Adore is... What it is. It is seriously dark. Not that The Pumpkins are a perky band to begin with, but they really let their goth out with this one- and if you've spent some time with them you know that and those old mope-rock bands are an influence of theirs. Alternatively, pardon the pun, it's fairly obvious if you've spent time with Cure or Joy Division records; I've heard Billy talk about The Sisters and New Order and Depeche Mode and he's a big Bauhaus fan- what was it, Bauhaus, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath he said were cool when I was much younger than I am now, so of course I went out and bought their records. Oh, and Bowie, too. Him and Trent Reznor, not only did they make shitty records, they had awful taste in music and never told me about anything cool.

But yeah, that is totally unintentional- because no sensible person would actually want to sing like Billy Corgan. It just happens sometimes. Can't get away from the '90s no matter how much I try. I confess, I am usually f'd up for the vocal sessions too. Mostly just booze. I can't play fer shit having eaten booze and pills, but I wind up writing a lot of lyrics that way and improv-ing a lot of vocals.

Maybe I should just do everything full-on ubergoth? http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Days%20That%20End%20In%20Why.mp3

(Yes, that's all me from a few years back. Not a voice I use often...)

I figure I should acquire it along with Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie again, as I haven't listened to any of those in almost 3 years.

Ah yes, das boozin' is only good for writing for me, but I'll be damned if it ain't great for that purpose. Too much impairment to play an instrument properly I would imagine, and I don't think drinking and yelling sounds like anything I should be doing. But there's no such thing as too much impairment when you've got a pen in your hand or keyboard at your fingers. Unless of course, you're sending people suggestive e-mails, that might be bad.

Heh, that's gotta be the most awesomely goth song title these eyes have seen. The pinch harmonics give away your metal past though.

Yeah, you should. They are quality records.

And yeah, certainly in my Raging Alcoholism period it pissed me off more than once- there's only so much before I can't play, as much as my brain may want me to- the body goes before the mind; I'm totally coherent. There is an uninhibitedness though that honestly does come in handy writing... Things with words. Free associating, etc. Even if I may have to re-sing the odd bit. I've kept stuff, though, where were were totally schnockered.

Pinch harmonics. Funny, as much as I don't play or write like that anymore, it's so obvious who it is, even from just a shitty demo.

Wow, I have been out of commission for a while.

Some vocals I threw down earlier. I am experimenting with different ways of singing this; this is sorta what I've settled on? http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Extinguisher_Voxtest_1_20.mp3

There was a super-low harmony in the chorus, but it wound up obscuring the tail end of the main vocal where I drop down into a lower register. Not entirely sold on the verse. I only got the one verse on this recorded before the deathmetallers showed up. I've been listening to it working on it so I can't decide if any of this sucks or not. Chorus is typical of me, the verse not quite.

Man, I love the dueling rhythm guitars. That is one of my favorite sounds.

Quality recording and quality material. Nice work.

Looking/listening back again I am laughing at myself having commenting on the guitars on a clip referencing vocals. But basically, ^that was a what I observed, as well.

Thanqs joey!

Cam, if you think the guitars are cool, I'm in no position to complain. There are a few "yelling into distortion" sections here and there, and the verses on this are one of them. I half regret using the ham radio mic here, but I knew I wanted shitty so get it from the source, y'know? Really, I'd just like it a little brighter and dirtier, the main vocal at least. I think the performance is more than adequate. I did a few takes of the last line in the verse because I didn't like how I was ending the phrase- sounded too much like Soundgarden or something if I tried to sing it nicely. I screwed this one up, actually, but I like the effect.

Working on some programming earlier: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/10%20ICouldntLoveYou_1_21_test.mp3

Second verse, chorus, bridge, into last verse and chorus. Bass, listening back, could be tighter in the second verse. Not that this is supposed to be super-tight or anything; this is very much a funk thing. Guitars are just a stem and probably not the real takes anyhow, so the balance there is a little wonky; the left-side guitar is being buried by the Mothershipped guitar on the right. Also, Mellotrons and sad robot girls.

