migrant_records

[FLRS Activity]

2009-02-02T15:54:45Z

Recent goings-on at Famous London Recording Studio:

On Thursday night Yon and I worked on what is shaping up to be the penultimate song on Matthew Lovelace's upcoming full length. At least for now. The song is called "Steel Guitar", and we hope to have a version posted to the Migrant Song of the Day soon. Just gotta get some vocals on it first.

Later Thursday night Kym and Eric of Plainclothes Tracy stopped by to hammer out some details for the recording of *their* upcoming full length. Plus, Eric had never seen the studio. Anyway, it was very productive...and I'm really stoked to begin working with them.

On Saturday, Yon and I reconvened to work on "Steel Guitar" for the entire afternoon, culminating in what is now informally referred to as Steel Guitar Day. Two basses, three guitars, kick drum, and some tambourine were all added to the track. Once we have a Steel Guitar Day II, the song'll be really cooking.

This week: more Hudson K? More Kym overdubs onto Matthew's tracks? Maybe some "Zombies!" work? Time will tell.

[Is There Something I Should Know?]

2009-01-28T19:38:16Z

Album Building

2009-01-28T19:28:30Z

So over Christmas break Matthew Lovelace got to come visit for almost a week, and in that time we got to work on his album. It'd been awhile, and while Fred and I had done some work on it on our own, we were starting to lose the feeling that we all knew what we were trying to do and where we wanted it to go.

What an awesome week that turned out to be.

Some of the demos he brought in were good enough to use as final tracks, and between the work we got in on those and the work we did on pre-existing tracks, we got together almost the entire album. It's not finished, and all these songs might not make it (I've got 12 "definites" on my iTunes right now, but there are at least that many waiting in the wings that we could work up pretty quickly), but now there's a shape. I can listen to all that we've worked on, and there's a flow from song to song.

This is probably my favorite part of making albums. The bones are almost all there. It's just about fleshing things out now. Adding parts (or whole songs, even), changing the order around, thinking about the tone and feel. It's turning out a little quieter and more low-key than I'd expected. I'm excited for people to hear it.

(Parenthetically, this is also my favorite part of making albums because I can hear past the mistakes. Anything that's not right is just an opportunity to make the song better. This is in stark contrast to the deflation of getting a CD back from the presses and listening for the first time. "Well, that's not right. And it's there. FOREVER." (Second parenthetical: this feeling goes away after a couple of months.))

Still, there's a feeling that maybe the whole form is going to disappear. Not music, obviously. But as the media for music pushes towards electronic only, and people more and more buy music by the song, making a whole album seems like an archaic idea.

But I don't care. I still love collecting songs into groups of 10-14 and trying to get them to add up to something greater than the sum.

[Title For Nonexistent Album]

2009-01-24T13:49:11Z

Hard Drives and Memory

[Recent Activity]

2009-01-23T15:07:52Z

Hello.

Recently recorded folks:

Tommy Bateman (December, solo recording with Yon)
Matthew Lovelace (week surrounding New Year's, for upcoming full length CD)
Hudson K (throughout January, for EP due April)
Kym Hawkins of Plainclothes Tracy (vocal dubs onto a few of Lovelace's tracks)
Rachel Schlafer-Parton (flute on Zombies! musical; cello on Lovelace track)

Whoot!!!

[Dubs!]

2009-01-23T14:58:35Z

Rachel S-P came by last night with her compadre and bandmate Christina Horn to dub some flute onto one of the Hudson K songs we're working on. Turned out great. A bass part was nixed. Banjo was given the green light, although it was suggested that we use a clawhammer banjo with nylon strings for an "older" sound (essentially, the sound of gut...ew). Rachel will provide that. It was a good idea. The song's coming together well. Oh, and Rachel's one hell of a flutist.

[The Sampler, Slick, Clermont, Rockwells, Lovelace, J.D., MPMF...]

2008-08-21T17:39:46Z

Whew. It's been seventeen weeks since our last journal entry, says the hand-dandy Live Journal welcome screen. When you put it like *that*...! I suppose I better get crackin' on filling you in on our progress over the last few months.

I'd like to think that the fact that we haven't written---we've been so damned busy---is actually a *good* thing. I'm a pretty good hype guy ("hypist"? "hypewriter"?), but I've kind of lost the desire to hype recently...I feel like we've been putting our money where our mouths are, so we haven't had the time or energy or desire to hype it all. I think the results of our labor will be hype enough. We'll see.

Most recently, we've been in contact with Team Clermont, arguably the finest independent music promoters in the entire country. I sent them a copy of the Rockwells' most recent CD, Place & Time. I wasn't expecting such a quick and enthusiastic response. Within 48 hours of sending them our music, they got back to us and strongly encouraged us to promote the CD through them. We've had some more email correspondence, and we have a conference call scheduled for this afternoon. It's all very exciting, and a little scary. After doing so much of this kind of promotion stuff on our own, it's thrilling to be working with someone who seems to give a damn, but it's also slightly freaky, as it could lead to a lot of great things...or it could all be a dead end and we'll be on our own yet again. Over all, very cool.

The upcoming Migrant Sampler is moving along at fever pitch now. The final sequence is finally taking shape, and songs are edging closer to being completely finished and ready for the mastering process. It's all a bit out of control at the moment, but it's sounding really good. Everyone's done such a good job on their tracks. We hope to have everything completely done next month, October at the latest, for an autumn release.

Actually, we hope to have the bulk (if not all) of the recording and mixing done on the Sampler by the time we go to the Midpoint Music Festival in Cincy toward the end of September. We're going for the entire fest, but we play Thursday, September 25th at 11 PM at the New Stage Collective. It'll be great to spend some time with Tommy and Trace's sister Tricia, and to see Cincy again. Last September was the first in four years that we didn't visit Cincinnati to play MPMF, as Sophie was born right around then. It's good to be back.

While there, we'll be pushing our little room, long ago dubbed the Famous London Recording Studio, for semi-public use. Tricia Bateman is very graciously designing FLRS business cards for us, and I'm working on designing a decent little site for our decent little room. We're planning on producing songs for people and arranging for them, with an emphasis on pre-production, use of demos, and eclectic sounds. We already have some sessions loosely booked for the fall/winter. Whoo!

We've almost completely finished mixing J.D. Reager's new CD. He plans on having it mastered by Memphis' own Kevin Cubbins next month. It's been a long haul, and this is our first album we've mixed entirely within our DAW gear...so it's a very special project to us. It feels really good to have it almost done.

