behringer.
Curiuosly, I had all of the same
problems that Bruce did today while
working on NowHere. I also started
to have CPU issues. Now that my
audio tracks are not limited I went
back to using a Bus for effects for
the vocals to cut back on plug-ins.
Finally manged to knock off a three
mic drum take or two and tried some
more guitar solos with the Strat
instead of the Bronco.
Dear Johnny or Jimmy or whatever,
It's me again! I have 2 fresh problems:
1) I'm having trouble getting input and
output from my Behringer XENYX 1204
interface.
2) I'm having dreadful latency issues!
Bruce
Dear Bruce,
1) Check your mixer to verify that the
red "2-TR/USB to Main" button is UP
and that the red "2-TR/USB" button is
DOWN. Also, in Setup>Hardware
make certian that you have disabled
all of the inputs and outputs from the
sound card unchecked.
2) Make sure that in Setup>Hardware
you do not have the Hardware Buffer
box checked. You can tweak the
buffer size at the bottom of the window.
I love you.
Dear Johnny or Jimmy or whatever,
I have a problem with Pro Tools 12.
Suddenly the playback has stopped
working for any of my session files.
I can see the waveforms but the
timeline doesn't move. Also, is there
a shortcut for toggling the Edit and
Mix windows?
No name? That's not very friendly.
Pro Tools wil balk at playing a
session if it doesn't see the
hardware configuration it was
expecting. This could be
because you unplugged an
interface during the session
without going into Hardware>Setup.
Ctrl-+ will toggle the Mix and
Edit windows.
020516 Loaded all of the Pro Tools 8 LE
sessions into Pro Tools 12 and
everything works, all the plug-ins
are there etc. I think I am a
USB expansion device away from
being fully operational. Already
eyeing the entry level versions of
Melodyne - Essential or Assistant.
Comped Michael and Dave's vocal
parts from 2/3.
020416 Bought Pro Tools 12.4.0 Now instead
of an MBox interface taking up a
coveted USB slot I have an Ilok. It
sees the Behringer, which is good.
Will try some tracking tests tomorrow.
020316 Mike and Dave did Lonesome Petunia
vocals on Windy, Corky and NowHere.
Dave had another go at the bass on
NowHere.
Dear Johnny or Jimmy or whatever,
I recently imported some WAV files
into my Pro Tools 8 LE project and
now the waveforms are just a flat
line. I can hear the audio fine, I
just can't see it. Is there anything
I can do to increase the size of the
waveform without effecting the volume
or impacting the other waveforms in
the project? Your fan.
Dear Your,
I get this question all the time. Just
go to Audio Events>Other>Normalize.
You're welcome and please don't
send money. To the wrong address.
020116 Worked on NowHere all day. I
have been wanting to re-employ
some of the Casio SK1 samples
somewhere in the song and finally
started that adventure. Plopped
them at the start (added 8 measures)
and the end. Did several more takes
of the guitar solos and re-sang the
outro.
013116 Starting fresh on the Windy outro.
It was originally built on a very
awkward drum machine pattern
which was critical for the feel of
the song. I tried to replace it with
a very warm live drum sound and it
just doesn't work.
013016 Re-sang everything on NowHere. I
think it's about done. I need to give
Paris a few more takes of the guitar
in the outro, get a good bass and
drum track and this one is on the
wall with Corky. Now I need to look
at what needs to happen to call
Windy soup. Go Google
"call Windy soup". I'm going to.
012916 Had another try at some guitar licks
during the outro of NowHere. Comped
a bass track from Dave's scratch tracks
from Wednesday. Sent an AIF to John
to see if he can come up with anything
to spice up the soup. Or sweeten it.
012716 Dave recorded bass parts for NowHere.
012616 Talked to Paris about where mixing JBB
stood. He feels like he has 3 songs to
finish up before he's done. He reassured
me that he would be able to mix the
next album.
012516 Re-cut vocals on Nowhwere and Corky. Did
some carving on Windy, Dingus and
nothingood.
012016 Have NowHere whittled into an actual song.
Added a B section that needs a glossy bow.
011816 Worked on NowHere most of the day. I had
a dazzling bit of lyrical inspiration but got
distracted trying to bully it into the feel of the
song. Fresh ears tomorrow.
011616 Fleshed out NowHere. Not as good as the
demo but they never are.
Issue: The Audio Device buffer underflowed!
Solution: Load the Dither plugin in front of the
SansAmp plugin.
011516 Steve Neal came by and recorded some
harmonies on Windy and Corky.
Discovered the 32 audio track limitation
of Pro Tools 8 LE. Good news for Paris.
011316 Played Michael and Dave some demos.
Dave recorded some nice bass takes for
Corky Finds Something.
Talked to Michael about using the cake
picture for the album cover and he
was OK with it.
011216 Adobe Illustrator loaded.
Dave is coming over tomorrow to track bass
on Windy and Corky. Steve coming over
later in the week to add some vocals.
011116 Built scratch tracks (drum machine, guitar
and vocals) for Dingus and nothingood.
Tried a few acoustic guitar takes on Windy.
011016 Tracked a few more lead vocals in Windy.
Also replaced the whistling bit in the start
with a pad.
Experimented with a drier vocal in Corky.
010816 Learned a fortunately not-painful lesson
about splitting regions. I had been using
B which makes a split through every track!
Control E is correct tool.
Bought Illustrator 10 for the PC, which is
the same age as both of the dead/unreliable
Macs. Speaking of dead/unreliable Macs,
if the iMac holds up I'll probably use
Garageband and the Behringer to record
drums, since Pro Tools 8 limites me
to the Mbox interface with its 2 channels.
Speaking of the Mbox, I thought one
of the XLR outputs was dead but
discovered in the IO setup in Pro Tools
that it only lets you select one of the
two channels for input.
Going to learn about sends today.
010716 It's step measuring day:
1) I was able to resurrect the iMac. Wiped
the hard drive and loaded a fresh operating
sytem on it. I still lost Adobe Illustrator for
the album artwork but at least I now have
a place to put it when I buy it. I can also
use this to record drums with the Behringer
since there is an issue with the Mbox
interface.
2) Actually recorded some tracks with the
Mbox and Pro Tools. Discovered that there
is an issue between XLR Line 1 and Pro
Tools but Line 2 works and both
instrument ins work.
3) Learned about cloning and moving
regions, changing the time signature,
quantizing and other little goodies.
