15 posts tagged “canadian”
Well, I ran my solo blog for a while, but ran out of dough, so I shut it down. I never really did get that music blog off the ground, and I still don't really have any other venues. I'll probably look into Dreamwidth before too long and see how that works, but meanwhile, I figured I'd pop back in here briefly and show what little progress was made on that last track I posted here. The bass line still falls a little flat in spots, and the vocal harmonies were giving me so much trouble that I left them out of one of the later mixes.
These are both still very much demo recordings, and I'm not happy with either, but somewhere in the midst of these tracks lies the kernel of what I've been trying to do with this song. I haven't bothered to write a lead guitar or keyboard track for it as of yet, since I really wanted to get the bed track and vocals hammered out before I started layering on other parts. I was thinking of putting a piano in to take over the acoustic guitar part, and putting in a sparser rhythm guitar part on electric, to let the bass carry the melody a bit. Then I suppose a guitar solo is in order, though I don't hear one yet. I'll probably start noodling with some effects and try a few ideas as the song approaches completion. Ultimately, I have no idea how it's going to turn out.
Anyway, here you go. Enjoy.
Lee.
Lee.
Yes it's incomplete and probably not a lot of fun to listen to yet. I'll be setting this to music and reposting it soonish, I hope.
Lee.
Gary started a blog here some time ago, but of course he never updates, because he'd rather dick around on Facebook. He posted a track or two over there, as I recall, but he just kind of left it at that and said no more.
Then I'm scanning the internet to see if I can start a new all-encompassing blogsite under my own name, and come across this: http://www.reverbnation.com/thesisetc
At first I thought, alright, who's been stealing our tracks and passing them off as theirs. then I read the band description and realized it was Gary.
Anyway, I read the song list, but couldn't play any of the tracks because I guess that site's functionality isn't all there. However, I COULD download tracks. I have most of Gary's solo stuff on my hard drive already, but there was one recording I'd forgotten:
Now this was recorded at Karaoke one night, by burning a disk directly though the sound board equipment. I'm pretty sure I never recorded any material this way. However, Gary had been working to master this very operatic track (from Phantom of the Opera, one of his ex-fiancée's favourites), and bravely took a swing at it. And now you kind folks get to reap the rewards. :)
Sine we're here, I might as well play you a couple of his demos, one of an unfinished tune he never (to the best of my knowledge) bothered to copy the lyrics down for, and the other a piece of music we've been planning on putting on a new album for the last while. The unfinished number ('I Can See Why', which I titled for him, since he hadn't done so yet) was written and recorded entirely by Gary, and the latter (originally titles The Downside, but these called The Dark Age) was first composed by Gary, who then asked me to write the lyrics (which I sang a melody for as we worked it out) as an ode to the survivors of 9/11. Then he and his ex-fiancée rewrote and finished up the lyrics behind my back, and I've been bitter and defeated ever since.
But at least you folks can enjoy the music. Here. See if I care. Go on. Turn him into a superstar! Leave me in the dirt! With the worms and the grubs and shit! I don't care! I really don't!
Lee.
Okay, so it's my birthday, and I'm in an immense amount of pain. My wife, who is sick as heck today, has nevertheless slavishly made for me a very decadent chocolate cake. Christmas was swell, despite our infirmities, and I received some very nice gifts, including that great new Genesis biography, which I tore into right away.
Now, to celebrate my birthday, I've decided to release Time Passes By in its current semi-demo form, even though it's intended for Project Download. The impression I've gotten is that the ladies are not going to use it, so I figure there's no point in waiting. I would like to direct folks to the Project Download LJ Community, which I think is still an excellent charity for a very worthy cause, despite the troubles they've had in recent days. Please visit their blog and download the simple, safe text file, which will help go towards getting Erin the neurosurgery she needs.
Without further ado, here's the song:
I wrote a new song for Erin at Project Download; a bratty little punk pop number called You're Right. Dawn says I was too wordy. She's right as usual. Anyway, I uploaded the vocal demo, so here it is:
Okay, enough. Good night, and in case I don't return before then, Merry Christmas.
Lee.
So I was going through my digitized music file collection and noticed that I hadn't finished converting Etcetera's original demo album to mp3 yet, and decided I'd do that and clear out the bulky old wave files. And that of course got me to thinking about posting them here.
They're pretty scratchy and not at all what I would class professional performances or recordings by any stretch of the imagination. they're just rough drafts of a number of pieces I was intent on getting polished up. Some of them made it to a more polished level of demo stage; others still need a lot of work. I may take one or two in hand in the next while. There are a lot of flaws in these recordings, but there are also some nice, magical moments hidden in them. Etcetera were never the finest musicians, but when they gelled, they could generate some really interesting musical moments
Top of Riff Jam Rock
This was an impromptu jam that I somehow instigated while showing Gary some moving chords and a respectable amount of distortion. I never made a name for myself as a guitarist, but in the words of John Lennon, I could occasionally 'really make the fucker howl'.
Here We Go Again (vox + acoustic)
While we were hammering away at getting the instrumentation nailed down for this tune, we every once in a while would get the urge to try and sort out the harmony vocals. This version was not based on the final arrangement but on the version of the tune we had lived with for about a year, and wanted to hear if our vocal arrangement worked. So we did it 'a cappella'. Later, I dubbed in some acoustic guitar and a little added vocal. It's an awkward mix, but it has some charm. This was a favourite of friends of the band for quite a while.
Here We Go Again
Show Me Something (trials)
This was a number that Gary had already helped me demo for our side project, but Gary was curious to hear whether the band could figure it out. Derrick was never comfortable with the 3/4 swing beat, and I'm not sure Dave ever came to grips with the bassline, although I suspect he did. This was a mishmash recording that wound up with some reversed spillage from the other side of the cassette, and for some time, I just thought it was amusing to listen to, even though it's really nothing close to how the song was meant to sound.
