Pure Analog Syrup - A Remix

I rode my bike this morning and the trails were beautiful. The weather has been cooling down and I'm noticing that some of leaves are just starting to change. I wrote Green Relief at the start of this year when winter was starting and I was itching for the warm Spring weather to come. Thinking about the weather swinging the other direction and the amount of precious daylight getting smaller and smaller, I listened back to it for the sake of nostalgia and I wanted to make a few changes. I took out the percussion and the piano, opting for smooth, purely electronic sounds to play up the element of "rich analog syrup" that I love in the older synths. Hope you enjoy the subtle changes.

Meteor Shower

Nature puts on the best shows, sometimes. A few weeks ago, there was a late night meteor shower visible from my house. I was working late in the studio and recorded this ambient environment with the mysteries of space in my thoughts. I'd recommend headphones to get the full benefit of floating in an extraterrestrial vacuum.

Saucer Rise

I've made straight ahead rock/roots/pop/folk/? music for a long time. I love the pure perfection of a 2-3 minute pop or honky tonk classic where everything just clicks into place so well that you are compelled to play it a few times in succession. From the Everly Bros to the early Who singles to a fat southern soul slice of O.V. Wright, hitting the listener hard and getting out before they know it is the name of the game.

These potent little pre-wrapped gems are great-- they take all of your attention, elevate your blood pressure and pretty much obliterate your troubles with their intoxicating mojo, at least temporarily. However, I've always found them to be a bit distracting if you're trying to do something like concentrate at work, read a magazine or follow a complicated recipe when cooking a big dinner (ok, maybe that's a stretch).

My workdays consist of computer oriented tasks like writing, editing, web stuff, research, emails--basically, communicating thoughts or soaking them up. For this sort of thing, listening to prime songwriting doesn't work for me because it completely breaks my concentration. I listened to jazz and classical music for years, but I really got into ambient and dub music a few years back and really grew to love it both in and out of work. Ambient music is not designed to grab you like a killer song, but it can alter your perception of your environment, encourage a productive and contemplative state or provide great "sonic design" for your surroundings, like an Eames chair in a home office with superior Feng Shui.

I'm not claiming that this ambient piece will do all of those things, but feel free to listen to it when you're concentrating on something else. The piece unfolds over 5 minutes, and I was thinking about a slowly evolving event, like perhaps a sunrise. I used a vaguely similar sonic palette to Evening Porch Bugs, and I'm still exploring that space with this one.

I've included some beautiful images that my wife took of the bridge that connects East Nashville to downtown. The light of the sun looks otherworldly on the rough metal structure.

Happy Father's Day!

Well, the first official day of summer is here for 2009. It's smoking hot down here in NC, and it's Father's Day. This one is just a single guitar track (the background pad is just a tweaked reverb), because much needed yard work and the riding of bicycles took precedence over indoor activities. I wish I had an easy to upload pic from my childhood with my dear old dad, but maybe it's best in this case to use your imagination and create your own personal image of childhood nostalgia.

PCH 1

Last April, my wife Ellen and I had the pleasure of driving the Pacific Coast Highway. I was on tour on the West coast, and we rented a car to drive between shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The road was closed due to a brush fire about 2 hours south of Monterrey, so we were able to enjoy Big Sur from both directions.

A phenomenal photographer, my wife documented our trip with her Diana camera. Unfortunately, much of the film was damaged in processing--camera places just don't do much film anymore, I guess. These are some of the few surviving shots.

You can see much more of her wonderful work on her flickr page.

click to see the full size images

If the trip had a soundtrack, it might have sounded something like this:

Evening Porch Bugs

I'm happy to be recording music again, thanks to my new studio setup. A spent computer monitor pushed me to do what I've been meaning to do for a while, which is completely rethink and replace much of my gear. It's not a decision to be rushed. So now, I'm staying busy scaling a new learning curve for my new software (Apple Logic) and getting used to using a Mac again, and I love it.

I've been hanging out on the porch a lot lately in the evenings, enjoying the noises of the forest. If you close your eyes on a quiet evening, it's amazing the music you'll hear. So much great textural complexity and ambience is created on a deep and wide "stereo field."

Here's a sonic collage inspired by porch music that I've recorded using entirely electronic means--primarily synths and samplers (from Reason software) treated and "played" with various effects. It's meant to evoke an environment, with an emphasis on ambience over structure. I recommend headphones for the full effect.

Ahhh, summer is almost here :)

Joe Romeo and the Orange County Volunteers: a Shout Out

The Joe Romeo and the Orange County Volunteers self-titled release is officially out this week. I realize this post could easily be filed in the shameless self promotion category, as I played lead guitar and helped with the arrangements and sounds for the sessions, in addition to supporting the songs as an Orange County Volunteer. However, the unmastered roughs have been in regular rotation at my house for nearly a year (hey, I've got to check my work!), and I'm still excited about the songs and performances. The music still sounds fresh and cohesive to me after numerous listens.

Joe gets a lot of comparisons to Springsteen and Hawks-era Dylan, and rightfully so, but my personal perspective on his music--and the way that I've always approached it--is that it is a combination of a mid to late 60's West Coast sound crossed with a New York raw simplicity. Essentially, I find it to be a nice marriage of Arthur Lee's Love and NYC's Television. I had a lot of fun recording with the great band--Rock Forbes on the drums, Alex Bowers on the keys, and Mitch Rothrock and Anthony Lener taking turns on the bass. The whole recording was tracked and mixed in 6 full days by the tasteful yet sonically sleazy Rick Miller (Southern Culture on the Skids) at my favorite local studio, Kudzu Ranch. Dave Harris from Studio B did the mastering.

Give it a listen on Joe's website.