Working on some rawking earlier: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/04%20Australopithicine_1_21_test.mp3

Wobbly guitar is BBE Mind Bender. I need one of my own. Fuzzbass is HM-2. Solo is a Pod scratch track. This needs some badass drum fills, I think. Hat programming is probably a bit too dynamic; I'm losing a lot of the softer hits in the mix.

I'm wondering if I shouldn't double up that main rhythm left/right and center the clean guitar? I think that would take up too much space though, and there's some random noisy bits I'm planning on throwing in here. Still needs the electronics. Could probably cut a verse/chorus before the bridge bit near the end. I do want to end on the half-time stoner riff thing.

Still with Guitar Rig for the time being. I want to know exactly what I'm doing in these songs before I start realamping them.

This is about as straightforward a rock song as I have: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/11%20Tender_Mercies_test_1_22.mp3

...which is probably why I was procrastinating on it. The solos are scratch tracks and will be re-played pretty well note-for-note (they're not really any different than the original). If I feel the need to re-track the rest they'd probably be done in an hour. I'll wind up re-doing the right hand side part during the choruses, just to get takes that are good, but the rest...? The rhythm section here I think sounds pretty good. This was super-easy to mix.

This is fantastic. I like it as it is, instrumental and all. Are there voices intended for it?



You are getting better use and sounds of GR5 than i was able to wrest from it. I will have to look back into it at some brighter warmer time i think.

Agreed on the riffem sexxion, good sounds bofe. Otherwise, this one seems like it needs vocals to come together proper as a Snaxosong.

1. Yes. It's a full song. It took me forever to find something appropriate for the bridge, otherwise it's just naked bass and drums. That's where the Sad Robot Girls come in. There originally wasn't any synth on it (minus the guitar synth) at all, but I was feeling inspired with the Mellotron. Seeing as three of the fourteen songs that made the cut (assuming I don't add anything else) are already instrumental...

I suppose this one could go either way though; the drummer's suggested putting vocals to Where Monsters Are In Dreams- he thinks that would works as a not-instrumental, so again

2. I find GR5 takes more beating on with EQ/Compression/additional saturation plugins to get it to sound "right", but that's typical of any modeler outside my friend's AxeFX. (Possibly the 11R, but that remains to be seen by yours truly.) The AC30 does not get mean enough without help (I would know) and the old Fenders are not nearly fat enough nor dirty enough (Chris from Garda has a real one; I would know). I've found most of the "rock" amps to be pretty decent- I like the Hiwatt and Orange models, the JMP and the SLO, so that's what I've been using, mostly, for dirty toans.

I wonder if people who design these modeling whatnots aren't making assumptions about what, exactly, people use Voxes and Fenders for, and making them perhaps a wee bit too polite.

The effect section of GR5 is pretty snazzy for wrecking random non-guitar things.

3. Yeah, that's about as straightforward a rock song as I'mma write. Thankfully it's stuffed full of vocals once I get around to recording them proper. Like I mentioned, I'd been sitting on getting the drums done since there's really not much else going on.

Oh, and that's GR5 on the drum break in the middle, too.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/09%20LeftOnMissionAndRevenge_1_24.mp3

Late-night headphone mix. I can't for the life of me remember what synth I used for the sequencer riff in the original and I don't feel like trying to re-create it at the moment; that can wait 'til morning. The electronics need a bit of dressing up anyhow.

One of the oldest songs that made it to the record; this was originally written for a band that never gigged, pre-Garda, pre-Maps 1.0 a good while before the demo I based this version off of was done.

Solo is just a scratch thing I threw down earlier. It's close enough to what the solo is supposed to be. This is also one of the rare times you will hear me play bass with a pick. This song was asking for a pick.

This one, I think, falls very much into the Ain't Broke/Don't Fix category as a song. It's obnoxious and violent, full of ugly dissonant guitars.

love this. Nice mix, but I am on shit headphones (at work) but I lurve the guitar tones and work. Bass sits nicely. *claps*

I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote this. Especially the extra bar of 5 at the end of the chorus riff.

