Thursday, December 18, 2008

You Don't Want Nuthin' To Do With This.

Only because I said I would, I've put together a brief video showcasing some of my favorite scenes from "Walk Hard". Great stuff.

NOT WORK SAFE, mind you. Rated R for Drug Use, Adult Language, Adult Sitations, Bad Attitudes, and Misguided Humor.




Enjoy!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Dude, our new website is live!

In an odd bit of recursive advertising, I thought it only fair that I mention the launch of the new Black and Blue website, which can be found here...

www.blackandbluemusic.com

Regular readers will know how loathe bill and I are to toot our own horns, but I gotta say, I'm a fan of the new site :) I'm actually looking at it in a separate browser instance as I write this blog. Where else can I listen to "The Friend That I Once Knew"??? It sounds good!!

Anyhow, please check it out, and email us if you have any suggestions. We'll probably ignore them, but it's always nice to know that people are thinking about us!!

Friday, December 5, 2008

A Rock and Roll Miracle

Blog entries have slowed to a crawl lately, but the efforts and results of scene stalwarts “Black and Blue” have continued to progress at a lightning fast pace. Witness the activities of this past weekend, where Bill and I cranked out an unprecedented four recordings. And I’m talking about serviceable, album quality recordings.

I arrived at Bills place, er, I mean the Torrance Recording Studio promptly at noon. Bill and I tooled around for a bit, and ultimately decided to head out to Carl’s Jr. for our traditional pre-recording chow-down. With Bill having recently kicked the signature band addition to diet coke, he was sporting a bottle of “fizzy”, to accompany Munson’s perpetually brandished super slurpee cup filled with “still”. I’m talkin’ ‘bout water, mind you. We strategized the course for the day, and even wrote out a project plan.

The purpose of this studio session was really to prepare and lock down tracks and mixes for the upcoming holiday single. About a month ago, Bill and I hatched the plan to put out a single for Christmas. Cuz you know, the fans are clamoring for music and all. Well, not really. Our original fantasy was to have the album out by Christmas, as Bill was highly enamored by the idea of handing out CD’s as presents. But as the year wore on, and Christmas drew closer, we realized that we still had a significant time investment to make in the album in order to get it mixed properly. So while we had stayed on track by recording one song per month, we haven’t really done any mixing yet. But I thought the notion of handing out CDs for Christmas was a good one, so we decided to do a single.

The original concept for the single was this: feature one album song, and back it up with 2 b-sides. The alt.tunes would be recorded live in the studio, one take, no overdubs. Kind of like Trujillo’s “Live Bands In The House” project. Well, just like it, in fact. I thought it would be cool to do the one voice, one guitar format for the two b-sides. Bill does one, I do one. I sort of thought of this as a multiple birds, one stone approach. Not only would we get studio quality recordings of some songs which we may have otherwise not recorded, but we would also be putting tracks on the CD that were otherwise not album bound. My feeling was that it would be a shame to dump three album worthy songs on the CD single. Felt like we would be giving away too much.

Bill initially singed off on this concept, though when the day came, he faltered. But more on that later,

So at Carl’s we planned out the day. First order of business was to do a solid mix of “Second Time Around”, the song we had both agreed would be our first single. STA is that song that just came together more beautifully than either of us expected. We did a lot of experimenting on that song, tried a lot of new stuff, and it just all worked. One of the things I recall Bill commenting on after the completion of the MNI album was how surprised he was at how some songs turned out good, whereas others did not. What was surprising is that it had nothing to do with the song itself. That is to say, some great songs turned out just OK, whereas a weaker song may have turned out great. I think this is that mythical “synergy” thing that you hear about in business presentations. Some times, things/forces just come together at unexpected times to deliver a result that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Well, in my opinion, STA is one such song. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a really good song. But the recording made it a great song. Go figure.

We needed to mix that down, and lock it down. We had some technical problems to overcome, namely that we need to consolidate our individual efforts onto one project. I had spent lots of time performing surgery on the various tracks. This amounted to removing background chatter, snapping up some timing on a few pieces of vocal dissonance, and also patching up a few drum flubs. Bill had invested time tweaking volume levels, adding effects, and doing some equalization. So we needed to bring those things together into one.

Next on the list was recording our b-sides. Then we had to mix them down.

In column B of the list was a few logistical issues to attend to. We needed to have a final intel-gathering session on CD single pricing, and make some decisions. We had to take some photos for the back cover, and also to discuss some concepts for artwork for the cover.

With our best plans laid, we headed back to the garage.



The consolidation of data for STA went off without a hitch. In fact, it was really quite easy. The mix down was fairly unproblematic, with a few good laughs coming from an overly loud ethereal track from Bill. I suppose one of the best things to come out of the mix down was the sharing of CuBase knowledge. I’ve blogged before about the awesomeness of this tool, and about how we are only scratching the surface of its functionality. Between Bill and I, we only know a very small percentage of its feature set, though our knowledge is not 100% overlap. This means that Bill knows a few tricks I don’t know, and I know a few tricks that Bill doesn’t. Through the mix down process, Bill and I managed to exchange a lot of knowledge on the application, and I thought that was really cool.



Satisfied with our mix down, it was time to start recording our B-Sides. This is kind of where it all went to hell. And I say that humorously. Bill (naturally) had an alternate agenda for his B-side, and used his typical tricks of misdirection and ham-handed diplomacy to try to get his way. His vision was to record his song acoustically, but with drums. Though sort of defeating the entire purpose, I naturally caved to the age old Fischer born mantra of “Let’s try it”. Cuz worst case, it’s rock and roll. I recorded “I’m Not The Type” very quickly. It was just a vocal mic, a guitar mic, and the guitar line. I did four takes. Take 2 was good, but I thought I could do better. Take three was aborted about 2/3 through due to a wrong chord, and take four was the keeper.

Now it was Bill’s turn to record his song, called “Come My Way”.



Yeah, I know. Believe me, I had fun with that song title too, so do your best.

Speaking of synergy, brace yourselves. So Bill sets himself up at the mic, and gets ready. I’m at the drums with one overhead mic hooked up. No kick mic, no snare. We run through the song once, just for practice, and I swear to you, it sounds like it’s ready for the album. It’s a nice little song with a couple of really strong refrains. Very strong lyrical imagery too. I was not only impressed by the song, but was doubly impressed by the way we performed it. And I’m not trying to suggest that it was my drumming that “made” the song. I was just doing my typical bag of drum tricks, with a couple little flourishes thrown in. It wasn’t the drums. It was everything working together. Really just stunning, and I must confess, was one of the brightest spots in an excellent year of recording.

So now the gears are really starting to spin in my head, and I start to get committed (internally, that is) to the idea of getting this song on the album. A little arm twisting and a couple of takes later, and I think I sold Bill on the idea. Before we could lose momentum, I grabbed the bass and threw together a Bass line. Got it in one take. Bill later commented that he thought it was the best bass line yet to come out of this whole album. Or maybe he said it was the bass line that fit best with a song. Or something like that. Either way, it was very kind words for what was a minimal effort. Synergy.

Bad news for Bill is that he now had to find another song to record. He ended up on a nice little 12 bar blues number. I forget the name, but it’s something about being a guitar player. VERY traditional blues, in every sense of the word. I thought it was really fantastic, as that is something no incarnation of the band has ever really done. Well, not as an original. Though we played “Spider and the Fly” a few times, I hardly think that counts.

Bill did a couple of takes and nailed it. Feeling so inspired by the success of “Come My Way”, I requested a recording with drums. We tried it twice, but the ending never seemed to time out quite right. I have to say the song sounded great though!

With recording duties finished, we went in for mix downs. We pulled apart the recording project file and broke it down into separate files, one for each song. The acoustic songs mixed together very quickly, without any hassle. We also put together a quick mix of “Come My Way”, even though it is not destined to appear on the single.

We re-visited the mix of STA, only to learn that it sounded very “tinny” in comparison to the acoustic tracks. So we tweaked it a bit, and decided we were happy.

Photos were taken, album covers were discussed, and our intel gathering visit to the CD duplication website produced great results. We settled on getting a run of 100 disks for about 400 bucks shipped. The 1000 disk run would have cost us about 1000 bucks, and would not have been here in time for Christmas. So while we lose a lot on the per-disk basis, we make up for it in speed to customers. Combined with the fact that we’re STILL sitting on hundreds of copies of the first MNI album, I’m thinking the small run approach might be best anyway.



I left the studio just after 8:00, after a full day of fun and synergy. Over the next couple of days, it’s imperative that I wrap up the artwork for the single, output the final mix downs, and author a CD for production. The short run CD duplication service offers a 5 day turn around, so there’s a little more breathing room. But there’s still a lot of work to be done in a short amount of time. Better get to it!

Update: I put in a request to register www.blackandbluemusic.com this morning. This will hopefully be the new online home for Black and Blue. Not that we had an old home. But you know what I mean.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Stickmen Day 2008

December 5, 1992 – The Stickmen played 17 songs to a crowd of about 30 friends and neighbors in my parents’ backyard. It wasn’t our very first concert, but it was the first time we dropped the protective veil of comedy material, to spotlight our best songwriting in a full-band live setting. Lo and behold, our music got a very good reception, well beyond what could be explained by the friendly nature of the audience.

