Mastering The First Law of Thermodynamics

Krissy and I went to a party at the recording studio for Same Sky Productions last night. Dave Messier was kind enough to show us around and introduce us to his state of the art gear. Now I’m recovering from a bout of gear envy. Those Avalon preamps…

Anyway, I thought I should talk a little about our production work. We received our masters back from Ken Lee Mastering about 2 weeks ago. We’ve gone to Ken for our previous albums and really like his work. He works out of Oakland, CA, so we have to FedEx our materials to him these days, but it’s well worth it. The sound always comes out balanced and full.

All we needed was a killer album cover. Krissy?

The First Law of Thermodynamics

Well, we finally came to an agreement on a title for WTH4. Since the theme dealt largely with fire, I had suggested using words such as conflagration, effigy, immolation, etc. Chuck didn’t feel too strongly about any of these. After 3 weeks of instant messaging until 3am, various emails, and phone calls, one projected title came up: The First Law of Thermodynamics.

The only way that Chuck would agree to the title was if we used the equation somewhere. Fair enough. The title was fixed. On to the artwork!
Reminds me of endothermic reactions, like polymerizing acrylamide.

The Flipper, Part 2

Well, I finally did it. I got myself up early enough this morning to record the sounds from the various robots at work (EnVivo Pharmaceuticals). I had threatened to do this a while back, but never found the time. It didn’t help that the most audibly interesting instrument was broken until mid-April. Still, I have little room for excuses.

Anyway, the morning started with me packing up my mics, cables, stands, and a portable recording device. I made it in to work at about 8:00am and proceeded to set up.

The first subject was the Fly Transfer Machine, or Flipper for short. I set up 3 Sure SM-57s, one on either side of the open device and one at the back. I flipped 3 racks. Good enough.

Next was the PhenoScreen Assay Machine. I placed 2 mics on this one: one inside the machine and one pointing at the open door. About half an empty rack was assayed.

The TECAN was next. I placed a single mic near the tip-wash area and proceed to wash the tips a couple of times. We’ll have some good rhythms to work with from this guy.

Finally, a -80C incubator caught my eye. A nice ambient drone was emanating from this piece of equipment, so I thought I would capture it. It may serve as some good background noise.

After this one, I felt that I should pack up and actually start to work. The next person to arrive for the day drove in just as I was packing the truck. Good timing.

Gig Recap

So, here’s how the evening went down:

Krissy and I headed down to Copperfield’s with Brian of Back Row Attack. Parking was scarce, so we utilized the services of a parking garage below the Trinity Apartment Complex. $5 for the entire night, and just around the corner! We arrived at Jimmy Nation Nite.

The first act to go on was a solo guitarist (much like myself for that particular evening). He called himself “Special Ed” and proceeded to play some tunes, one of which annoyed the bar manager. This song nearly led to an untimely dismissal.

The next act up was a band called Flo. These guys were smoooooth. They displayed killer jazz licks and incredible musicianship. Nice guys, too. I very much enjoyed thier set.

My acoustic set was to follow. Due to a minor scheduling conflict, I cut my 45 minute set down to 30. The songlist was as follows:

Phoenix
Savior
She Said, She Said (The Beatles)
Simple Words
Lies pt.1
The Word
…

Then I was joined by my friend, Jeeves Leblanc. It was an honor to play with him, as he proceeded to deftly solo over the final two songs, one of Jeeves’ tunes and Reality. This part of the evening was only marred by a member of the following band who deemed it necessary to loudly question the length of my set. Oh well. That’s how some people are.
After we finished, the band, Pocketsauce, took the stage. There’s no question about it. Those cats can play. They finished the night with their funky blend of groove tunes.

I have to say, the evening was good.

Last Minute Gig

My buddy, Jimmy Nation, runs his Nation Nite at Copperfield’s every Thursday.  A few days ago, he asked me to fill in this Thursday (10/19/06), for a 10:00pm slot. I thought it would be a great opportunity to  perform some WTH tunes in a solo acoustic forum.  Anyway, I’ll be at Copperfields at 10pm this Thursday.

Copperfield’s
98 Brookline Ave.
Boston, MA 02115

Electric Sitar

When I returned from my Barcelona trip, I had an instrument waiting for me at work. The previous week, I had made the decision to abandon my hopes of fitting a crappy old acoustic guitar with sympathetic strings (see old blog post). Instead, I found a suitable toy at Musician’s Friend.

