The City Veins

So… making a CD is expensive. We are saving a lot of money doing most of the instruments in my apartment, but this stupid thing is not going to be cheap to create. Why don’t you help us avoid eating canned tuna by coming out to our concert at the Rock and Roll Hotel on Thursday. We are playing with Robbers on High Street. It should be pretty great. As a bonus, we might not even be talking to each other at that point! The doors open at 8:00, and you can purchase tickets here.

I took this picture to let you all know what kind of recording operation we are running in my apartment. We lost, or forgot to bring over, microphone clips for standard mics. The result is that we are forced to use a plastic coke bottle cap to hold the mic in place. If this thing sounds good at all, it will be in spite of us.

I saw “The Flying Dutchman” last night at the Kennedy Center, and it was pretty good. Not great, because I think the plot is not great, but the music and singing were fantastic. I find the singers particularly impressive. Aside from singing for 2 hours, they are acting, climbing on things, and falling on the ground. I wish I had a singer with that kind of dedication.

I do think that they Washington National Opera is missing out on huge opportunity with this performance. They already have the Generation O program, but they really need to get the word out that “The Flying Dutchman” has both a ghost pirate, and zombie brides! Ghost pirates are a bankable commodity, they put butts in the seats. Zombie brides just sweeten the pot.

Photo by Flickr user dwrichards.

I don’t really feel like the recording process has started until I undergo a long, 11-12 hour, single recording session that leaves me incapable of forming a coherent thought. I like to think that these sessions are spiritually important and allow me to get to a point where I play only on instinct. Of course that is a big lie, but at least it is a comforting lie.

What really happens is that poor planning always results in having to cram a lot into these long sessions. On Saturday, Aaron and I subjected ourselves to one of these long sessions. I would say that you can tell how mentally taxing these session are based on Aaron’s post, but I have read Aaron’s other posts.

I can say that all of the instruments are recorded now. All we need to do is record the vocals, mix the damn thing, master the damn thing, and get it printed. I have been looking at my schedule and I think the next day that I get to sleep in is April 18th.

Some highlights from Saturday’s session are:

1) The battery died in my wireless mouse. I went to get some new batteries, and found that Aaron had unscrewed and completely taken apart my mouse by the time I got back. Never mind that this is not how you replace the batteries, and that it almost broke my mouse. I was impressed that he was able to unscrew and take apart my mouse so quickly.

2) I got to play the didgeridoo on a song! I don’t know if that song will make the final EP, but I do love playing the didgeridoo.

3) I was working on a guitar solo about 10-11 hours into the session. It was not going well. I was just playing it over and over again, trying different things, and hating everything that I was playing. I would only stop playing to shout obscenities. I think this went on for about 30 minutes. I assume that this was my neighbors’ favorite part of the weekend. I must say that I have pretty great neighbors. Aaron and I have been really loud for about two weeks now and I have had no complaints.

4) My favorite part was recording feedback. I took our hollow body Rickenbacker, laid it across the guitar amp, and tweaked settings and distortions until I got a sound I liked.

Mostly, the session was just very boring. We spent most of the time listening to the songs, and deciding stupid things like, “should we double that guitar?” or “does this need some piano?” and other mundane things like that. Most of the work that Aaron and I did on Saturday will end up mixed so low that it will tough to hear.

I am not there yet, but I am pretty close to hating all of these songs.