Been jampacking every day with work, band practice, recording, bike rides, a little bit of reading, yard- and housework, general cordiality, mild socializing, lighthearted haberdashery, 80s movies and Beatles documentaries. I’m totally behind in e-letters to friends but have been avoiding the digital multiverse for the duration of most days, and have felt younger–or like I’m living in olden days–because of it. Secretly I miss the days before the age of immediacy, the omnipresence of screens, the thousands of channels and millions of choices and billions of voices all screaming at us at once, and the friendly neighborhood surveillance. Really, I like to live as disconnected from the grid as possible, do my own thing, ride my own pony, check in with mom occasionally (but businesses never), pay in coins and rollick in the wilderness, and I can really feel the difference in how I think and breathe by spending most of my days away from hyper-technology, social media and the bottomless tubes.
Anyway aside from rambling into journals and devices, lately I’ve been making music. The other day my Simple Living Ferndale cohort Shaun and I packed the coal carts and fired up the engines on The Counter Elites‘ full-length Are You A Counter-Elite?, brought the band into the studio and tracked drums for 8 of the 26 tunes–with one microphone. Got a rock-solid start, and I truly feel this record will take no time to make as it’s such simplistic music made by two guys (whoever they are–we still don’t know) who really seem to have these tunes down. Essentially, it’ll be made with four tracks, or maybe a couple more, with all the drums on one, the bass split between two (bass-amp bass and guitar-amp bass) and vocals on one, with the occasional overdub, doubling, or sound effect added for texturization or controversiality. Really though, I’m super stoked, and we hope to have it out by September.
I got back into the Carpe Vita Quadrumvirate today. I recorded piano tracks for pts 1, 3 and 4. Part 1 “Tempus Fugit” is an instrumental with eleven piano tracks and huge drum-and-cymbal swells greatly influenced by Philip Glass. Part 3 “Disce Pati” is a quiet, lazy, loungey, minimalistic instrumental break that will follow the powerhouse rocker single (which is just about complete), part 2 “Carpe Vita” which I believe is the closest I’ve come to a Pete Townshend composition–replete with busy-bass work; Moon-esque drum fills; huge classic-rock-style A and D chords; a twisting and turning solo made of a blend of two electric guitar and two synthesizer leads; pinch-squeals, a fist-pumping, mantra-shouting outro and boundless, uncompromising energy throughout. Part 4 “Memento Mori” will close the EP with big, deep, fat-handed punchy chords, elephants-marching style drums, and a hearkening, or stylistic reprise, of the mantra-chant and similar chords of “Carpe Vita” but with an entirely different feel. Phew! I can’t wait to hear what it’ll sound like when it’s not just .wav file bits and pieces or a jumble of sounds in my brain.
But it’s coming together. I have 14 days til the first day of summer and my target release date. Will I make it?
jonfromthemoon 