Podcast Ep. 2

Podcast Ep. 2!
Subscribe!

And google video is here:Google Video!
Now with audio version!
Subscribe (If you don't want video)!

We're gonna do a new one of these every month. This month is pretty exciting, but next month is going to be more exciting because I said so.
Just you wait.

Podcast

We started a video podcast.
Here is episode 1 that you can subscribe to with your feed subscribing program:
feeds.feedburner.com/BalloonsIsFunPodcast


Here is the direct iTunes link:




Here is the google video link:
Google Video video

We will make a new (always video) podcast whenever we have anything insteresting to talk aboot. We're not sticking to a strict format, so they'll be however long or short we feel like making them. The only thing that's a constant is that we are definitely doing a live performance of a song at the end of each one.
So look out for more in the future, maybe with some guests stars (2 feline hip-hop enthusiasts, maybe?).

Glasses

Every day when I get out of the shower and have to navigate back to my room relying mostly on secondary senses (smell, hearing, seeing dead people) I am reminded of how miserable my life would be without glasses.
Glasses were invented in either the 13th or the 18th century, depends on who you ask. Their original use was to pop popcorn on sunny days, but when a pair fell out of a tree on to Sir Isaac Newton's head, their true usefulness was discovered.
It remains a mystery to this day who planted those glasses there, and who even invented them in the first place. Was it Nostradamus? He seemed to do a lot of stuff a long time ago, so it's a possibility. Maybe DaVinci, or Thomas Edison. Eli Whitney, George Washington Carver and Einstein are also candidates, but we may never know who gave us this wonderful invention.
What we do know is that glasses are great and nobody can ever take them away from us, unless they knock them from our heads.

Don't ask me to donate to breast cancer

because I definitely will.

It seems that Vons is always taking donations for one type of cancer or another, and since they don't seem to have a sense of humor about it (apparently prostate cancer isn't funny? nobody told me) I have opted to solemnly donate, as if a family member or loved one might have it and I am desperate for a cure.

The truth is, I am guilted in to donating. What if my five dollars pushes the research over the edge and a cure is discovered tomorrow? Well, then I better donate because I could be saving millions of lives. Or the alternative is when they are delivering the money sacks to the cancer labs, my five dollars flies out the back of the truck, maybe picked up by some kid to buy lollipops and boogers. Either way, five bucks doesn't hurt me, and could help save untold strangers (with breasts), unless...
What if breast cancer is a jerk? Breast cancer is clinically proven to be the sneakiest of all cancers. Seriously, what do you know about breast cancer? For all I know breast cancer could have a drug problem, and this five dollars I'm donating could be indirectly funding a new Cuban terrorist patrol boat. Five bucks may not seem like a lot, but in Africa you can buy 60 slave children for that much. That's definitely something to think about.


Anyway, that is all out of my hands now. Breast cancer, you have my money, what are you going to do with it?

645 Spacetime

Nonsensical title aside, 645 Spacetime is probably the most serious, initimate song on the album. It starts off with me doing my best impression (it has fooled many) of a lady singing a reverby, angelic "aah." While that is fading out, the guitar, kick drum and cymbals fade in. The whole first verse and chorus and post-chorus are like this, until the second verse when everything kinda bursts in (including strings). Then during the last chorus everything fades out except for the lead vocals and the lead guitar, and following it's last strum are the oohs and aahs from Sleep, leading directly into that song.
I used a ton of reverb in this mix, but not really big expansive stuff, I just wanted it to feel like you were listening to it in a big, dark room. Once the full instrumentation is in, the vocals are drowned out, just barely peeking through. I don't know why I like it that way, but to me it makes it more ethereal and dreamy, because you can hear the vocals but you aren't exactly sure what's being said.
Overall I think it's a nice laid0back song before the noisier finale tracks.

For a Time

Today I mixed a few of the songs that I recorded with Moostache a couple of weeks ago.
In addition, I worked on For a Time. It starts out with a fade in of crickets chirping and night time sounds. I always imagined those in the song because to me the songs sounds like it was recorded at night. The songs is "lead" by the acoustic guitar, but the real attraction here is the bass. Chris took my idea and ran with it, making one of the bast bass lines on the whole album. It fits the song so perfectly it's like it was always there, or that I wrote the song around it.
It's a pretty straightforward arrangement, with various guitars and strings coming in for one verse only, something I don't do on any other song. My favorite are the double tracked electric guitars that come in the third verse, because they sound so unsure, like they might go away at any minute (one last fun fact: I broke my pick in the beginning of the acoustic track but kept playing. Listen close and you might hear it).
I also started 645 Spacetime, but I'll post about that tomorrow when I work on that as well as some Farewell to Ernest songs.

Doesn't Matter, What Could I Be, Instrumental, Asteroid

So, a few weeks ago I started mixing What Could I Be and Doesn't Matter, but I never got around to posting about them. They are both a great deal of fun to work with and listen to. Doesn't Matter is a pretty straight forward rock song. We have double tracked rhythm guitars, double tracked lead and intro guitars, double tracked vocals, a synth, bass, solo guitar, strings and drums. The big challenge here is that everything is double tracked and fighting each other for space (I usually do doubled tracking the old fashioned way and hard pan everything left and right). What Could I Be offered a more interesting challenge. During the choruses, the strings and flutes and clarinets kinda drown out the vocals. I had a tough time just EQing them and adjusting the volume, teetering back and forth between overpowering and buried in the mix. Kinda frustrating, but it was worth and is probably my favorite song so far.
The Instrumental (no name yet, I'm thinking about calling it "Goodbye Green World," but Nick has a name for it that I can't remember) is an interesting song. It is supposed to bridge the gap between the Rock-ier sounds of the first half of the album and the spacey sounds of the second half. It is basically just a reverb heavy wall of sounds. It doesn't last long; just long enough to get your mind into the place it needs to be for Asteroid.
Asteroid is in a way the centerpiece of the album. It's not single material, but it encompasses the second half of the album's themes of longing and waiting. It's also the longest song on the album at 5 minutes and 21 seconds. The song relies on lyrical imagery as well as musical imagery, painting a picture (hopefully) in the listeners head of the vastness of space. It is an intimidating task, because there are so many tracks and every single one of them (except for the double tracked stuff) is playing a completely different melody. The bass line on this song is ridiculously beautiful, and I'm pretty sure it could be a song just by itself. After a day of messing around extensively with panning and reverbs, things have begun to fall into place, but I don't think I'm gonna have this one done for awhile. Tomorrow I'll be working on primarily Moostache stuff, but I'm gonna start doing For a Time as well.