Sand Trucks and Car Music

I did the first car music of 2022 today. Yippee and Hooray and stuff. I put vocals onto both Record Every Month songs for January and one re-recording of a song from 2010 or 2011 or something. I had to write new lyrics for that one because the original lyrics were garbage. The new lyrics are garbage too, but slightly less garbagey garbage if that makes any sense.

I hate to have to admit this but I have written the same song twice again. I sense a theme for the coming RPM Challenge. One song over and over again. The last time I did it, it was an E minor – A minor thing that I used in two songs. This time it was an E minor 7 – B minor 7 – A dominate 7 thing that I used in the chorus of both songs.

I suck.

I should also mention that the singing was pretty terrible as well. Also, there were two trucks. Ugh. We had snow two days ago and there’s been a little freezing rain this morning. There was a plow and a sander in the parking lot with me. I think the sander covered the entire lot at least twice. He kept driving by me while I was trying to sing and the mic kept picking it up. As if my own voice wasn’t shit enough. The plow… what the hell, bro? He kept plowing little sections of the parking lot even though the snow has been gone for almost two days now. What the hell was he plowing, and why did he have to keep doing it over and over?

No Methuen Center pics today. Instead you’ll have to settle for this one. It was cold out side and very shouty inside. Hence the foggy.

As I was writing this I saw a Tweet announcing that Michael Lang died. He was 77. If you don’t know who Michael Lang is, he was one of the guys who put on the Woodstock festival. If only he’d thought otherwise about Woodstock ’95 and ’99 or whatever the hell years they were. Pretty much the definition of too much of a good thing. Rest in Peace, Mr Lang.

Pencil In Car Music for Tomorrow

I have four songs underway this month. They all blow chunks. I thought two of them were useable and two were disasters. I wrote lyrics for one of the better ones today and then tried writing for the second better one, only to realize it was garbage. I then listened to one of the disasters and decided it was awful but not too awful so I wrote lyrics for that one. The other disaster is still a disaster but it’s better than I thought. I tried putting lyrics to that one too but I’m kinda burned out.

So car music tomorrow should happen, even though there are only two songs ready to work on. That should be enough for now.

On a totally unrelated note, I just head that two members of the cast of the show Batwoman posted spoilers today that kinda make me want to catch up on season two. I am so easily lead. Baaaaah, babie. Baaaaaah.

June Music Leftovers

I set out on June 1st to write and demo 10 songs. When June ended I had 10 complete songs and three more that were still incomplete. As of this moment, all three of the extras have been recorded. One has been mixed, I posted it the other night. The other two had vocals recorded yesterday and today. One of them is in three separate parts but will still probably be only five or six minutes long. No prog masterpieces here. The other one is just a little thing for 12-string and vocal. Nothing complicated. If I can mix them tonight, then I’ll have a clean slate for the start of 50/90 tomorrow.

Musical Baby Steps

Just like yesterday, I only had enough time for baby steps today. I wrote another song’s worth of lyrics and melody but I didn’t have time to record a proper take.

There are only five songs left needing work but I am doubtful I will get it all finished by June 1st.
One song is ready to mix.
One song still needs lead guitar.
Two songs have lyrics and melody but still need vocals and lead guitar.
One song still needs lyrics, melody, vocals, and lead guitar.

Considering that I will be on vacation next week and not in any sort of a recording mood, those five unfinished songs are starting to look like a mountain.

I’m not quite sure what I want to do in June. 50/90 starts in July but I don’t want to take the month off. I want to keep in the musical frame of mind, but I don’t want to run out of gas either. Maybe I’ll stick to songs that are already written. Maybe I’ll work on new songs but set the goal at five instead of 10. Maybe I’ll keep the goal at 10, but only work on one at a time instead of work on all 10 in bits and pieces.

I don’t know. We’ll see.

RPM Challenge – Day 19

Not much today. I mixed one song last night and recorded one vocal this morning. I am off work the next two days, but will not have the house to myself tomorrow. I will try to do some more whispered guide vocals if I can write some damn lyrics. I think I will be using the random wikipedia article trick quite a bit this year.

