some work done

today i got some work done finally. it's been a bit of a slump for at least the last week or so. i did get some work done for the 3rd album today. very nice. i realised that i was supposed to try and finish a track that i'm working on as quick as possible just to see how long it takes to finish a track from this album. so far it has acoustic guitars, vocals (but with no reverb added yet), electric guitar, organ and a backwards guitar figure pitched up that i did today. it took me about an hour or so to get it to work. the signal through the mixer kept dying and i turned the fan off and it was so unbelievable sweltering today and that room is quite the little hotbox when the fan isn't on. basically sweat was dripping off of me the entire time i was in there. i think i started to see stars towards the end. but i got it finished and it sounded the way i wanted it to. yay! now this track just needs strings- i was going to try to do a three part string arrangement and only the cello part is written at this moment- and drums and i might have stefanie do some 'ooohs' or something... not sure. the cello won't be recorded until after hannah gets back from japan. the drums i might hold back on until i can buy some new mics to help get a little variation in there. the 'ooohs' i'm not even sure will go in there. there's already a lot going on as it is.
i also did a good version of a song that i thought was dead, but was revived last week. i reworked all of the chords and the tuning, while still using the original idea if that makes any sense. it worked really well. i did two guitar parts and dug out my old yamaha keyboard to have something to keep time to build the track over until we can record the drums. there isn't a loop for it at all. there isn't one for the other song i worked on today either. this reworked song- called 'into grey' for practical discussion- was always kind of intended to be shelved once it was finished. i wasn't even sure i was ever going to bother to record for a long time until i reworked the music and now it's kind of in contention for the record. it has three verses and a long chorus. it even kind of has a guitar hook if you can imagine it. the guitars i recorded today were originally intended to be scratch tracks, but i was so happy with the rhythm guitar and all of the feedback that i got at the beginning that i decided to try the lead guitar too and they both turned out so well i might just keep them. i am in love with my fender twin- it can howl like nothing else and exactly the way i want it to now. i turned on the distortion and it wasn't as loud as the clean sound from the amp. the clean sound was all rowdy and crazy. perfect! i'd been in a bad mood from all of the mixer fuckups and i'd had to drive stefanie out to the montrose blue line station because she went to a yarn show at the convention center at rosemont and i had a bad time driving there and back. driving here it's usually okay and i'm fairly used to it at this point, but when you have a bad day driving here you have a BAD DAY DRIVING. there is no inbetween. the worst is when you have a really awful time driving and then you finally get home and you have to find someplace to park and that goes badly too. i was pissed when i got out of the car. but then i ended up in a fabulous mood after getting all of this unexpected work done. nice.
got a bunch of new albums for real cheap today. got 'automatic' by jamc, pixies b sides collection and 'this shit is genius' by dillinger four all for $1 each and then i got four vinyl albums for $1 too- i got the first two patti smith albums and that brian eno/david byrne album and a tom waits album that might be kind of hard to find- the 'one from the heart' soundtrack. probably not hard to find- probably the kind of record people give away. for 25 cents even!
i also got the ghost to falco record that i ordered in the mail. i'm in new music right now. yay! i should probably save a little money to spend at dave's records with this next paycheck. i doubt it'll happen as all of that money is spoken for at this point. i'm going to look for more lee hazlewood records though. he is my new obsession. you betcha! figured out the chords to 'leather and lace' today as well. i got a chord sheet for it through a google but it was in the wrong key. i'd like to figure out the string arrangement (good fucking luck) just to see how it works and such and since it's a good example of the kind of string arrangements i'd like to figure out how to write. we're also going to cover it live at one of our upcoming shows. neither of them are finalized yet, but they'll both be acoustic affairs with no p.a. goodnight then!