State Shirt

New collaboration song – Driving Forever

stateshirt — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:32:01 +0000

I just finished the song “Driving Forever”, the newest song on my upcoming collaboration album. Hope you like it.

Driving Forever – DOWNLOAD – Lyrics

Thanks to the great audio samples from Chris Fudurich, Brian Page, Jeremy Quinn, Tim Godwin, Terry Burton, Daniel Pisciotta, Dave Patrikios, and Jeremy Starpoli.

I’ve created a replica of my life in my mind.
A place where we can sleep with the lights off.
I’m no longer angry all of the time,
Lie down in the snow, I know i can die.

Follow me home. We are so alone.
We both want a simple life, but it’s not ours to know
Only a matter of time before you go
Love me or not, you still leave me low.

Summer is over, autumn leaves blow
My love for you is part regret and part sorrow
You’re crying at the rest stop again
In a foggy haze, this road it never ends
We’ll be driving forever.

Driving forever. This road has no end.
We can never be together again.
Only a matter of time before you go
Love me or not you still leave me low.

If you’re interested in getting involved in this Creative Commons music collaboration project, check out my Sounds Like You page.

emma, the studio watchdog.

stateshirt — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:08:58 +0000

She keeps an eye on my gear. Trying out a Bogner Alchemist (sounds amazing) and a Line 6 M9 (I like it).

Hotel Cafe show.

stateshirt — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:23:54 +0000

Thanks to everyone that came out to the show at Hotel Cafe. This was the first time that State Shirt songs were realized by a full band. And I was lucky to have recruited some amazing musicians.

Dave Patrikios, formerly of the popular NYC rock band The Realistics has been praised as “a fucking excellent drummer” and I was lucky enough to enlist him. Chris Candelaria, bassist with LA band Twinstar also joined on and stepped in with rock solid backing vocals. Michael Ashton joined us on keys and pretty much learned the songs overnight. And Jaime Kime, probably best known as the Grammy award-winning guitarist from Zappa Plays Zappa, stepped in as our official guitar wizard.

Here are some photos from the show… Hope to see you at the next one.

And here are a few pics of Song and Wager, featuring Dave Patrikios on drums. And his wife Mary O’Reilly made a guest appearance for an awesome cover of Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson’s “Candy”…

Spec Miata crash at Buttonwillow

stateshirt — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:13:57 +0000

This is the first time I’ve had contact on a race track. Someone up front missed a shift and we all bunched up. I tried to get the car stopped but didn’t really have anywhere to go. Neck is sore, car has a bent frame (in front of the front suspension). After spending some time removing some bent brackets and broken plastic bits, it does look like it will live to see another race day.

Live Looping Video – Time to Go

stateshirt — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:29:33 +0000

Recorded this one a few months back. Set up four cheapo digital cameras and recorded a rehearsal of the song “Time to Go”. All sounds created live, nothing prerecorded.

3rd place finishes at Willow Springs!

stateshirt — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:40:39 +0000

Holy shit I am tired. That was one totally packed weekend of racing in the Willow Springs heat! I ran in two classes (Spec Miata and ITA) which means there was virtually no downtime—I was either in the car on the track or preparing the car for the track. I did manage to get to the track early enough to realize that the desert is quite beautiful in the morning. Though after it hits 100° I start to forget about how beautiful I thought it was.

Surprisingly I managed to earn myself four podium finishes! Saturday: Finished 3rd in the Spec Miata race. Finished 3rd in the ITA race. Sunday: Again finished 3rd in the Spec Miata race. Again finished 3rd in the ITA race. So the 3rd place Spec Miata finishes weren’t much of an accomplishment… in addition to finishing 3rd I was also 2nd to last. That’s what I get in a 4 car field. But the ITA races were a battle between 8 cars, so I’m pretty happy with my 3rd place finishes there.

