Once It Hits Your Lips Tour: Review and Thoughts

I decided to make it to this show since I had never been to Mohawk Place and it was a cheap ticket to see 5 bands. I don't remember all of the band names, but I know there was The Ready Set, The Bigger Lights, Anarbor (who are from Phoenix...?), and The Friday Night Boys.

Overall impression was positive. I felt a little old, seeing that the crowd was mostly younger girls, but I had a lot of fun, and going to shows is one of my favorite things to do anyway, regardless of the crowd makeup. The Mohawk is basically a bar with a small room in the back with a stage. I like those kind of hole-in-the-wall, ratty places because they have more character than squeaky clean joints.

Walking up to the door, I spotted the lead singer of TFNB walk in, and he was hanging out a lot close to where I was before he came on, which I liked. I noticed that all of the bands had pro gear. I saw an Orange amp, and I don't know too much about them, but I think they're pretty good. As for guitars, it was a night dominated by Fender and Gibson. The Les Paul and Telecaster ruled the night, with guest appearances by a white stratocaster, and red PRS.

Two things about most of the performances that stood out to me were the outstanding vocals and drumming. It strikes me that it is crucial in a band to have a great vocalist who can really shine live (with instrument or without-I prefer without personally). The Ready Set, The Bigger Lights, and Anarbor, had really well sung, clear, in tune, soulful vocals that absolutely made the performances. TFNB's vocals were a bit too quiet, which led to an amusing exchange between a girl and an older guy.

Guy: Turn up the vocals!! I can't hear!
Girl: SHUT UP!
Guy:...EAT MY ASSHOLE!

The drumming was flat-out amazing. The drummers were playing a lot of blastbeats, and lent energy, sonic presence, and vitality to the performances. I was also blown away by how well TFNB's guitarist performed the solo to "High School" so effortlessly and fluidly live.

It was an inspiring night for many reasons. On the one hand, it inspired me to branch out into pop-punk composition. On the other hand, it was great to see songs being performed live, because you actually get to see (really well) how and where the songs are being played on the guitar. Therefore, it gave some idea as to what positions the guitarists were using to craft their songs. The most important things I took away were the top three strings being used to arpeggiate a chord progression (with a static fret-hand position a lot of the time), or add sprinkles to some rhythm chord sequence.

I had fun at the show, got inspired and saw some great music, with a particular focus on drumming and vocals.

Next month is going to be hectic in terms of entertainment options. The Super Bowl and the Olympics are coming up soon. Since the weather is so bad I've all but decided to scrap the Cleveland show, and go to some great alternatives. I think first up is an early February Scary Kids Scaring Kids Final Show at the Mohawk, and then I think I'll go see Atreyu pretty soon after. Either way much fun will be had next month.

Update

So no review of Kills the Moment :( While I didn't make it to Xtreme Wheels that night, I finally saw Avatar in 3D. What an amazing movie. It was my first 3D movie. My eyes hurt a little initially, but after a while they got used to the visuals, and I had an absolute BLAST. I've seen a lot people (specifically on facebook) say that the plot was trite, and that except for the visuals, it's not a good movie. I think what ava-haters miss is that the movie is one of the best and most entertaining movies to come out in a while. I thought the plot fit the movie well, and I loved every (long) minute of it. It was just a great and more importantly fun experience. One of my favorite movies in a while.

Since I'm talking about movies, I saw a couple more recently, so I'll just give a short review of both. The day after Avatar, I saw The Book of Eli. To be honest, I wasn't too excited to see it, but it turned out to be decent, bordering on good. I remember hearing that the movie was written by Gary Whitta, who probably no one remembers was an editor and contributor to PC Gamer back in the day. Anyway, the movie is kind of slow because it shows Denzel Washington walking on empty desert roads a lot, and for long periods of time. I liked seeing Mila Kunis on the big screen (who wouldn't?) but she still comes across as the ditzy teenager she played on the 70s show. Gary Oldman played the bad guy really well (as he always does, though his last roles have been good guys-Sirius Black and Detective Gordon). There is a major twist at the end of the movie that doesn't really make sense in retrospect, but in the end I had a good time at this movie. The most fun parts of the movie were the really gory and violent fight scenes during which people in the theater shouted stuff like "oh shit!!" and "that was his arm!" in response to the bloodbath on screen. Lolz @ the audience participation.

Finally I saw Legion today, which wasn't a good movie. That's really the only thing I have to say, ha. Lots of promise with the material (angels, possessed humans) but in reality not a very good movie at all.

All right, on to other stuff. I've been on blog tv lately a lot. I just discovered this website, and it's pretty interesting and funny. I subscribed to a bunch of channels, and watch when I have free time. It's actually a great site for expanding your horizons, because I've been inspired to learn harmonica, and improve my guitar chord knowledge and acoustic song repertoire from watching people on blog tv. I actually prefer this site to other web 2.0 sites because it captures your attention (most of the time). I'm actually bored with facebook, but the weird thing is that I still compulsively check it daily. It's probably just a habit that I've developed over time, which is kind of scary because there is nothing really to look for on facebook. The status updates are mundane and trite, and people that post (interesting) pictures are few and far between. I mainly frequent youtube and blogtv on the interwebz now.

