We Must Retake Osgiliath #127

Retakes...

The bass for "Seek It" and "Across the Park" have been bugging me for more than a week now, because they simply weren't on the beat. However, when I laid it down, it was tight as a fish's crap-factory. I'll explain:

The original process laid out for this recording of the album was that we would record some drums, get samples of them, then make a sort of patchwork drum track out of them. When it was discovered that we might not have enough time for that (partially due to time squandered), we decided to go for a more live sound, which Bones was happy about. So we laid down the first four tracks, being "Gov't Song", "Seek It", "Across the Park" and "My Yesterdays", and then "Sittin on a Rock" a bit after that.

When I did the bass for those songs, I was fairly tight (after a few precioussss moments, brought on by, I suppose, misunderstandings). However, the problem was that the drums made some slight tempo shifts. This just happens, because following a click track (a metronome for recording) is really tough, and besides which, Bones plays totally by feel, meaning that he responds to his environment. This leads to some tempo shifts, but you usually never notice -- until, that is, you put it next to a click track and compare the two. An interesting thing about this is that most people were quick to think that the click track must have gone out of tempo (not bloody likely) before thinking that human fallability might play a part. It's not Bones's fault, it's just a tough thing to do, and we simply didn't have time to dick around and get it right.

So Christian initiated a change, which was to take some samples from those drum tracks and make a sort of patchwork drum track from those samples -- exactly what Jono had laid out at the start of the process. This solved almost every problem, because the drums were suddenly on the tempo without any unexpected shifts, and it sounded great. Bones, I think, might not have been happy about that, but he's being a trooper about it, and I think it also helps that he's laying down a fair few keyboard tracks as well.

But one problem remained, and that was the bass. Because it was tight with the VariSpeed track, it was suddenly not tight at all with the new sampled tracks. But it was close enough that most people didn't make a thing out of it. I noticed mostly because it's my work, and I want it to sound good, but it's also because when something's only very slightly out, it can be more noticeable than if it's way out.

I sat on it for over a week, but it never improved, so I decided, the hell with it, I'm gonna redo it, and since there was no one here this morning but Jono, Christian and myself, it was the perfect opportunity. So the bass on the album should be fairly tight without being some over-produced, mega-quantized piece of pop cynicism -- with the possible exception of "Sittin on a Rock": although it went through the same process described above, it was such a nice bass take that I want to keep it, and it's not so noticeable that I might be able to get away with it.

Yes, Osgiliath was overrun, but unlike Faramir, my retake was a successful campaign. And sometimes I talk some real shite!

keeponrockin
Tom Hauville
Juicy Mountain Bass Monster

Holy crap that was quick! #085

Sometimes you can just get it done in a timely manner. Starting on Monday, we were going to record three songs with an option for a fourth. Well, it's Tuesday evening and all four are done-ish (no, not Danish, although I am hungry). More accurately, the drums are somewhat done, the bass are all but done -- just a little bit of colour I want to add to "Got Issues" -- and the keys are being done now.

So in barely any time at all, we have "Got Issues", "Happy Man", "End Days" and "Don't Even Say Ya Livin" (DESYL) somewhat done. As I type this, Steve is laying some keys down on DESYL. He's already done Issues. Bones is going to do some stuff too, although at the moment he has been called away due to a goat who is possibly birthing.

It's inspiring. I want to push for another song, bringing the album to a grand total of ten songs, but I have to remind myself that recording is the easy part, and the editing and mixing will take a bit of time, so it will have to be nine songs and an album of maybe 45 minutes' play time. That's cool, most bands (especially in Australia) only get a 45 minute set in any case. You never know, we might get one more song in, but it won't be a major track or anything -- I'm not saying what it is just yet, and only partially because we haven't decided on one yet.

For the record, I'm happier with these recent songs, at least in terms of the bass. Things have flowed nicely, and I was afforded a bit more freedom in laying down my bass tracks (owing in part to the fact that less people were in the room when recording this time around). I think these tracks are a bit more sublime, they flow much more freely, and I enjoyed the process that much more this week as opposed to last week.

So ... it's going well. Very soon, we'll have other instruments brought in: more guitar fun from Michael, plus some other dudes who I'll introduce when they get some screen-time*. In the meantime,

keeponrockin

Tom Hauville
Juicy Mountain Bass Monster

* The last 2 days have seen excessive use of the filmmaking metaphor. Steve has been referring to someone laying down their tracks as their "close-ups". I usually respond with something like "didn't you read the call-sheet?"