Show Me Something
Come Hither Eyes (pt 1)
Gary had started noodling with a riff that he was composing for his girlfriend at the time, and the guys liked it so much, they insisted on jamming on it with him.
Come Hither Eyes (pt 2)
This goes on record as being the first time we ever tried an overdub on a track. While we had been jamming on Gary's 'Getting Laid' riff *big grin*, I started hearing a low and dirty lead line in a Stonesy sort of vein. So I played back the tune on a cheesy little ghetto blaster of mine while working out the note melody. Dave thought I was writing a bassline, but I told him it wasn't really for him to play.
Thick and Thin (acoustic demo)
Gary had started jamming a crunchy latin-inspired riff at home that he had then left on my answer machine. I was eager to get in and get to work on it, so one afternoon at practice, he started hammering on it and the change ups, and then grabbed hold of some lyrics that Derrick had given him to work with. Gary and I quickly sorted out the vocal melodies and we recorded the demo right before their eyes. Compared to Etc, Thesis was fast. The guys were suitably impressed.
Thick & Thin
Conditions (YSMS demo jam)
Gary and I were pushing our guitar and keys through one amp, which created this tweezy sort of compression, which inspired us to jam out a tune with the guys. I ended up taking this home, dissecting it and strapping some reworked lyrics of Derrick's onto it, but this is the original jam, which I'd already named Conditions.
You Send Me Spinning
MONTE'S BIRTHDAY SUITE
Pt 1: The Wakening
A simple bit of note fluff I created at the end of a monumental jam, and then switched around with the first part, as it sounded more like a quirky intro to me than a coda.
Pt 2: The Hunting
This was actually played before the part I eventually put last in the lineup, but it had a certain mood and power all it's own, and goes down as one of my favourite musical moments with the band. It's chaotic and muddy, and a lot of time was spent trying to convert it into a song, which later became Breathe [1][2][3]. I'd still like to go back and figure out how to rearrange and recreate this as a full prog piece.
Pt 3: Monte's Arrival
I started the band practice off by programming Derrick and Dave (Gary couldn't make it) with a cocktail of Genesis, Yes, DreamTheater and especially King Crimson. Then we started up and created this beast of a triptych. This is one of the heaviest moments in the band's history, and though it's extremely unpolished, it has a lot of great little moments I'd love to arrange and recreate someday.
After the whole thing was done, we dreamed up a story of a Japanese Giant Rubber Monster making his way onto the shore of some unsuspecting city and tearing it up. We dubbed him Monte, and declared this his Birthday Suit(e).
Games/Goodbye
An early recording of the band rehearsing this hoary classic, complete with me counting the band in at the start and at the segue to the coda. It's far from there, but it's a pretty good tune, even in this early stage.
Games/Goodbye
Waiting For Sentence (take 6)
Dave started working on his famous untitled bass composition, and the band tried lamely to get in there and work with him. It didn't really happen, but at least you can hear what Dave was trying o do here.
Waiting For Sentence (take 7)
And finally, on another day, the band actually got in there and did a little more with the riff. It still didn't come off all that well, but it sounded pretty cool, and served as an early template for what I figured the band would eventually do with Dave's piece.
I may take a stab at arranging this into something cool for Dave sometime this year.
And there you have it. Another DRM-free demo album brought to you by Etcetera/Thesis music. Please feel free to do anything except sell the music yourselves. Creative Commons License applies. If you want to do something with anything you hear here, please drop me a note. I have plans for some of this stuff too, you know.
Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed it.
Do I need to mention that the sound quality is not particularly good?
I plan on making some changes to the melody in order to make it a little less obvious and derivative of the Gabriel stuff, but not so much that you can't tell what influenced what. It was meant as a homage, even if the lyric content is tongue in cheek about the fact that no one knew my music (for reasons entirely my own).
____________________
And as an added bonus, I give you pictures of the home studio, which my wife has very sweetly obliged me in photographing, on this snowy and blustery day:
Still figuring out how I'm going to record the album, and still thinking I'll wind up doing it all myself. But at least you get a small idea of what the vocals will actually sound like on the album.
Lee.
The Dream Falls (original demo version)
© 2006 Lee Edward McIlmoyle
Etcetera Thesis Music
for the upcoming album 'Add Infant Item'
Well, Gold as in the gaming industry definition of gold, which means the Etcetera Thesis Music Blog is complete now. We are no longer in beta *grin*.
The demo tracks from two 'albums', plus a couple of new songs for the upcoming album, most of which feature me on assorted instruments (keys, guitars, bass, drum programming, lead and backing vocals -- of varying quality, depending mainly on my health and what take it was), with varying degrees of musicianship from myself, Gary Falkins (guitars, keys, bass, lead and backing vocals), Derrick Rose (drums, percussion, backing vocals), and our old friend, Big Dave Beddard (bass, backing vocals).
I still don't really like how Vox bastardizes my text edits, but nevertheless, I have completed posting virtually all of the lyrics, commentary notes and composition/performance credits on the Etcetera Thesis Music Blog. From here on out, I'll only be adding bits and bobs as they come along, including new demos and any bits of film and stuff the guys acquire. Hopefully we'll start writing about band-related news there, instead of it being a veritable museum.
Anyway, I'm supposed to be working on a vector file for the computer store signage printers, and emailing the latest revision of the tradeshow banner to my sister and the water people. I'd prefer to snuggle up and go to sleep with my wife, but duty calls. *sigh*
Have a nice day.
