Guild of Birthdays

Oh Boy...

2009-12-29T23:25:00.003-05:00

I do a really bad job updating this thingy!

Everything's cool, right?

My biggest thing happening now is finishing up the Future Islands album "In Evening Air" which will be coming out on Thrill Jockey early 2010. Oh Yeah!

I've got some photos from the tracking sessions last summer at their former abode "Dale Earnhouse". I can't find them though... oh well.

Happy new year!

email me! cgwazda@gmail.com

OH! And this site has FALLEN APART!
Believe it or not, I hosted a lot of the junk on GEOCITIES which bit the dust a few months ago, or so I hear. I just don't have the time to reorganize this junk right now. cool!

Bromst Released

2009-03-24T21:41:00.011-05:00

Dan Deacon's BROMST was officially released today!
I've spent a lot of time working with Dan in the past year, mostly helping him produce this record. Recording started last April in Silver Spring, MD, tracking mallet percussion with Rich and Kevin O'Meara.

I leave in a week to join Dan and his ensemble on a month long tour around the US. You can see the schedule on his myspace page. We're also playing The Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona at the end of June! Whoa!

Yeah, yeah... so the album did leak a few weeks ago. It was officially released today!

This has been up for a while:
Listen to BROMST on NPR.org

Here's a fun guy:
A video from Pitchfork about our time mixing the album in Montana.
It's in four parts. This is only one part of the final production, but there is some really great footage of the player piano, and Dan talking about the album. I make some chit-chat as well. Scope it!

That's me!

Here's a photo of Montana

I've also been doing some recording work with Video Hippos. We did a few songs that are to be released on a split with Sewn Leather.

Annnnnd continuing work on the Nuclear Power Pants full length which should be released in the fall.

Bromst in Baltimore

2008-08-24T15:59:00.015-05:00

Yo!

Dan Deacon's album Bromst is nearing completion. I'm in Baltimore wrapping things up before we head to Snowghost, a studio in Whitefish, Montana. We'll be mixing the album up there Septemeber 8th-16th (also, the studio is right next to Glacier N.P, so I tacked on an extra week to go backpacking!). The studio is really incredible. Check out the site. It's gonna be great! The album is going to be mixed through their SSL console, and passed onto tape. Also, the studio owns a midi controllable piano, which Dan has written parts for in several songs. Like, insane parts that no person could ever play. It's gonna be cool!

This week has been spent tracking additional instruments and vocals that did not get done in the spring, as well as cleaning up the session files, and preparing to mix. Also, I hadn't been to Baltimore since May, so it was exciting to see my pals. I'll be moving here in November!

ALSO!
My (sometimes) band Nuclear Power Pants is going to be part of the Baltimore Round Robin Tour from October 2nd-18th. There are going to be over sixty people participating, riding around the northeast in two veggie busses. More fun stuff.

Here are the dates:
10/02 Boston, MA Mass Arts *
10/03 Boston, MA Mass Arts #
10/04 Montreal, QC Église Saint-Enfant Jésus / Pop Montreal *
10/05 Montreal, QC Église Saint-Enfant Jésus / Pop Montreal #
10/08 Detroit, MI Museum of Contemporary Art *
10/09 Detroit, MI Museum of Contemporary Art #
10/10 Chicago, IL Epiphany *
10/11 Chicago, IL Epiphany #
10/13 Oberlin, OH Oberlin College *
10/14 Oberlin, OH Oberlin College #
10/15 Philadelphia, PA Starlight Ballroom *
10/16 Philadelphia, PA Starlight Ballroom #
10/17 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge *
10/18 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge #

* = Eyes Night
# = Feet Night

MORE INFO

How are you?
Here's a photo I took of some celery!

The West Coast

2008-07-30T23:20:00.006-05:00

The West Side!

I'm done with it!
It's been a pretty good summer, but I wanna feel that sweltering east coast heat right now.

Still looking for a way up to Portland (to catch my plane). Anyone? Anyone?

I went into San Francisco yesterday (a rare occasion), to see Teeth Mountain, a band from Baltimore that's on tour out here. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my pal Greg who plays drums in Family of Love is playing with Teeth Mountain now (they have a heavy drum quota to fill).

Tomorrow, my heroes Future Islands are playing in SF.
While they're in town we'll be doing a short little precious two song session out here in Oakland (just a few days before I bug out!) I'll let u know how it goes! They are now a three piece trio group, with no live drumming, just that rock solid beat, u know?

Hey y'all!
I'm moving to Baltimore!
Big deal, right?
I going to try to get a place starting in Septemeber, ok?

LISTEN UP! Cara Beth "The Good Ones"

2008-06-27T18:02:00.008-05:00

Cara Beth Satalino has printed up 100 copies of her album, "The Good Ones".

We recorded this material in June 2007 and February 2008. Wilma was a kitten in the summer, and a kitty cat in the winter.

You can listen to the whole album here, ok? It's only gonna be up for about a week, so if you like it you should order a copy!
Click here to buy the album, ok?

It's not up anymore. I was only leaving it up for a week, so there you go!

thanks cara
thanks theo
thanks wilma
thanks everyone

I'm in Berkeley, California

2008-06-25T16:59:00.002-05:00

Here I am!
Just saying hey. Not still not doing any recording out here, but things are still happening, I guess.

Cara Beth Satalino's album has been pressed up, and you can order copies on her myspace page. I might have it streaming on here for a little while in a little while! Keep looking out!

Cara is in a new band called Witches, and they rock. I saw some videos on their page, but I haven't seen them play. They just went on tour, but you should check that out. Really!

No other news...
uh.. OH!
When we were going from Portland to Berkeley we saw trees that were 370 feet tall! THE TALLEST!!!

Jeez Louise

2008-06-03T20:13:00.025-05:00

I'm in Portland, Oregon!

That's me and Noah wearing the traditional dress.
I haven't updated in a long while... that's ok though.

I've been in Portland writing music with my old pals Brian and Charlie. We're leaving to go down to Berkeley, CA on the 9th, where Lizzy and I will be living with my brother Farley. Big deal, right?

I'm bummed about missing Whartscape in July.
BALTIMORE.
Last year it kicked butt. This year it's gonna kick serious butt.

Bromst
I've neglected to give any news on my work on Dan Deacon's new album, Bromst. I didn't really want to spill any beans, but they have officially been spilled:

Dan was recently interviewed by Pitchfork, talking about the new album, which is due to be released in the fall. You can read the interview HERE!

I'm really psyched about Bromst. The pieces kicks serious butt. Dan does a good job describing the feel of the album in the above interview. The range of timbres on this album is much wider than the previous one, Spiderman of the Rings.
Part of this change is that he's added live musicians to the recordings. He asked me to help record drums and pitched percussion (marimba, glockenspiel, etc.) so I had several sessions in Baltimore and Silver Spring, Maryland before I left for Portland. Dan has since been adding additional electronics, effects, and vocals to the songs, plus mixing (which is beastly). He sent me two rough tracks, which are sounding incredible. A real treat!

Here are some photos of the sessions:
1) Kevin O'Meara with the glockenspiel Score for "Snookered"
2) Rich O'Meara playing glockenspiel while Kevin look on
3) Jeremy Hyman during drum tracking at Dan's space in Baltimore
4) Dan and Kevin reviewing takes

NPP

2008-04-21T19:52:00.008-05:00

It's day two here in Providence, recording two different releases with Nuclear Power Pants.

"Wicked Eats the Warrior" is an LP, and will contain many of the songs from the band's live repitoir.

"2027" is gonna be fucking awesome. Possibly being put out on Wham City Records, "2027" will be a 12" vinyl only release. Unfortunately, that's all I can say about it right now, you know? It's gonna be special, ok?

I'm not really in the band, because it's a Providence thing and I'm never there, but I used to be, and I might be joining them on synthesizer duty on tour in the fall. Pretty exciting!

For now, here's a photo of the session. We love the blacklights.

Right now, there's a little down time at the Metal Mansion, because Tides is practicing.
Tides
It's loud as fuck, and I'm sitting upstairs listening with my backside!

