so many new songs

we have so much new material that we are working with now that it is hard to keep track of it all. the rock opera has turned into a 25+ song beast, not all of which is even being used in the upcoming stage show. i'm still focused on mixing it down and right now getting some auxiliary instrumentation added on - horns, strings, etc. it's been a real bitch finding people to fill those roles, so i've now hit up my brother who lives in Ashland to pull out his rolodex of contacts and i will probably be making a trip up there in the next week or so to get it all nailed down. as it is, i am mostly happy with the material, though there are still a couple songs that need major overhauls in the instrumentation, as there are elements that simply make me cringe every time. plus, we gotta write and record the fucking overture and outroture (curtain call) still too!

for the stage production, i have an actual title - music director! - and i have being working with the actor/vocalists in the stage show, which is kind of a weird new thing for me. most of the "talent" is very good and capable, yet i never imagined that learning the material would be so challenging for the parties involved, nor that sheet music which clearly delineates the melodies and phrasing would be so potentially useful (cuz fuck no, they ain't no sheet music, ha!) while i have a natural advantage being the jerk that wrote the songs (and recorded all of the guide vocals already), i have really come to realize how much i appear to have developed my ear over the past few years, ahem - cuz this shit was all pretty easy for me, if i must say so myself. certainly, i never expected most of the male leads to hit some of the high notes, but i'll be damned, i certainly didn't expect some of the struggles i have encountered thus far. but again, most of the performers do indeed have what it takes, and at this point i think it is coming down to a situation of ego versus experience (or lack thereof, of the latter that is) with just a couple people involved. hopefully it will not come to the point that i will have to openly mock and snicker at certain performances in the actual run of the show that fail to do justice to the silly songs of which i have recorded and composed.

speaking of which, here are the performance dates of ORESTEIA FRACTUM:

Fri, Mar 9 8:00p - Opening Night
Sat, Mar 10 8:00p
Sun, Mar 11 2:00p
Fri, Mar 16 8:00p
Sat, Mar 17 8:00p
Sun, Mar 18 2:00p

Location: City College of San Francisco - Diego Rivera Theatre, San Francisco, CA
Tickets $15: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/224756

additionally, Tommi and I have been writing and rehearsing with M, our new band member, and coming with stuff very quickly. she is wonderful, incredibly creative and driven. it's good to have some new blood in the mix. plus she has been contributing to the rockpera as well, and i'll be damned if she doesn't a super strong ear as well. really knocking everything out like a pro.

we will be making our return to the stage and live debut with M on Thursday March 15 @ the Stork Club in Oakland, playing with a bunch of bands we've never heard of. we'll be playing a mix of reworked songs from PCN, a few pieces from the Oresteia rockpera, and several brand new things. and we're through being cool, btw. no more pandering to the hipsterati, ha!

as far as we know, Jimo is still off in that cult, living out in a commune somewhere in the desert. hopefully he is finding the spiritual fulfillment that he has been in search of.

recording everyday!

Been working on this "musical/rock opera" thing just about everyday for the past 3-4 weeks. It's called ORESTEIA FRACTUM, and it is an adaptation of the Oresteia by Aeschylus, written in...oh i dunno - here go check wikipedia for more information. Anyways, the long and the short of it is, back in October of last year, my acting teacher John Wilk mentioned that he would be putting together this big multi-media stage adaption this spring at the city college here in SF, and that he wasn't sure if he had found the right person(s) to do the music. On a lark, and because I needed something to do, I offered my services and quickly wrote and recorded demos for two songs using mostly lyrics that he had initially adapted from the text. While he did say that he liked them, he decided to go with someone else. Fast forward a couple of months later, and I get an email about a week after my last class asking if I would be interested in writing more pieces for the project.

I let the gears turn a bit and then started churning out songs that night. The project was designed to have twelve "songs," plus ten instrumental dance pieces (as there are to be dancers involved) which would still be handled by someone else. Oh, and there's an overture too. So after two and half weeks, I managed to pull together demos for the remaining ten songs, and that was with me being sick and out of commission for five days. I ended up salvaging one piece from this past summer from right before Jimo stopped rehearsing with us, and another was pulled from a scrapped intro to a newer PARAE song I had written back in August. Everything else was pretty much written in five minutes.

