second section of guitar overdubs is done. after all the fucking around, i stuck with less is more, but i'm going to convert one of the counter-melodies into a vocal part, instead.
vocals? yeah. i think i'm going to get back to them, but generally release the material in instrumental form, as well. i know what it's like to enjoy a piece of music and despise the singer, so i'll provide that option.
i do consider myself handy enough with words, but i'm not a poet and have never aspired to be one. for all my rambling about the sanctity of art for art's sake, i'm pretty harsh on poetry as being pretty much useless. see, it strikes me either as a pretty base and unimaginative form of expression or as the height of pretension, with almost no middle ground. i'm more interested in observational writing.
but, maybe observational writing is sort of like poetry and i'm just being semantic. maybe it's actually the middle ground i seek. this could go around in circles for a while, so i'll be clear on the line i'm drawing; you can attach that line to different concepts as you see fit. the difference is in getting an idea across vs mentally masturbating around the language of a turn of phrase. the more obfuscated and layered your statement is, the less valuable the statement becomes. development is key in getting a point across, but the point is getting across the point, and i like to be as clear and straight to it as i can be. if you need a book to explain your poem, you've failed at communicating a message and might as well be just jerking off in the corner by yourself.
to me, this whole dialogue is a big part of what punk rock is really about.
it's not really a break. i've always used vocals, i've just jumped from using them liberally to using them sporadically, and it was mostly because i just didn't have anything i wanted to get across in the medium. if i had something to say, i would - and did. i actually think i can trace this decision back to about '06 or so, meaning it was only really in the early mid 00s that i mostly shunned vocals (although, again, it was never total). it's just that i have very little completed work to show for myself since '05.
anyways.
systems collapse is being stuck in the middle of an alley closing in on all sides. so, let the factories turn to rust and let the buildings fall apart. if you need me, i'll be rocking out with the horn section...
Monday, May 19, 2014
deathtokoalas
i still remember sitting hunched over on my bed when i was fourteen and fifteen and sixteen and seventeen, transcribing soundgarden tabs to standard tuning and wrenching my hands inside out actually playing them. this one's in standard tuning. burden in my hand was one i remember being particularly weird to play. that might be the best practice you can give a kid to get their hands going around.
with fell on black days, it was that off the wall solo (and those harmonies at the end) that was fun to play along with, because the chemistry between kim and chris on the track is so deep that it gets across through a mass manufactured tape played on a cheap ghettoblaster. there's only maybe two or three songs that i know of like this, where you can really channel the emotion of the track just by playing along with it.
the guitar just turns into this electrified monster, and the guitar trance suddenly takes over.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
kim's stuff isn't that hard to learn, really, if you're coming into it with enough dexterity. it's a specific style, you just need to get your fingers and mind into it and most of it comes out pretty naturally because it's mostly just all tremoloing through pentatonics. i always wondered if that wonky guild of his was initially a way to get a zappaesque sg thing going on.
but it's a lot of fun to play.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
something i used to do back in the day was just run chromatically up and down the neck. i spent a brief period trying to be an impressionist jazz punk guitar teacher by just throwing all the theory out the window and teaching kids to work directly with semitone intervals. the idea was to warp their brains into rejecting western tonality and understanding the instrument as a kind of matrix of notes, in which they could build their own patterns.
none of the kids lasted long, but they did get their fingers moving quickly. see, to me, that's the important thing - being able to move your fingers with enough control to be able to create what you hear in your head.
so, that helps. it's dry, though. kim would throw his beer at me, call me a wanker and tell me to go listen to steve vai. of course, i agree with him to a large extent. i kind of don't feel like soundgarden was meant to be studied.
but it does work.
Huzaifa Ahmed
dude what's wrong with koalas?
deathtokoalas
koalas need to be destroyed due to their cuteness.
J.C. Gleason
Aren't the majority of Soundgarden songs in drop D? I know that Black Hole Sun, Birth Ritual and Outshined are but I don't know.
deathtokoalas
soundgarden used alternate tunings in general, not just dropped d, although the low e was in fact often dropped down a little (sometimes down to c). a lot of the interesting voicings they came up with came from using open tunings.
