tag:mechanicrash.com,2005:/blogs/latest-news?p=4Latest News2020-03-30T20:20:28-07:00MechaniCrashfalsetag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/62669372020-03-30T20:20:28-07:002024-01-10T21:56:42-08:00Music in the time of Coronavirus...<p> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/4db2fc3269d3c73996007a7086216313bc4b289d/original/img-1369.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>So... Things are a bit nuts since my last entry. Everyone is sequestered in their homes. People are dying at an increased rate. The president is a racist, sexist, xenophobic, narcissistic jackass who will get tens-of-thousands more people killed with his idiocy than if someone else were president at this moment. </p>
<p>Work from home has been crazy. I am in a spot where I have people, who work for people, who work for people, who work for people, who work for me. I support a business that creates money each year to the tune of a blockbuster film. Thousands of products roll under me... but my people are great, they work hard, and I miss them.</p>
<p>On top of that, I am not 100% certain that I didn't have Coronavirus already. I came home from NYC about 3 weeks ago to find myself floored 3 days later with an upper respiratory infection. I actually had a conversation with my doctor about it, but there were no tests available. I was fairly ill with some of the symptoms for a while, and eventually recovered, with my wife coming down with similar symptoms two weeks later, still unable to get tested.</p>
<p>And through all of that, I still want to make music, in my specific hacky way. This mindless challenge has created a parameter that has been a great antidote to the madness of the past month.</p>
<p>My goal this year is to record a song each month. I finished and published the March song, just under the wire, even everything going on. This song continues my journey into the realm sampling from public domain films as sample sources. these old films are wonderfully strange, and this one is stranger than the average strange film. "Bloody Pit of Horror" is a film from 1965 that is every bit of 1965 Technicolor vivid reds mixed with bizarre sadomasochistic shenanigans. It's a terrible film that becomes fairly surreal to the point of being more interesting than it really is. I love sampling from films old enough that people speak in peculiar old-fashion colloquialisms and accents. </p>
<p>So, for your listening pleasure, check out "Homesick Creeps"... here, on Apple Music, Soundcloud, and on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Google Play before the end of the week... and stay safe!</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/f61ae615316e90f955831ae9aaccf922bce5db90/original/homesickcreeps.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>2:57MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/60490972019-12-27T20:38:53-08:002024-03-22T05:10:05-07:00Werewolves...<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/fb914840f2ec2708bbaabd2e8ff6c08d430abc11/original/loupgarou.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Several months have past, and I've completed three songs since my last blog-post: ":No Ghost Ships", "Luna Three" and "Loup Garou", which means "werewolf" in French. It is December 27th, and I am off work for the rest of the year. I believe I will squeak one more song out before January 1st. That will put the song tally for 2019 at 8 songs, and 29:38 of music (not including the length of the currently unwritten 8th song... so the total will be more like 34:00 minutes of music).</p>
<p>I'm very happy with not only the continuation of my music-making in general, but I am also delighted with my continued progress. Looking (and listening) back, I feel that I am coming into my own as a drum programer and sampler (thanks Akai MPC-X!). I feel that my evolution to public domain samples took a little bit of time for me to find my voice, but I got there. I changed my technique for mining samples. Now I watch the entire movie, and sometimes construct a truncated abstraction of the actual narrative of the film. Even though the source material is often virtually unknown in pop culture, I find the samples to be pretty compelling.</p>
<p>I am also quite pleased with my guitar-playing on this year's recordings. I definitely have some ruts that I could stand to work harder to avoid... but in general, I am not my least favorite guitarist. I also picked up a few really nice guitars, and they have all seated nicely into my style.</p>
