EUTOXITA BLOG

Of Drummers and Drum Machines

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:01:00 +0000

Haven't Eutoxita-blogged in a bit. I've been busy, busy, busy... and I've been spending my blogging moments with Naked in Hindsight. My Eutoxita blog is very jealous. Saucer of milk... table two...

So, production-wise, the next Eutoxita record is still in pre-production, just mostly in my head. Most of my musical energy has--quite happily--been pouring into the phoenix-like continuance of Floodwatch after Charlie's sudden departure. Which leads us into today's blog.

Much has been made over the years regarding synthesizers and drum machines and their replacement of humans. In the vein of both great sci-fi (iRobot, for example) and sketchy corporate/union battles, the introduction of electronic instruments caused a bit of a stir in the music community, particularly in the semi-lucrative session world. (Check out this NPR piece by Mitch Myers - "John Henry: Drummer vs. Drum Machine". Although it's more about turntables than it is drum machines, the idea is the same).

When Charlie left, David and I had a big decision to make: we could look for another drummer and risk the mojo we had going in our working relationship, or we could take a different kind of risk altogether. We took the second route and I hit ebay for an Akai MPC2000, a late-1990's vintage sampling drum machine. The Akai is extra hip, as it has ties to the guy who invented the sampling drum machine (which some felt threatened to put drummers out of work), Roger Linn. The uber-hipness of it, though, is that it (and its newer versions) have been a mainstay in hip-hop. Just search for "MPC2000" on YouTube and you'll see what I mean.

As regular readers (yeah...) know, David and I have a recording-only side project called My Father's Guns. You can get the back story on our collective dive into beat world in that site's blog archive. Suffice it to say that we've been abusing software-based rhythm machines and loops in MFG and decided to hijack that piece of the puzzle into Floodwatch. I tinkered with just rolling out my old laptop, but the poor thing is just too unstable. The MPC was designed to take the abuse of stage-based entertainment, so that's the horse we bet on.

So, yeah... we've been rethinking Floodwatch material with beats and loops in order to go out live again, and just to continue as a band period. Every time we finish the beats for a song and play over it, we get more excited. This is not Kraftwerk. We're grooving hard over these beats. And, perhaps most importantly, we've kept the Floodwatch sound going, which means we get atmospheric and vibey, but we also get Heavy.

One way we've kept things out of robot land is simply to keep things as live as possible. The MPC has this weird, funky, organic feel to it anyway, but we do as little timing correction as possible, and we have a pretty cool way to program. We set a tempo, let the click count us in, and David plays and sings while I play the beats on the MPC's pads. That's it. No ta-da. No ancient Chinese secret... but, man, does it make a difference. No auto-filling twos and fours here - I groove along to David's performance and it shows in the final beats.

A perfect example is a song we finished re-vamping last night, "War Child." This is one of the heavier Floodwatch tracks - it just oozes Sabbath-y sludge. On the original CD--and at live performances--Charles played this great Tool-like triplet beat on the final chorus. We've really tried to avoid just programming his original beats into the machine but this was one place where that flavor would be sorely missed. After David and I got the basic beats together, I slowed the machine down (hey, c'mon... that's a tough pattern to rock out on little rubber pads), made sure the timing correction was off, and went for it. A few overdubbed cymbal crashes later, and it had just the right stink to it.

If you want to check it out... come hear us at the Barley Pub in Dover, NH on Wednesday, August 25th at 9 PM. We're opening for When Geeks Unite.

Fun with Linkin Park

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:07:00 +0000

I haven't blogged in a while, and a lot of my blogging had turned to other musical items-- Floodwatch's evolution, etc.--besides my own music production. This one is back to my production/engineering... just not on my own music.

I got a MySpace e-mailer telling me that Linkin Park wanted me on their new album. Yup, it's a contest. Everybody and their dog got the same e-mail. I've never been a giant Linkin Park fan. I don't dislike them, I've just never gravitated to their music. Frankly, I barely listen to anything current unless it's a new release by a band I already like.

Having said all that, the Linkin Park contest holds great appeal for me. Here is a pretty popular band whose music I am only superficially acquainted with. The stems they give you are fairly minimal (along with somewhat cryptic notes from their engineer): all the vocals submixed, a keyboard pad part, a 16-bar drum machine loop, an outro piano part, and an outro drum part. Nothing was lined up, though everything was to tempo (135 bpm if you're counting). You can add anything you want except for vocals, and you can pretty much do what you like with the stems, as long as you keep it between two and six minutes in length.

I added my own keyboard parts, guitars, bass, and some sampled percussion and a drum machine beat or two. I sliced and diced the vocal tracks and got, well, creative with it. Essentially, my approach was the same as it always is--look to the vocal. One reason I didn't end up using the 16-bar drum machine loop they provided is that I just didn't hear it in relation to the rhythms I was vibing off of the vocal parts.

Anyway... you can check it our here.

Awesome Quote

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:26:00 +0000

"Maturity is the enemy of the rock musician." ~David Lowery

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/blogs/music/2009-06-29/cracker-david-lowery/

I've Seen the Future, and It Will Be...

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 03:59:00 +0000

I haven't been blogging as of late. Too much going on in both of my lives--educator and musician. Charlie quit Floodwatch. With all due respect to the guy, it's actually opened a whole new door for me and David, not that the creativity wasn't already there. My metaphor for our creative relationship is a faucet. It really is that easy to open the floodgates of the muse when we work together. Now, thanks to Charlie and a willing eBay seller, we are moving into the next phase as a two piece. Floodwatch used to be hard-rock-Americana-something. Now put all of that over hip-hop/techno/industrial-inspired beats and you have a flavor for where we're going.

Stay tuned.