To me, 12/5 is Stickmen Day, because that’s the day we became the “real band.” Unfortunately, and due to various trials and tribulations, December 5 was also the last time we performed in that full-band format until nearly a year later. But I personally credit the December 5 videotape as my motive to reunite with the band – and therefore for seven more years of rock and roll with the “classic” stickmen. Also, I’ve always thought there was a live EP’s worth of material in there:
  • It’s the End of the World as We Know it [REM cover]
  • Gravity
  • Dr. Brumbacher (and his Tools of Torture)
  • To Myself
  • Fire Hazard Christmas
Okay, so there were still a few comedic numbers in the set.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

And You'll Never Hear Surf Music Again

If the "classic stickmen" ever had a reunion concert, the attendance would be problematic, given the relentless nature of the My New Invention fan-alienation machine, which pretty much sucked up bad will like moist warm air in a Missouri thundercloud.

But among the millions of songs that we wouldn't play would be ANYTHING by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.  Which is a shame, not so much for the songs (they have all been beaten to death by every third garage band since 1967), but for a hidden debt of gratitude owed to that particular group of three musicians.

Without turning this into a classic rock obit blog, it wouldn't seem right to publish this post without doffing hats for the passing of drummer Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, who died in his hotel room this morning in Portland, of natural causes, while touring with a JHE tribute outfit. 

The way I remember it (and Don might dispute this), Don and I spent an afternoon in my parents' garage learning how to play the drums using Ben George's abandoned kit and a copy of the complete guitar-bass-drum tablature to the album Are You Experienced?.  [Inappropriate use of period directly after question mark? -ed.]  Up until then, Stickmen drumming had been a classic case of the blind leading the blind, with Matt, Victor, and I coaching Ben how to vamp REM tunes using only bass and snare drums.  After that day, we at least had some actual Mitch Mitchell fills to inform the rude subterfuge of our first true arrangements with drums.

And the rest is obscurity, for everyone apparently.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

The First Stickmen Death

Not a joke, and it is with great sadness that I report upon the death of Matt Welty. No, really. He's no longer with us. I cannot believe it myself, and I'm still trying to find out the circumstances around it, but it's shocking. I read a blog entry in Comic Quest scenester Rich Howards blog where he not only recounted with uncanny detail some long forgotten chapters at Comic Quest, but did so in reverence to his fallen comrade, Matt Welty. So weird. I don't even know what to say about it.


http://mattandrich.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Another Album Cover Concept

Not sure how I feel about this one. I like the idea, but I think it might look a bit too busy.


Sunday, September 28, 2008

ANYWHOOOO....

Despite Bill's best efforts to turn this into a trip down dreary lane, it's time to spice things up with a little concept album cover work.

Here's the latest...



Mad props to Bill fischer for discovering this photo in the first place. Photo taken by Lara Hartley, whose work can be found all over the world wide interwebs. Great stuff, and she seems to be fascinated with the desert. Mabye because she lives there.

But I digress. This is kind of a first pass at a concept that bill first presented. Consider this the "munson runs with it" version. I added a few little layers (literally and figuratively) which kind of make it look like a tattered picture. Also at varying degrees of opacity are song titles and lines from songs on the album.

Dunno how it plays, but I figured I'd throw it out there for criticisms. Or complements. Compliments? You be the judge.

And yes, that is a blood splatter in the upper right hand corner. Nice touch?? Not sure.

I think the main debate for me is if the album title should be the big words on the page, or the name of the band should be. Maybe I'll try an alternate version.

Update:

Decided to put together the alt concept, just to see how it flows.

Monday, September 15, 2008

The Great Gig in the Sky

Today we're in (supposedly) the worst financial crisis since the twenties. Funny how that sort of once-in-a-lifetime superlative seems to crop up pretty often. Sort of like lunar eclipses and close approaches of Mars.

None of it bothers me as much as the passing of Richard Wright, dead today from cancer at age 65. If you don't like Pink Floyd, you're excused now; I don't really want to talk to you anyway. I swear to God, five minutes before I found out (ten minutes ago), I was hearing a Pink Floyd song in my head as I drove up to my house. The song was "Welcome to the Machine." Why that song at this time? Probably because it was my oldest son's first day of preschool.

You've been in the pipeline filling in time
Provided with toys, and scouting for boys

My guess is that Richard Wright will begin to get more recognition. I can't say that he was some groundbreaking genius or pioneer synthesizer musician, although maybe he was. He wasn't the main songwriter in Pink Floyd, though he did write a bunch of good stuff. What places him in the pantheon for me, though, and occasions a deep sigh and a dark mood with his passing, is his piano playing throughout The Dark Side of the Moon. If it's possible to reach across the anonymous void and attain certain knowledge that you are not alone in the universe, the expressiveness of Richard Wright's playing in the song "Us and Them" gets it done. Like the individual notes are reaching right into your brain and triggering synapses that tap directly into your soul, almost as an extension of the instrument. Wright's playing confirms for you that there is somebody out there. That quality is exceedingly rare in any music.

Sad, too, how he was treated callously by his bandmates from The Wall on.

I was pleasantly surprised when Pink Floyd put the old rancor behind them to reunite for Live 8, and genuinely moved by their performance in a way that could not be explained by the pretty-darn-good musical standard maintained.

Why does it happen that fantastic bands so often fall into fratricidal behavior that leaves bitterness lingering for decades? The Beatles, The Eagles, especially Creedence Clearwater Revival? How could you give up something so good - the ability to tap into that rare elixir - and make that same leap into meaningless solo careers?

To find out, I started my own band. The elixir wasn't as good, but we did the same thing as those others. Various band members who were best friends and (more or less) grew up together now won't speak to each other. I can't say I'm any wiser for it, but at least now I've seen it up close (apart from the "fantastic" aspect).

I think it's like getting a divorce, although I've never done that. I've seen a few up close, though. Not that close.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Labels: Jocks, Nerds, Black and Blue

Almost all the recent posts have been about Black and Blue, a "splinter band" of the "Classic" Stickmen. That's because Black and Blue is actually getting on with making some music! However, to help sort things out a bit between Black and Blue action and truly "classic" posts (i.e. pertaining to vintage activities of the original band), new posts are encouraged to use "labels." Like this one includes the label "Black and Blue." Another post might include the label "Classic." We'll see how it goes.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Honest, I'm Not Trying To Do Your Job.

I'm just pumped! I did a quick search for CD duplication places, and sure enough, what used to be a teeth-pulling-like process has been refined into something far more spectacular. Check out this place, for example:

http://www.oasiscd.com/products/JewelCase.asp

They've got templates for artwork that you download (meaning dimensions and borders and stuff, not actual suggestions of what your artwork should look like), a bunch of options, and for a thousand CDs, it's under 1,500 bucks. Booya.

The whole thing has been pretty standardized, and it looks like there are a number of folks who offer very similar services. I guess it's all just about scheduling at this point.

Bonus: turn time on these deals is under 15 days.

A bit more digging around revealed this company:

http://www.discmakers.com/products/cd400.asp

They're a few hundred bucks cheaper than Oasis, and seem to offer the exact same products and services. Also highly recommended by CDBaby. For 999, we can get the full 1000 CDs in under 20 days. For 75 bucks more, we can get four color inserts printed on both sides. Looks like the turn-key product has four color on the outside of the inserts, black and white on the inside. I say for 75 extra bucks, we go full color all around. just like MNI! NICE!!!!

The good news here is that it looks like a christmas release is very doable, assuming that we get all of our songs finished. If we can wrap up recording by the first week in december, we can make it happen. End of November would be better, though we could always pay a few extra bucks for a five day turn time if need be.

Cover Songs, Licensing Fees, and Time Well Spent

Bill and I LITERALLY had a fireside chat this Sunday where we discussed a number of "to do" items for our upcoming album. A large part of the conversation was dedicated to how we were going to handle the inclusion of "Don't Go Back To Rockville", a song that was not written by us. Because the recording turned out so good, and because we are both such big fans of the song, we agreed that we want it included on the album.

We then strategized about how to do that. Do we just include it, keep our fingers crossed, and hope that R.E.M. doesn't catch wind of the fact that we're using their material? Since we have a history of teetering on the edge of being sued into oblvion, that seemed like a bad approach. So we conspired to actually figure out how to arrange for royalties to be paid and all that.

We actioned the item to Bill, but since I had a few minutes at work to goof around on the extra-webs, I dug up this little gem:

http://www.cleverjoe.com/articles/music_copyright_law.html

Now, while I'm not convinced that the service the author recommends in the beginning of the post is the BEST Place to go, he does go on to discuss how you can contact the record companies directly and set it all up.

The punchline is this: 85 bucks for the song. Maybe a few bucks more since the song comes in at SLIGHTLY over five minutes. So let's say 100 bucks for 1,000 albums sold. TOTALLY doable.