J.C. Gleason
Really? Huh, you learn something new everyday.
deathtokoalas
yeah. the open tunings were a genre marker of alt rock in the 80s, but are really pretty standard through the history of folk rock.
Jackson P.
Black Hole Sun isn't in drop D....
deathtokoalas
i'm pretty sure it is, actually. it's been a long time, though.
this song isn't, though.
Jackson P.
Yeah you're right. But it's harder to play in drop d than whatever I originally learned IMO.
And yes, this is just in standard. Rather easy song as well.
Could've very well done without that last guitar solo though :/
deathtokoalas
bah. it's the solo that's the fun part to play....
J.C. Gleason
Not necessarily.
deathtokoalas
iirc, black hole sun is in drop-d specifically because it uses the lower two notes. you'd have to transpose it up at least a full tone (unless you're down a half step anyway, then a semi tone) to play it in standard tuning.
at that age, i couldn't be bothered to fuck with tunings. i had one of those ibanezes with the locking bridges and the thumb screws, which means i would have had to unlock the thing to take it in and out of dropped-d or open c or whatever else. that's why i retabbed all the weird tunings for standard tuning. i mentioned it's good for the hands, but it was also good for getting to know the fretboard.
Mathews Barbosa
true story
Djalma Reis
You....damn, you could stay in silence, but no!, you wrote this. You've shared this with us; gold we find through the night on the internet. Thank you very much.
Grease Munkee
why wouldnt you just tune to the song?
deathtokoalas
well, it was the ibanez. i didn't know what it was when i bought it (well, my dad bought it), i was like 12 at the time. i don't know if they still make these things or not, but they lock the tuning in place near the nut and then give you thumb screws near the bridge to tune with. the thumb screws only let you go up or down about a tone or so, then you need to unlock the system at the nut. it's an annoying process. and, if you want to play four or five songs in a row in an alternate tuning, you're going to be spending more time fiddling around with the guitar's hardware than actually playing.
the purpose of the system is to prevent tremolo/whammy players from going out of tune. it's the kind of thing people like steve vai, who use a lot of whammy bar, need to get through a set on stage; not the best guitar for kids playing with tunings.
i still remember sitting hunched over on my bed when i was fourteen and fifteen and sixteen and seventeen, transcribing soundgarden tabs to standard tuning and wrenching my hands inside out actually playing them. this one's in standard tuning. burden in my hand was one i remember being particularly weird to play. that might be the best practice you can give a kid to get their hands going around.
with fell on black days, it was that off the wall solo (and those harmonies at the end) that was fun to play along with, because the chemistry between kim and chris on the track is so deep that it gets across through a mass manufactured tape played on a cheap ghettoblaster. there's only maybe two or three songs that i know of like this, where you can really channel the emotion of the track just by playing along with it.
the guitar just turns into this electrified monster, and the guitar trance suddenly takes over.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
kim's stuff isn't that hard to learn, really, if you're coming into it with enough dexterity. it's a specific style, you just need to get your fingers and mind into it and most of it comes out pretty naturally because it's mostly just all tremoloing through pentatonics. i always wondered if that wonky guild of his was initially a way to get a zappaesque sg thing going on.
but it's a lot of fun to play.
(deleted post)
deathtokoalas
something i used to do back in the day was just run chromatically up and down the neck. i spent a brief period trying to be an impressionist jazz punk guitar teacher by just throwing all the theory out the window and teaching kids to work directly with semitone intervals. the idea was to warp their brains into rejecting western tonality and understanding the instrument as a kind of matrix of notes, in which they could build their own patterns.
none of the kids lasted long, but they did get their fingers moving quickly. see, to me, that's the important thing - being able to move your fingers with enough control to be able to create what you hear in your head.
so, that helps. it's dry, though. kim would throw his beer at me, call me a wanker and tell me to go listen to steve vai. of course, i agree with him to a large extent. i kind of don't feel like soundgarden was meant to be studied.
but it does work.
Huzaifa Ahmed
dude what's wrong with koalas?
deathtokoalas
koalas need to be destroyed due to their cuteness.