For the lyrics, I initially used my acting teacher's original script adaptation as a very basic guide, but I quickly located an online copy of the 19th century English translation of the original plays to directly pull lyrics and ideas. It has definitely been a very different experience to "adapt" lyrics rather than my usual routine.

Anyway, as soon as the songs were done being written and were ready to go into full production and recording, two things happened. Tommi got sick with a cold (which was then passed back to me, boo!), and then John asked if I could now do some of the instrumentals for the dance pieces, cause whomever was supposedly doing them got eaten by hamburger monsters. Now, John had already selected some "new agey" material as backup selections just in case, but after talking about it, we both agreed that if I went ahead and did the dance pieces as well, the entire piece would have a more unified feel. So I started churning out various instrumentals. About half are figured out, and Tommi and I are now working on the percussive based pieces. Still have no idea what we're going to do for the Overture. Anyway, it seems like every time I've got a handle on what needs to get done for this thing, and another element pops up! Right now, I think we're gonna end up with maybe up to 75 minutes of music. But the whole thing is pretty wild, and it's cool to be adapting a classic work (and I've always liked Greek mythology), though I certainly wasn't expecting that we'd be doing a musical/rock opera anytime soon! Oh well, the story certainly is bloody. Oh and while the whole thing is being done for a stage show to performed the 2nd and 3rd weekends of March, we're also treating it like an album, and we're going to have some of our friends and associates sing for each of the different characters, so as each character in the songs will have it's own singer for the album.

in case you hadn't heard

Jimo quit the band.

he officially resigned back in August, though we managed to coerce him into recording one more song for PCN (it always ends in tears), dressing up for the album cover (pre-painting), and playing two shows with us in the interim. otherwise we haven't seen him at all since this summer. he's been off doing something else, in fact, he was off doing something else for most of the year. the songs that became PCN would have probably been done in half the time or less had we been getting %100 from him. we held off on making an official announcement, because we didn't want it to fuck up the meager marketing of the PCN record. it seemed like we might have a little momentum for minute there; it's shame how sometimes people get discouraged or lack the work ethic or drive to continue. seems like most everybody our age has given up on their dreams, in one way or another. i guess this really is a game more suited for kids in their twenties. anyway, it still really sucks for him to bounce out on us, cause the three of us had really great chemistry and creativity when we were all together and excited about what we were doing, but what are you gonna do?

Tommi and I indeed do have a new project that we are working on right now. we've been commissioned, in a way, to compose and record a rock opera, based on some ancient greek plays called the Oresteia. this is not the Russian version, haha. more details to come.

we are also giving it a try playing with a new band member. you can watch the new PARAE Infomercial to find out who! we've been looking for a bass player as well, but so far no luck. there will be shows in the new year, and a lot of new music to come for all 15 of you out there.

our last show at Kimo's playing to two people

we played our last show ever at the venue kimo's last night, which has changed ownership and is stopping live shows at the end of the month. we were opening up for two other bands, whose crowd didn't really start to show up until more than halfway thru our set. so that left us with Jerry! (who shot video of the show) and Alex! (who was super drunk from attending a football game earlier). all of our other friends and admirers, fuck off. we played quite well considering that we hadn't rehearsed in six weeks until hours before the gig. we played:

the host
what is beauty.
i want to have fun
sex n bones
love 2.0
die young
the revolting youth
older brother
we're breaking up
the tall man
hitchhiker

the other bands were pretty cool. didn't get to see too much of Major Powers and the Lofi Symphony, but we were digging the harmonies and the Queen influence.

We dunno when we're playing next, though we may try to set something up before the end of the year. Jimo is gonna be out of the country for January, but the work will continue. We have some video projects and ideas that we're going to attempt to realize, and other possible developments tba.

stud show

Thanks to all y'all who came out last night to the show at the Stud. We had a problem right away, one of girls from Blasfemme was under 21 and the club wouldn't let them play. Sucked.