So that's the good news. There is no bad news. You can go about your business.

Monday, August 18, 2008

STILL In Awe of CuBase

Don't get me wrong, working with Robert Trujillo was a real joy. Not just a joy, but a thrill. It was our first time evar in the studio, and Robert was easy going and a lot of fun. I personally think he was overwhelmed a bit by all of the personalities in the room, but he played it cool, and ultimately got the job done. As an engineer for hire, and not really a full fledged producer at that time, it would have been inappropriate for him to try to wrangle us, and manage us as a genuine producer should have. So that's all fine and good.

But what we have of course discovered over the years is that we desperately needed such a wrangler. Even if it was one of our own, we needed a final and authoritative voice to make the tough calls, bring down the thunder, and turn the mutha out when necessary. I think if we had that during the creation of our first album, things would have gone a lot faster, and possibly a lot smoother. Then again, it was all a learning experience, and it has served to help make the Black and Blue project that much sweeter of a ride.

What Robert brought to the table was technical expertise, and a bunch of equipment that we weren't willing to buy, set up, or learn how to operate. So it's not like our 18 bucks an hour didn't get us a lot. But personality frustrations aside, my clearest (and not necessarily fondest) memories of working in the studio revlove around trying to patch up songs. At the time, the band was not exactly the most musically competent group of performers in the Orange County scene that we ultimately found ourselves dominating. (and by "Scene", I mean the collection of bands that would play Ed Zybuls back yard every summer). Being not-exactly-tight made recording a good "keeper" take problematic. Compounded by the fact that we were abso-hell bent on getting "perfect" takes in the can before moving on. Yes, the innocence of youth! So there we were, doing take after take of a song in order to get a perfect take. Layer on top of that Bill's lunatic like insistence that we get a BUNCH of instruments perfect on said take, and that added to the difficulty by at least three orders of magnitude. I'm probaby ranting at this point, but I think Billy will be able to appreciate this from a historical perspective. My take on recording was that ALL we needed to get was a good take of the drums. EVERYTHING else could easily be added in or re-done in post. But there were many a time when we would keep going back to the start so that bill could get his guitar perfect (along with his knobs and settings, natch) ALONG with the drums. Oy! Makes my head spin!

So we'd spend hours and hours hammering out the same song again and again, never quite meeting SOMEONE'S expectations or dreams of what the "perfect" take would sound like. (I gotta say, TO THIS DAY, I'm still dumbfounded by Bill's insistence on getting multiple instrument perfect takes in one recording. just when I think he's broken of the habit, I see him doing it from time to time :) )

Though the above sounds excruciating, what was MORE excruciating was the infernal "insert edits". That's when an overdub track is flawless, save for ONE or TWO missed notes in the middle of the song. Or maybe a chord was strummed half wrong, or a string didn't resonate right, or something like that. So there you were with a near perfect overdub, and faced with two daunting propositions: re-do the take and hope you get it PERFECT the next time, or go in for the oh-so-problematic "insert edits". Redoing the take was always problematic, especially if it was at the end of the day. You know, you're tired, frustrated, and you just want to go to the burger joint and chow down on those yummy fries with ranch dressing. Or in some cases, maybe you just want to bail out and take a shower.

nice.

The insert edits are what always killed me. There were a few distinct and unique problems to deal with which each edit. First of all, you had to explain to Robert what you wanted to fix. With him not being as intimately familiar with the songs as the band members, it was often difficult to convey this. You know, you cannot say "go to refrain three", or "go to the line about the dirt, second part". He doesn't know what the hell you're talking about. And even when you do isolate it to the proper thirty seconds of the song, the error was often so subtle that only the finely trained ear of the performer could hear the flub. This left Robert groping in the dark. So let's say we FINALLY identify the place we want the insert to go. Now the fun really begins. Not only does the artist need to play with the same energy and force as the original performance, but they of course need to play the part correctly. Then it's up to robert to "punch in" and "punch out" the recording to make sure you don't record over anything you don't want to. I forget how it worked technically, but I've got to assume we used a new and separate track for the insert, but for some reason, I don't think we did. This meant that we were recording over the master. So if we got it wrong, we just expanded the wound that needed to be sewn shut.

Yah, that was definitely one of the more difficult parts of recording the album. Just the sheer technical work involved in nailing a master track, and then managing all the overdubs and insert edits.

Which brings me to the point of today's posting. Despite all of the limitations of Roberts original studio, we still did some good stuff. But in retrospect, we were TOTALLY crippled artistically. At least by today's standards.

Case in point: Armageddon is Here.

I wrote about this song a while back, and how I was looking for a missing verse, etc. Bill and I hammered out a VERY solid recording of a master track a few weeks ago, and even worked in a lead guitar and a shuffle. It sounded good. It needed new lead vocals, and maybe a couple of other minor tweaks and tracks, but overall, it was solid.

Then I had a chance to sit down and listen to a mix down. Though technically and performance-wise it was very solid, I felt that the song was dragging. It HEAVILY over-used the refrain, and seemed to just drone on and on. nothing against the performance, it was simply the way the song was written and arranged. Here's how it went as originally recorded:

Intro
Refrain

Verse
Refrain

Verse
Refrain

Solo
refrain

verse
Refrain

(key switch)
Refrain
Refrain


BORING!!!!!!

And this is where I start to gush about the magic of CuBase. I have to say, it's simply amazing what you can do with this tool. STUNNING, I say. I sat down with it, and in about two hours, had completely re-organized the song, tightened it up, and made it flow MUCH more smoothly. It now goes something like this:

Intro

Verse
Refrain

Verse
Refrain

Guitar Solo

Verse
Refrain

Verse
Refrain

(Key Switch)
Refrain


As you can see, I chopped out a refrain from the beginning, and one from the key switch at the end. Also one right after the guitar solo. I added in a new verse/refrain pair also.

This would have simply been IMPOSSIBLE to do in Roberts studio. IMPOSSIBLE. Well, not without starting again from scratch and simply re-recording the whole darn thing. But with the magic of Compyoodies and CuBase, I did the whole thing while sitting in my home office, in front of my computer. Granted, I still need to write lyrics for the fourth verse and record them, but that's a simple overdub. Oh, also super cool is the fact that I can just drop the project file and wav files onto a flash drive and drive them up to Bills place when it's time to record. I don't have to carry a box full of ADAT tapes or anything. I can fit the whole song in my pocket. AMAZING.

What amazes me most about the whole CuBase workflow is how easy it is to just do wholesale slaughter and re-arrangement of a song. It's like moving paragraphs in a word document. you just select the stuff you want to move, cut it, then paste it in its new destination. I suppose there's also a comment to be made about the playing ability of Black and Blue, as the tempo of the song remains very consistent all the way through. If the song sped up as you went along, it wouldn't be very clean to take a verse at the beginning, copy it and paste it at the end of the song if the second half of the song was twice as fast as the first. It just wouldn't work. But frankly, Bill and I have forged a pretty mean team in Black and Blue, and each new recording surprises me with the lessons we've learned in the past, and the risks we are willing to take in the present.

So to the writers, developers, testers, and architects of CuBase, I salute you. You have created an amazing piece of software that unleashes a lot of creativity, and allows for unprecedented flexibility and control in making music.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

100th post to the blog!

I'll let this video do the talkin', cuz I couldn't possibly say enough:

Friday, August 15, 2008

Aquaman Got Nuttin' on Munson

Totally unrelated to rock and roll, but I have an interesting detail of my exciting life to share. So as many of you may know, I am currently training for a Triathlon. yay. One of the events is swimming. To date, I've been practicing in the Jr. Olympic pool at my apartment complex. (No relation to "Carl's Jr", by the way) over the past month, I've significantly reduced my half mile time due to practice, and the deployment of a wetsuit designed specifically for triahtlon competitors. I went from just under 20 minutes, down to 13:30. So I was feeling pretty good.

But now that the event is getting closer, I'm notching up my training. This started with me joining a local Triathlon club, which is pretty hard core for me. My first event was to attend an ocean swim down at Corona Del Mar. So I suited up, and hit the ocean. My wetsuit has tasted the lakes of Canada, and the pools of Orange County, but never the mighty Pacific. Until now! And while I've spent plenty of time frolicking in the ocean, I've never actually set out to swim a certain distance freestlye. So today was my first outing!

Long story short, I TOTALLY smoked the half mile course. My time was 11:21 seconds. What's wild is that I wasn't really even going for speed. I just kept thinking "slow and steady" in my head. The hardest part was keeping an eye on the bouys. In the pool, youv'e got a bright blue line on the bottom to keep you on track. In the ocean, you've got to look up every third or fourth breath to make sure your'e headed in the right direction, and not into oncoming swimmers. or the feet of ones you're swimming alongside. So it's very challenging. Oh, and did I mention that you've also got waves and mouthfulls of salt water to deal with? Oh, and the water is really cold? Oh, and my instinctual fear of aquatic predators?? So there was a lot going against me, but I still managed to turn in my best time ever. So I'm pretty stoked.

