Listening to Elliott Smith makes me feel quite a bit better about my pitch problems and whatnot. Dude is way better about it than I am obviously, but he is by no means Freddie Mercury. If I could just get a deeecent bit better, I think I could get to that point.

On a similar note, I have begun to observe that Guy Picciotto has a pretty funny habit of sliding down on almost every rang out note he's ever sang on record. It is something that I do as well, and I think it might be in order to avoid having to sustain a note properly for very long.

Elliott Smiff does a lot of stuff on his records that are interesting ways to get around singing certain things that i wonder if he couldn't necessarily pull off 100% of the time.

I wonder if playing live was a pain in the ass for him, as he didn't seem to have a loud enough voice perhaps to bust through less-than-ideal PA systems.

Presently been working on two of my own bands' mixes and one of a band that hired my services... and I am very pleased to say that I think I have developed a 'sound' or personality to my mixes, one that I think I can feel proud of. Feels good man.

Some fucking douchebag I went to high school with who has been hyping his shit all over Facebook. Big surprise: Nobody liked this fucker.

Forgot to mention: Bought an acoustic geetar a few days ago. Thinger is alright, is not very nice as everything up here is priced ridiculous as balls. Like, RIDICULOUS AS BALLS. So I bought some non recognizable name cheapie ('tis a Greg Bennett, s'got a weirdass headstock shape), sounds and plays better than any of the other things similarly priced in there though. There were some upper mid-level Taylors coming in at just short of 3 grand. I was like, "wat? "

Anyway, recorded this. Not a new thing really, but it's grown some new parts (structure is waytemporary). Is in line with the fairly sloppassgarbage playing you've come to expect from me. Though, this is a wee bit better sort of, I tried to lessen how much I rush tempo. To some amount of success. Could have probably tracked it a liiitttle cleaner, but I wasn't about to keep trying to record multiple takes. Also, thing will be slightly faster when it is done. I am just trying to get decent at playing it at this speed.

https://soundcloud.com/cameron-heck/sung-tongsy-shit

That was pretty funny actually, though I really want to punch his dumb clown mouth. (the rap guy)

I would maybe think it was mildly funny if he was not (relatively) serious about his whole schtick. He asks for people to "show him some support", does shows and whatnot and has been for awhile. And I feel, if one is going to do the OTT vulgar thing, this is a pretty weakdicks attempt. He went for all of the easy cliches, I feel.

Lately, it has been making me feel like I need to get into this sort of thing and do it right. Which to me is more along the lines of: rapping about eating urinal cakes and killing the elderly in absurd manners for sport, just as a couple examples. The whole, "LAWL PUT DAT DICK IN 'ER BUTT" thing has been done two trillion times. It wasn't funny to begin with IMO, and it has now become stale and unfunny.

I dunno why I am wasting my time bitching about this retard though, I am sort of a grumpy fucker today.

I have some big things coming up later in the year. Things I am not entirely at liberty to discuss quite yet.

On another note, I have to remember to try out an Engl Invader soon.

Cover this

Acoustic is great to get you chops up on electric. Make electric so easy after a bit. Especially if you get a low level acoustic. Taylor are expensive but, yeah, your prices there are Out of reason.

There is a lot of truth to that. I used to play a lot of metal and leadstuff on acoustic as practice. No room for error there. I've long recommended that to people as a chops builder.

Also, re: cheaper acoustics, some can actually be real gems. My Ibanez is like that. I walked in with the budget for a much more expensive guitar and just bought the thing that sounded and played the best within that range, turning down a few more prestigious instruments.

My current acoustic is a Yamaha fg530(?) sa it is actually a decent unit, it ran about 500 i think, sounds great. It's not a $2000 acoustic, but does its job well.

Ja, my Ibby is like $450-5 new depending on finish? Sounded better than anything else twice its price. Nice neck, Fishman pickup/pre, spiffy color. Records very well. I'd planned on dropping 8 or so on a Takamine when I purchased the Ibanez 'cause there was one that I liked, but I thought the Ibby was a better guitar for a hella lot less. Go with the better gear, not the name/rep.

I'd be very hesitant to ever buy an acoustic sight unseen, no matter the make/model. You gotta play 'em. I tend toward smaller bodies, too; I think the big dreadnoughts are too boomy/bassy most of the time. I like how mine sits in a mix, and the clarity in the mids. I don't use the DI much save for as a tuner out, but it's come in handy a couple times to add some clarity into delicate picking parts.

Yay more gigs! Show on Friday, we're headlining a show as part of a local festival in a couple weeks, another one coming up a month after that where we're pressing our backup bassist into service to bass for us.

I've been Slightly Busy lately between bandstuff, working on my parents' house and trying to get my life sorted out. And essentially living at my ladyfriend's house all last week and ignoring the whole of the intarwebs, with my phone shut off to boot.

And I want to get more of my solo record completed. I have a couple acoustic things to re-track lest I have to sell the acoustic (I've gigged it all of once or twice in the past ten years; purely a recording piece and I can always borrow one for that) and I intend on doing the reamping with the AxeFX. I think it'll just be a better sound vs. GR5. I've been ignoring the record for months now.

I heard all of Toronto is underwater. Anyone hear from Geoffy?

Yeah I live in a suburb on a hill, so I'm fine. The garage we rehearse in got hit though. Ankle high. Parts near the waterfront were so waterlogged that cars were sunken.

I had a friend heading over to record some tracks but we lost power. I sat around reading for a few hours and the power came back minutes before he arrived.

Still in the deep south for another day, i will be traveling back north tomorrow morning. Going to take in a museum or two today, take in some alcohol as well. Wll report back as needed

We ran everything DI tonight. Guitars, bass, keys, e-drums, backing tracks all pre-mixed, and had our own soundguy (and backup bassist) running the board. Shit went off without a hitch. The New System works. Much less gear to bring and quicker setup time too. Most of the songs run right into each other; there's very little talking to the audience, though I occasionally say something vulgar over the song intros. ("If you don't dance to this one, I am personally going to sodomize you all"; etc.)

Despite the fact the monitors at the venue are fuckered and we played most of the show listening from behind the FOH gear.

Still rocked the place. Most of the crowd was there for us, and people were dancing to us, which they did not do for the other bands. And considering these are synthy-dancy bands, that says something.

Great show. I rocked the hollowbody, too, and got a bunch of compliments on the visual.

All in all, a good night.

Very cool. Took me a bit to get used to it, and my bandmates are having more trouble with one guitar amped the other direct so i will probably go amped until the other guitar goes direct also.

Fucking classy as all fuck.