GEEEEEEEEETAR!!! #042

Something about having a f'n great guitarist in the room just totally makes me happy. Sure, I'm the bass monster for Juicy Mountain, but what so many people don't realise is that I was always a guitar dude first, and even during my bass playin' years. It just so happens that I've gotten substantially better on the bass, ergo it makes sense that I play bass for the band. Besides which, when I hear Juicy Mountain, I know exactly what to do on the bass, but only have inklings as to what the guitar should do, leaving a big gaping hole where the guitar should be.

Into this environment, we brought Michael, a kick-arse guitarist and all-round brother of Christian. And he knew exactly what to do. We had a jam with him, and I was of course just agape to see and hear his awesome soloing. In a way, I shouldn't be, because I've worked with just such a guitarist in a previous band (which was called ebb). Who cares? Guitar! Yeah!

I think it's especially easy to appreciate if you know what you're seeing -- when you recognise a master of his trade, as it were. Everyone knows something good when they hear it, but there's some extra satisfaction in knowing that what Michael was doing was "artificial harmonics" (also known as "pitch squeals"), and further knowing that he was doing it with such control! It bridges the gap for me -- in such a beat-heavy environment, where I'm hearing lots and lots of hip-hop and reggae, having guitars which are coming from a sort of rock place (and Michael is a total rocker: Kiss is his favourite band, I understand) is like endorphins for me.

So we have some guitar tracks for "Gov't Song" and "Sittin on a Rock". The Gov't Song now sounds majorly funky, which is awesome, and I think it really fills the hole nicely. Sittin on a Rock has some amazing acoustic work on it -- nothing fancy, exactly, but suddenly the song sounds the way it should. It's all very exciting.

So Michael is gonna come back and lay down some more tracks tomorrow, I believe. And this time, he'll be armed with some knowledge of the song. That was a half-issue last night, in that he was under a bit of pressure to perform, but he can now go home and listen to the stuff and work out his own thing and, theoretically, nail it tomorrow.

Oh, and for the record, this is the dude responsible for bringing Fozzy to Australia a few months ago, and is also in talks with Zakk Wylde about coming to Oz. Not to drop names or anything, but this is frigging cool.

Tom happy!

And for another quick update, we're laying down drums for "Got Issues" and "Don't Even Say Ya Livin" (which I enjoy referring to as DESYL), which are the songs that, we-ell, are more in line with my musical approach. Yeah! Can't wait for some geeetar on DESYL!

keeponrockin
Tom Hauville
Juicy Mountain Bass Monster and Guitar lover

Album Making #032

Work continues...

The songs, which had taken an odd direction the other day, seem to have merely taken a detour. It turns out that things are considerably more in line with how I saw proceedings, it's just that I wasn't able to cast my mind further forward than what I was hearing in the rough mixes. It's an exciting sound, anyway.

Last night, a whole heap of work was done, and I slept through nearly all of it! It must have been a good sleep, because not only did it refresh me, but I'm informed that I made lots of noises during my slumber. Not snoring (which is a relief), but moaning intermittently in a curiously sexual manner (which is worse!). I only have Steve's word for this, who found the whole thing amusing, with claims of "I wish I was were Tom is right now" and so on. But I don't recall any saucy dreams and I didn't wake up with, you know, any embarrassing stains, so maybe it was more sort of moans of anxiety that Steve interpreted in sexual ways, such is his wont.

Anyway, it's starting to sound great. The fusion of 2 musical sounds (namely live & electronic) is starting to take shape, and this is why it was right to have faith in Christian's vision. Bones has laid down some keys and stuff for the other songs, and not surprisingly, it took them in entirely new directions, but they do sound good. "Across the Park" is particularly sublime, although I'd like to do a bit of editing and I'm thinking I'll need to redo the bassline anyway, as the newer beats are slightly out of sync with the bass -- and it's always the case: if it's a tiny bit out, it's much more noticeable than if it were a lot out.

And now, Bones & Christian are working on "Sittin on a Rock". It's a matter of getting the beats right just now, and that's a weird one. We decided to get a sample or samples of it, and it seems like this is the basis for the beat, but the boys are being fastidious about it, so perhaps it's going to be a blend of samples and live drumming, sort of a patchwork. There's lots of editing going on with the whole thing, so I'm not sure, but that's my guess.

