5 posts tagged “thesis”
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:
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.
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.
Over the past few days, I've been trying to make myself finish sitting down and 'remaster' the old demo song compilation I finished up in 1998. It consists of a few Etcetera songs I felt particularly proud of, plus a whole bunch of basically finished songs, performed either by myself or with Gary Falkins,
So anyway, I had the option of pulling out all of the original 'master' tapes and pulling the tracks off one by one. I would if they were really worth all that much, but the truth is, most of them are pretty rough (hence the title), so there really didn't seem to be too much point in getting precious about the source, So I just loaded up my last compilation copy (actually a copy of the original; I have no idea where that got to), and started ripping it to my computer.
Now, the software I use to rip cassettes isn't particularly high tech; I can edit waveforms and save them as either wave or mp3. I have some noise filtering and some parametric EQ control, so while the tracks are impossible to separate, I can at least tweak the frequencies the separate instruments live on and try to make things sound more balanced and less muddy.
Anyway, the demo will never be fore sale, obviously, so I'm going to wind up doign with it what I did with And Sew Fourth. However, I have no idea if Vox will let me load any more music. It still has't loaded my previous edit of Here It Comes Again/One Up On You. So just as a test, I'm gonna load the first three tracks and see how it goes. If that works, I'll try loading the rest.
Creative Commons License: You can burn it to a personal disc, learn to play the songs and play them live inconcert. You can't rerecord them as your own and sell them without my permission, and you can't burn multiple discs and sell them, either. I will most likely rerecord them myself at some date and issue an official version of this album someday, though the next Thesis album I record is going to have a lot of newer music, if I have anything to do with it.
Lee Edward McIlmoyle
somewhere in Hamilton, ON
Thesis - Rough Work In The Margins
© 1998, 2006 L. McIlmoyle
Etcetera Thesis Music
ETA: Looks like it worked. But look at all this space!
Think I should write a little about the songs, huh?
Okay, first off, there's The Question, which was actually a completely unplanned improvisation that I recorded directly to the ghetto blaster I had my cheeseball board hooked into a tthe time. It's very church-like, true, but I guess I just always liked how spontaneous it was, and how interesting it was, for all of its flaws.
This is taken directly form my post about the next two songs:
Anyway, it was 1995 and I was on enforced
sabbatical from my band (girl trouble), and I was honing my song craft. I wrote
a great number of songs during that period, and even started talking with some
of my old band mates again, but I was still out on my own, working feverishly,
and trying to figure out what I was going to do next.
Here It Comes Again
Towards the end of my exile, I was working
around the Christmas season at a Toys R US, when all of that Beatle
indoctrination suddenly boiled over, and I started hearing a new song, complete
with the grooviest bassline I'd never heard before. I got the lyrics down in a
short period of time, but the rest of the song took a solid year of tinkering
before it came together for me. I recorded all of the parts myself, even though
I had begun working with my old band again in the interim. It was recorded late
at night while my not-yet-ex-girlfriend and her little boy slept. It remains one
of the smartest pop tunes I've ever turned out.
One Up On You
Afterwards, I spent a bit of time refining it
at my own place, and found myself pullingout another lyric that had gotten
written around the same time as the first, but had lain dormant. I demoed it on
drum machine and keys, and added vocals. Although it's not what I had heard, it
had its own interesting character, so I left it and faded in on the end of the
first.
Why Do I Do These Things?
This was a piece of guitar music I started composing shortly after I started my sabbatical. I can actually remember sitting in a certain young lady's bedroom while a very antagonistic Dave Beddard loomed outside the door as I worked on some of the parts. Admittedly, the fact that he was getting interested inher room mate at the time (and thought I might try to move in one her) might explain some of his anger. The fact that the gal in question had previously been dating Derrick before sidlign over to me, contributed to this, too. Interestingly enough, I wrote the lyrics with Derrick months later, after he and I had reconciled. It's really my lyric, but he and I traded ideas until I knew what I wanted, and I finishe dit up for him to hear. Frankly, I have rarely ever been able to play and sing this at the same time. I may have to remedy that.
As some of you who have listened to the Etcetera album And Sew Fourth will already know, this song appeared on there in almost the same form. However, while it wasn't really my song; Derrick's lyrics with a (slightly-more-complex-than-usual-for-Etcetera) melody I wrote on my own and then drilled the band on; poor Gary never mastered this tune during the year we rehearsed it; he plays it pretty good now though. Still, I felt a sense of proprietary ownership of it. Still, I really didn't like how muffled my vocals were, and had frankly really wanted some harmony vocals on there. So I took it home and tried desperately to come up with a harmonized vocal performance I liked. Didn't happen. Frankly, I will most likely rework the harmony vocal and get Gary to sing it when we rerecord it later this year.