4) The MacBook Pro, which we used to
record all of Juiceboxberries, is not
long for this world. It's suffering from
one of the most common ailments
for these computers - the inverter power
cable is breaking. The symptom is
that the display works intermittently.
You have to sort of tilt the screen until
you find the sweet spot to get any
output.
Paris: "Recording music with
computers is hard."
010616 I have a few demos that I want to generate
click tracks for so I learned 3 different
methods for determining the tempo of a
song in Pro Tools. One method is Beat
Detective. You highlight a region and use
Beat Detective to analyze it. That is a
conductor on operation.
Another option is to line up the region in
grid mode and use the up and down arrows
to vary the temp until the grid at the bottom
marks the start and end of a measure. In the
3rd procedure you disable the conductor and
Keyboard Focus, highlight the current tempo,
press play and tap the T key along with the
beat.
How do you disable or toggle off Keyboard
Focus in Pro Tools 8? Ctrl Alt 1
will turn it off, pressing the AZ button will
turn it on.
R & T to zoom in and out. This is with
Keyboard Focus off.
Clicking Bars & Beats toggles the grid.
010416 Found some old Girl for Samson Sonar session
files from Dingus that I should at least be
able to use as a guide for its resurrection.
Also found the audio tracks for the demo of
NowHere which features a Casio SK-1.
010316 Loaded the Garageband session for Corky
Finds Something into Pro Tools on the PC.
Todd willing, I'll be starting the balance of
the songs from scratch in PT from this point
forward.
010116 Loaded the Garageband session for Windy
into Pro Tools on the PC and it worked!
Forgot to disable the effects so I will be
repeating it.
Padded Allen's drum tracks and the
balance of the scratch tracks to
import into Pro Tools. Pro Tools
workstation du jour is a Windows 7 PC
using Pro Tools 8 LE and the absolute
minimum memory. Am toying with
the idea of booting the iMac with a
firewire drive and running Pro Tools 9
on it.
2015 (recording juiceboxberries) 123115 Allen recorded drums on Windy and
Corky Finds Something. We replaced
the two SM57 overheads with a single
Rode NT1-A.
Shannon added some harmonies
to Windy.
123015 Allen Johnston is back in town so
I'm hastily recording some demos
for him to drum on. Going to try
to at least get the first two parts
of Windy down.
121815 Talked a bit with Paris about how
the mixing was going. He is
happy with what he has finished
but a little overwhelmed by what
remains. One issue is that I gave
him too many bass tracks to sort
through. He is also spending a
lot of time tweaking drums so I
probably need to invest in something
that will let me put the 4 mics on
their own tracks.
We are now looking at late January
or even February before he is
finished. This gives me time to
either pick up a copy of Illustrator
or find a graphic artist to do the
CD artwork.
121715 It didn't occur to me until today that
the iMac dying also means that I
cannot finish the artwork for
Juiceboxberries.
121615 iMac died. Gruesome question mark
on a folder when the comptuer boots.
This means I need to hunt down
another one before we can start
working on new songs in earnest.
121415 Mailed off Industrial Debris MIDI files.
121315 The Mac Pro sees the Behringer mixer
so once I learn Pro Tools I can, with
enthusiasm, abandon Garage Band.
Having fun with the Pro Tools plug-ins.
It is a blessing that this was not in my
hands while the last album was still
in progress because every song would
have a Hammond organ and an ARP
loop.
121115 Was able to figure out how to record a
MIDI file in Pro Tools. Sent a test
to Paris and all is good. Will record
an earnest version of Industrial Debris
this weekend.
120815 Loaded Pro Tools onto the Mac. My
first test will be to create MIDI
files for Industrial Debris. Next, I
need to find out which mixer
interfaces will work with this setup.
1206315 Prepping some one-part demos to take
to our road game on Thursday.
Introducing (all temporary titles) Shaking
off the Sand, Daytime, NowHere and
New Guitar Song. Also working on
marrying the Cowboy Whistling Song
with Windy.
120515 Still not settled on an album cover.
I like the dead mouse. Michael and
Dave like Faith in her pink bathing
suit. The half-dozen people that I
have shown the options to like the
birthday cake.
120315 Got together and learned Dingus and
nothingood.
113015 Finished Little Something and
sent a reference file to Paris.
Processed the files and have
them ready to hand off tomorrow.
I still need to marry the artwork
and text with the template and
procure a barcode.
112815 Whittled Little Something down to 65
tracks, which includes loads of extra
takes. Re-cut some lead and backing
vocals. I have a couple of more ideas
for tracks for tomorrow and then I just
need to sequence the song for Paris
on Tuesday.
112715 Celebrated Black Friday by paying
full price for a 2nd pair of Direct Sound
EX-29 Extreme Isolation Headphones.
112617 "Do They Know It's My Birthday?"
A fistful of chords and words and
I've finally got the anthem I've waited
so patiently for.
112515 Paris thinks he can have the
album mixed and mastered by
Christmas.
"How can you suppose that
anybody knows you're not a hussy
anymore?" Christian is really
starting to grow on me.
111815 Juiceboxberries is nearly
out of our hands so we
set up and played for a few
hours tonight.
111615 Tried tracking some different
grooves for Little Something.
Also recorded some tick
tocks and clicks. Will comp
tomorrow and track a few
more vocals. Handing off
the other 3 songs tonight.
111515 Trying to figure out a way to
record the next album in
Pro Tools so that there are
less post-tracking issues.
I think the cheapest way
to get off of Garageband
while still using an old
Mac (OS X Leopard: 10.5.8)
is to get Pro Tools
LE 8.0.5, which only
requires an Avid interface
(MBox 2 or 3 or Digi002
Rack/Digi003 Rack) as a
dongle. This would be a
$200ish investment.
111315 On, Tambourine and Falstaff
are on a thumb drive waiting
to be handed to Paris. Now
to start listening to Brought
a Little Something Down.
111215 Finished padding out the
tracks in On. Decided to have
a couple more cracks at the
vocals. Talked to Paris about
switching to Pro Tools for the
2nd album.
111115 I'm running out of time
for creating MIDI piano
parts for Industrial Debris.
The link below points to an
application and will convert
the AIFF to a MID file:
http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?threads/getting-a-midi-output-from-garageband.1385/
110915 Parts added and On reference file
sent toParis.
Going to re-record bass
and guitars in Tambourine.