Another one from that same time period: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/13%20Gethsemane_test_1_25.mp3

All the guitars on this are being replaced, but I need something to sing over. The drums, drum machines, bass and strings are staying. Essentially unchanged, again, from the old one save for being in E instead of Eb.

This is starting to shape up into something almost listenable the whole way through; I have one more track that's not instrumental to sort out a rough version of.

Wow, I so did not give a shit about the guitars on the last one to the point I forgot to put any sort of reverb on them at all. (I always send to a convolution room with modeled guitars.)

This is about as far as I got tonight on the one I attempted to fire up the old Alesis for: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/12%20Mexican_Standoff_1_25_test.mp3

Needs the rest of the synths, needs the drums to be interesting, and I need to sort out what, exactly, happens after the bridge. Oh, and the intro guitar where I'm playing some weird bendy/tapping lick through a wah pedal. This is the one thing where there really isn't a concrete arrangement, so I'm sorting that out whilst doing the synths.

This one is sort of very groove-oriented, so I suppose the drums don't really have to be going nuts here, but I think it should build, or rather, ebb and flow, rise and fall with the different sections.

It occurs to me listening back, maybe nothing happens after the bridge. Maybe it fades out, maybe it ends there. Bring back the synth + bass section from the intro before the guitars come crashing in and just end with that bridge that is no longer a bridge. There's really nowhere for it to go after that- it's built up as much as it can, and I don't want to bring the chorus back and drag it out needlessly, nor turn it into a jam.

Test: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/Mexican_Standoff_end_test.mp3

From right before the last chorus through the end. Bass drops out when the intro synths + electrodrums come back in. This "feels" better to me, I think; it builds to something conclusive. Otherwise I can just jam on that groove forever and not really get anywhere. Also, more dynamics.

Okay, anyone have 47 minutes to listen through minus vocals?

Actual length will be a bit longer. Full version of Wasteland adds a few, as does the full version of I Couldn't Love You, synth intro to the whole thing, 12 extra bars in Where Monsters... etc.; there's probably a good five minutes more tacked on of shit that isn't here. There are synth and guitar overdubs missing. A few of these (Ingenue, Where Monsters..., There Are No Words) are the original demos- those are all the instrumentals- tacked on for listening porpoises. I didn't change anything there save for the arrangement in the one anyhow. If anyone has the time to go through this in order, tell me if it sucks or not?

All Will Be Revealed
Extinguisher
Imaginary Girl
Australopithcine
Ingénue
Where Monsters Are In Dreams
Wasteland Of Your Heart
Silence Is The Loudest Sound Of All
Left On Mission And Revenge
I Couldn't Love You More If I Tried
Tender Mercies
Mexican Standoff
Gethsemane
There Are No Words

I did not intend for this to come out like some sort of concept album or tell a story. I suppose there's an implication of that, even just looking at the titles. These were written over the course of several years and I felt were my "best of" of that time period, at least, that didn't get turned into Garda songs. There are a few broken-heart ballads there, but they were not written about the same person. It does not tell a story and is not a concept record despite, my looking back, its accidental arrangement as such. That being said, I'm fine with people who don't know better thinking it is when I'm done with the thing for realz. At this point I want a band behind it and want to polish up the bits.

As mentioned in prior posts, these are not necessarily the final tracks. Most of the drums and all of the bass will be kept. (Any changes to the bass will be from the other takes.) Most of the rhythm guitars will stay. The solos will probably all be re-done. Keys will probably all be kept and more added. Same with drum machines. Fakeamps will be realmapped. Vocals... We'll see what I want to keep from prior clips poasted and unpoasted. This is listenable the whole way through and the running order makes some sort of sense. It is an appropriate length for a rock rekkid. If you have time to listen, weigh in plox, as it's me and my drummer at this point, our reach exceeding our grasp.

Will do a bit later.

This, I shall eat it up throughout the relaxed (well, non recording) bits of the days.