Lady Penelope
First off, there's a little preview of The Brighter Side, sung in my very best George Harrison.
Then I go straight into the tune, which was done on drum machine and Gary's old Ibanez double neck, which I used for a number of demos all on the same night (I was very keen). This was actually my first deliberate attempt to write a Beatlesque tune (I beased the title on Penny Lane, for a start), but it's really only half there, Still, it's a good little pop tune, though it needs instrumentation to replace all of my caterwauling antics.
She
This was the first pop song I wrote all of the lyrics AND music to, expressly for the band after we actually came together. Gary was just coming into the band at the time, and I was trying to teach myself to write songs for the band to play, since we seriously couldn't play any of the prog-type songs I'd been trying to write up to that point. It's still a pretty primitive piece of pop song, considering I'd written lots of songs before that had much more conventional song structures. I never seem to do anything the easy way. I later did a recording of myself singing four part harmony for this, which is the wya I'd always intended the band to handle it. I'll have to dig that up sometime. It's funny to listen to me singing like Gary, Derrick and especially Dave.
Zoe
Ah, this was my first delberate attempt to write a slightly warped pop song about a fictitious girl obsession. I was a fan of Doctor Who at the time, and had discovered Patrick Troughton's plucky little brunette assistant, and fell in love. Zoe has since gone on to be a character in four stories of mine, one other pop sonf (later on that) a cartoon character, and the ghost in my machine. And she's still a little hellion.
Tonight
I had been thinking for a while that I wanted to write an interesting and vaguely prog sounding song called tonight, since about the time I got my first copy of Duke, by Genesis. Something about Rutherford's tune 'Alone Tonight' just stuck in my head, and when they later recorded Tonight Tonight Tonight, a decision was made. I took a long time coming up with that song, and I've never been completely happy with the lyrics, but I did see it through to demo, after messing around with it for a few years.
The Brighter Side
This was a lyric I wrote to accompany a song I arranged from a jam the guys and I did one day. Gary and I were both pushing keys and guitar out of the same amp, which got this oddly tweezed tone that somehow made the tune, aurally. We improvised a riff for several minutes, and I then spent several hours mapping it out amd rearranging it using two tape machines and careful attention to the tape meter. I never did manage to get the guys to actually play this song, but it's kinda neat, and I hit on the idea of doing a George Harrison thing with it, which I'm still fond of. So I included it on the album, and consider it something of a tribute to the man, who is one of my oldest influences.
Bleed Into One
This was a song lyric I started writing as the band was reconvening after a slow winter. By this time, I was starting to really feel my lyrical prowess returning, and was starting to feel some of that piss and vinegar that used to inform some of my older lyrics before the band. I pushed the band through a series of jams that day, and while I was messing about with a deep synth string bass motif, Gary created this incredible series of riffs using his guitar and new effects unit. The band did a series of jams on the same motif, one after another, until we had a good ten to fifteen minutes of the most incredible, moody noise ever, and as a four-piece, no less. I was in heaven.
After applying the lyrics I'd written the previous night to it, we did the rockiest version of the piece, and I later took the whole mess home with me and reconstructed it into my version of Synchronicity II, using two tape machines. It never really got performed and recorded well after that initial session, but I later used a number of strong sections from that first session to create this edit, which is the template for what I'd like to do with it this year. This edit is much tighter than the version heard on And Sew Fourth. (edits: 2006 09 20 ~L.Mc)
On My Mind
This is the instrumental version of a tune I've been meaning to rerecord for a while now. It was originally conceived from a few snippets of jam music Derrick, Dave and I improvised together haphazardly while Gary was away. I took the tape home, and found myself playing those three disparate fragments over and over. I tried to make a tape edit of it, but couldn't synch them up right. So inthe end, I wound up writing and recording all of the parts and arranging it into one of the strongest piece of keyboard music I've yet recorded. I also wrote an extremely strong and personal lyric, and later recorded the lyrical treatment, but I've never been happy with the way I handled the outro. When I finally rerecord it, the outro will be rewritten and the lyrics redone to suit.
