March 2020 did what March 2014 failed to do. It followed February’s RPM Challenge rules album-in-a-month with another RPM Challenge rules album-in-a-month. In 2014 the March music wasn’t finished until May. In 2020 it was finished with two days to spare, babie! Got it in early!
Today I recorded three vocals, six lead guitars, and I mixed six songs. I am so tired I can’t function. Enjoy!
All of the tracking for all 10 songs is done! Sweet.
It just occurred to me that if I mix the last six songs tonight I will have finished March in the same amount of time as February. Yeah, I am losing it a little.
I finished two songs. One last night and another just a few minutes ago. I’d post them both here but hearthis.at is being a pain in the ass and not uploading the second song. I couldn’t get the first one to upload last night either, but it worked this morning.
Both songs are crap, but they exist so there’s that. If the second song ever uploads I’ll share it. Until then, you’ll just have to settle for one stink burger.
One of the slew of guitar orientated BookFayce groups I belong to had a post a few minutes ago where one of my fellow members confessed to stress-buying a guitar pedal.
Fulltone is a company that manufactures pedals. I own three of them. Well… more like two and a half. Two different versions of one pedal, and then a second pedal. Whatever. Suffice to say they make good stuff and I am a happy repeat customer. I am also on their email list. I got an email from them a few minutes ago. I read some updates on things they are working on and I think I literally salivated a little.
Unlike my fellow BookFayce sufferer, I have managed to stop myself from stress-buying… anything. Not just guitar gear, but anything. The only thing I’ve spent money on since the quarantini kicked off is food and one tank of gas in the Kia. That’s it.
My thinking is simple. If we don’t spend any money during the quarantininess, I should be able to afford a new Les Paul once it’s all over. If it lasts another month or so I’ll be able to afford one of those sweet 2019 Les Paul Standards (with the gold finish because I’ve always wanted a gold top). If it lasts through the Spring, like many people believe it will, I’ll be able to afford a nice late 60’s Les Paul Custom, in black, of course. If it lasts into next year… well… with that much money saved we can start looking at something from the late ’50’s. Probably not a Burst (capital B) but maybe a ’56 or a ’57? Maybe a ’59 junior? Sky’s the limit, kids!
I had a bad morning. I was all emotional and messed up and stuff. Two really awful night’s sleep in a row put me in a pretty screwy state of mind. Before I fell into my personal little black hole I was talking to Jen about things we can do to keep our heads. Seems ironic now. I said that I need to try and give myself the illusion of control over our crummy situation and one of the ways I can do that is to try and be creative. I’m going to keep trying to write and record terrible songs until it’s all over. Of course I had the opportunity to work on music this morning but did I? No. Bad day.
March is almost over. I want to do another 10 songs in April. My tiny little brain wants to change the March process up (guitar straight into an amp, like some kind of neanderthal) by allowing one pedal. My little Fuzz Face mini. I have heard that a Fuzz Face circuit is really simple. What, thought me, if I gave myself another project and finally built a pedal of my own? There are companies that will sell you kits with all the parts you need and you just have to assemble it all. I was so going to do it. Then I realized I don’t own a soldering iron. Or solder. Or literally any tool required to build a circuit board. Damn it. I guess we’ll punt on this until after the COVID-19 gives us our lives back.
I did go looking for youtube videos showing people building fuzz pedals. There are a couple, but nothing really like what I want to see. Instead I found an episode of That Pedal Show from 2015. I’ve never watched this one, but they compare a few different Fuzz Face pedals.
Let this video kill off 11-12 minutes worth of your coronavirus exile.
In case you’re wondering, I just finished the last rhythm guitar part for March Music. On to vocals and lyrics and awful next.
The March 2020 Music Album in a Month RPMarch thing whatever it’s called made progress tonight. Two of the four rhythm guitar free songs now have rhythm guitar. I played my SG tonight instead of my Les Paul. I don’t know why. It means I have SG Hipstamatic pics to post though.
Shake to Shuffle rides again.
I just promise that tomorrow after work one of these guys…
….and this little guy…
…are going to make some noise together.
I promise.
Here are the two songs I finished recording yesterday. I mixed them this morning. I bent my low-fi idea a little and put some more effects onto some of the tracks than I was planning on, but it’s still pretty simplistic. No doubling anywhere (though there are more vocal harmonies than I was planning to do. I have a hard time not putting harmonies into choruses).
And just for schnitzengiggles (we watched Beerfest last night) does wordpress.com recognize hearthis.at sets yet?
DOOOD! IT RECOGNIZED THE SET! (at least it did in preview mode, let’s publish the post and see what happens)
Addendum: The playlist displays, but it doesn’t seem to play anything but the first track. That could be my browser though.
I finished two of my March Music songs today. Everything’s done but the final mix. I wrote two songs worth of melodies and lyrics, and then recorded two songs worth of vocals and lead guitars.
Given that these are the first two songs I’ve brought along this far this month it might be safe to assume they are my favorites of all of the things currently in progress (there are eight songs so far) and you would be correct.
After today’s contributions though, these are now officially the two worst songs I’ve ever written, the two worst vocal performances I’ve ever recorded, and the two worst guitar performances I’ve ever recorded.
I suck.
I tried to make myself feel better by going a little nutty with Hipstamatic. Shake to Shuffle didn’t shake my current musical sucking.
Inside the Red Head's Head 