Between initial and final mix. In case you care.

Global
	Vocals are anemic, dry, maybe off-axis, often muffled (bad EQ?)
	-- need something to juice them up.  Warm verb?
	Bass is way too powerful
	Big gang vocals need cleaning up

Emmy

	Bass! down ~1dB
	Drop tambo ~1dB
	What happens right after verse chorus?
	Guitar noodling is good at that level
	P's guitar solo needs to go up
	Drop bass even more at 3rd verse
	Tambo going into last chorus is a bit off-- copy and paste?
	Turn down g3 in coda

Holly Hills

	Bass down ~3dB
	Someone is a bit too loud on chorus-- maybe Erin-- especially on last rep!
	Need to separate Peter from backups during chorus (verb on everyone?)
	CH guitar solo sounds great
	Turn down mandy when it gets high and keep it low to the end

Like a Winner

	Bass down ~1dB
	Vocals sound muffled-- high end?  Change EQ?
	Turn down the Peter harmonies-- focus on the main line!
	Put Doug's "ahh"'s through some sort of envelope EQ to separate from the rest
	Good levels for guitars between verses
	Turn down CH guitar solo on coda-- give it a reverb send!	-- Cut out to the pick up note.  Mix it more down for the last rep.

Love it or Leave Me

	Bass down ~1dB
	Fade the guitars up before the last riff to build tension
	Simple = good

Reasonable Amounts

	K's shakers down ~2dB
	Bass down ~1dB
	Bells down ~2dB and maybe add some reverb?
	Erin down ~2dB
	EQ Doug to make him stand out
		
	
The Hero City

	Bass down ~2dB
	Vocals sound anemic-- needs EQ + reverb
	Jeff makes clipping sound twice before last chorus
	Maybe duck everything except drums before last chorus for the fill

http://www.verbatimband.com/pajamaparty/

Please pass the word around.

First, this was not a party. The last week has been trying, and it was decided that a "party" was inappropriate. Music-making, though, doesn't have to be gaudy, and it always feels good. We didn't have a bunch of folks over to laugh, and I think a grand total of three beers were drunk. But good friends did show up, and we did have a good time. And we made music!

Christian was unavailable Friday night, so I set up what I could that night. We got up early Saturday and set up. I couldn't find everything I needed though-- not enough SM57s or XLR cables. I didn't have enough to mic up a 5-piece drums set the way I like (2 OHs, hi-hat, kick, 2 snares, tom, tom, tom). That's when I thought of something: The Glyn Johns Technique! Glyn used only a few mics and got a better drum sound than people who use dozens more. The upshot is that one overhead looks straight down on the snare and the second one looks sideways at the snare from above the floor toms. Anyway, limitation is opportunity, and that's the exact idea of this sort of project. So we went a more spartan route. You can decide the results tomorrow.

After setup we got to tracking. We got 6 songs down-- all first takes with a couple pick-ups. I think we might have avoided some of the more sophisticated songs on our candidate list, but the selection is still pretty great. I really wish we could have hit more, but our time was very tight. Right after wrapping drums, I put down three or four guitar layers. CH and I shared bass duties. We set up two electrics and did some solos in tandem. Christian played my Fender Aerodyne, Elsie, through Max Lollar's Fender DeVille (no, I will not give it back), and I played my old Micro-Frets through an amp modeler and the KAOSS pad. His stuff sounds a lot better than mine.

We took only the shortest of pizza breaks before moving on to keyboards and vocals. Christian did some wonderful stuff on the piano, B3, Hammond. You'll have a good time with it when you hear it. Doug Orey let us use his lap steel. We had no idea how to play the damn thing, so we had to ask Wikipedia for everything. My vocals were another rush job. There are significant issues with them as of the current mix version, but I am confident I can sort them out before release.

Today I patched up some vocal stuff, did dubs, tried out some harmonies, and conscripted friends to sing. I've got Nicky, Erin, Doug, and even Brindie on there. I spent a full hour working with Stevie K on some cool percussion gags and our dear old friend Thingama Jeff. I employed the Kaossilator for the first time on one of my records. This record more than others employs acoustic guitar, and I was lucky to borrow Doug Orey's Martin for that purpose. Great machine, that. I think very last thing we tracked was Nicky Frye on a few bars of mandolin. A small part, but crucial.

