29.5.07
"SATURDAY BEATS. MONDAY BEATS"
What a fucking weekend. This was not the restful holiday weekend I envisioned, but most of that is all for good reason. I still think my head is in vacation mode, and Friday night, I kept my brain off, and did something I normally never ever do, which is sit on the fucking couch and stare at the TV. Irene was working, so I took the opportunity to watch STAR WARS as I did 30 years before. Sugar good. Hey, did you see the new Clone Wars trailer? SICK SICK SICK. Watch this shit NOW:
I was invited to Celebration IV in LA this weekend, but I wasn't gonna head out there just to chill with the costumed nuts. if i had been there already, certainly. ANYHOW. There's music to be made...Speaking of which....
Saturday, B and I reconvened to be the duo that is Hypefactor, and your hero arrived HUNGRY. I thought we would do our usual trip to Atlass, but B had other ideas and finally we made our long awaited trip to the now fucking legendary PIES & THIGHS. Who knew a southern eatery would be named after a Chris Link MOG song!?!? Go fucking figure right? So B had been telling me about this for ages and he surprised me with a trip there. Oh shit it was so good. Allow me to steal the Citysearch description, for your mind:
"Homegrown and homemade, you'd be hard-pressed find a more low-key restaurant in the five boroughs: A few stools crowd the closet-sized ordering area that doubles as a kitchen, where orders are scribbled on scrap paper, and change is made in a ceramic cup. In warmer months, patrons dig into country favorites served on checkered tablecloths in a side alley, while the Williamsburg Bridge traffic and trains whiz overhead. Eating here is like attending a well-rounded country picnic. Juicy fried chicken, coated with a crispy, light batter, gets sided with a fluffy, buttery biscuit. And light and flaky fried catfish sings with its crunchy cornmeal coating. Carolina ex-pats will want to jump on the vinegar-heavy pulled pork sandwich, topped with a tangy slaw and served on a white-bread bun. Homemade fruit pies look and taste so homemade, you might be tempted to ask where they're hiding grandma."
I'd kiss that grandma right on the lips. Two words. SWEET TEA. We were like two little schoolgirls eating like men. That makes no sense, but neither does this place. This will be a regular haunt for men who can handle the walk, ie the men of Hypefactor. And I need to mention the homemade donuts. Fuck the dunkin bitches, this is the REAL love. I was too full to get one, but they let me have some donut HOLES. For Free. Anyhow, check this shit out. So good.
This obviously helped the mood cause then we kicked it into high gear and went back to work on DON'T DREAM and goddammit we have cracked it. WIDE. It's finally sounding like the tune we wanted it to be. The funny part is, for every new part we write we end up chucking it in favour of 2 good parts we have re-discovered in the song. The tune has life, it has soul, it has balls. And it still had a lil bit to go....Big apologies to ash for our missing his BBQ, but I had colleagues in town for the next event I'll discuss, and we went long on the music. Plus, I heard it wasn't worth going to. B told me that. Himself.
Anyhow, the time has come for young Chad and Sarah to get married this year. Though I feel like they are both 15 years old, I guess I have no concept of age these days cause seemingly they are old enough to do this and we found ourselves invited to the engagement party. This occupied our Sunday entirely. Dressed up, ready to go, but of course this thing is in JERSEY, and I reserve comment, but it was a good time and the kids were happy , as you see here:
Handsome couple, yes? Getting there wasn't terrible as the Path train was only SO crappy. However, I didn't enjoy taking the train from WTC, which as you all know, is the serious shit, even for an aloof cad such as myself, or at least thats what the haters say. In the end, painless and fun , despite having to dress up: Observe Evan and I dressed up for the first time since our last day of High School:
Then Irene and I met the LA gang (who came all the way just for this thing) at the Waldorf for drinks and then it was off to Les Halles for another super dinner. We then had some drinks and took it back home some some well earned slumber. But there is no rest for the weary as your hero spent his Monday morning and afternoon in work related meetings before stopping home for an hour before running to B's for some more asskicking on Don't Dream. Yes, we DO NOT STOP. If there is a free moment, a few free hours available, we steal it and OWN it. And NOW we are just about there with this fucking song. I listen to it as we speak, and it feels fresh and fair. We're at this fun point where B and I are able to pinpoint things very easily and work our asses off to accomplish it. Great dynamics, great teamwork. It's a shame we will never be friends, but we will have some sick ass albums out. We are extremely excited and motivated for the Hypefactor project.