Anyway, Tommi and I played some songs - they were:

Older Brother
What is Beauty.
Eulogy
I want to have Fun
Love 2.0
Die Young
Out of Fashion
Yr Sex
The Revolting Youth

So there were three new ones in there. They were a bit shaky, but I at least managed to remember most of the words most of the time! Everybody asked about the whereabouts of Jimo and if/when he'd be coming back from the jungle. We do not know. We just do not know...

Next show - Sunday Dec 4th @ KIMO'S - PARAE's last show ever at Kimo's :(

PCN CDs are here

Ok, first off, lest i sound like an absolute whiner in some of these blog posts, let me clarify my position. I think most people would agree, looking for and applying for a job is simply the worst. It sucks. Having a band or musical project is a lot like constantly having to apply for a job over and over. In a sense, you're constantly shouting, PAY ATTENTION TO US, LIKE ME!! And that, at times, well most of the time, makes me feel like an asshole. Now, there are a lot of aspects to life that I have conditioned myself to block out, unfortunately I'm not wired properly to still not feel like an asshole when I'm trying to shamelessly promote the band and get some miniscule fragment of people to ever so vaguely give it a fragment of their attention. Let alone give the music a chance. It's a personal problem. Now, many of my close associates would argue, "But Eriq, you are an asshole in general anyways, why do you have a problem being socially gregarious and uncompromising with your own self promotion?" And the answer is, I just don't know. Maybe if I did cocaine all the time, the impenetrable self-confidence that I require might manifest itself. Unfortunately, cocaine gives me the shits.

Regardless, the album has gotten a couple write ups by some blogs, which is completely fucking awesome. Thank you! At the end of the day, we just want the album to be heard, because I'm sure as hell not capable of listening to it anymore.

So the PCN CDs are here, and third time's a charm, no fuck-ups with the artwork or the printing - yay! They look perfect. Speaking of perfect things, let me briefly address the album cover. The album cover is EXACTLY as I envisioned it from conception. I am so very proud of it. Tommi painted most of it, definitely all the harder technical stuff, and I assisted with more of the grunt work. These internet Gifs and Jpegs do not do it justice - at all. If someone thinks it is ugly, that's totally fine. But it is exactly what I envisioned. It's an homage to a highly unique cult movie series. If you've seen them, then you'll get the reference. What I did not want to do was create a Photoshop atrocity, because first off, my Photoshop skills are severely limited as they are. And that shit just dates the work. What I wanted was something real and organic (like the album), and cinematic - that harkened back to the days when movie posters were painted. Now, we weren't making a movie poster, so the goal was to keep the emphasis on the three of us as subtle interpretations of characters the movie series we're referencing, and to me, I think we succeeded. And just like the music, the cover is something that we made, all by ourselves. Don't like it? That's fine. I think it's cool.

We're playing some SF shows - this Saturday at The Stud, and Dec 4th at Kimo's. It'll be our last Kimo's show, as they are closing / changing ownership and discontinuing live performance. They've always been great spot to play with excellent sound, it sucks to be losing that space. The Stud show will be as a duo, and we're not sure if Jimo will be joining for the Kimo's show. Regardless, Tommi and I have been working on a bit of new material and will be playing some the new songs this Saturday.

album cover

we finished the album cover painting earlier this week. used the digital camera to photograph it, which was a challenge or trial and error. not sure if i got the best outcome possible, but got what we got. for the most part it looks exactly how if looks in real life, which was the goal. and it came out exactly as i envisioned. tommi did most of the painting, and i assisted in some areas, doing some of the more simpler grunt work.