Our method of recording is peculiar. All the projects exist as a single ProTools project file, with the song breaks demarcated across one timeline. I keep all instruments used on multiple songs on the same track. Some tracks are unused for some songs, but I never have to look far for something. I also can EQ a single instrument across many songs with one tool. I've found that this adds some cohesion to the collection for a listener. As helpful as this technique is for our slap-dash recording style and my particularly manic attitude towards new ideas, it does make mixing difficult. I have manage volume levels and panning separately for each, being careful not to alter another song with an edit to the one I'm working on. I have to be wary of songs that carry a barrage of guitars, for they might sound anemic unless I do some tweaking of the reverberant space-- usually using aux input reverb sends. Mixing eats up a few hours, more than I really had today since much of principal recording was not complete until the afternoon. Still, I have very advanced draft mixes that I am sharing with CH now. We will compile our mixing notes, discuss if we have time, and I'll make my final pass tomorrow.

I think record will sound better than the previous two. Whereas Pizza Party was gloriously lofi trash and Pool Party was polished slop, Pajama Party (is that really what we're calling it?) is organic and loose, with maybe a few hard edges here and there. The drum sonics are naturalistic, the guitar sound is deliberately broad, the vocals are unpretentious. We use no synth sounds and only two samples. Except for the keyboard there is only one direct-input instrument: my lead guitar. It's a straight-from-the-hip recording. As much as the songs it contains are like a journal (albeit not really a confessional diary thing), the record too is a testament to the moment of its creation. It says, "Here I am. This is what I see from right here and from right now. This is what it's like to be here now."

I'm still deciding where the appropriate level of dynamic compression is for something like this. I'm still struggling with some discord in some group harmonies and a pernicious bass that is clobbering everything above it. I'm thinking these struggles won't be resolved before release, and they'll just become artifacts of the final document. Not every note is right. It shouldn't be. If it were, it wouldn't be a record of a song. It'd be a simulation. We don't want that; we want the real thing. That's why we dig music.

Pajama Party will be released on Monday, August 31st. For free.

I think I'm about ready to leave LiveJournal behind. I'm doing a lot of other writing, and I've got web presences elsewhere. For example, peterhassett.tumblr.com, twitter.com/peterhassett, and FYBD.

I'll keep this rocking through PJ Party, and then close up shop. I'll have a lot more music and photos on the tumble log.

In the meantime, here are the songs I'm considering for next weekend. I'm playing with CH this weekend, and I imagine we'll be whittling this down. I've already trimmed a lot of the fat off, so most of these are freaking gems. Weird thing is-- many of these songs are less than 2 minutes long. But if it makes sense for the song, that's how it goes.

Taco Night Suite
Love it or Leave Me
Drink Like a Winner
What Time Is It?
Bannack
Speed Trap Town
Reasonable Amounts
Cigarette and Ash
The Hero City
Change / Time
Pixy
Emmy
Holly Hills
AKA Marianna

Please drop me a line if you're up for Pajama Party.

This is not yet certain, but it shows the signs of a plan coming together.

Make no other plans for Friday, August 28th through Sunday August 30th. We're throwing a party.

And not just any party. It's a gosh darn PAJAMA PARTY.

Oh snap. It might slip a week back or something. I'll keep you posted!

Achieved today:

• low harmony on chorus of "Cops in Your Room"
• high harmony on chorus of "Cops in Your Room"
• double vocal on chorus in "Cops in Your Room"
• re-take main vocals on "Four Fresh Tires"
• gang vocal on "Julie"
• clean up bass on "Keep in Touch"
• gang vocals on "See Ya Around"
• harmony on bridge of "See Ya Around"
• harmony on pre-chorus of "Sure as Hell"

And then a general hardware failure before we could finish "Sure as Hell" and move onto "IOU".  ProTools is a finicky beast that cannot be tamed, only restrained.  I hate her.

Don Was, discussing The Band's eponymous second album, recalls how guitarist Robbie Robertson characterized its recording:

He said it was like a kind of clubhouse mentality. This is a place where you went to shoot pool and hang out with your buddies. And if you got anything done during the course of the day, what a worthwhile day! You go to hang out, and you got some music recorded for posterity. That's a really radical approach to making records.

Anyone up for a party?

Everyone else is asleep, and -- true to form-- I cannot.

