Tag: Les Paul

Just a Dream

That’s right kids, it’s 1989 all over again.  I was getting ready to graduate from High School and I was co-writing some major prog rock with the guys in Tempest Fero.

Dig the crazy little bits at the end of the quiet sections where the time signature changes from 4/4 to 3/4 to 6/8 all in the blink of an eye.  Dig the pseudo 3/4 groove that Jeff used to do under the 4/4 riff Jim, Mike, and I used to play during the heavy verses in the middle section.  I think that groove evolved out of him actually playing in 3/4.  Polyrhythms, kiddos.  Dig it and rock until your brain melts and leaks out of your cranium.

 

2007 is Finished at Long Last

Well now, you all have been looking forward to this moment, I’m sure.

I just finished mixing the seventh of the seven unfinished songs from my failed attempt at the RPM Challenge in 2007.  Six years later, and it’s finally done!  (well… if it were done there would be 10 songs, because that’s the rule for RPM, right?  So it’s not done really, it’s just the seven unfinished songs that are done.  Yeah, whatever)  It’s Miller Time!

The Time Will Come ’13

Oh good, thinks everyone reading this, another crappy song from the 80’s.

You guessed it!

The Time Will Come as written by Tempest Fero (aka me and my band back in high school).

I don’t remember much about how this came about. I know the lyrics and the melody came from Jeff the Drummer but that’s about all I remember. Hell, I couldn’t even remember the title until I found a cassette tape labeled Tempest Fero.

I have one more T.F. song planned. There are still two more that I will add to the mess if I can just find a tape. One of them is our 10 minute marathon song.

Wish me luck.

Toilet Water From Hell

It lives again!

Tempest Fero’s instrumental magnum opus, Toilet Water From Hell!

If I remember correctly, this one dates back to 1987 and it was the second song we wrote. I thought about making the keyboard solos guitar solos today but that just seemed wrong. Somehow my awful keyboard playing just seems to enhance the cheese factor here. Also note that I managed to fudge with Garageband enough to allow the occasional bars of 5/4 time into the 4/4 project. Yeah, I am pleased by that.

100 bonus points if you can name the Blue Oyster Cult song that we “borrowed” (read, stole) liberally from. Bass solo and everything.

Rob’s blog, where the 80’s live forever!

(note: more 80’s Tempest Fero songs to come. At least one more, maybe as soon as tomorrow.)

One More Sham of a Song

This is #6 out of the 7 leftovers from 2007’s failed RPM. I wrote the lyrics and the melody on Tuesday May 28, 2013 at about 7:30am. Just minutes prior I heard a recording of a conversation between Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Alex Lifeson of Rush. Rush has been my absolute musical idols ever since I was 10 years old. In the interview, Alex Lifeson talked about how easy it is for mediocre musicians to use Garageband and make decent sounding records and how that was leading to the watering down of the entire music industry.

Alex didn’t mention me by name, but I know in my heart he was talking about me. Musically speaking, me and all of the songs I’ve writen are just a big fat sham.

Not that that is going to stop me, of course.

Two More Songs

I was hoping there would be three songs to post tonight, but I’m way too tired so you’ll have to settle for two.

These were both started in 2007 when I first tried and failed the RPM challenge. This makes five of those seven songs that have finally been finished. The lyrics to the first one are about nothing, hence the song title. I was trying to make a point in the lyrics to the second song, but I can’t figure out what that point was. Typical.

These two files will eventually be deleted, someday, when I finish recording all of the songs that I consider to be part of my leftover songs project. Once they are all done I’ll move the whole thing over to bandcamp. But I’ll put these here for now.

Another Song

Over the last two days I threw together a new recording of the first song I wrote for my 2009 finished-way-after-the-deadline RPM Challenge.

Why?  Because the old recordings sound like vomit and I can’t tell if the songs themselves are vomit or just the recording.  So maybe if I dust some of them off I can make that determination.

Here’s the new recording…

And here is the old recording…

Both of these files are going to be deleted at some point, when I figure out what to do with the new version.

Early Morning Visit

Look who came out for a visit this morning.

HipstaPrint

The rest of this post is yet another music home demo recording nerd post.

I have three songs in the works right now.  Thanks to the acoustic guitar that suddenly needs a new nut (uh oh) and the leaky, mostly out of tune sax, one of them is ready to be mixed.  A second is missing just a lead guitar.  The third still needs all guitars and vocals.  That one might not get finished until next week.

So I seem to be on a pretty quick pace right now.  I have posted four songs since March 1st, which followed the 14 from February.  My free soundcould account is going to run out of room again.  That means this year’s RPM will get deleted and all of those previous posts that include embeded soundcloud files will lose their audio.  Oh well.  I think I might make a new page for playlists of recent music.  I will use bandcamp to host the playlists, and keep soundcloud for works in progress kinda things.

I’ve also decided that the four songs I have finished this month, and two of the three I’m playing around with now do not belong with the left over songs project.  I started a new playlist for the re-recorded songs.  That is meaningless to everyone on Earth except me, but what are ya gonna do, right?

I will take my lunch break at 1:00.  My MacBook and my Les Paul are ready and waiting to finish tracking another song.  I might be posting two new ones tonight.  We’ll see.

RPM Day 26

I know it’s late for this, but I’ve had a busy day.  Deal, okay?

I added the final lead guitar parts to four of the remaining six songs.  I haven’t made a final mix of any of them yet.  I might do that tonight, or I might wait until tomorrow.  I’m so close to finishing that I can almost taste it.  I should probably start thinking of a cover, and maybe a title.  What do you think of Rock Music for Old People?