Mary Lambert part 1

It's been a quite a while since I've made a blog post.  Summer has passed and here we are already in the month of November.  Time sure flies when you're busy, but I think it's important to stop for a moment and reassess life and goals and direction.  And a great way to slow down and enjoy life is to go see a show.  Tomorrow I'm going to see Mary Lambert perform in Tacoma, WA at the University of Puget Sound field house.  I've seen her one other time at the Tractor in Ballard at a fundraiser for the Oso Mudslide victims and it was incredible.  This chic is a local hero and a real class act and makes me so excited about music, but also the message.  She is an indie musician, and she is maintaining creative right and speaks her mind about things she believes strongly in.  These are the qualities of an indie musician if you ask me.  She has no qualms about calling out the bullshit she sees in the world and that's one of the many things I like about her.  (Not to mention her brilliant poetic lyrics and angelic voice).  Other things that really impress me; she spoke and performed at the United Nations HQ for Human Rights Day.  I'm very excited for this show!! I will give you the details in my next post Mary Lambert part 2.

The Weepies

The Weepies left quite the impression on me, at the Neptune Theater, having never seen them live before and my only experience with their music was someone else’s cover of one of their more popular songs.  I don’t know how to explain it, but they had an aura of love.  You know how you just get a feeling from certain people, how you just know in your gut whether you can trust someone or not.  It sounds ridiculous.  Sometimes words are not enough to describe the feeling you are left with after a show.  You could just tell every word in every love song they sang was the truth and how much they loved singing it.  You could tell every band member believed it too.  Their instruments and voices melded so well to create a single work of art.  So much more than the sum of its parts. I think about how much time they have spent on the road, what dificulties they have overcome to get to this one performance and how many times they may have played these songs already, but still they were so untiringly sincere.  Sirens is their 5th Album release.

S, Jenn Ghetto, Jenn Champion

On May 1st I went to a show at the Neumos in Seattle to see S open for Sera Cahoone.  It was my first time seeing them play live, although I had heard S' song Vampires, the artist also known as Jenn Ghetto, numerous times on KEXP and on the internet.  You might know her from her former band Carissa's Wierd. My spell-check really wanted to fix that.  It was a great show.  Sera Cahoone played with a full band and it sounded so full.  I was also introduced to another band, Horde and the Harem.  They were unique and played a skillful show and I appreciate both of those things.  They really appeared to believe in their performance and I think that is a vital component to putting on a good show.  I have to say, though, that when Jenn Ghetto performs it really feels like she is exposing her soul. These are three extremely talented local artists/bands that you should definitely see live.

Support independent artists! #seattlemovement

Lowland Hum

Yesterday, I met Lowland Hum, an incredibly talented and kind husband and wife duo from South Carolina. I got to set up their mics and sit in on their awesome performance and interview with Ron Taffi on 90.7 KSER which you can listen to on kser.org.

I've gotten busy and put the blog on the back burner, but I'm going to try to update it at least once a week and keep you posted on what I'm up to and the great music that I've found.

Here's my short CD review of Lowland Hum:

Daniel and Lauren Goans, the married folk, duo Lowland Hum and their album by the same name, evoke serenity and splendor.  From rural North Carolina, they weave their appealing high-tenor and soprano voices into intricate harmonies over string-band arrangements.

Includes acoustic guitar arpeggios, ghostly vowels and thoughtful poetic lyrics.

lowlandhum.com

Vulfpeck

I have to talk about Vulfpeck today, a funk instrumental group made up of Jack Stratton, Joe Dart, Theo Katzman and Woody Goss founded 2011 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  I wanted to find out as much as I could about these guys.

Vulfpeck is so inventive in their musical stylings, humor and in their publicity, i.e. their recent Spotify stunt, Sleepify.

Congratulations are in order for their successful kickstarter campaign in which they raised more than their goal of $5,000 for their upcoming free September "Sleepify" tour.

The title of their recent album is Fugue State.  Fugue has a couple of definitions, one being musical and the other psychiatric which just makes this album more clever and amusing.

These guys are brilliant and sound especially brilliant with the addition of Antwaun Stanley's smooth vocals heard here in their newest video 1612.

This group displays incredible musicianship from the University of Michigan.  As everyone knows Detroit has a history of great music, such a long and rich heritage of notable musicians I'm not even going to name a few.

Their video Synth Party will make you laugh your ass off.  Their sense of humor is ingenious and ridiculous. Theo Katzman is seen jamming out on a pillow with a stray sock? and Joe Dart makes himself comfortable laying on the bed while rocking out on the bass.

I'm pretty upset these guys aren't coming to Seattle during their September Tour.  Buy their album on bandcamp and if you're close by, go see these guys live!!

Ayron Jones and The Way & Lukas Nelson

     I had no idea what expect when I went to see Ayron Jones and The Way open for Lukas Nelson (son of Willie) and Promise of the Real last Friday night at the Wild Buffalo in Bellingham.  I wish I had gotten there earlier to see more of the opening set.  I was blown away.  The energy of Ayron Jones and the Way was so amazing, I got lost in it and just had so much fun.  The drummer alone was a spectacle to watch.  It was hip hop meets Jimi Hendrix and it was awesome.  Each of them were such skilled musicians with incredible stage presence and charisma I was worried for Lukas Nelson to have to follow that.
   
     In his own rite Lukas Nelson moved beyond the style of his father into a new realm of cool of his own invention.  If you are an americana hippy like me you'll totally get it. (Even if you are a regular hippy). A beautiful arrangement mixed with acrobatics.  Licks reminiscient of Phillip Sayce, wild yet so controlled and surprisingly touching lyrics that seemed to bare his soul.  It was a little bit country and little bit rock'n roll mixed with a touch of indie style. Powerful performances by both bands that complemented each other so well.
   
     If you have an opportunity, you have to go see these guys.  Both bands are top in their craft, I think you'll regret it if you don't see them perform live.  And I can't tell you how much fun it was to see them in such a small venue, up close.  I have a feeling you won't be able to see them like this for too much longer before people learn who they are and the crowds start pouring in.

Headroom

I want to share with you what my friend Ben Burnes (Abstraction) shared with me this morning, if you too are an indie musician recording your own music and wanting to produce it in the most professional way possible.  Come with me as I document what I learn.  

He said I had a lot of clipping in the recording, both in the vocal and guitar parts. If you have pretty decent music editing software red lines will indicate where the audio clips because it was recorded too loud.

What happens when audio clips is that it is being recorded beyond that capacity of the microphone or computer to properly process the audio signal. The wave generated is too large and the peaks/troughs get "clipped" off, creating audio crackles and other unfriendly artifacts.

Here's a quick example of how clipping looks:

The first line is a normal sine wave. The second line is the sine wave's volume being boosted beyond the limitation of the machine. When the volume is brought back down to normal levels, you can see that the peaks and troughs of the wave have been clipped off creating an entirely different sound.

While he wasn't saying that I needed to go out and re-record everything, it's something that I should keep in mind for the future. The rule of thumb is to turn your microphone sensitivity down to the point where you can sing your loudest and still have space to spare. The traditional space (called "headroom" in the industry) you should give between your loudest singing and the absolute max of the system is -6db. Boosting audio volume is easy, but cleaning up clipped audio is very difficult because in essence part of the wave form is destroyed.

Just so you know Ben is responsible for the piano part in this amazing piece, Drifting, a collaboration with The Reverb Junkie and Genettic.