OF COURSE now it is Monday night, and that means it's back to watching wrestling with the lads. No more 24, no more Heroes, it's back to the great sport. Tonight, Irene was working and everyone was in agreement, Pluck U it has to be. As it always was. As it shall be forever. We Plucked, we read comics, we watched sport and then all of us proceeded to fall asleep at certain points. But not before Danny gave me the title for this entry when asking about my musical work this weekend. The Kidd, unemployed, uneducated, but in love, made his leisurely return. A welcome presence. Maybe that he has nothing else going on, I can get him to work on music. Certainly not lyrics.
Anyhow, I hope you had a good weekend too. It was a good week to be MOGpac, as I got to see everyone at some point, though I did miss my lil cousins yesterday cause of this engagement thing. But anyhow, try and top it you bored bastards. You can't.
xoxo
F
I was invited to Celebration IV in LA this weekend, but I wasn't gonna head out there just to chill with the costumed nuts. if i had been there already, certainly. ANYHOW. There's music to be made...Speaking of which....
Saturday, B and I reconvened to be the duo that is Hypefactor, and your hero arrived HUNGRY. I thought we would do our usual trip to Atlass, but B had other ideas and finally we made our long awaited trip to the now fucking legendary PIES & THIGHS. Who knew a southern eatery would be named after a Chris Link MOG song!?!? Go fucking figure right? So B had been telling me about this for ages and he surprised me with a trip there. Oh shit it was so good. Allow me to steal the Citysearch description, for your mind:
"Homegrown and homemade, you'd be hard-pressed find a more low-key restaurant in the five boroughs: A few stools crowd the closet-sized ordering area that doubles as a kitchen, where orders are scribbled on scrap paper, and change is made in a ceramic cup. In warmer months, patrons dig into country favorites served on checkered tablecloths in a side alley, while the Williamsburg Bridge traffic and trains whiz overhead. Eating here is like attending a well-rounded country picnic. Juicy fried chicken, coated with a crispy, light batter, gets sided with a fluffy, buttery biscuit. And light and flaky fried catfish sings with its crunchy cornmeal coating. Carolina ex-pats will want to jump on the vinegar-heavy pulled pork sandwich, topped with a tangy slaw and served on a white-bread bun. Homemade fruit pies look and taste so homemade, you might be tempted to ask where they're hiding grandma."
I'd kiss that grandma right on the lips. Two words. SWEET TEA. We were like two little schoolgirls eating like men. That makes no sense, but neither does this place. This will be a regular haunt for men who can handle the walk, ie the men of Hypefactor. And I need to mention the homemade donuts. Fuck the dunkin bitches, this is the REAL love. I was too full to get one, but they let me have some donut HOLES. For Free. Anyhow, check this shit out. So good.
This obviously helped the mood cause then we kicked it into high gear and went back to work on DON'T DREAM and goddammit we have cracked it. WIDE. It's finally sounding like the tune we wanted it to be. The funny part is, for every new part we write we end up chucking it in favour of 2 good parts we have re-discovered in the song. The tune has life, it has soul, it has balls. And it still had a lil bit to go....Big apologies to ash for our missing his BBQ, but I had colleagues in town for the next event I'll discuss, and we went long on the music. Plus, I heard it wasn't worth going to. B told me that. Himself.
Anyhow, the time has come for young Chad and Sarah to get married this year. Though I feel like they are both 15 years old, I guess I have no concept of age these days cause seemingly they are old enough to do this and we found ourselves invited to the engagement party. This occupied our Sunday entirely. Dressed up, ready to go, but of course this thing is in JERSEY, and I reserve comment, but it was a good time and the kids were happy , as you see here:
Handsome couple, yes? Getting there wasn't terrible as the Path train was only SO crappy. However, I didn't enjoy taking the train from WTC, which as you all know, is the serious shit, even for an aloof cad such as myself, or at least thats what the haters say. In the end, painless and fun , despite having to dress up: Observe Evan and I dressed up for the first time since our last day of High School:
Then Irene and I met the LA gang (who came all the way just for this thing) at the Waldorf for drinks and then it was off to Les Halles for another super dinner. We then had some drinks and took it back home some some well earned slumber. But there is no rest for the weary as your hero spent his Monday morning and afternoon in work related meetings before stopping home for an hour before running to B's for some more asskicking on Don't Dream. Yes, we DO NOT STOP. If there is a free moment, a few free hours available, we steal it and OWN it. And NOW we are just about there with this fucking song. I listen to it as we speak, and it feels fresh and fair. We're at this fun point where B and I are able to pinpoint things very easily and work our asses off to accomplish it. Great dynamics, great teamwork. It's a shame we will never be friends, but we will have some sick ass albums out. We are extremely excited and motivated for the Hypefactor project.