<p>Lastly, I started mining some of my own artwork for covers lately. The last four singles have covers constructed this way. I think it brings an additional layer of creativity to the works. I might have to start painting a bit more moving forward.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...soo... in general, pretty solid year for MechaniCrash. Let's see how song #8 turns out!</p>3:56MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/58154102019-07-05T18:57:14-07:002024-02-27T01:53:13-08:00Sampling , and Audrey Hepburn...<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/d772eb4bebca109fcc630da7499f7518ad1f8a60/original/itscalledfor.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>I finished a new song today called "It's Called For...". It features a lot of samples of Audrey Hepburn, in the film "Charade".</p>
<p>I've written often about my struggles with sampling. I am no singer. I can create the whole song, but have no vocals to provide. I grew up in the 1980's where Hip Hop artists used samples as a palate of pop-culture references that furthered the meaning of the song. Since then, the world has clamped down on sampling from obviously owned works. I used samples to fill in the gaps left by my lack of vocal ability. It took me a while to realize that sampling was a non-starter if I intended to release the song. In the mean time, I sampled a lot, making pop-culture references, and developing a style dependent on samples. It wasn't until I tried to press a vinyl single that I realized that I had hit a wall. I couldn't sign the wavers necessary to release my songs with the samples I used. I didn't have the legal right. I was at a stalemate. Then I had an epiphany. Many films and TV shows are in the public domain. I could use these.</p>
<p>I rehash this story because one of my earlier songs was a song called "Own Me". In it I heavily sampled Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". It was an early song. It was a rough song... but it was a good song. It has fallen into a category of songs I shouldn't publish because of its sampling of works I do not have rights to use. It wasn't even making much of a pop-culture reference, as it isn't a famous line or anything... except for the pop-culture reference of her distinctive voice. </p>
<p>The new song, "It's Called For..." is using Audrey Hepburn again, sampled from a movie called "Charade", which is in the public domain, and thus free to use. I was able to sample her being every bit of Audrey hepburn, with a little bit of cary grant for good measure... and I can release it...</p>4:02MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/57284052019-04-22T12:07:52-07:002024-03-10T23:03:23-07:00A brave new world... with wasps!<p> </p>
<p>It's been more than a year since my last entry, or my last recording. I was back in the studio this weekend, and blew off the cobwebs with a new track. </p>
<p>This song is called "Stay Away From Wasps", and it is a funky little guitar-driven song with samples from a 1959 public domain film called "The Wasp Woman". There isn't anyone particularly famous in it. I was more sucked in by the subject matter. It is about a woman who heads up a cosmetic company. She was formerly a model, and as she approaches 40, is disappointed by the effect her aging is having on her appearance. She is approached by a guy who convinces her that the key to returning her youth is injections of royal jelly from wasps. Needless to say, mayhem ensues, culminating with her in a full wasp-head (Think Vincent Price in "the Fly"), eating her friends. the samples I chose aren't nearly as dramatic, but everyone speaks in that droll sort of cadence that people in the 50's used to use.</p>
<p>Also of note is that all of the guitar work on this track was done on a new guitar that I haven't had a chance to record with until now. It is a Fender Limited Edition guitar called the "Meteora". Its a strange Telecaster with a radically different body. It's a pretty high-spec guitar, and played every-bit like one. It was really fantastic... and it kinda looks like a wasp...</p>
<p>The song "Stay Away From Wasps" can be found on iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud, YouTube, or here on this site!</p>4:05MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/51005902018-02-26T18:49:41-08:002024-01-10T22:00:28-08:00"The Witness"... my 2018 RPM Challenge Album<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/bd57485401bd747c7c4a27a7e20b3971de7d6fd2/original/the-witness.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" />It is the end of February, and I have participated in my third <a contents="RPM Challenge" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.rpmchallenge.com" target="_blank">RPM Challenge</a>, finishing an entire album during the month of February. For my friends who draw, it is sort of the music-version of "Inktober". February is usually a rough month for me. Typically I have at least one week-long business trip. This shortens the already-short month to a down and dirty 21 days to write and record ten songs OR thirty-five minutes of music. </p>