LISTEN UP! ecstatic sunshine "way"

2008-04-08T22:08:00.025-05:00

So Ecstatic Sunshine's newest record was officially released this week on Cardboard Records. It was recorded in September, and has three of the five songs we worked on during those sessions.

In fancynness for the big release, I've made the album available here in its entirety for you to listen to. Whoa is right!

It's not up anymore. I was only leaving it up for a week, so there you go!

You know...
They're leaving on a bigass national tour on the 17th. I'll be seeing them at the SUNY Purchase Culture Shock Festival next weekend. Anyone else going???
Scope their myspace for other shows.

thanks Ecstatic Sunshine
thanks Cardboard Records
thanks everyone..

ALSO!
Air Waves has released the material that we recorded together in the fall. It's a self titled EP with five songs, two or three of which I recorded.

It's on Catbird Records out of NY. Maybe we'll have that up here to listen to also, eh?

ANNNNND
I made a 4'x4' spin art table today in the woods behind my house. It makes BIG SPIN ART!!!

(#2 of 2, so far)

Reporting: tour tour thor

2008-04-06T20:33:00.006-05:00

Hey!
I'm home! Home in NJ. Sorry for the lack of posts over the last... well...

ok!

Everything was da bomb, as I had expected...

It went like this:
Balimore MD: mixing with The Tall Grass
Raleigh NC: Lonnie Walker
Athens GA: Cara Beth Satalino
Athens GA: Mouser
Raleigh NC: Grass Widow
Baltimore MD: Ecstatic Sunshine (later)

There are a few photos (not many) on my flickr page

So I'm back in NJ with a whole bunch of mixing in front of me.

Here's some good news: Cara's album is finally done! Well, almost. Probably a few revisions still, but whoa! We started that project in June! Wow! I'll post a song or two when it's all set, ok?

Ecstatic Sunshine and I recorded three pieces in about four days in March. Also working on the project was Joe Williams of White Williams, who helped out with the extensive post-recording processing (sherman filterbank, tape, effects pedals). One of the songs will probably end up on a split with Lucky Dragons, from LA. I think that's cool for me to list, right? The lineup is now Matt on guitar, Kieran on space drum and a loop pedal, and Dave playing samples through an array of pedals. The loops have gone even more out of sync since last time we recorded in September. The line seems to have blurred between texture and melody. Also, structural changes are much subtler in the newer pieces, mostly slow fades, or adding or taking away one loop or note.

The guitar has become a slave to the cloud.

I got hooked up with Grass Widow from Raleigh, NC through their bassist, Mike Dillon, who I recorded in summer 2007 with his former band Tron Valdez. Grass Widow is much more straight up garage rock punkin it up and angst gimme guitars baby. You'll see, I'll be posting a song or two once I mix 'em. We did four songs total.

Working with Cara Satalino again was awesome. We had a killer time rappin' and garfieldin' and crosswordin' and nancy. We finished up the bass parts for two songs that had been in limbo since the summer. We even got two all new songs recorded, including a fullrocky/grungy version of "Shimmering Thing", a song that has been on her myspace in demo form since before we worked over the summer, (right)? This stuff is just about done. All mixed.. just minor revisions. FUCK YES!!!

In Athens, I also worked with Mouser. I had been talking to their drummer Mercer since the fall about doing some recording at some point, and we finally got to it. The band is in the middle of a big album project, and they wanted several of the songs to based around live performances. I was working as the tracking engineer for these songs, and when we finished up, I handed the sessions over to them to add upon. We were recording in the basement of the Secret Squirrel, which is the basement of Mercers home/business where he has a lot of really cool shows. I'm excited to hear where they take this stuff, but I think I'll have to wait like everyone else.

This whole southern jaunt was actually planned around trying to get down to Raleigh to work with Lonnie Walker in Raleigh, NC. I've worked with these guys twice, once last summer and most recently in January, when we got 90% of a record recorded at the Terpsikhore studio in Raleigh. I'm mixing it right now! Oh, also, I fell kinda good about building a little connection between these guys and Cara, who agreed to record a minor vocal part in their song "Crochet".

One more important note!
The Tall Grass LP that was tracked in November is finally done! Yay! Mixing with them was both the first and last stop of the tour. Whoa is right! I'll get somma that stuff up to, ok? Man, I need to update that fucking player... woot

Here's a photo of me wearing the cool flannel shirt that was given to me by Geoff from The Tall Grass, and mailed to me by Cara after I left it in Athens.
This link goes out to you guys!

Ooh! ooh!!
Cara gave me eleven Neil Young albums while I was down there. I don't think I can get my fill. I've been gettin down to Zuma. I'm really feelin Tonight's the Night. On the Beach slays me.
I guess I decided that if yr down with what Neil's got, then I'll be down with what you got, ya know?

Oh! Oh yeah!

2008-02-27T16:54:00.002-05:00

Hey more and more I doing some more music all everyone join hands!

I'm in Athens, GA right now at the Secret Squirrel working with the band Mouser. Last week I was also in Athens finishing up some material with Cara Beth Satalino. Over the summer we had done some songs, and two of them needed bass parts still, and we finally did them! We also recorded one new song which was essentially guitar and vocals, as well as re-recording her song "Shimmering Thing", which is on her myspace page in demo form (which I actually like a lot!). So six songs total with her! I think when she releases this EP, it will pretty much be thebomb.com!

Last week after leaving Baltimore, I traveled to Raleigh, NC to finish up work with Lonnie Walker. This was a beast of a project, and we got twelve (?) songs finished, tracking each instrument individually. I took a whole notebook woth of take notes. Oh my god! It shall be the beast!

Next is back up to Raleigh to work with Grass Widow. In trying to describe their sound to me, Mike Dillon said they're "Echo and the Bunnymen with ADHD? The Clash with no class?" Pretty good!

Anyway, this is just a little tiny small update. I'm having a good time here in Athens (as always).

On another note, Future Islands has released Wave Like Home, which we recorded together last summer. It's being released on Valient Death records out of Richmond, Va. The release party is just following the Wham City premier of Jurrassic Park, which should be dope city, and all that. I'm so pissed I'm missing it. It's this friday, and I'll be down here in the southlands. Bummer. Also, Nulcear Power Pants is playing, so is EAR PWR, and Bird Names. Anyone in that realm of the Earth would be a fool to miss out, that's all.

ok, well that's it for now. I'm sorry that the last few posts have read like something out of a diary. I suppose I sort of treat this like a weird public diary, I don't know why. Whatever! No regrets!

Maybe I'll start the next post "dear diary..." That would not be funny.

Baltimore

2008-02-13T00:15:00.002-05:00

I'm here in Baltimore mixing the Tall Grass songs which we recorded in November. There's been a little tracking, but not much. There's ice all over everything outside, but that's ok, because I didn't even step out of the house today! I leave for Raleigh on Thursday. Sunny Raleigh...

Hi! It's a thing!

2008-02-03T10:13:00.001-05:00

I'm here again. Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted, but I suppose it's been a long time since I've done something worth posting here! Uh-Oh!

New News!

I've booked another short jaunt down south. It's similar to the one I did over the summer, and it's round two with several bands, which is great!

Here's a rundown, but you can always check the calendar to see what's up, you know?

Baltimore: Mixing with The Tall Grass. We tracked all the way back in November and haven't had a chance to mix until now. I have been aching to hear these songs finished, and it's finally happening!

Raleigh: In early January I went down to Raleigh to record a full length with Lonnie Walker. The album will be on Terpsikhore Records, and it's being recorded at the label's studio in Raleigh. We almost finished it, but there's still some work to do, so there you go.

Athens: Cara Beth Satalino and I worked together over the summer, and we're going to finish up some of that material, and record some new stuff too.

Athens: I've never worked with Mouser before, but I saw them play in Baltimore in the fall. Mercer, who plays drums, is really involved with the Athens DIY music world, and runs the Secret Squirrel. We're still tweaking our schedules on this one, but I think it's a go! Yay!