Show Me Something
This was the first of the tunes I wrote in 1994 that actually got written, arranged and recorded as a full demo. It's a country rock number that Gary and I rehearsed and recorded while drinking American whisky, which he hoped would take my mind off of my relationship troubles. Bu the time I got to the slide guitar solo, I was in another realm, but it sounds pretty cool for a sloppy, Stonesy, Eagles/Black Crowes kind of number. We have never managed to get a good performance of this with the band;Dave couldn't handle my bass line at the time, and Derrick couldn't handle the 6/8 swing rhythm, though he keeps trying to get that groove. Derrick's just not a country rock guy, but I'm sure he'll get it someday.
Zoe Turns Another Face
This was actually a tune I wrote for a woman I was dating for a while, based on a lullabye I used to sing to her son to help him sleep. I fully expect to see him in a dark alley in ten years, pulling a knife on me for publishing this tune, witht eh melody that has probably been haunting him from childhood. It does need agood recording, which this is not )particularly the vocals), but it's a good little tune, if a bit long. Also, the mystery of Zoe returns, expanded upon by alluding that every woman I go out with has a little bit of Zoe in her.
Here We Go Again (Acoustic #2)
Etcetera had been working to get this song sorted and rehearsed for some time, and we kept fighting to get the arrangement stabilized and the vocal and instrumental parts coordinated. Most of the time, the lyrical arrangement never happened in the performance, but there remain one or two recordings of the band actually working on the four part harmony that was meant to go with the song. The version on And Sew Fourth has a further wrinkle in the arrangement which wasn't present during this recroding, although I did introduce it about a week later; Motown!
Waiting
This is a number I wrote on keyboard after arranging one of Derrick's cast off lyrics that needed some reworking. I then took it to Gary, and we started working on a guitar part for it that we thought would work with the keyboard part. We were wrong. so we used the parts separately and built the song out of both. This song is going to be rearranged for the next Etcetera album, with a more Pink Floyd feel, I think.
The Stand
Gary and I had been workign a few days earlier on a piec eof music called The Great Wall. We threw everythign including the kitchen sink into that song. So when I came to practice a little late and found Gary teaching Derrick this totally new riff, I went upstairs, finished my sub, started hearing a great bassline, and then crept down and started recording it with them (Dave was away that day). When Dave returned, it was Gary's turn to be away, so I taught Dave the bass line, taught myself Gary's guitar parts, and then sat with Dave and write and arranged the rest of the song. Derrick, Dave and I jammed it out five times, took the last recording s the final arrangement, and sent Gary a copy. We tried to have a band lyric writing session (Derrick's contribution included 'And Gary blew up the spaceship, the incompetent fuck >Star Wars RPG humour<), and I ended up writing a mini rock opera for it. However, the lyric is so pretentious and unwieldy, and our performance not inspired enough to warrant the long running time, so we're planning on reworking it in shorter form for the next album.
Songs From Heaven
This is the first song I started writing for Etetera, over a year before the band itself even came into being. I was heavily influenced by Yes at this time, and I still haven't really forced the issue of the band working on a recording of this, because th arrangement I hear for it in my head is a little above any of our playing abilities at this time. Maybe next year. At any rate, this recording wa sjust myself with a little nylon strung acoustic gutar played very poorly. Gary keeps dragging this tune out to play, so I know I'm going to have to finish it sooneror later.
Dinner Date
This was a song lyric I started wriiting the first night Dori (Etcetera's original keyboard player) and I started 'collaborating'. I didn't finish it until some time after she'd left the band, and then didn't get all fo the music written for it until Gary and I sat down and finshed banging it into shape. It became our first serious Thesis side project, a tune we knew the band woulnd't be able to play, so we would write and record it ourselves and find other people to play it. As it stands, the meaning of the lyric sort of changed from an innocuous bad relationship to represent our frustration with Etcetera at the time. This was a very flawed demo recording we did, first struggling to get the melody sorted out on guitars, and then overdubbing lyrics. Byt that time, the rhythm had faded into the background, so I later overdubbed myself pounding on a piece of livingroom furniture to approximate the drum performance I'd been searching for.
Thanks for reading this far. Hope you found the DVD commentary amusing.
Lee Edward McIlmoyle
2006 09 09 4:38 AM
Hamilton, Ontario
I suspect I should be calling the new album Tetris, because it really does feel like shuffling blocks into place as they fall from the sky.
I'd play you something from the latest band practice, but I can't seem to host any more songs at this time. No idea why. Anyway, I may host a track or two on the CvS website. I'm not 100% happy with any of the tracks, but we did get five complete takes of The Dream Falls, warts and all. So I'm actually looking forward to the next practice, whenever that will actually be.
We did manage to capture a couple of new song riff ideas of Gary's as well, so it seems pretty safe to assume that we'll be using lots of new music on the album. At the moment, it looks like most of the projected album is older material and a handful of originals This doesn't appeal to me nearly as much as an album of originals, but the band needed direction, so I provided it, by sitting with Gary and hashing out the entire rehearsal set list for the year.
