If My Life

Was any more complicated or strange...

I'd need a hell of a lot more booze.

Also I just noticed that my profile says my industry is "accounting", which is amusing considering the fact that math=not one of my many and varied talents, despite my limitless intellect.

;)

On the Musical Front

I've been working on my first album with the intent of releasing it under my actual name for about a month and a half now. What that means is that unlike every other musical endeavour I've ever attempted, I'm not using a "band name" or anything of the sort. The album is basically trip hop/electronica, with me writing all the music, playing all the actual instruments, programming the synths, strings, electronics, and drums, mixing, producing, and whatever the fuck else I left out. As far as the vocal thing goes, I'm going to be collaborating with several different vocalists depending on the needs of the indiviual songs, in addition to myself singing on one or two tracks and probably doing backup as needed.

Thus far I have 13 completed songs (musically speaking), 1 more that just needs bass and a bit of tweakage, and 3 or so waiting in the wings. Of the 14 essentially musically complete songs, 1 has me singing on it and another features my good friend and reggae artist Rion I. Both of those are lyrically incomplete as of yet, but Rion I and I should be finishing up "Summer in Love" within the next two weeks or so. Once that track is complete, I'll upload it and a few instrumentals to my MySpace Music page (which is currently under construction, so don't go find it because it's boring).

Basically this is the best music I've done in 8 years, including a couple of tracks pulled from other projects from the last two years or so. I'm stoked to get some vocals laid down on the rest of the album and start promoting. This just feels... right.

Wish me luck.

-C.

Last Night I Climbed A Mountain.

Like, seriously. In Altadena. No ghosts, though. But it was a big mountain. And L.A. looks amazing from the top of a mountain just north of it at 10:30PM.

Pandora's pretty cool, too.

Pandora's Box

I've been listening to Pandora quite a bit lately and I have to say that its pretty good at picking music it thinks I'd like compared to what music I've rated or added to the channel. Because of Pandora I've been listening to a lot of acoustic music, electro/acoustic ala The Microphones, and instrumental metal ala Pelican. One thing I would like to see though, is a better rating system. I think they could do better than like or dislike. I mean, I may like a song but I don't absolutely _love_ the song and there is a big difference there. I _like_ Elliot Smith but I _love_ Bright Eyes. Even without the more detailed rating its pretty good at picking out songs I'd like, out of the stations I listen to on my pandora profile. There are a few occasional odd songs out, Deftones on my instrumental metal station seemed kind of out of place, but even the odd songs usually go pretty well with the station. The only glaring annoyance I have with Pandora is how they limit skipping tracks, you can only skip about five before it doesn't let you skip anymore. Gah, I hate that so much. If I don't like the damn song, I don't like the damn song. I know its not Pandora's fault but its still damn annoying. If you haven't given internet radio a chance like I hadn't, Pandora is a good place to start so give it a try.

Sam

No One Reads This Thing Anyway

But I'm still here.