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| January 2006 »
The record is finished. One song ("Why Cry") is mixed. Soon we will mix the rest of them, and then the mastering process. In between then and now are an infinite number of times playing the songs in different orders to discover a magical sequence: one that we will live with for the rest of our lives. We have fourteen songs recorded: "Teahouse of the Spirits", "Awake", "The Loophole", "She Won't Last", "Why Cry", "Bruises", "Outsider", "Bloody Mary", "Said You'd Be", "Go On", "Night One", "Listen", "Left to Lose", and "Lie Next To Me". At the moment for me it's agonizing. Songs are like children. You do everything you can to bring them into the world, give them a piece of yourself to take as their own, and then at a certain point -set them free. What happens then is between them and the world. Our album is the same way. We are nearing the point musically where it time to send it up to the sky and let the winds take it. Song sequence is an art. In the great rock records of the 60's and 70's, a magical "45 minute", 10-11 song album was the standard. In the 90's with Alternative rock and the growth of Hip-Hop, more and more songs began to be included. Some say that if you have more than eleven songs, the album can be too much to absorb in one listen. These days though, is the album idea as important? Do we now see songs as more separate pieces instead of a collection? Is it better to have more on the album so people can simply have more songs?
One of my criteria is that the final number be eleven or thirteen. No ten. No twelve. I don't like ten, and I don't like twelve. I like eleven or thirteen, whichever contains the right group of songs that make the greatest whole. Even if we live in a single-serving world, I still believe that the record, the album is the artistic statement. The collection. The whole. The many makes the (ONe). I have a really hard time imagining any of these songs being cut, but I know that to make the best album possible, at least one song will have to be left back.
It's so silent. I hear wind chimes slowly dancing outside the glass doors, the hum of this hard drive, nothing else. I am in the mountains. There is snow on the ground, but it's old snow, just hard ice melting. Today I saw a deer on the side of this mountain. His eyes were huge deep brown holes on the grey white slope of his face ending up with twin twists of antlers. He wasn't scared of me. Maybe he hasn't run in to any humans that have tried to kill him yet.
Today was Christmas day, and also the first day of Hanukkah. Only the fourth time this has happened in the last hundred years. This is the time of year for family. Either warm family gatherings, dysfunctional family gatherings, no family gatherings, or no family. I have a very small family. One two three. Three and one two minute California phone call.
I made another call, to someone I love, and they had had a hard Christmas. Dysfunctional family gatherings. Old snow and hard ice melting.
I wish you all well today.
Vote Chris Christmas Rodriguez to replace Santa Claus this year.
(all CCR movies.)
After weeks of painfuly unfunny network televison sketch comedy, SNL busts out with an almost completely funny episode!
"Lazy Sunday" The Chronic-les of Narnia rap, and
"Christmastime for the Jews".
Urban Outfitters sells "Charlie Brown's Pathetic Christmas Tree".
Give your video iPod a present.
Best Christmas movie ever: "Scrooge": The musical version of "A Christmas Carol" starring Albert Finney, I shit you not. (Not to be confused with "Scrooged", the Bill Murray version which is not the best Christmas movie ever.) This is in no way trying to give shade to Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" , but that I reserve for "the best movies ever" list. And seriously, if you haven't ever seen IAWL, or haven't seen it in a while, do it this year. If you are a cynical person, or inching ever closer that way, that movie will slap your shit right back in place, it's powerful stuff.
Christmas album that unfortunately comes up way too often in my Mom's Christmas CD randomizer and makes me want to violently stab candy canes into my eyes.
Christmas album that should be on my Mom's Christmas CD randomizer that isn't.
Spending Christmas Day at the strip club.
Now that the annual "Late Fall Shitty Movie Season" has passed, where studios dump their cinematic load-fests that weren't quality enough to come out in the winter, or marketable enough to come out in the Summer, it looks like it's finally safe to venture back into the theaters.
Of the crop of movies I want to see on the big screen (King Kong, Narnia, Memoirs of a Geisha, Harry Potter and Rent), Geisha ended up being the first.
"Geisha" is basically a Cinderella story with the exception of Cinderella selling her virginity to the highest bidder. Subtle difference. I really enjoyed this movie, it served up everything I was expecting- beautiful settings of tea houses and gardens and a glimpse into a secretive Asian society. The main draw for this movie is gorgeous direction, courtesy of "Chicago"'s Rob Marshall.
Not an earth-shattering story dramatically, but definitely worth seeing if you are intrigued. I really liked the fact that "Geisha" is a big-budget Hollywood film with Asian actors in every leading role, although the film is drawing fire for casting Chinese actresses for the two leads instead of Japanese.
Also this weekend I checked out a Korean movie called "Oldboy". Dave rec commended it via the "friends" feature on Netflix. (P.S., that guy is into some seriously crazy ass movies. Let's just leave it at that. )
The premise is that an average businessman is suddenly abducted and held in a prison-like hotel room...for 15 years. That's only the beginning. The bulk of the film takes place in the 5 days after his sudden release. His mission is to discover who jailed him ...and why. It's clever, extremely well shot, filled with surprises, and of course super-violent. There are some amazing never-ending battle scenes involving just about any object within reach becoming a deadly weapon. Aside from a few over-suspensions of disbelief, this one is really worth checking out - it's much more unique than the standard John Woo type action thriller. Be ready for a few maniacal hammer-wielding battle orgies though, and a "happy" ending that will make you feel slightly uncomfortable. And by "slightly uncomfortable" I mean "badly disturbed".