Raleigh: I think I may be jumping the gun on this one, because I haven't heard back. Who cares! Mike Dillon from Tron Valdez has a new band called Grass Widow, and we had talked about recording, but hadn't notched out a time. I sure hope it works out! Mike is really fun to work with, and he says he's got something special going on!!

Baltimore: This will be my second time working with Ecstatic Sunshine. The lineup has changed since we worked last time. Dustin has left, and David Zimmerman has joined, and is I think is working a sampler going through pedals. Also, much of the last recording (titled Way) was done without Kieran, who had recently joined. I think we'll be doing most of the work in a four day chunk in early March. ok?

ALSO!!!

Dan Deacon is getting ready to record his next album, which is going to contain a good deal of acoustic instruments like marimba, drums, and piano, plus vocals. He's asked me act as engineer and producer for these parts. The working title is Bronst, and he's been playing many of the songs live for the past year. I am so excited to work on this material, and while we were in Europe I was able to really get a feel for how things were working together, and how the songs would shape up in the studio. We don't have a time set for this one yet, but we'll probably start work in March or April.

In Europe! In Prague! Online!

2007-12-11T10:56:00.000-05:00

Good good good!

I'm having a wonderful time here in Europe with Dan Deacon. I just wanted to be like, "hey!"

"Hey!"

It's been really busy, and kinda coo-koo and really fun, but there's so much to tell, and way too much to write about, so I'm just going to link to the photos that gradually stream in.

my flickr page!

There you have it!

Here are some bands that Dan has been playing with during this tour:

Gay Against You from Glasgow

Partyshank from London

You're Only Massive from WATERFORD, IRELAND

No Age from LA, played in London

Girl Talk from Pittsburgh, played in Paris (and also Antwerp on Saturday)

Also!
I've uploaded two new songs to the player!

Kiki is one of nine songs by The Tall Grass that we recorded in November. The album is still unmixed, but it's fun to here that stuff!

Kingdom is one of four songs recorded with Air Waves from Brooklyn.

Enjoy!

KEEPINGITREAL

2007-11-19T01:20:00.000-05:00

So I googled myself tonight.
For those of you that don't know what googling is click here and find out.

I was supremely satisfied with the first hit!
Incredible!!!

Here is a link to the results for the google search "chester endersby gwazda"

UNFORTUNATE UPDATE!!!
The internet is a fickle place. Google is fickle. "Jam Session" is no longer the top hit, and I can't explain it. In times like these, there's nothing to do, but accept the fate of the google, and appreciate that "Jam Session" is even in in my results.
continuing....

This week is Thanksgiving and I am at home in NJ (big surprise).

I have some things to mix before I leave for Europe on the 25th. I think I'll post some mp3s in a day or two, oK?

Also, I bought myself a super sweet digital camera!

New News

2007-11-08T22:43:00.000-05:00

oK oK oK...
I'm not in Peru anymore... actually I've been back for over a week!

I'm in Baltimore with The Tall Grass.

Jared lives at Floristree, where I've been before. It's a great place.

The instrumentation is three electric guitars, drums and vocals. Sometimes there is acoustic guitar. Sometimes there is keyboard. There are nine songs total, and we have all the basic tracks recorded. We tracked the songs live with as much isolation between instruments as possible, so that some of tracks can be replaced later (for better performances/sonic qualitly).

MORE STUFF!!!

I will be going to Europe for a month with Dan Deacon to handle his live sound, sell merch, and lug gear. We leave on November 25th. I've never been to that continent before! Check out Dan's myspace page for the dates. Really exciting!

In early January, I will hopefully be going back down to Raleigh, NC to do another album with Lonnie Walker at a studio run by the band Annuals, which I don't know much about. Yes, yeah...

I'm listening to "Something in the Way" right now.
Now I'm listening to "Cecilia".

नॉट ब्लोग्गिंग... इन पेरू

2007-10-27T18:41:00.000-05:00

I´m in Peru on the internet. That´s oK. I´m not making any music. It´s really great here. I´m visiting my girlfriend, Lizzy. Were having fun.

I´ll be making music in Baltimore next week with The Tall Grass. oK?

Some photos from a roll of photos

2007-10-15T14:32:00.000-05:00

(Air Waves)

(Nicole, from Air Waves)

(Ecstatic Sunshine at the Silent Barn)

(Ecstatic Sunshine)

(Smart Growth)

Google Sky View

2007-10-10T16:22:00.000-05:00

Who's seen the new version of Google Earth? You can hit a button and explore the sky the same way you explore the Earth! It is seriously rad, and I seriously think you should download it (here)! I wouldn't kid around about this. It's serious stuff (space dust).

STARS!!!

That's all I'm going to say about that.

Here's a screenshot with it centered on the Crab Nebula. It isn't even all the way zoomed

Echo Chamber

2007-10-10T02:12:00.000-05:00

I made a little echo chamber out of my parent's living room today. The basement where I recorded Air Waves was small, with low ceilings and carpet, so there was virtually no room sound. I could just add fake plugin reverb to stuff, but my reverb plugins suck, so I did this. I think the sound of this room is better than I could get with most plugins anyway. It sounds like a small reflective living room. Perfect!

Another reason I wanted to do this was because almost all the sounds other than the drum kit were miked in mono, which is boring.

Air Waves

2007-10-08T22:46:00.000-05:00

Reporting!

Air Waves
We worked on Friday and Saturday in Long Island, and got four songs recorded (one being "Gems", which has been recorded before, and is up on their myspace page.

Gems
Kingdom
Lightning
A new song which I called Newsies

I would put up pictures, but I still have to make the digital revolution Y2K.

I'm going to mix this week. Yes.

Later in the week I'll be going back down to Baltimore to work with Smart Growth. I think it's really gonna happen this time!

Oh! And I'm going to Peru for 10 days in less than two weeks! My girlfriend, Lizzy, has been studying there since the beginning of September. It's crazy! I can't wait!

Ecstatic Sunshine Mixerz

2007-10-04T14:48:00.000-05:00

I was in Baltimore for the past three days making revisions to the Ecstatic Sunshine mixes. I'm really glad we decided to do that. It was very important. We recorded five songs total, one which we created this week by sampling a section of one of the other songs, looping it, and effecting it. The order of the songs (and actually, which ones will be included) is still undecided.

The record will hopefully come out early next year on Cardboard Records.

Ecstatic Sunshine's second full length was released just last week. It's called Living and it's available online from Wildfire Wildfire Records. It's an LP with a CD enclosed. Yeah!

I'm going to Brooklyn tomorrow to record Airwaves. Actually, I think we're working somewhere on Long Island. I don't know anything about that place. Long Island...

We're working for just two days, Friday and Saturday.

On another note, I got new monitors! Now if I make some stupid sound that I like because of how stupid it is, I can be sure it really sounds as stupid as it is, and I'm not being decieved by poor monitoring! Yay!

I got the Adam A7's because I read that they were good. They are! I like them a lot!

Going to NYC this weekend... no joke!

2007-09-27T20:55:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm going to see Ecstatic Sunshine play with Dirty Projectors at the Mercury Lounge on Friday, and with Zs at the Silent Barn on Saturday.

On Sunday I'll be going to Baltimore to finish up some mixing with Matt and Dustin from Ecstatic Sunshine for a day or two. Then it's back to New York to work with Air Waves in Brooklyn. Ryan, the bassist in Airwaves is also Ryan from Hologram, and it will be nice to work with him again. Nicole Schneit writes the songs for Air Waves, and they are really good!
(air waves)
(I nabbed this picture off of Flickr. I hope that's ok leafblower!)

Oh yeah!

Just Kidding!

2007-09-24T07:57:00.000-05:00

I'm not actually going to Baltimore. Denny just called me, and he can't work this week.

Smart Growth!

2007-09-23T22:34:00.000-05:00

I'm going down to Baltimore this week to record drums with Smart Growth, which is Denny Bowen. We're recording exclusively drums. The project is completely electronic otherwise. Denny lives in the Copy Cat building, which should be really good for recording drums, because all the places are big warehouse type places with high ceilings. Yesssssssssssssssssss!