Music-wise, I've got a lot of things going on. I've got a bunch of electronic music song ideas on my pc and a lot of guitar riffs already written in 2010. I just need to develop these ideas into songs, and I hope to release this music in some capacity soon. So be on the look out for more music, show and movie reviews, and random thoughts.

So...

I don't know if anybody actually reads this blog anymore. Either way I'm using this as a writing outlet for myself, and if nobody reads it then I can live with that.

I'm looking forward to a great 2010, and some awesome shows this year. To start things off, I'm going to Xtreme Wheels this Friday January 15 to see Kills the Moment, a local screamo band that I found on myspace last year.

Next up, I'm considering going to see Flyleaf at the Town Ballroom February 12. The reason I'm not sure I'll go is because there is a show that I really want to go see in Cleveland the next day. It's Killswitch Engage, The Devil Wears Prada, and Dark Tranquillity playing at the House of Blues. If I can make it I'll go, if not then just the Cleveland show.

Then it's off to Xtreme Wheels on Feb. 17 to see Alesana, A Skylit Drive, and We Came As Romans. Another show at the same venue is Attack Attack and Asking Alexandria on April 4.

That's what my show calendar is shaping up to be so far. Of course I hope to go to Warped Tour this summer, and catch some great concerts in the (hopefully) warm weather.

I know a ghost

I figured I would write up a new blog post since the last time I did so was in May, and because I wanted to write about a great show I went to recently. Here is the entrance of one of my favorite bands, Christian metalcore group The Devil Wears Prada, performing on 11/24/09 at the Town Ballroom in downtown Buffalo, NY.



I will start off by talking about the openers for the show, Haste the Day and Story of the Year. I knew of Haste the Day from watching the music video for the song "Stitches" on YTV. They started off the show with and energetic and inspired performance. Thought I wasn't familiar with any of their songs, all of them sounded very good. The vocalist had a beautiful clean singing voice, as well as good screams. The bassist did backing harmony vocals which sounded great. The two guitarists performed their parts while headbanging admirably. The drummer played very well, even lifting up the hi-hat during one song, which was very cool and funny. Haste the Day were amazing.

Now on to Story of the Year. Very good performance. Their sound is more of a hardcore pop-punk fusion and the guitarists and lead singers moved and jumped around the stage accordingly. One of my favorite parts of their performance was when one of the guitarists did a back flip off of an amplifier and the band started a song right when he landed. Even though I didn't know their most popular song "Until The Day I Die" I caught on to the catchy melodic chorus easily enough (until the day I die...I'll spill my heart for yeouu). The buildup to the intro riff for this song was really cool, as the guitarists played riffs that had you thinking they were going to play something else, and then they go in to the memorable intro. I really enjoyed Story of the Year.

Then came one of the co-headliners of the Napalm and Noise Tour: All That Remains. The last time I saw ATR was in New Haven, CT at Toad's Place when the co-headlined with Trivium. Here is footage from the concert, performing the song "Six".


All That Remains played great. I was familiar with a good number of their songs, and the performances didn't disappoint. Oli Herbert, the lead guitarist, played some wonderful leads throughout their performance, and the lead singer had a nice speech appreciating the fans' financial support, which I liked. ATR ruled.

Last up were the band I came to see, The Devil Wears Prada. TDWP were the highlight of the evening. I finally got to see them live and they didn't disappoint in the slightest. The had a really wicked breakdown style intro that segued into Sassafras. In fact, they had really cool little intros that segued into songs throughout their set. I don't remember the setlist, but they played all of the songs that I wanted them to play: Hey John, HTML, Reptar. Their closing song was Danger:Wildman which was incredibly exciting and crazy. Everybody in the place went nuts went the song started and Mike sang the famous words: I know a ghost. I really enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada, had a great time at the entire concert and I look forward to seeing them in the future!

Here is a link to the user who posted some videos from the show.

http://www.youtube.com/user/irishdrunk211

A Night To Remember: Juraj Kojs Final Project

Here is my trance track, entitled "A Night To Remember", my final project for Professor Juraj's Introduction to Electronic Music course. Fittingly, I am posting this around midnight. This has been one of my favorite and most enjoyable classes at Yale, and both Professor Juraj Kojs and my TA, Matt Barnson, have been wonderful and informative instructors. This track is a culmination of the all the things I have learned this semester. And, I am glad to say, I am immensely proud of it.

Working on the musical projects in this course has improved my musical ear, and allowed me to immerse myself in the constructive process of creating electronic music tracks. I would like to describe my final project below.

"A Night To Remember" started out, as all my musical projects do, with a riff. I wrote the synth riff that begins a quarter of the way through the track at the 1:00 minute mark. Then I created, with the ultrabeat drum machine in Logic Pro software, the drum beat that starts off the track.