Here is what is happening with thepanicchannel.com. I have been getting alot of questions about when the new "Velvet" version will open. This post might get a little tech-heavy so hang on...
I closed down our first version "Ouija" earlier this year. It was built it entirely in Flash, and it was okay, but I never meant it to be the full-on site that would satisfy all our needs for years, more like the first version to get things rolling. The goal for this new site was to build something that could be updated from any website anywhere, anytime, like a blog. I came up with a new design in Photoshop that would allow for lots of content, and also have space for some good Flash animations. Robert Chafino stepped in and built a framework that could be populated via the Moveable Type engine, the same engine Dave and I use for our blogs. This just means that we can use a simple web interface to make all site updates instead of having to have a computer with all the files on it around. Robert also built a really cool Flash/php engine so we can update our photo libraries remotely.
Then, things started to get dramatic.
Late in the summer, work begins on the record; pre-production with Josh Abraham, last minute writing and demoing of new songs, etc. Then I go into the studio for 2 1/2 months. All work on the site stops. Once the record is done, I get back to the site, but now Robert is busy on a world of projects (he does 6767, the Rokbar site, the new Spread Radio live site, and all of Dave's myriad internet interests, among all his other freelance stuff).
So I go in and start digging around with his files and work on finishing the site. I am a Flash guy, and CSS is only a vague mystery to me, but what the hell, I wanted to learn CSS for a while now, so this would be a nice way to learn, right? Everything went pretty well until I wrecked the whole site... every page. I missed a main detail about how this crazy blog/html/css/flash site is supposed to work, and killed our website.
After some all night code sessions that involved not only alarming amounts of caffeine, but also a Pagan sheep sacrifice, I was back on track. This required re-building the site almost form scratch. At this point, I was blessed to have the help of CSS superhero Gianna Gragnani. She was the fix-it angel time and time again, when I had no idea what to do. Momentum picked back up and we got to about the 80% point. (Also thanks to Michael Renninger who tweaked some Flash actionsctipt code on our our photo libraries).
Just tonight Gianna once again saved the day and got us past some pesky Safari/IE alignment issues. Told you this post would be tech-heavy. I am now filling the site up with pics, video, downloads, and stuff to read. I can't really give a hard date when it'll be up, but it REALLY won't be long now. Unless I wreck the whole fucking thing again. HAHAHA.
HAHA..
hm.
Ok you stayed with me this long... now I will repay you with some links:
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It's always time for some Mark Ryden.
Where did the time go?
Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci.
String Spin
Google releases Gmail for mobile phones.
A family takes family face photos for 30 years... this is great.
Speaking of tech stuff, this is an incredible demonstration of 3-D graphics in virtual space from the MIT Media Lab.
I am feeling on the shittier side of things, so this will have to be one of my patented Stream-o-Conciousness posts™.
Went to my record company's Christmas Holiday party on Monday at a swanky Hollywood nightspot called "Falcon": Listened to English accents, ate cute little crab cakes, smoked free cigarettes by the roaring fireplace, and drank hot earl grey tea. Heard they like the finished version of "Why Cry". After the festivities, I went back to my apartment, where the power had been shut off earlier in the day.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Five things you probably didn't notice in "The Shining".
The Art of David Choe.
Had a good conversation with the woman who will be representing the label for all our art/cover needs and inspirations. Still am at about 60% on my current cover design, and want to start getting back into painting mode to get it finished so I can run it by everyone. Have no idea if it will be the finished cover or not, but I want to make sure I finish it before showing it to anyone. If it doesn't end up on the cover, it would be really good for a number of band things: shirts, site, etc.
Also am debating a few alternate logo designs of our current logo. Feel free to chime in.
Went back to work last week and I am designing right next to an interesting guy named Frankie. He is a talented songwriter and you can check out his music here. It's really good, mellow acoustic stuff with a touch of 70's and country. We might be doing an acoustic show in the first week in January together. I'll keep you posted.
FUCK.
I can tend to slip from one obsession to another, don't really know why. Maybe my mind always is comforted by the notion that there is something to look forward to. I just always seem to need something just over the next horizon to fixate on. This is a pretty flowery explanation that is concealing my true admission that...
I am super into getting a new Xbox 360. Yeah. There it is, it's out. Like I've mentioned before, I don't really spend a ton of time actually gaming, but I get really fascinated when there is a generation switch with game consoles. I'll go into the whole philosophy of why another time, but for now, lets just talk facts...
