A new song from The Great 2015 Re-Recording Project, also known as Quarantine Tunes Volume Eight.
Volume eight is all songs written during the 2020 50/90 Challenge. I think. Volume five was all songs from the 2021 50/90, I think… those songs were better than the 2020 songs and it shows with this one. If this was one of the 50 songs that was good enough to consider re-recording then… we’re definitely scraping the bottom of the artistic barrel.
Oh well. It’s done.
My lunch break is coming to an end. I was late to work today and had to take some personal time. I took my lunch break a little later than usual and who cares about any of this, right?
There is nothing going on today. There was this morning, but nothing is happening now. It’s turning into a quiet afternoon. I have to go to a store after work and then Jen (my beloved bride) and I are going to get some Japanese take out for dinner. Other than that? Nuttin’, honey.
I was thinking about tomorrow morning. I am working from home tomorrow so I have some time to do stuff before work (assuming I don’t oversleep). Should I take my new/old camera out and finally shoot a test roll or should I track some guitar parts for a song demo or two? I checked the weather. The forecast is calling for temps in the teens around sunrise tomorrow morning. I guess guitar tracking it is!
I have two songs ready for rhythm guitar parts. I just have to remember how to play them. Then I have to learn how to play them in a different key, because I changed my tuning for this round of recordings. I just tuned down a half step but that means I can’t just listen to the original demos and learn the parts. I have to tune back up or I have to change the key on the fly. We’ll see. I don’t think either song is particularly hard. I should be able to re-learn the parts easily enough.
Isn’t home recording fascinating? I can see by the bored, glazed over look in all of your eyes that you’re all just riveted. You’re welcome, really. Any time.
Finally… I played guitar today. Just for a little while (and pretty poorly), but I played. I used the new pedal board with the amp sim pedal (TC Combo Deluxe ’65) and for the first time… ever(?) I used a compressor pedal (MXR Dyna Comp mini).
I feel pretty good about the state of the world right now.
I mixed a song a couple of nights ago but didn’t get around to posting it to my alonetone or hearthis.at accounts so it just sat there on my laptop. Now it is out there for the whole wide world to ignore.
I think it kinda sounds like crap, but the song itself is okay, I think. You can probably hear the edits in the chorus because I wrote a melody without leaving any space for that pesky little breathing thing. Oops.
The lead guitar was through a nearly cranked amp. That was fun. Noisy as hell, but fun.
This is a to do list… read the title… it is a pun, my friends. Get it? I made a pun! It’s punny. It’s puntastic.
Ugh.
The current home recording music project is to take 10 songs from the 2020 Fifty Songs in 90 Days Challenge, edit them, rearrange them, rewrite them, and completely re-record them. When I punched out of work last night I had the 10 songs picked out. One is mixed and finished. Five are completely recorded but still need to be mixed. The other four hadn’t been touched.
Last night while sitting up in bed I took one of them and got as far as finishing the MIDI music bed. Bass, drums, arrangement, song form changes, all done. This morning after I finished today’s errands I cranked out the other three. Now I have four songs ready for rhythm guitars.
Best case scenario is that I track all of the rhythm guitars tomorrow. I work in the office on Monday so nothing is happening then. Tuesday morning before work should be car music where I track all of the vocals. Wednesday is back in the office. Thursday is lead guitars before work. At that point I will have all tracking done for all 10 songs before we leave for Florida.
Yeah. Let’s see if we can pull this off.
Note: It is 99% certain that I will not pull this off. When it comes to the musical planning stage, Robert is not terribly reliable.
Unrelated musical note… one of the reasons my band’s singer quit was because he moved to Maine. He told us yesterday that he’s moved back to the Merrimack Valley. He also mentioned getting “the itch.” Now is that an itch to just have one band practice just for fun, or is it an itch to get back into the band? I don’t know but I am thinking about maybe being hopeful that our singer search could be over. It’s probably not, but if I can’t be optimistic about the Bruins anymore this year, then I’ll be optimistic about this.
6-1? They lost 6-1? On my fucking birthday? Thanks for nothing, Bruins. Way to kick a red head when he’s down. Damn it!
As the hockey world was imploding all over the state of Florida, I tried to ease my pain by mixing a song. I think it sounds okay. It probably doesn’t, but I am trying to be nicer to myself now that I am 53 years old and shit.
This is the first of probably 10 songs that will make up the eighth round of The Great 2015 Re-Recording Project, aka Quarantine Tunes Volume Eight, aka the Best of the 2020 50/90 Challenge (as all 10 songs are from that project, similar to how Quarantine Tunes Volume Five was all songs from the 2021 50/90 Challenge… which was WAY better than 2020).
Friggin’ Bruins ruining my friggin’ birthday. Jerks.
I said I was going to celebrate my 53rd birthday with a work-on-music day and that’s just what I’ve done.
I have worked on new recordings of five old songs. Two songs got lead guitar tracks. Two songs got rhythm guitar tracks and vocals. One final song got bass, drums, rhythm guitars, and vocals. I don’t know if the clock is going to cooperate or not, but the three songs that did not get lead guitars today might still get lead guitars today.
I was home alone for all of this guitar playing… so I played through my Fender Deluxe Reverb… the best amp I’ve ever owned… and I played loud. Very loud. The decibel meter on my Apple Watch topped 100 db once. Yeah. My ears are killing me. Oh glorious noise!
Robin seems pretty sad about the news about Steve Albini but she agrees that playing the guitar at a disturbing volume is as good a way to honor his memory as any.
I got up super early this morning. I wasn’t planning on it, but I was up and at ’em a little before 5:00am. Yikes!
That let me get all of my exercise in, eat breakfast, water all of the plants, do a couple of little things to help Jen get ready for her in-the-office day, finish my normal morning routine, go to the grocery store and get dinner for tonight, and put vocals on two songs… all before punching into work at 8:45.
Wow… it’s been a long day. I need a nap. Doubly so, thanks to the crummy night’s sleep last night. Damn.
The current music recording project is Quarantine Tunes Volume 8. Four songs underway. One ready to mix, two ready for lead guitars, and one ready for rhythm guitars. How do you like that?
Two days in a row. It is silly how sneaking in 20-30 minutes of guitar playing before work in the morning can just brighten up the whole day. Silly and a little weird, maybe.
I mentioned last night that I started working on a new song for the re-recording project thing. I put rhythm guitars on it this morning after I did my daily exercise and had a quick breakfast. Done and done. I used direct outs from two of my amps again. That’s the norm now. Oh well. It sounded pretty good today. It sounded pretty good yesterday too, I think.
Here’s the obligatory guitar pic. Let’s use it for today’s photo a day project as well. Day 243 of 365. Actually… 366, but we won’t worry about that until the end of the line.
I mentioned last night that I was hoping to get some guitar playing in before work.
This morning? I got some guitar playing in before work.
I put rhythm guitars on the song I worked on last night, and lead guitars on the only other song I had in progress. I think I might have a little time to add vocals on Thursday morning, so I’m hoping to start another song tonight and put rhythm guitars onto it before work tomorrow. Wednesday is an in the office day so there’s no time for anything there. If I apply myself (HA! Fat chance of that!) I might be able to get to three songs ready to mix by early next week. That would be cool.
The current project is updating, editing, rewriting, and rerecording songs that were originally written for the 2021 Fifty Songs in Ninety Days challenge. I picked 10 songs to focus on. I might decide along the way that some of them are unworthy, but as of now we’re going with 10. Two songs in progress. Many more to mess around with.
Inside the Red Head's Head 