Today I learned that when you eq something on headphones, by the time it gets onto speakers it sounds harsh and brittle.
I made a preset on the eq to solve this problem, a gently sloping gradient of a bass boost and a high cut, that covers my track in a thin layer of mud, that when amplified sounds brilliant and rounded. I've been trying, as I've been recording this second hans pucket track, to make all decisions in the pursuit of a listener wanting to turn the volume up.
I dulled the highs and lows, as they become a lot fuller when amplified
I hid the vocals slightly under the volume of the backing.
Genearally my attempts have been working well. The track is sounding a lot punchier than my first one, smokey ghost. Now I just need a name. Something that says "I wish I had found this out earlier", but also "Im glad I know this know"
Preferably one or two words, with a slight pun. A half pun, if you will.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Tuesday
Today is Tuesday, buts its like my Friday cause tomorrow they let me stay home and do whatever I like for 3 days. I could build like a big tower out of kitchen misc! or cook a 3 day roast, or smoke a whole ham.
I'd love to do that, because I live at home and I could actually work for 5 days and then spend all the money on a whole pig that I would smoke in the weekend. What a life I could lead!
Today was pretty good for a Tuesday. The guys at work found a huge bunch of shoes in the dumpster from no 1 shoe warehouse, so they dug them out and are going to donate them to Fiji.
I got a free half strength flat white, which was pretty much just warm milk, and ate all the edges off a fudge slice.
The magic slice had a shade too little condensed milk in the biscuit base, so a whole bunch of it was too crumbly to sell, I got to take it home! I also got some free dutch Christmas cookie balls, that they apparently use for a sort of lolly scramble except with spiced cookies.
Other things I have now tried at the cafe include, krokets (awesome), Pickled herring (delicious), reaaly salty liquorice (almost made me throw up), a dutch late (with aniseed, very tasty).
I really want to try the custard squares they make at the cafe, look amazing.
We also got some new teapots in the cafe that are super shiny and pretty. I told a couple of old ladies I served that they were lucky to use them, as we had just got them yesterday, the cafe was quite excited. One lady pointed out if that was the most exciting thing in my day...
Totally bummed out.
On the way home I biked past a group of cathedral grammer kids, two eight year old girls, one leading a little boy about four or five, who had only one shoe on. I just managed to hear one girl say to the other; "hey maddy... did he have two shoes on back at the place?"
I'd love to do that, because I live at home and I could actually work for 5 days and then spend all the money on a whole pig that I would smoke in the weekend. What a life I could lead!
Today was pretty good for a Tuesday. The guys at work found a huge bunch of shoes in the dumpster from no 1 shoe warehouse, so they dug them out and are going to donate them to Fiji.
I got a free half strength flat white, which was pretty much just warm milk, and ate all the edges off a fudge slice.
The magic slice had a shade too little condensed milk in the biscuit base, so a whole bunch of it was too crumbly to sell, I got to take it home! I also got some free dutch Christmas cookie balls, that they apparently use for a sort of lolly scramble except with spiced cookies.
Other things I have now tried at the cafe include, krokets (awesome), Pickled herring (delicious), reaaly salty liquorice (almost made me throw up), a dutch late (with aniseed, very tasty).
I really want to try the custard squares they make at the cafe, look amazing.
We also got some new teapots in the cafe that are super shiny and pretty. I told a couple of old ladies I served that they were lucky to use them, as we had just got them yesterday, the cafe was quite excited. One lady pointed out if that was the most exciting thing in my day...
Totally bummed out.
On the way home I biked past a group of cathedral grammer kids, two eight year old girls, one leading a little boy about four or five, who had only one shoe on. I just managed to hear one girl say to the other; "hey maddy... did he have two shoes on back at the place?"
Friday, May 27, 2011
Tiger Moth
I finished recording two songs in the last few days.
One is for Hans Pucket, a band I started with Callum so he can bash the drums and I can write annoyingly catchy 60's disco and Motown numbers, distorted as all hell. I like the idea of a two piece, white stripes/Simon and Garfunkel line up. Callum has said he talked to Liam Finn at camp about the benefits of playing with a brother like he does with Elroy, and I agree, It's pretty awesome. The last gig we played had a highlight for me when I was in the middle of our Motown song and I busted out the bridge bass line from Lady Madonna, and callum knew exactly what I was doing, he just went with it. That's not jamming, it's a lot closer to mind reading.
The song I recorded is called Smokey Ghost and has a lot more going for it lyrically than I first realised, and I freaking love it when that happens.