As for myself, I haven't really done a blessed thing. I did bugger all last night, and this morning, before work started, I did a slight edit on the bass for "Seek It" so that it lined up more correctly with the vocals (it went into the chorus 2 bars after Christian did, but that's because when Christian redid the vocals, he went into the chorus 2 bars earlier than he did on the guide vocal). Otherwise, it's been a lazy time for me, playing Command & Conquer Generals and surfing the net and ... typing a blog entry. That's about all. I've kinda been Sittin on a rock fishin, I suppose.

keeponrockin
Tom Hauville
Juicy Mountain Bass Monster

First Rough Mixes

I heard the first rough mixes for the album today -- just drum, bass, some keys, and unfinished vocals.

And ...

Well, it's not how I saw the album going, let's say that much. Not that I'm complaining. It's just that my instincts as a musician point me in a certain direction, and this isn't it. But this is Juicy Mountain's direction, and that's painfully clear to me, as it was painfully clear to me when I first heard it, some 4-5 hours ago.

Now, I ain't gonna spoil things by talking about what it actually is at the moment... That would be ... like spoiling the ending, I guess. Suffice to say that anyone who knows me well enough would have a clear idea of how I would take things, musically, and this sure ain't that.

But it's the right move, I think. It's all about staying true to what Juicy Mountain is, and the fact here is that I wasn't involved when the definition was constructed. It's also about making the right business decision, and though it pains me to think in those terms, it makes far too much sense. Making music is all well and good, but if you're the sort of person who is willing to forego much of the accepted social expectations that one is burdened with, then you'd better make damn sure that you're making the sort of music that can support and sustain that decision. It's not selling out, it's ... it's like taking an interest in your mate's kid: you help the child grow and learn; you feel proud when you see your input becoming manifest in the child's achievements; but eventually you get slapped in the face with the harsh truth that it isn't your kid. That's my relationship with Juicy Mountain, at least at the present moment -- I believe in it and feel very proud of what it accomplishes with my help, but it ain't my baby.

But then, we're dealing with a backlog, of sorts. We're playing songs that were written before I joined. They sort of got reworked since that time, sometimes due to much input from me, and they're being reworked again for this recording, because that's Juicy Mountain for you, but at the end of the day, these aren't my children. The parents know best, which is why I'm deferring to Christian on this one. I'm not unhappy about it at all, but it sort of has me holding back, keeping the rock on the inside, and I think I'm getting to a point where I seriously need to rock out. Get my fix, let it out ... something like that.

So: optimism. I've been told, very firmly, to not be a pessimist and focus on the positives, and this is the upshot: these kids will take care of me. I've put enough love into them that I think I should get some love in return. Meanwhile, I can look forward to the day that I have my own kids, who will most definitely

keeponrockin
Tom Hauville
Juicy Mountain Bass Monster

The Worst Movies of 2005

Dear Journalists and Film Reviewers/Critics/Haters,

This is for you. In a way, you already wrote this list, and will do so again next year, and the year after that, and every year until feature films become redundant and you start to criticise doorknobs instead.