Denny also plays drums in Double Dagger and plays guitar in Yukon. I think I'll be down there all week. This weekend Ecstatic Sunshine is playing with Dirty Projectors at the Mercury Lounge on Friday, and Zs at the Silent Barn on Saturday. I think I'll be up for both shows. Fun in the big city!! Hey!

Fugz

2007-09-17T16:55:00.000-05:00

So the mixed (almost totally mixed) version of "Tropical Number One" by Ecstatic Sunshine is FINALLY uploaded, and you can listen to it compared to the unmixed one if you want. I decided to do that with this track because we changed the sound pretty drastically when mixing this project. It's interesting. It is!

So I was in NYC this weekend hanging out with Dan Deacon and friends. Dan is on tour with Girl Talk, and they played both Webster Hall and The Bowery Ballroom on Saturday night. It was really fun. I was up in the special section at Webster Hall and it was weird. I was on the floor at the Bowery, and it was sick-wicked.

On Sunday there was a Todd P. show outdoors in Brooklyn.
There were a bunch of bad ass bands:

Dan Deacon
USAisamonster
Aa (aka BIG A little a)
Best Fwends
These Are Powers
High Places

My neck is really sore from headbanging.

I didn't have my camera, but I'm an ace at searching Flickr! Both photos are from someone who I guess was standing right next to me. Not a big deal. The bottom one is of Ben Furgal dancing in a circle. It was sassy as fuck.

Some photos from Baltimore

2007-09-08T13:52:00.001-05:00

For a whole bunch of photos, go to my picasa page.

Ecsttc Snshn mix

2007-09-07T02:07:00.000-05:00

So I've uploaded the finished mix of "Tropical #1". It's up in the player just below the unmixed one. Compare them! You'll see why I said the mixing made some drastic changes. I'll leave them up there together for a while, but not too long...

I'm psyced!

(oh, on a side note, I'm up kinda late here at the Floristree in Baltimore, and I think one of the roomates fell asleep with a locked-groove jamming pretty high. It's, like, a slide guitar thing with piano. It's kinda nice, but it's the sort of thing that gets irritating after 45 minutes. Ok!)

FUCK! THE FILE ISN'T WORKING, AND THE SITE THAT HOSTS MY SONGS HAS TEMPORARILY DISABLED UPLOADING. IT'S ANNOYING, BUT HOPEFULLY IT WILL WORK SOON.

Artifact-Matafact

2007-09-07T01:18:00.000-05:00

So we just finished up mixing the Ecstatic Sunshine recording. We did four songs total. Two of the songs are over ten minutes long. The whole project was really exciting to be a part of. We spent far more time mixing than tracking. The changes made during mixing were significant. Lots of stuff was sent through ¼" tape. We added a ton of grit in this way. We ran some sounds though effect pedals. We did crazy stuff. We took out whole sections of songs. It was great. Anyway, I'll probably get some stuff up tonight...

(click this photo!)

So I'm leaving Baltimore (after being here for over a week) to go up to New York to see an art show in Long Island City that my brother Farley has work in. The show is called Artifact-Metafact: artists exploring the transformation of visual symbols, and is at Repetti Gallery, and the opening is on Saturday night. Pretty psyced. Unfortunately, Farley won't be there, because he's in California studying art ('er sumpin') at UC Berkley.

Here is a post describing the project. I'd like to go as some sort of surrogate for my brother, but I think it would be stupid to send someone to talk for you who doesn't know what they're talking about...

Planz

2007-09-03T23:06:00.000-05:00

Hey
I've been asked about my plans for the future.

I am aware that I whine a lot. "What do I do now? Who's out there?" Whaa whaa whaa... (like a baby)

I do in fact want to book another tour. I guess I've just been lazy about it since my plans opened up in September.
I'm going to be back at home in NJ with nothing to do later this week, so I'll proably start my PR work then. I still don't know where I'm going to be living next month, though, so that presents a problem. Also, I am going to Peru for ten days in the middle of October. $$$ is also an issue. I've been ignoring that recently, as my funds have been gradually dimishining. I'll make it work, though. Ok?

The Weedsnake

2007-09-03T11:18:00.000-05:00

The Weedsnake is a restaraunt night the guys at Floristree put on every other Sunday. It was last night, and it was totally killer. Each time there is a different head chef. This week it was Matt Papich from Ecstatic Sunshine.

The menu was:

Fresh Fruit with balsalmic glaze and honey

Date, goat cheese, and grilled summer vegetable sandwich served on a lightly toasted ciabatta

Grilled sweet corn with roasted garlic and rosemary butter

Champagne sorbet served with carmelized peach halves

Pretty yummy stuff.

Each time they serve about fourty people for $7 a head. I saw a lot of people durung the day on Sunday who were bummed that they hadn't RSVP'd in time.
I'm not much help in the kitchen, but I wrote out the menu on a chalk board, and I think it looked pretty damn nice (I do calligraphy, which I learned while I was not taking notes in high school and college)

I should have some photos up, but I'm shooting film these days. Ho hum.

We'll be spending the next two or three days mixing and editing, then I'll be going back up to NJ. Before I go, though, I'm hoping to go with Dan Deacon to check out this big warehouse type space in Baltimore that he saw for rent on Craigslist. If it looks really awesome (we already know it doesn't have a bathroom), I might move down to Baltimore and live there and have a studio, maybe, and a place to have shows.

Exclusively rap shows.

Tropical One (working title)

2007-08-30T23:32:00.000-05:00

Seriously!

I've uploaded an unmixed song from Ecstatic Sunshine. We just finished tracking today, and will be editing and mixing tomorrow evening and early next week. The album we're recording is four songs, which I've described in earlier posts.

The song that's up is the shortest of this collection, and probably the one with the most riffers. The working title is Tropical One (you'll see why when you listen), and it's in the player at the top of the page! You know?

We're tracking in this big warehouse space on the top floor of a six floor building near downtown in Baltimore. The room is really great for recording (there are a ton of spaces like this in Baltimore... so cool). It's the apartment that hosted Whartscape earlier this summer. It's called Floristree, and the guys that live there have a ton of awesome shows. Check it!

If you've heard Ecstatic Sunshine's stuff, or seen them live, you know that it's only two dudes on guitars, so micing the setup wasn't terribly complicated. The guys tracked seperately, so the setup was: a stereo pair of omni room mics way far back, and an sm57(dynamic) paired with a 4033(large condenser) on the amp (both more or less centered). The important part of recording these guys is setting the tone on the guitars, pedals, and amps appropriately for the parts, then capturing that sound accurately. The songs rely heavily on texture, so the relationship between the room mics to the close mics is a big deal.

Anyway, that's where my attention was through most of it. That and quality control, as always! (but not in a dick way, ok?)

Check it!

(Oh, I nabbed the picture off their myspace page! It's by Devon, of Wildfire Wildfire Records)

Ecstc Snshn

2007-08-29T22:46:00.000-05:00

Hey now,
Today was the first day tracking with Ecstatic Sunshine in Baltimore! Listen to some of the music on their myspace page. Their new material is much less rock based than the songs on Freckle Wars, their first record label release.
Compare "Pocket Knife" or "Little Dipper Big Dipper" to "Felt Flag" or "Duck". The latter two songs will be on their next release Living, which will be out in September on Wildfire Wildfire Records and Carpark.

The four songs that we are recording this week are even delay heavy and less rock based than "Felt Flag" or "Duck". Also, the songs are considerably longer than anything on Freckle Wars. The new sounds are much more atmospheric, and somewhat more grown-up. They still has all the wickedness, and of course, are expertly crafted. I'll get some mp3's up soon!

I suck at writing these faggy descriptions. Check out one written by a professional on the Carpark site.

Ok!

On another note, my girlfriend Lizzy flew down to Peru yesterday to study there until December. She's entered the bloggosphere, so it doesn't feel like 10,000 miles, but half of that, which is 5,000 miles.

Oh, and I can't take any digital pictures, because I was borrowing her camera, and she needed it. yes yes

L A T E R .

What's Next??

2007-08-23T22:48:00.000-05:00

Ok...
So having finished mixing all of this summer's music, I'm wondering what to do this fall?
I really don't know. I suppose I'll try to keep doing what I've been doing, recording bands on the road.