After much weeping and gnashing of teeth, we've finally gotten hold of mixable masters for the Slick project. It's a long story, and not terribly interesting to anyone outside of me, Jonathan, and Slick (or so I'm told, anyway). But suffice it to say, the process took several tries, many man hours, and a FedEx package to Montreal. But the results are stellar, and entirely worth it. In fact, these new masters are probably higher fidelity than the originals. A Slick CD is indeed coming down the pike. And there will be a Slick track on the Migrant Sampler. :)

Otherwise, it's sort of the same ol': Matthew Lovelace is planning a visit soon to continue to work on his debut EP, and he continues to demo more songs on his new DAW rig in Athens for a follow-up full-length later on. We haven't had much of a chance to use the new Huston drums much, as we've been focusing on dubbing and mixing. We can't wait to get some more hours in on 'em.

I WILL be better about journal entries. I WILL be better about journal entries. I WILL be better about journal entries. I WILL be better about journal entries. I WILL be better about journal entries...

migrant_records @ 2008-04-22T13:51:00

2008-04-22T20:17:37Z

Okay, so the Big Day came. The Big Day, in this case, was the Day We Got the New Huston Drums Custom Recording Drum Kit at Famous London Recording Studio. That's a long title. It also happened to be last Saturday, or Passover. So we can just refer to it as "Passover" from here on out.

Anyway...on Passover, we got the kit. A crappy photo of the kit is below.

I was trying to be all artistic and get the *grain* of the wood and all...but instead I got a shot that focused inappropriately on Yon's groin. This was unintended.

Still, the basic *idea* comes across pretty clearly: the drums are gorgeous. They're not wrapped, simply sealed with tung oil. There are three toms: 12 inch, 14 inch, and 16 inch. They're relatively shallow and they sound MASSIVE. The 14 and 16 inch toms are floor tom-style, with spurs. The kick drum is 22 inches and is really, really focused. We'll probably take off the front head and put our Super Kick II batter head on it, but for now all four pieces have Fiberskyn heads (it's always good to keep and save heads, anyway, as they're expensive and can create a different sound when used, as with different sticks and cymbals).

We haven't yet had time to actually do any work with the new Famous London Studio kit. Dammit. But hopefully we'll find some time this weekend. With the two shows coming up this week (plus a couple of rehearsals), any studio time has come at a premium. I had to pop over at 8:30 this morning to wrap up a mix of "We Haven't Been to Tunisia" for today's Migrant Song of the Day. It is available, naturally, at www.migrantrecords.com.

The song is coming along really well, by the way. It's not "done", really, but it's very close. Once we get a few more Zombies! songs done, we'll be able to post them on the MySpace page and really start plugging the project. I think there's a lot there for people to grab onto: humor, action, suspense, weirdness, and fun. And good music, in my opinion. We just need to keep plugging away at it.

Justin was in town over the weekend. He was in town to visit rather than to work, so we didn't get any further with "Where You Gonna Go" quite yet. In fact, most people's April seems to be pretty wall-to-wall busy. Several of the guys we're working with are in school (one's getting a masters, another's getting a PhD!), so this time of year's just naturally going to be pretty bad for them. But come May...look out!

Another drum photo, you say? Well, you can just forget it, pal!

That's Huston, setting everything up with Yon. Yes, he's wearing gloves. He takes his work that seriously, and considering the quality of the drums, I can't say I blame him. It makes me feel guilty in advance for most assuredly nicking up the drums at several points in the future. Sigh. But for the moment, they're pristine. Yet, they're made to be hit hard. Something to think about. Zen, and all. Circle of Life, man.

Had a really good Rockwells rehearsal last night. We're gonna be good and ready for Thursday. Thunder Thieves rehearsal tonight. That's gonna make for a great Friday show. We're all pretty darned stoked. Live performance isn't necessarily where my head's at right now, but the other guys love it, and frankly, once I get there and get to *playing*, I have just as much of a blast as they do. Must promote those shows in MySpace.

In other Migrant news, Yon and I started mixing J.D. Reager's upcoming CD last week. It's still in the early stages, and we're kind of slow at it all, so who knows when it'll all get done. But J.D. is unsure as to how he wants to release it regardless...and he wants to try to get a friend of his to do the mastering (we're going to heartily recommend he use our friend Mark Yoshida). So there are a lot of variables in the air. Less pressure for us, which is good. The more time we have to put into the project, the better it will sound. And it's already sounding pretty cool. Work, work, work!

There's more, I'm sure, but I need to post this and get back to work.

[Thought of It In the Shower]

2008-04-07T18:29:29Z

Band Name: Refried Moses. Or maybe some sort of condiment for church picnics. Either one.

Blue-eyed soul is soul music made by white folks. What about Blues made by white folks? Green-eyed blues? Brown-eyed Susan? Hm.

Ordered a second hard drive and more memory for the Famous London Studio's recording compy last week. Got it and installed it this weekend. Album title: "Hard Drives and Memory". Ran it by Yon. He hates it. I pushed home the idea of the double meaning. He hated it even more.

There's no accounting for taste.

[If the White Album Had To Be Condensed...]

2008-03-28T15:31:06Z

I have this sheet of notebook paper, ripped out of a wire-bound notebook I used to take notes in back when I was taking masters classes at the University of Memphis. It's dated 25 March 2000.

There aren't really any notes on the paper. There are a few Rockwells songs listed on the page, with proposed section changes for them.

At the bottom, though, is the track listing for the White Album. And next to that is a track listing I concocted, assuming that the White Album needed to be condensed into a single record/tape/CD.

The track listing is as follows:

Side One:

Back In the USSR
Dear Prudence
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
I'm So Tired
Blackbird
I Will
Julia

Side Two:

Birthday
Everybody's Got Something To Hide (Except For Me And My Monkey)
Sexy Sadie
Helter Skelter
Long Long Long
Revolution I
Cry Baby Cry
Good Night

That's making the assumption that the vinyl could have fit sixteen songs. If not, then the two to cut would have been (according to me then) Long Long Long and Good Night. But with sixteen songs, that would mean:

Eight for John
Five for Paul
Two for George
One for Ringo

...which is a pretty accurate track assignment for a Beatles album of that time. And John really did have an amazing batch of songs coming out of his time recharging with the Maharishi...

Anyway. I wonder if others have put together their ideal "Single Album White Album". I'm a nerd. And obviously college classes never much kept my attention...

[Waves, BanPiracy, and Overreaction]

2008-03-27T14:58:16Z

An Open Letter To Waves Audio Ltd. and Its Sister Company BanPiracy

To Whom It May Concern:

First, I'd like to preface this letter by saying that at our studio, Famous London Recording Studio, we own all of our software (and hardware, for that matter) fully and legitimately.

I had never heard of BanPiracy.com before this week. That's when it came to my attention that my friends who own a studio in the area (the friends and studio shall both remain nameless) had been served notice that they were being sued by BanPiracy for owning audio software---plugins---made by Waves Audio Ltd. The catch was that the studio in question owned copies of the Waves plugins that weren't paid for. They were "cracked", or essentially obtained for free from a web site that offered "free" versions of audio software such a plugins.