Next, I resorted to three resources: Rick Snoman's Dance Music Manual, trance tracks that I have listened to (especially Smith and Pledger's "Black", which I recently reviewed on this blog), and Professor Juraj's trance track "recipe" from his lecture slides on trance music and culture. Snoman's chapter on trance helped me develop the drum beat after the drops, my listening knowledge of trance guided my development and arrangement of my track, and the trance "recipe" provided me with stylistic cues like the cymbal hits throughout the track (most notably at the beginning and end), instrument choices and timbres, and developmental ideas such as the buildups to the drops.

I spent many hours moving and subtly changing melodies until a "body" for my track emerged. This process was one of the most difficult parts of the project. Speaking of difficulties, the two most difficult areas of my track were the following: the chord progression in my "trance strings" instrument (synth strings pad), and physically performing the synthesizer melody that comes in at the 2:25 minute mark of the track. I have no music theory knowledge, so I had to play around with the MIDI controller (keyboard) keys while the main riff was playing until I came up with a simple, but satisfying progression that comes in at the 0:33 minute mark. As for the synthesizer melody, I slowed down the tempo of the track and keyed in the notes, but as I have no keyboard playing experience at all, I really had to practice the melody to get the finger motions right. On top of making the physical motions required for the melody to sound smooth, the melody is played on the off beat, compounding the difficulty.

Next, I came up with the introductory bass line that starts in the key of the piece, B minor. My next intention was to work on the drops. I recorded snare rolls by lowering the tempo, and I played around with my instruments to produce as much energy, intensity, and exhilaration as I could for the drops. Since I wasn't able to produce a glissando (which was my original intention), I recorded pick slides from two guitars and added chorus and phaser effects to them. I then recorded a note with a motion sequence synthesizer and I had my drops ready.

As my track progresses, I make slight variation to the synthesizer melodies, add and subtract harmonies, and change up the bass line. The third drum beat was done to accentuate the focus on the percussion and you can recognize because it's the one with the syncopated kick drum when only the synthesizer is playing along.

Finally, I finished the musical elements for my track and proceeded to edit it, mix it, and master it. I adjusted the amplitude levels using the mixer and then fine tuned them with the volume automation tool. I spent a considerable amount of time making sure one instrument was not too soft or too overpowering, listening through different kinds of headphones (the nice ones in Stoeckel Hall and shitty iPod ones), as well as laptop speakers and a 2.1 sound system in my dorm room. I made changes to the track itself by re-recording some melodies to sound smoother, polishing up snare rolls, perfecting the drops, and changing up the drum beat. Then I mastered the track using a preset. Finally, I reached a sound I was satisfied with and completed "A Night to Remember".

I would like to include two screenshots of how the project looked like in Logic Pro software. The shot below shows the anatomy of the second drop.

This next shot shows the mixer and the associated amplitude levels of each track, as well as the effects placed on them.

I hope you have enjoyed listening to my final project, and my other assignments as well. It has been really fun writing and creating electronic music and I will definitely continue doing so in the future (I almost filled up my "www" pantheon space, which is a GB, with musical ideas, riffs, and licks in Logic that I didn't use for any project--some of those ideas I posted earlier in this blog, some of those ideas...well, wait and see!). I am very proud of all of the work I have done this semester in Music 295 (well, on second listen, the ringtones and the RadiaL loops...didn't turn out that well), and most importantly--my blog and my musical pursuits will continue! If you are a fellow Juraj Kojs disciple, I look forward to hearing your track. I saw a couple of people bring electric guitars into Stoeckel Hall, so (especially since I'm a guitar player myself) I'm excited to hear what other people came up with.

Track Review

For this blog post, I will be reviewing a track by Smith and Pledger called "Black".



The track begins with a straight-forward beat characterized by a bass drum, hi-hat, and snare. A four-to-the-floor bass drum pattern enters, and a bass line comes into the mix as well. A simple melody line then enters the fold and is repeated. A synthetic voice pad outlines a chord progression. A glissando then leads to almost all instruments dropping out, and a new but similar bass line emerges followed by a melody, snare roll and massive drop.

The drop is accentuated by percussion dropping out right before all instruments go back in, and a glissando becomes the focus of the listener. I thought this technique was very effective, and I hope to use it in my final project.

The second dropping out of instruments is followed by the introduction of percussion, and then a bass line, changing it up from before. The synthetic melodic line comes back in as well as the voice pads and another drop.

I am giving this track 5 out of 5 stars for the following reasons. First, all of the instrumental lines are compelling. This includes the beat, melody, bass line, and pads. These elements have a simple, yet very effective progressions, melodies or beats.

Second, the arrangement works very well. This is an eight minute track, and Smith and Pledger develop each theme in different ways, as described above. After the second drop, for example, they come back in with percussion instead of bass. A lot of this arrangement work is very subtle, yet it lends a lot of professionalism to the track, and engages the listener.

Third, the energy of the track is pumping. It starts off slow, crescendos, maintains energy, and slowly fades away. It is very "danceable", and the well constructed drops lend to the exhilarating quality of the track.

In my final project, which will be a trance track, I hope to replicate what makes this track work well, and incorporate it into my work.

Drum and Bass, Go

Here is the link for the fourth and final short assignment in Professor Juraj's electronic music course. I created this track in the drum and bass style with a fast tempo of 190bpm. I had fun with the ending. 



Happy Easter!