I found out today that a potential plan for the month of September has fallen through, and my schedule for that month is all but completely vacant.

Where to live?? How do make the moneys?? I'm not sure...

Recording Ecstatic Sunshine will be a really good time. Lonnie Walker and I have been talking about working together in Raleigh some time in October, which will be good. Maybe that means another southern jaunt is in order?

Well well well.

Ecstatic Sunshine

2007-08-17T07:29:00.000-05:00

Woot!
I've just scheduled three days of recording with Ecstatic Sunshine from Baltimore!

These guys are ill. Their album Freckle Wars is fucking awesome. If you haven't heard this band, got to their myspace page right now. I'd say they are one of my favorite bands in this great jam session we call Earth. The band is Matt Papich (also in The Death Set) and Dustin Wong (also in Ponytail). They are a Wham City band, and they played at Whartscape last month, and it was great.

In other news, there is a chance that I will be accompanying Dan Deacon and Girl Talk on their nationwide tour in September, recording Dan's live sets. This is a big big maybe, so maybe I shouldn't be posting it yet, but it's, like, whatever!

Also, check out Jimmy Joe Roche's advertisement for his tour with OCDJ and Rubbed Raw:

HOLY GRAHAM

2007-08-06T09:42:00.000-05:00

The last day of tracking was last night. Will and Max from Lions & Tigers came up to Purchase, NY where we finished up the vocal tracking. This is the only collection of songs that I've tracked in the past month and a half that I will not be mixing myself.

Hologram was up here in Port Chester recording five songs from Thursday to Saturday. We recorded in this big Jazz rehearsal room at SUNY Purchase that has a huge sound. It was pretty fun recording in such a huge space and getting so much reverb and all that fun stuff! Uh-Huh!

After recording, Ryan Trott from Hologram stuck around and we got all the mixes done, which is great, because it would probably take me a long time to get to them. Now I can post them right away!
It was kinda hard picking which song to upload. I chose Team, which is the first song we recorded, and the first one on the EP.
It's up top in the player!

Recording with these guys was really great. They are playing at this show "Serpent Fest" in Brooklyn this weekend. Here's the flyer, which is drawn by my friend Jason Roy!

UPDATE: Serpent Fest may not be happening. They don't have a venue anymore. It might still happen, but at a different place (if they find one).
(click for pulsation)

Hologram

2007-08-02T12:32:00.000-05:00

Yo! Big Ups!

We be r'cordn en Purchase NY mon!

Hologram is coming up from Brooklyn today to record up in Purchase NY at SUNY Purchase which has a nice big room for tracking. It's the same room there I worked with Du Yun in June. It's especially nice for drums.

We'll be working for three days, and they will be staying in my apartment in Port Chester.

This will officially be the last band of the tour. After this it is strictly mixing (and going backpacking at some point in August). But after this, ALL I KNOW IS MIXING!!! Whatever!

Funny thing

2007-07-29T10:56:00.000-05:00

After recording for twelve hours straight yesterday, we went to a party in Brooklyn at a friend of the dudes in Lions & Tigers, and in an odd coincidence my friends Alec, AJ, Dan Deacon, and Erika were there! I wasn't really planning on staying for long, but it was a nice surprise, so I stuck around. That's all. It was a weird bump-in.

We have almost all the guitars done, and when we finish that up, we have only vocals, violin, acoustic guitar, and some percussion.

I have internet, but not much to post!

2007-07-28T12:36:00.000-05:00

Hey!
I'm in Brooklyn with the band Lions & Tigers.
Whartscape was awesome! I'm not going to go over it all. Too much was happening. Instead, check out Pitchfork's review of the event. Wham City is really blowing up big!

Recording Ulitmate reality was the shit. It's sounding really good, and it's all mixed, ready to be mastered. More on that later... I slept really late today, and now it's time to work...

Got in last night around 6 and recorded 'till about 3 in the morning. We're doing six songs from now until the 1st of August. The drums bass and keys were recorded before I arrived by a dude Andrew who is involved with DFA Records. We spent all last night working on guitar for their song "Vichy".

I don't think I'll be posting unfinished mp3s of this project, because most of it so far is not my work. Perhaps when everything is done and mixed (not by me, most likely) I will put up a song or two.

Dan Deacon ULTIMATE_REALITY

2007-07-26T19:03:00.000-05:00

So we've finished up in Baltimore recording and mixing the drums for Ultimate Reality! Everything sounds sick and ill and killer and I posted an excerpt in the player. There is one fourteen minute piece, and one twelve minute piece. The twelve minute piece is not so drum heavy, while the fourteen minute one is really drum heavy. In fact, the fourteen minute one is just really fucking heavy! The live drums (especcially the cymbals) really help achieve the driving sound. We kept the sound really dry (not very much room sound), and recorded in a small dead room. Whatever! Just listen to it!

The two drummers are Kevin O'Meara (Video Hippos, Butt Stomach) and Jeremy Hyman (Ponytail). It was great working with both these guys. They are fucking awesome drummers. Perfect for this project. They have always been the drummer for this piece, to my knowledge. It was performed live a number of times. When I saw it, it was really really loud. It was perfect. It's the score to a movie, so it seems like the visuals supercede the music unless you blast it really really loud!

Here's an actual clip from the film, by Jimmy Joe Roche. This is the first section, I believe. We recorded drums for sections two and three!

The Ultimate Reality DVD is scheduled to be released by Carpark.

The DVD release show is hopefully (and probably) going to be in the Museum of Natural History in NYC sometime early next year, with the video being played along with a performance of the score under the huge fucking whale!

Whartscape

2007-07-19T08:29:00.000-05:00

This weekend I'm going down to Baltimore to attend Wham City's Whartscape Festival which is a three day event with, like, thirty bands. Future Islands and Lizz King will both be playing during the day on Saturday.
I'm pretty psyced to see Ponytail play on Saturday night, because I've never seen them live. XBXRX has a really energetic set as well, and that should be cool. I really liked High Places when I saw them last spring, and they are playing Friday evening. Cars Will Burn, who I saw in Greenville last month (and blogged) is playing on Friday during the day. Also, I definately won't miss Dan's set!

Anyway, it should be a cool show. I'd advise anyone in the area to come down, but it's all sold out!

TRON VALDEZ - THE GOVERNOR

2007-07-19T08:11:00.000-05:00

Done and done!
The Tron Valdez mixes are all done! And I'm posting one of the songs in the player!

Looking for Someone Special

2007-07-17T17:38:00.000-05:00

So in the 26 days that I was on the road, I was able to record 28 songs! That's pretty good!
Most are completely tracked and ready to mix, and some still need more added, (in particular the four songs by Lizz King).
I'm in Port Chester, NY this week taking a little break from tracking to get some mixes done! I also went to the beach! Alright!

So i sent the two Tron Valdez mixes over the world wide web to Chapel Hill, NC to be evaluated by Chris and Mike. I'll post one of the finished mixes in the player as soon as I make their revisions! Probably tomorrow...

Right now I'm diving into the Future Islands mixes.

"Looking for someone special"
refers to my quest for more bands to record.

I really need to get cracking with promotion! Most of the bands I worked with in the past month gave me a place to sleep, food, and a little gas money, if they could. Next time, I'm hoping to break even! That means probably around 20-30 dollars per song, which is fucking rediculously cheap! Maybe I shouldn't be posting that info on the www? The reason I do it so cheap is because I really want to work with the bands that I want to work with, and not have money stop that from happening. Still, I need to get from place to place, and I'd like it if I didn't have to break my back carrying barns around to afford it.

Basically this is an OPEN CALL to those that are in a band, or know someone who plays music and would like to record as part of the project! It's really fun!
CONTACT ME!! Please do!

On Break!!!