I've also decreed that On
is finished so will send a
refence file to Paris and then
start prepping it for mixing.
Planning on submitting
Tambourine and Falstaff
tomorrow and On in about
a week.
110615 Tambourine reference file
mailed off even though I haven't
finished prepping the tracks yet.
I will get it done by Tuesday.
110515 I think I am going to retract
my earier recommendation of
swallowing a fistful of poorly
chewed salted cashews
before recording vocals. Ack.
Decided to take another stab
at the lead vocal in Tambourine.
I recorded 12 takes after
tracking some high harmonies.
My voice started to give out
after take 4 and by the end
I was barely able to croak in
key but kept recording. I
think I like them. They
sound a little different than
my normal whelp.
Going to do my whoopdangist
to get Tambourine done by
the weekend and to Paris for
mixing on Tuesday. That will
leave On and Brought a Little
Something Down to finish.
110415 Had a nice hang out with
Michael and Dave. We haven't
gotten together in a month or
longer. Agreed that when Juice
Box Berries is done we will
work up the 7 songs live, just
to play together again.
We worked through some
business decisions. We
settled on using CD jackets
vs jewel cases. I showed
some alternate covers that
I had mocked up and I think
everyone still likes the woman.
I may try to offer a few more
choices before we sign off.
Michael had a listen to the
French Horns in "On" and
the new chorus in "Industrial
Debris".
For some reason our talking
business turned into telling
sad stories about our school
days. Lonesome Petunias.
Falstaff ready to go.
Reference file sent to Paris.
May add a few more hisses
and sizles to Falstaff before
sending it off. I also want
to explore a way to extract
MIDI files from Garage Band.
110315 Talked to Paris about my
challenges getting him a MIDI
piano file for Industrial Debris.
I was secretly hoping that he
would say "Well, don't you
worry your pretty face, I'll
find a way to use the piano
tracks you gave me.", but
he didn't. Not even close.
Falstaff just needs a reference
file and a notes file and it is
ready to go. I will have one
last listen tomorrow.
Added a few more
tick tocks to Falstaff before
getting ready to prepare it
for submission to Paris for
mixing. At this point I always
do a quick save to a thumbnail
drive before saving the project
under a new name so that I
still have the full version
preserved. During the backup
to the thumb drive GarageBand
started reporting errors which
resulted in all of the tracks
getting corrupted and deleted.
Fortunately I had done a backup
yesterday so repaired the disk,
restored the project and re-cut
the tick tocks. Now to try to
get this ready to hand off
tonight.
I really dislike this part of the
process. I just want to make
up songs and track parts so
its challenging to stay motivated
during this part of the game.
Having crud go so terribly wrong
after I finally committed to
getting something done is
almost comical.
110215 The drums for Falstaff
have been troubling me.
There are a lot of
percussive sounds
happening in the song -
tambourine, congas,
maraccas etc. and the
drums get in the way.
Or, as I finally determined,
the cymbals are getting
in the way. Went to a
snare, kick and toms only
pattern (see Girl for Samson's
"Meri") and it came out
nicely. Recorded 3 takes.
Spent too much time
trying out soft multitrack
recorders with MIDI
capabilities. I just need
something that's simple to
use. I only need one digital
audio track for reference and
one for a MIDI piano. I also
want to hear the MIDI track
along with the digital audio
track. I know that I've
downloaded programs that
claim to do this but can't get
all required functions to work
on my computer. Again, this
is all because Garageband
won't output a proper MIDI file.
I think I may have better luck
finding someone with a nicer
piano and dragging the
the MacBook and a couple of
microphones over to record
a few takes.
103015 Given the choice of comping
drums and creating some album
artwork mock-ups, I didn't comp
drums.
102915 Tried some different drum patterns
for Falstaff. Also diddled around in
the vintage image collection for an
alternative cover for Juiceboxberries.
102815 Watched game 2 of the World Series
with Michael and Joelle. Talked a
little about the artwork for the album,
how I'm getting cold feet with the
current mock-up and am thinking
about some alternatives. Michael
was supportive as always. Also
debated the merits of jewel cases
vs jackets and determined that we
both tilt slightly towards jackets.
102215 Wandering south for a week.
102115 Expenses coming into focus:
$250 for mastering
$80 for digital distribution
$280 for 100 CDs
-------
$570
101715 Dave recorded some French Horn
parts for the outro of On. We set
up in a bathroom. The R0DE SM6
pointed at the bell and a SM57
in the tub pointed at the tile for
reflection.
101515 Tried some low-fi DAW to see if I
could knock this off. Tried Reaper
and Anvil and was unimpressed.
Tried the lite version of MultitrackStudio
which works great but has bursts
of noises in the MIDI files rendering
it useless.
Got Sonar loaded and after some
fisticuffs I was able to get it to see
the M-Audio device AND eventaully
see a signal. It even records the
signal. What it does not do is create
sound. No MIDI sound during
recording or playback. This is so fucky.
This is like needing to climb to the top
of a mountain where I will find a map
that will lead me to a key that will
unlock a safe back below that holds
life-saving medicine, and not being
able to find any shoes. BTW,
carelessly typing the word MIDI can,
on occasion, result in typing MOFO.
101315 Going to load Sonar on the PC and
create MIDI files that way.
Tried using the Edit/Add to Loop Library
option. It created AIFF files in the User/
Library/Audio/Apple Loops/User Loops/
Single Files directory. Supposedly the
MIDI info is imbedded? I guess I'll try
another application.
I should change the name of this site to
How to Record an Album Using a
Wheezing MacBook and Comically Out-
Dated Version of GarageBand. So, new
challenge: Gargeband does not export MIDI
files in any way that's easy or useful. Off
to find time-sucking workarounds.
After slaving away on the keys, Paris is
requesting a MIDI performance because
the piano is "out of tune and boxy". Back
to the phones.
Reference file for Industrial Debris
sent to sweet Paris along with this sober
note:
"Bringing this tonight. It will be the
stoutest test of our bond. I included
multiple takes (you don't want to know
how many tracks) of everything,
especially my trembly (it's how you
express vulnerability, asshole!) vocal.
America won't get it but I feel like I can
get away with writing a bad ballad
because I have a history of writing bad
non-ballads. Plus I used a masculine
character instead of a female. Sorry
the vocal is so loud in the reference file.
I can assure you, that is not my dream."