Today Bagel and I went to the National Gallery. They had a terrific exposition on Picasso's relationship with the art before him. I'm not the best art student, but my impression was that he had always been an iconoclast with distaste for his forebears. The exhibit we saw was all about how he was actually a fine-tuned classicist who through his exploration of new delivery methods, interpolated and reconfigured his biggest influences. There was several rooms of Picasso reworking Poussin and Delacroix and Van Gogh-- all in ways that were unmistakably Picasso, but still reminiscent of the original.

So there were works that showed the very best of Picasso: cubist grey portraits, intricate still life, grotesque female nudes. But each of the pieces was given context by accompanying paintings made by the masters Picasso studied. The last few rooms were the artist "covering" (so to speak) those same masters.

There are a lot of ways to think about this. The first that occurred to me was that Picasso was such a technical wizard that he had to blaze new trails, and then he had to circle back to make sure others followed along. A child of the avant garde may be comforted by spurning the past, but he can only be vindicated by showing others _how_ he did it. Even that explanation isn't really sufficient though. Picasso was a lover of those artists, and there's a noticeable presence of reverence and tribute in what he is doing. So you could say that as the man reached the end of his own life he became fixated on his legacy; tying himself to the heroes of his time as a student is a great way to cement your legend. I don't know about that one either.

I'm a plebian. I don't know fine art as well as I should have-- and definitely not as well as my mother or Bagel or my namesake uncle. I know music though. I understand the craft and art of music better than I do anything else, so that's where my brain kept going when I was reading and appreciating this. I kept thinking of Jeff Tweedy.

The Wilco guy started off in an "alternative country" act called Uncle Tupelo, doing middle of the road rock tunes with a very strong nostalgic Americana twinge. When he put his own act together, they continued in largely the same vein, but eventually he began developing a more confident authorial voice. His blues-based country songs or Guthrie-esque folk-rockers began incorporating exotic instrumentation and challenging compositional cues. It was still easily recognizable pop music, just a more interesting breed of it. But at a some point Jeff Tweedy transformed into an auteur musician, and that probably happened in 2001 with the release of _Yankee Hotel Foxtrot_,

YHF is still a simple album about yearning and estrangement and America, but it's also a singular statement of pop music that has become dissociated from its own artifice. A three-chord shuffle in most hands would become a serviceable love song, but Tweedy uses word salad and deconstructed arrangements to create a listening experience that is twice as potent and half as familiar. Tweedy will drops out the drums and replace a guitar solo with white noise while he sings abstract couplets ostensibly about self-identity or the passage of time. But it's still a 3-minute pop song.

I can't help but think cubism is the same thing. Picasso knew the boundaries and structures of classical formal art so well that he could transcend them easily. Just like how children learn vocabulary for concepts they are already understand and thereby lose some of the poetry and magic that comes with pre-vocal knowledge, Picasso learned how to put down that learned vocabulary, but he did not forget it. That set of rules, the cultural edifice bound to all media, is just a consensual invention of its followers. By creating art of a similar pattern to something seen before, an artist is engaging a context that makes his message (usually "don't be a dick") easier to absorb. Problem is that those rules quickly become dogma. When the punks said they had enough with overblown guitar solos and slick production, they were saying that the rules of music had become too strict. Idiots that they were, they didn't notice that they had created a system much more restrictive to take its place The excitement in art is the defiance of expectation-- because that is when the artist and audience are most engaged. Hell, that is the definition of irony.

Cubism is a new set of rules for art to replace the ones before it. Picasso said enough creating an idealized world on the canvas, using pigment and perspective and tone to represent the real space we live in. Cubism was a subjective view of an objective world. Each object in frame has facets, and each can be made available to the audience, even if that were impossible in real 2-D space. The artist empowers and trusts the audience to interpret a figure correctly: "this is a human"; "this is a violin". The delivery has changed dramatically, and that creates a jarring but not unpleasant viewing experience. It's invigorating, but it's not difficult. Picasso's work reminds us of those who came before him because he adopted their sensibilities, just not their formality.

A cubist nude, all her planes collapsed into one, is a nude nonetheless and worthy of appreciation. A love song with a 13-minute feedback loop tagged on at the end is still another song about a girl.

I don't think Jeff Tweedy is Picasso, but I do think I see the threads between the two. And I'd love to pull that same thread closer to my own work. The nice thing about making music with Christian is that we have no formal education. We learned by imitation and without discussion-- aping what we heard until we did it right. So we know all the rules for the music we make, but we don't have many words to describe them. We count time by sense of smell. If the idiom is true that a jazz musician must learn all the rules and then ignore them, what do you do if the rules are all you know?