2007-07-11T23:15:00.000-05:00

I am going home tomorrow! Time to mix! Yay!
I've been in Sheperdstown, WV since Sunday night recording Lizz King. We have about four songs recorded without overdubbs. We did the takes live, with Lizz singing as well as playing either the banjo or a resonator guitar. We recorded in her friend's house which is probably two hundred years old. There recordings definately sound nice and livingroomy. The space was kinda small, but it worked really well. We also got up at five o'clock yesterday morning to record out in the woods behind the house when the birds were singing and there weren't too many cars passing by! I guess you could say we were trying to get a kinda "back woods" feel to the song! hahahahaha.... hahahaha!!!!

hahaha!
So the next stop is Baltimore, MD to record the drums for a collaboration between Jimmy Joe Roche and Dan Deacon.

Here's a video of ULTIMATE REALITY being presented live:
There's a clip of the actual video here
And you can BUY JIMMY'S DVD's HERE!!

There are two drummers, Kevin O'Meara (Video Hippos, Butt Stomach) and Jeremy Hyman (Ponytail). I'm pretty psyced about this project!
It'll be happening the week of the 23rd, right after the Whartscape music festival in Baltimore, which is right before I go to court on the 23rd for not having my registration, even though I showed it to the police officer! Ugh!

After that is Lions & Tigers in Brooklyn, and Hologram (also from Brooklyn, but being recorded in Purchase, NY.)

Who know's what's next after that?
Do you??? I need some help booking in September, so if you can think of anyone who'd like to work with me, send them my link, or email me at cgwazda@gmail.com!!
Awesome! Check the post below. I posted twice tonight!

Sneak Peek

2007-07-11T22:31:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I havn't put very much stuff up recently, but there hasn't been very much internet...

To make it up to you, I've posted a sneak peek of Cara's song "Fisherman's Family" in the player (you might need to use the scroll bar). It will only going to be up until I can get more recent material posted. The song will be on her new EP, so buy it when she gets them printed up! You can see some of her old songs (and buy her previous release) HERE.

There are two projects that I have posted very little info on. They came as a surprise last Friday in Raleigh, when Mike Dillon from Tron Valdez put me in touch with his roomates wo ho wanted to record. There's Matt Parsons and Rachel and Roxanne who are in a noise group called BoyZone. Both projects went really well.

Both groups were recorded in Mike Dillon's basement. It's mostly used for shows and practice, so it's a little untidy. (Mike's actually looking for someone to move in, so if you want to live in Raleigh...)
For Matt, we had his guitar going into my amplifier, which was cranked, but still sounded kinda clean. Jason Crumer, who lives in the house, was really fucking enthusiastic, and should be considered the co-producer of this particular jam. He let us pump the guitar through his big cab via my RAT pedal. That filled in the bottom end of the guitar sound. Nice work Jason. Check out Jason's website, or his band Face Down in Shit.
Matt's sister Laura plays drums. Being that the music was a bit on the sloppy side, and we were in a filthy basement, I decided to keep the drum sounds pretty raw. I used two mics: the kick mic on the beater head, and two dynamic tom mics as overheads. Most of the sound from the three songs we recorded came from a spaced pair of omni-directional mics.
Like I said, pretty raw! Appropriately wraw!

Boyzone was all done live, including the mixing. There might be some revisions, but I tried to get the piece mixed and delivered that day, so that they could edit the mix themselves and pick out the best sections of the performance. It's not the sort of thing that I can do without their input, and I'm not going to be around, so I kinda sloughed it off on them!
The ensemble was one drummer, one vocalist, and four players creating noise with feedback, samplers, mics, contact mics, cymbal, and debris (like cans, wires, metal, etc.) The drums had the same setup as before. Most of the sound was picked up by the two omni room mics, but I also spot miced what I could. The vocalist was singing into a handheld mic. ok ok ok ok...

Ok!

2007-07-10T04:34:00.001-05:00

Sorry people! I will try to post some stuff later today.
I'm in West Virginia with Lizz King and we're waking up real early to record outside before a lot of people are out driving....

Lack o' Internet = Lack o' Posts

2007-07-09T02:51:00.000-05:00

Just got in to West Virginia to record Lizz King. Recorded two surprise acts in Raleigh, NC this weekend. Two groups who live with Mike Dillon from Tron Valdez.
Time to sleep now.

Finally! Some legit swimming!

2007-07-05T09:15:00.000-05:00

We didn't get too much recording done yesterday, but we did go to a wicked quarry with a 20' jump! That's me landing in the water (I think). I love to jump!

New Music! Mad fast!

2007-07-04T00:29:00.000-05:00

Check out the player!!!(tron valdez)

I'm in Chapel Hill, NC right now with Mike and Chris from Tron Valdez (link for their brand new myspace page). We got done with the first day of recording and we're almost done! We're recording in Chris's living room. We did drums and guitar live, with the guitar amp miked up in a bedroom so that there wasn't too much bleed to the drum mics.

Music is happening a lot faster than I thought it would! I think the standard time from now on will be one day per song. I mean, I came here a day early because Lonnie Walker's songs went so fast! There is a boatload of mixing to do... there will be time for that soon. Here's a little update on that: Two of Cara's songs still need bass. I guess that will get done after she gets back from tour. Future Islands' songs will be mixed after Tron Valdez's, because that has a sooner deadline (for the Tron Valdez/Future Islands split 12").

There are three new tracks in the player! Fresher than Fresh, I guess.

First is "Obliteration", the first piece I recorded for this project, which was composed by Du Yun and performed by her with John Mannion and Jeremy Nissan. This is a three minute excerpt from the middle of the 20 minute piece for chinese zither, low-frequency noise/electronics, percussion, and vocals.

The other two tracks are so rough and so fresh! These are rough mixes, but that's what this site is about!
Tron Valdez is recording two songs total, and we only really have vocals left to track! Went really quick, and I'm pretty happy with the sound! Tron Valdez!

Lonnie Walker! Goodbye Greenville!

2007-07-02T02:57:00.000-05:00

I think I might be leaving Greenville one day early. Things with Lonnie Walker went really fucking fast. We did six songs total:

Back Home Inside with You
Get Back Home
Pendulum's Chest
Summertime
Suspicious Compound
Wider Than White

Most of the songs were tracked live. I'm gonna upload two songs, probably. They are totally unmixed. I was like, "I'll go out and have some beers, and then I'll mix!" It didn't really work. Revision!

Here's a video. Sometimes you just need to have the sound of a bottle breaking in a song! This was for the song "Summertime". BDC, who plays guitar and sings has the mic. Raymond is the drummer, and is in charge of throwing the beer bottle against the wall out back of the Backdoor Skateshop, where were were recording.

Lonnie Walker

2007-06-30T01:30:00.000-05:00

I'll be with Lonnie Walker in Greenville, NC until Monday. We're doing six or seven songs total, I think. It was going to be four or five, but today was so successful that we might do more!

We recorded the basic tracks (drums, two electric guitars, bass, and keys) for four (three and a half) songs today. It went really well. Just the standard live setup projecting down a really long room. It's a nice space (same place we recorded future islands).

These guys rock a lot harder than I thought they would based on the music from their myspace page! It was pretty fucking loud. Electric guitars! Maybe there will be some unfinished samples ready tomorrow...

Here's a video of them tracking earlier this evening. it's a guitar solo (the only one we had today!)

Future Islands Wrap-Up

2007-06-29T12:48:00.000-05:00

We finished up tracking and most of the editing for Future Islands late last night. We recorded nine songs total:

Beach Foam
Escape Artist
Flicker and Flutter
Heart Grows Old
Little Dreamer
Nu Autobahn
Old Friend
Seize a Shark
Wave Like Home

There is still some editing to do, and a lot of mixing. Some of this material is going on a 12" 45-rpm split with Tron Valdez, who I'm recording in Raleigh, NC next week. I might upload another song or two after they're finished. I wonder which ones...

Today I start working with Lonnie Walker, also from Greenville, NC. We're working in the same space as Future Islands, so I don't have to move my stuff, which is good. Also, it's a really cool room. Really lonng with a wood floor. It's also right in the center of town. There's a good view of all the drunk people who stumble out of the bars at 2am (it's a college town that doesn't really stop during the summer!)