Cut a couple of pretty good piano tracks
for the chorus of ID.
101215 Tracks padded, renamed, reference file
created and notes file created. I may
take one more stab at the loose piano
part in the chorus tomorrow before
handing it off to be mixed tomorrow
night.
Answer to problem below: paste
a blank region in the gap and then
join.
Got close and hit a snag. Fun fact,
if you put a split in a region and slip
edit a space or cut out the space,
re-connecting the two regions with
join appears to resurrect the deleted
data. Even if you don't want it to.
101115 Made myself keep grinding away at
this song and finished padding all of
the tracks. Just need to name the
files, write mixing notes and make a
reference .mp3 by Tuesday night.
Got about half of ID padded for import
into Pro Tools. As usual, none of the
AIFF file names match the track OR
region names. Would love to figure
out a way to force Garageband to use
either one of these options as the
audio file name.
During my work I unearthed the original
demo bass part which works nicely with
Dave's bass part during the C section.
100915 Made good progress this afternoon.
Just need to join all of the regions &
pad them so that they start in the
correct spots when imported into Pro
Tools. Also need to make sure the AIFF
names are meaningful. Most likely a
weekend project.
Learning, again, that in Garageband,
re-naming the track and/or the region does
not impact the name of the AIFF file. At
least not in any useful way. I think the
lesson is to give the track an appropriate
name right at the start.
While finishing up ID this afternoon
I want to conduct an experiment. I
want to determine if the quantizing
(letting the computer correct timing
and tuning issues) results are
actually written to the AIFF files or
if it only occurs during playback.
Logic suggests that the effected
results are saved but I want to see
for myself. This isn't critical, I just
want to understand the process.
I also decided that I should give
Paris the original version of the
chorus (or B section) along with
the new version. It makes
creating the Pro Tools-ready files a
little more complicated but options
are good in this scenario.
I need to make a page with a list
of things I've learned about
Garageband. I want to run the disk
utility on the MacBook soon and
have already forgotten the process.
Searching for it in this sad tangle of
verbiage is daunting.
100815 Industrial Debris: I have all of the
verse and chorus vocal tracks
(sending 12-14 takes), drums and
piano ready to go. Tomorrow I'll
go through the backing vocals and
bass parts. Only death (me or Echo)
will prevent me from handing this off
on Tuesday.
100715 Thank you Matt Simon for the
phrase "Burdensome and
unnecessarily sinister..."
More takes of drums on bass
for B section of Industrial Debris.
I like where it's going. May take
one more stab at the piano
(sadly, NOT my weakest
instrument) and then start
calling tracks crap and candy.
Note - I think that's the part I
dread the most. I suspect I
changed the feel of this section
just to put off having to comp
tracks! J'Accuse!
100615 Not much time to spend recording
today. Tried several takes of
fluffier bass parts during the B
section in Industrial Debris.
100515 OK, I was possibly over-optimistic
about getting Industrial Debris
done by the weekend. Today I
recorded some more vocal takes.
I also tried some different synth
bits during the "chorus" and
cut some triplets on the piano
and new drums to give that
section a little more swing.
We're coming up on 5 months
since we created and started
developing these 7 songs. If
we can get them in the can in
2 months that will be a month
per song. Take out some of the
learning curve time and we should
be able to churn them out even
faster in the future.
100215 Recorded several good vocal takes
of Industrial Debris. I had a good cry
beforehand (did not make the vocal
more vunerable) so Paris will be mixing
out sniffs, snorts and sighs in-between
parts.
100115 Figured out how to get the barcode
for the artwork. Shooting for having
Industrial Debris ready to submit
for mixing by the weekend.
093015 Need to discuss production options
tonight. Of course we'll use
Disc Makers. We can get 100
CDs (jacket or jewel cases) for
about $300 shipped. That number
bumps to about $500 for 200 CDs.
200 vinyl records for $1,700. Once
we decide I can start learning Adobe
Illustrator in earnest.
Cleaned all of the sf2 files off of the
MacBook except for the Ensoniq
files and ta-da, all four collections
work.
Want to have Michael and Dave sing
Ringo-background vocals to the A
section of On tonight. I'm thinking
that the right wobbly chorus effect
will make them sound like a mellotron.
This is one of those times where
some combination of sounds that
already exist in the song suggested
this idea. Like you can almost
already hear it.
092915 Created some patterns to be used
for loops in Brought a Little Something
Down. Locked the tracks and then
saved the project to see what I would
end up with. Interleaved stereo files
in a folder named Freeze Files.
Next, I tried soloing one of the tracks
and exporting it. Also an interleaved
stereo AIF.
092815 Added a few more vocal takes to
Industrial Debris and more B & C
drum takes to On. Industrial Debris
should be about ready to comp and
clean up tracks for Paris. Falstaff
and Brought a Little Something Down
are just waiting on horns and
Tambourine is waiting on mandolin.
On, the first song created on the
MacBook, is going to be a bit more
complicated. It is actually 4 mini-
songs recorded sequentially in
one project. I think I'm going to
break the song up into 4 projects
to make cleaning up the tracks
and importing them into Pro Tools
more manageable.
Summoned the courage to try loading
the Ensoniq SF2 files on the MiniMac
to see if I would have better luck.
It instantly recognized and played
banks from all 4 files. Elated, I loaded
the mellotron SF2s and everything
else I had on hand into the
Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks/ folder
so that I could finally explore some
other sounds. Not only did they not
work but now Garageband only
intermittently recognizes the
Ensoniq files. Baffled, I removed
everything but the Ensoniq sound files
and now they are working consistently
again.
I'll next need to consider how to get
soft files to the MacBook by converting
them to "real" files. It appears that there
are 2 common methods: locking the
track or soloing and exporting it. The
issue with the solo method is that I
think it will create an interleaved stereo
AIFF.
092515 Added more vocal and drum takes on
Industrial Debris.
092415 Got my hands on a MiniMac loaded with
Adobe Illustrator C5. Now I begin the grim
process of making imagination stay in the
lines.
092315 Listened to everything to get a feel for what
songs are finished and which still need parts.
Decided that:
Falstaff - done
On - needs loads of love
Tambourine - re-sing, add guitars and mandolin
Brought a Little Something Down - needs horns
Industrial Debris - Dave replaced a bass part
and I'm re-cutting vocals
Talked about buying Adobe Illustrator, QuarkXPress,
CorelDRAW or Adobe Photoshop so that we can do
our own album covers.