With so few cars at this event the in-car videos aren’t exactly that interesting… I had one or two lap battles with a few cars and then was pretty much on my own for the rest of the races. So I won’t post any full races but here are some highlights. Luckily no spins but no record lap times either.

We Love the Remix Culture

stateshirt — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:28:07 +0000

I love derivative works! And here are some derivative works that have been created recently that are very good. All of these remixes of State Shirt songs are courtesy of the remixers on ccMixter.

Solid from first note to last. “This is on the Stairs” by Neurowaxx is chosen as ccMixter Editor’s Pick. A mashup of my song “This is Old” and “Passing on the Stairs” by The Starry Tides.
Neurowaxx – This is on the Stairs

DoKashiteru delivers yet another great remix with this lush version of Computer:
DoKashiteru – Computer

Here’s a very cool progressive house remix of This is Old by nero.
nero – This is Old (Nero mix)

Minimal and simple electronica, yet very nice remix of my song “Life Isn’t Everything”.
metallius – One of These Days

Ok, one more! Artemis Strong kicks your ears in the ass with this unconventional and challenging mix. Very cool.
Artemis Strong – Conway Station Road (North Conway Mix)

Any other new remixes that should be posted up here? Comment below and let me know!

Electronic “Disappointed” cover

stateshirt — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 02:27:06 +0000

I just finished recording a cover of Electronic’s “Disappointed”. I had never even heard the original song until about a month ago. Hell I had never even heard of the band. But there was something really good at the core of this song and I wanted to try a version of my own.

In case you also didn’t know, Electronic were an “alternative dance group formed by New Order singer and guitarist Bernard Sumner and ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr.” Thanks Wikipedia. I’m a fan of both New Order and Johnny Marr. Not sure how I missed this band? The track “Disappointed” is from 1992 and made a dent on US charts, and even features Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys on vocals. Though I guess I can see how I missed this song–terrible early 90’s bands like UB40, Snow and Color Me Badd really soured me on pop music at the time. But this Electronic song was fun to dig into.

Here’s my version of Electronic’s “Disappointed”. Click below to play. Hope you like it:

Disappointed – Lyrics

If you could cover a song, what would it be? What other songs should I cover?

And just for fun, here’s the original (and strange) video from 1992. Primitive computer graphics, Neil Tennant looking bored, some dude holding a giant gold sphere. Enjoy

Willow Springs Raceway next weekend!

stateshirt — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:42:40 +0000

Holy shit, I’m finally going to be able to once again terrorize other race car drivers. I was out of commission for a few months. Motor was dead, now I’ve got a fresh one. Rear differential sucked ass, now I have a better one. This terrible race car driver will be out at Willow Springs raceway with my Spec Miata next weekend. If you want to witness this rookie’s sorry attempt at “racing”, come out on September 25th and/or 26th. Races will be held throughout the day. I’ll be racing Spec Miata and ITA. Spec Miata races are at 1pm, ITA at 2pm. Come on out, have a beer and watch the races.

Willow Springs Raceway
3500 75th St W, Rosamond, CA

Spec Miata Races – Sat 9/25 and Sun 9/26 – 1:00PM
ITA Races – Sat 9/25 and Sun 9/26 – 2:00PM

Map:

View Larger Map

Just washed the car to get ready for the race weekend. Though I’ll will likely go off track within a few minutes of arriving and dirty the thing up again. At least it looks all pretty now.

Live looping improvisation with Echoplex Digital Pro

stateshirt — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:40:32 +0000

Here is a looping improv I recorded yesterday.

My live setup is constantly evolving, but I do tend to keep a few things as part of my basic arsenal: two Gibson/Oberheim Echoplex Digital Pro units, a Line 6 DL4 delay modeler and expression pedal, Line 6 AM4, Boss DF-2, Line 6 Echo Park, el cheapo Tapco mixer, and a Behringer FCB1010.

This video has a pedal/foot cam for the people who have been asking about my looping setup… Anyone have any other questions about the setup or looping in general? Please comment below!