VERY excited that the big day is rapidly approaching. Only three weeks left to train. I'm 100% confident that I will finish the race, barring major mechanical failure in my bike, or body. So that's cool. I figure as long as I don't finish dead last, I'll be happy. Heck, even if I DO finish dead last, I'll still be pretty proud. Cuz you know, how many people can you count off that have finished a triathlon, dead last or not???

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Rockville Proof of Concept Video

While "Stickmen: the movie" may still be a few summers away, don't let that make you think for one second that the creative team behind it are resting on their laurels*. Nossir! Well, actually, we typically DO rest, even if we have no laurels upon which to rest.

But this time, this is not the case. Not really. As part of an ongoing, multi-year effort to bring the Stickmen video library to dvd, BD, or even just a less degradable format than Hi8 tapes, I'm learning how to use Adobe Premier. Techmology has FINALLY caught up with my imagination, and my new PC now has the processing power to do all the stuff I want it to. So I captured a bunch of video, and put together this little movie, just to see if I yet had the editing skills to assemble a ditty.




For a POC, I think it turned out really good. The performances sync up pretty well to the music, and there's lots of action. I think the drawback is that if I wanted to change the clips around, it would be very labor intenstive. So my workflow is not yet complete, I need to figure out a couple more tricks, but I'm well on my way.

While this may not be as spectacular as the now-lost "Gravity" video featuring Don playing couch cushions, it's higher resolution.


* thank goodness I now know what "laurels" means. I always thought it meant like a part of your anatomy, like your butt. You know, you rest on it. Your butt. But I guess in this context, it refers to awards. So you know, I'm saying we're not going to just sit around and celebrate that which we've already accomplished. I'm moving forward. Which makes sense. Unless I spelled it wrong.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Viddy oh!

For those readers that are simply not satisfied with the written word, and crave more than just characters on a web page, I present to you this brief video. An interview with the powerhouse stars behind Black and Blue, the musical project sure to sweep the nation. And by nation, I mean Billy's family, and the few friends I have that like listening to our music.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Lyric Update

This saturday was a very brief session for Black and Blue, but productive nonetheless. I got to the torrance recording studio at about 11:30, and we got straight to work. Not really, but that sounds dramatic.

We practiced a couple of songs, including Armageddon is Here. I had a few new tricks to try out on the drums, most of which worked well. We then went on a lyrics hunt! We thumbed through a number of folders and three ring binders, but with no luck. On the other hand, we did get to go down memory lane on a number of things, including our gigs at the Mudd Hole at Harvey Mudd. Lots of great flyers were found in a folder I turned over to bill for cold storage a while back.

Bill finally found a video of us performing in Ed Zybuls back yard that had a good recording of the song. Though one line was a little hard to hear, i was able to reconstruct the lyrics for the lost third verse of the song. It goes like this:

As night did come, and doom did fall.
Only the four of us to make any noise.
Armageddon, here we come.
We'll welcome armageddon with the banging drums.

Nice.

We did about three takes, two of which were good. The last take was the keeper, as I managed to pull off all the tricks I wanted to hit on the drums. So that was that. Bill was in the booth playing guitar and laying down a scratch vocal. We had time to record the rhythm guitar part as a separate track, this time with some chunky distortion. (Not to be confused with "Muzza Chunka", a band I heard of during my time at Santa Monica College, or SMC) Carl's Jr found it's place in there somehow, this time featuring a guest appearance by lil Will Fischer, whose dinner at Carl's consisted of a pepper. The hot kind. Despite our insistence that the lion in a wall mounted water color print would jump out and eat him if he didn't behave, Will provided the "loose canon" perspective to this buddy cop drama that was unfolding over dinner.

We got back to Bill's, er, I mean the studio, did some goofing around, and then it was time to leave. The evening wrapped by about 4:30, as I had some things to attend to in Orange County. Overall, I'd say it was a productive day, as we locked down two tracks on a new song, and we're still in the month of July. That's important because Armageddon is Augusts song, so we're ahead of schedule.

I've since had some thoughts about the song, upon listening to Bill's mix down. Though the mix was nice, and the added lead guitar part was great, I'm questioning the overall arrangement of the song. it's VERY heavy on refrain, VERY light on verse. There's three verses, and I htink we hit the refrain something like nine times. I hatched the plan of re-tooling the song to include four verses, and maybe drop two or three of the refrains. Two options exist, as i see it. Re-record the song, or just dork around with it in cubase. I'm leaning towards the latter, as I think it's not only feasable, but would be a good exercise. I did some AMAZING things with The Second Time Around in cubase, including moving some performance pieces around, fixing some minor drum hiccups, and the like. I think as long as the song keeps a pretty consistent temp, it should be pretty simple. Of course, I'll need to write lyrics to a new, fourth verse, but seeing as how the band history is steeped in armageddon and post apocalypic vision, I don't imagine coming up short on source material. Might be a good chance to mention our long standing nemesis, Future Bitch, who has yet to appear in any actual were-penguins production. I'm not sure if I want to write a verse that goes on the end of the song, or one that integrates into the existing song. Like in between current verses two and three. I really like the third verse as written, as it's sort of a capper to the narrative. Not sure I want to disturb that. Then again, perhaps the fourth verse can be a look farther into the bleak, dystopian future that the song describes, one inhabited only by bands of musicians who engage in ritualistic combat for the remaining scarce resources. Of course, the song only speaks of two bands "My New Invention", and our evil, mutant counterparts "The Last Band On Earth". Perhaps a third band could be introduced that will bring balance to these opposing forces.

Or perhaps I'm overthinking things.

Anyhow, all'z I'm saying is that it was a good session, we're ahead of schedule, and the next session will probably see us doing a Fischer penned piece named "Bordered in Black", whatever the heck that means. I'm going to head over to classicstickmen.com to see if I can dig up a demo recording of it.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Train/Car Wreck

So you know how when you get an annoying song stuck in your head, the best way to get rid of it is to get it stuck into someone ELSES head???

Well, I'm in need of finding some eager skulls on this one.

A while ago, I was lead to this gem on youtube:


Get Down

Arguably the worst video ever made, complete with the worst song ever recorded. And yet, like a moth to flame, I am drawn. It's just SO DARN AWFUL and weird, that I cannot look away.

So please, follow the link, and help me get this darn song out of my head.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Armageddon is Near

Greetings readers! Since it's my turn at the producer table, I've decided that my next song to be recorded is the Munson penned classic "Armageddon Is Here". I'm quite certain that this song started out as a Stickmen "gag" song, and frankly, it hasn't strayed much farther than that. I always envisioned it as a "metal" song, which will make for a break from what the BNB team has produced to date.

The problem is that I've forgotten some of the lyrics. Surprise. Here's what I've got so far:

Armageddon is here. You'd better go to church and pray.
Armageddon is here. The world is gonna end today.

The world collapsed around three AM.
The ground split apart in a blinding flash.
First the rumbling burst my ears.
And then the silence left me all alone.

Armageddon is here. You'd better go to church and pray.
Armageddon is here. The world is gonna end today.

We wandered the wasteland for day after day.
Looking for a place not to be afraid.
Ran into the last band on earth.
The the troubles began all again.

Armageddon is here. You'd better go to church and pray.
Armageddon is here. The world is gonna end today.

Unknown
Unknown
Unknown

We'll welcome armageddon with the banging drums

Drum solo

Armageddon is here. You'd better go to church and pray.
Armageddon is here. The world is gonna end today.


(key switch)
Armageddon is here. You'd better go to church and pray.
Armageddon is here. The world is gonna end today.




So you can see that I'm missing the first three lines of the last verse. If you have any ideas, or have a recording of this song handy, please mail them in. I'll be doing my own research, but I think it's up to Bill.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Second Time Around, On The Road

The blog has been a little dead lately, what with Bill out of town and all. But he's back, and with a vengeance.

Long story short: this weekend we finished "Second Time Around" and "On The Road". or is it "The Second Time Around" and "(On The) Road"???? Not sure.

Details: out of the frickin' park. I don't know what else to say. I'm stunned at how wonderfully STA turned out. It's just amazing. I had no idea Black and Blue was even capable of such a fine artifact. I've been firing off a stream of complimentary emails to bill all night long on the amazing work he did both in performing and mixing and producing. Just nuts. Nuts.

Like the doctor.

Here's some pics.



Thursday, June 26, 2008

More Fan Feedback

A member of our Seattle fan base has emailed in some feedback on the latest B&B constructs. For Rockville, AV had this to say...

Nice - one my favorite REM tunes :-) You do Mikey proud!

And on the road received this praise:

This is great, I'm quite impressed. Maybe losing your day job isn't a bad thing...

Not quite sure if I'm in agreement with the latter sentiment, but it's a nice thought. So all in all, good stuff. The kids seem to be diggin' it.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

The Stickmen Storybook

During a phone conversation today, Bill and I hatched the idea of creating a Stickmen Storybook. The concept is this: pick ten topics or events, and then ask each stickman to write a brief essay recounting said event. Each stick-person does this independent of consulting with other stick-persons. So it's their own work, based on their own recollection.