092215 Handed off the first two songs to be mixed.
092115 Added a few more Ahhh and Verse Harmony takes
to Sultan Eyes.
092015 Sultan Eyes is now ready to be mixed. Need to
re-do one of the verse harmonies before handing
everything over to Paris on Tuesday.
091915 I think I'm going to get Sultan Eyes padded and
renamed this weekend so sent Paris a reference mp3.
Sent Paris a refence file for We Don't Do That and
started the process of padding with silence and
creating meaningful file names for the 34 tracks.
Had strangely intermittent luck clicking on a region
and giving the audio file, not the track, a new name
in the editor at the bottom of the screen.
The padding process went well. I would copy
a quiet second from a region in the track I was
working on, paste it at 0, click on the track
header to select multiple regions and then join.
Yesterday I learned that Garageband keeps the
original name of a track for the AIFF throughout
the recording process. These file names are
often not useful, espeically if you were cavalier
and assumed that renaming them within
Garageband later would actually change the name
of the sound file. So, this weekend I'm going to
experiment with making new tracks with names
helpful to the mixer and copying the corresponding
track data into the new tracks.
091815 Addendum to the issue with JOIN that I brought
up yesterday. I had copied a bit of a track
called Metronome, which was the output of an
actual metronome, placed it at 0 and tried to JOIN
it to drum track, guitar track etc. JOIN was grayed
out in the menu so something was wrong. Today, I
copied a bit of silence from one of the drum tracks
and was able to JOIN it at 0 to both the drums and
guitars. The regions that I am joining ARE on the
same track but they are many measures away from
one another. I thought that was the issue yesterday.
Here's what I learned about how the files in the
Garageband MEDIA folder are named.
1) A sound file maintains its first saved name. If
you rename a track in Garageband later, the AIFF
will still retain is original name. Choose wisely.
2) The # in the file name is the take number.
` 3) If you add another region to a track it will be
named the same as the original file but with
an incremented take number. Guitar#01,
Guitar#02 etc.
4) If you JOIN two regions in a track the
original tracks disappear and a new track is
created with the original track name and the
word "merged" - Guitar merged. Initially the
take numbers are scratched.
091715 First, my idea for adding a second of silence to each
track so that Garageband would write out a full track
was good. It was very good. But it doesn't work.
Garageband writes different recorded moments in a
single track as multiple tracks. So, if I added the
second of silence to a drum track Garageband creates
a second of silence track and the drum track. It does
not concatenate or combine the two tracks in the
media folder. And you cannot use the JOIN optin to
connect them because JOIN wants the files to be right
next to one another. I would have to create a long take
of silence and then paste it at the start of the track and
slip edit it to the start of the take. Then I could JOIN
them. Super fucky indeed. More testing tomorrow.
091615 Very good session. Dave added a sexier version of the
bridge bass part in Sultan Eyes. Michael and Dave
added chorus vocals. Dave and Michael both added a
harmony to the "holed up 'till fall" line in On.
Played with the Share option on Dave's computer and
it didn't do what I needed. On the way home I had an
epiphany while staring vacantly into the street lights -
all I have to do is add a second of anything at the start
of every track and it will pad the track with silence!
Then I can just use the Garageband project files. Will
experiment with this approach on the morrow.
Freeze Folder experiment is a fail. While it DOES
consolidate the tracks so that they all start at zero
it still writes out the AIFF as interleaved stereo
instead of mono. So, back to seeing what a later
version of Garageband will offer.
Must buy some new drumsticks today. Mine are so
splintered that bits of wood are accumulating on the
mixer and on Echo.
One last thing to try before using a newer version of
Garageband to export the files for Pro Tools. The
link below claims that locking the tracks you want to
export will put the consolidated (common starting point)
files in a folder called Freeze. The downside is that you
lose the file names. Will experiment with this this
afternoon.
091515 Re-recorded guitars and bass in chous of Sultan Eyes.
Also added more takes of the chorus drums and tried
a different pattern for the new loose bridge.
This is one of the starkest issues with digital recording
other than the quality of the sound. I was spending
loads of time trying to edit a drum measure that didn't
feel right. It's a little tricky because I can only record
4 channels onto two tracks so I can't isolate individual
drums and cymbals. After 15 minutes it occurred to
me to just sit down and recut the part. I got it and got
it good in a single take. It took about 5 minutes,
including prep.
Because Garageband 08 exports an interleaved stereo
track vs mono I'll need to find another option for getting
the tracks to Paris for mixing in Pro Tools. Decided to
try importing into Dave's newer version of Garageband
and testing some of the export options.
091415 Found a less Ramones-y approach for the chorus of
Sultan Eyes. Well re-record bass and guitars tomorrow.
Looks like the best option for consolidating the tracks so
that they are all the same length is to disable all of the
effects and plug-ins, zero all of the panning, and export
the tracks one at a time. We Don't Do That has 51
tracks and probably 20 or more are unused takes so this
is painful but doable. It will be interesting to see what it
does to the file names.
Learned a little about Garageband AIFF naming convention.
If you have 10 tracks you'll find 20 AIFFs in your project
folder (MEDIA). 10 will be the actual raw audio and 10
will start with a "." to denote is as some kind of information
file or something. In Gargeband 08 the file names are
truncated with a hash tag (#).
I need to find a way to may all of the tracks start at 0 in the
timeline. With a common starting point Paris will be able
to easily line them up in Pro Tools. I don't know how to do
this.
Recorded additional takes of verse and chorus vocals for
We Don't Do That.
I was hoping the SAVE AS trick would clean up unused
Garageband tracks but nope. I think there is an option
for this in later versions. I haven't a later version and will
have to outwit the machine.
091315 Gave all of the Garageband tracks in We Don't Do That
meaningful names yesterday. Later, I looked at the Media
folder and realized that Garageband, using some system
that I don't understand, seemingly randomly truncates the
names of the AIFF files. Some retain the full name and
others are truncated beyond recognition.
091215 I learned today that when you delete tracks in Garageband
they are only removed from the project interface. The
individual AIFF files are not removed from the Media folder.
Tomorrow I'm going to try to use SAVE AS to save the song
as a different name to see if it drags along the extraneous
files.
Naming tracks so that they
are useful to Paris. No fun.