The instrumentation for Lonnie Walker is two guitars, bass, keys, drums, and vocals. The lead singer and primary song writer is Brian Corum, who sent me demos for two songs, "Back Home Inside with You" and "Suspicious Compound". I guess he'll be getting here around three or four, and we'll get started. Until then, I'm just puttering.

One of the things I'm doing now is mixing Du Yun's piece titled "Obliteration", wich we recorded in early June. Maybe I'll put it up. Maybe I'll wait until we're done revising it. Yeah!

Last day with Future Islands. Theremin Recording!

2007-06-28T23:35:00.000-05:00

Here's a video of Steve Backus, a theremin player who is friends with Future Islands. We did theremin parts for two songs, mostly to add some extra texture. Steve's getting pretty wild in this clip as he records a noisy part during a percussion section in the song "Old Friend".
sorry about the short length, that's as long as I can get my camera to record.

LINKS!!
Steve Backus' solo project
and his band, Network of Terror

Mixes Fukkaz!!

2007-06-28T00:30:00.000-05:00

We've got two mixes almost done...
Most of the tracking for Future Islands is finished. Editiing and mixing is the next thing pretty much! Three songs still need vocals...

There are two new songs in the player above. "Flicker and Flutter" may be "the single" from the album, which has nine songs and is tentatively named Wave Like Home.

Little Dreamer is the slowest song we're recording this week.

Let's get some feedback! These sneaky tracks are still officially unfinished!
"the humble producer"

La Playa

2007-06-26T22:59:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to get shit working with the player. It's working for now. I think it will be working for a while. We're recording presently. Enough downtime to write this silly blurb! I'll try to post some of today's progress! We'll have all the base tracks done by the end of the night. We also have three songs with vocals, and some embellishment. Everyone's hands are are getting crazy.

Future Islands, Tron Valdez, Death Set, and Adventure Show

2007-06-26T02:45:00.000-05:00

(me playing bass with Tron Valdez)

Went to a show at the Spazz in Greenville (which apparently these days the only place for music besides one house). Tron Valdez came from Raleigh, and I got to play bass during their set! There's a photo above. Now, I'd never heard the music from this band, so I had no idea what I was doing. It sounded pretty good, though! Mike and Chris from Tron Valdez are really fun, and I'm pretty psyced to be recording with them next week! We've got three days to do do two songs. I think it's gonna go real well!

The Spazzatorium Galleria is a pretty cool venue. Jeff Blinder runs the place and is always looking for good acts to play. It's definately a worthwhile place to stop on tour!

First day with Future Islands... and blog problems

2007-06-25T20:31:00.000-05:00

First, the player at the top of the page isn't working because the free sites I use to host the mp3's limit my bandwidth, and no more music will flow. I can't move them to another site, because my hard drive is at Backdoor where we were recording today. In the meantime, go to Cara's myspace page or the Future Islands myspace page to hear some of their other songs.

So Future Islands and I are recording nine songs this week. We started tracking today. We did most of the songs live without a click, which was totally the bomb because the band was really tight. I'm really happy with how fast things are going with these guys. They are really well rehearsed, so we were able to get the drums, bass, and main synth parts done for six songs today. I'll post the unmixed track in the player. It's called Escape Artists, and they wrote it yesterday!

I;m just about to leave the house here to go to see Future Islands play with Tron Veldez, formerly know as Spinx, the guys from Raleigh, NC that I'm recording next week. The Death Set from Baltimore are also playing tonight. I really love this band. Matt, who is half of the duo, is also in Ecstatic Sunshine, who are incredible! Adventure (my friend Benny Boelt from Greenville), Ghetto Pony (who I've never heard) are also playing.

Ok. I really need to get going. Show is about to start, and I don't want to be blogging instead of doing other cool things (besides blogging because it is also so cool!)

Yes! Ok. I'll fix the player soon!
Yo-Yo Ma

Cat in a Bottle!

2007-06-25T09:44:00.000-05:00

This is Cara's kitty cat Wilma. You can hear her on some songs. She liked having me around because there were so many audio cables for her to chew and play with!

Cara says "Cat in a bottle!"

Remember to scroll down. I posted three times this morning. I'm going to work on posting more. Sometimes it's hard to find the opportunity. At least I can show pictures now! Also, maybe I'm take more video, because I won't worry about the camera memory filling up. Ok! Hey hey!

Arriving in Greenville

2007-06-25T02:30:00.000-05:00

I'll be here in Greenville, NC recording both Future Islands and Lonnie Walker until July 2nd.

First thing I did when I arrived is go to a house show and saw a noise guy called Cars Will Burn who has this insanely bright loud contraption that blasts light in sync to the music (the noise music!)

Here's a picture I took and a video I found on YouTube:

The guy in the foreground is holding his ears. It was pretty loud, but honestly, for a noise show, the volume was pretty low!

It was great to see the Future Islands guys again. I'm really excited to record this week...
The objective is to finish NINE SONGS in four days! That's a fucking rock-block (non-stop rock block?)

We're starting first thing tomorrow morning in their practice space above The Backdoor Skate Shop.

(sam from future islands)

Leaving Athens

2007-06-25T00:41:00.000-05:00

Cara and I recorded four songs total:

Gift Horse
Good Ones
Fisherman's Family
Easy

I think I'll post "Good Ones" in the player. It isn't quite done yet, but it's almost there. Needs bass (we didn't have a bass in Athens) and some mix revision. "Fisherman's Family" also needs some cleaning up, so you won't hear that one for a while!
Cara played drums on "Easy". Guess who's drumming on "Good Ones"? Me! I am! I also played drums for Cara's show on Saturday. It was so much fun. I was really nervous that everyone was like, "that dude has no idea what he's doing". I think it probably sounded ok, though.
The show on Saturday was at a place in Athens called Nuçi's Space which is a non-profit health and music center. They help provide musicians in town with doctors, counselors, and lawyers. It's also a venue and a coffeshop. I don't know. Seems like a cool idea.

So I think "Gift Horse" is the winner for this collection of songs. Cara likes "Good Ones". Anyone have a preference between these two?

Also, I'm psyced that I got some pics from my camera!
I put up some photos up. From the top: Cara performing on Saturday night at Nuçi's Space; trying to get the kitty, Wilma, to meew; the setup in the kitchen; Cara tracking guitar; another pic of Cara performing live; goofing off!

Gift Horse

2007-06-22T13:55:00.000-05:00

I've posted the finished version of Gift Horse by Cara Satalino.
The unmixed version was avilable in this post.

I'm really excited about this song! Cara is a really amazing vocalist, and you'll see it even more when I upload more songs!
We wanted it to be a little rough, and it didn't need percussion, so it was mostly recorded live, with some vocal harmonies and doubling added later. There is also tambourine and a bass-like electric guitar line.
Whe mixing, I added a little delay to the room mics.
Also, I used the tape machine to grit up the sound a little. The distortion that you get by running audio through the tape is really nice. I can't really describe it, but you can hear it when you compart the two versions of the song. There are also impurities in the tape which just make it sound that much nastier. Maybe took it too far, but I think it sounds pretty fucking awesome! I ran the vocals and the mix through seperately. Just cranked it!

Also, there were stereo omnidirectional room mics during the guitar/vocal take, and it helped so much. They added a good living room sound (of course, because we recorded in the living room), and they also gave it a nice stereo image. It's kinda subtle until you hear it in mono (maybe it just mixes to mono poorly! I dunno). I'm really happy with the stereo element to the song.
Yeah, this song is really fun! Check it out... It's in the player on the top of the page!

More in Athens!

2007-06-22T09:37:00.000-05:00

Great!
We just pretty much finished tracking yesterday. We don't have a bass guitar here though, so one of us will have to do it on a later date. I'm trying to mix everything that's ready before I leave on Sunday so that Cara can take some CDs with her on tour when she leaves on monday. She's going to Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio with a band called Algernon Cadwallader from Philidelphia.

This weekend is Athfest, the Athens local music festival. There are, like, a zillion bands playing. Cara is playing at Nuçi's space on Saturday, and I think I'm playing drums, which is gonna be really fun because I havn't played live music in a long time...

...I'm not very good at the drums.

