Cloudkicker

This my favorite song of theirs though. The Books - Lost and...

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:29:11 -0400

This my favorite song of theirs though.

The Books - Lost and Safe

The Books - An Animated Description of Mr. Maps This song is so...

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:19:44 -0400

The Books - An Animated Description of Mr. Maps

This song is so cool. But then again, pretty much everything that The Books did was cool. I was lucky enough to see them live one time in Columbus and it made me very happy.

Here’s another small sample from something I’m...

Sat, 11 May 2013 11:41:02 -0400

Here’s another small sample from something I’m working on.

Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon

Tue, 07 May 2013 08:41:04 -0400

Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon

distant light / new darkness, by The Sun And The Ocean

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:59:53 -0400

distant light / new darkness, by The Sun And The Ocean:

This is a super good album!

My first impression was some kind of Tycho/Jose Gonzalez mix, but it’s more complex than that, full of inspirations that I probably don’t know about. This one song has a super M83 vibe to it.

If anything, listen to “monolog” and “descent into maelstrom”

Matthew Robert Cooper - Camille and the Ocean Thanks to Olof...

Wed, 01 May 2013 20:37:10 -0400

Matthew Robert Cooper - Camille and the Ocean

Thanks to Olof for introducing me to one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. And a very sincere and humble thanks to everyone who has written to me and encouraged me to continue putting my heart into music, to continue to find creativity in places where I didn’t expect it, and to try to remember to see beauty where it is easy not to. Every single one of you makes my life better and sometimes it is just so overwhelming to know that you’re all out there, wherever you are.

This is a small sample of one of the more labor-intensive songs...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:49:38 -0400

This is a small sample of one of the more labor-intensive songs I’ve been working on.

Does anyone else use the PSP Vintage Warmer plugin? I watched...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 11:10:55 -0400

Does anyone else use the PSP Vintage Warmer plugin? I watched these videos yesterday and it turns out I’ve basically been using it wrong for ~5 years. Kind of a bummer, but my mixes are instantly better so that’s great!

Beacons LPs are back in stock!

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:39:14 -0400

Beacons LPs are back in stock!

I just put a whole lot of early Cloudkicker songs on my Soundcloud page, including old versions of...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:49:00 -0400

I just put a whole lot of early Cloudkicker songs on my Soundcloud page, including old versions of songs I uploaded to Myspace that would later become “The Discovery”.

I was listening to The Beatles last night and I thought I would share a handful of their songs that...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:18:40 -0400

I was listening to The Beatles last night and I thought I would share a handful of their songs that I think are interesting.

“Across the Universe” (1968)

“I’m Only Sleeping” (1966)

“Strawberry Fields Forever” (1967) - This song has an unusual structure. It inverts the verse and the chorus and starts right off with the hook, which gives it kind of a “looped” quality. Every time the loop starts again (“Let me take you down…”) more layers are added to the song. Really dig the drums.

“Tomorrow Never Knows” (1966)

“A Day in the Life” (1967) - Heavy ending

“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (1968) - Heavy song. The chorus is neat because the bass sounds like a detuned guitar.

“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” (1969) - Basically prog rock and the ending is NUTS.

Oh!

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 09:13:01 -0400

I forgot to say that I’m stocking the “Neighborhood” shirt in extra small sizes for the first time. Smaller shirts have been on the grievance list for a while, so now all you ladies and small men can wear stuff also!

"Neighborhood" Shirt Available

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:14:00 -0400

This shirt is available now:

It is printed on a tri-color black shirt which gives it kind of a “heathered” look.

A word about the design so there’s no confusion: The printers used what’s called a “split fountain” technique on this shirt, which means that there were two colors applied simultaneously so that when the squeegee is dragged across the screen the result is a smooth color gradient. If anyone is familiar with the screen printing process, the results from this technique are far less uniform than with the traditional method.

What this means for you is that no one shirt is exactly identical to another shirt. I think that’s pretty cool. However, you may/will receive a shirt that looks more yellow than the above picture, or more blue, or more yellow and blue, or less of those two things. That doesn’t mean you have a defective shirt, it just means that you have a shirt that no one else does.

That said, regardless of the color palate of the individual shirt, they look awesome!

Other news:

I will most likely have more Beacons LPs in stock next week sometime. When I do I will definitely post something here, but for those of you that are waiting I wanted to give you a heads up.
I have 3 songs recorded for the next release, and a head full of ideas. It’s way too early to speculate on when I might be finished with something, but I think it’s safe to say that there will be new things to listen to in 2013.

Enjoy your collective weekends!

http://www.everythingisaremix.info/ Really interesting video series that explores the idea of...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:53:20 -0400

http://www.everythingisaremix.info/

Really interesting video series that explores the idea of creativity and originality. It even gets into some discussion on the idea of intellectual property at the end, which is something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently.

A guy sent me this song that he made and I like it. Here,...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:43:00 -0400

A guy sent me this song that he made and I like it. Here, listen. I really dig that low bass note thing that happens.

Nice weekend to work on some good old-fashioned odd-timing china riffs.

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 12:43:47 -0400

Nice weekend to work on some good old-fashioned odd-timing china riffs.

3. Tomas Haake - The groove, the groove! He has to be in the top...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:10:52 -0400

3. Tomas Haake - The groove, the groove! He has to be in the top ten as far as sheer solidness goes, right?

2. Danny Carey - Something that I never paid attention to before...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:09:50 -0400

2. Danny Carey - Something that I never paid attention to before I saw this interview was how he really does have a “wide-open” drum sound and how so many other drummers and therefore bands don’t, and I realized that I really like drums that occupy tonal space as well as percussive space.

I don’t know how to make a post that has more than one...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:09:01 -0400

I don’t know how to make a post that has more than one video in it so the next couple posts are the same post. We had a get together here on Saturday that at one point included two of my drum-minded friends and me bringing out some old youtube favorites. Here were my top three:

1. Dave Weckl, Vinnie Colaiuta, Steve Gadd - Oh man so awesome, and so much mullet. Thanks to my friend Adam (the one that co-wrote the “Fade” drums with me) for showing me this. I had never seen it before.

I’m not a huge gear head but after seeing Meshuggah last...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:47:32 -0400

I’m not a huge gear head but after seeing Meshuggah last month and kind of/sort of having some of the same equipment this is pretty interesting. Most videos like this that I’ve ever seen don’t go into nearly as much detail.