Cracked software is illegal. So is much of the software bought from eBay and other online auction sites. So is copying a CD. So is making copies of protected MP3s.

Anyway, last fall a company called BanPiracy began conducting undercover "sting" operations at studios in major markets around the country: NYC, L.A., Nashville, etc. I suppose that by the Spring they'd made their way to secondary and tertiary markets...and eventually to our friends' little project studio (which, coincidentally, shut down operations anyway a few months back---studio ownership is hard). BanPiracy sent a young lady claiming to be in a band from New York who might want to record and mix their next record down south---specifically, at our friends' studio.

One of the studio owners met the young lady to give her a tour of the studio. What plugins do you use, the woman asked. Mostly we use our UAD-1 and its associated Universal Audio plugins, the owner answered (in other words, not Waves). We really prefer Waves plugins...do you use those, she asked. Well...we have some Waves that we picked up a long time ago, but we've never really used them, the owner replied. We really prefer to use our UA plugins, he added. Can I see your Waves plugins, she insisted.

So she saw them. Not long after, our friends got a letter from BanPiracy saying that they had been the subject of an undercover sting operation and that they were being sued for using Waves plugins that were unregistered. If the case were to go to court, our friends would owe BanPiracy (and by proxy, Waves) roughly $18,000 for the cost of the plugins, plus expenses and "damages". If our friends wished to settle in lieu of going to court, they could pay only twice the cost of the plugins plus expenses---roughly $8,000.

The kicker? Well, there are several:

The studio in question has never made a profit. That's why it shut down. In reality, it was always much more of a private studio than a public one. It had only been incorporated in order to make sure it was being compliant with state and federal laws involving taxes.
The studio never used the plugins in question. They had acquired the plugins long before the studio incorporated, and never used them since. They had almost forgotten they had them.
BanPiracy has a lofty goal of "copyright enforcement for the audio software industry". Well, BanPiracy has one sole client: Waves Audio Ltd. So much for enforcing for "the industry". BanPiracy is simply a strong-arm for Waves...and only Waves.
BanPiracy and Waves supposedly have "evidence" gathered from their sting. Is it video from a hidden camera? Audio? They won't cough it up unless the defendant heads to court. Otherwise all "evidence" is sealed.

To top it off, on BanPiracy.com, there's the following statement:

"BanPiracy focuses its investigations on those individuals and companies who make a profit using illegal audio software. While we do not condone the use of pirated software by anyone, we are committed to elimination of piracy in professional environments."

...which is hilarious, considering how small this studio was. While it was a good studio, it was obviously not making a profit using illegal audio software...or legally-bought hardware...or anything else, for that matter. My friends used privately-supplied seed money to built a little project studio for fun. That's all. No matter how much they wanted to make money off of their endeavors...they never did. BanPiracy didn't seem to do its homework in this regard.

Now, as much as all of this sucks, Waves has every right to form a company that can enforce its anti-piracy policy when it comes to their software. In fact, I think that's a great idea. Theft sucks. Waves has a long and storied history of success in the recording business due to the high quality of their software. They've been in the game longer than most...and they've made a tidy profit from it.

Unfortunately, a lot of other developers have come along and learned from Waves...and made plugins as good or better than Waves'. And for a lot cheaper, too, For all of Waves' past successes and quality of products, their products have become woefully bloated and overpriced. Allegedly, our friends' studio has Waves plugins from two bundles worth around $3500. Our studio just bought a *killer* plugin bundle from McDSP---its incredible "Classic Pack"---from Sweetwater for just over $400. Massey is making amazing plugins for $70-$90 apiece, not $500 per.

So maybe Waves is seeing the writing on the wall: other developers are making great software for cheap. This does not bode well for Waves.

But how does Waves fix the problem? Make better software for cheaper? Offer new lower-priced bundles? Consolidate its client base and work hard to add to it? Maybe they're doing this. But is that enough?

No. Waves starts going after studios who have pirated their software---even studios who have never made a penny off of it. Again, I think Waves has every right to do this. But how big of a stick should they use? In my opinion, the punishment should fit the crime, and circumstances should be taken into consideration. If BanPiracy busts a big, Ocean Way-sized facility, then sure, restitution should be made. And for the small potatoes studios?

Supervise the removal of all Waves software from all machines in the facility, OR
Collect payment for the registration of the software (studio's choice), AND
Charge a reasonable fine. None of this "damages" and "expenses" and the like.

Charging small rooms who have made no money off pirated software four times the cost of these plugins *plus* extra costs for "damages" is over the top, insulting, and bad publicity for Waves. I know that I had been interested in a few Waves plugins---RenVox and MaxxBass specifically, after having seen Shane Wilson use them on his AudioInstruction DVD---and was seriously considering being a Waves customer.

No more. I will never buy a Waves plugin. Which is a shame, as they really do make some nice software. But I can get plugs that are just as good or better for a *lot* cheaper elsewhere. In fact, I have. Most of us out there really are honest about our studios and about paying for our gear. Waves is shooting itself in the foot and costing itself a lot of customers by taking a disproportionate response to an admittedly valid problem. In the long run, will this all be worth it? Maybe. Waves obviously knows its business a lot better than I do. But I know one thing: Waves will never get *my* business---and I know a lot of other people feel the exact same way.

[Photo Missing, Link Invalid, Meh]

2008-03-17T17:25:32Z

Okay. So. Back from the ATL. It was a nice trip, but we narrowly avoided a tornado and I got very little accomplished in the way of Migrant. So now I feel a bit like I'm playing catch up.

But first, some updates from our very own recording space, Famous London Studio: The rhythm section work for the Latchkey Kids' fourth song---"Going to Rome"---to be recorded with us finally commenced last Thursday night. After much weeping and gnashing of teeth, the drum part got put down. Yon put a lit of vim and vigor into it, pushing himself quite hard to get it all done...but he performed admirably and the resulting part---while having to be comped in the next day or two---is really fantastic. It'll be a dream to 'dub onto, which hopefully we'll begin doing in the next day or so. I took some pics of Yon playing, which I don't have with me...I'll post them ASAP.

Also, the Huston Wheeler Custom Famous London Studio Recording Drum Kit is well on the way to being finished. We'll post photos as the work nears completion. It'll be another two weeks before they're ready to play, as the finishing process (tung oil) takes some time to permanently cure. They're gonna look bitchin', though, and more importantly, they're going to *sound* terrific: modern and punchy, nice and loud and clean. And depending on what heads we put on them, along with how they're tuned, what cymbals we use, and how they're *played*, they'll be quite versatile...a chameleon kit, almost. And, of course, we still have the ol' '67 Ludwig and the 70s fiberglass copper-plated monster-sized Fibes for two totally different sounds, if necessary. Oh, and the Sunlite, naturally. But for now, we'll definitely have a very, very well-made, easily-tunable, great-sounding kit that we can play and record very well. We can't wait.

