MOVING

I have decided to move this blog to http://aaronwithtwoas.blogspot.com/

So if you are lucky enough to have this bookmarked, please change your bookmark to http://aaronwithtwoas.blogspot.com/

SATURDAY DRINKING

So Christine came in town from Vegas and all our high school chums got together. These photos were taken during our dinner at Cheddars in Garland. All photos have been retouched a bit and they are all JPG and RGB.

I have also thrown all the photos together in a zip file for everyone to steal. If you need help, follow the same instructions to download music on the right.

Beer drinking, happy smiling faces and the group shot.

ALBUM LISTENING REVIEWS (YEAR 1, SECTION 1):

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE - FALL BE KIND

(Leak: 11/16/09, Digital release: 11/23/09)

At the time I thought it would be a great idea for me to write some reviews for music that I am into, to help explain to others what is in this music I like so much. I have given the release of 'Fall Be Kind' by the assemble, Animal Collective a listen for a week and think it is a good time to review the album. It took me maybe a couple of years to truly understand their music. Watching youtube videos of these guys perform in 2003 or 04 when they were very young and they seem to perform their music at such an extreme level of quality.

This is me comparing the music to their earlier work and how they have always been great. I listened to every piece of music that they have ever recorded, to some extent. I have found that their catalog is perfect on every album, but I found this out in somewhat of a backwards pattern. First I started out with 'Feels', but I never really got into their music for a while then 'Strawberry Jam' was released and I worked with a guy who told me about some new blogs to visit. I really should get in touch with that guy.

This album was accidentally found on Amazon a couple of month ago, or maybe just a month ago. But I read on Pitchfork.com how David confirmed a new release and we would be seeing it very soon. They said the title of the EP was a play on the season fall and talked about how they enjoy the changing of the seasons so much.

The next album I would love if they put out an album of covers of their older songs that they are reinventing currently in concert. Like 'Leaf House', ' Who Could Win a Rabbit', 'Chocolate Girl', 'Infant Dressing Table', 'We Tigers' and 'Hey Light'

GRAZE: So this is the infamous 'Grace' or even to the early listeners 'Pan Flute Jam'. I think this piece works well as an intro. I feels and reminds me of their last opener off of 'MPP' album.. it leads the listener into their collection of songs for us. I love how theirs songs can be divided into sections of three parts or more or less. It also feels like it is a combination of the two previous songs with a transition bridge in between the songs. Very clever way to fit more than one song, into one song for this "it seems super short because the tracks aren't long enough" EP of five songs.

I like the in and outs in this track, how the low bass sounds crescendo and loop to recreate a nice flowing pattern. Then the song transitions into 'Pan Flute Jam'. This portion screams Panda Bear (in a good way). Sorry I am a bigger fan of the early Panda Bear material like his self titled, but this is probably because they were... could I say, percussive-heavy apposed to his more sample heavy. I recently discovered that that the sample is borrowed from master flutist Gheorghe Zamfir track Ardeleana.

This track also is a nice balance of both vocalist and both style of each vocalist. They both have strong distinct style to their vocals and style of music their vocals work with best. I think they do a very good job when they blend their style together and also when they separate their style completely.

I would suggest listening to the rest of the songs before scrolling down and spoiling the comments on the following song. That is just rude.

WHAT WOULD I WANT, SKY?: The song was once known by the title 'Blue Sky'. This song has a nice intro portion to it blending into the Grateful Dead sample. It has Jerry singing '...sky' and 'What would I want'.. Avey starts to sing over this sample as it loops and warps into a very different song, the sample gets louder and becomes more prominent during the chorus.

This song has a great first portion to it.. it starts out as a very different song than what it ends in. Long transition here. This is what an experience of one of their current concerts feels like.. one thing I know that Kristin didn't like about the concert was the long transitions.. but I loved them.

...sky. What would I want?

The sample clicks in at 3:12. The sample is taken from the Grateful Dead song 'Unbroken Chain'.

BLEEDING: Very first thing here.. you have to start to listen to the vocals here. All those red moments?... But then.. but I also like include? Red moments?

This has to be Avey modifying his vocals again or possibly someone else kind of talking or creating heavily effected vocals through the mic.

This was first known as 'Bleed', then it became a live b-side on the 'Brother Sport' Single release. I finally had more of an understanding of this song, just tonight.. as I am wrote this blog entry. This song at first felt out of place in the collection of songs but now it felts like the great divide right in the middle of the EP. The vocals became more prominent and I was able to understand what they were saying better. This track has a great duel/duet on the vocals back and forth between David and Noah. This is an example of how Avey and Panda's styles are able to blend well.

ON A HIGHWAY: I just got decided to put my headphones on.