Here is the song I mixed last night. I am not happy with the mix at all. The vocals are too low. Of course with my singing, too low is infinitely better than too loud. Am I right, or am I right?

http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/confidence.mp3%20

RPM Day 21

So I recorded vocals for three songs today. One of them is sort of okay. The other two sound… just… awful!

So I now have vocals recorded for seven of the 14 songs, but two or three are unacceptably bad. I have to do those again. At least I have lyrics and melodies already. Monday is the big day for vocals. I took a vacation day and will spend the whole day on RPM/FAMW. I hope to at least have all of the vocals finished by the time my wife comes home from work on Monday. I will try to get the lead guitar parts on the five songs that have some form of vocal between now and then.

We’ll see.

RPM Day 20

February 20th and the heat is on.

I have two songs completed, or as completed as they are going to get. The first one really needs to have the vocals re-recorded. If I get a chance before the 28th I’ll do it. It also needs to be mixed a little better. I don’t consider what I am doing here to be anything more than demos, so I am not going to freak out if the lead guitar is a little too loud (I am a lead guitarist, so the lead guitar is ALWAYS going to be a little too loud, but I digress) but in the case of the first song I think it might be a little too, too loud. Oh well.

This morning I took 25 minutes before leaving for work to come up with a chorus and two verses worth of bad lyrics for another song. I recorded them quickly and I think they sound okay, but they don’t really fit the gloomy mood of the music. That’s kind of a normal problem with the rush job that is RPM. I had that song’s master file up in GarageBand, and I had a couple of lines worth of lyrics in my head, so the lyrics went with the music regardless of how well they actually go together. If I were not on a deadline I might have found a better fit, but as it is I just don’t care.

I may have a little time for more lyrics/vocals this evening, but I said that last night too and it didn’t happen. I telecommute tomorrow, so maybe I can squeeze in more than one song with the extra time I will have before work.

Thinking positive, but also looking at the calendar and starting to worry a little.

RPM Day 19

Is it really February 19th? How the hell did that happen? It was Christmas just a couple of days ago, wasn’t it? I guess the older you get the faster the calendar moves, and those calendar pages seem to be flipping pretty quickly for me these days.

Anyway…

I mentioned yesterday that I wrapped up the last section of the last (14th) song and sketched out an arrangement. I also recorded the last of the rhythm guitar parts. I completed the first vocal yesterday morning while my wife was briefly out of the house and threw on some lead guitars and declared it my first sort of (I guess) finished song. I think I want to do the vocal again, and the leads are kinda lazy. Who knows.

This morning I managed to not oversleep, and not procrastinate through my morning routine. I ended up being ready to go to work 40 minutes early and that was enough time to write and record another vocal part. If I get a chance tonight I’ll add some leads and that will be two songs finished. My wife might have to work late tonight. If that happens (I really hope it doesn’t) I might try to sneak another vocal. I find that the only way I can ever come up with lyrics is to have the mic on in front of me and the clock ticking. That might explain why my lyrics suck so badly, but I don’t care. I consider anything I write to be temporary until some mythical future day comes when I am in a band with an actual real live lyricist who will replace the crappy place holders I write today.

I’ve got 12 more lyrics to write and vocals to record and I’ve only got nine days to do it. >gulp<

Still thinking positive (or trying to at least).

RPM Day 18

Happy Presidents Day, USA. There are 10 days left in the project. Time to buckle down.

Yesterday I took five of the remaining six projects and arranged them into song forms. This morning I had the house to myself for a few minutes and managed to add vocals to one of yesterday’s songs. It’s up on soundcloud.com, but I’m not going to post it again yet.

My goal for today is to add the leads to the song with the vocals and write one more section for the suite thingie I’ve been procrastinating on. If I can write some more lyrics I will do that too, but I usually draw a blank until the last possible moment.

Think Positive!