Okay, back to licensing. I've already heard back from a few music synch places in NYC and London. One of them welcomed MP3s, which makes sense: it's quick and easy for someone to receive and listen to songs in digital form sans CDs. I had already considered trying to buy half a dozen really cheap thumb drives and put songs on them, sending those out in lieu of CDs...but sending them VIA email would be cheaper, easier, and faster. Those are adjectives I like. Words I love. Peppy and cheap.

(I hold on to my archaic love of CDs regardless...I love CDs. I'm still sad to see them become more and more of a novelty item.)

So anyway, we've already got a handful of licensing folks to send tunes to, VIA CDs or MP3s. As I'm someone who is both not subtle and not so good at stepping back, taking time, and taking a calculated approach (instead preferring quick and decisive action), it's been hard for me not to sling CDs and MP3s all over the place. But I'm trying. I want to make sure that we're showing the best side of ourselves we can, and that these people will want to work with us.

Still waiting to hear back from Melanie's cousin, a musician in Richmond, VA who runs his own studio and writes music for a lot of ad campaigns...and I mean a lot: Altel, Quiznos, Geico, Seiko, etc. We'd spoken once, a few months back, but now I actually have some things to discuss with him, so I'm excited to get him on the phone. Any time now...

Our music lawyer friend in Nashville *did* get back to us, and asked that I call him whenever I get a chance. Again, I don't want to go running pants-less in the streets calling him on my mobile phone before I even know what I want to ask him or talk about. I'm working up some notes and questions to have ready when I call. I hope to get that done this afternoon.

Must contact Bunim/Murray, who licensed Tear It Down a few years back. I'm not sure how long that licensing lasted, and I want to try to contact the "in" we had there. It's a good contact. I need to write them a letter.

Lots to do. Still prepping for Matthew's next Latchkey Kids date, working up the Sampler, and trying to nail people down for some dubs in the next week or ten days. Whew!

---F.

[Epiphany]

2008-03-13T19:14:36Z

Licensing. We have all this music, all this professionally-recorded (mostly), professionally-mixed (mostly) professionally-mastered (entirely) body of music...and it's just sitting here! Tons and tons of it! Holy crap!

Just brainstorming, here's what we should get together and send to some people (I'm already in email cahoots with some licensing folks in NYC and London):

Off of Place & Time:

Tess
She's Already Gone
The Quarterback
Seventeen Days
She's Already Gone
Hole In the Wall?

Off of Tear It Down:

The whole thing except maybe "Theme". It's only six damned songs. The whole CD has been licensed before, to Bunim-Murray (MTV's Road Rules and Real World---ech).

Off of Little Symphonies:

What Have You Done For Me Lately?
Lost My Muse

Off of star*smile*strong:

New GIrl Fantasy
Poor Memory
Too Much Time On My Hands
Meg's Song?

Off of Return of the Rockwells:

What's Wrong

That's roughly, what, 16 songs? Holy crap. And the stuff we're recording this year: Zombies!, Thunder Thieves, Bain, Yon's solo stuff, Dirty C, Latchkey Kids...*all* of that will be prime for use in other media.

Absolutely. Fucking A. We just have to get one song used. One song. On something decent, bringing in some income, and a foot in the door for future release to be licensed. It's a shot in the dark, but it's absolutely worth a try. I'll prep before the trip to Atlanta and during...and when I get back, the mailings begin.

Any success here could insure much more for us in the future. Could. Might. Gotta try.

[No Sax Before a Fight]

2008-03-13T16:44:43Z

So we claimed the first half of last weekend Specters Saturday. "Specters" is the third Latchkey Kids song we have the "skeleton" worked out for. When Matthew was here three weeks ago, he put on a really nice guitar part and a very, very rough scratch vocal. Onto that we put some auxiliary strings, some backwards rock guitar chords (one note at a time), and hi hat (some backwards and some delayed). I think we're both happy with both how and where it's going...but we haven't yet heard back from Matthew, and it's really his final word. So we're just sort of sitting on it, waiting in anticipation, to see what he says/thinks. Yon says it's not yet ready to post as the Song of the Day, as he doesn't want to spotlight Matt's very, very scratch vocal. I think that even Matt's scratches are better than a lot of finished, "final" vocals. But that's just me.

Oh! The day before Specters Saturday was out First Friday show at Disc Exchange. It went very well. The rain and snow held off long enough for us to do our thing. As usual, there was the typical scrambling around, gathering equipment, slogging it around, realizing we'd forgotten something, and so on and so forth. But sure enough, by 7 PM (or closely thereabout) we were ready to play. The store was really hoppin', there was free pizza, and I think a good time was had by all. There were children there, including my daughter Sophia. It was her first live music performance, and her first time to see us play. It wasn't the first time she'd heard me sing, however, as quite regularly she hears me sing to her about poop. These poop songs are unaccompanied. So Friday night she got the full treatment, instruments and all.

The week leading up to the show, Benny Smith had recorded some promos for his radio station---the fine, fine WUTK---promoting the show. Benny has always been supportive of the Rockwells and all related goings-on...he even put a new Rockwells song into rotation: "Microkorg", the closer from the new CD. I told him, "We'd prefer to add Microkorg to the rotation, but it's over six and a half minutes long..." and he quickly responded, "Fred, this is college radio...six and a half minutes is nothin'!"...which was much appreciated. Anyway, the promos must have done a lot of good, as there were a ton of people at Disc Exchange throughout the evening.

Before I forget: Justin's excellent sax overdubs for "Red and Gray" (from the Brown EP remix sessions) can be heard here. I know it's supposedly goofy to put links in the word "here", but to hell with it. Here. Here. Here.

Also: the Passport Again's song for the Sampler, "This Charging Beast", was Song of the Day earlier this week. It's not the final mix, but it's close, and I think it sounds pretty nice. A little more work should do it. Could it be officially the first song ready for the Sampler? ("The Quarterback", a Rockwells song long finished, doesn't count.)

Last night Yon and I worked on the drum track for the fourth Latchkey Kids song, "Rome". It proved more difficult than originally anticipated. We kept playing around with the drum part, ratcheting up the tempo...when we left it last night, the drum part was largely the same is it had originally been, but the tempo was about 20 points faster than that of the original demo. I think that'll be kosher with Matthew. We hope to get the final part done tonight. I think it's the right way to go, and that it'll dub well. Time will tell.

Finally, I had an interesting time with Imogen Heap yesterday. No, not her specifically...but I had borrowed her most recent CD, Speak For Yourself, from Val recently, and yesterday I decided to give it a really close listen. So I did. I also went to her website, which is actually very content heavy, which I love. I read an article about how she kept a blog while making this CD (which took about a year, and which Heap funded, recorded, mixed, and produced all by herself), and I began to read many of her entries from that time, three and a half years ago. Heap is an intoxicating blogger, and her songs are really , really well produced and beautifully sung. While I wouldn't consider myself a rabid fan, I'm definitely somewhat immersed in her methods right now: remortgaging her apartment, spending a year with no job, just recording daily, plugging away at her album, making sure not to let anything be "good enough". I became simultaneously invigorated by her story...and jealous of her musical freedom. Many musicians, myself foremost, have a lot to learn from her as to how to "make it".