So you get four essays for ten topics. That's 32 essays! wait. nevermind. Anyhow, so now you've got a stack of essays. What to do next? Publish them! There are a number of online services that let you assemble photo albums and then print them out on a one-off basis. they bind them up all pretty, yearbook style! I even have an R2-D2 builders club yearbook from last year. Great gag.

So that's the plan. For each of the ten events, I'll collect some pictures, or maybe scan some memorobelia from the event, and then put it all together into a book. We'll then print a few out, get them to the crew, and move on with our lives.

Still, I think it'll be a neat little keepsake. So if you're a member of the band, get ready to write some essays!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Black and Blue Go Back To Rockville.

The place: Torrance, California. The date: June 14, 2008. The occasion: Rock and F’n Roll. The Reason: Bachelor Bill.

It wasn’t really the planets that aligned, but a bunch of circumstances. Bills entire family is out of town, meaning that he is once again a bachelor, albeit temporarily. Since the BNB operation has sort of fallen behind in schedule over the past month, we thought it would be a good opportunity to really knuckle down and get some work done. The idea was that we would be free of distractions, and able to crank out the tracks.

Insert old saying about best laid plans.

I arrived at “The Studio” at about noon on Saturday. Bill had been at work in the morning, but was ready to roll. There were no construction projects mid-flight in the garage, so it seemed that we could get straight to work. But there was a problem. The computer that we had been using to do our recording was missing. Well, not missing. We knew exactly where it was. It was with Lisa. This means we had to rig up Bill’s laptop to do the dirty work. We spent time installing and configuring Cubase, the greatest invention ever granted to rock and roll.

We loaded in the Rockville project, only to discover that there were problems. Bills laptop just wasn’t powerful enough to run the project. It would cease up and pop and click all throughout playback. Even worse, it would insert pops and clicks into the recordings. I guess it just didn’t have the processing power. We spent some time dorking around with the laptop, shutting down applications and services in the hopes that it would free up some CPU cycles. No such. After much experimentation, we hatched a plan to create a scaled down project file that only included tracks necessary to sync up new stuff. We got it down to drums, one guitar, and vocals. The thought was that if we lightened the payload of the project file, the CPU could handle it better. Partly true. We still had some hiccups, but decided to plow ahead.

After some recording, we noticed that although there were pops and crackles, they were often NOT embedded in the recording, but were instead being generated at playback. So that was cool. We concluded that our technique was working, and plowed ahead. But not before we kicked around the idea of throwing in the towel. Don’t get me wrong.

Although I did keep a log of what we did during the recording session, I do not have it in front of me, so I’ll just have to do my best to reconstruct it. Actually, scratch that. I’ll just do a very high level summary, and then when I get my mitts on the log, I’ll transcribe it.

The lead guitar took a couple of takes to get right, but it turned out good. As with previous rock efforts, we interrupted practice and recording to head down to Sam Ashe to pick up some supplies. Bill was hunting for a certain combination of strings that would duplicate what Peter Buck does on his Rickenbacker. That’s cool. Sam Ashe has taken some tips from Guitar Center, and now offers no customer service, combined with long waits in line. Cool. We dorked around for a while, and I purchased a “Cabasa”, a common percussion instrument that has a nifty sound to it. I thought it would be cool to introduce some new flavor into a recording.

Naturally, this recording session was not complete without a trip to Carl’s Jr.

Back in the studio, Bill belted out the lead guitar, and it sounded good. He then switched to bass. This took a little bit longer, as Bill is not as familiar with the bass line as the guitar part. I’d like to coin a phrase for something Bill does again and again. No malice intended by this, though I am being a tad snarky. It’s just something that Fischer has been doing since as long as I can remember, and has yet to learn lessons from. It goes something like this. When it comes time for bill to record a part, it goes like this. First, we record the track all the way through the song. Then Bill listens to the track, and identifies tons and tons of parts that need to be patched. We go in and start patching stuff up, but this proves problematic. Either Bill plays with a different volume, intensity, or maybe the axe has gone slightly out of tune. We spend a lot of time patching about half the song in this troublesome manner. Then, Bill says “maybe we should just record the whole thing again, rather than trying to patch it”. Now repeat the process from the beginning.

I want to come up with a name for that. Maybe “The Fischer Iteration”. Please submit your recommendations. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the original recording was usually pretty darn good, and could most likely survive on its own.

We did this for the bass line, and new problems were introduced. When you do an insert edit, it tends to create a little pop or tick at the beginning and end. Sometimes. My theory was that there HAD to be a way to fix those in post production, so we just let them slide during recording.

Somewhere along the way, we took a break to record some basic tracks for “On The Road”. I had been practicing the drum beat at home a lot during the past couple of weeks, and felt very comfortable with it. We did a couple takes, and one was just stellar. It was me on drums, with bill in the booth doing guitar and vocals. I was pleased as punch with the recording. Not only was it going to be my next production number, but it kind of made me feel like we weren’t falling so hopelessly behind after all.

I don’t remember the sequence of events, but along the way we overdubbed vocals for OTR, and did a harmonica track. I don’t think Bill was ultimately happy with the harmonica, but upon numerous listenings, I have really become sold on it.

I had a concept in mind for the song, but no idea on execution. I explained it to Bill. One of the things I’ve been hot to try lately is to get a set of dissonant vocals going during the refrain of a song. I cite REM’s “Can’t Get There From Here” as an example. So, in the refrain of that, the lead singer sings “Can’t get there from here” while a voice buried in the background is yelling “I’ve been there and I know the way” over and over. While it was not this REM song that inspired me to go this direction, this was a good example, as I know Bill is familiar with it. I don’t really know what words I wanted to go behind the refrain for OTR, though I figured it would have something to do with motion. You know, maybe something like “going, and going, and going, and going”. It even occurred to me to use “Go Speed Racer, Go Speed Racer, Go Speed Racer GOOOOO!”. But then, that would be a copyright violation. So I cut Bill loose on the mic, and he came up with something really great. On the final refrain, he laid down some really unique sounding vocals that paid homage to the never released “Obscene Album” from My New Invention. (Note: this was a nod to an earlier discussion we had in the day, where I declared that it was time to write a song about our other songs. Just like the Beatles!!!) Bills contribution really had me laughing, and I thought it was great. The only downside was that because it was an ad-lib, there was a part in the middle where he kind of tripped up over his own words. (more on that later, dear reader!!!)

Somewhere in the practice, we also did a little goofing around with a song of Bills that I really like called “Second Time Around”. For Bill, this song has been the butt of many of MY jokes for the past five years, ever since we recorded the demo at TRU rehearsals. Long story short, I tend to sing a certain part of the song in a mock Liza Minnelli voice. I know, I know, that sounds really odd. I guess you just had to be there. That aside, I’ve always liked the song. Perhaps due to my mocking and other reasons, I’ve always believed that Bill does NOT like the song. Getting to my point, I sort of talked Bill into playing the guitar part for the song while I experimented with a couple of new drum tricks I had picked up. The weirdest thing happened: it sounded great! So much so that Bill confessed he liked the way it was going, and even suggested that this may be the next song he chooses to produce. Wow! I don’t think we recorded any demos of STA, but I’ve got it in my head what I was doing for the drums. Easily repeatable.

But let’s get back to Rockville, despite what the title of the song demands.

One of the things that we never quite got right in any of the recordings is what we lovingly call the “Deedle track”. That’s the little guitar riff right after the vocal says “And waste another year”. We did a dedicated track for that guitar part, and got it nailed.

Speaking of “Waste another year”, Herr Produktor Bill was never quite happy with that line in the song, and asked me to re-record it. No problem. We went through the song and with a new track, recorded that part of the vocal.

We did a separate cabasa track too. Though it was not my intention to use it on Rockville, it seemed as good a place as any.

We finished Rockville at almost exactly midnight. Timeline wise, I think it was just after that when we recorded vocals for On The Road.

We then did some band interview movies, and I think I ended up heading home at about 2:30.

All told, including technical difficulties and breaks, we had spent about 20 hours on Rockville. For this authors money, that’s too much. I’m not going to soap box, because this blog is not about bustin’ Bills balls. Though that may sound like a catch album title, I’m not here to spread the hate. Those days are over!!!

So there you have it. Another month, another song in the can for Black and Blue. Who knew we could actually stay on quasi-schedule for so long? Weird.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

First "On The Road" Review is in!

There's loads of back story missing to this post, but it won't matter, as the content is so rich. Long story short, Bill and I banged out a nearly complete version of "On The Road" in the middle of the second Rockville session last weekend. I'm producer on that number, and in sort of a violent reaction to the over-produced-to-death version of Rockville we finally wrapped up, I'm inclined to consider "road" just about done, save for a bass line and MAYBE another guitar.