J.C. Gleason
Aren't the majority of Soundgarden songs in drop D? I know that Black Hole Sun, Birth Ritual and Outshined are but I don't know.
deathtokoalas
soundgarden used alternate tunings in general, not just dropped d, although the low e was in fact often dropped down a little (sometimes down to c). a lot of the interesting voicings they came up with came from using open tunings.
J.C. Gleason
Really? Huh, you learn something new everyday.
deathtokoalas
yeah. the open tunings were a genre marker of alt rock in the 80s, but are really pretty standard through the history of folk rock.
Jackson P.
Black Hole Sun isn't in drop D....
deathtokoalas
i'm pretty sure it is, actually. it's been a long time, though.
this song isn't, though.
Jackson P.
Yeah you're right. But it's harder to play in drop d than whatever I originally learned IMO.
And yes, this is just in standard. Rather easy song as well.
Could've very well done without that last guitar solo though :/
deathtokoalas
bah. it's the solo that's the fun part to play....
J.C. Gleason
Not necessarily.
deathtokoalas
iirc, black hole sun is in drop-d specifically because it uses the lower two notes. you'd have to transpose it up at least a full tone (unless you're down a half step anyway, then a semi tone) to play it in standard tuning.
at that age, i couldn't be bothered to fuck with tunings. i had one of those ibanezes with the locking bridges and the thumb screws, which means i would have had to unlock the thing to take it in and out of dropped-d or open c or whatever else. that's why i retabbed all the weird tunings for standard tuning. i mentioned it's good for the hands, but it was also good for getting to know the fretboard.
Mathews Barbosa
true story
Djalma Reis
You....damn, you could stay in silence, but no!, you wrote this. You've shared this with us; gold we find through the night on the internet. Thank you very much.
Grease Munkee
why wouldnt you just tune to the song?
deathtokoalas
well, it was the ibanez. i didn't know what it was when i bought it (well, my dad bought it), i was like 12 at the time. i don't know if they still make these things or not, but they lock the tuning in place near the nut and then give you thumb screws near the bridge to tune with. the thumb screws only let you go up or down about a tone or so, then you need to unlock the system at the nut. it's an annoying process. and, if you want to play four or five songs in a row in an alternate tuning, you're going to be spending more time fiddling around with the guitar's hardware than actually playing.
the purpose of the system is to prevent tremolo/whammy players from going out of tune. it's the kind of thing people like steve vai, who use a lot of whammy bar, need to get through a set on stage; not the best guitar for kids playing with tunings.
when i was about 15, my aunt gave me a $20 gift certificate at a local music store. it's the thought that counts, but the truth is she really had no idea that $20 doesn't go very far in a guitar store, and i didn't really need any more strings.
so, i took a look through the tab books. it was the mid 90s. i didn't need anybody to teach me how to play nirvana songs, that was easy enough. i'd already taught myself most of siamese dream (with a little help), and the best parts of superunknown, but would have probably jumped on either if they were there. they weren't. so, i grabbed the tab book for the first candlebox disc...
this one was a lot of fun to work through.
so, i took a look through the tab books. it was the mid 90s. i didn't need anybody to teach me how to play nirvana songs, that was easy enough. i'd already taught myself most of siamese dream (with a little help), and the best parts of superunknown, but would have probably jumped on either if they were there. they weren't. so, i grabbed the tab book for the first candlebox disc...
this one was a lot of fun to work through.
it's funny sometimes how you're playing a harmony over a chord change and it sounds familiar and you can't figure it out and then you do. :).
"you're sharper these days, roll on security."
have to blame hendrix for this in the end, though. plausibly through srv as an intermediate.
but, here's the thing: 6s, 7s, 9s, whatever - even 3s - rock music just needs to get beyond the 5s. don't tell me you can't punk up a major 7th. i've got a list for you. i do. that's what really made 90s rock sound so much more interesting - the simple fact that, harmonically, it really actually was more interesting.
"you're sharper these days, roll on security."
have to blame hendrix for this in the end, though. plausibly through srv as an intermediate.
but, here's the thing: 6s, 7s, 9s, whatever - even 3s - rock music just needs to get beyond the 5s. don't tell me you can't punk up a major 7th. i've got a list for you. i do. that's what really made 90s rock sound so much more interesting - the simple fact that, harmonically, it really actually was more interesting.
also, why did they have to cut the track? it's jarring.
uploading me, myself & the time i thought this was a good idea (acoustic demo) to soundcloud
so, here's today's track.