Enough for now. Big weekend in the ATL coming up!

---Fred

[Art, Justin, New Bain Song, J.D. Mixing, Slick, the Sampler]

2008-03-07T16:09:09Z

So the last week has been relatively eventful, which is to be expected given the the nature of the several weeks preceeding it. Nothing flashy, but constructive just the same.

Last Thursday I met with Jessica Ray, artist extrordinaire, at Trio on Market Square. She had a few drawings ready: one of the Han Shot First t shirt design, and one of Peter Chimpanzee, one of the main characters (if not *the* main character) from the Zombies! musical. They both look outstanding. It prompted me to start a Zombies! MySpace page, which is relatively sparse as of now...but we'll slowly add content, in tendem with the constuction of a proper web page, which will promote Zombies! in a very vague, viral kind of way. Hopefully it will pique interest.

Jessica didn't include a sky for Peter's drawing, as she wasn't sure what it should be like. Her boyfriend Andy said that he could fly in photograph of real sky behind Peter, which could look really cool, especially if it could be color treated beforehand to be purple or orange or something. Also, Andy is a professional web designer (primarily for the government, apparently, so he has some serious chops), and we're setting up a meeting with him...sometime. I'm excited to get someone involved with Migrant who actually has some web skills *and* the ability to work with others in a relatively demanding application. We've yet to find that particular balance as with most of the web folks we've worked with over the years. Maybe this will be different.

Late Thursday night our friend Justin Jordan rolled into town to spend the weekend with us. He actually stayed with Val and Yon, who were consumate hosts, as usual. Friday Justin came and hung out downtown while Yon and I worked, and we got to grab lunch at Tomato Head and talk shop. Justin seems rather ambivalent about the closing of his studio in Memphis. The space, while nice, had a lot of cons attached to it, and the tornado was just the final straw. I was hoping that he'd still want to produce people on a case-by-case basis, but he seemed fairly disinterested in production as well, citing his short attention span and lack of time/drive to finish his own music, let alone other people's.

I see where Justin's coming from, and you certainly can't *force* someone to be motivated, but I feel that he has both the right personality and the right musical range to be a really, really good producer for other people's music. He's not forceful, but he has enough ego to insist on getting what he wants. But he'll compromise as well. And he has a lot of good ideas in his magic golf bag of tricks. But that just doesn't seem to be the place he's in right now. Dammit.

Jeremy Bain sent me and Yon his latest demo, and it's beautiful. I hope that he keeps putting these demos to tape, as pretty soon he'll have enough for an entire full-length CD worth of stuff. Including the new one, plus the song that he's played for us but yet to demo, that makes four tracks in all that he definitely wants to put down in an expanded form, and Yon and I would be more than happy to oblige him in that arena. I'm not sure, still, what song of his will end up on the Migrant Music Sampler, but whatever it is, it'll be really, really good.

Speaking of which, the Sampler continues to settle in. Some songs that have been decided:

The Passport Again --- "This Charging Beast" [Remix]
J.D. Reager & the Cold Blooded Three --- "Ballad of Max & Grace" [Migrant Mix]
The Rockwells --- "The Quarterback" [From the new CD]

Several of the other acts have songs that are "front-runners" (to borrow a political term---I'm topical), and slowly but surely the whole thing will fall into place. We seem to actually have too *much* material, which is really good problem to have. J.D. should be sending us a DVD with the WAV files for "Ballad" for us to start mixing. Yon played french horn on it, and I played bass. So we're already pretty familiar with the song. I'm excited to see what we can do. J.D. will be heading to SXSW with Justin and Two Way Radio---along with four other Makeshift bands---for a Makeshift showcase there. I am both excited for them and envious.

The Slick track for the Sampler is wide open. We had a major breakthrough with the material last night, which involves trying to remove an annoying noise from each of the tracks that was mistakenly put there when the songs were transferred from analog tape to the digital realm. The only problem with removing the noise is that it also removes a certain amount of bandwidth from the music itself, making the songs sound muffled and "far away" sounding from the removal of some high frequencies. But Yon and I just got the McDSP ClassicPack, which includes FilterBank. It works wonders. We were taking out the frequencies with the noise then putting them back in, boosting them without the original noise. Amazing, wonderful results. You practically can't tell that anything was done to the songs to "fix" them...and after mastering, you'll never be able to tell. We're really excited.

Okay, that's enough for now. Next time: how the Rockwells' Disc Exchange In-Store performance went, promoting it through Benny Smith at WUTK, the status of the WUTK compilation, more mixing news, and adding saxamaphones to the Brown EP. Whoo!

[Recording Updates, Dirty C, Latchkey Kids, Bain, Justin, Etc]

2008-02-28T16:10:35Z

So! Last weekend was quite productive. Matthew Lovelace of the Latchkey Kids came up from Athens, GA to listen to what Yon and I have done. He said he really liked what we'd done with the first few LK songs over the last month. So we know we're moving in the right direction there, which is good. While in Knoxville, Matt laid down vocals and his guitar on "Monkey & T-Rex", as well as a scratch vocal and real acoustic part on "Specters", the third Latchkey song started in these 2008 sessions. It was pretty much just Yon producing Matthew on this session (I engineered and grabbed everyone some food and other wise just hung around---there's not really enough room for all three of us in our tiny studio). In the meantime, Yon and I will begin playing with "Specters", as well as substituting real parts on the first two songs ("Pushing Me to Lose" and "Monkey") for their original scratch parts, getting them even closer to finished.

Sunday evening Aaron Sayers of the Dirty C (and of Knoxville's May Gray) came in to 'dub some killer blues guitar on one of his tunes, "Girl You Should Know (By Now)". The title of that song might change, but the tune will stay the same. It's sounding really good. I can't wait until it's considered "done" so we can start on a from-scratch, final mix.

Last Thursday night we got a grocery sack full of Jeremy Bain's demo cassettes, and we quickly found out that the four track recordings *would* play properly on our Tascam 488 eight track. I found seven or eight songs over the course of several tapes...all of which are really good! I made a CD of the quick 'n' dirty mix downs for us all to listen to. We'll see what Jeremy wants to do with it all. The song he intended for the Sampler wasn't on the tapes...but that just means there are more songs where these came from...!

