Last Post for 2010

Well, i don't really have much to say other than have a happy and safe new year's eve. I am looking forward to 2011 quite a bit, in fact, i am probably more enthused about this next year than i have been in several! I've got an album worth of tunes that'll be coming out sometime in the next few months as well as some other ideas that i will surely divulge eventually.

Anyway, see ya next year folks!

-jonathan

Some Music to See (hear?)

So, yeah. I am pretty much in love with Nicole Atkins and this song only enhances that.



- jonathan.

An Excerpt From A Story

So I have been slowly, very slowly writing an as of yet unnamed short story. I suppose it's a bit of a scifi/crime sort of thing. Anyway, I was just going over some of it and thought I'd share a small bit from the early part of the story.

-----

"Stop driving so damn fast Franky!", Will was nervously bellowing.

"You gotta relax man, there ain't no other cars out here." he replied as if he was in total control of the situation, which of course, he was not. "We gotta get over to The Dean's house as soon as possible, that's ASAP bro! You know he's gonna be fucking pissed if we aren't the in time for this big meeting."

"I still don't get it man, why are we going? What the hell is the meeting for anyway?" Will was trailing off to just barely a mumble towards the end.

"I don't know, but I do know if The Dean wants us to be there, we will be there! This is heavy shit" Franky explained so nebulously.

Franky Benson is for lack of a better term, a moron. He wasn't always this way, after spending the vast majority of his teenage years and early twenties snorting anything he could find and smoking everything else. Well, he had become, a burnout. He speaks with that kind of silly accent that people try to do when impersonating Keanu Reaves ala Point Break. For the most part though, he was a good guy. At least that's what everybody would say about him later when he wasn't much of a guy at all anymore.

Will, well, what ever his last name is. Will on the other hand was a bright kind of person. Spent most of his days learning and trying to improve himself, just like a proper human being. His one downfall was having a dirtbag friend like Franky. He grew up in a farm town outside of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Managed to escape the small town maelstrom and went straight south to Dallas. There he worked in a few IT positions and ran the occasional mule up from the Mexican border, though he never mule'd himself. The most interesting thing about Will Whatever is what happened to him after the last time we heard about him.

-----

Enviado desde mi iPad, cabrón.

New Release - "Them Hills"

Today I am releasing a 7 song EP that was recorded during my time spent living in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.  These tunes are pretty rough as they were recorded in a very lo-fi way.  However they do seem to have a bit of charm to them as they, to me at least, capture the feel of The Land of the Cold Sun.

So, here are the songs inspired by "them thar hills".

Click here to receive happiness (not really, it's pretty gloomy stuff.)

Note: This time its in MP3 format and zipped. So, there ya go.

New Music Soon

Next week, probably Tuesday I will be posting up a new album for download (free). It consists of some acoustic rock kind of stuff I recorded over the last couple years.

That is all.

Man Unkind (Music Video?)

It is kind of a music video, but not really. I just hate it when i listen to a song on youtube and it just shows a static image for the duration. So i figured I will throw some cartoons or something in mine.

On Writing

Damn it feels good to be writing music and recording again. I've got about 3 years of time to make up. Focus, I think has been my biggest obstacle. So many ideas, so many directions. It's hard to make things cohesive and keep the madness to a down roar.

That's all really, I'll probably post some tunes up here eventually. You know, for all 3 of you to hear.

- Jonathan (via iPhone)

Introducing Murder of Crows

This is a new project by myself and Chris Shockley. Basically it will be the umbrella which hovers over all that does not fit elsewhere. This first project is a set of six songs composed specifically for a haunted house.

Here is one tune for you: Domestic Violence

Lyric Book Morsels

I often start writing lyrics, poems, prose and what-have-you. A lot
of the stuff doesn't ever add up to a whole song or anything really,
so I have decided to start posting these words chunks. Seeing as I
don't really ever have much else to say on this here blog.

Anywho, here's the morsel I call "Retreat!":

"Put my ear down to the earth today. Couldn't believe what she
started to say. Said 'leave now, run and get far away. Use your
machines and blast into space.'"

- Jonathan (via iPhone)
(682) 738-5709

Digitally Analog

For some reason or another I have been thinking about the subject of digital versus analog audio recording and i figured my thoughts on the subject may be a decent blog entry. So..

I'll start by saying that i am a dedicated digital engineer. I love digital, but thats probably mostly because i love technology. Its all about the non-linear ways to record, punch, overdub, effect, etc. You can't forget the huge upside of fidelity as well. I mean, if you want to record some warm and grungy analog tunes, just warm up your tube amp, mic it with an original beta 57 and run it all thru a Allen & Heath analog board straight into your DAW! What you get out of all that is a totally faithful capture of all your noisy analog gear. Why would you want to further distort matters using a chunk of super lossy tape to write on?

I get it, i know why people use analog recording setups. They want the warmth, the character, the vintage-tried-and-true sound and also the street cred.

For me it just seems strange how people are always looking into the past to find what they are, look to the future! Thats who you will be...

I suppose thats about all i really have to say right now. I have this horrible problem that seems to all but totally blank my mind when i sit down to write out what i had thought was a really in depth and well thought out piece of info for you to consume.

Stop your iBitching

"Whaaaaaa!! iPad doesn't have multitasking"
"blublublublub!!!!!! iPad doesn't have flash!!!!!"

Uhh, don't buy it?

I will buy one, because i use the hell out of my iPhone in the way the
iPad is meant to be used. I'll probably stop using my Desktop
altogether. Except for the occasional game or two.

10 Minutes of Noise

So last year i wrote and recorded a bit of an experimental EP. It is exactly 10 minutes of soundscape audio. What i wanted to do was try to create a bit of a visual experience using only sounds from a guitar. So thats what i attempted...

For the most part i would say its basically just "pretty" guitar noise. Some of it however doesnt sound remotely like a guitar.

Anyway, not much else to say about it really. Enjoy, or dont.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

It is in AAC format, i am after all an iTunes/iPod/iPhone guy.. So if you're using some other apparatus for your music consumption. A thousand apologies!

Out Cold

I could have told it was your destiny to be out cold,
waiting for that warm sun that never comes,
then again you wouldn't have listened in the first place,
i don't think its your style,
and all these things they just change in time,
they all just fade away,
don't wait around for anyone,
no one has seen it first hand?
oh i have seen it first hand.