I try when I write lyrics not to follow any linear thread, but more what I think just sounds right. I tend to choose phrases that fall into place naturally because of either vowel sounds that I want, or the rhythm of the melody. The lyrics end up collage like, and a lot of their meaning I like to think happens subconsciously, although generally there is a point I'm trying to make, I don't overthink it too much, because they end up waaaaay overthought and complex like the ones in the last post.
I like Smokey Ghost because the random, "spooky" annoying tone of the song matches the lyrics really well. I think the song's meaning is pretty clear.
The second song is one of a batch I've written recently with the melody first. It was an abnormally sunny Saturday for autumn, I just made cookies and was walking round with the guitar playing randomly. The melody just popped out of nowhere, but I think it had roots in Smoked too much by Lawrence Arabia. I wrote the lyrics about a week later when I was biking through Hagley park en route to the Dentist and thought I'd have a sit down on a bench by the museum. I realised that I had had the melody in my head for a solid week, and I better do something about it. The lyrics were shit so I wrote another random poem about a classic Loved-and-Hated leader-type which sprung up really quick after I got the first line "Humming hymns" down. Turns out with a bit of tweaking it fitted perfectly and I had the song.
I called it Tiger Moth after my favourite phrase in the song, It's a pretty awesome name when you think about it. It's an oxymoron. It's a plane. It has tiger in it.
Fuck its a way better name than custard bear. But theres already a band called it. Damn.
The dentist was shit. I got a filling, and nearly bit a hole through my eerily numb lip biking home. But they backdated it to before I turned 18 so it was free.
I've also written a whole host of Custard Bear songs recently. One called Silent Lions, as in yawning, One called Summer, its wicked. They both sound like a cross between mgmt and conan mockasin, but when we get it into the band with jack and callum it sounds completely different, one of the joys of having a band with three completely different people. Okay, one different person and a pair of twins.
Theres another song with a chorus that sounds like the copacobana. I'll tweak it, It'll be okay. They all sound really cohesive though, and I really want to make an ep out of them. Exciting times.
One is for Hans Pucket, a band I started with Callum so he can bash the drums and I can write annoyingly catchy 60's disco and Motown numbers, distorted as all hell. I like the idea of a two piece, white stripes/Simon and Garfunkel line up. Callum has said he talked to Liam Finn at camp about the benefits of playing with a brother like he does with Elroy, and I agree, It's pretty awesome. The last gig we played had a highlight for me when I was in the middle of our Motown song and I busted out the bridge bass line from Lady Madonna, and callum knew exactly what I was doing, he just went with it. That's not jamming, it's a lot closer to mind reading.
The song I recorded is called Smokey Ghost and has a lot more going for it lyrically than I first realised, and I freaking love it when that happens.
I try when I write lyrics not to follow any linear thread, but more what I think just sounds right. I tend to choose phrases that fall into place naturally because of either vowel sounds that I want, or the rhythm of the melody. The lyrics end up collage like, and a lot of their meaning I like to think happens subconsciously, although generally there is a point I'm trying to make, I don't overthink it too much, because they end up waaaaay overthought and complex like the ones in the last post.
I like Smokey Ghost because the random, "spooky" annoying tone of the song matches the lyrics really well. I think the song's meaning is pretty clear.
The second song is one of a batch I've written recently with the melody first. It was an abnormally sunny Saturday for autumn, I just made cookies and was walking round with the guitar playing randomly. The melody just popped out of nowhere, but I think it had roots in Smoked too much by Lawrence Arabia. I wrote the lyrics about a week later when I was biking through Hagley park en route to the Dentist and thought I'd have a sit down on a bench by the museum. I realised that I had had the melody in my head for a solid week, and I better do something about it. The lyrics were shit so I wrote another random poem about a classic Loved-and-Hated leader-type which sprung up really quick after I got the first line "Humming hymns" down. Turns out with a bit of tweaking it fitted perfectly and I had the song.
I called it Tiger Moth after my favourite phrase in the song, It's a pretty awesome name when you think about it. It's an oxymoron. It's a plane. It has tiger in it.
Fuck its a way better name than custard bear. But theres already a band called it. Damn.
The dentist was shit. I got a filling, and nearly bit a hole through my eerily numb lip biking home. But they backdated it to before I turned 18 so it was free.