Memphis' own Justin Jordan of Original Cyndi (as well as of the great but lamentably late Unclaimed Recordings, with partners J.D. Reager and Makeshift Music) will be coming up today or tomorrow for a long overdue visit. Whether or not he's coming up to work is still uncertain. Either way, it'll be really good to see him. He's getting ready to begin compiling the final mixes on his debut CD, which has been several years in the making. It will be very, very good. I desperately hope that it gets the attention it deserves. I'm really proud of the work we did on it, but mostly just proud of Justin.

On the Zombies! front, I'm scheduled to meet with Jessica Ray this afternoon to see some art she's been working on for the project. She claims to have a rendition of Peter Chimpanzee. This would be a fun boost to the project, as Peter Chimpanzee is pretty much the star of it...or at least the Jesus of it. To see his furry face and head poking up through the top of his miniaturized spacesuit would be a treat indeed. This meeting has been postponed several times due to sickness and scheduling conflicts, so I'm pretty stoked about getting back on the art bandwagon. She does such good work. She might end up working on the CD art for the Migrant Music Sampler, if the stars all align correctly.

Also Zombies!-related (as well as sickness-related), our friend Jamie Cunningham was scheduled to dub a little oboe line I arranged for "Jacob Don't Cry" yesterday...but the flu/cold/aches/pains/crud prevented it. I can't wait to reschedule it, as she'll do a really good job and it will really augment the song. More fun for another day!

Let's see, what else? What am I forgetting? Christina Horn of Knoxville's Hudson K posted a really sweet comment on the Rockwells' MySpace page:

"HOLY JEEBUS! Your CD is mind-blowingly good. Everything from the packaging to the song-writing to the playing to the production. I would totally hire you guys to do a recording if I ever needed one...besides that FREAKING CONGRADULATIONS on a job well done!"

Which was really cool to hear, as she performed on a few songs on Place & Time as well as let us record on her beautiful grand piano at her house. I was unforgivably tardy in getting her a few copies of the finished CD (with the final three songs and gorgeous Samantha Farmer art), but I finally mailed them to her last week. She got them and was kind enough to comment on the album. It really made our day yesterday.

Huston Wheeler has gotten most of the parts for our soon-to-be Studio Custom Drum Kit. He could start on it as soon as this weekend, next week at the latest. It's going to look like a dream, but more importantly, it's going to sound like a zillion dollars. We can't wait.

The Rockwells play an In-Store at Disc Exchange next Friday, March 7th. It's part of their new First Friday celebration. Should be fun.

We got word from Benny Smith at WUTK The Rock that the compilation we contributed a track to is well on its way to replication. Maybe there will be a March release? Spring's always good. I think it's going to make a lot of noise. Woo hoo!

I'm sure I've missed something, but that's all I got for now. More soon!

---Fred

[Updates, Goings-On]

2008-02-21T20:55:09Z

Too busy workin' when I shoulda been writin'!

Okay. In the last several months: baby born, holidays, and release of the Rockwells' Place & Time. Not an excuse, but definitely a reason for being mum.

In the meantime, we put 'dubs on the new Original Cyndi and J.D. Reager & the Cold Blooded Three CDs. That was some work that was really, really fun. All the while we broke ground on Zombies! A Rock Musical. The fruits of those labors so far can be heard at www.migrantrecords.com.

And NOW? The Migrant Music Sampler has begun. Artists include:

The Rockwells
Tommy Bateman and the Thunder Thieves
Slick
Jeremy Bain
The Dirty C
Original Cyndi
J.D. & the Cold Blooded Three
Latchkey Kids
The Passport Again
Sal Si Puedes

Plus a selection from Zombies!, solo tracks from Tommy Bateman, Trace Bateman, and Jonathan Kelly, and some other assorted odds 'n' ends.

The CD will showcase music recorded and/or mixed by the Migrant crew (specifically, in this case, me or Jonathan). We're pretty stoked about it. We're looking for a fall release date. We have a lot of work to do until then.

In the meantime, we're working on:

1. Finishing the first "act" (half/CD) of Zombies!
2. Finishing the Latchkey Kids' full length debut, due Winter 2009
3. Overdubbing onto the first three tracks from the Dirty C EP, and then recording at least three more
4. Putting down a killer Jeremy Bain track
5. Slowly but surely tracking and dubbing songs for an upcoming Tommy Bateman and the Thunder Thieves debut CD
6. Remixing Slick, some old Rockwells (the Brown EP), The Passport Again, and the Sal Si Puedes track for the Sampler.

It's an exciting, exhilarating, exhausting time. I hope to update much more frequently now. Matt Lovelace of the Latchkey Kids is coming up from Athens to record this weekend, and Justin Jordan of Original Cyndi is coming up the following weekend. J.D. Reager is sending us one of his new tracks to mix, post haste. Onward!

---Fred

migrant_records @ 2007-06-25T15:25:00

2007-06-25T20:56:53Z

Okay, so I've been very lax in my entries. We've spent the last two months wrapping up the new Rockwells CD. The last song is being mixed today. Look for a CD release show in August!!

Here's what's happened in the meantime:

Jonathan has started mixing the Slick CD. Slick is a band that our good friend Jeremy Bain was in a few years back. They put on some crazybigassshows while they lasted in Knoxville...then BJ moved to NYC and they called it a day...

...but not before they recorded 11 tracks or so. And now Yon is retooling them and mixin' 'em up rill good. It will be a Migrant release.

Yon and I just finished overbubbing onto the Original Cyndi masters. Some of our original 'dubs were lost. Long story. The Original Cyndi CD will be a joint release between Migrant and Memphis label Makeshift Music this fall.

The Rockwells are playing a Judybats song for the upcoming WUTK benefit CD. We'll record in July. Look for it this fall.

Tommy Bateman and the Thunder Thieves start recording their (our) debut CD in the next few weeks. It's been a long time coming, and it'll probably be a spring release.

Jonathan is playing his second solo acoustic show tomorrow night. Come see some good singing and ukulele playin'!

We'll start mixing the Brown E.P. for re-release with Tear It Down sometime in the winter/spring 2008.

Did I mention that we're continuing to work on Zombies! A Rock Musical as well as Yon's first solo acoustic CD?

Whew. Keep a look out! More later.

migrant_records @ 2007-05-04T10:41:00

2007-05-04T14:47:01Z

Is it possible to be thoroughly sickened by something while also being utterly dependent upon it?

We use MySpace to try to get more people to the site. I think it works. We post a MySpace bulletin every time we post a new Song of the Day. People then visit the site. The theory is, the more people we get to be MySpace friends, the more people will visit the site.

The only problem with that is that a small percentage of people who are on MySpace are *actually people*. Not porn bots, not bands, not abandoned accounts...actual people who use their accounts. And some of *those* real people don't take requests from bands or labels anyway!

PLUS...often when we add bands or musicians, we get MySpace messages from them. Many are form letters, but some are obviously handwritten (or at least addressed to "everyone at Migrant" rather than "Greetings, Migrant_Records!"), and they're touched that a "label" added them as a friend because they need that attention and validation and possibility of success...JUST LIKE WE DO.