I enjoy how this song starts out sounding as if it was recorded on the side of a highway.. you can hear the wind and you can hear the cars passing. Maybe they recorded this sound as they were driving down the highway out of a window? Even if this isn't how they are recording the sound.. that sure does sound like a good idea. I love to record a sound and some people are not be able to understand or tell how I created it.

Now I have heard this song before in its entirety on the collection of songs from their BBC Session back in 2007. I became very familiar to this song as I found out that it was going to be on their new EP. I had heard that it was in this sessions and I had the session on my computer, but it honestly was a song I had maybe listened to once or twice before.

They did a great job on the background effects that fluctuate through the track.

This song reminds me of lyrics I had once written about being riding the backseat of a car and letting my mind wandering.

ONNNNNNN AAAAAAAAAAA! This was the first song I like a lot after my first listen of the EP. I think the length of the track is perfect. It isn't too long.. ooor too short.

I THINK I CAN: This song is one I had no idea it was coming. This was the second track that grew on me. I love the style of the track.. it sounds very tribal and empowering. I love the percussive moments, the breaks in between and the builds back into the percussive portions.

This song also has a very necessary length to it. It seems to capture the song in the 'long to most people' seven minutes.

It turns into a Panda Bearish track. Also the lyrics "I think I can" don't come in until very late in the song.

I think I can let you enjoy the rest of the the track now.



The Album Listening Review Section began as an idea for me to write reviews for albums I am currently listening to and will hopefully branch out into new and old albums as soon as I get the courage to write another review.

BLABBERMOUTH

Here are a collection of songs that I wrote between the months of April to June on my laptop. I am very satisfied of all of these songs.. they have been reworked quite a bit from the original recordings and they are the first collection of songs that I have finished that were created on my computer opposed to the MR-8. 'Control Myself' is one of my Brother Songs that I played with and layered adding instrumental effects to. 'Sunkissed Baby Tomato Plants' and 'Saturday, Maurice Built My Father's Fence' were created using no guitar and mainly consisting of keyboards.

Enjoy Blabbermouth (Click to DL)
Personal Favorite: The First Haughting in Months

NOTE: This file is a zip file, so if you need any help downloading and playing this song I have added instructions under my Status Report at the right of the screen.

NEW CAMERA!

My brand spanking new camera arrived on Monday, just as I got home. I saw the UPS truck as I parked and the delivery guy was literally waiting at my door with my big bundle.

Enjoy these photos Kristin and I took in the first two days that we have had the camera. The last one is the cover the Dallas AG Passbook that I designed.

DAYS OFFF

It has been one too many days since I have posted anything on here.. well I haven't done too much recording since the last ones I posted. Recently I was thinking pretty seriously on purchasing the Axoim Pro 49 keyboard to bump up my music writing experience, but at a price of $4-5 hundred, it would set me back. So that is on hold, because I had to throw down $400 on my fucking car window that wouldn't roll up and also I finally purchased a DSLR. It was the same day I had to get my car window fixed. I was complaining a lot and thought I would never have enough money on the side for a camera. So I just bought the thing. It is a Nikon D3000 with an extra lens and lots of small stuff that came in a bundle.

So I bought the camera over the keyboard because it is time to get a camera already and we have been without one for way too long. I would love to buy the keyboard as well, but I can keep buying smaller music things to keep me growing a musician in the mean time.

Once I get the camera in, I will start posting up photos and whatnot. I plan on taking some much needed days off from my job to work on putting up a website with my work, music and photos I plan on taking.

Tonight I played the acoustic a bit and my fingers hurt! It has also been awhile since I picked up the guitar.. I am mad at myself. Been busy with other stuff and very busy at work that I just wanna come home and not do too much. Plus I got digital cable, since they caught me getting extended cable for free. They are bad excuses and I gotta play more. Gotta break those fingers back in again tho.

I plan on doing some recording this weekend so hopefully I will have some new songs uploaded soon.

FALLING

So I got a lot accomplished today.. besides freaking out that I mailed a ticket off with the postage stamp 2 cents below postage (long story). I watered my freezing plants, worked on a chalk drawing and created a song on the MR-8, which I split in four parts.

Falling is me attempting to play keyboard on multiple tracks with all my peals hooked up to the MR-8. Not a whole lot of singing in these songs.. more of me just trying to work the distortion pedal in and out of sequences of made up rhythms. Most feature heavy reverb and some tracks feature heavy tremolo.

Enjoy
Falling (Click to DL)
Personal Favorite: Mom Gave Me a Comforter for College

NOTE: This file is a zip file, so if you need any help downloading and playing this song I have added instructions under my Status Report at the right of the screen.

RAINBOAT

Friday I picked up my new pedal at the post office.. that night I put together a new song with the new reverb/delay pedal. I paired it up with another song that I had created earlier that week.