And on that note, I should turn this off and go to bed. Forgive me for blabbing on about this. Suffice it to say that I thought the Picasso exhibit was fantastic, and Bagel fell asleep before I could ramble on to her about it.

Man, I wish I had a guitar here.

End of message.

P.S. - it doesn't smell like kitty pee.

Deadeye Dick is

I'm now officially over the moon for the new songs I've written. I've got about 80% of a full-length or maybe two Pizza Party-size records ready. They're only in basement demo format, and they haven't been transformed as they always are by the participation of a collaborator (hopefully Christian), but they're alive. And they're great.

I love my zombie song, "The Hero City". Doing a serious approach to the topic, rather than the metal-ness of "Eaten Alive", gave me an excuse to go over the top on tone without becoming self-satirizing. It's got some cool harmonic structures in the chorus, which only Colin Holter might notice, but I'm proud nonetheless.

I've got two anthemic tunes: "Change Over Time" and "Cigarette and Ash". If I were to pull a thread through all these songs, it would be definitely be primal self-expression. Each of these songs, including "Emmy", has a heightened sense of reality and an aversion to subtlety. In that way I suppose they are more like older Verbatim songs. I'm still not comfortable with using "I" in songs, but these songs are still more direct and expressive than the more nuanced stuff I've been churning out recently (see "Sure as Hell", "Cops in your Room"). I guess they're closer to "G. Gordon Liddy" and "Julie", which I bet people like more anyway.

There's also "Speed-Trap Town", which might be about Summer in a Saturday; and "Reasonable Amounts", which will be a great, quiet palate cleanser if we don't lose restraint; a little C&W tune called "Bannack", a thrasher-cum-book number called "Taco Night"; and -- of course-- "Emmy (Any Old Thing, Pt. 2)".

So I guess the next step is either find a way to record these or write more. Or both. Problem is I'll have to write something way out there and different pretty soon or else I'll feel like a hack. But summertime is nearing, and the weather looks nice for a party...

Waltz, anyone?

I tried to switch to NBC HD, but the TV sent me this instead:



Priceless.

Right now I want to play live rock and roll music.

I wanna flip out and freak out and push and pull and screech and holler and jump and jive.

Love Mates of State. Saw them at Macrock a lifetime ago, and they slayed me.

This gets stuck in my head whenever I think about d20.



By the way, The Folk Implosion is

"Emmy" I thought it'd be funny to write another song about Emmy, but make it not overtly about a dog. So it's about how I fail to discipline her because I feel so bad for the crummy life she's had before now. You could easily read it differently, and that's the fun part. It's a compact pop song, and I thought totally disposable, but Bagel dug it, so I think it'll stick around.

"Reasonable Amounts" I like different perspectives on a single thing. This explores what it's like to subjugate someone-- break their spirit, I guess-- in a kind, precious way. It's a really quiet song, but it's kinda devastating because it sketches a monster whose monstrosity is so banal. That's what makes it interesting.

"The Hero City" I wrote another song about zombies. This is a speculation of what life would be like in the Hero City from Max Brooks' _World War Z_. I guess it's framed as a survivor there writing a letter to a loved one who fled to the Rockies, explaining the cost of living under constant assault. It's sad, but the music isn't dour, so I think it'll work great. A world away from the heavy metal of "Eaten Alive".

"How It Feels to Die" Lots of rock songs are 'about' girls, but make no effort to know anything about the girl in question. An antidote in two ways, this one is written in 2nd person, addressed to a fully real girl, who has been treated in real life how those songs treat her-- poorly. It's got a great amount of dread in it, culled from a scene I saw firsthand at a party maybe seven years ago. I think, if I'm careful, I can tie this one's narrative to "The Hero City"-- cause wouldn't it be cool if the zombie apocalypse broke out at the end of a crummy party.

"Change Over Time" If there are two themes that I am torturing right now it's "growing up is hard" and "make your own life". This one uses both. I'm a hack, treading the same territory over and over like so much volleyball. Problem is the songs that are coming out really are strong. This one has a great Phil Spector kind of verse and a bombastic dancey chorus a la Modest Mouse maybe.

