Satisfaction

Well, friends, at long last, the E.P. is complete. Head on over to our Bandcamp or Facebook pages and get yourself a copy!

We hope you love it as much as we do. Be on the lookout for a gig in the near future!

Pride

Well, I haven't updated in quite some time. Just a little of what's been happening: We finished tracking and began to move into mixing. I was of the opinion it was better to have someone else mix for us, since mixing is not my strong suit. After having someone do a test mix, we found that the best way to do this is to do it ourselves. Thus began my first attempt at mixing. After nearly 3 long months, I'm proud to say The E.P. is done. The only thing left now is mastering, which I should have buttoned up in the next couple of weeks. I'm proud of us.

Time flies

Oh man, I just realized I haven't blogged in a month! I know everyone is rabid for an update, so here goes...

Tracking is complete, edits are complete, and as of last night, keyboards are complete. I played some of them myself, but most came from a long time friend of Matt's, Cody. He did a great job, and really elevated the songs to a point where I can hardly stand to be away from listening to them for too long.

I don't know how this project is going to be received. I feel like it's a quality endeavor, with little regard to much else other than self indulgence. The pure pleasure of putting these songs together is enough. I have little faith anyone other than friends will really be feeling it. Either way, the satisfaction of making it a reality is a great feeling, and anything more is simply gravy. Bear Baiting is a shining beacon in an otherwise tumultuous time, personally speaking.

We'll be re-amping with Derek soon, and we're in the home stretch! It appears that an end of August completion is in the realm of possibility, at which time, my musings will pick up considerably. Thanks.

-d

Big Bottom

Well, I am 95% sure that the bass tracking phase is complete. I'm editing this week and will achieve a new plateau. I've been tinkering with some keyboard sub-melodies, and Matt even came up with...dare I say it...a VOCAL melody! Quite an eventful week, to say the least...

Productivity has slowed significantly in recent weeks. I plan to get back on track after the long weekend. Tracking and edits are done on a little over half the tunes, but work schedules and personal lives are getting in the way as of late. Regardless, this thing should be wrapped up this summer, but a release date is still TBD.

In other news, I'm so excited to have a piece of my personal history back. Thanks to the modern day internet juggernaut, Facebook, I got in touch with an old friend who I was in a band with for about a year in 1995-1996. She had copies of our demo and a video from a gig that I had long forgotten. This was essentially my first real "band", but my archives were lost awhile back. I had flyers, cassettes, and VHS tapes, all taken from a storage unit in North Hollywood years ago. I'm so happy to have the demo and video back, it was the only thing I had done musically that I had no record of.

That's it for now, more to come...
-d

What's cookin' good lookin'?

The EP is coming along great. I admit, I have not been as diligent as I should about tracking, but nothing has been diligent since this project's inception. I've finished my tracks for "The Contrarian" and "Phrenetic" and so far so good....

Until next time...
Bandcamp

-d

Awwww yeeeeaaa..

Drums are DONE. Midi is complete on all songs, and I'm so happy with them. They're simple, and they rock. I have not yet tracked them as audio because I want to keep the sessions light, in a cpu usage kind of way. I think dropping them in later is better anyway because I can see how they fit best. Kind of a mix-on-the-go, if you will. Anyway, bass tracking will begin with one of us this week. I'll probably start getting sounds tomorrow for the Music Man.

I'm taking down all the songs next week with the exception of "Untitled"....which is no longer untitled....

-d

Keep on Truckin'

Drums are almost complete, and the songs all finally have names. I feel like a proud poppa. Can't decide if the E.P. will be self-titled. I'm leaning toward yes. Feels good to have a goal and work toward it. I haven't felt this positive about something for a while. Probably since tracking bass for the last Helen 55 record.

...end transmission...

-d

Drums are coming along nicely. I'm a little over half done with programming the entire E.P. and have been happy with the results thus far. Tracking will start soon enough...

Work work work...

Working hard on getting solid drum beats so we have a nice bed to record with. My bass is in the shop getting a tune-up, so in the meantime I'm staying productive. I have a sneaking suspicion that this EP is gonna be the cat's pajamas...

All is well in the land of Bears

Preproduction is underway for the first official release. We're nailing the tunes down and naming them, and tracking should begin sometime next week. Needless to say, we're very excited. This project is at least 3 years in the making, and it'll be nice to have something other than my choppy homemade demos on our Bandcamp page. I think I'm going to take those down soon, just to build suspense. I'll be programming drums and tracking direct signals first, in that order. I think if all goes well, we should have it out by this summer.