I am still in need of a camera, so I just took a photo with my cellphone. The gray pedal on my floor is my used RV-3 pedal from eBay I just received in the mail. Today I want to take it into Guitar Center and see if they can test it to see how well it is working.. I think I hear a slight buzz with the pedal, but with my inexperience I am not sure if this is normal or not.

Once again.. these songs are not for everyone, as they are both experimental and mainly composed of first attempts at some new techniques. The first track is mainly techniques using the glass slide on the electric and the second track is composed of using the RV-3 for vocals and acoustic guitar with rhythms of hand clapping and leg slapping.

Enjoy Rainboat (Click to DL)
Personal Favorite: Rain

NOTE: This file is a zip file, so if you need any help downloading and playing this song I have added instructions under my Status Report at the right of the screen.

HIGH SCHOOL JAZZ BAND

I recently came across this CD, I played Bari Sax in the 2nd jazz band during high school. This is for my homies. Memories.

Naaman Forest High School 2nd Annual Evening of Jazz (Click to download)

NOTE: If you need any help downloading and playing this song I have added instructions under my Status Report at the right of the screen.

PERSONAL RANTS, PART 1: WEATHER, CLOTHES, THE MONTH OF OCTOBER, AND MY NEW OBSESSION WITH PEDALS

It is cold again. Winter time is coming too soon. The trees will soon start to loose their leaves.. I be able to see the parking lot through the trees off our patio. I will be able to see people on the other side and people will be able to see me. I enjoy the privacy on my patio.. I love being able to open all my windows and not worry about people able to see in. Being on the third floor I have less of a chance of getting robbed also. Both of these are important qualities I look for in an apartment.

It makes me feel like we are living in our own house and I can turn up the music as loud as I want. Being used to keeping my music at a low volume because of my job, I forget how nice it is to turn up. Don't get me wrong, I like that I can listen to any music I want all day long in my own office, but it is just that I really forget how nice it is to listen to whatever you want as loud as you want. I even rearranged the furniture in my living area tonight and played music through the speakers of my surround sound in the living area while I did this to have a more enjoyable experience. Soon enough we will be living in our own house with our more than one bedrooms enjoying our privacy sooner than we think.

It also has been raining a lot lately as well as all night tonight and been an overall crummy day out today. All this rain lately makes me want to stay indoors. This is why I am not a big fan of the colder seasons and more of the warmer seasons. I can take sweating any day over not having a jacket and being without.

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It is time to purchase a new coat. Kristin tells me that one of the jackets I wear pretty often, is in need of being replaced. I know this, but I still keep wearing the jacket pretty occasionally because I like that jacket. I think the jacket represents me in a positive way. I would like to get some new shoes too though. I have gotten to the point where I just wear the same pair of shoes everyday to work. Bad idea. Only because it isn't good for your feet to do this. I am very much considering purchasing these Asics soon. As soon as my next paycheck is in, this will be my next large purchase after I pay the bills.

UPDATE: Purchased shoes and waiting for the them to arrive.

I have also started wearing solid color shirts from now on. At one time I bought a lot of graphic tees, but I am over that phase. When I wear solid colors it makes me feel good.. besides, I see the same people everyday and they don't give a shit what I wear.

(I go the the fridge to get a fresh new beer. A Shiner Commemorator. I think about I am low on these already even though I just stocked up on these to save one lucky bottle, after finding out that they will stop producing this anniversary beer at the end of the year.)

It is a good feeling to open a bottle and you don't have to use a bottle opener. That means your beer is local. You can open the beer without denting the beautiful cap that comes atop it. That's right, I collect bottle caps.. I don't keep them anywhere important (they are stored in a huge Cheeto's knock-off container above the water heater), but I have big plans for them. I also have big plans for all my records I purchase.. even though I do not have a working record player at the moment. I plan on building tiny shelves for all them display over the entire wall, as soon as I get an nicer, permanent place.

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So it is October and I have now worked at my job for two years now. It certainly doesn't feel like I have been working there that long. I remember when I first got this job, it was right before I visited Charles in Denton and he had a huge Halloween part at his house. Of course I dressed like Shaggy. Just put on a green shirt and brown corduroys. But there was another guy who dressed like Shaggy, but he had gone and purchased a Shaggy outfit from a costume store. He did not have the real Shaggy haircut, like I had at the time. Nor did he have goatee going on as well as I did. He was wearing a fake goatee from his costume supplies. Kristin does a good Velma.

Anyhow, recently I started working on a new passbook that they need done by the end of the month. I spend all Friday working on concepts, I showed some to Jason. He would says that they are hip, now and modern. But we both know that these are these concept ideas and that they will never make it to the printer. I am working with blue this year. I like this idea. I like how we have come to call each of our books the black book, white book and hopefully blue book.

