Category: Guitar

One Last Pre-RPM Oldish Song

One more before the RPM craziness begins. This one was written in 1998 during Spring Break. It was then recorded in 2007 when I first heard about RPM but was too late to try it officially so I recorded 10 songs in March before taking a real shot at the challenge in April and failing miserably.

How’s that for a run on sentence?

I’ve always liked this one but I’ve never really been able to pull it off. The lyrics are about a photo of my grandparents that I first saw at my grandmother’s wake. I never new my grandfather, but my grandmother had always been there. Then she was gone. At the wake there was a picture of the two of them together when they were young. I think it might have been taken while they were dating. They were standing on the street looking like too kids who were acting goofy. It was hard to reconcile the saint I knew with the goofball in the picture. A few months later I came up with this song. My brother, John wrote the drum part. I was playing the guitar part in our little practice room at home and he came running in and jumped on the drums and started playing along. Just one more reason to really dig this song.

Here’s the new version:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/photograph-redux.mp3%20

Here’s the old version, for suffering’s sake:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/photograph.mp3%20

Another New (Oldish) Song

I finished re-recording another song from my 2011 RPM. This time I didn’t monkey with the arrangement at all. I just added some fruity effects and a couple of vocal harmonies.

Here’s the new version:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/ice-redux.mp3%20

Here’s the old version:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/ice.mp3%20

What is That?

I did a little recording this morning before work. I did a little more on my lunch hour. I played guitar, mostly.

Then… What the hell is that thing? Is that a blister? What tha… A blister? Five days before RPM starts? Wha… How… Who…

Urgh

ADAT to GarageBand Conversions

Back when I recorded this little puppy I said it would be the first of a handful of pre-GarageBand RPM songs that I was going to do. I picked out 3-4 other songs to work on and then never did anything with them.

Until now.

I have three songs ready for guitars and vocals. I’m going to try and get them finished this week, but I want to use my amp for all of the electric guitar parts. That means I’ll be recording before work on Monday and Thursday. We shall see how they go.

New Playlist

Here’s that four song playlist I said I’d be putting up on bandcamp. I have no idea why it’s only pulling in the first song. I’m too frustrated and pissed off to figure it out now.

Oh wait, I think I figured it out. Duh. Robbie es Moron.

New (Old) Song

I finished another song today. This one was written in 1991. I can’t say for sure, but it might have been the first song I ever wrote from top to bottom all by my lonesome. At least I can’t remember anything older. There were actually two others that were written at about the same time that might have been my first solo effort. It doesn’t matter.

I think it was 1994 or 1995 that Mike, Dan, and I went into Northeast Broadcasting School’s 24 track studio after hours and recorded four songs. This was one of them. The other three have all been redone in GarageBand too. At first I wanted to record this one, and then make a playlist with all four. Then I thought I’d record the other three too. Then I thought I’d add a few new songs onto the end, just for fun. Then I thought I’d keep the three finished recordings and still add the new songs.

As of this moment, I’m going back to the original plan. Just the four old songs, using the already finished recordings. Yippee.

There is one cool thing about this demo, from my goofy point of view at least. Ever since I started playing the home recording game back in 2007, every song I’ve done (with one exception) has either used a headphone amp, or some kind of software amplifier simulator for all of the electric guitars. Not this one. This one is my actual, real life, physically there Marshall amp. Somehow that little fact made this one seem 100 times more fun.

Here it is:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/drift-away.mp3%20