I've also written a whole host of Custard Bear songs recently. One called Silent Lions, as in yawning, One called Summer, its wicked. They both sound like a cross between mgmt and conan mockasin, but when we get it into the band with jack and callum it sounds completely different, one of the joys of having a band with three completely different people. Okay, one different person and a pair of twins.
Theres another song with a chorus that sounds like the copacobana. I'll tweak it, It'll be okay. They all sound really cohesive though, and I really want to make an ep out of them. Exciting times.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Wealth
I wrote this song late the other night in a fit of inspiration. Like a lot of songs I write, I had just spent about 2 hours writing a piece of crap that ended up sounding like something else. I should stop writing late at night. I'm losing sleep.
Wealth by olidevlin
As a matter of fact this is the single most intellectual lyric I've written, stemming from a thought I had about extremely driven, successful people; perfectionists; and the irony that their uber-success could possibly be hidden to them, but nonetheless fuelled by a massive lack of self-esteem, or a sense of inadequacy or whatever. A comforting thought for us plebs that success must come with a cost, or is only an attractive concept from the outside.
more to come, including work by my digital alter-ego "Sponge"
Wealth by olidevlin
As a matter of fact this is the single most intellectual lyric I've written, stemming from a thought I had about extremely driven, successful people; perfectionists; and the irony that their uber-success could possibly be hidden to them, but nonetheless fuelled by a massive lack of self-esteem, or a sense of inadequacy or whatever. A comforting thought for us plebs that success must come with a cost, or is only an attractive concept from the outside.
more to come, including work by my digital alter-ego "Sponge"
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Bitch; Please
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Its like its sad forgotten little sister
"Hey, man, you know what I get angry about! That fucking Catina band song from star wars! Its so goddamn annoying! Like a fucking steel drum and synth bass paper cut! Jesus, I mean... John Williams is cool, but... sweet James thats some disrespect."
"...which one?"
"Oh? The song...you know, it goes "dun-dah dun-dah dudat duh-!
"What you mean, the first one?"
"...what?"
"The first one. There's two songs."
"...Really?"
"Yeah, that one; the one you just sang, that's the first one."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Didn't know that."
"I guessed...you know, I bet that other song feels kinda bad when you group them together like
that."
"...Yeah, I guess it would"
"Like, they're two separate songs. Even though their main distinction is just order."
"..Like B1 and B2"
"Exactly!"
"There just two dudes...gettin' on with it."
"They're bananas..."
"-Yeah, well two bananas then..."
"In pijamas."
"So how does this song #2 go then?!"
"Like THIS!"
"......that's still pretty shit"
"Probably worse."
"...Fuck."
"tell me about it"
"Did I just waste five minutes of my day listening to that?"
"You sure did"
"Fuck this, I'm going outside."
"...You want to go watch Star Wars?"
"Yeah, okay."
"...which one?"
"Oh? The song...you know, it goes "dun-dah dun-dah dudat duh-!
"What you mean, the first one?"
"...what?"
"The first one. There's two songs."
"...Really?"
"Yeah, that one; the one you just sang, that's the first one."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Didn't know that."
"I guessed...you know, I bet that other song feels kinda bad when you group them together like
that."
"...Yeah, I guess it would"
"Like, they're two separate songs. Even though their main distinction is just order."
"..Like B1 and B2"
"Exactly!"
"There just two dudes...gettin' on with it."
"They're bananas..."
"-Yeah, well two bananas then..."
"In pijamas."
"So how does this song #2 go then?!"
"Like THIS!"
"......that's still pretty shit"
"Probably worse."
"...Fuck."
"tell me about it"
"Did I just waste five minutes of my day listening to that?"
"You sure did"
"Fuck this, I'm going outside."
"...You want to go watch Star Wars?"
"Yeah, okay."
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Ol' Possum's inappropriate grope
Each Cat has Three names;- One fancy
- One not quite as fancy
- One as a criminal alias that is known to the united organisation of cats under the moniker: A.C.G.C.T.F- or the All Cats Gotta' Come Together Front; an Inter-continental conglomerate of Super-Top secrecy dedicated to the acquisition and decriminalisation of Cat-Burglars , Cat-Nappers, Delinquent Spies, and Cat-Fighters, in International Court, SPCA gallows or otherwise. Can't freaking believe TS Eliot wrote that.
acatdistracted
A Poem
A cat distracted is scarcely a cat at all.
When intended to spend its Sundays cat-
Napping or carpet-scratching
An absent cat is a bad cat,
very nearly my Dad at that.