"Speed-Trap Town" I've found that having already written one song in a sitting, writing a second very quickly isn't hard. But all the songs that come out of that phenomenon are so weird. They're never thematically bound to other stuff I write ("Irrational Exuberance" and "Out to Pasture" are examples), and there always a bit more genre. This one is a perfect example of a song that exists only because it was easy. It's tuneful and a total Replacements rip, and I don't very much like. Regardless, it'll absolutely end up getting made because that's the way of things.

"Cigarette and Ash" This is my favorite song right now, and one of the best I will ever write. It's just the most cheerful, catchy piece I've put together; and it's going to be terrific fun to play. It comes on like a really stern, socially minded work of musical journalism-- you know, describing a character and what she means to the world-- and then it runs away. It ends up as a celebration of being Wrong. That might seem like a cowardly act as a writer-- to abandon making a point-- but I think it's still a political statement, albeit passive.

So those are some of the songs I've written in the last week or two. I don't know what form any of them will take, if you'll ever be able to hear them. I know they're worth hearing though. After a couple of tough months fighting with authorship, I'm just glad that they exist at all.

Just wrote "Speed-trap Town". 6 songs since last week. Hurray for progress. Hooray for creation.

Now off to Watchmen.

Dude, when you hear the Big Damn Album, you're gonna love it.

"Wine and Roses" (yes, after the Blake Edwards film) comes at the end of the album. It's great. Lyrics, performance, mixing, arrangement. Christian's drums sound vivid and his part shows restraint and indulgence across the spectrum. Max's bass part (the last he recorded with us, I think) is right in the pocket and gets downright funky-- in a classy way. The song establishes its theme and then takes its time in developing it on different instruments. And the ending is... well, an emotional trip.

It's damn near perfect.

(I'm defining "perfect" as "the best I can do".)

FUNKY OUTPUT

ITEM! Wrote 2 songs tonight. I feel soooo much better having written a song I'm really proud of. I sort of had an idea, and I wrestled with it for a while before I really grasped what I was going for. I don't know if anyone else will dig "Change/Time" (change over time), but I'm just delighted that I created it. And once you've got one complete-- even if through force of will- more come easier. "How It Feels to Die" took about 2 minutes to write just before bed, and I wouldn't be surprised if folks end up preferring it. Both songs are available on the demo site.

ITEM! I have a theory. Scott Pilgrim is destined to end up with Kim Pine. I don't have a lot of evidence to back it up right now, but I am collecting it. So far I've identified the parallel narrative -- went to school together, band together, moved out of their apartments, hit their low points, had unwise romantic digressions, and considered giving up -- all at the same time. Also, her name is Kim Pine, as in she 'pines' for Scott. Also, the song by Plumtree giving the series contains a lyric that might be ascribed to Scott: "I've liked you for a thousand years". So I will keep researching and report back.

I don't mean to alarm anyone, but I have a suspicion that this song was influenced by drugs.

Also, this song is

Listening now! Glee!

...Almost made it through the first song before buying the CD.

I'm loving that this is going to be familiar music to me soon.

Yay.

After days and days of fruitless trying, I finally wrote a song tonight. "A Better World". Equal parts Jason Isbell, Our Lady Peace, Donna Noble's monologue from "Turn Left", New Amsterdams circa 2000, and most of what has preoccupied me for the last month.

I don't care if it's good or if anything comes of it. I'm just glad I finished a thought. I'm glad I wrote something that sounds how I feel. And somehow I don't feel that way after writing it. Magic.

If you're privy to the bedroom demos site, have a listen.

Now I can finally sleep.

You're blossoming all over while I wither on the line.

Love that line.

Pete bailed on the Oscars because they wanted him to play his nominated song, "Down to Earth" for like a minute and change. He's not even being a dick about it, he's just saying that's enough time to do justice to the work he and his collaborators put together. I don't think it's grandstanding. He's just saying these dudes work hard.

Just for the record, his song from WALL-E is wonderful, and evocative of the film's message in all the ways that matter.

Elvis Costello makes me want to be a better musician, better writer, better collaborator, better friend, better person.

The absolute best part of The Dark Knight is Hans Zimmer's theme. The best music in a film last year:



That is a remarkable work of art that will be looked at on par with the best of revolutionaries like Philip Glass or Delia Derbyshire.

Picking up where we left off...