So it's looking like this:
I Want Someone Close To Me [Police - Walking On The Moon, Roxanne, Can't Stand Losing You; white man reggae]
The Dream Falls [XTC - Making Plans For Nigel, This Is Pop; crunchy early post-punk New Wave][ETA: So far, really crunchy, but it's coming along]
The Dark Age [Thesis, really. I don't know what else this sounds like; I can't hear it properly yet][ETA: My wife says U2; we managed a fast take that sounded a bit like The Who during the early 70s. I don't like the way we hit the reprise, and I hate that I was out of tune for every take we did on Friday]
No One In The World [Matthew Good Band, with perhaps a dash of early REM to put it in 80s territory][ETA: Written for Gary to sing, though so far I'm the only one singing it. Go figure]
Lady In the Field [This also sounds like Thesis to me, but I think I'll find something soon][ETA: My wife says she hears a touch of Solisbury Hill, but Derrick says he hears Paul Simon]
Apoptosis [early Gregg Rolie/Steve Perry Journey - Majestic, Some Day Soon, Too Late, City of the Angels, Feeling That Way; rocks to a grinding halt like a Who song, and ends with a chorus]
Out Of Time [Billy Joel - Big Shot, Moving Out, All For Leyna, Pressure]
Older Thesis tunes redux:
Here It Comes Again [The Beatles by way of later XTC, Adrian Belew, Crowded House, King's X; Instant Karma, I Am The Walrus, Getting Better]
One Up On You [Split Enz - Hard Act To Follow, I Got You; early Squeeze - Another Nail For My Heart, Pulling Mussels From a Shell; light but dark and fast, had a P.Gabriel beat]
Waiting [Pink Floyd - Hey You, Run Like Hell; this used to be a Sound Garden riff over a Tony Banks/Stewart Copeland piano figure, but I'm hearing it diferently these days][ETA: Having a little trouble getting this to happen like that. Gonna go sort it out on my own]
I'm Gone Again [chirpy pop song, bit like a Paul McCartney solo number; might make this more as a Steve Winwood 'Arc of the Diver' - George Harrison thing]
Older Etcetera tunes due for an overhaul:
Breathe [Billy Joel - Big Shot, Moving Out, All For Leyna, Pressure; this used to be a more Yes-like number, but it never gelled, even though it's on the old album][ETA: Actually, this one is probably going to be more Thomas Dolby. Lyric's not right for a Billy Joel tune]
Bleed Into One [The Police - Omega Man, Rehumanize Yourself, Synchronicity II, King of Pain; didn't work on the album, but I still have my hopes]
How Can I Miss You (If You Won't Go Away)? [Phil Collins during his angry, angsty period; In The Air Tonight, I Don't Care Anymore; we did one version, but it's wrong]
The Stand (might change the title again) [Led Zeppelin by way of The Tea Party; closer to Carouselambra than Kashmir or Achilles Last Stand, which is what it sounds like now]
After that, I want to rerecord these old songs for an EP:
Here We Go Again [Wants desperately to be like Yes - I've Seen All Good People, Starship Trooper, And You And I; band lyric]
Through The Eyes of a Fool [Never figured out what this sounded like; Just Gary's take on a soft rock love song; Derrick lyric]
Thick & Thin [This is kind of like The Northern Pikes' Snow In June, only with a cruchy mexican rock riff at the core; Derrick lyric, weirdest tune we ever wrote]
You Send Me Spinning [I have no idea what this sounds like. I wrote the music, and i still haven't figured it out. It's just me writing a Gary tune for a Derrick love lyric]
Games [This song defies description for me too. Gary and Dave wrote it with Derrick to another of Derrick's lyrics, and I came back and fixed it]
Goodbye [This is used as a melodic finale to Games. I wrote it separate from the band, and Gary and I worked it in. Dunno what it sounds like either]
Still need to write/rewrite lyrics for Apoptosis, Out of Time, The Stand and How Can I Miss You. Still need music for Apoptosis, Out of Time, No One In The World and guitar keys for The Dream Falls, plus rearrangements for most of the tracks and full drum and basslines for several tracks. However, we actually have a (huge) album's worth of good songs lined up. It's great having a game plan again. This band was always great for creating odd new material, but it really only ever functioned well as a performing and recording band when it had specific marching orders. So now Gary and I have a direction to go in, and to drill each other and Derrick on. Things should start coming together now.
Lee