It had mixed reviews, but the general consensus was that the instrument was nowhere near the real thing in terms of playability or timbre, yet it did offer an alternative sound quality. Many owners indicated that minor adjustments to the buzzing Gotoh bridge may be necessary, but I haven’t delved into the mechanics yet.

It has since made its way onto two of the demo tracks for the upcoming WTH#5 album. It seems to do the trick for me, as I’m mainly using the instrument for color and texture with the occasional solo here and there (akin to the solo on Steely Dan’s “Do it Again”).

Barcelona

I just came back on Sunday night from a business trip to Barcelona (yes, another fly meeting). Most of my time was spent attending talks and talking to scientists. The weather was beautiful, although I was indoors for the majority of the time. When I did get a chance to walk around, it happened to be Saturday. I quickly found that on this day, most shops were closed. I must say that the food was excellent, although routinely served between 9 and 11:30pm. The eats are definitely a reason to go back. Much tastier than standard recording cuisine, although far less affordable.

I did get a lot done musically on the 22 hours worth of traveling. I did some research for the sixth album (reading and putting together an outline for the album progression). I critiqued the fifth album demos, deciding what to change (meter adjustments, orchestration, etc.). I sketched out Bach’s second Brandenburg concerto for future use.

I also met a drummer from Mexico City, Mario Garcia Cruz, sponsored by Yamaha. Cool guy. He had a few of his tunes on an iPod. Very smooth and quite talented.

Anyway, there’s the Barcelona recap.

For the Record…

Jim Hill, guitarist for Custom Deluxe, moved last month.  This meant that Matt, owner of the truck, would be helping out with the transportation.  In return for my assistance, Jim gave me a good deal on a Magnavox Sterophonic High Fidelity radio/record player.  Good times.

After carefully transporting the unit from Southie to Newton, Krissy and I hauled the thing up 2 flights of stairs into the attic, where it now resides.   All we needed was some media to play on it.  We found these companions on a trip to Pennsylvania this weekend.

So, last night, after more soundproofing in the basement, we headed upstairs for the maiden voyage.  The first LP we played was Thick as a Brick (complete with newspaper cover ).  After that, we played Aja, one of the most polished albums ever.  There was some popping and crackling going on, but not too much.  Probably due to cheap records.  Anyway, the Magnavox works.

        

Limerick or Pun

Yesterday, while waiting to start the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk, Krissy and I began discussing limericks and puns. Here’s what we came up with:

Puns are quite commonplace in everyday conversation. My take is that they add a little bit of spice to the conversation. These guys allow me to find entertainment in otherwise unimpressive jabber. There are those who are vehemently opposed to the pun. According to Annette Parks, formerly of Exelixis, puns are the lowest form of humor. Perhaps this is a result of over-stimulation. Niels Klitgord, Kyle Edgar, and I made it a point to work puns into our daily banter while working at Exelixis. As it turns out, Krissy also enjoys a good pun. She does not appreciate the “bad” ones, though.

Limericks are classic examples of crude humor wrapped up nicely in poetry. My dad had a book of limericks that weighed nearly as much as the bibles found in motel nightstands. He was certainly a proponent of this form of entertainment. When we were young, Chuck managed to learn by rote a large percentage of that very book. While not quite as vulgar as the standard limerick, I managed to write some song lyrics in this nature. In my experience, the limerick is more common among the male gender. Krissy certainly does not appreciate them as much as I do. There have been numerous occasions where I attempt to recite a well known limerick, only to be rudely interrupted prior to completing the task.

The result of our conversation: Limericks 1, Puns 2.

Oh, the 13 mile walk was a good time.

I Guess Holst was Right…

In the early 1900s, Gustav Holst composed a suite dedicated to the known planets of the solar system, entitled “The Planets”.   It was comprised of seven individual pieces ranging from Mercury to Neptune (excluding Earth), ordered by distance from the sun.  Clearly he had written this opus prior to the discovery of Pluto in 1930.

Recently, Pluto has been reclassified as a dwarf planet, 134340.  Perhaps Holst knew what he was doing when he omitted an eighth piece.   Regardless of what the classification of the ninth entity in our solar system (sometimes more distal and sometimes more proximal than Neptune), I recommend listening to Holst’s Planets Suite. 7 very different pieces for 7 very different heavenly bodies.  Hey, if King Crimson liked “Mars” enough to cover at early gigs, it must be good.