is what it is...*

giovanna has to audition for vocal club. she picked "am i not pretty enough" by kasey chambers. without being asked, i recorded a instrumental track this afternoon for giovanna to sing against. it is sloppy, i will have to clean it up, but it is what it is...

1. pretty
nocturnal twins

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day after *

had fun at lorie's party yesterday. everyone bailed today, so I took one of the three ideas from this week and started on one. i think i have to kick up the tempo a tad, will re-record tomorrow...

1. avon
nocturnal twins

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waking up again *

things been quiet! haven't done much, not been in a good mood to create for a while... i bought some new amp models, nice guitar sounds, i was fooling around playing guitar and enjoying it. i recorded 3 different riff fragments in one session and am posting the recordings here.

1. 3 new ideas
nocturnal twins

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now closer *

i redid the vocal. this is a lot closer to what i want. also added a little lead guitar snippet. i will stop fooling around with this, after all; it is a cover.

1. whatever happened
the strokes

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peel the veil *

i listened to yesterday's mix on the way back and forth to work. it sounded too muddled. the original idea had to make it an acoustic copy, but somehow the damn electrics had found their way in again!

so today i went to mix it into just acoustics, bass and vocal. i ended up taking out the acoustics entirely, bringing the electrics way down, and the vocal way up. i took out the yet on the chorus cause liz don't like it.

now i can hear every uncomfortable word of my vocal, and hear my wavering pitch to perfection! but i do like the song betterer.

1. whatever happened
the strokes

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whatever happened? *

i was listening an earlier strokes record, and decided to do a cover of a song on it today. its not what i expected. but it is a cover.

on monday, i added two melody reinforcment guitars ie: lead passages, and did a slight remix with the added guitars.

1. whatever happened
the strokes

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ballad? *

everybody bailed, i am using my alone time carefully. i am hemingway creating. i have a gloria cubana maduro wavell, a pitcher of martoonis, a pile of beans that i have ground and boiled, and an acoustic guitar. i wrote a little ditty in an inspired 300 seconds. I learned the progression, (ok, it wasn't that difficult!), and am figuring out the flow of the tune, trying b sections, and bridges. don't have anything yet, but this is the fragment i am starting with...

1. ballad demo
by nocturnal twins

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tell me something *

everyone was out of the house for 3 hours today, so i wrote lyrics for the a demo that i had recorded 2 versions, a slow one, and a faster one a couple of weeks ago. the name of the song is now, "tell me something now (that i can do)". this is just a rough mix, i doubt anyone can make out the words yet, but i had to get a mix of the tune up here.

update: i have been posting and replacing the mix once a day as i play with it, it is easier to discern the lyrics now, on the 4th mix!

1. tell me something now (that i can do)
by nocturnal twins

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roadblock to mission *

i wrote this and recorded a quick version with one mike, capturing my vocal and guild archtop, down and dirty. not the greatest quality, but it shows the framework of the tune.

1. roadblock to mission
by nocturnal twins

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demo redone *

it was too slow, and i hated the drums. so i scored a little drum loop from a song, and redid yesterdays demo faster.

1. tell me something now (that i can do)
by nocturnal twins

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shitty this and shitty that *

its been a shitty couple of weeks, haven't done any writing, today when everyone was out i came up with this. it has a shitty little scratch rhythm, but i got it out quick. gonna pop it on my mp3 player and work out some shitty words to it tomorrow on the way to work.

1. demo 103
by nocturnal twins

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on top *

everyone was out of the house yesterday, so I overdubbed a couple of electric guitars on top of one of my tunes that i recorded thursday night at jonathans. but if you asked me why, i don't have an answer ready...

1. release (acoustic with electric guitar overdubs)
by nocturnal twins

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run through *

i decided that i would let jonathan listen to me run through a bunch of tunes played on acoustic, and let him evaluate me, from technique to execution. he seems to think i am ready to try the solo thang, i guess i will never feel ready, so i am going to attempt this.

he recorded the tunes thursday night at his house, you can download them separately, or together in a zip file

here they are:

1. maria's lovers
by nocturnal twins

2. i'm so sad
by nocturnal twins

3. release (your love)
by nocturnal twins

4. i don't want to do it
by bob dylan

5. you alone
by ron sexsmith

or download the zip file with all five tunes

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errant banging *

as part of my ongoing plan to start playing solo in preparation for my search for band members, i am playing my songs with an acoustic while singing. so I recorded two of the songs as i played them live.

i am not used to playing acoustic, i can hear a banging as i am playing, i must be tapping the guitar top with the heel of my hand or something, i will have to get someone to watch me while i play so that i can catch my errant banging!

1. i'm so sad (live solo)
by nocturnal twins

2. release your love (live solo)
by nocturnal twins

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nerve *

i wrote this song a long time ago, it sounded annoying and buzzing, so i am rewriting it. i wrote it in an evil sounding tuning, this is just a fragment of me playing and singing it so i could get the chords right.

1. nerve
by nocturnal twins

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on again, off again

jonathan says that he "quit the band", (his quotes), although we plan on doing things in the future. i like to say: jonathan is busy pursuing current projects but will be playing selected dates with his "on again, off again project", nocturnal twins...

however you slice it, i have to shift gears.

what to do? i really want to find a rhythm section and practice once a week.

how to achieve that?

i think i am going to try to play solo to get started on a new foot for a couple of reasons. it should instill a sense of disipline in my performing. it could also distill my songs by reducing the guitars down to one.

maybe in the course of playing solo i will find my rhythm section, i could pitch a help wanted request as part of my "solo act".

its all hard to say at this point, but i start tomorrow.

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mix an art *

i re-mixed the tunes from last week, much better this time, because I had my concentration back. you might want to see if it's worth replacing them on the blog, especially release.

jonathan

1. release (better)
by nocturnal twins

2. maria (better)
by nocturnal twins

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if nothing better comes along *

we set a target date to start performing friday night. and we are going out as a two piece if nothing better comes along.

i wrote words to "call me", that now is "walk by your house". we tried it out last night, but the song isn't ready for prime time yet.

we are honing the recent tunes and we did one i wrote last year which we hadn't played for a couple of months.

on "release" we added a pause in the center of the song, and changed the ending, on "maria" jonathan is trying different instrumental parts. this is the second of the two versions we did friday.

1. release
by nocturnal twins

2. maria
by nocturnal twins

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clusterf**k

i quote jonathan: "once I made the first mistake, i never looked back". we got together for our bi-monthly practice, we set up to record the whole thing since its a writing session, and thats when it took a turn for the worse! a series of compounding mistakes ensued.

to quote jonathan again: "it's not exactly true we got nothing. somehow, by dumb luck, managed not to entirely destroy the maria we did that I said had a reggae feel (it doesn't). we played it a bit sloppy, but what was great about it was that you jumped in and tried something different, which started to get me going. but by the time we really started cooking, i was well past being able to capture it on the hard drive.

there are no niceties like well mixed tracks and lush reverbs and such, guitars and vocals sit on the same track. and he said that we did much better versions; but this is what we have! it is sloppy, but i like it for its spontaneity.

1. maria (shuffle)
by nocturnal twins

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resume *

friday night we got together for the first time in a while. we played three newer songs, all for the most part for the first time. one song, jonathan had not played on, i had done all of the parts on the recording. one, jonathan had slowed down, we worked at writing a bridge and getting a feel. and this one, jonathan had added his guitar parts to the recording, but we had never played this live. so this was the first time.

1. i'm so sad
by verne a.

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