Monthly Archives: September 2019

Advanced Liner Notes: Extended Play 2019

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In this era fans want/expect to be informed– as things are happening. So in that spirit, here’s a good chunk of the liner notes from the upcoming 4-song EP.

Extended liners: We lined-in dry on all guitars & bass. Lining-in means direct cabling from the instrument to the soundboard that links to a computer, which records the performance. Dry means no effects. If you are studio recording “live as a band,” then effects can be used, as long as they are kept under control. But if you apply effects to the guitar/bass during multi-track recording, insisting “that’s the sound I gotta have,” then the guitarist is leaving the producer with little-to-no headroom for sound treatments, including the three most important parameters: reverb, equalization & compression.

Those three effects are ~95% of properly-done sound production– in any era. Getting the best sound is the purpose of multi-track recording, and it’s how most music is put together. To all those guitar heroes with racks of effects & foot pedals, here’s some good advice from studio experience: save them for the live shows. They are mostly useless in the studio today, due to computers & digital-effects software.

We are currently about two decades into the “noise wars,” which is defined as excessive compression to make songs louder for cheap mobile headphones. Car commercials which blast non-stop, louder than the rest, is the comparative to the “noise wars” in television audio production. The only way an independent artist can compete against this degradation of music is by having better songs, and knowing how to record & produce them.

With this in mind, what you need from a guitar in the studio is a clean & strong signal. If the player(s) get it right, and the engineer records it properly, then the music has a chance of eventually smashing all the loud junk on the radio, MTV, American Idol, AGT, et al. Effects muddle the input signal, which hurts the cause, so apply them only in the mixing stage, not during recording.

Marketing, social media & internet censorship: Once uploaded to the internet, mp3’s quickly proliferate onto all the streaming services, big & small. But don’t be deceived, each service has their own proprietary algorithms which mysteriously work against independent artists. I’m at the top of these blacklists. YouTube, Facebook, et al, are revolutionary social media platforms, which have been hijacked by corporate ownership to work for the military-intelligence apparatus.

Therefore, don’t waste too much time in these domains, because they can (& will) turn you down, make you invisible, & de-platform you without your consent or knowledge. Make quickie thumbnail-image videos for the songs, and let your fans speak for you in the social media forums. That way you’re not devastated if/when videos get taken down, turned down, etc… Fakebook has designed its AI algorithms, so you’ll only see your haters if Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t like you.

The greater truth is that most kids today download mp3’s either through the artist’s site directly (free– like me), or through an illicit sites (if not free). The message is: make your mp3’s free, as their quality isn’t that of wav files– which is compact disc quality sound. Free mp3’s maximizes distribution, and the name-of-the-game is making new fans.

Streaming is internet radio, so don’t expect to get paid, because you won’t. You don’t have the industry clout. This scientific understanding & revolutionary approach is how underground artists can keep their sanity, while fighting fascist censorship & winning the loudness wars.

Final thoughts on recording: You must be able to work with a click track in order to get set pieces like “Patch Me Up Doc” or “Millennial Whoop” to work. Set pieces are defined as songs you don’t play live. They are more studio creations than anything else. A songwriter typically needs lots of help with set pieces, in musicianship & production. The Beatles “A Day in a Life” is a classic example of a set piece.

It often depends on what instrument the songwriter plays, to determine the order of recording. Does the songwriter have perfect time? Most often, the answer is “No.” The rock music songwriter must find a way to match up melody, riffing & lyrical ideas, with beats.

If both the songwriter & producer aren’t drummers, then the drum track should be recorded first, followed by the bass. This is typically recorded by placing a microphone in front of each guitar & bass amplifier, and around the drum kit. That is a traditional recording sequence & microphone technique when multi-tracking.

You have to know the circumstances & your strengths, while having no weaknesses when studio recording, otherwise you will crack– wasting time, money & relationships. Your team is there to cover your weaknesses with their expertise & skills. It’s a lot easier with digital, if you know what you are doing. My colleagues on this project are true professionals, they are as talented as anyone, and have my eternal respect & gratitude.

What happens to the original tracks & recording masters? Today, any independent musical artist & record label needs to be at the cutting edge to make an impact– both creatively & in business practice. The model we’ve developed is low-cost & top-notch because it’s revolutionary DIY, using the latest technology & boldest ideas from start to finish. Every studio recording that I’ve ever made, dating back to 1997, has been uploaded to a Google share drive. TomP does the same thing with his ex08 project, and everything else.