i have been trying to market the album to blogs and such. it's kind of like applying for a job, which is horrible and generally something i tend to avoid doing at all costs. perhaps if i had some kind of training as a publicist? it comes down to "what do I write?" and "how will that effect perception?" and "will this encourage the reader to actually check out the music and give it a shot?" the worst aspect is, does it even have any effect at all? my strategy thus far has been to construct a simple email that keeps the focus on the availability of the music online at the bandcamp and the purity of the listening experience available alongside the visual art component that we have provided. presenting the album in a vacuum where it can be judged on it's own merits. is that too pretentious? or not high concept enough? what grabs a stranger's attention via an anonymous email? ought i construct an elaborate yarn filled with falsehoods of adolescent travails, like that one band...you know, the one that i can't fucking stand. out of the thousands of emails sent every day, every week, from bedroom garageband auteur amateurs of "check out my track on soundcloud", "pick me pick me!" how is it that we are to stick out and simply upon only our merits? more so than the merit of simply being 20 years old? what does youth/age have to do with anything? how is that relevant to narrative beyond crass marketing maneuvers?

these blogs, they say that they want to discover "new music", they all say they do. but that's rarely true. they all feed off of each other, a food chain of influence and a trade of cultural kineticism. i'm sure each one would love to be the one to say FIRST and have the mantle of kingmaker of discovering a new artist, but unless they exist in the upper echelon blogdom, i doubt that a persistent course in such action lacks the patience of attention for most part-time music bloggers. perhaps there are a few, i wouldn't know where to look, and even less on initiating their seduction.

we announce ourselves into a vacuum of indifference. is it that our work is unworthy? not forward thinking enough, lacking zeitgeist, or simply bad luck. or are we destined to be overlooked along with a legion of like-minded unknowable others only to be discovered by future hipsters 20-30 years henceforth as part of a renaissance of reappropriation and rediscovery? fuck that shit.

i try and create a noise upon the facebook machine. no one cares, no one cares, facebook is a narcissist's domain, especially among "friends", utterly impunible to marketing of but the cheapest and broadest of virility. it is only the blogs, they are the only hope, yet how does one penetrate such a dominion lacking the hype, interest, or appellations of sex and newness? Richard says we should make more music videos, which would be a fun endeavor, unfortunately one of our band members remains AWOL from all group activities. perhaps we ought to cast a stand-in?

we'll be playing a show on nov 26, just myself and tommi - we'll see what that's like. been a long time since we've done a show as a duo, hopefully we each learned something in the interim. we should have some physical CDs of PCN for sale as well.

shows, things, PCN

we played a few shows, well one PARAE show, that was pretty fun. and then two halloween shows with our ex-bass boy corey (sans jimo) doing Misfits cover sets. the parae show with jimo was our standard 10 song set, and it was pretty blazing. the Misfits sets with corey were a complete mess, but a lot of fun to do, low stakes and all!

tommi and i are still working on the cover painting for Post-Camp/Nonplussed? i've done a lot of the base work, it just up to tommi to finish the actual detailing. it looks really cool, it just needs to be finished already!

we don't have any shows booked at the moment, but something will probably turn up soon. really just trying to get the word out online about the PCN album.

POST-CAMP / NONPLUSSED?

our new album POST-CAMP / NONPLUSSED? is finished and being mastered this week. it is 15 songs recorded over the past year and it is just under 39 minutes in length. we're still assembling the artwork and cover, but we plan to put out a very limited CD release in October, along with a digital release on Bandcamp, and itunes / amazon as well. we would love to put it out on vinyl, but that just isn't monetarily feasible or realistic right now. we have too many boxes of failure piled up in the apartment as it is. we will be playing some shows around the release, and they're going to count. whatever happens, this one is special.

current conditions

things are not so good these days, not sure what is happening with the band. it may all be falling apart. if such, material for a record is finished, and those of us who remain will figure out what is next...and then we evolve into something else.

think and die thinking fest

we played day 1 of the think and die thinking festival in san jose this past friday. the turnout was a bit lower than we expected, but it was a pretty cool event. we played:

the revolting youth
hitchhiker
i want to have fun
the host
what is beauty.
love 2.0
die young
sex n bones
the tall man
we're breaking up

it didn't feel like we made much of an impression, at least not to me. the set was a bit haphazard (though we played solidly), as the stage was composed of big wooden blocks that kept coming apart, causing pieces of the drums to fall into the cracks. the other bands were cool, though it was dominated by these kind of neo grunge indie rock bands. it's a bit weird to see 90s rock being such a heavy influence these days. can't really say that i've seen anyone improving on it yet...