But I mixed down what I had, and mailed it out to a couple of friends for feedback. (read: kudos). Here's what I got from a member of our Seattle contingent:

"dude, i'm not a fan of harmonica :) but, cool otherwise and thanks
for sharing...it's no dr. brümbacher, though :)"


It works on so many levels. The commentary I mean, not the song.

Friday, June 13, 2008

LollapAzusa '99 and After

Since it's Friday the thirteenth, with doom and morbidity as the attendant traditional preoccupations, it seems appropriate to delve into the band's latter days. Not really appropriate, because the "closing overs" weren't really dramatic in any Friday the thirteenth kind of way. More "whimper" than "bang." But then again, maybe it is appropriate, since Friday the 13th is just a bunch of hooey! (Oops.)

But hey, enough of me yackin'. Let's boogie!

I would say during the last half-dozen times the “classic” stickmen actually met, goodwill generally prevailed but there was a loss of excitement as the illusion of the band’s commercial viability was quickly slipping away.

  • LollapAzusa ’99 (early May 1999)
  • Jam session/casual performance in the Fischer backyard (4 July 1999)
  • 2-3 Rehearsals for the UCI Quad show (December 1999 – January 2000)
  • Lunchtime concert at the UCI Quad (early/mid January 2000)

LollapAzusa ’99 was the pivot between the “My New Invention” tour and the band’s final days. It was a college outdoor festival, which we had “rocked” the previous year (with a photo of our performance headlining the local paper). This time around, we had a CD to sell. We were “rested and ready” musically, having wrapped up a grueling series of pub dates, followed by several weeks off. Unfortunately, the crowd was disappointingly small and placid.

We turned in a good performance, along with notable baiting of the crowd by Matt, but in the end, we forgot to mention our CD, and accordingly sold none at all. The situation was socially uncomfortable for Don because of my sister’s presence, and the lingering romantic ambiguity with another “ex” who was performing on conga drums with a goofy jazz combo for a few minutes between sets*. The whole experience was less than thrilling, and perhaps slightly overshadowed by a backpacking trip in Joshua Tree that Don, Victor, and I began the next morning.

I guess we were a bit jaded by then. From that point on, I never saw the whole band get excited. Come to think of it, the last time I remember universal, genuine excitement was the “Antiradio” concert in December 1998.

As I’ve said before, the very last time that Matt, Vic and I practiced together was a highlight, a fun memory, in which the "holy trinity" had come full circle, and were at last returning to the Shire (only not ruined!) for a victory lap. It happened on a weeknight at Vic’s apartment – after we had learned that Don would miss our upcoming performance at the Los Angeles Chiropractic College. It was not a scheduled practice, but we telephoned Matt who came up "on the spur" to join us for a run through the planned set, without our usual instruments. Vic, being at home, had access to his normal stage gear: Warwick 5-string bass (british racing green) and Trace-Elliot amplifier. I happened to have my black Fender Squier electric guitar in the trunk of my Cadillac, which I played either unamplified or through a tiny practice amp. I wanna say Matt borrowed Vic’s Seagull acoustic.

It was a heck of a lot of fun, interrupted by a trip to In-N-Out (I was a bit of a pill, and pushed for that destination, which cost us valuable practice time). For me, it felt like a time warp: same comedy as the good old days in Vic’s freezing garage in early 1992, but with better music. As we packed up to leave, I distinctly remember Matt saying “I wouldn’t mind doing that once a month until age forty.” Of course we never did it again, and only played together one more time, at the LACC concert a few days later (5 October 2000).

Come to think of it, scratch that! We did play together again, when we auditioned Ashley Pigford to be our replacement drummer! But that’s “a whole nuther story.”

* The noted ex-boyfriend later went on to limited music-industry success with an outfit called “Hobo Jazz.”

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Fat Chick Strung Out!

Or is it strung up? I don't really have much to add for this post, but I have a picture of the newly strung "fat chick", my classical guitar that I'm hoping to use for some alt-flavor on a Black and Blue song.



A little history for you band history buffs here. This is my third "first" guitar. Through the course of my life, i've taken three runs at learning the guitar. I got my first guitar when i was about five. There's a picture of it and me on this blog somewhere. I think. Both my sister and I got guitars as gifts. The only thing I remember about it is that it had a tartan soft shelled case. it wasn't even really a shell. It was more like a guitar shaped pillow cover with a zipper up the side. Didn't really offer much in the way of protection. My sister's had a green tartan case, I think. Mine was red. Kate's guitar got smashed on the way to America. I remember someone unzipping the case to reveal a bunch of kindling. True shame. I kept that guitar in my closet in Illinois for I don't know how many years. Never really learned to play it. Never really tried. I don't know what happend to that old guitar. Probably got sold at a garage sale or something.

Then, years later, in Jr. High, I got my next "first" guitar. It was a black Ibanez Roadstar II. It had a white pick guard. It was a fender strat copy, but was still pretty expensive. I don't even remember how much it cost, but I remember it being a bunch. It didn't have a tremelo, which I liked. I got it for christmas. Not sure exactly what year. The one thing I didn't like about it was that it had a VERY delicate finish. ANYTHING would scratch it. I remember one time I rubbed a pick around in circles on it, just as an idle motion, and it make a swirly pattern of scratches that never came out. I was in a big Jimmy Page phase at that time, as a recent album by a band called "The Firm" was heavy on my playlist. I even saw them in concert. The thing that totally got me fired up was seeing Jimmy Page play guitar with a violin bow. Under a pyramid of lasers, no less. I thought that was pretty cool, so naturally my next step was to pick up a violin bow. Bummer was, they cost about 40 bucks for the cheapest one. made of "Frog wood", if I remember correctly. Back in those days, saving up 40 bucks was pretty tough. Not only did I not have a job, but I was also a fan of squandering every penny I had on things like big gulps and star wars cards. Man, how times have changed.

not really.

But anyhow, it took me a month or two to save up. I had to special order it from the music store in Barrington, the town in Illinois where I lived at the time. It showed up, and I ran home with my bow and chunk of rosin. I wailed away on my guitar for about an hour... and then the bow snapped in half. Looks like I had over-tensed it. Nice! Now I had a project: fix the bow! I tried everything, but I guess it snapped along it's weakest point, natch. I even took it into the music store, and they tried fixing it, but no luck. So now I was out forty bucks, AND heartbroken. I remember my guitar teacher complaining about how "dead" the strings sounded. I was too embarassed to tell him they were coated in violin bow rosin. At the time, my buddy Steve and I had also read that Eddie Van Halen boiled his strings in water before installing them on the guitar, so we did that too. I think contributed to the deadness of the strings.

I sold the Ibanez to a school buddy named Randy in my high school years. I cannot remember which. I took all the money I got from the sale and promptly blew it on comic books. No kidding. But by the time I sold it, I hadn't played it in years. I played that Ibanez on and off for about six months, and then I got in a super bad bicycle accident that almost lead to the elimination of my left arm. Though I completely recovered, the three months in a cast and following re-hab pretty much threw me off guitar. I remember when I was in the hospital having my arm looked at, the doctor told me I might never be able to play guitar again. I cried!! The pain didn't make me cry during the whole process of breaking and fixing my arm, but the thought of never playing guitar again made me strike up the waterworks! COOL!!

Years later, after high school, I was attending Santa Monica College and wanted to take a guitar class. I had taken lessons with the Ibanez years earlier, but the never were really interesting. half of the lesson was spent watching the instructor transcribe some eddie van halen solo in tablature, and the other half was spent with him watching me biff my way through last weeks tab. Not so good. So I figured the "community" approach would be more useful.

I actually don't remember if I took this class at the urging of Bill/Vic, or if this was something I did prior to The Stickmen. Maybe that's a question for Bill. The question is, when he showed up, did I already know how to play guitar? I remember writing "The Immigrant Song" at Comic Quest, and that song was riffing off the very first song I learned to play at SMC, so that might help time it. I dunno. ANYHOW, when I wanted to take that class at SMC, I needed a guitar. It just so happened that my girlfriend at the time had a spare lying around, so I grabbed it off her. I think I gave her 250 bucks for it. It's a nice guitar, made in Ireland I think. It has a VERY rich sound to it, and I really like. it's a very nice classical guitar. it's taken a few hits over the years, but that was from the previous owner.

I guess that's it really. If anyone wants more guitar history, just let me know and I'll scrounge around in my memory for the details of my other aquisitions.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Going Back to Rockville

This site is really supposed to be oriented toward "classic" stickmen activities, but as the Black & Blue narrative has been nearly 100% "Blue" so far, I'm chiming in with my version of the June 1 session. Here goes.

Rockville.

REM’s country rock song (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville has been one of my favorites ever since early 1992, when I was called upon to learn the guitar part for our newly-formed band, The Stickmen. That summer, I “doped out” the piano part in my parents’ living room, but The Stickmen had already moved on. I’m not a keyboardist, but I took piano lessons as a kid, and my guitar skills made it possible for me to deduce the chord fingerings, which was a great exercise because the song features like every minor chord inversion in the key of C (which is the easiest key for piano). So a lot of black keys, but attainable for a dabbler like me. It became my showcase piano bit, and whetted my appetite for honky-tonk piano. And somewhere along the way, Matt and I vowed one day to record an album of our favorite cover songs.