The Universal Music Group (UMG) fire that blazed through its irreplaceable archives in 2008 (and then was hushed-up for over 10 years) is a valuable lesson in corporate priority & artist responsibility. UMG is a conglomerate money-making machine, with little sense of artistic value towards it archives. They kept things quiet, and collected the insurance money, while the artists whose masters were torched didn’t even know what had happened. UMG allowed the works of many, many legends it was supposedly safeguarding, to carelessly burn to ashes. Many of these incinerated archives were never transferred digitally, or uploaded to a cloud server– so they are lost forever.

Of course, Tom & I have these files on our computers & external backup drives too, but a cloud-based share drive is how to communicate large amounts of data, such as multi-track recordings, final masters, videos, etc, with a producer. The other benefit is that it protects the music & art from being destroyed into posterity.

This also means a private corporation (Google) has all my stuff in its cloud. And by extension, it means the NSA, FBI, CIA, et al, also have them. That’s the price an artist has to pay today, to protect the existence of content. This takes confidence that you have maximized your abilities, knowing that no one else can do it as well. These songs be proof.

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Random NASCAR stupidity

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More yesterday at Charlotte’s roval, as race leader Chase Elliot #9 wrecks himself on the restart. This after he had just won the second stage with clearly the fastest car in the field. This was a cut-down race (16 to 12), and Elliot’s stage win secured his place in the Round-of-12. Best drivers in the world, my ass…

I saw this live on NBC, and the analysts pointed out that Brad Keselowski & Kyle Larson (good drivers by NASCAR standards) did the same thing last year. Here it is…

This keeps happening because the restart takes a different route from than the one they race. That’s NASCAR stupidity on two fronts: 1) the restart at an unfamiliar speed & direction, and 2) drivers not learning from previous mistakes.

If you are a race fan, do you see these types of bonehead errors with such frequency in Indycar or F1?

Final NASCAR manipulation note: When Chase Elliot locked his brakes & skidded off the track into the Tums safer barrier, he was clear of the track with his car only suffering minor front-end damage. In real racing it would have been kept under green flag, and Chase Elliot would have to wait until everyone behind him cleared. Only then could he back out and return to the track.

But instead, NASCAR immediately threw the yellow flag, because Chase Elliot is an old-timer favorite & has solid sponsorship. Therefore, he gets the benefit of freezing the field, only dropping to 20th or so, while also getting a chance to go into the pits under yellow and get repairs.

This occurred at the start of stage 3, and Elliot came back to win the race– with this help from his friends. Here’s one title of an ESPN.com write-up of Charlotte: “NASCAR StatWatch: Just 24, Chase Elliott becoming master of road courses.” Unintentionally funny stuff. You can manipulate a race by when you throw a yellow flag, and this was a classic NASCAR example.

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New Music Release– Soon!!

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We’ve recorded four new songs. Everything is “in the can” as they say, and in production. I get a little crazy when recording…

Rachel Decker: vocals

Tom Pearce: beats

Bill Pelick: bass

Below is my camera catching Tom Pearce for a second during our last session, before he goes back to clicking away…

New killer singles & EP coming soon!!

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Saudi Oil & Syriana (2005)

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As they say in The Bible, “There are many, many ways to light Europe.” — Christopher Plummer as Dean Whiting in Syriana (2005)

After a devastating drone strike, for which Yemeni Houthi militias claimed responsibility, the Trump administration & entire US political establishment are lining-up behind the narrative that Iran is responsible for these attacks.

Saudi Arabia now spends ~$68 billion annually on its military, the 3rd largest budget after the US & China. Most of this comes in the form of sophisticated weaponry from American corporations.

But these expensive instruments-of-death were unable to stop a coordinated drone attack from Yemeni militias. This calls into question the usefulness of the Saudi Arabia-US alliance, and the sustainability of the global petrodollar market. A bunch of Yemeni militia techies, possibly (?) using equipment they purchased from Iran, just knocked out a vital choke-point in the global oil supply chain.

Productivity from Saudi Arabia is now halved or worse, and when repairs can be accomplished appears to be a matter of weeks or months. There is much censorship by the Saudi monarchy & its partners in the US. This includes corporate, intelligence & military alliances.

A scapegoat is needed, and quickly. Look for an all-out war drive in the media, against Iran, as a cover-up for this disaster. Expect gasoline prices to rise by at least a dollar a gallon within a month, which is another embarrassment for political leaders during an election cycle, and an added expense for everyone else.

The Trump administration is only the latest version of US imperialism which has laid the groundwork for this crisis, with its unilateral sanctions, embargoes & recklessness. This is about regime-change, and controlling the world’s oil market by force.

The problem for them is that US-Saudi vulnerabilities have just been exposed to the entire world. A US war against Iran looks increasingly unwinnable, based on what we have just seen in the Yemeni conflict.