"Coffee's for Closers"
This title is a reference, I think, to Mamet's _Glengarry Glen Ross_. S A T U R D A Y NIGHT! It's a cover of a Bay City Rollers song? I love how much Patrick is pushing his high-end here. He really does not go wrong a lot of on the vocals a lot, and it's always affecting.

"What a Catch"
Here comes the ballad. Get your lighters out. The aux percussion happening behind the scene doesn't contribute anything, except making it sound like a familiar Jon Secada song. I don't like the guitar pick-up into the chorus for some reason, not sure why. I think because this baroque pop makes me think they'll go for that dreadful major key Beatles thing. As we move along, it seems more Paul than John. We've got some serious groupsing happening here. WHOA WHAT THE FUCK??? ELVIS COSTELLO. ELVIS??? ELVIS!!!! Here he is. As promised. Hahaha. Well, the song gets my thumbs up on that criterion alone. (Are they singing the choruses for their other songs at the end here?)

"27"
Weird thing. This one reminds me of something Eric and Gwen Stefani would have done in the 90's. Like a deep-album cut off of _Tragic_ or _Beacon Street_. Ooh guitar solo! I know they've got some good real chops in the band, but they're bound by the genre (again). So that was pretty cool. I'm liking how casual this song sounds. A lot of their other material is often wrought, but this is naturalistic.

"Tiffany Blews"
Oh my god. This introduction. Haha. Have they been listening to _Bad_ a lot or something? Honestly, I really appreciate the generic sluttiness I mentioned below when it yields stuff as adorable as this. This one in particular has a very strong chorus and has the distinction of using the lyric "little hot mess" as the refrain. I hear a great keyboard part under the chorus that is giving the song the sad undertone. Yikes on the bridge. Not every idea is a home run, but it's better to try. And back into the chorus using one of those great drum turnarounds. Apparently, Stump has been studying at the library of Darryl Hall and John Oates, insofar as every song must end with ad libs.

"W.A.M.S."
Acronyms that aren't obvious to me are distressing. Good key work, and I'm beginning to grasp the extent of Patrick Stump's songcraft. Funny vocals on the verse because it pushes the low register. The shifting and modulating guitars on the B section are a great idea. I wonder if these songs are pieced together or written from whole cloth. Now, this bridge is a great idea. It's a very Todd Rundgren thing, and I think it heard it done better on his record for Splender. And then the ill-advised coda. Now, what is this? An interlude? Is this a TLC album or what?

"20 Dollar Nose Bleed"
As soon as the piano comes in I think The Beatles. Or perhaps Electric Light Orchestra. And now there's a French horn. And I hate it. The chorus ends up in a strangely Phil Collins space, excepting the "Mr. Benzedrine" lyric. Bennies, being one of drugs that literary folks love, can be interpreted as a pitch for credibility. That's fine. I'm loving the Sussudio-ness of this. Then the bridge hits and we're back in ELO territory, electric organ and all. Just as a note: I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with "biting" other styles, just trying to identify them. Oh my god. Is there another interlude? Spoken word? I did this same thing on "A Rooftop's View of D.C." It was equally bad.

"West Coast Smoker"
Is this the last track? Minor key dread! Let's do it. Layer some phased vocals in. Hold back nothing, boys. Let's get heavy meta-metal. The guitars are pretty heavy, but very smushy sounding. At this point, there's no choice though-- you have already raised the stakes. I don't know who these back-up singers are, but I like the notion. And here we are again. For the third song in a row, the bridge completely undermines the momentum of the tune. This being the closer, it is probably fitting though.

I download the album Drums of Goree by the Africa Djembe Orchestra.

It really is just a bunch of dudes banging on djembes. This shouldn't be surprising, but it is.

The band has broken up.

That's right. You're not reading it wrong.

Picturestore has ceased. Trapper Jackson formally quit the band last night. His only public comment on the matter: Too gay.

I'm sorry, everyone. I know how much this band meant to you.

The good news is that a new band has risen from the ashes.

Ladies and gentlemen... MANPOWER!

MANPOWER is a rock band, no fruity electronic nonsense here, just pure MANROCK for your MANEARS.

MANPOWER's first album shall be called MANHOLE. It will likely contain 3 songs, each titled MANHOLE. The second album will probably be called POWERTOOLS.

BREAKING NEWS: Trapper Jackson has officially joined MANPOWER. His agent released this statement: Just gay enough.

We're working on a logo right now. It will be awesome.