july 3 show

we played a show yesterday afternoon out in the hot sun of west oakland, and it was pretty great, aside from the crazy drug addled guy who had hair clips in his beard (channeling rap-like poetry a la joaquin phoenix). we were second, and after tinkering with the PA played:

hitchhiker
i want to have fun
the host
what is beauty
sex n bones
the revolting youth & the hipster queen
love 2.0
die young
the tall man
we're breaking up

we're still finishing up the next batch of songs, they should probably be up here on the website by the middle of this month (july) at the latest as ep3. BIG SHOW on July 15th @ Hotel Utah - mandatory attendance for SF people plz!

it's t-shirt time!

we're making more t-shirts, black ones specifically, as those seem to be the popular ones. again, each one is unique and screen printed by hand by us.

radio show

well we played the KZSU wednesday night live thing again last night. nice people. if you didn't hear it as it aired, then you never will. it was bad enough that i've been fighting the stomach flu, but after hearing what was broadcast...as was our experience before, the mix was very disappointing. certainly our playing was more miss than hit, but at least that hindrance was due upon ourselves and bound within our own control.

ep2

ep2 is now up! the songs are all pretty damn hot, well maybe not the last one, but eh, i reserve the right to my own opinion? we decided to throw in a extra 5th song this time since we were running behind schedule (and it was already long since done). about the songs:

PURPLE & ORANGE - we wrote this pretty spontaneously in mid-march, as at one moment Jimo's delay pedal started seemingly at random to be conjuring up a loop which i then started riffing on the bass. ONE NOTE SONG! ha, almost. the title is vaguely a Boris reference. this was done all live except for the synth and vocal ephemera at the beginning.

THE HOST - so this is the Host, version 3. yes, we recorded this damn thing 3 times. the first time was when Corey was still with us about a year ago, but he never finished writing his part for the second half. oh Corey... then we tried again at some point last fall, but it became a complete fucking albatross, so Jimothy decreed that we dump that version too. this was recorded over two days a couple weeks ago. bass and drums and guitars all done live (with one edit near the end, cuz we ain't perfect), with more guitars and vocals overdubbed the next day. Tommi laments that this particular take lacks some special patented triplet drum fills, but otherwise it's pretty scorching and sounds about how we do it live.

OLDER BROTHER - this one i wrote i think last december or january and it came together pretty quickly and we recorded it in february. kind of an homage to the Juliana Hatfield song "My Sister," which is the first song i ever heard by her and still my favorite. not necessarily about an older brother of mine in any literal sense, though it could be read that way. then again, maybe i'm metaphorically the older brother?

SEX N' BONES (Shake Em'!) - another one that kind of spontaneously came together pretty quickly (except for the lyrics). as i recall, i started with the synth bass riff and we just built off of that. Tommi was adamant that we keep the song length to about two minutes, as our illustrious drummer has yet to build up the stamina for long term disco workouts. we're very happy with this one.

INSINCERITY - oh this silly little song is built off of some old chord progressions i had from a few years ago that never came together until now. Jimo handles 95% of the guitar here, and if you can't tell, he was very much enjoying himself. the vocals were a ridiculous choir to do, and i don't know why. i never really wrote a melody for the verses, so i had this pretty weird/cool harmony thing going, but it was a bit too monochromatic and unfortunately just wasn't working. so after doing that three different times (and almost throwing out my voice on the second occasion), on a lark the other day i started sing speaking it at rehearsal, and well...that was better than what we had before. i dunno, i'm not convinced this one is anything special, but Jimo likes playing it i guess. the noise stuff at the end was fun to do, as well as all the delay and shit we put on the guitars.

we did indeed play a show last week, and it was pretty tragic, as we got a bit too loaded before we played and apparently forgot how to play guitar. it was a bit of a weird one in general, very last minute and thrown together. oh well! y'all won't be seeing any video footage from that one.