Then,
My cat is a cat often but never always,
Instead it busies itself with breaks,
Breaking ordinance, but never complete absence.
Replaced abruptly by a decidedly Mum-like creature
Decidedly cat-napping and back-scratching
Happily instead.
Quent's Advice
I sometimes like to follow the good advice of a friend of mine who I call Quents.
He is a HUGE film fan, so huge, my brother and I like to think he's the only person in the world who saw and liked the movie Speed Racer. He's got loads of good advice but the nougat that stuck with me was something about personalising art. Like;
"You gotta put yourself into your art! Otherwise whats the C&*9t-F#@!&g
point you S8*@ licking a$$ toothp&^%$.... you digg??"
His words struck a chord in my not-yet-fully-developed frontal cortex, the kind of advice I imagine my Wise-Uncle-Ben would give me, if only I had a Wise Uncle Ben... I got a Sassy-Auntie-Annie, which is close. Quentie makes a point about specificity, which is quite trite.
He is a HUGE film fan, so huge, my brother and I like to think he's the only person in the world who saw and liked the movie Speed Racer. He's got loads of good advice but the nougat that stuck with me was something about personalising art. Like;
"You gotta put yourself into your art! Otherwise whats the C&*9t-F#@!&g
point you S8*@ licking a$$ toothp&^%$.... you digg??"
His words struck a chord in my not-yet-fully-developed frontal cortex, the kind of advice I imagine my Wise-Uncle-Ben would give me, if only I had a Wise Uncle Ben... I got a Sassy-Auntie-Annie, which is close. Quentie makes a point about specificity, which is quite trite.
You can make a choice in your art, to make something general, in an effort to reach someone, or possibly a vain attempt to hide yourself from your audience. Or else you can be so personal, so specific; out of left field and culled from the chasm of your own life experience, that it relates not to the cultural mass, but the human condition.
I'm generally too terrified to achieve something so specific. It's private stuff, and so easy to hide in coyness or fashion. Yet beware the hollow ring of an empty appropriation, more often than not a bastardisation than a tribute, you can't really copy something that is so personal.
I'm generally too terrified to achieve something so specific. It's private stuff, and so easy to hide in coyness or fashion. Yet beware the hollow ring of an empty appropriation, more often than not a bastardisation than a tribute, you can't really copy something that is so personal.
Thanks Quents. 
"No problem Oli!"
"No problem Oli!"Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Songs
This is a great song.
Its generally not hard to write your best songs. When they come good, it usually comes thick and fast. Its so easy and awesome its hard to self edit, you think; "man I'm having some shockwave of divine inspiration, guess somebody knows what I'm doing better than I do" and you just Keep it all.
Dont do that! Your best song deserves love and attention. Get it all out before it leaves you, then savour the next moment, cause thats when it goes from "lovely Rita" to "Hey Jude"
*space*
This could also be the moment you find out you just accidentaly wrote "How deep is your love". Don't be frightened, move on. *double space*
I have written 6 songs and two fragments of songs in this past month's exam/art time procrastination. Thats the most ever. With this luck I'll write my way out of incarceration and destitude in no time!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Inception Review
Today, a fellow collaborator on the Blog, Stepnanie is going to review A film. Enjoy...
Hey GUyz!!
Gr8 to B here, Diz i$ my bLoG Debuut! :)
InC3PtIon
I wNEt to Go c enception On tUesday CuZ Its CHEAPer! (*hot TIp # 1~)
MaiNly cuz Leo Is $mokin' hOt & also kiNda cuz I wUZ on a Date with Gazz and hEs da guy so hE geTs to Chookse what film we watch.
I lolLeD aT tHe IDeA$ of rEgRet and pErpetualiTy as R3CurRing mOtifs, wIth coBB's inTrnAl cOnfliCt EXtrnalized Thru his wIfe, wHo toOK the fORm of hIs saage Subconxious imAGe of her. A cHAllnge FOr aNy Of Us!! I hAD tO reSorT to anAlYis oF Cobb's sUper-Ego to rEaAlise tHe iNtricacies oF his DillElma. NeCCE$ary D3tail oR lAzy sToRy tEllinG? ;)
(*Hot tip # 2) nOlNa's uSe of the cRash cut aS a tHemAtic AND nArRatIvE dEviCe!! NOICEEE!
tHeRE wAs a kOol POinT werr nOlan LaYered uP 5 lEveLs of dReAms wItHnin drEams. i loiked tHe InHeRent miNdfUCkaGE. lokolok ::))
Thanks Stephanie. She'll be back next week.