So I am the lucky owner of a slightly used RV-3 pedal. This is a reverb pedal, but it also has channels of reverb and delay. It is the only time in the reverb series that they combined the two features on one pedal. I heard this pedal is totally worth it and is not a disappointment. I almost got pedal-happy there though.. I looked at pedals on Craigslist and found a FDR-1: Fender Deluxe Reverb pedal, which I heard is not so much a winner. I had tried to talk the guy down to $65 from $80, but no luck. And I pretty much lead the guy on until thinking about it for awhile and deciding that I could be using that $80 on something much more needed, like a RC2: Looping Station. If I can get this pedal for a great deal like I got my new RV-3 I am jumping at that deal too.

Xmas is also coming soon. This is time of year when end up spending more money. I like the idea that my parents had last year with, only one gift for each person. This works out well because not only are you saving money but you have thing think pretty hard to find that one thing you will get them. Also another good route is to have a Secret Santa with liquor store variety.

I have recently started trying a new Whiskey called Old Grand-Dad Whiskey. So far I like it well. Taste like whiskey and it is a little higher in proof than Jim Bean. One of the guys at the liquor store told me that it was the whiskey that Billy Bob Thorton drank in Bad Santa. He also said that most people don't like the bottle because of the label. I like the label and it was one of the things that caught by eye.. besides the fact that it was the same price for the same volume on a higher shelf with a higher proof. It has an orange label on it and has an old timey look to it. One Diet Old Grand Dad's tonight and one Shiner Commemorator. Kristin will be home soon and she got me enchiladas.

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I am inspired to write this personal rant because of Carey Mercer and his blog entry of his childhood on his blog 'Clouds of Evil'.

I am sure no one has heard of Carey Mercer before or of the band Frog Eyes and solo work under the moniker Blackout Beach. If you have heard of him, let me know. Anyways, I found his blog about half a year ago, through some indie blogs and being a new fan of his music.. but then all the sudden one day I checked and for some reason and it was marked as private and I could not read it.

Well tonight I decided to try his blog again and it wasn't private anymore, so I read some very interesting stories he had written. Besides being a genius at songwriting and playing, he is a very interesting writer as well. I read a story about how over a long period of time he became a musician. It begins with 'Why did I start playing music?' and goes into a long three part series of entries describing his childhood, teenage years and how him and the guitar have become great friends.

Click here to read the first entry of this life story of 'Clouds of Evil' entry entitled 'Selected Memoirs, Part 1: Origins, Kurt, Pork Chops, "The Blazer', Straight-Edge and the end of Striaght-Edge Emotional Music' here

Aa

BROTHER SONG ONE

This song is titled 'The Colors'. I have decided to finally start working on an album of my collection of songs I have written over the last couple years. I thought it would be a good idea to upload each song as I download them, so when I am finished with recording all the songs I will upload the entire album. I want to rework them and possibly remaster them.. maybe even add extra tracks or percussive rhythm to them.

This song I wrote maybe a year or year and a half ago. I had just gotten a capo and tried different placement on my guitar til I found something I liked. This was one of the first songs that when I played for Kristin she liked.

Please any feedback about the recording would be great. I am not sure how these are coming out on your end.. sometimes I have to adjust my volume on my computer for it to sound correct.

Enjoy The Colors (Click to DL)

NOTE: If you need any help downloading and playing this song I have added instructions under my Status Report at the right of the screen.

INSTRUCTIONS TO DOWNLOADING MUSIC

These instructions are for anyone who would like to download my songs but need a little help. I will explain in four easy steps what you need to do in order to download and play my songs (MP3s) I have uploaded.

The Instructions are if you downloaded MP3s:
Step One: You will click on the file name the has the name of the album at the bottom. This link usually will say (Click to Download) next to it.
Step Two: You will be taken to the website MediaFire to screen like this. You will then click on the link 'Click here to start download'.. it is on the left side of screen. This site occasionally has pop-ups, so just close them when they pop-up.
Step Three: You will then be prompted with a box to save to your computer. Please select a location to download the file to. Some computer will automatically save to a downloads folder.. if you are not sure where the location of the file downloaded is just check your browser preferences.
Step Four: Once saved, go the the location of the file and double click or right-click and 'Open With' any programs ranging from iTunes, QuickTime Player, VLC or Windows Media Player.

The Instructions are if you downloaded a ZIP File:
Steps One through Three: Follow the same steps as above
Step Four: Find the location of the file and now you will need to open the .zip file with a zip program to unzip the files within it. To do this, for PCs you can use Winzip and for Macs you can either use the default program or StuffIt Expander.