Pile this disaster on top of the ongoing US wars in Afghanistan, Iraq & Syria, which have all been lost, and global consumers and businesses are about to feel repercussions which are all-too-real. The Houthi militia attack on September 14, 2019 is in many ways blowback from 9/11, which was an inside job.

Movie Time: If you really want to understand what’s going on in the Persian Gulf, with all the conflict & geo-politics, then watch Syriana. It runs 128 minutes, and has at least 15-20 characters of depth who add crucial elements to the film, which means it demands your attention.

That means you have to watch Syriana a few times to start getting the full idea. This film is a masterpiece because it reveals dark truths in its many hidden forms. That’s why it wasn’t a box-office hit. Syriana is the exact opposite of a blockbuster movie, a political film as a work of art.

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Remembering the Money Man

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Rock music songwriter & performer Eddie Money died of esophageal cancer on September 13, 2019. He was age 70, and still performed until his recent late-stage diagnosis, which turned out to be terminal.

If you look on my “Influences” page, you’ll three paragraphs of artists, which ends with “and hundreds more…” Eddie Money is among those hundreds more for me. The hardest thing to do in rock music is write a song that kids want to hear over & over. I’m talking about a song that hits you immediately, and gets you excited. Eddie Money did that for a decade, and that ain’t easy folks.

His eponymous debut album came out in 1977 and the first cut, “Two Tickets to Paradise” catapulted him to stardom– becoming his signature hit. Eddie Money came from classic rock, as this dinosaur genre was being overtaken by punk, funk & disco, then later post-punk & new wave. “The Money Man” earned his name because he could deliver the goods, meaning at least one or two solid singles per album, and he showed an adaptability most classic rockers disdained. This is what kept him relevant into the 1980’s, as others of his era faded away.

Eddie Money lived up to his name, by signing with CBS records and being placed on their prestigious Columbia label, instead of their second-tier Epic label. Bands on Epic from the classic rock era include the Yardbirds, Sly & the Family Stone, REO Speedwagon, Boston, Heart, the Clash & Cheap Trick to name a few of the best known. Epic artists never got the publicity, promotion & distribution that Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, et al got on Columbia.

With this said, Eddie Money was an original rocker who never fit neatly into the classic rock or MTV era, yet was able to carve out a niche for himself. Robert Palmer is often viewed as his best comparable, but Eddie Money was a better songwriter, making deeper albums. Robert Palmer had a better look for the 1980’s, which made him seem bigger (“Simply Irresistible”) at the time. But in retrospect, it’s the songs that endure, which is why Eddie Money’s star shines brighter today.

No Control (1982) is my favorite Eddie Money album, with his debut being runner-up. Can’t Hold Back (1986) was his swan song. On those records, and a few others, you’ll find songs you recognize from the radio, television or movies– while also discovering hidden gems. Just because a song isn’t a hit, doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile. That’s how it works with a real songwriter, like Eddie Money.

Talent like his doesn’t grow on trees. Eddie Money had a way of delivering a song with such desperation, like everything depended on it, that you HAD to listen to find out what was going to happen. The guts it takes to be a real songwriter, and put yourself “out there” for the world to criticize, shows through in Eddie Money’s best songs. It’s knowing how to rhyme words, form ideas, and create excitement that make “The Money Man” a songwriter to be studied.

If Eddie Money wasn’t any good, this goofy-looking rocker would have gotten laughed out of show business, especially when MTV came along. If Edward Mahoney had been considered sexy-beautiful, he would have been marketed as a super-star– a new Rod Stewart.

Instead, Eddie Money built his persona through hard work, and turned it into a successful career. Did the lifestyle & grind lead him to an early grave? Probably, yes. Would he do it all over again? Certainly, yes. Why? Because the songs outlive the artist.

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What you must never forget!

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Today is the 18th anniversary of 9/11, and lots of people are memeing “Never forget!” That got me thinking about things we are told we should never forget.

Never forget that it was Osama bin Laden & 19 Arab hijackers who were entirely responsible for 9/11. There was a bi-partisan government investigation, which examined the evidence of 9/11, and came to this conclusion, which matched the narrative the media & the Bush administration pushed from the start. We are in a life-and-death struggle against “Arab terrorists” who want to destroy our way of life, so don’t ever forget that.

If you are a white male, then don’t ever forget that you are a racist lackey of white supremacy. This means you are not allowed to write, speak, or express yourself publicly on any issues concerning people of color & women– due to your racial & sexist bias. You can’t possibly understand the agony which women & blacks have gone through, so don’t even go there. You are white, and thus implicitly responsible for all their misery, so don’t ever forget that.