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 03:38:00 +0000

The next phase of Floodwatch...

R.I.P. Dennis Hopper

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Sat, 29 May 2010 18:03:00 +0000

Apple Finally Comes Through... ish

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:08:00 +0000

With some prompting from CDBaby, trainwreck is FINALLY listed on iTunes!

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Mon, 17 May 2010 00:07:00 +0000

"I never rock da mic wit da pan'yhose..."

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Sun, 16 May 2010 23:49:00 +0000

Steadman taking a break to pen some lyrics.

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Sun, 16 May 2010 23:28:00 +0000

Tracking David's vocals @ North River Studio, engineer Charlie Farr.

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:29:00 +0000

R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio.

News...

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Fri, 14 May 2010 20:38:00 +0000

I just got back from Salem, NH... picked up 102 copies of The Cry of a Bird of Prey...

Jynxing My Muse

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Wed, 05 May 2010 01:36:00 +0000

As I prepare the third Eutoxita album, I find that song ideas are just pouring out of me. I pick up the mandolin... a few minutes later, there's a song. Grab the old Kent acoustic... a song... another. Sit down at the piano... chords flow like rain.

I hope my title is wrong.

Cracker

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Mon, 03 May 2010 00:04:00 +0000

When I grow up and learn how to write songs, I would love to push out some gems like Cracker's "Hey Bret (You Know What Time It Is)".

Bits 'n Pieces

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Sat, 01 May 2010 13:08:00 +0000

Hey there, fearless readers...

Sometime in the next two weeks, the second official EUTOXITA album, The Cry of a Bird of Prey will be released. The duplicator approved the audio masters (it’s a double-disc set) and should be notifying me soon with approval on the graphics. The second disc includes enhanced content. It’s a little clunky; I bought an old version of Macromedia Director 8 but couldn’t get Flash stuff together in time, so I fell back on an html interface. The disc includes a low-quality mov file of Nosferatu with my soundtrack embedded. It also includes my stop-motion short, Midnight Double Feature. I plan on selling it at a single-disc price, so all five of you who actually paid for a copy of trainwreck should be happy.

I have officially started the new EUTOXITA album. An acquaintance loved trainwreck but said, “Hey, where’s the country? You’ve got every style on there but country!” I offered that “When I Was a Child” is country influenced, but to no avail. I also explained that I can’t stand modern “country” and that brought us into talks of “the outlaws”—Cash, Hank Sr., Willie… Long story short, the first new song specifically written for this record* started as an old-school country waltz… and then got fed into the EUTOXITA filter. No Rascal Flats, mate. Think “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” meets Peter Gabriel.

I’ve made two other major decisions for this album. The first is that the record will, whenever possible, be a mixture of cinematic-soundscape-like textures and acoustic or rock-based instrumentation. This is where my voice (the writing one, not the singing one) has been going anyway; I’ve simply decided to be more intentional. The second is that a good portion (a third? half?) of the record will feature guest vocalists. I have, for example, already started writing a song for David Steadman (Floodwatch, MFG) to sing. It is neither Floodwatch nor MFG like in the least...

The working title of the album is voices inside outside.

*There is already one completed song that will go on the record. It was not, however, written specifically for the record.

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:51:00 +0000

Dropped The Cry of a Bird of Prey off at Superdups today...

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:58:00 +0000

Sunday night I got back to my roots and kicked some Emerson/Lord/Wakeman organ on one of the new Floodwatch tracks.

Wait... SOMEBODY GETS IT!!!

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:13:00 +0000

(scroll down after you click the link...)

http://www.leicesterbangs.co.uk/apr10-4.html

The reviews are in...

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:55:00 +0000

So... a few weeks ago, I sent a few copies of trainwreck to a promoter in the UK. Random much? there is a story behind it - I put the CD on CD Baby and companies came out of the woodwork to ask for my business. Anyhow... the reviews are here:

http://www.melodic.net/reviewsOne.asp?revnr=8540
http://hubbubuk.blogspot.com/
http://www.allgigs.co.uk/view/review/4735/Eutoxita_Trainwreck_Album_Review.html

All I can say is... I was right about my title...

Something for the 2.3 of You Who Read This Crap

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:16:00 +0000

Hey... haven't blogged in a while. Been very busy with the Enterprise - learning the new gear, software, etc. Also, I'm still working on the release-version of my Nosferatu soundtrack, The Cry of a Bird of Prey. Long story short, I wanted to add enhanced content to the second disc... and that's where the trouble started. I downloaded free programs to write auto-load code, etc. and everything kept leading to another download, and another... I kept following directions to a T and having the programs crap out. Finally, I ordered a used copy of Macromedia's Director... only to have the vendor crap out... leaving me to order a DIFFERENT copy from a DIFFERENT vendor. So... I am now teaching myself Director 8 Shockwave Studio (yes, I know it's old... but I'm poor and it will do the job). My goal is to have the CDs off to duplication within the next two weeks...

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 03:51:00 +0000

Captain's log, stardate 3.6.2010... Software for the new bridge currently installing... Phasers on 'funky'...

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:26:00 +0000

One last listening check in the car and now it's in the hands of the USPS. Not my most pro packaging, but it had to fit two CDs and a DVD...

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:33:00 +0000

MELLOTRON MAN... Ok, so I finished mixing all 14 of the original songs... but I just couldn't let go of a nagging doubt about having used synth choir and chimes on a couple songs... so I just finished replacing synth choir with me and synth chimes with demented backwards guitar... aaaahhhh... I feel much better...

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:02:00 +0000

Listening to last test playback of "He's Coming"...

noreply@blogger.com (J-Dub) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:48:00 +0000

The elusive guitar fish caught on film...