If you have any questions just leave a comment and I will gladly reply.

Enjoy.

FATURA

Typeface: Fatura
Created and developed on: 09/15/2009
Designer: Aaron Martin
Help with the naming: Jason Wesch
Technique: Each character consisted of a single cube with the corners slightly rounded.. then I subtracted lines (created from three smaller blocks put together) from the cube to create the letters A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y and Z

DEEP GROOVES

BUGLE BOY - DEEP GROOVES (DEMO):
01. Color
02. Niew Neighborhood
03. Maine Coon
04. Tele/Phone (I See You Pan)
05. She Only Loves You Because You Let Her Outside
06. Lift
07. Sleepy Weekend I (1st Try)
08. Ocean Children
09. Deep Grooves

Over the last couple of months I have filled up a compact flash on the MR-8 to the max with tracks. Once again most of the songs are composed of tracks of first attempts at playing along with myself, so by pulling them off the 8-track, this is my way of self progressing and trying to move on to new things. I have done little to these on my laptop, mainly just volume adjustments, because I don't want to spend too much time on the computer tweaking the tracks, this is why they are in their raw state. This album is very experimental for me because I mostly use the first takes based on how well I improvised.

I have decided on going with the moniker Bugle Boy because over time I have found out that there is a music artist already by the name of Aaron Martin and I didn't fall in love with Aaron Bandana. Bugle Boy was a brand of clothing that I grew up wearing and I felt it was fitting to me. Even though I do not play bugle, I like how it ties into music.

The track 'Sleepy Weekend' is a song I have worked on for a long time now and hope to work on more and release along with about 15 other acoustic songs I have written over the last couple of years. Also the track ' Niew Neighborhood' was recorded for Kristin as a single track on the night I wrote it and is song that very close to me and I hope to rerecord. The track 'Tele/Phone' features numerous Animal Collective tracks running in the background; it features portions of 'Seal Eyeing' from the Water Curses EP and 'I See You Pan' from a 2001 WFMU recording.

Enjoy the recordings and I would love to hear what you have to say after listening.
Deep Grooves (Click to DL)
Personal Favorites: Neiw Neighborhood and Tele/Phone (I See You Pan)

Unrelated: Congrats to my sister Andrea and Chuck Hamilton and I hope you have an enjoyable honeymoon.

FUN FUN FUN MATH

So last night I was doing some research on bands that are going to Fun Fun Fun Fest because I am thinking pretty seriously of going.. I just wish Kristin will go and have fun fun fun. Bands I am looking forward to are Atlas Sound, of Motreal (of course), Yeasayer, Destroyer, Neon Indian, King Khan/BBQ, Crystal Antlers and Fuck Buttons.

So the point here is that I was looking at videos of electronic artists like HEALTH and Holy Fuck and came across some great videos on myspace. Holy Fuck talks about how they create and manipulate sounds on the fly with pedals and even a 35 mm film sychronizer. These guys are able to produce electronic-sounding effects without the use of laptops or programmed backing tracks. I am very, very impressed with the techniques of this style of electronic musician.

Breakfast at Sulimay's are usually videos of a group of awesome old ppl who review new music. But check out this interview with Joe from Breakfast at Sulimay's:


Another must-watch for me is Bradford Cox's Daytripping sessions from Pitchfork. During the first two minutes he interviews HEALTH and they talk about their DIY shirts. Fucking King Khan is the man and hilarious. Man I so wish I lived in NY cuz everyone who's anyone plays there.

If anyone else out there interested in this type of math, prog, electronic music don't hesitate to let me know and I can point you in the direction of some other great bands.

Aa

P.S. I gathered my gear together to visit my homie Tomo in Denton tomorrow for some jamming and chili fest!

TIC TIC TAC WAFER KEYBOARD ANS PES

do bem™ - Açaí Juice 100% fruit (Tic Tic Tac Wafer's Keyboard) from Hardcuore on Vimeo.

Reminds me of this style:


For more Pes check out eatpes. Enjoy!

VINCENT

Today 'Edward Scissorhands' was on A&E.. it brings back memories of when I saw it when I was a kid. I can't believe that movie was made in 1990.. time goes by. I laugh when I think about the first time I saw 'Batman' as a kid.. I saw it in the movie theater with my parents and the music was soo loud I was covering my ears and yelling "IS IT OVER?" or something like that. All Tim Burton's movies that I can remember from being a kid are classics in my book. Especially those two and 'Beetlejuice'.

Anyways as I watched the movie I got on my laptop to do some research on Tim Burton films and early works. I watched some makings of 'Edward Scissorhand' and a short film called 'Frankenweenie'. It was Burton's first attempt at a short film.. Burton started out as an animator for Disney. It stared the child actor, Barret Oliver, that played Bastian in 'The NeverEnding Story', Daniel Stern and Shelley Duvall.

