Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 04:41PM A really nice kid in Michigan who ordered a record put this pic up on Reddit. I think it's great how excited people are these days about vinyl, and it always feels good to receive positive feedback about something I've made.
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 08:23PM My old friend Scott Finlayson (the smiley guy sitting on the bottom step in the pic below) has started doing pages on his site for all his past bands. I saw this one today and had to share. I've been on a big nostalgia trip lately. Probably 'cause I'm creeping up on 40? Weeeeeeooooooohhh.
I think I wanna put together a dad-rock band. Like, literally.
Kickstand Live Archive by Kickstand Travolta
Friday, July 15, 2011 at 08:44PM For many years, I've been using Cubase to produce music at home. I think it's a really simple yet powerful application. I'd been running it on an old PC, alongside Reason for all my MIDI and loops and stuff.
This was a great setup with one major disadvantage. Being that it was a desktop computer, the entire rig was hard to transport. I started considering alternate applications that could run well on a laptop. I tried Cubase for the Mac and was underwhelmed. Logic had wonderful effects and eq's but didn't really seem that intuative.
I've been recorded by people using Pro Tools before but had never actually used it firsthand. Weighing all the options, it seemed like the way to go. I've got it all set up now - running Pro Tools 8 LE on my old white Macbook. So far, my feelings about it are mixed. I can tell already that the app combined with the mic pre's on the Mbox interface will artulate a decernable depth, and sound every bit as good as my old PC sound card, if not better. The 2 stock compressors are great, actually. It appears, however, that there's only one of each type of proximity and modulation effect included. This is surprising. Cubase provides at least 2 different verbs, delays, etc. right out of the box. I get that Avid wants you to buy plugins, but c'mon.
*Correction: This is incorrect. There are more effects available, I just didn't know where to look.*
Navigation and ease of use: it's a whole different language and it is taking some getting used to. I am not good with manuals and text tutorials - they lose my attention really quickly. Trial and error has always been my method of learning.
YouTube videos help. I'm going to watch some more now.
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 10:22AM Today we're making the trek down to October State Park in Massachusetts. We've gone down for the last few years to enjoy some camping with friends and to see some shows at an amazing venue called Tanglewood. It's really quite something, and affords us a luxury that we Canadians are not able to enjoy in our homeland - we can bring our own food and alcohol into the park.
I have a hard time understanding why this is such a no-no in our country. I suppose those in charge feel as though an event that allowed such behaviour would degenerate into an uncontrollable situation. I doubt that it would and I think Tanglewood is a great model and proof otherwise. It is an entirely civilized, family picnic type of affair (and this is the 4th of July, for feck's sake) and I see no reason that this could not exist in Canada.
Just not at Hip gigs. Otherwise, it'd be awesome.
Sunday, June 19, 2011 at 03:40PM I've been writing songs lately. This is a good thing. It's taken me some time to figure out how to be creative when I don't have a lot of free time, and when I do, I am usually not alone. I've got five or six new ones that I like.
It's been almost a year since my last solo gig. I had probably an album's worth of material that I'd been gigging with for awhile and then just sort of lost interest in those songs. The gigs became less fun because I wasn't excited by the material, and the feel of some of the arrangements was a bit off. Great players but the feel wasn't right.
I can't say exactly how this album will take shape, but I have some ideas. I know that it will have a water theme (concept album? maybe....) and will be much quieter than anything I've produced ever. This will be my help-you-get-to-sleep or late-night/early-morning driving record. I want it to be beautiful from start to finish and I want to create instrumental and field-recorded interludes to connect songs. So it sounds like a dream.
I've said too much. Here we go.
Sunday, June 12, 2011 at 06:15PM I was in a band in London called Kickstand Travolta. We'd been around for a few years by then, and had a pretty big following throughout southwestern Ontario. We were young and we were the hosts of the biggest parties around. Fun times.
A few years later the original lead guitar player, Barrett, died of a peanut allergy at a gig in Guelph. I had a particularly strong connection with Barrett, musical and otherwise. I named my son after him.
I found this old article from Chart Magazine today. It's a Sloan article where Jay Ferguson referenced us as an example of using retro influences in a blatant or tasteless way, specifically in terms of design and marketing. He wasn't necessarily wrong, but at the time we hated him for it. Ultimately, the dis probably helped us in terms of exposure. Since moving to Toronto, I've crossed paths with Jay socially a couple of times. I've never mentioned this old article.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 08:59PM I had a very unfortunate day today.
On my way to work in the early morning, I blew a tire. Turns out it couldn't be repaired, requiring that I purchase a whole new set. Then while on my afternoon drive, a mid-size delivery truck randomly backed into me and crunched the front driver's side quarter of the car. Our budget is pretty tight, so any unexpected expenses are hard to swallow.
It took a few hours to sort it all out. 2 flatbed tow trucks, a visit to the the police reporting center, rental vehicle arrangements, a trip to city hall to aquire a temporary parking permit and 3 bottles of Brooklyn Lager later, I am safely lounging in bed icing (or "corning" as it were, with a bag of frozen veggies) the knee I bashed on the bleachers of the ball diamond I sat by as I waited for roadside assistance to arrive to change the flat at 5:30 am this morning.
Right now, I am thinking these things:
- when did I become a grown up and how can this affliction be reversed and/or remedied?
- I might actually prefer winter temperatures to the stifling heat we experienced today. I'm sure this thought will be contradicted come November.
- even though today was a super-huge pain in the ass, I have a lot to be thankful for and was very happy to come home to a family that was equally as happy to receive me.
Perhaps none of this is interesting to you, but I feel better having written it.
G'night.
