Log: Decided to start recording some real lo-fi sh*t right on my Tascam. I only have a 90 minutes tape left, which is not good for quality (you need 60 minutes). Sixties weren't available anymore. What the heck. I want it to sound bad. Lo fi is cool fi. Did these songs yesterday and today. Just improvising, guitars first and then the vocals. Juts mixing it down on the Tascam and then recording it on my PC. Added no digital effects, as far as I remember. O yeah, the guitar amp is new, as well as the electric guitar. I bought them with the money my parents gave me for finally finishing my studies. My Godin Radiator is gone now. This Ibanez is the sh*t. The amp ain't too bad either, though a bit over-fancy.
Lyrics:Deaf & Dumb & Blind:
I'm so afraid that maybe I will die / Without blooming up into the sky / Without being whom you had in mind / Without seeing / Deaf & dumb & blind
Called for the Job:
Haven't you called me for the job of saving / Haven't you been true to the life that you've given / Haven't I lied to myself and to you / Haven't I died to the world to be your son?
Morning Zombie Needs to Pray:
I wake up and feel like a zombie again / I'm glued to my bed, Sister Sleep is my friend / But I know her older sister is Death / I get up and head for the shower / I shoot at ideas as the water comes down / Get dressed and I eat so I know I won't faint / There's no way to beat the new day / Man, I need to pray 'cause I long for you
Laughing at the Juncture:
Listen to me and dust the moon / Wipe off the cheese and cry / You had a fight for eleven years / And lost every natural high / Go blow the trumpet, they will see / You never chose thsi hour / Clappin' and jumpin', let them be / First we all need a shower / 'n All this rivalry, it's only good for adrenaline / Too much too high for me / I just need food, please no channelling! / There's so much left that we can count / We need to take a break / There's so much lost that could be found / We must stop being fake
Recording Gear: Tascam 488 MKII used as a mixer, PC using Audacity, Behringer C-1 condensator mic, semi SM-58 mic
Music Gear:Old ragged acoustic guitar, Squier bass
Log: Oh boy, does that guitar rattle. Anyway, lo-fi is lo-fi, and the question is: are you willing to go all the way with me? Did some percussion with my bare hands on this one. Guitar was in alternative tuning.
Lyrics: Well, I think that I am wrong /As I tell every hurt to get lost, oh! / And all options have been thoroughly discussed / I didn't come here just to watch TV and die / And release some kinds of tension in between / Neither is this a commercial enterprise / Well, I think(/know) that I am wrong.. / Couldn't we get a new morning?
Recording Gear: Tascam 488 MKII used as a mixer, PC using Audacity, Behringer C-1 condensator mic
Music Gear:Takamine acoustic guitar, Squier bass, Yamaha RY-10 drumcomputer
Log: A jam that rather quickly grew into a song. In the end you hear my wife asking: 'Are you hungry, Nino?' and our cat affirming her question with heartbreaking intensity.
Lyrics: Gonna find another reason / To hide inside myself / Anticipate the orange season / Gonna cut the world in half / And all this juice is gonna make me / Be a prisoner of fun / And all these bombs are gonna shake me / Leave me searching for the pun / Now I know that I'm too late/ I have to pay back what I ate
Recording Gear: Tascam 488 MKII used as a mixer (what's new?), PC using Audacity, Behringer C-1 condensator mic
Music Gear:Takamine acoustic guitar
Log: A quicky. Tried to add some space guitar after the basic two guitar tracks and the two vocal tracks - didn't succeed, just left it like this. Not pretending to be anything special.Those I often like the best. Has a peculiar quality about it - the quality of earlier four-track-stoned-on-a-sunday-afternoon recordings. Not that I'm stoned, far from it. Won't touch that shit again, preferably. Might go to hell if I do.
Lyrics: I sailed the seven seas / And hoped that you would find me in a dream / I could find no release / I looked behind the screens of plastic trees / And plastic minds / Lying in the grass with you / Are we through / With the games that aliens play / And they do / Try to fool / Henry Hunter and Cinderella Drool
Recording Gear: Tascam 488 MKII used as a mixer, PC using Audacity, Behringer C-1 condensator mic, semi SM-58 mic
Music Gear: Kawasaki toy keyboard, toy trumpet, Takamine acoustic guitar Log: This is typically a song born out of despair. I bought a one euro Kawasaki toy keyboard which turned out to be hardly functional. The keys were so stubborn that for getting the bass and higher keys together I had to record two tracks. I played a passionate piece on a little toy trumpet and threw a bunch of reverb and delay over it. Played a rythmic acoustic guitar bit which serves as a bass as well. Wrote some lyrics, recorded two vocal tracks.. There you go. Lyrics:Will you raise up in the sky a new breed of clouds to follow me / Will the end come to the world and wake up dead parts of me / Coming to swallow me, coming to make me see, coming to open up Pandora's box / Coming to chase the sea - there's the moon! / I feel dead but I must live cause I'm alive ain't I / He has touched me and I cried cause I was all hurt by / Stinking fish I kept as pets behind the cellar-door / But they krept under my bed and made a lot of noise
Song:You Belong to Me (audio extracted from camcorder) Log: Here we are, P o r c u p i n e, risen from the ashes. This song was one of the songs I recorded for my first demo in 1995. The lyrics were inspired by a friend of mine, Jelmer van der Leij, who asked me if I couldn't write a songtext with the lyrics 'As the flowers bleed in heaven'. Well, I could. The song, though most often performed alone and acoustic, suited the band real fine. The last time we played it was some ten years ago, but it surfaced immediately when we got together again. Rocks.
Lyrics:As the flowers bleed in heaven / You belong to me / As the hours fail to severe / You belong to me / Up in the sky / She looks at me / I whisper Love / For you and me / She aks me Why / We cannot flee / And I sing: You belong to me
Log: I was restless. Instead of sitting in a chair and biting my nails (a very non-productive way of coping) I wrote a song about travelling through the night with your lungs full of cosmos. Somehow, it was like having a bowel movement, or like giving birth. It all came very naturally. I like the song, I think I even love it. I like the melody and the atmosphere. It doesn't sound quite as what I had in mind or as it sounded when playing and singing on the couch. But I still love it.
Lyrics:Yearning for your silence / Leave the hairy violent home / On the road I'm dead, I / Bite my nails and head for Rome / I still hear the ringing / Telephones are singing songs / Night is bringing thrills and / Summer fragrance fills my lungs / I am still so weary / Feel alone and very old / Hear the television / Whispering magician's gold / Outer space or sea, it's / All the same to me today / Wake me with a kiss so / I can win the quiz and pay
Log: This one was taped rather quickly, using Audacity and Tascam 488 MKII as a mixer if I remember correctly, just before taping 'Risk Unspecified'. It's short and nice if you ask me.
By the way, the gig was 'great'. My hands were shaking but the audience was pleased. Our drummer needs a beer infusion on stage next time. If he ever gets it I want an audiologist to tour along with us and a 90 decibel limit on stage and before the stage. Let's be the first band that rocks softly.
Lyrics: Will you be with me forever / I can't live without your blood / Will you give yourself forever / I want you to be my God!
Christian, husband, theologian, singer-songwriter.
I don't like dogs. I do love cats, especially my own cat, Nino (although the cat regards itself more as being my wife's cat..).
I'm Meite U, a Dutch singer-songwriter. I used to blog my recording sessions here. This blog is more or less dead since all mp3 links died. I keep it up as an archive. My new blog, which also contains a link to all mp3's that used to be here, can be found on http://lostingredients.blogspot.com.