Also I found a black and white stop motion film title 'Vincent'. It is a wonderful short based off a poem by Burton and narrated by Vincent Price about a boy who wildly imagines he is Vincent Price.

Please watch:

Related News: Tim Burton's Halloween Haunte Couture Fashion Shoot

IKEA

Last week, my boss walked by my office door.. like he usually does. And he passes my office, on his way to probably either, get his cup of coffee, that just finished brewing or loading up another packet to begin the brewing process. ALL OF THE SUDDEN, he stops in the hallway. He turns around and walks over to my office door. I am not sure how long he had been standing there because I almost just had noticed as soon as he spoke.

He said something like, "Did you hear the news today?"
"No I sure didn't?" I said, as I looked puzzled.
"About IKEA((TINY TRADEMARK)) how people on the internet are mad"

I had heard about how they changed their trademark font from Futura to Vendana.. and I knew this because I had read it here on 'The Small Print' blog.

There has been a lot on my blogs about Ikea, including a video called Ikea Heights. Check out the video filmed at Ikea.. terribly funny acting.

This past weekend I got a lot of time to mess with my sampler and time sure does fly when you are learning new equipment. I remember when I first got my m-box and spend literally half the day messing with it. So I learned that it is very difficult to sync up two samples at the same time.. I think I found a way around it, but in time I prob will learn new ways to work with it better. I also realized that the sampler is better for ambient sounds or loops to play over. Anyways I hope to further myself with it.. only time will tell.

UP PAST 3 AM AGAIN

So... long time, no blog. I believe I got my first comment today! Hooooray! And I got to borrow a bass in the process! Score!

So I got a new amp for our anniversary from my gf.. very nice piece, it has effects on the amp. So this saving me from buying different pedals, which can be expensive. I can test out a bunch of effects to see what intrigues me.. and lots to choose from. So yes I need to put some new recordings up, including the Denton recordings. Good news! I just got Apple Logic Studio 9 installed on the lapi with all the additional content so one step close to getting the other Denton recording on the web with the help of a better program.



Very bummed.. went to a Woods concert tonight and the doors opened at 8, so that mean show starts at 9 (which I called up the venue ' The Loft' and I was told the order would be Opener, Woods, then Closer). So that means they should go on about 10 pm. I show up about 10 til 10 pm and I saw a sign for Woods at 9:30.. SHIT! I need to get in there now and listen to them. I bought a ticket. Went up stairs. They were in the middle of jamming on the end of a song. Then they played one more song and they were fucking done! It was a 30 min set.. nobody does that.. what was the deal.. were they cut short?.. equipment problems?.. too messed up to play? The one song I caught was a cover song, which I love the song, but my problem is that I didn't get to see them perform any of their original material. Very bummed.. plus I wasted 5 bucks parking for 10 mins.

It gets you in a funk, like you don't want to listen to that band anymore, but you know you still like them, so you just don't listen to that band as much anymore. Sucks for them. Anyways laundry day is tomorrow so YAY get to spend have the day doing laundry, which is also the only time I get to hang out with Kristin tomorrow. If you didn't get it the last sentence, it was sarcastic.. I do not like doing laundry, even though it can be enjoyably with Kristin.

Next weekend is Chuck's bach. Gotta get together my wolfpack speech and get ready to be the awkward Andrea's-Brother. Should be fun times, drinking, having good time in swimming pool (hope to have diving board), and titties! Yippy Yippy!

Anyways, ometoomanyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyaaronyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

IN NEED OF A NEW CAMERA

And I think I have found one.

If you have noticed that all my images on the blog are from my childhood, this is because I don't have a working camera or even a smartphone. So in hopes of fixing my current camera, last weekend we went by Wolf Camera for someone to look at my digital camera. The lens is stuck out and it won't power on.. what I figured and from what the guy told me is that it will prob cost about as much to fix it as get a new one. This is the perfect time to finally upgrade to a quality camera and after researching I have decided on a Nikon D40. It is rated fairly well and for the price it is a very good deal. I found a package with an extra lens for under $600. Now all I have to do is pay off my credit card (which will take about a month) so I can charge this new toy. Finally I will be able to take photos of my crap like paintings, music equipment, etc to get my blog more up to date.

Now about new music. I wrote/recorded a rough version of a new song I wrote last night. I badly want to record my collection of acoustic songs I have wrote over the past couple years and I would like to record these serious tracks at good quality. Now most of the time I use the MR-8 and it is decent, but I do have a M-Audio box which allows me to record straight to the computer. I am lacking the software I need to make the quality recordings that I truly want. I could use Garageband.. but I know there are better programs out there and getting a hold of Pro Tools (M-Audio version) or Apple Logic is becoming a diff task. I used to have a working Logic, but I recently noticed it does not start-up anymore.