I hate my friend Sean. He got a 360 a couple days after they came out last month. I've been over to his place a few times to play it and I like it alot. I envy Sean his Xbox. So far none of the games are mind-numbingly advanced, but launch titles seldom pack the whole punch of what a new console can do. The textures are alot better and overall the graphics are definitely a leap forward, but the real fireworks wont show up 'til next year. We spend our time doing Perfect Dark co-op missions or playing online deathmatch. The best thing about the new xbox is the intergration with the online service. It's really smooth. Hooking a game console up to the Internet has the same impact hooking a computer up to it does: you wonder what you did all along without it. So Sean is sitting pretty with the new toy, and I, like everyone else being manipulated by Microsoft's planned "lack of ability to meet demand" stock shortage, has none.
I have been brainwashed since I was just a sapling to want the latest, shiniest game machine possible. It's a defect, I know. But I know it's a defect, -so fuck it. If there is anyone out there who is following this orgy of capitalism, here are some links:
Xbox inventory locator - you can see how many 360's come into stock at online retailers and at US Best Buy's this Sunday.
XBox Fanboy - good blog
Gamespot 360 - news and reviews
Once I have one and get it all set up, we can meet online and kill each other.
The sound of the clock ticking next to me is driving me insane.
OM.
and yes, the picture above is CG.
MySpace deaths: this page is really dark. From what I can gather, its people who have died, or been involved with another's death since starting MySpace pages. Includes links to their pages.
Amazing Flying through a cloud-filled sky shockwave movie. Play with clicking above and below the horizon line.
PillowFight Club, coming to a city near you.
Interview with Katamri Damacy creator Keita Takahashi.
Panexa. Ask your doctor for a reason to take it.
Maunsell Army Sea Forts: Spooky abandoned English sea fortresses from WWII.
Steve Jobs quotes.
Perry Bible Fellowship will make you laugh...
Andy Dick writes George W. Bush's speeches. So this explains it.
The Incredible Zombie Machine: crazy zombie infection simulation engine.
Hello there.
It's been quite an adventurous last couple months. I stopped the blog in October and since then, the band has finished tracking the record, and there is alot of space to cover. I suppose as the days go on, I'll fill in more and more of the blanks left by my absence, but to try to do all of it right now would be nuts. There were some really great glorious days, and quite a few hard painful days, but the important part is that the recording is finished and it sounds great.
Today is a beautiful sunny day in Los Angeles, and I am... staying inside and tinkering away on the computer, but yesterday was interesting.
On Friday I got a call that mixer Chris Lord-Alge got some free time in his schedule and was going to mix our song "Why Cry". I went in yesterday at 11am to his studio in Burbank and delivered the mix notes from the band and watched him work as he tweaked a couple details and got the finished album version done.
So far, our album is finished, recording-wise. The next step is mixing: when someone (sometimes the same person who produced the record, usually not) takes all the tracks and makes the final judgement calls about how everything will sound. How loud should the snare sound be? Are the guitars being overpowered by the lead vocal?, etc. All these tracks require someone who is really good at the act of sonic juggling. When you make one part louder, some other part must suffer, so getting a balance that gets the most out of the song is really an art.
Chris Lord-Alge is one of the biggest names in the business. He has mixed so many huge records, it's ridiculous. Just last Thursday he was nominated for a Grammy for his work on Green Day's "American Idiot". He is super in demand, and has a really full schedule, so we were very happy that we could wedge in and at least get him to mix one song. "Why Cry" is the most radio-ey sounding song on the record, so the label really wanted him to do the mix.
His studio space is a really open, well decorated mix of bare wooden beams and futuristic furniture, and he is a refreshingly down-to-earth, funny, straight shooting Jersey guy. His actual mixing room was like walking into the cockpit of a futuristic spaceship, albeit decorated with Christmas lights, in keeping with the spirit of the season. We talked about music for a while; I found him to be a fellow fan of Genesis' "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" and The Who's "Tommy". We got into a conversation about concept records, and cross fading between songs. As you may know, I am a big fan of song cycles and concept records, and with Chris Lord-Alge's work on "American Idiot" we had plenty to chat about. Sadly, we agreed that cross fading between songs has been kind of killed in these days of digital music files. There is no real way to make sure songs seamlessly blend from one in to the other without a jarring gap in between until something technologically happens to remedy this. Every time I listen to The Mars Volta's "Frances The Mute" I want to pull my hair out when the mp3's force the gap in between tracks that should blend together. Chris and Green Day's fix was to just have certain songs all be joined together as "suites" on "Idiot".
Ok, now enough music talk - check out his bathrooms:
Both were appointed with modern Scandanavian-style fixtures, but in the first bathroom, directly in one's eye-line if one were to be in a.. well, seated position on the toilet, were 3 small LCD screens mounted into the wall playing back classic concert footage! So rad. Seems to completely eradicate the need for a copy of Entertainment Weekly altogether. In the other bathroom was a small table on wheels with a kid's 45 single record player on it. Scattered around the table were classic 45's, like "She Loves You" from The Beatles, etc.
As he worked on the final mix of our song, I was blown away by his skill at the console. As the music was playing, and he was moving the faders to imprint the final combination of sounds we spent the last 2 months recording, his hands danced around the levers like a concert pianist playing a concerto. It was really cool to see a big industry name really live up to the hype. I feel lucky to have gotten his addition to our music and hope that someday in the future, we can work together again.
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