OF COURSE now it is Monday night, and that means it's back to watching wrestling with the lads. No more 24, no more Heroes, it's back to the great sport. Tonight, Irene was working and everyone was in agreement, Pluck U it has to be. As it always was. As it shall be forever. We Plucked, we read comics, we watched sport and then all of us proceeded to fall asleep at certain points. But not before Danny gave me the title for this entry when asking about my musical work this weekend. The Kidd, unemployed, uneducated, but in love, made his leisurely return. A welcome presence. Maybe that he has nothing else going on, I can get him to work on music. Certainly not lyrics.
Anyhow, I hope you had a good weekend too. It was a good week to be MOGpac, as I got to see everyone at some point, though I did miss my lil cousins yesterday cause of this engagement thing. But anyhow, try and top it you bored bastards. You can't.
xoxo
F
25.5.07
Thirty.
30 years ago on this very day, my folks took me to the movies. I was excited. I already knew I would love it. I was 4. I already had a Luke Skywalker figure. He was going to be my new hero, like Batman, like Captain Kirk. This movie came on, and by the time the first scene was over, I knew I would love it, and then there was Luke. Young. Enthusiastic. Simple. The hero. He even got his pops light sword). Yeah, he was kinda cool. Or gonna be cool. Especially if he used that sword on some of those guys in the white armour. But he was my new hero. But then something happened. Luke went with the old dude to the bar where there were cool aliens. One of them got pissed, wanted to kick my new heroes ass. The new hero with the sweet light sword. But what happened? Luke pussied and he had to be saved by the old man and I remember being four years old and thinking "weak". And a minute later was the moment where I knew I wasn't walking out of this cinema the same little kid:
HAN: Han Solo. I'm captain of the Millennium Falcon. Chewie here tells
me you're looking for passage to the Alderaan system.
BEN: Yes, indeed. If it's a fast ship.
HAN: Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?
FORGET IT. Done. A young life altered forever. Nothing was ever the same. And still hasn't been. I am in a very fortunate position to be able to continue to embrace things that were important to me as a child in both my life and career. And it's ALL because of that one moment. I might have been a doctor if it wasnt for this movie, or living on a farm or some shit. 30 years ago, my road was chosen. Seriously. My imagination, my inner wise ass and love of filmmaking were all born that night. Knock on Lucas all you want, but he gave us this, cause there are millions of others who had moments like this throughout those movies and there are kids now and kids yet to be here who will all share this, except Brandt of course. Thank you George oh and thanks to my folks who never discouraged any of this.
HAN: Han Solo. I'm captain of the Millennium Falcon. Chewie here tells
me you're looking for passage to the Alderaan system.
BEN: Yes, indeed. If it's a fast ship.
HAN: Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?
FORGET IT. Done. A young life altered forever. Nothing was ever the same. And still hasn't been. I am in a very fortunate position to be able to continue to embrace things that were important to me as a child in both my life and career. And it's ALL because of that one moment. I might have been a doctor if it wasnt for this movie, or living on a farm or some shit. 30 years ago, my road was chosen. Seriously. My imagination, my inner wise ass and love of filmmaking were all born that night. Knock on Lucas all you want, but he gave us this, cause there are millions of others who had moments like this throughout those movies and there are kids now and kids yet to be here who will all share this, except Brandt of course. Thank you George oh and thanks to my folks who never discouraged any of this.
"Good Luck In Boston, Not That I will Ever See You Again or Know Who You Are"
So despite Irene not feeling well, we stuck to our plan last night to see PIRATES 3. Joining us were G and The Kidd (showing lotsa leg, this plays into it later), Lurch, his girl (I think), and his roommate Jon, of whom I feel I need to spend more time with cause he is rather funny. There was also some random girl with us who I was told was "the special guest", and I'm still baffled who this person was, but as the Kidd said to her the above quote, I realized no one did. Maybe Jon did. He's funny. I like him.
Anyhow, we sat through 3 hours of Pirates, and I can't really spoil it for you, cause I honestly cannot tell you what this movie is about. I don't know who to cheer for, I don't know who to hate, I don't know why anyone does anything. SPIDERMAN frustrated me more because I SAW a good movie in there, buried under unneccesary scenes, unwatchable over the top acting and action, and wasted new characters. PIRATES? I couldn't tell you dick about this movie. Johnny Depp is funny, everyone else is fine, and Chow Yun Fat is awesome, of course. He, and the pet monkey, are the two best actors in the movie. They killed two characters and one of them, a character who was in the previous two and had a good supporting arc, dies in the wackest way and I was totally done at that point. Big mistake. I could tell you what the last movie was about, this time I can't. I know what HAPPENS, and when its people with swords fighting, its awesome, but other than that, it's just a lotta money on the screen. Looks cool though and I do like these characters, but I have no idea what the fuck they are on about. I feel like Vince Russo wrote this movie. Irene summed it up that the movie shouldn't be called AT WORLD'S END, but should be called ALL LOOSE ENDS. And not in a sequel kinda way.