So time and software are keeping me from updating my blog with new music more often. I also need to knock out the recording from Denton, which I really hope I can do this weekend. The tracks sound great through headphones or my amp, but I am not very pleased with the volume of the recordings.. but I will try my hardest to get what I can out of the MR-8.

In the meantime, enjoy two of my top tracks from the psych-pop sounds of Woods tour only cassette 'Some Shame'. I am getting excited that they will be in town on the 22nd at The Loft.

Woods - Born to Lose
Woods - Military Madness

POOL HOUSE

About a month ago, I recorded four songs on the MR-8 outside on my back patio. Each song consist of about four tracks that I recorded one after the other playing along with the last ones recorded and all of them were made up on the spot.

I finally got to work on two of them last night.. the other two were recorded at too low of a volume to hear good enough. Now bear with me, I am learning how to use the MR-8 better and now I know that the tracks need to recorded at a higher level instead of just adjusting the volume on the output. The tracks are full of crickets chirping and ambiance that makes it hard to hear my playing.. so from now on I prob do more recording indoors.

You prob will have to turn up your volume a bit to hear these at the level they are meant to be listened at.

Enjoy Pool House (Click to DL)
Personal Favorite: Pool House

P.S. Tuesday I got my new toy, the Boss SP-303 Sampler, but have yet to play with it very much.. trying to finish up other stuff, like my current recordings before I can move on to learn how to use the sampler.

TRACK A (EARLY VERSION)

Now this is my first time mastering a track and pulling it off of the MR8, so you prob will have to turn up your volume to hear the track well.. but beside that it is a pretty good interpretation of how the Denton recordings went. The track needs to be remastered to find a better volume level and also the recording jumps right into the middle of a song, so prob will fade it in.

The tracks were randomly titled with letters, mainly because the MR8 is slow to type tracks names (think old school texting). There are 5 other tracks that need to be mastered and they range anywhere from 2 minutes to over 10 minutes. After listening to all the tracks today and messing with effects on most of them.. I have an idea of what effects I will be adding and that a lot of the tracks will be split up in parts based on the different songs played within them. I am hoping to get to work on these tracks within the next couple weeks.

ENJOY (Click to download)

Charles if you are able to get this blog to your roommate, Tori, I could put up some pictures from last Monday to go along with the tracks.

HERE COMES THE ARK

I thought I had everything AC, until a couple months ago when I discovered 'Ark'.. which is an early recording of 'Here Comes the Indian'. Ark was very hard to track down and I had to do some name switching, by listening to both albums to get the track order correct. I enjoy listening to these two back to back.. there are new tracks and repeat tracks from HCTI but in a different order. HCTI was another AC album that took a long time to grow on me, but I def have grown to love.


Another discovery about AC that I found at Wikipedia, was how on 'Feels' they tuned their instruments to an out-of tune piano:

"All the songs on feels are tuned to our friends piano which was out of tune to begin with. Dave and I made loops from recordings of him playing her piano and we used those loops in the early songwriting process for feels. So since those loops are premade and can't be tuned, the guitars have to be tuned to the loops. it's not out of tune in any tradional whole step/half step kind of way...we're talking microtonally out of tune after years of not being professionally tuned and subtle natural detuning. Kind of like if you played guitar in standard tuning for years but never once re-tuned it to make sure it was right. It would have it's own unique out-of-tune tuning based on what strings you played most often, how hard you played it, the temperature in the room, the humidity, etc... When we went into the studio it ruled over everything we did. Even doctess's live piano playing required us bringing in a professional piano tuner, playing him a minidisc recording of our friend's out of tune piano, and having him try to de-tune the studio's piano in exactly the same way our friend's was. Without those recordings or the loops dave and i made, you wouldn't be able to get it exact unless you tune to the album while it's playing, and even then, you'd have to know which loop in the album we use to tune, which one chord it is, and because of the way we mixed the loop in, it is almost impossible to separate from dave's guitar. I'll never forget when the tuner finished (we had to wait to start recording until he finished) and he stood up from the bench and went 'there you go, the piano's perfectly out of tune.'"

PLANS WENT BETTER THAN PLANNED

While I was in Denton, I tried really hard to watch my ebay bids. even tho his laptop was floating around, even tho I had one too many, I was lucky enough to barely win a used Boss Dr. Sampler SP-303 Drum Machine.. kept typing o's instead of zeroes on Charles' unfamiliar keyboard. This is another piece of equipment for me to add to my collection of recording gear, along with my Fostex MR-8 (8-Track recorder with effects) and laptop if needed (which I prefer not to use too much).