Anyway, for several years afterward I had a nagging itch to pay my dues on the instrument, but after moving out on my own, I lacked ready access to a decent keyboard. Finally, last year, I picked up a used Alesis DG-8 digital piano and parked it in my garage. As a natural consequence, Rockville aired at several jam sessions with Don and Matt individually.

So when May 2008 arrived and it was my turn again to “produce” a Black & Blue track, it was high time that I turned to this old chestnut. Actually, there was another title in contention, but I wanted to take another month to consider that particular arrangement.

For the Rockville basic track, I manned the control room while Matt played drums in the garage. Simultaneously with soundboard duties, I also did “scratch” guitar and vocals. The “soundboard”comprised Firepod (8-channel preamp and A/D converter) linked by firewire (IEEE-1394) to a Sony Vaio running Cubase.

The drums were recorded on three tracks:

  • Matt’s old stage microphone inside the kick drum,
  • My old Peavey stage mic hanging overhead,
  • Vic’s Shure SM-57 close-miking the snare drum.

I’m not sure whether Matt used 5A sticks or hot rods. It seemed pretty loud, so probably the 5A’s.

I did my vocal through the phantom-powered Apex condenser microphone, and used the Highlander internal pickups for my Martin acoustic guitar: a miniature condenser boom microphone (visibile just inside the sound hole) and a bridge-mounted piezo-electric.

I didn’t take long to get a couple of solid takes, and then we surgically patched the drum flubs on the last take. The patching process was really easy. We’d listen until we heard a mistake, and then Matt would play along to the recording and I would drop him in for a few beats.

Then Matt took the controls while I did the piano part using the “octave piano” on the DG-8. This was recorded with lines out in stereo. Repeated “patching” was required, as I had not practiced at all, and I also had a touch of stage fright from the video camera (Matt was designated “cinematographer” for the session). On playback it dawned on me that I was misusing the sustain pedal. I felt my performance get stronger once I finally nailed the bridge, so I went back to redo the first two verses, much to Matt’s annoyance. I had also realized that the camera couldn’t hear a thing because the DG-8 speaker was turned off.

Next, I had Matt record a rhythm guitar part, which I think he was surprised about, but then he underestimates his playing. I used the Apex condenser as a close mike and the SM-57 for ambience, a setup which Don and I had experimented with successfully in the past. For some reason, it was sounding a bit bottomy and dead, and messing with the close microphone position wasn’t helping much. Matt shot me dirty looks, and after a while I shrugged and said good enough.

Matt had read that the Beatles’ 1994 recording of Free as a Bird had used complete duplicate performances panned hard left and right, and before the session Matt had expressed an interest in eventually using the technique with acoustic guitar. I was already familiar with the Beatles’ extensive use of double tracking, or “tracking” as they called it (they coined the usage of the word “flange” in the mid 1960’s to describe a labor-saving artificial version of the process).

My thought was to “track” Matt’s acoustic guitar, but it became clear there wouldn’t be time. It all worked out later, because when I hard-panned Matt’s guitar and my “scratch” guitar, the result was a very rich, satisfying guitar sound. The subtle differences in phrasing between our juxtaposed rhythm styles were very complementary in the mix. But then I already knew that, which is why I enjoy playing guitar with Matt. Not coincidentally, the song April, recorded four months previously, had a similar story, with Matt’s slightly swingier acoustic track elevating the result.

We finished the session with vocals, again recorded through the Apex phantom-powered condenser microphone. I thought my scratch vocal was actually pretty decent, and initially intended Matt to use it as a guide. Unlike acoustic rhythm guitars, I feel that vocal tracks should be synched up very tightly. However, one of Matt’s idiosyncrasies is his preference to sing unimpeded by such distractions, and I acceded to his request to mute out the “guide” vocal. Sure enough, the result was a significant difference in phrasing, especially in the chorus, on the last half of the word “Rockville.” I went with it, and fell back on the tried and true formula of Matt singing his bit, followed by me singing along to that. Maybe next time I’ll tighten down my producer hat and crack the whip. But probably not. Anyway it was a solid performance from Matt, except for the “waste another year” parts, which will be redone anyway.

Matt took over the mousepad while I layed down a harmony part, but it wandered all over the map, with high, low, and unison parts scattered haphazardly, and a few mistakes thrown in there as well. What a pain. Time for a rethink. To make things easier to mix, I thought it would be better to record a harmony part in each register, and then pick and choose later. So I did a “high” harmony part. Only problem was that I had never tried a high harmony for some parts of the song. After several run-throughs and numerous patches, we had a complete track with a few totally new harmony lines: some clever, some lame.

We were out of time, and Matt had to split. I was a bit uneasy with a few of the issues already mentioned, but as I played with the mix later that evening, I kept incrementally adding back more of the “scratch” tracks and in so doing became more and more pleased with the results. I’m not a big believer in “fix in it the mix,” but in this case it seems the mix levels are the key to the end result. The piano levels have to be prominent enough to counterbalance the guitars, but low enough to mask clumsy use of sustain. The vocal levels have to be just right to fill out the lead part without harshness or clutter. It kept getting better, and after a while, I couldn’t stop listening, which doesn’t often happen to me. We still need to add bass and electric guitars, but I can already tell that the end result is going to be a highlight of the Black and Blue 2008 set.

Strings for a Fat Chick.

This past weekend, Bill and I recorded most of the tracks for our first cover, REM's (Don't go back to)Rockville. I'll try to get in a detailed write up of the festivities later, but right now, I want to talk about my recent accomplishments.

And they're not very big, so don't get your hopes up.

For this recording, Bill requested that I bring along my classical guitar. You know, to inject a new sound into a recording. I was totally up for it. What threw me was how Bill referred to the guitar. To protect the guilty, I'll change the names, but he basically said something like "Hey, bring Bianca with you".

My first reaction? Who the hell is Bianca, and why does Bill want me to bring her?

Then I remembered that we (the Stickmen) went through a period where we named all of our instruments. For some lame reason, I decided to name my instruments after girl friends, as I typically had one each time I got a new guitar. So this particular guitar was named after Bianca.

But like I said, that totally threw me, until I remembered who Bianca was, and that a guitar was named after her. But I didn't like it. So I demanded that from now on, the guitar be referred to as "Fat Chick". Totally appropriate, and would save me the trauma of wondering what the heck Bill was talking about.

I brort Fat Chick with me up to Bills' place, er, I mean the recording studio. We had just finished up the vocals, and were ready to move on to recording FC. I opened the case, only to find that one of the strings was busted. Or "Bust-ayat". Bummed, I went home without recording that part.

Anyhow, I made it to the music store in Irvine yesterday and picked up a set of nylon strings, along with some felt pics for the bass. Looks like I'm going to be doing the bass line for Rockville, and I like to use picks when I do that. So I'm all equipped!

That's about the long and the short of it.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

The Parade of Injuries Continues

Looks like Bill Fischer is not the only member of Black and Blue who can break bones. I just found out today that my big toe is indeed broken. Based on the level of pain I'm experiencing, I have to conclude that I did indeed break my small toe (twice) earlier in the year. And I also have to conclude that I did something absolutely horrible to my foot last year in Italy. If pain is any measure.

I went down to the Saddleback Urgent & Family Care office today in the afternoon to get it x-rayed. Good picture too! I'm sorry I don't have a copy to post. Basically, a big chunk had snapped off, but didn't move. It was in the exact position it needed to be, it was just busted off. It looked kind of cool. Sadly, there's NOTHING they could do for me. They even had the nerve to give me some really great advice: Try not to stub it. Gee, thanks. Do you want my insurance card now?? Sheesh.

They also advised that I wear shoes. Gee. The hits just keep on coming. What's next? Should I keep breathing? Will that help?

The good news is that it doesn't stop me from playing ze drums. It really only hurts when I try to bend it, or when someone sits on it. Or kicks it. Other than that, it's very manageable.

Here's an artists rendering of my injury. This is NOT my foot. Ignore the red circle. The blue line shows where the crack through my toe goes. See that knob of bone to the left of the line? That's the part that's free floating. Cool.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

New "My New Invention" High Point

Today was a glorious day in the long and illustrious history of My New Invention.

Today, a co-worker of mine quoted "City In My Brain" in an email. Here's the excerpt:

"Agreed, sometimes just throwing stuff out there and seeing what sticks is the best way to get some dialogue going and come up with some solutions...knowing enough about the place to be dangerous can be good, as the song says, "I'm not the mayor, just the mail man"."

The context of the email discussion was about taking "crazy pills", and suggesting ideas that are off the wall, simply for the sake of getting people to think in new directions.

But who cares. How cool is that. Someone who isn't in the band is quoting the band. Last time that happened, we were still in college. It was Julian Kingston who said "Who am I but to follow", which was also a stroke of pure genius.