I think I'm gonna put some of the the songs up on the player as I mix them.
Woo woo!!!

First Day! Cara Satalino!

2007-06-19T01:44:00.001-05:00

I'm in Athens, Georgia recording Cara Satalino. This is the first day of recording on this trip... so far it's going great! We got some scratch tracks done and we did the guitar and vocals for her song "Gift Horse". This song was recorded live without a click, just Cara and her guitar..

Here's a rough mix of what we did today on "Gift Horse"

The setup was simply Cara in her living room standing next to her amp. The amp was mic'ed with one mic (sm57), she was singing into a large condenser, and there was a spaced omni pair for the room...

Is this too much info on the recording process itself? Not enough? Maybe it's just boring the way I present it?

Anyway, Cara's songs are really incredible! I think this is gonna go really well. I'll try to post material as it's created!
Enjoy!

ps. I can't post any pictures just yet, because I havn't recieved the cable to connect the camera!

Old Tapes

2007-06-15T23:52:00.000-05:00

I found some old tapes while I was cleaning out my old bedroom in NJ. I think my brother Henry had them stashed away. They are most precious. Here's one of the first songs I ever recorded. It's me on piano with Brian McCarthy on guitar, then one of us overdubbed the bass by playing along to another cassette. I think we were 13 years old.
Download the song, dude!

Comment on MYSPACE

2007-06-13T22:57:00.000-05:00

Ok, so there are a lot of links to myspace on my blog. I just want to get it out there that I actually think myspace is pretty cool for giving info about bands and providing a means to contact the band directly if you choose. It's really easy to link to, and most bands have a page. I don't really care for the layout or all the stupid ads and such, but it is nice to have sort of a standard thing, I guess. That's all.

UPDATE (or "Git 'er Done 2")

2007-06-11T22:36:00.000-05:00

So I just talked with Mike Dillon of SPINX, a newly formed band from Raleigh, NC. Mike is of the now "R.I.P" band Spader, whose drummer Chris is the other half of Spinx. Spinx is drums, sampler, guitar, bass, and vox. We'll be recording during the first week in July, probably at Mike's apartment in Raleigh. Some of what we are recording will be on a 12" 45-RPM split with Future Islands. Hey Hey...

Also spoke to ELIZA DOUGLAS, who had been making folk-type music under the name We Are Married. Eliza was in the band Bunny Brains, and was for some time singing backup for Devendra Banhart. Eliza has songs on her myspace page that she recorded by herself on a four-track.

REPORT: Du Yun, John Mannion, and Jeremy Nissan

2007-06-11T08:03:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we recorded some really far out music! The primary piece was titled "OBLITERATION" (instrumentation listed below). Du Yun was singing and playing the zither by bowing, plucking, and tapping or scraping with a metal rod. The zither was recorded clean and live processed by John with his laptop. Jeremy created a feedback loop with his pedals, feeding thw signal to two amps. He also added additional effects with his pedal. During the final section of the piece, Jeremy added percussion on a concert bass drum, a snare, and a cymbal.

We also recorded several short pieces with just John on electric guitar and Du Yun on piano or zither.

So... I don't really know how mp3 posting is going to work. It will be some time until I can get rough mixes. Du Yun and I will be mixing some time in July. Maybe I can post some of the shorter pieces soon...
UNTIL THEN, listen to some of Du Yun's music HERE (or here)!

Du Yun, John Mannion, and Jeremy Nissan

2007-06-08T17:25:00.000-05:00

This weekend I'll be up in Purchase, NY recording a New Music type ensemble. The piece is composed by Du Yun with John Mannion and Jeremy Nissan (both of Accretion Disk) accompanying. Here is some info sent to me by Du Yun about the piece:

Du Yun: ampflied Chinese zither (one out to the amp, unprocessed; one
out to John's mixer, processed), vocal

John Mannion: laptop (live electronics) - mostly low frequencies and
live process my zither sound;

Jeremy Nissan: a couple pedal-processors; one frequency generator; one
low tomtom and one suspended cymbal

Pretty fucking cool, right?
Yeah! So they are going down to Guanajuato, Mexico this October to play the Festival Internacional Cervantino which has been around for 35 years, and showcases music, dance, film, theater, and visual arts from all over the globe. Pretty neat. Might like to go... I don't think I'll make it down there, though. hmm

Well, I'm pretty psyced! I guess this is the first official thing happening! Check in for an update and some details on the piece and the recording! Yes!

In the words of Du Yun,
Cyber-Salute!!

Future Island's Comment Contest!

2007-06-05T21:36:00.000-05:00

That song "Follow You" that got the video below was mentioned on some blog. Here is what "Elton" had to say in his comment on the post:

Elton said...
"future islands? i'm going to name my band future sunset rubdown"

Now, here's the contest:
comment on this post. Your comment should read,

"future islands? i'm going to name my band future ____________"

I don't know what the submissions will be judged on, but the winner will get their own post (whatever that means)!

Get 'er Done!!!

2007-06-01T14:00:00.000-05:00

Progress progress progress!!!
Email rules my world! Send me one. I started calling it "grown up" mail. OK!

So here's a little update:

The first leg of the tour is officially ATHENS, GA to record CARA BETH SATALINO. Check out her song "Shimmering Thing" on her myspace page (link). It's really really good. Definately my favorite of all her work. I love the quality of the recording so much.
Cara will be playing AthFest, the Athens arts festival for local acts on June 23rd. This conveniently coincides with my time down there, so I get t check out all the good Athens music! (I hear there's a lot!)

I've scheduled some time with LIZZ KING in West Virginia. This will be my first trip to West Virginie. I'm curious what she's gonna pull out musically when I get there. She's got a wild mix of music happening. It'll be nuts!

I recorded Tim Abbondelo in 2004 when he was the front man for The Charming Bastards . My brother Henry was the bassist. It was awesome.
Tim has since started the band HOLLYWOOD in the DC/Balitimore area. I'm psyced to be doing some jams of maximum grit. It is defiately the gritty stuff. Fucking loud. I'll be spending four days with them recording at their practice space in Balitimore. What's the Baltimore brew?

I saw HOLOGRAM at SUNY Purchase when they played with Cara this Spring. I bought their CD, and can't stop listening to it. I am especially fond of "Rainy Storm", which they've posted on their myspace page. Caroline has an amazing and versitile voice. Also, I'm really exited to collaborate with Hologram because their recording style is already so beautiful!

These are just a few of the bands that I'm setting up dates with over the next two months. I've added a CALENDAR section to the site, so you can check the schedule. I think it's working...

YES!!! Enjoy!
-chesterrrrrr

Future Islands VIDEO RELEASE

2007-05-29T22:06:00.000-05:00

All lined up to record these dudely dudes in late June. It's gonna be crucial!
(I think I already said so.)
BUT...
Here's their newly released VIDEO directed by Allen Cordell for the song "FOLLOW YOU", produced by me CHESTER GWAZDA last April. Yes!!!

Lonnie Walker!

2007-05-08T23:38:00.000-05:00

Just got a call from BDC of Lonnie Walker, a wicked alt.country (?) band from North Carolina. Talking about doing some jams while I'm in those parts in late June. More info as we invent the info. NC is the shit! I'm so psyced.

Check out their MySpace page!

BOOYAH!!!

2007-05-07T17:19:00.000-05:00

OK! Guild of Birthdays! This is the first post!
I'm in the process of getting my shit together... Calling bands, planning my summer, building this site, etc. I still don't really know how this all is going to work out.

I guss I'll start by saying that if anyone is reading through and has any ideas or suggestions, send them my way! There's no clear cut formula for how this is supposed to go down, so it's like, whatever!

I'll continue posting as I continure on my quest! In the meantime, here are some links!

Showbeast on YouTube
The best kids show ever! Made by a FamilyGhost out in Oakland, CA

Future Islands
Gonna record these radical sons of bitches toward the end of June

My Myspace Page
Gotta have it!

High Places
A cool sounding band I saw at The Silent Barn in Brooklyn last weekend

Ringtone!
You can download one of the songs I recorded with Future Islands as a ringtone for free! Fkk!