Tonight I was working on transferring some songs that were recorded in Denton this past Monday night and I will have them uploaded shortly.. took fooooorever trying to figure out how to bounce tracks/transfer to my mac/convert/move from the MR-8 to laptop.

Lots of ppl were involved in the recording so as soon as I post the track, I hope to get this site out to get the songs out to whoever want to listen to them. I will post more tracks as fast as I can pull them off the MR-8. The explanation of the state of the recordings: they are not anything close to perfect.. the mic which I had sitting on the floor in the middle of Charles' living area, picked up all conversations and all melodies happening at once. I can't adjust the levels because it was recorded on one mic, on one track. And I had probs with flash cards so most tracks jump right into the middle of playing and can cut off abruptly. It has a great living-room recording feel and to help control the voices, I added reverb, so they would become more of an ambiance.

I finally upgraded my digital recorder for a better one with a usb hookup!! So I can transfer files.. hopefully I can find a way to use this with the new sampler!

RADIO SHACK, HOW ARE YOU STILL OPEN?

Oh yeah.. people like me.

Today While Kristin and Evelyn were shopping I ventured over to good ole' Radio Shack and threw down more money than I intended. I ended up buying a 1 inch mono cable for my effects pedals, extension hand to my microphone stand, $30 Olympus digital recorder (512 kb), a $10 dollar mic for the recorder and an extension cord for my good mic. After one day of having at it with the recorder I figured out that it is not meant for me. First off, I was given the impression that I would be able to transfer the recordings to my mac.. but that is not the case so gotta return it and get something fitting. So I will do my research and purchase something that suits me better. Might try to do some research tonight and return the recorder tomorrow and exchange it for a new one of my liking. Anyhow, went to my sister 30th birthday bash today and she seemed to have a great time, lots of ppl there. So onward I go to research handheld reocrders with some sort of sd card or whatever they have to offer.

One too manyy,
Aa

PLANS FOR DENTON RECORDING

On my Friday, my favorite day of the week. Don't have to worry about waking up to Sunday, with the thought going through your head that the next day in Monday. Tomorrow I am visiting the mall and Fry's to purchase a SD car for my sister's b-day. Also I am getting some compact flash cards for my trip to visit my buddy, Charles, in Denton to record some trumpet material to jam with. We plan on staying for the day and would like to bring some instruments, but I must narrow it down to the essentials. More or less, I better bring only instruments that I can play. We are bringing guitar(s), amp, laptop, 8-track, drum machine, the melodica, sax(?) and tamporine. I would really love to capture some trumpet playing so I can try to play along with it at home, to help so I can understand his style to play along with him later. Not sure what Kristin wants to bring, but I am up for whatever.

I think I ha e had one too many.

DUCKTAILS/DUCKTALES

Also have been into Ducktails.. and because of this watched the Ducktales movie with my gf on youtube last weeekend. anyone a fan of Ducktails will prob be interested in 'Predator Vision' or 'Real Estate' also.. same guy, different projects. Predator Vision & Sun Araw split LP. Loving the trumpet part on 'Hey Mandala!'.. really getting me in the mood to record some material with a buddy of mine in Denton.

Who thinks Matt should cover the Ducktales theme song with his guitar and no vocals? I can't be alone..

enjoy.
Aa

AND BREATH IT OUT SLOW

Really getting in Kurt Vile's 'Constant Hitmaker' lately. I have music overload pretty often, trying to keep up with everything and totally missed this gem I downloaded last January.. until I read that Spencer Krug and co. mentioned him in a Pitchfork story. Picked up his lasted EP, 'The Hunchback', and older LP on Mexican Summer 'God Is Saying This To You'.. but yet to really given a real listen, but love his LP, 'Constant Hitmaker'. For some reason totally unknown it reminds me of old Ben Kweller, but only because of the playful lyrics.

Constant Hitmaker. Props to the late ill-formed.

RENNNO

Reno 911! Go rent it!! Great cameos if you are a fan of Paul Rudd or Patton Oswald. Who wants Clean House!

I'M THE PHANTOM, I'M THE PHANTOM

Just listening to some Animal Collective, again.. Recently have been listening to Spirit They Gone.. Spirit They Vanished (Click to DL) while painting.. and the album is great for headphones. I would like to offer my blog more than just music insite.. but I will be uploading many things here. One side-project will be my personal music. While another will be selections from my graphics designs.. I want to upload new logos for my AM logo. I would love to get it up to every week, then hopefully everyday just to get some ideas out of my head, I will try to create a logo for my brand AM (Aaron Martin). Sometimes it might be 'am' sometimes it might be 'AM'...... and sometimes I might misspell words or mess up grammar, but please forgive me I am in creating state. So I prob will post a new post later tonight with some ideas.