King Kong The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire The Constant Gardener Red Dust Bee Season Tim Burton's Corpse Bride Prime Rize Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Four Brothers Flightplan Wolf Creek Gallipoli Inside Deep Throat Jewboy Yes Paradise Now Blowin' in the Wind Elizabethtown The Exorcism of Emily Rose Bombon (El Perro) The Devil's Rejects Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room Night Watch - Nochnoi Dozor Yesterday Pride and Prejudice The 40 Year Old Virgin In Her Shoes The Proposition Must Love Dogs Appleseed Unknown White Male The Magician Brides Serenity Queen of Sheba's Pearls Howl's Moving Castle Cinderella Man Mad Hot Ballroom The Dukes of Hazzard Grizzly Man The Perfect Catch Little Fish Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit Murderball Red Eye Last Days Sky High The Perfect Man Lords of Dogtown Unleashed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Darwin's Nightmare Palindromes Turtles Can Fly Mysterious Skin The Take The Skeleton Key Wedding Crashers Look Both Ways Tell Them Who You Are Millions Kung Fu Hustle Saving FaceThe Jacket Mean Creek Land of the Dead Layer Cake Me and My Sister The Miracle of Bern Pandaemonium The Island Flight of the Phoenix Monster-In-Law Sin City**** Because Of Winn Dixie House of Wax Tarnation Bewitched Moolaade Rock School Fantastic Four The Yes Men The Widower War of the Worlds*** The Beat My Heart Skipped Oyster Farmer My Summer of Love A Good Woman Herbie: Fully Loaded Batman Begins***** Madagascar*** Head in the Clouds Bukowski: Born Into This The Longest Yard Cursed Nobody Knows Peaches Mr and Mrs Smith The Machinist The Assassination of Richard Nixon A Lot Like Love Melinda and Melinda Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith**** A Common Thread A Home at the End of the World Hell on Wheels 2046 We Don't Live Here Anymore The Edukators You And Your Stupid Mate The Upside of Anger Landmines: A Love Story Walk on Water The Woodsman Criminal 9 Songs The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy**** Orange Love Story xXx2: The Next Level Travellers & Magicians Crash***** In Good Company White Noise Three Dollars Birth Dreams for Life The Extra Human Touch Hostage The Sea Inside Downfall Dear Frankie Sahara The Interpreter DIG Broadway: The Golden Age Young Adam The Hunting of the President The Pacifier The Ring 2 Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous Five Children and It Assault on Precinct 13** Ladies In Lavender Enduring Love Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst Maria Full of Grace Robots*** The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou***** Lightning In A Bottle Baadasssss Hating Alison Ashley Are We There Yet?** Bad Education Being Julia Be Cool** Friday Night Lights Ong Bak The Illustrated Family Doctor Constantine*** Hitch**** Luther Old Boy** Bubba Ho-Tep My House in Umbria The Door in the Floor The Lawless Heart Hotel Rwanda Hide and Seek House of Flying Daggers Spanglish Bride and Prejudice The Aviator*** Million Dollar Baby Cellular Vera Drake Head On Closer

In short, all of them.

This list of the worst Films of 2005 was inspired by an issue of Rollong Stone magazine (Issue 636 Yearbook 2004/2005), which had an article: Peter Travers' Review of 2004's TOP 20 DVDS which listed I, Robot, and a few pages later, The 100 Worst Movies of 2004 which also listed I, Robot. So I thought I'd save everyone the bother this year and list every movie that was released and call them all crap. There may be some glaring omissions, but this is a list of 170-odd films and getting this list was hard enough.

Incidentally, the *s denote how I rate the films I actually saw, with * being effluent, and ***** being, well, still crap, but only because it is being compared to Citizen Kane (*********). Oh, and I really didn't like Be Cool, but it gets a 2nd star for The Rock's contribution.

keeponrockin
Tom Hauville
Juicy Mountain Bass Monster

Recording Diary # 012a

Things are going well today. I disappeared from the studio for just over 24 hours, and returned to find that the boys had been busy -- industriously so.

There were some drum tracks waiting for me, so I've spent the evening laying down bass tracks, and it's all been fine. In fact it's all been bloody good. "Across the Park", "Sittin on a Rock" and "Yesterday's Growing" are all in the can, although there is a slight retake of the drumming going on as I type this for "Sittin on a Rock". Actually, the goal is to get the keys down, but some drum stuff is going on as well. Christian's laying down a simple beat while the keys are being recorded, and I believe his drum stuff is going into ProTools as well.

As for the bass... It's all been pretty plain sailing. The guys have been really happy with my stuff, with only one comment being made by Jono, which was to do a bit less with the bass on "Sittin on a Rock". So what will make the album (assuming that we stick with this take) sort of has bass moments, as opposed to being one long bass solo. When it comes to the live situation ... well, I suppose it will depend on the day, the mood I'm in, etc, however I reckon I'll be doing considerably more. At any rate, it was the right decision to hold back on the recording, and the take in question is totally fine -- it just gives the other instruments the room they require to move about and flex their muscles.

But the real big one was "Yesterday's Growing", which has been transformed into a total dance track. Not a bad thing -- in fact I've always wanted it to be a dance number, but I've always wanted it to be more rock. But Juicy Mountain isn't a rock band, we're ... we-ell, I'm not sure what we are, but people should want to dance rather more than they should want to rock. But that's not to say that there won't be a rock version of the song. And besides, when the guitars get in there, who knows?

But for now, it's a total dance beat. And as soon as I heard the drum take, I realised that I would have to do something different with it. Thankfully, all it took was a bit of simplification for about 6 bars. Not bad for a three-minute song. The result is more dance-y, and that's fine. We want people to dance, we want this to be played in nightclubs and raves. I want to rock out, but that's not saying anything beyond the ordinary. And besides, as far as I'm concerned, the bass is pure metal. You could change every instrument except the bass and have more or less the same song but metal.

