i'm sorry i haven't written in a while. my sister and i took a week out from this *hectic* schedule of ours and went to the catskills to some kind of resort. i would like to/should be diplomatic about the experience but it was hideous piss. when the highlight of your week is watching veronica mars and a half-baked ANTM marathon you know you're at an alltime low. the resort was definitely in seasonal limbo (which means next to no people) and the room smelled kinda. i am happy to be back at no. 31.

right now i am sitting at john's computer taking some time out from guitar practise. i am practising playing with a metronome because i am mediocre at it and if i can nail the scratches in one or two takes instead of ten it would be easier for all concerned.

in some regards this recording adventure has turned into an endurance test - just short of a nightmare. i am still not sure it will all get done. chris feels invaded by my presence and seems to have lost all zest for the project; nate is sick having just had his tonsils out; dana only has a week's gap in which to record the drums (not impossible but still anxiety provoking) and john... well john has nervousness regarding his ability to write a decent bass part but is otherwise keen (i think).

what makes all of it worse is that this is a favour to me and it was supposed to take 3 weeks max - chris' feeling invaded is not unwarranted AND to top it off i FEEL like an invader. i am torn between the desire to ease tensions, have a good time get along etc AND a monetary situation that all but demands i do both these EPs with these guys now. i also have a long standing history of being a slacker which means i have something to prove to myself.

it is entirely possible to get done what we need to get done in the time we have (we have three weeks and the original goal was three weeks) but i am worried i do not have the energy to motivate the entire project.

until next time.

- Luc xoxox  ¶ 10:35 AM 0 comments

  long time no talk friends. apologies.

i seem to recall an instance in which i promised more regular updates and some mp3s. well, there are no mp3s of yet: things have moved incredibly slowly. i feel, however, that once i get back from a breif stay at the catskills recording will get kicked up into high gear.

at the moment i am revelling in the genius of annie lennox as a performer - live in central park transcends inspirational. the way she moves, the way she connects with the lyric is astounding.

i am also growing to appreciate david byrne/talking heads. i always knew he was good but last night i watched stop making sense (or parts of it) and the first little rays of his brilliance filtered down to me. i'm excited about what getting into his music will bring to mine.


also tiny cities by sun kil moon (a collection of modest mouse covers) has captured my imagination.


tonight IY has two shows, one opening for some schlocky pop-rocker and the other a Thanks Giving party at Castaways - friends are home from college, its gonna be big. i'm spending the day with Henry Terepka (give me a yell if you want to hear his music, some of the best bedroom stuff out there at the moment) and my sister just chilling out and then heading to Castaways later.

oh and its snowing here... pics when i get the camera from nathalie.  ¶ 11:21 AM 1 comments

  a short update:

- chris just recorded some guitar for long distance waltz
- nate is preparing some keyboard ideas for the first EP
- john is comforting a friend
- dana is lugging CDs
- amelia is watching the first season of EVERWOOD on dvd
- i am fretting about having time to get the second EP done

more photos soon.

xo Lu  ¶ 3:43 PM 1 comments

  i never imagined this process would work quite like this. i am simultaneously far less engaged than i thought i would be, and far more involved. i am moving through this blind, knowing theoretically how far i need to go as the facilitator but not quite sensing the importance of getting this as right as possible.

this might come from years of imagining recording my songs and not doing anything about it.

last night john and i sat down with a six of stella and nutted out some bass lines. two down, one to go.

in other news -

the old website www.lucmasey.com isn't working cuz i'm no longer luc masey, and i didn't renew the domain. my mother had forsight when she suggested only paying for one year. a new website under a new name, and a myspace profile await unveiling.



current music: edan - beauty and the beat.  ¶ 8:23 AM 1 comments

 

last night i played at show at the nines by accident. the bass player from the original support band was having emergency back surgery, the lead singer pulled out of an acoustic set and this left me - not that i was ever a back up in the first place but this was fun.

after the show lots of people were warm and fuzzy and i got really drunk.

love you all
xo Lu  ¶ 11:02 PM 1 comments

 

this is not a fisher-price product. my first peircing. ever. photo by me.



this is sort of the reason why the first blog entry took a month. we are all having too much fun sticking metal into ourselves and climbing to dangerous heights (not metaphorical) to want to be stuck inside a little home studio. even if it is on a lake. even if that would definitely be more wholesome.

on tuesday i went to a concert at the state theatre (guster w/ support matt pond PA). it was pop rock and indie rock of reasonable quality and at first i intended to write a sort of review, something heading towards serious. then i drank one too many labatt blues and ended up bumming cigarettes off the security guard (his name is jimmy, he likes to draw, doesn't drink anymore, still smokes weed though) and meeting another kid called evan who also gave me cigarettes and worked for the sound company whose rig was THE rig at the THE gig... this means he got to tune the room and then the band dorks came in with their own sound guy. i never got around to asking if this was a problem for him...

right now The Waifs and Decoder Ring are about all I feel like listening to. reminds of home and i do start feeling something that approaches patriotism. even though this is repugnant to me.

today: recording bass tracks. tonight: tagging along while john and chris do sound for local bands somatic umbra and the thins.

cheerio my rainy faces,
lu xoxoxoxox  ¶ 6:52 AM 1 comments

  i had always planned to have a little blog while i record these EPs, somehow though, its a month in THIS is the first post. for you, dear blog reader, this means less of my whining and less of my crap as the last thirty days are distilled into something able to be downed in a single sitting.

like this:



dana (drums), me (fear of heights) and nate (keys, sherbert) on top of a water tower near the pyramid mall


other hightlights include, in chronological order:

- cheap, cheap beer. eg. a carton of 12 stellas costs $16USD. yum.
- my first live IY experience, shared with 150 members of a danish choir.
- pumpkin carving and the subsequent removal of rotting pumpkins from the house :D
- jumping in the lake, mid-october.
- the discovery of new music with zox and the slip
- halloween friday and my first almost frat party. beer pong with fuckface from princeton.
- a ben folds concert with enjoyment factor not in the slightest bit diminished by the blandness of support band (phantom planet) or my stomach ache possibly caused by said support band.
- a selection of late night's on the dock smoking and chatting.
- beginning to record some songs i've written which already sound better than i could ever had imagined.

recording update

guitar and drums for all five songs on the first EP done.

my scratch vocals continue to astound by reaching new levels of out of tune-ness on each listen.

in the next two days john will record bass and we'll all start sketching out ideas for the second EP.



chris' favourite part of this whole experiment is that fact that the desk and the instruments are in seperate rooms, he this gets to play audio-God and talk at me through this microphone



chris and dana experiment with miking patterns for the drums

---

in the next week i'm going to post some mp3s of the tracks pre final mix, but check back daily for more photos and general gabbery from me.

love to you all,
Luc xox  ¶ 9:18 AM 0 comments