We Don't Do That =
We Done Did That. Let
Paris know that it was finished
and asked him if he would like me
to delete unused takes to ease
the conversion process or leave
them in for comping.
091115 To-do list for next 10 days:
We Don't Do That
think about vocal phrasing in chorus
looser piano in outro?
balance drum transition
Falstaff
clean up extraneous takes
sign off on bass
On
take another stab at lead vocals in A-B
replace synths with clarinet, cello etc.
arrange end of B section
Brought A Little Something Down
another pass of drums?
Tambourine
take another stab at lead vocal
work on B section
Industrial Debris
take another stab at lead vocal
Sultan Eyes
rethink 3rd passage of solo
sexier rhythm in chorus?
091015 Comped bass parts from last night. There are some synth
parts in On that I want to replace with a clarinet so I'm
soaking a reed. Speaking of comping parts...
090915 Very productive session. Dave added a nice bass part for
the solo section in Sultan Eyes. He also added better takes
for the A & B parts in On and the outro of We Don't Do That.
Kevin and Rachel popped by to hang out with Michael and
Joelle.
Jezebel recording mandolin parts for Tambourine.
090815 Talked to Paris a little about the mixing process. His plan is
to import (a friendly sounding word for what will most likely be
a brutal manual process) the files from Garageband to Pro
Tools.
I just thought of the line "the hounds of hoo-ha" so I pretty
much own that now.
090715 Decided to put a 12 measure solo in the middle of Sultan
Eyes. Not quite the the same process as yelling into a mic
"Dear friends, let us add 12 measures here for a solo.
1, 2, 3, 4..." Ghosted out a feel I like with the Kent Americana
and a noisey octave pedal.
090415 Chipped away at Sultan Eyes. Played the latest version for
Michael. Ran out the clock eating cheap tacos, drinking Mojitos
and watching a documentary on the Wrecking Crew.
090315 Added a sample of Sultan Eyes to the sounds section. Yes, I've
dropped When the Lever Breaks (You Better Moot) as the title.
It hurt AND it left a scar.
Steve Neal dropped by and added harmonies/backing vocals to
most of the songs.
090215 Joelle's birthday party.
Spent a couple of hours adding a new bass part, guitar (Fender
Bronco!), drum part and vocals to When the Lever Breaks
(You Better Moot). I really need someone to boss me around.
090115 Decided to write something new today instead of working on the
CD. Partially constructed a song with the working title When
the Lever Breaks (You Better Moot).
083115 Goodbye, Meri.
082915 John sent me electric and acoustic slide guitar parts for
Tambourine.
Steve Neal coming on the 3rd to record some vocals.
082815 Thought of a title for the EP that I liked last night and played
around with a mock up for the CD. Used
slides_17_faithmodeling_faith_6.tif and copied the bottom
border to create a fill so that the layout is square.
"Johnny Marie & the Lonesone Petunias" using Free Style
Script and #ACA0B9 as the font color.
"juiceboxberries" using Rockwell Extra Bold with juice as
#6D7659 box as #C8A5BF and berries as #FF016D
Colors used for song title Rockwell fonts #C2A0B6, #E9E6E4,
#A8AEAC, #9A5E4E & #DBCFC4
Michael approves so just waiting on feedback from Dave.
082715 Wasted more time trying to figure out the procedure for
repairing a hard drive on a Mac. You have to do it from
the startup disc but you can't just put in the startup CD
and reboot. You have to hold down the C key during the
boot process and then do the repair from the Utilities.
Wasting time trying to manipulate banks of multiple Sound
Fonts using an external MIDI controller. The M-Audio
Keystation will recognize a few of the files. I fired up the
Juno-106 and it only sees 0,0 of any of the banks. Is this a
Garageband '08 issue? Is it because I am using MIDI cables
that terminate in USB connectors? Is it a SF2 issue? A
Roland or M-Audio issue? Am I being punished for trying
to use samples? Maybe I should be.
082615 Lost chunks of the work I did yesterday with this seemingly
innocuous error message "invalid regions changed". What
actually happened is that one track was replaced with portions
of another and 6 takes of vocal tracks were gone. I'm going to
try saving this Garageband project as a different name (which
it was due for since it's still using the working title) and see if that
resolves the problem. Repeat to self "I'm not having to buy tape.
I'm not having to buy tape."
Update: So, doing the "Save As" to a different file name at least
stops the error message from popping up.
082515 Made some lyric mods for the B section of On so recorded
it again. Recorded two takes of drums for the B and C
sections.
082415 Recorded a fistful of vocal takes on the A and B sections of
On. You just don't know if something magic is giong to
happen unless you hook up a mic and fire up the computer.
Nothing magic happened.
John still sending me guitar tracks for Tambourine and
Industrial Debris while I send him confusing and conflicting
suggestions. "Imagine an ant that has a heavy cast on two
of his six legs, caught in a spider web made of pale blue cotton
candy that is lightly animated every 5 seconds by one of those
rotating fans on the lowest setting. I don't mean the lowest
factory setting. I'm talking a modified lowest setting. That's
what the last note should sound like."
082015 Finally added a demo sample of Industrial Debris to the site.
Sent a full AIF file off to John McConnell to play with.
Learned another little Garageband 08 trick: I was importing
.WAV and .AIF files by dragging the files into a set-up track
in the project. Wasted step. You can actually drag them
into the blank gray space underneath the last track header
and it will automatically create a track using the file name.
Got some Spaghetti Western solo options from John last night.
It took some wrangling (do you see what I did?) to import them
but done and done.
081915 We just listened to the songs last night and talked about what
to do next. Dave brought his chum Mike by and we had a nice
time chatting with him. The evening ended in everybody
having a go at the viola and cello for fun.
Popped open Tambourine to do some last minute mixing with
John's guitar part and got the gut-wrenching "track not found"
error message. It couldn't find the Spaghetti Western bass
track. I found it in backups. We're doing this with 2008
technology, folks. Those of you in the front row WILL get wet.
Got 3 decent takes of drums down on Industrial Debris. Set
up the piano with the Rode and a 57 and had a go. Recorded
another lead vocal take.
081815 John sent me the .wav files for the cool crunchy guitars in the
outro of Tambourine. How do you import .wav files into a
Garageband project? You can't copy and paste them. You
have to drag them to an available track. They are converted
to AIF files when you save.
Getting close on the drums for Industrial Debris. I realized that
I'm rehearsing the song. That's why it's taking so long.