Never (ever!) forget that the Russians are our enemy. The Russians meddled with our elections, which gave the American people President Trump. Of course, there has never been any hard proof of this story, but we always have to remain vigilant– and never forget!

Never forget that there’s a lot of “fake news” out there. Watching exclusively CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and/or Fox means you only approve of “authorized news.” Printed articles, photos, and videos from other sources, which contradict “official news,” must be treated with the utmost skepticism, as the internet has become a haven for “fake news.”

This applies particularly to social media. The CEO’s of Facebook, Twitter, et all have your best interests in mind, but they are overwhelmed by Russian troll bots & left-wing extremists who spread “fake news” into your feed. Fakebook executives and the rest are working diligently to protect you from these nefarious forms of manipulation, by using artificial intelligence & human monitors (not censors) to make sure you only see stuff that is “correct.” Never forget that.

While you may see news stories of high-level corruption on a daily basis, never forget that this is America, the greatest democracy in the world. Our leaders are working to keep America great– or make it great again– depending on which political party you cheer for. The point is they work for all our best interests, so don’t ever forget their sacrifices.

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The many sides of feminism

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“I don’t see that we have any choice, but to kill that son-of-a-bitch– Jeffery Epstein.

“We could do it in prison, as the security cameras are rolling. It would make a terrific season premiere for The Mao Tse-tung Hour…”

Tagline: An inside look at the propaganda behind the campaign

Actress, model & activist Pamela Anderson went on The View last Friday (Sept. 6) to defend Julian Assange. Russia Today reported on this story, and one of their top comments was, “Meghan McCain looks like a tellytubby.”

This leads to two points: 1) people are very contemptuous of Meghan McCain’s feminist attitude & narrative, and 2) Pamela Anderson gets attention.

  • A small point on women’s fashion is that Pamela Anderson is the most buttoned-up dressed of all of them when she appears on The View. The queen of the Playboy centerfold takes them ALL down with her composure & thought-out responses. These feminist phonies have NOTHING in response, which is why they normally don’t allow the original “Tool Time Girl” on prime-time television anymore. The point is that nothing beats beauty & brains.

In summary: reactionary #MeToo feminism is being used as a weapon for silencing men, and separating them from beautiful & secure women, in order to perpetuate establishment lies.

Faye Dunaway & Pamela Anderson are amazing, as they, and others like them represent the best of what’s possible for women. The rest here are bitchy, man-hating, teletubby trash. Those are but a few of the many faces of feminism.

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Football as Propaganda

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“They took our power, and incorporated it into their system.”

Does this above quote from ESPN’s Football is US: The College Game Documentary, directed by Jonathan Hock, imply a Marxist perspective of labor power being co-opted for capitalist exploitation?

No, this is (again) a racialist narrative of “black power” being rolled into the “white system.” Rich black people who exploit (as well as poor white folks) don’t count in this distorted equation.

Football is US: The College Game Documentary, is to begin “five months of original content dedicated to recognizing college football’s place in history and society.”

This initial installment focuses heavily on historically black colleges & universities (HBCUs) as institutions of higher education in the United States, established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In college football, they served the same purpose as the Negro Leagues in baseball, giving black athletes an opportunity to compete at a high level, as well as an audience.

When de-segregation was introduced in the 1960’s, the enrollment of top black athletes at HBCUs declined, the same way the Negro Leagues did in the 1950’s, after Jackie Robinson entered MLB in 1947.

Generally among those who are educated & enlightened, these milestone achievements of integration are celebrated as progress, but not for today’s revisionist racialists.

To them, integration (sadly) hurt these all-black institutions, as the “white” NCAA stole their talent in order to re-enforce “Jim Crow dominance” in college football. These deluded racialists instead prefer to idealize the era of the Negro Leagues & HBCUs as mythical representations of “black power.”

The rest of this romanticized documentary is divided into several chapters. It begins with a look at the origins of the college game, discussing the many violent deaths that occurred on the field in its early years, and the formation of the regulatory institution that would later be known as the NCAA in 1905.

What’s missing is any discussion of football’s deep links to gambling & organized crime. Concussions, brain injuries & CTE are also glossed over, while words like “teamwork” & “sacrifice” are thrown around freely. Terms such as militarism, conformity, nationalism, domestic violence & PEDs are never mentioned.

In total, this concealment is meant to make football palatable & nostalgic, in response to those who have been turned off by recent revelations of its true ugliness. ESPN’s whitewash (with black stripes) tells us football is still a beautiful game– an indelible part of our culture & fabric of our society.

Just look at all the vicarious fans who wear football jerseys every weekend! Football is here to stay, because it is as American as Ford cars made by under-paid/over-extended, two-tiered workers, and as wholesome as GMO apple pie. Bon appétit!

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