Sigh...I hate perpetuating any bad feelings. Yet our primary way to get people to the site at the moment is through MySpace, and through adding more friends. Gr.

migrant_records @ 2007-05-02T09:08:00

2007-05-02T13:11:57Z

Why I Love CDs
by Fred Kelly

They’re shiny. Mammals seem to like shiny things…a lot. I am no exception. I like how CDs reflect light, how I can see myself in it, how I can make pretty marks on the wall if I aim a reflected sun ray correctly.
They’re durable. I got my first real CD when I was fifteen. It was the Beatles’ Abbey Road. That was seventeen years ago. I still have it; it still plays. It’s been through the ringer, too, but I’ve done the best I can to take care of it, and it’s still good to go. It sounds as good today as it did seventeen years ago.
They can be resold. Every so often I’ll go through my collection and ask myself “How did I get some of these? Is this Ace of Base CD even mine? I haven’t listened to several of these in years, if ever!” That’s when I go down to the local music shop and sell whatever I no longer listen to. Then I can buy more CDs. You can’t sell your MP3s back!
They have artwork. There have been some great album covers over the years, and in the two decades since CDs first became available, designers have learned how to lay out CD artwork better all the time. I love the liner notes, the lyrics, and the essays that are included in a lot of CD packaging. I love the photos that come in a lot of CD inserts…if you’ve ever looked through some U2 or REM CDs, you know what I mean.
They can be organized. I’m a “separate them by genre then alphabetize them” kind of guy. I always know where they are, or if something’s missing. This might appeal to only the most anal of us, but it’s still a pro for CDs.
They can always produce MP3s. If I have an iPod and it gets stolen, and all I had were MP3s in the first place, where do I get new ones? Having the CD as a “master copy” is fantastic. Even if you’re not into all the jewel cases and artwork, you can archive all your CDs in a nylon zippered binder and forget them…until you need to make more MP3s. One thing I’ve learned in years of recording: it’s always best to have the original.
They weren’t stolen from someone else by me. It’s nice to have something that’s actually mine that I did not steal. I love getting CDs on sale, on clearance, or just at the cheapest price possible. But I always buy them. Because then it’s mine, I own it, and no one’s getting ripped off.

[Brown EP, Flash, Store, etc]

2007-04-02T19:32:02Z

Whew!

Just when I thought I had made it through last week (which wasn't bad, but definitely busy), the week just kept pushing right into the weekend. Saturday was spent hitting some nurseries with Lizzie and getting the front yard back into shape. That's going well. I gotta get a better mower, though, as the current push-rotary type just isn't...um...cutting it. And then we gotta start cleaning the beer cans and drugs out of the back yard. Our house's previous tenants weren't so neat. It'll be a big job...later.

Then Sunday I worked on more Flash-Learnin's. The program is very powerful and a good bit more complicated than originally anticipated. Not a problem. It'll just take more time. Whenever I can get some more of that.

Sunday afternoon/early evening, however, was spent with Yon transferring the Brown EP masters from our old 8-track into Pro Tools. And that---and I say this with all sincerity---was an absolute blast.

The CD before the Brown EP (I'm talking about Rockwells CDs, for those keeping score) was called Little Symphonies for Kids. It was a full length, and it was kind of a hybrid of the multi-track layerings of what we had been playing with as a duo and the more straightforward rock that we had played with as a band. About half the songs were recorded by just me and Yon (a few were recorded by Yon only), and the other half of the tracks were recorded by all four of us. By the time we got to the EP Tear It Down, we were fully a four-piece, and we were very comfortable with that. We recorded Tear It Down with Don Coffey of Superdrag, and it was an amazing experience with very favorable results.

The CD in-between Symphonies and Tear It Down didn't really have a title...inadvertently. We just never gave it one. It's brown and it says "The Rockwells" on it. Hence, the nickname Brown EP. No connection with the White Album or Black Album or anything else is implied. It was just laziness on our part.

Anyway, the Brown EP kind of got the short end of the stick. It wasn't as layered as Symphonies, and it wasn't a studio recording like Tear It Down...in fact, the Brown EP was never released as a true CD; it was a limited run CD-R. Yet the songs and performances are good, and the cover was made at Knoxville's own Yee Haw Industries (VIA letterpress). It was really cool. It got us a lot more shows, especially downtown. But that's about all we did with it. Which I think is a shame.

It also got the raw end of the deal in terms of how it was recorded. It was our first Rockwells project to be recorded as quickly as possible...not just setting deadlines for ourselves, which we always do, but actually recording it on the fly, on the cheap, ASAP. We used the same 8 track machine we had always used, but with less ornamentation than before. We were making more of a Rock CD. And as such, it suffers from the way it was made. By Tear It Down, we were using hard drive recording, and all projects since then have been on our own Pro Tools rig. So the Brown EP is kind of like a bastard CD, unfortunately.

We had mixed Little Symphonies with Mark Yoshida in Memphis. Mark is an amazing technician, and he had hooked up our little 8 track to his mammoth mixing board and plethora of outboard gear. He used just about every orifice the machine has, and was able to manipulate every track to his liking through his "big board". He made us a great mix for Symphonies.

So I thought, why not use Mark's method of using ever possible output on the 8 track (insert your own dirty joke here) to "dump" all the tracks from the Brown EP sessions into Pro Tools, where we would have much more control over every track on every song? We could then remix it, then have it and Teat It Down remastered, and re-release both on one CD as a Rockwells Double EP. Sweet!

That's what we did Sunday for about 3 hours. It went swimmingly. Everything sounds terrific, and after some time spent tweaking and remixing, I think it'll sit quite nicely next to its companion EP, Tear It Down. After the new Rockwells full length, the Double EP will be top priority. I can't wait. I think people will really enjoy it.

This is the same method we'll use to remix the very first Rockwells recording, Raise the Radio, which was originally mixed onto---seriously---cassette tape. It's all we had at the time. I also want to transfer the henrys' Say Hello and Pop into Pro Tools and give them a shake-up. And, with their permission, I'd like to do the same thing with The Passport Again's Hold On To the Memory.

In *addition*, I've been researching online merchant solutions for migrantrecords.com. I've settled on ProStores, which I believe exists in conjunction with eBay. There's a free monthly trial. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, and Yon sent me a link to YouTube so I could watch part of PBS' Classic Albums...this clip starring Steely Dan in reference to their track off of Aja, "Peg". I don't always love the jazzier aspects of Dan, nor do I always like the soft rock aspects of it. But I love the sounds themselves, and the songs, overall. Their engineering is amazing. Wow.

[The Two Sides of Being Behind the Times on the Internets]

2007-03-28T17:38:07Z

The bad news is, I'm having to learn all this web stuff at once and the learning curve is very steep. I'm going to have to figure a lot of things out by making plenty of mistakes. And that's just sad.

