in case you appreciate awesome things…
Here’s not one, but two awesome things I’ve recently come across.
Awesome thing #1!
If you have any use for free sound effects, samples, drum loops, audio whatevers.. and if you like them to be all three kinds of free (royalty, copyright, and just free).. and if you like websites that are actually nice n’ user-friendly with good searchability and are not ugly.. and if you like the idea of a cool community project by fellow music/sound people who all contribute original audio samples for anyone to use.. you have to check out SOUNDSNAP!
Awesome thing #2!
Has anyone seen Stop Making Sense by the Talking Heads? Man, I gotta. Check out this awesome weird interview with David Byrne:
(brought to us by Tim, friend of the show).
Bonus Awesome Things:
For Emma, Forever Ago (Bon Iver)
Music is for falling in love with.
And I am falling in love with this album by Bon Iver. It’s becoming my life’s soundtrack (when I’m not making my own soundtrack, that is).
“Flume” and “Skinny Love” are especially dreamy (and I mean that in just the way a schoolgirl from the 50s would say it).
[Skinny Love MP3]
Says his label: “Bon Iver (pronounced: bohn eevair; French for “good winter” and spelled wrong on purpose) is a greeting, a celebration and a sentiment. […]
“It wasn’t planned. The goal was to hibernate. Vernon moved to a remote cabin in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin at the onset of winter. He lived there alone for three months, filling his days with wood splitting and other chores around the land. This solitary time slowly began feeding a bold, uninhibited new musical focus. The days slowly evolved into nights filled with twelve-hour recording blocks, breaking only for trips on the tractor into the pines to saw and haul firewood, or for frozen sunrises high up a deer stand. All of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and guilt that had been stock piled over the course of the past six years, was suddenly purged into the form of song.”
(Merci to the wonderful Doron Diamond for persuading me to listen to this).
Demetri Martin = Comedic Genius
By “comedic genius” I don’t merely mean he’s a genius at comedy. I mean he’s a genius who is also comedic. I wouldn’t normally post something just because I find it funny, but I make exceptions for geniuses and artists. Demetri Martin in his BBC special, “If I,” is just brilliant on all counts. I’ve never seen anything like it, especially from a comedian. Anyway, he’s my new favorite.
And I found “If I” on the YouTubes! So here:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
Songs To Play At My Funeral
So it appears I’m going to be on a soundtrack to an upcoming indie film, ‘Songs to Play at my Funeral’ by Nickolas Rossi. From what I can tell, it’s sort of a This-American-Life-esque exploration of breakups, love and loss. It looks pretty interesting. I’m excited to see it in its entirety, regardless of my soundtrack inclusion. He’s got a bunch of clips up on his Youtube channel if you should wish to check it out.
Here’s a rough clip he just put together for me (featuring my cover of ‘Waiting For a Superman‘) to give me a sense of what he’s going for. He gave me permission to blog about it but insists it is a “very rough draft!” And I insist the same of the music! I’ll be recording a better version soon, though, so don’t worry your pretty little head.
I’ve also promised him some originals, which is great, because it’s exactly the push I need to get over this stupid artistic paralysis I’ve been experiencing. From the sounds of the soundtrack so far, my diddies will be in very good company, so I can hardly pass up the priviledge. Anyway, stay tuned.
Me, The Moaners, and Stuff.
Have I told you guys lately that I love you?
It still surprises me, the capacity for people I’ve never met to care as much as they do. All asking me what I’m up to and where the hell I’ve disappeared to and if I’m okay. I’m very okay, and thank you so much for asking! But I thought I better do one of these boring update-posts because, as many of you know, I’m a very lazy emailer (seriously, why do you think I started a blog in the first place?). So lets get down to some news.
I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned this already, but I joined a really (really) cool band not long ago (still yet to be named). I’m playing drums in it, mostly, for now, which I love, because that’s what I always wanted to do before I ever picked up a guitar. I’ll save most of my bragging about us for when we have something to show for it in the form of recorded music, but just trust me, we are good. At least we’re going to be. I’m allowed to be all Ron Burgandy conceited-like in this case, too, because I’m not really talking about myself. It’s Jon who writes all the songs so far and he’s more than humble enough for all of us.
While I’m thinking of it, would any of you happen to be a bass player, bandless, and living in Helena? Please email me if so. Same goes for any players of the less common instruments, ie: banjo, cello, violin, whatever, in the area. We’d like to get this thing happening ‘asap’.