ANYHOW, it was tiring, but you know, gotta see it. Though the kidd saved it at the end with a burst of laughter that was infectious. Something to do with leg licking. See the movie, then we will share the pop.
F
Anyhow, we sat through 3 hours of Pirates, and I can't really spoil it for you, cause I honestly cannot tell you what this movie is about. I don't know who to cheer for, I don't know who to hate, I don't know why anyone does anything. SPIDERMAN frustrated me more because I SAW a good movie in there, buried under unneccesary scenes, unwatchable over the top acting and action, and wasted new characters. PIRATES? I couldn't tell you dick about this movie. Johnny Depp is funny, everyone else is fine, and Chow Yun Fat is awesome, of course. He, and the pet monkey, are the two best actors in the movie. They killed two characters and one of them, a character who was in the previous two and had a good supporting arc, dies in the wackest way and I was totally done at that point. Big mistake. I could tell you what the last movie was about, this time I can't. I know what HAPPENS, and when its people with swords fighting, its awesome, but other than that, it's just a lotta money on the screen. Looks cool though and I do like these characters, but I have no idea what the fuck they are on about. I feel like Vince Russo wrote this movie. Irene summed it up that the movie shouldn't be called AT WORLD'S END, but should be called ALL LOOSE ENDS. And not in a sequel kinda way.
ANYHOW, it was tiring, but you know, gotta see it. Though the kidd saved it at the end with a burst of laughter that was infectious. Something to do with leg licking. See the movie, then we will share the pop.
F
24.5.07
Review.
Last night I finally made it back to the studio for the first time since my trip. We both bolted our respective real life jobs early so we could start off right with a massive Dokebi dinner. We had some Sake to get the mood right. The restaurant wasn't packed either, which was nice, cause sometimes it can be a zoo. Then it was off to work.
First we went through B's overdubs on CLEAN UP, which are in great shape. That song's like a guitar track away from being done, and I mean really done. Not the done I was mentioning in 2005. This is really fucking it. Then this gives us a great excuse to get Peter Saintface in to record is final vocals. This song is huge.
Continuing with the guest star tracks, we then reviewed OUR FAITH, which is also maybe 2 guitar tracks away from wrapping up. My intention is to bring the track with me to LA in a few weeks, with my recent new vocal takes, and have Leo cut HIS final vocals. Then THAT song is done.
Finally, we went through the new parts we demoed for DONT DREAM JUST SCHEDULE during our very productive session with the producer known as Ash. We isolated and discussed the things we liked and didn't like, and then re-arranged one of the choruses in a cool, groovier way, where I looped some of Charles' bass as opposed to him playing through the whole thing, saving the main bassline for the second half. I also played around with B's new ghost keyboards. A little repetitive, a little dancy, and it worked really fucking well. All good stuff. Some cool drop outs, etc. feels more interesting. Little things that make a big difference. During our next session, hopefully tomorrow, I'm gonna add some sweet new lead bass. Youll see or, better yet, you'll hear. Well done, Producer Ash, you got the band to push shit forward.
Phew. Tunnel. Light.
F
First we went through B's overdubs on CLEAN UP, which are in great shape. That song's like a guitar track away from being done, and I mean really done. Not the done I was mentioning in 2005. This is really fucking it. Then this gives us a great excuse to get Peter Saintface in to record is final vocals. This song is huge.
Continuing with the guest star tracks, we then reviewed OUR FAITH, which is also maybe 2 guitar tracks away from wrapping up. My intention is to bring the track with me to LA in a few weeks, with my recent new vocal takes, and have Leo cut HIS final vocals. Then THAT song is done.
Finally, we went through the new parts we demoed for DONT DREAM JUST SCHEDULE during our very productive session with the producer known as Ash. We isolated and discussed the things we liked and didn't like, and then re-arranged one of the choruses in a cool, groovier way, where I looped some of Charles' bass as opposed to him playing through the whole thing, saving the main bassline for the second half. I also played around with B's new ghost keyboards. A little repetitive, a little dancy, and it worked really fucking well. All good stuff. Some cool drop outs, etc. feels more interesting. Little things that make a big difference. During our next session, hopefully tomorrow, I'm gonna add some sweet new lead bass. Youll see or, better yet, you'll hear. Well done, Producer Ash, you got the band to push shit forward.
Phew. Tunnel. Light.
F