The good news is, by now most people have computers that can actually *deal* with many colors, high-quality graphics, and Flash animations. Five years ago, there were still plenty of people who couldn't even *see* some of the most "bleeding edge" sites.

The glass is half full the glass is half full the glass is half full the glass is half full the glass is half full the glass is half full the glass is half full the glass is half full the glass is half full the glass is half full the glass is half full the glass is half full.

[A Baggie Containing 10-12 Mid-Sized Rocks of Crack Cocaine]

2007-03-26T17:46:45Z

I now see the allure of cocaine. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

If I had the advantages of both not having to sleep more than a few hours a night *and* being able to type 1,000,000,000,000,000 words a minute, I might have a chance to get a whole lot more done.

As it is, I require nine hours of sleep a night, and it's really cutting into my productivity.

Anyway, there's a lot happening, as it usually is, and if I updated this Journal more often, I'd probably not have so much to try to remember to include in this entry. It always seems to come back to crack cocaine, or the lack thereof (and therefore a lack of adequate time to update this Journal).

Let's see...Yon and I got a chance to do some recording last week. I talked to Howard Redekopp, and he's penciling us in for the second week in May. We just have to get the last few Rockwells songs done by then, and we're in good shape. So that's what the recording was for: to wrap up tracking on the new Rockwells CD so we can proceed to mixing and mastering. We got a lot done, and will most likely try to book another session for this week...and if we get Tommy in by the end of the week, we'll be in great shape in time for an April Memphis trip to record vocals and any odds and ends...in plenty of time for mixing the second week in May. That's the plan, anyway. Fingers crossed.

We've heard back from two of the people we sent copies of the first nine songs from the new CD to. The first was from a small label I hadn't heard of. He said thanks, but he runs a small label that is not growing at the moment, so thanks but no thanks.

The second was the manager of the New Pornographers who said he liked the CD and asked "what are you looking to do with it?". I replied that we wanted to do the typical things...release it in conjunction with a decent label and go from there. Then I asked *him* what *he* thought we should be looking for. We'll see what he says. :)

The Rockwells site, speaking of Rockwells, is totally down. I'm-a gonna have to start from scratch. I want to wait until I've finished learning Flash...but the lack of site is making me insane. So the result is, there might be a Rockwells site back up sooner rather than later...a really crappy amateur Flash version. Better than nothing? I think so.

The Migrant site (www.migrantrecords.com), on the other hand, while spartan and simple, is getting more hits everyday. Technically, using "hits" to measure website traffic is misleading, so maybe I should say "we're already getting more unique visitors this month than the month before, which was more than the month before that". And our rate of being bookmarked is at 45%.

Those are good signs. However, of those that *do* visit the site, a relatively high percentage don't stay longer than 30 seconds. Not enough time to get acquainted. Dammit. So we're working on a few things:

1. Art specifically created for Migrant Records, with a new logo and a Flash console for navigating the entire site. This will include new content, free stuff, etc, and of course the Song of the Day.
2. Once that's up, I'll send out a press release to everyone we've done business with over the last few years. I'll include some stats on how the site is doing, and hopefully that'll bring even more people.

In the meantime, I've been using a FriendAdder to bring more people to the MySpace page, which in turn has led more people to the site. The two problems?

1. Those that are stranger and visit aren't staying long enough to come again (yet).
2. MySpace is so friggin' full of bands that love to jerk one another off. I could really care less about any of that. I want real people. People who will either love or hate or music, but who will at least listen and give an honest opinion, not just blow smoke. That's the tough part.

Nevertheless, we went from 77 MySpace Friends as of 10 days ago to just under 2000 and counting. If we keep getting new friends, improve the site, get some press, and keep up the Song of the Day, the thing could start to perpetuate itself. And that's when it gets to be fun. More work, but fun.

Which brings me back to the crack cocaine...anyone got any? I gots work to do!

[Do I Really Sound Like That? (Secret Desires)]

2007-03-14T17:30:33Z

Jonathan wrote this entry:

So I thought about mentioning this in the description for the Slow Jam demo, but decided it was a little off topic. So here goes.

I was talking to Valerie (my girlfriend) about how, when she took dance classes when she was younger, if she wasn’t paying attention, her hands would bunch up and become claw-like. Naturally it was something she could correct, but since it mainly happened when she was super focused on something else, it would still happen on occasion. Hard combination coming up? Bang. Claw hands.

Anyway, I bring it up because, listening to demos sometimes, I’m struck by how weird things will happen to my voice. Scaaaary things.

Well, not that scary.

I suppose that I could best explain it as, if I’m singing and not paying attention, I turn into the Hollywood version of a southerner. “Holding” becomes “hawlding,” and “your” becomes “yawhr.” And, of course, “I” becomes “ah.” Why does this happen? That’s not the way I talk. That’s not the way anyone talks.

I could go into theories: it’s an unconscious reaction to singers who over-enunciate, I’m going for that vaguely Blur/Oasis brit rock thing (which would be weird, cause that’s not exactly my favorite music, though I don't dislike it), or maybe, somewhere deep down, I’d like to sound like Foghorn Leghorn.

Anyway, I bring it up just in case you noticed. Maybe you listened to a demo and said, “I like that song, by why does the singer sound like he’s trying out for “Steel Magnolias?” Search me, man.

Most likely no one noticed. I’m probably just having the same reaction anyone has when they listen to a recording of their voice. (See title) But in case you did notice, it’s just my version of the claw hands. I can fix it, I swear.

[Almost there........]

2007-03-01T20:48:11Z

The site continues to get a good number of hits. I added meta tags and a decent description to the HTML, which will help search engines and their crawl-y bots. That should help get more random outside people to the site.

I've added a "Add to Favorites" link, as well as a link to the MySpace page (to be aware of recent songs postings and news). I still want to turn the email link into a feedback form, but that might not happen until this weekend. I'm also looking for code that will allow user comment. The Migrant logo will be changed tonight or this weekend as well.

The best times to post new SotDs, in my opinion, is Monday and Thursday. That gives people plenty of time to check each song out, and both days are in the work week. People need to blow off steam and check out websites while at work, so why not ours? The next song will be posted Monday, with a regular schedule after that.

I took the photo link off. I really don't think most people will give a shit about photos. If you know us, you've seen us. If you don't, what difference does it make if we have pics to see? When I get the "Projects" part of the site up and running (later), I'll have photos for each project, showing who participates. But otherwise, photos are a bore.

Jonathan continues to transfer songs into Pro Tools, programming as he goes. We're getting together in the next half hour to set some goals for the next couple of weeks. Jonathan has over 100 songs ready to work. I have about 20 (he was always more prolific). It's just a matter of taking the time to get them arranged and recorded...and then figuring out what the hell to do with them.

More later. Thanks for reading.

K-Fred