Again, my heart goes out to everyone mourning Picturestore.

VIVA MANPOWER.

Wait, that's foreign. Let's try again.

MANPOWER UGH!!!!

For your enjoyment, I will now chronicle my thoughts as I listen to the Fall Out Boy album I have ignored until now.

Begin...

"Disloyal Order"
Patrick Stump is a better arranger than anything else. I wonder if this is what the kids want to hear, but I don't really care. It's smarter than its peers in construction, but ultimately the guy has to sing these inane lyrics. "Detox just to retox" is the kind of thing a writer thinks is clever upon writing and it survives only because it is never looked back at with a self-critical eye.

"I Don't Care"
I think this was the single. Somewhere ZZ Top is WTF. A cool guitar riff but kind of baffling for the genre. That's good. Once we hit the chorus, it's very, very smushy. That's in style right now (see Panic at the Disco and "Thanks for the Memories"), but it's bad for anything more than recreational music listening.

"She's My Winona"
I don't want to be a skeptical or cynical listener. This one isn't grabbing, and it's got that filler feeling. I like the production on the drum pick-up before the chorus, but the compression kind of nixes the momentum once you get into it. And we modulated the last chorus up a step. That's kind of hack-y. That's what you do when you don't know how to end a song on its own merits.

"America's Suitehearts"
What's the point of the pun in the title? I'm starting to notice that they've put a lot of effort into the guitar tone. I dig it, but I honestly miss the Babyface sounds I heard on the last album. This is the closest structurally and sonically to that. There's lots of trickery going on here-- back-up vocals and idle chatter and drum rolls-- that seem to be compensating for something. Maybe a more deliberate authorial voice or a cogent meaning for this song? Either way, love the key change in the bridge and the guitar work here.

"Headfirst Slide"
I'm regretting choosing to type these song titles out. These first four bars are awesome, but then all of a sudden it's 1999 and Orgy is on the stereo again. I love the spirit of exploring of different sounds, but the result is that Patrick sounds generically slutty. Anything will do. I read that Elvis Costello is on this album somewhere, so I know where he's coming from, but can anyone else really pull of Costello's dissociative identity disorder? Oh this last chorus is very nice! Stump is in the upper register, and it adds an emotional arc to the song.

"Gold Standard"
Are we going meta here? This seems like a solid simple song, but in context of the rest of the song so far it is pedantic. That's the cost of raising the stakes on every song. If System of a Down did a song with only 4 meter changes, it would sound boring because everything else is crazy. Same here.

Continuing later...

A real working musician. Perhaps jamming once more with his buddies up in Valhalla.

Fiction Family is the future of music.

Fight the future.

I listen to this song pretty much every day.

Step into a brand new era.

Lots of work to do. Here's the accompanying tunes:

Mates of State, "Ha Ha"
Paul Westerberg, "Bored of Edukation"
Elvis Costello, "High Fidelity"
Veruca Salt, "Shimmer Shimmer"
Beach Boys, "Feel Flows"
Talib Kweli, "Get By"
Jamie Cullum, "Get Your Way"
Drive-by Truckers, "Heathens"
Warren G, "Regulate"
Nada Surf, "See These Bones"
Jimi Hendrix, "If 6 Was 9"
Magnetic Fields, "No One Will Ever Love You"

New rule: no more favors.

Sorry, peeps. You're on your own. Every time I say yes, I screw up and let you down or I make myself miserable, or I have to bail out later on anyway.

Sorry, cool music project I wanted to do with talented musicians but in which I would have done all the heavy lifting. Sorry, even cooler music project that I did not have the means or time for. Sorry, coolest music project yet that meant as much to me as it might have to you but I could not live up to the expectations. Sorry, kind of lame music project that involves an insane amount of library work.

I'm going to say no more in 2009. Except at the Party. The Party is about YES. It's music camp-- everyone gets to play.

Alright, I've got to tag 400 GB of music now.

It's really easy to demo songs on eeepeter.

So I'm reviving something somewhat infamous I created in college: the frighteningly large, unnervingly repetitive, top-secret DEMO page.

If you have the URL, you are awesome. Prepare for the onslaught. I'm going to write 30 GOOD songs before Bagel returns.

God save us. Maybe they'll be better than "I Love You But I'm Not In Love With You", "BYOBurkittsville", and the abysmal "Nick Drake Sold My Soul".

Voice Box by EH. I can USE this.