Malibu Entry # 8
Fri Oct 20, 2006 9:13 am
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
H A P P Y • B I R T H D A Y • K I M !
Kim is the Reason. October 22, 1960
Credit: Looks, Voice, Role, Brain, Spirit, Soul, Motherhood...
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Shape, Form, Content, Continuity
The Fragments Align.
Three years worth of writing is becoming tangible... audible. But first... Malibu Clip #3
This is a jpg that loads a url. No more progressive download to slow down browsing.
Do NOT attempt to upload this to YouTube. There are obviously publishing issues w/
smidgets of tunes. I will edit these out and replace them with something else asap.
Meanwhile, keep it in the hood, ok? Sites where money for Ads exchange hands would
be a problem... perhaps. Most of you don't even know the intro/outro audio clip...
It's Getting Creative in Here
No "hamburger-izing goin' on...
The other recording sessions were so different. I mean, sure... there are similarities... but I observe that Richard adheres to one of my favorite design principles: "Rules are meant to be broken". He hasn't said that, but he practices it. It's not like building a sky scraper where you have to move from bottom to top in mandatory, sequential order... like stacking a hamburger.
CLICK TO
Fartzy shots from the five (5 + ) minute video clip.
Like, say they track drums on 4 songs; in every other scenario we've been in, ALL of the drums/bass (basic tracks) are laid down before the ever stacked on various other tracks. Eisley and Richard are building pieces to the whole as creativity, opportunity, inspiration dictate. I think that's really important. If you feel it, you go with it... or "go for it".
A sense of what happening:
Like, a typical day here is... the band wakes up 10:00-ish (well, the girls) to get ready to start recording at 11:00. The guys get up like 10 minutes before leaving. But... it's all very a normal routine...one would hear the clinking of cereal bowls, orange juice (w/ pulp) pouring... the rustling of purses and gear and drawing tablets and Mac's and stuff... before we dart out the door, drive down the hill and wheel into the Trancus Starbucks for recreational, caffeinated vibe before making the 3.5 minute cruise on the PCH to Dume Point where the studio sits.
What they're working on
Two nights ago, it was a Stacy day... piano, various synth's, layerings if all kinds of keys for many songs. Late last week, the entire band was in a booth with headphones singing. All of the songs you guys heard on the last tour are being tracked and built... they're sounding very awesome... you'll be happy.
The band has also been working on lots of guitars... lots of songs; especially since yesterday, the girls had scruffy voices due to the ever-so-slight chill of Fall and the force of 60 mph wind gusts in a blast that rendered us extremely sunami-fied a few nights ago. I only got one hr. of sleep that night. Weston got 3. When I awoke the next morning, most were in the den on couches, trying to avoid the howling, yeowling of the night winds. My windows sounded like yetti's with pic axes were trying to break in.
Sidebar - The Visitation
While I'm working chronologically, Thomas and Alan - friends (you guys know him... from the forum; technically our ISP, but mostly - a friend...), flew down that very next morning, picked up me, Weston and Garron at 9:00am and headed to Oxnard for a short field trip ti the DW drum factory where Alan would actually get to see his Neil Pert, hand signed, limited edition, $30,000 drum kit - featuring black sparkle wrap and those iconic holograms of Keith Moon's art of "Lilly" - inspired by his 1967 kit.
The factory tour was a bit over-rated since the "mom and pop" shop was really too busy for us, as per the salesman's admission... and hurried schedule (to make sure they remain a "mom n pop" shop due...to what i consider a branding problem) and seemed annoyed that a riff-raff band and friend of the buyer was klumbering up the halls for what seemed more like a Penny tour than a Nickle tour. Wait... help me here; if you can't take the time for the guy who's spent $40,000 on your drums (he bought a 10k kit last year), what kind of small-feel customer support do you give the shmucks who buy the 3 piece kit? (it's just a question. I have no ill-will toward them 
).
The fun came AFTER, when we hung out at the "Cantina" Mexican restaurant in Malibu for almost 2 hrs, eating delectable food... followed by a visit to the studio where, yes, yes... Thomas and Alan got to hear some tracks. (sorry; don't be jealous... he saw the band w/ Coldplay too...and we stay with them in Salt Lake when we pass through. big dealeo). Thank you, Thomas and Alan for a fun afternoon. Ya'll were cool... it was a great break from the sublime rhythm of the going's on in Malibore.
SoundScape
There's a wonderfully spaceous, live feel to this album's sonic space; I'm not trying to be cool by tossing around what might be a trendy phrase... honest, this is something I really could write for hrs; well, if I had the time; but i DON'T.
I'm not a fan of clutter, unless it has purpose. Space is good when it comes to record making. I can't say it's always the right solution for visual space. That all depends on many factors... but back to "sound": Richard and Eisley have been working to move instruments and parts out of harms way... creating that respectable, spacious feel. There's something about how this is coming together...(sounding) that's building something I will now refer to as "sound credibility". Not many bands have it. I can't say that Eisley's first record has it. But that's a different topic.