=============
this was never meant to be released as it is, although i had some ideas about putting together an acoustic ep of tour material. neither touring nor the accompanying ep followed. but this is hanging out on the old hard drive, and it has some fucking charm to it, if i might say so myself. so, it gets to be the first up to my little lo-fi side site.
at the time (early 2002), i was working on some psychedelic pop demos with a friend of mine. i was loading the tracks up with all kinds of overdubs and effects and other fun things, but the possibility of performing the material live with just the two of us (without stooping to the level of backing tapes or, worse, those fucking horrid loop pedals that make everything sound like steve reich after a fucking lobotomy), was pretty much completely impossible. these songs were solid - they could hold their own on an acoustic. i also realized that acoustic music was on it's way up, so doing a little tour as a two-person harmonized folk duo was the way to go. this track, however, was written in a bit of a post-punk style and needed to be rearranged for acoustic guitar in order to have that idea work itself out.
so, i just demoed this up for the other guy (the vocals are just there to drive the track along; the other guy wrote them, not me) to get the point across. he didn't like any of this - not the touring as an acoustic folk duo idea, not the rearrangement on the track, nothing. in 2002. oops? it's the story of my musical career....
the track is full of messy playing, because i'm trying to sing at the same time and the vocals are rhythmically contrasted against the guitars - but mostly because nobody was supposed to hear this. i'll be re-recording this over the next few months, as i clean up my writing from the period.
https://soundcloud.com/deathtokoalas/me-myself-and-the-time-i-tried-to-convince-the-other-guy-it-was-a-good-idea
=============
this was never meant to be released as it is, although i had some ideas about putting together an acoustic ep of tour material. neither touring nor the accompanying ep followed. but this is hanging out on the old hard drive, and it has some fucking charm to it, if i might say so myself. so, it gets to be the first up to my little lo-fi side site.
at the time (early 2002), i was working on some psychedelic pop demos with a friend of mine. i was loading the tracks up with all kinds of overdubs and effects and other fun things, but the possibility of performing the material live with just the two of us (without stooping to the level of backing tapes or, worse, those fucking horrid loop pedals that make everything sound like steve reich after a fucking lobotomy), was pretty much completely impossible. these songs were solid - they could hold their own on an acoustic. i also realized that acoustic music was on it's way up, so doing a little tour as a two-person harmonized folk duo was the way to go. this track, however, was written in a bit of a post-punk style and needed to be rearranged for acoustic guitar in order to have that idea work itself out.
so, i just demoed this up for the other guy (the vocals are just there to drive the track along; the other guy wrote them, not me) to get the point across. he didn't like any of this - not the touring as an acoustic folk duo idea, not the rearrangement on the track, nothing. in 2002. oops? it's the story of my musical career....
the track is full of messy playing, because i'm trying to sing at the same time and the vocals are rhythmically contrasted against the guitars - but mostly because nobody was supposed to hear this. i'll be re-recording this over the next few months, as i clean up my writing from the period.
https://soundcloud.com/deathtokoalas/me-myself-and-the-time-i-tried-to-convince-the-other-guy-it-was-a-good-idea
wow, soundcloud. unique usernames? what is it, 1997?
and, it's beyond surreal that they're forcing artists to pay to turn off comments. i remember back when that was soundcloud's gimmick. comments! at the precise point you're thinking them! because the world gives a fuck!
it's even the reason i've avoided it all these years.
so, fuck these guys.
but trendy people are trendy. it's the right place for these "lo-fi" demos.
https://soundcloud.com/deathtokoalas/
and, it's beyond surreal that they're forcing artists to pay to turn off comments. i remember back when that was soundcloud's gimmick. comments! at the precise point you're thinking them! because the world gives a fuck!
it's even the reason i've avoided it all these years.
so, fuck these guys.
but trendy people are trendy. it's the right place for these "lo-fi" demos.
https://soundcloud.com/deathtokoalas/
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