I've been contemplating doing a live gig with programmed drums. I wonder how it would go. Guess there's only one way to find out. Perhaps for an EP release party? We shall see...

Stay tuned..

-d

We got together (finally) last night and discussed our plans for our upcoming EP. I'm really looking forward to this undertaking for a lot of reasons. The primary being that we can finally stop tweaking these tunes. The downside of having constant access and unlimited time to your music is the second guessing and tweaks that you put in anytime you have a whim. You have to walk a fine line on this, but I think it's better to just go with it if it feels right, and don't look back. In any event, things are finally going to get interesting...

-d

Untitled Redux...

Man, Superior Drummer is ruling my world. I've spent the past 2 weekends in drum world and have loved every second. Check out the re-do of "Untitled" and listen to all the fun I am having. The real challenge is getting the hits to sound natural, which I think I have nailed. A re-do of "The Overlook" is on the way. Matt is coming today and we are going to re-track him with his new polished up bass fiddle. Keep in mind, these are all demos for now, and a more expansive EP will come soon. I want to use better preamps, as well as get into micing cabs, and of course, mixing the drums properly. These are just stereo mixes of drums with a little compression and reverb, but mostly straight out of superior drummer. Hope you enjoy! Until next time...

It's on...

Well, I'm back from one of America's greatest parties, and a good time was had by all. This weekend, I plan to write some, and hopefully get things moving. Matt said he got his bass back from the shop and it sounds awesome. I can't wait to hear it for myself. If you haven't already, "Like" us on Facebook with the link to the right-->

Stay tuned...

Take care, brush your hair...

I leave tomorrow morning for New Orleans. Food and drink aplenty await my arrival, not to mention Mardi Gras. I'm hoping to draw some musical inspiration from all the live jazz I'll be hearing in the coming days. I've never been there, so I'm sure I'll be overwhelmed with all the new sights and sounds that I usually only get on the Travel Channel. I only started to get excited for the trip this week, so at this point, the final hurdle is the actual travel. God damn I hate flying. Not from fear, more from pure hatred of 99% of humans. Rudeness, obnoxiousness, being herded like cattle from one area to the next, it all gets to me. My wife says that my mute button needs work, I wholeheartedly agree. Enough of the bitch fest...

I listened to Deftones' "Diamond Eyes" for probably the billionth time this morning. Holy shit, that's a great record. Probably the best heavy record of 2010, but who knows, I didn't listen to them all. I think I love everything about that band. Stephen Carpenter is kind of the man when it comes to that ambient-shoegaze metal sound. I can't think of anyone who creates textures like that guy. I'm looking forward to Rival Schools' new one, out next week. I've also had Cloudkicker's "Beacons" in heavy rotation for over 2 months thanks to Derek from National Sunday Law and Graviton.

I'm outta here...til next week....

-d

Productivity, or lack thereof....

Didn't get anything done last night. Matt finally took his bass in the shop, thank god. The thing has needed a setup as long as I've known him. The bright side is that I will get to re-track all his stuff and make the tracks anew. Going to lose about a week of productivity, since I'll be out of town. When I get back, it's full throttle, no more fuckin' around. I want to have a completed EP on our bandcamp page by the end of the summer. A lofty goal to say the least, considering the pace has been the exact opposite of feverish to date. Nonetheless, I'm going to make a serious go at it, hopefully with a little help from some friends...

Hello and welcome

Well, it's 2011 and we've been at this thing slowly for a few years already. Amazing how time can fly. The idea behind this project has always been take our time and let it come naturally. We ride the creative waves as they come, and sometimes they don't come for months. We're ok with it. Honestly, nobody is out there clamoring for a 2-bass player project to light the world on fire. We've both been in bands with set schedules, and wanted to break from that process altogether. It's hard to come up with cool shit in a 3-hour block at a rehearsal studio on a set day. The downside to this philosophy is that your chops are not as sharp, and it becomes easy to be complacent and lazy. To that, I say no more.

I got a copy of Toontrack's Superior Drummer program, and it has re-lit the fire under our asses. Well, that and a string of personal bullshit that has since been laid to rest. I have been slowly sharpening my MIDI skills, and programming up a storm. You can hear the newest track on our sounds page. It still has yet to be mixed, and there will be adjustments along the way, but overall, it's a good starting point. My hope is to post the songs as they progress, sort of like an experiment in the evolution of our tracks.

I will be posting a gear list and everything like that here, so if interested, please subscribe. Until then....

-d