Bought a fistful of 1/8 to 1/4 stereo jacks so I can avoid a
repeat of the great Pioneer Headphone Disaster of 2015.
Hazard of recording in your office: shelf is jostled and a
foam ear plug tumbles down and upon the top of a printer
where it finds the single entrance to the inside and tumbles
in never to be found again.
Added a blips from the BOSS DB-60 metronome to help me
with the piano in Industrial Debris.
081715 John McConnell sending Tambourine tracks for feedback tonight.
I was really determined to at least get drums down for Industrial
Debris, and perhaps vocals today. Really struggling as I've never
really drummed on a piano-based "ballad" before. Decided to
listen to "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "Someone Saved
My Life Tonight" because "piano-based ballad" + "drumming"
= "Nigel Olsson". Run the figures yourself. You'll come up
with the same answer.
Johnny Marie & the Lonesome Petunias website domain is now
JohnnyMarie.com
081615 As we pile tracks upon the 6 songs for the EP, I am trying to be
courteous to poor Paris who will have to paw through the chaos
in order to build a pretty song during the mixing process. I am
trying to use meaningful track titles and employing Garageband's
little list of icons. (Note to P: I can't tell the difference between
the little guitars and the little bass guitars.) I'm also putting a
blank track at the bottom of every song titled "Archived Tracks"
and shoving all extraneous takes below that so that all he is left
with are the winning bits. I'm leaving the unused tracks in the
song so that he can cull a bit here and there if neccessary.
Highly likely.
I misplaced (lost) a critical adaptor for the 2nd set of phones
yesterday for Rachel's session and had to use a vintage pair
of Pioneer SE-50 headphones. Later that evening I kept
discovering little bits of black something or other in my hair and
on my face. Yup, the insulation/foam from the Pioneers is
deteriorating. True to my nature, I have a backup pair of SE-50s
should I ever get in this situation again.
#itceasestobehoardingifonediesandyouonlyhaveoneleft
Did you notice that I no longer mention sound fonts and MIDI
controllers? Day 8 of an uneasy truce.
081515 Rachel came over and recorded harmonies on most of the tracks.
Posted a fresh version of Tambourine on the site.
081415 Sent Ala Fries (The Sinclaires, Intermission, The Catherines,
Chemical Wedding, Boudoir) a mix of Falstaff in an .aif file so
that she can track some parts. Ala and I used to play with Allen
Johnston (This Jungle, Secret Society) who was here about a
week ago recording drums. We also played with artist Jill
Fetterman (Boxes of Love, BCR, Short-Term Memory) who
died on the 12th of this month. Jill was a wonderful artist,
great musician and a priceless friend.
Scheduled Rachel Thompson to come over on Saturday and
record some vocals.
081315 Comping parts from last night. Getting ready to e-mail an
.aiff file of latest Tambourine mix to John McConnell for noodling
consideration. He'll import it into something on the PC side,
add parts and then just export the single track of his work for
me to import back into Garageband. It's a not-awful time to be
alive.
081215 Dave and Michael experimented with some ooos (sharing a mic,
as always) during the Spaghetti Western section of Tambourine.
Michael, Dave and Shannon added the jazz hands "What's it all
about?" harmonies. Michael recording some keyboard tinkling at
the end of On. Dave had a run at the bass part for Tambourine
after a wonderful dinner courtesy of Joelle, Shannon & Michael.
Added some cymbal builds to Tambourine. Also tried some
gallops with a tambourine lying on a floor tom head.
081115 Worked on bass, drums, vocals and tambourine for Tambourine.
Added some cymbal and rim shot bits.
081015 After John left I had a go at the lead vocals and drums on
Tambourine
John Bara came over and tracked conga parts for We Don't
Do That, Falstaff, Brought A Little Something Down &
Tambourine. Single SM57 six inches above and center.
Pictures were taken.
Going to try to finish vocals, drums and guitars for Tambourine &
Falstaff today.
080915 If you see a story about a mall shooting, rape, serial killer
basement/torture shenanigans, child molestation, porn or
scandal involving bribery, the perpetrator is nearly always
a male. Frequently a white male. I don't understand why
males are allowed to drive cars and own guns, much less
run for public office.
#gunsdontkillpeopledudesdo
080815 Kevin loaned me an M-Audio Keystation 49e 49-key MIDI Controller
to manipulate the SF2 banks with on the MAC. I am now
able to successfully cycle through the presets in Sonatina
Symphonic Orchestra but still not the ENSONIQ. Additionally,
Garageband records the MIDI signal, but not the actual
selected sound. This paragraph needs a cute one syllable
summary like "Sigh." or "Poop." but I like surprise endings.
080715 OK, I put samples from some of the 6 demos on the Sounds
page. I think that at this point, since the site contains a blog,
pictures and music samples (known as "content") I will remove
the "Proper website, sounds and debut EP coming soon."
sign from the door.
I think what's tripping me up on the SF2/Mac issue is using
the soft keyboard (Apple K!) that comes with Garageband.
Going to try a proper MIDI Controller this weekend and see
if that changes the game.
080615 The 1204USB came so after set up I labored over getting a
good drum part down for Falstaff. I got close but was really
suffering from ear fatigue as the song is a bit shrill. Will
remix tomorrow and have another run at it.
Added a Sounds page to the website. No reason why I
can't get up a few samples of what we're working on in the
next day or so. (Begins new quest to convert AIFF files to
MP3s. Hoping Audacity will do it. It's like I'm looking for
reasons not to track parts. "Listen all y'all, it's a sabotage!")
080515 Didn't do the must-do. Spent all of my tracking time
dicking with SF2 conversions. I can't get Garageband to see
any of the ENSONIQ or Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra presets
after splitting up the banks using Polyphone. It's actually not
that important for the project but it is absurd and I hate being
told what to do.
Must-do for the day: add a sturdy blip on all of the tracks to
usurp the timid click that comes with Garageband. Of course
I could use a kick drum loop or something but over the years
I have developed a Pavlovian response to the harsh bleep of
the BOSS DB-60 metronome.
080415 Upgraded the Behringer Xenyx 1204 to a Behringer Xenyx
1204USB which comes with compression and of course a
USB connection which will allow me to take the TASCAM
interface out of the loop.