So: it's going well. The boys are doing well, and Bones has just walked in. There's no music happening now, but it's 11:52pm now and I imagine it's gonna be a late night.

No witticisms to leave you on today. Would love to, but this is more a sort of diary rant, not a philosophy rant. Maybe, in the future, I'll mark my rants accordingly so you know which ones to go to (that would be the rant rants).

Until next time....

keeponrockin
Tom Hauville
Juicy Mountain Bass Monster

Adobe is eating Macromedia

So... Adobe is intending to "acquire" Macromedia, is it? Very interesting stuff. My thoughts are that Adobe is going to eat Macromedia, in much the same manner that a person might swallow a plate of salad: You get the benefit, but the original is digested, processed and, well, somewhat brown.

There will be some good things. The integration of Adobe .pdf files into Flash, Director, etc, would surely be a boon, and I can't think of any reason why Adobe would neglect to do this. Fingers crossed, eh? In fact, being able to create graphics in PhotoShop and immediately send them into your .fla file with a single click (maybe two) would be fantastic. Or, hell, perhaps PhotoShop will be able to make .fla files...? After all, the only major difference between the two lay in animation, and Flash's stronger emphasis on vector graphics.

It's impossible to tell what Adobe plans to do. Perhaps they will simply release a new line of products, using the featutes of Macromedia products, but with new names and new (or altered) interfaces. Or perhaps they will simply keep the name and the products intact, the only major difference being that Adobe get big wad of cash in the process. Who can say?

But there are some concerns.

For instance, I am given to understand that Dreamweaver has become almost redundant in the web development community. I am unsure as to whether Macromedia is developing a new version, however it's probably safe to say that, if Adobe are goint to eat Macromedia, then development of new products has been paused -- or even scrapped. Who can say? And since Adobe has GoLive, why would they want to push another, rival product? Maybe they'll take the best elements of Dreamweaver and throw them into GoLive, but my guess is that whatever web product they push will not resemble Dreamweaver which is -- to me -- a more desirable product. I did Juicy Mountain's web page in Dreamweaver, and damn glad I was for it. I usually dislike web authoring programs, but Dreamweaver is sort of close to great.

I don't know what to expect, but I'm going to put my money on Macromedia's products being stripped of all their goodness and thrown aside, so that Adobe get to do what they please under the Adobe banner while they dissolve and go brown...

... and start to stink ...

Making an Album - Entry #006

Being up at 3:28am has its advantages. It's just ... I'm not sure what they are. In fact, bugger that; there are none, unless you happen to be a forest-dwelling nocturnal predator, and even then it's a bit of a struggle, since your best bet at scoring some food is by preying on other forest-dwelling nocturnal predators...

Juicy Mountain (www.juicymountain.com) are recording an album. We only sort of just started, with the actual start being something like 9 hours ago or 9 days ago -- somewhere in between those two. So today we recorded the drums and bass for "Across the Park" (credited on the ABC Illawarra site as "Cross the Park"). Not bad, although the reason I'm still up at 3:32am is because Christian and Jono are busy doing more drum-type stuff. I asked why Christian is playing some drums -- i.e. to what purpose this is -- and he answered, somewhat mysteriously, that it was really secret, conspiratorial stuff, that I should forget about it anyway and, besides, I'm asleep and just dreaming this...

Now, I had a slight Gollum today. I call it a "Gollum" because I got very precioussssss with my basslines. After a jot of recording, the guys started wanting me to do it a slightly different way, which is quite annoying when you've been playing a song a certain way for nearly six months. But what is infinitely more annoying is the fact that they were right, and the song (or at least, the bass department) is much better off because of it. Well, live and learn. My precioussss...

Tom (Monster) Hauville
Juicy Mountain Bass Monster

A Letter To Google's Bots

Dear Google Bots

I would like to draw to your attention the website of my band, called Juicy Mountain. You can find it at the address www.juicymountain.com although seeing as how you're bots, you may only recognise it in this format: http://www.juicymountain.com.

It is a kind of modest website at the moment, however it is growing and I update it constantly (being the webmaster for ), and that's really the point of this letter. I would very much like you to discover the site through this blog and check out all the little pages and whatnot -- even the META tags, although I'm given to understand that you don't pay them much heed -- and add it to the index of Google. I can only hope that you will honour this request, which is why I shan't push the point any further. I have strong faith that you will be checking out JuicyMountain.com very soon and sending it to your overseers.

Thanking you in advance.

Tom (Monster) Hauville
www.juicymountain.com