As such, I’ve admittedly not been focused on my own recordings much at all lately. I’m a little rusty on the drums yet and that simply won’t do. It’s been several years since I played for any extended period of time, and even then it was less than a year of fairly sporadic playing. So I’ve been focused on getting myself up to unrealistically high standards with that. And I was feeling pretty good, even a little cocky, about my progress, until last night’s Moaners show in Bozeman. Laura King (the drummer) proceeded to kick my ass, beat me into the ground and leave my ego for dead. More accurately and less dramatically, I am now immensely more inspired and motivated than ever to get ridiculously good. I barely took my eyes off her for the entire show. And I hope my unconscious did a good job of soaking it in because she was going too fast for my conscious mind to follow most of the time.
The Moaners, by the way, are two badass ladies from Chapel Hill, NC. The best way I can think to describe them would be, if you were to take the White Stripes, the Breeders, Cat Power, L7 (remember them?) Bono’s fly glasses, and I don’t know, some good sex mixed with a lot of southern charm, and fused it all together with voodoo magic, you’d get a close approximation to the Moaners. Here’s a decent review of their first record, Dark Snack
[audio:Moaners-Monkey-Tongue.mp3]
Monkey Tongue (MP3)
My only complaint about their live show was they could have mixed it up a bit more in terms of the pace of the songs (ie: had more of an ebb and flow between aggressive and mellow, because it all became a wall of aural-fatigue-noise after about the 8th really heavy fast song in a row). Or maybe I’m just getting old… But no, I’ve always had low tolerance for poorly-thought-out setlists by musicians not putting themselves in the audience’s shoes (which reminds me! I’m going to see Built to Spill in September, and I’m really looking forward to it, but dear god, I hope they don’t pull the whole 30 minute solo-jam thing at the end again. That was uncool). Anyway, I still enjoyed the Moaners’ show immensely and won’t hesitate to go see them again next time they come around. Better yet, maybe we’ll be opening for them next time the come around… Damn, I need to to go drill-sargent on my own ass with the drumming before I’d even consider putting myself in that situation.
Anyway, moving along. In less recent news, our chevy, the one I got in the accident with awhile ago, finally died on me on the flippin’ interstate a couple weeks back. So that’s one of my other excuses for getting no work done on my album lately. I’ve been car-hunting every day, researching every potential car’s reputation and (bla bla boring stuff you don’t care about) long story short, we finally got a great car yesterday and are quite relieved (there is no public transit system worth speaking of in this very spread-out town, and been between 93 and 103 degrees for going on a couple weeks now, so don’t even start with me about being a wuss for needing a car).
The job search marches on. I’ve been getting some interviews, even got a couple job offers on the spot and am waiting to hear back from a couple others, but they’re all pretty crappy prospects so far. Nice people, but shitty pay, and since I can somewhat afford to be picky and take my time, I am. Luckily none of the jobs I’m actually considering need an answer right away. I have my hopes set on this one job that actually seems decent (working for the Catholic church of all places, as their newsletter researcher / editor / office assistant), but they don’t start interviews till after the 27th. So please, if you would be so kind, think a happy thought for me on that. It will help. Prayer works (not likely in the bearded old man granting wishes like some kind of insane Communist genie sort of way, but definitely in some sort of way). I’ll pray you back, I promise. Just tell me what for and I’ll do it. (Believe it or not that pun wasn’t intended).
What else… Well, thanks to some rather generous tips recently (one way-too-generous one in particular, Jan in Germany), I am this close to letting myself buy the midi keyboard I’ve my eye on for months. Once I have that I can start playing with Garageband a lot more easily, and have a lot more sounds and functions to play with, which will be great incentive for me to get my ass in gear with writing & recording new stuff.
Also, I’m picking up another webcam tonight to try out. Fingers crossed this one doesn’t suck like the last one I tried (and ended up sending back). That’ll mean new Youtube videos coming soon. It’s getting to be a ridiculously long hiatus.
Lastly… not really ‘news’, but this might be of interest to a few. I started a Tumblr blog a little while ago, for those of you (probably all of you) who didn’t notice when I added it to The Visible Reaches of My Omnipresence. Basically it’s an aggregate of all my favorites from various sites. It automatically posts anything new I bookmark or favorite each day in a blog format, and sometimes I manually post websites and images to it that I find weird/cool/funny/meaningful. It’s pretty nifty. So if you want to be all creepy and weird and peek over my shoulder as I surf the interwebs… now you can. Or if you just recognize the fact that I have impeccable taste in everything, and you want to get in on all my awesome finds (understandable) you can do that too. thebrooke.tumblr.com
Other than that… things, stuff, people, deer in front yard, Harry Potter, Why We Fight, yard sale, cat fiasco, insane (sane) poetry, Thank You Thank You, I Will I Will, magic drawing, preminitory dreams, new friends, old friends, neverending heat-wave, more things, more stuff, new perspectives, what not and what have you.
That be all for now. Carry on as if you’re normal. :)