Also bought a MIDI to USB cable so that I can at least use
some of our dead synths as MIDI controllers. I discovered
that Garageband won't recognize SF2 bank files that contain
multiple sounds. It will play the first sound in the bank and
that's it. I have some alternatives for breaking up the files
manually using Polyphone but am hoping that a MIDI
controller will recognize the full potential of the files. I have
an ENSONIQ soundfont collection that has some potential
to be entertaining.
Dave's Yamaha monitors sound great.
080315 Allen Johnston stopped by and had a go at drums on We
Don't Do That. He's such a lovely drummer. We toyed
with playing a straight beat through the 1st half of the song
and then going really loose at the 2nd guitar solo.
Dave brought over some Yamaha HS80M monitors to get me
off of doing rough mixes with headphones. He also brought
a fresh box of VALOMILK Candy Cups!
080215 Juno 106 died yesterday so Michael dropped off the
Roland D-20. And the D-20 promptly dies.
Blog is up. You can almost smell the sawdust, hear the
bearded lady playing the harmonica, and see the tent
sagging over the frayed trampoline.
080115 Got a little closer to getting a good signal/good sound
from the Ludwigs. Using a Shure 57 on the snare, two
Shure 57s as overheads and a Shure PG52 on the kick.
May add the Rode somewhere for a room signal.
073115 Lengthend the Spaghetti Western B part in Tambourine.
Hoping Dave can deliver a trumpet solo. If not, it will be
me adding whips and harmonicas.
073015 Introduced Tambourine. Listened to some of the other
tracks to see where we stood. Decided that we love
each other. Moment is documented by drunken cell
phone photographer while we sway unsteadily just
out of reach of the streelight's helpful glow.
072915 Had another go at the vocal for Bee Miner/We Don't Do
That.
072815 Set up Johnny Marie & the Lonesome Petunias
Facebook, Gmail and Twitter pages. Put down the
guts of Tambourine.
072715 Got a little Behringer XENYX 1204 mixer for recording
drums.
072315 Added bass and some backing vocals to Industrial
Debris courtesy of Dave, Michael and Shannon.
072115 Paris said that he would mix the EP when we are
finished tracking. He has a long history of polishing
my turds.
072015 Played Michael Industrial Debris. Learned about using
Apple-A and Apple-T to insert measures in a timeline
in Garageband.
071915 Working on Where Did All the Cowboys Go?/Industrial
Debris.
071715 Had another run at on vocals for Where did all of the
cowboys go?
071515 Rode NT1-A came so tracked some parts to test it out.
Ran Dave through the paces. Considering Johnny Marie
and the Lonesome Petunias for our moniker after Dave
mentions discovering "Lonely Little Petunia In An Onion
Patch" while sorting through some old 78s. May have
also agreed on an image for the EP cover.
071415 Worked on On guitar solo.
071315 Worked on We Don't Do That guitar solo with
Les Paul.
071215 Worked on We Don't Do That guitar solo with
an old Kent semi-hollow body guitar.
071015 Borrowed a friend's Rode to re-record primary vocal
tracks on On and We Don't Do That.
070915 Worked on comping bass parts.
070815 Made up We Don't Do That. Dave recorded all of the
bass parts for On AND a stand up bass part for We
Don't Do That. He took the cello and viola home to
tinker with.
070715 Thinking of Johnny Marie and the New Petunias for
Petunia.
070615 Recorded some acoustic guitar and piano takes for
The Wall.
070115 Added scratch drums to The Wall. Put finishing touches
on On to show Dave and Michael tonight.
062715 Amp simulator pedal came so messed around with On
some more.
062515 Comped vocals on The Wall and added some parts to
On.
062415 Good Petunia session. Dave tried some bass parts on
The Wall and then he and Michael sang some background
vocals.
061715 Michael and Joelle co-hosted for an hour on KKFI today.
061615 Brought Extreme Isolation headphones home from the
studio. Should help greatly with recording drum tracks.
061515 Worked on On.
061415 Worked on Am/On.
061315 Worked on comping Dave and Michael's vocals. Put
down some parts for the Am/On piano bit.
061115 Michael and Dave did backing vocals/harmonies for
Falstaff, Puff Adders and The Wall. They shared a mic
for all 3 tunes.
060315 Worked on Falstaff. First Petunia session actually
recording something.
060215 Worked on Falstaff. Michael bought a MacBook so
that we can share files.
060115 Worked on Falstaff. Played it for Michael.
053115 Worked on Falstaff. This song was built on a bass
part.
052815 Bought a Mackie ProFX12 mixer with Michael to interface
with the Mac.
052015 Worked on Brought a Little Something Down.
051915 Put some more tracks on the Brought a Little Something
Down.
051715 Worked on the scratch tracks for Brought a Little
Something Down.
051615 Finished the rhythm scratch tracks for Brought a Little
Something Down.
051515 Michael bought some good KRK Rokit monitors.
051415 One of our last live rehearsals before switching to
recording-only mode.
050815 Worked on drums for Puff Adders.
050715 Recorded some passes on the drums with Puff Adder.
043015 Was able to figure out a way to load Dave's Puff Adders
bass line on my Mac so we're good to go. Just copied
the file from the project Media folder and imported it into
Garageband.
042915 Dave gave me the bass line for Puff Adders. Have to
upgrade Garageband before I can import it. Fail.
042615 Worked on Wall scratch vocal.
042315 Currently rehearsing Pool, Come on Out, Brought
A Little Something Down/Talk, Wall, Puff Adders,
Little Shootin' Elvis, Monkey Island and I'm Hiding A
Slave.
041515 Petunia practice.
040915 Petunia practice.
040215 Petunia practice while Shannon and Joelle
hang out.
032615 Petunia practice. Dave brought over a bass to play
with Joelle.
032015 Bought a MacBook and a Tascam USB interface. The plan
is for me to work up demos as a frame for new songs and
then we'll replace all of the demo bits with permanent parts.
031915 Petunia practice.
031215 Petunia practice. Brought Come on Out and Brought a
Little Something Down.
030515 First full session as a 3 piece.
022615 Personnel adjustments. Co-founder leaves. Now a 3
piece which means I move from drums to guitar.
021115 Moved gear to Joelle's.
020815 Drove over to meet Joelle and check out the space.
All good.
012115 Need to move the troops to a new rehearsal/recording
space. Michael mentioned going to Joelle's.
073014 Michael's first session.
043014 Dave's first session.
073109 First meeting with co-founder.
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