My understanding is - the sounds Richard and Chubba (and team) are getting are very on purpose and has more to do with pre-amps (these guys just dumped 50g's into new pre-amps just for Eisley) than anything else but it's also.. the quality of natural wood, the mics, etc. You'll LOVE It... provided nothing bad happens in the mix. But, seriously, what's being captured is very live... very real... tangible.... organic... This is what I've been hoping for, searching for, yearning for since the beginning. I'm just not a fan of super-compressed, squashed, forced, pushed, hambugerized RECORDINGS. I hate them! I hate those kind of mixes. Richard assures me that we will steer clear and avoid at all cost the dangers of pushed (loud), compressed mix/mastering. Radio is radio... but at the end of the day, you have to make a record you can enjoy and be proud of for years to come.
Timeless vs Hurriedness
To support this approach, Richard is (did i already mention this?) not a fan of doctoring... monkeying with... performances. You're not going to be getting a record with pitch bending and doctor beat-izement. That's a very modern, fast-food kind of approach to machining out modern rock records these days. You can do it one of two ways - 1. get the take and grab the check, or take the time and get the gold. (i don't mean 'gold record'... I'm using the word gold synonymous with 'value').
Also, producers trade what they believe to be commercial perfection for natural beauty. Eisley believes in the later. This concept is suffused to their brand... not by decree... by indigenous, core structures - 'in place' long before the concept of how a record should sound existed in their heads. What did I just say?! I'm not sleeping enough again. The point - this principal of sonic space... this approach really "fits".
I trust most of you will buy into this as a matter of truth... a matter of quality but I won't be surprised if some out there are hoping for a super-mod, pop-rock, lolly-pop for Radio to suck on. But I believe - I said, " Ahh Bee-LIEVE...!! - bruthahs and sistah's - that this record can and WILL sidestep those evil, industry-forced NORMS.... and BREATHHHhhh (yawl)... with the right kind of sheer, ecstatic AWEsome-ess...!! - to reverberate with the right kind of SPACEousness and BEAUTY... that will RISE to a new level of MASTERY.. that will CUT... I said CUTTttt- through these conventional barriers of compression and KLUT'TAH (clutter)... so the people in BONDAGE...uh-to-the gods of FM can be FREEEE !!! FREE AT LAST!! ("now that's the powah of the people...")
Radio needs to get real.
The Long Awaited Video
I finished a video clip last night... actually early this morning at 3am, but when my head alarm jolted me from my Mali-bed, I had a crystal clear understanding that my background music on the video might be ok for the Eisley forum... but YouTube would have serious legal issues. Everyone seems to get away with tossing fun bumper music into video's, but... I can't help but think - major label, publishing, damages, legal-ease crap; so I have decided to go back into it and destroy what was sorta the perfect music... and (hopefully) find something else.
drat. Drat! DRATificatious-ness. I promise the World...but deliver a smurfy nerf ball. Back to real work. More later. I am not lying. I would not do such things I WERE ME. bd
p.s. I'm not proofing or spell checking. perhaps later. I'm illiterate and ignorant... I'm in touch with that.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I suddenly don't care
Publishing..Smublishing
I just don't have the time to re-invest in this little insignificant video clip.
I'm going to encode, upload (in flash) and go. Yes, Flash. #1.) I don't want to encourage downloading on this one because of the publishing issue and #2.) In spite of the various concerns (nice way of saying complaints), it will take tons of time to scratch all my sound clips and search for more... edit them in Garage Band, save as mp3... go back into creative mode, moving the sound around to give the movie impact.
On Flash
It's just a problem with my limited TIME... It takes double the time to re-encode for other formats plus the time to upload. It sometimes takes several hrs including my messing with, experimenting with...just to get a file right. Then uploading takes a long time... then the web language and getting it all right... doing what i want it to do. I'd love to go thru that process twice if I had the time, but time is money and money is hard to come by. So, on this one, for now... i'm going to cook a BIG FAT beautiful Flash version and upload that sucker... some of you may choke on it, but I'll create a separate pop up window so you don't have to deal with an auto dl on your current page. That WAS lame. On future video, I'll push to do a QT version as well.
Do NOT put this video clip on YouTube... as publishing disclaimers are enforceable; remember, YouTube is a paid ADVERTISING site... that's the defining difference between Laughing City and YouTube. We're just hanging out here... video's are like conversations. NO money exchanges hands.
Back with the goods asap. Thanks for your patience, yawl.
boyd
--------------------------------------------------------
On Clip #3
Publishing/Smublishing
Werd to the wise. Do NOT put this video clip on YouTube... as publishing disclaimers are enforceable and legal action could be brought against parties that post and parties that produce. Remember, YouTube is a paid ADVERTISING site... that's the defining difference between Laughing City and YouTube. We're just hanging out here... video's are like conversations. NO money exchanges hands. Anyway, sorry I created this silly problem. I listened to that BAND... and shrugged fears of legal issues. Who would know, right?
Back with the goods asap. Thanks for your patience, yawl. bd
-----------------------------------------------
Checking in on me
Well, someone has to do it...
By now, if you're reading this, I hope the goods are up. If not, it means that the Yetti's have finally broken in and eaten me. I feared it would happen. These are Canyon Yetti's - the worst of as many species as I can identify or will ever identify - which is basically, as many as I chose to identify... but make no mistake: Canyon Yetti's are rugged, scruffy, they can hide behind large rocks and run faster than I can drive Deckers canyon in the Eisley van... Canyon Yetti's eat cactus like candy, have plenty of money and are perfectly Canyon-flaged, so you'll never see them in their natural terrain. That's why they got me...
bd
48 Comments