Lists
A couple of quotes
"Ignorance is.. pretty good ae"
..Famous philosofer, Archimedes.
"Einstein actually said some pretty interesting stuff, you know"
..Famous cultural sieve, my father.
"Ignorance is.. pretty good ae"
..Famous philosofer, Archimedes.
"Einstein actually said some pretty interesting stuff, you know"
..Famous cultural sieve, my father.
Blogs with lists in them just generally dont go down well. This is common knowledge.
Readers crave dynamic, emotional content which a humble List is allegedly incapable of achieving.
What the dream-killing fact-mongering perpetuators of this myth don't realise, Is I am damn good at making lists. "Ther' ant neber bean no list lik dis shit!"
My lists are;
big
small
important
vague
decisive
whimsical
shallow
cathartic
judgemental
analytical
obsessive
useful
clarifying
deversive
pretensious
healing
subjective
rapskallion
Ahhrgh fuck it, Ive lost interest again.
small
important
vague
decisive
whimsical
shallow
cathartic
judgemental
analytical
obsessive
useful
clarifying
deversive
pretensious
healing
subjective
rapskallion
Ahhrgh fuck it, Ive lost interest again.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
A Cat Distracted
Greetings cool cats.
Is a blog a place to adopt an alias?
Is a blog productive?
Is a blog merely a means of destroying the Idea-gestation period neccesary for the development of craft?
Is a blog voyeuristical?
Is a blog for self-research?
Is a blog for cataloguing?
Is a blog a piece of anything?
Is a blog neccesary?
Is a blog doomed from the start?
Where do dead blogs go?
Where do dead dogs go?
What do dead dogs know?
When do said gods show?
This all just wah wah wah at the moment.
Is a blog a place to adopt an alias?
Is a blog productive?
Is a blog merely a means of destroying the Idea-gestation period neccesary for the development of craft?
Is a blog voyeuristical?
Is a blog for self-research?
Is a blog for cataloguing?
Is a blog a piece of anything?
Is a blog neccesary?
Is a blog doomed from the start?
Where do dead blogs go?
Where do dead dogs go?
What do dead dogs know?
When do said gods show?
This all just wah wah wah at the moment.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Shit
Learnt ther is already a blog called wahwahwah today.
Fuck.
Its cooler than mine, I think its in Latin.
Latin is a dead language.
Anyway, while I think of a new name for my blog, you can listen to this
Its a song than Junil* wrote the words for and I made the music, its about a crustacean I think.
A cool way to write songs, junil may be the steven sondheim to my Leonard Bernstein; the Hammerstien to my Richard Rodgers; The Tim rice to my Elton John; The Karen O to my Karen O.
*Junil= Steven
Fuck.
Its cooler than mine, I think its in Latin.
Latin is a dead language.
Anyway, while I think of a new name for my blog, you can listen to this
Its a song than Junil* wrote the words for and I made the music, its about a crustacean I think.
A cool way to write songs, junil may be the steven sondheim to my Leonard Bernstein; the Hammerstien to my Richard Rodgers; The Tim rice to my Elton John; The Karen O to my Karen O.
*Junil= Steven
Friday, May 14, 2010
Famous Origin Stories
Batman:
his parents killed by a mugger, found refuge in the kind help of a family butler and splurged their fortunes on martial art classes, forever plauged with a thirst for justice... that could only be quenched by justice.
Spiderman;
nerd gets bitten by a fucked up super-spider and uses powers to fight crime.
Lex luthor:
Went bald all accidental-like at the hands of clumsy Superman, swears vengance.
Tintin:
once a reporter, got a dog named Snowy, thought he could solve some international mysterys.
Wolverine: Mutant with regenerative powers gets new skeleton and deadly claws at the hands of a freaking disturbed scientist.
WAHWAHWAH:
Oli made blog.
his parents killed by a mugger, found refuge in the kind help of a family butler and splurged their fortunes on martial art classes, forever plauged with a thirst for justice... that could only be quenched by justice.
Spiderman;
nerd gets bitten by a fucked up super-spider and uses powers to fight crime.
Lex luthor:
Went bald all accidental-like at the hands of clumsy Superman, swears vengance.
Tintin:
once a reporter, got a dog named Snowy, thought he could solve some international mysterys.
Wolverine: Mutant with regenerative powers gets new skeleton and deadly claws at the hands of a freaking disturbed scientist.
WAHWAHWAH:
Oli made blog.
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