So it looks like we are quoted about once every fifteen years. At this rate, it'll be 2022 by the time we're next quoted. Oddly enough, that's right around the time that Future Bitch is expected to be crushing skulls across the dystopian wastelands which are currently our country.

Something to look forward to.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Quote of the Day

Is it wrong to qoute ones self? If so, too bad. Here's my latest:

"I'd rather be poor in southern california than rich in san francisco."

s'truth.

Truck: The Kids Are Diggin' It!!

The fan base is ablaze this week, as Big Tin Truck hits the airwaves. Well, the network cables, actually. Though if someone at home had a wireless router, and downloaded it to their laptop, I guess you could say it hit the airwaves.

But who cares! Bottom line is that the feedback from the latest Black and Blue release "Big Tin Truck" has been unanimously enthusiastic. And I'm not talking about your typical, cookie-cutter, parent-like, obligatory praise. Cuz you know, three year olds who bring home finger paintings are told they did a great job. Are we on the same level as them? Possibly, but that's worthy of exploration in a separate posting.

Fact remains, of all the folks who have listened, they all really liked it. Some went on to say they loved it. My favorite comment so far comes from a co-worker, who says "sounds like an old school surfer song". I have no idea how it does, but who cares. If someone is interested in spending their introspection cycles coming up with something other than "it's good", I'm pleased as punch.

So far, I think the song has gone out to about 10 people, which is an order of magnitude more than some of our live performances. I think this bodes really well for the forthcoming album, and our as-of-yet unrealized bright futures as rock and roll mega-wonders. or one hit wonders. Either would be fine.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Pics to Click

I probably should have added these when I did my "tin truck" post, but I didn't. I had not yet transferred them from my camera. Not that they're very topical, but they're interesting. Well, to the readers of the Classic Stickmen blog they are.

First up is the much-discussed drum kit that I recently purchased.



And here's a shot of the newly founded MNI Studios South. This is my "studio" as I prepare to mix down BTT. NICE! You can't see it in this picture, but I have a wireless keyboard (upon which I type at this very moment) and wireless mouse. We've come a long way from sitting on grungy leather couches against the back wall of TRU Rehearsals.



And in continuation of the "Shreds" series, here's a little youTube video of me playing ze drums.

A Big... A Tin Truck.

Looks like there's a marked decrease in blogging activity lately around here. That actually may be a good thing, as it could be viewed as proof that we belong to that rare breed of people living today who have lives outside of the internet. Crazy talk, I know, but stranger things have been known to happen when the Stickmen are involved.

This past weekend marked the completion of the fourth Black & Blue collaborative piece, "Big Tin Truck". We violated our policy of "one month, one song", but what are you gonna do? Life got in the way. Sue me. Sue us. Defensive? Yes.

Still, the recording tasks for this song were wrapped up this past weekend. I'll try to give a summary of the events.

The first thing I wanted to do was fix the busted "lead" guitar track. Somehow, when we finished up our previous session, neither bill nor I noticed that the track kind of fell apart near the end. We fixed that first. There was a suggestion by bill to use cut and paste to just move some good bits over to cover the bad bits, but I ix-nayed that. It seemed like it would be problematic, not only getting the pasted bits in sync with the drums, but also the fact that the tempo probably varies throughout the song. So in typical Munson fashion, I just "ivory towered" the whole thing and decided without any experimentation or actual research that it was a bad idea. Hey, it was that approach that worked just fine for science until that pesky Gallileo came along and cocked it all up.

But I digress. So we got the lead guitar track fixed. Uh, then we did tambourine. Was that it?? I really don't remember. Man, I must be getting old or something. I thought we did some other stuff, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was?

BASS!!!

I think we did bass. It's all a big blur. I can't believe that events that took place just a week ago are already lost in the brain fog of my mind. I think we must have done bass. Yeah, it's all coming back to me. Not really, but I've always liked the sound of that expression.

Bill had a bass line that I didn't really love. And after putting up with bass lines that I didn't really love for the better part of 10+ years, I was sick of being silent. So I finally got to say something that I've been holding in cold storage for almost 20 years: Less is More. Bill complied (since I'm the producer and all) and notched the complexity of the bass part down a bit. But it wasn't enough. It was still way too meandering and frilly.

Less is more! I repeated. He notched it down again.

Put this loop on repeat about six more times, and we finally got to a bass line that I was comfortable with. Still not happy with, but hey, I'm willing to compromise. Especially when I'm mostly getting my way.

the bass line that we recorded was pretty good, though I would have preferred something even more primitive. I'm a big fan of root notes, and not a big fan of flashy bass lines. Call it an artifact from my years with the Stickmen. Call it whatever you want. Fact is, I do not believe that the role of bass within a Black and Blue song is that of lead instrument. it's a support instrument. Anyhow, it came out sounding good.

Bill Fischer, being his usual self, fed me three different tracks of bass line. I think there was a direct line, a line from an amp, and a mic that was picking up the amp. I may be exaggerating, but that's how I remember it. S'Okay, I don't mind Bill. Just remind me to keep you away from those knobs.

Bill did his usual bang up job. The kid doesn't cease to amaze me. He's a darn fine guitar player, and a darn fine bass player. But let's talk about me for a second also. I suppose we've been amazing each other for the past six months. Between the two of us, we can now competently play every instrument needed to replicate a four (or even five) member band lineup. That's pretty stellar. Granted, neither of us are experts at our "satellite" instruments, but we are competent enough to pull off a recording that sounds like something you might hear on the radio. It's no "Windows From the Asylum", but it just might be the type of thing you hear on star 98.7 or something.

But we got the bass line in the can.

One of the more amusing things about Bill is that he's been playing the same tried and true diplomacy tricks with me for the better part of 20 years. No joke. I've come to appreciate it. Not because they work, but because they're predictable. His favorite??? "Let's TRY it". or "we can TRY it". On its face, it sounds like a compromise. But the truth is, it's Bills secret way of saying "eff you". Which is fine. He's entitled to it.

So Bill's "Lets TRY it" for the weekend was an alternate Bass line. That's one of the things that's great about Bill. He never pushes back directly. He'll do it your way, all the way... up until the very end. Then he hits you with that "lets TRY it" bull sh!t, and takes you down the path he wanted to go from the beginning. Like I said before. Same old tried and true nonsense that he's been layin' on me for 20 years.

The good news for him is that I'm as consistent as he is, but on the other side. I'll TRY it. So we set up to record another bass line. Bill knocked it out pretty quickly, and that was the end of it.

I think that pretty much wrapped us up for the day as far as recording goes. We did a lot of misc. dorking that day, which took up a lot of time. A protracted visit to Carl's, and a fireside chat with Lisa and the gang took us away from Rockin', but well worth the time. We also "played compyoodie" for a while, burning all of our work to DVDs for me to take with me. Not only would I now be able to mix stuff down on my own, but we also had dual copies of the work in case of computer crash or localized armageddon. We also put away a lot of junk food mini-candy bars that were sitting in a giant-sized, very inviting plastic sack sitting on top of some filing cabinets.

I think the day lasted almost exactly 8 hours. I showed up at noon, and was on the road by 8.

OH, that reminds me! Before we recorded, we did a quick little jam session. I had a chance to show off some of my new drum Skillz that I had picked up over the past week, including a new drum beat that I've prepped for "On The Road". We ran through a couple of songs, but I'll leave it up to bill to report exactly which ones. I dont' remember, though I'm sure "That Thing You Do" was one of them.

Anyhow, once we were done recording, I decided that I wanted to do a quick "capture" of the beat I had come up with for On The Road. We did a very quick re-wire to make sure everything would be captured. Bill on guitar and vox, me on drums. We were really just capturing ideas, and not trying to get the whole song. There's a funny little gag I do with a drum roll during the refrain. It actually started out as a joke, but it sounded kind of cool. Who knows, it may end up in the final song. So we got that recorded, and also transferred that to DVD.


And now it's time for the payoff for all the bashing I did about bass and bills crazy methodologies earlier in this post.

So I get home. I install cubase. I load the cubase files onto my computer. Incidentally, I also hooked my laptop computer up to my bigscreen TV, so now my monitor is 42" wide. This makes mixing down much more fun, as I can sit on the couch with my wireless mouse and keyboard to do work. Fun fun fun! I got Big Tin Truck all lined up, and started doing a mix down. I got some automation going for the harmonica parts, did some EQ adjustments on the drums, and tightened up a few things. Ah crap, I'll skip to the punch line. When it came to the final mix, it turns out that Bills "Can we TRY it" bass line was the one I went with. It sounded better in the context of the final mix down that the original "less is more" line that I pushed so hard for.

Score one for diplomacy.

Anyhow, the first mix is now available on my website, and it's pretty good. it's rough, to be sure, and still needs some clean up. But it's good. Critical reaction has been entirely favorable, culminating with a request for me to quit my day job to pursue music. Oddly enough, circumstances may make that choice for me, but that's a topic for another post.

Here's the song, for you all you eager readers. (hi billy!)

Big Tin Truck