<p>It has been four years since the first time I participated , and I have recorded roughly 30 songs between that batch and this batch. The difference in my knowledge, abilities and confidence made this version of the challenge much more about creative choices than technical execution. This is a nice piece of evolution on which to reflect.</p>
<p>I solved my technical issue of copyrights-on-samples by using only public domain sample-sources. I fully implemented my new AKAI MPCX as both a sampler and a drum machine, the latter really upping my beat-game. And... I have progressed as a guitarist, doing more competent solos, and guitar work in general. </p>
<p>Most importantly, I like the results. One wants to think one is getting better at one's hobbies, but when the attempt is to create something with some artistic merit, It is very satisfying to catch myself humming some of these songs. Music is so visceral... the technical details often don't add up to a song someone actually likes.</p>
<p>So... check out the album "The Witness". You can get it here, listen on Soundcloud, or buy it on iTunes today, or it should be up on Spotify in a couple of days.</p>3:44MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/50019352018-01-01T11:45:55-08:002024-01-10T22:01:28-08:00Another year, another dozen...<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/f466242ff6ffff91883fdf4521ef09addb135e36/original/ill-try-it.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>It is New Year's Day, 2018. It's a good day to reflect. </p>
<p>I'm approaching 50 recordings in the four years since taking on the "MechaniCrash" project. I'm still having fun, and pushing myself creatively. I'm incrementally a better musician and producer than I was a year ago... at least a little bit.</p>
<p>I had a moment of moral enlightenment last year, and moved from sampling anything to only sampling things in the public domain. Even the images I use for album-art are of my own creation, or in the public domain.</p>
<p>My trusty old Roland SP-808 Zip-disk-driven sampler finally shit the bed, and was replaced by the magnificent Akai MPC-X, a machine that I am absolutely not worthy of. I can already do everything I was doing on the old Roland, and seem to only be using 0.05% of the machine's ability.</p>
<p>Yesterday I finished the 12th recording of 2017. Besides recording, I expanded distribution. You can now find some MechaniCrash songs on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Google Play, and Pandora. I pressed a vinyl single that can be ordered here.</p>
<p>Two of this year's songs ("20th Century Regrets", and "I'll Try It") included donated drum-tracks from my friend Krister Friday, from Chicago. Thanks Krister! Keep sending me beats!</p>
<p>All in all, not a bad year. Now what?</p>
<p>Hear all of the 2017 MechaniCrash songs here, or on a SoundCloud playlist here:</p>
<p><a contents="MechaniCrash 2017 Soundcloud playlist" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://soundcloud.com/mechanicrash/sets/2017-mechanicrash" target="_blank">MechaniCrash 2017 Soundcloud playlist</a></p>
<p>Look for MechaniCrash songs on iTunes, Spotify, and wherever-else...</p>
<p>Happy new year!</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>4:53MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/49020792017-10-22T10:53:06-07:002024-01-10T22:02:37-08:00Like To Pick... flowers?<p>Today I post/publish another song, "Like To Pick", after what feels like a bit of a drought, but in actuality isn't. This is the tenth song I've recorded this year... not too bad for it not being my day-job, and not too droughty.</p>
<p>It feels like a drought because eight of those songs were recorded in February. I recorded one in August/September, and that song, "Kathleen" is the culprit. It was a tough song. I just couldn't get it to a place where I loved it. It took three times as long to record as a typical MechaniCrash song, and even after all of that, I was left unsatisfied with it. I forced my way through it, to finish it, and posted it anyway. I really believe that the way forward in any creative endeavor is to finish things. There is so much to gain by even finishing work you are less than satisfied with, to gain the experience. I have also learned, especially when applying this to my much-more-dominant visual art skills, that the ones that I loathed the most were often ones that others loved... so I finished and published "Kathleen".</p>
<p>Starting "Like To Pick", with "Kathleen" finally birthed, was absolutely refreshing. It went quickly, and I like it a lot. So, here, for your listening pleasure (...possibly) is "Like To Pick". It has a lot of recently acquired guitars ( a 70's Greco Bass, a Korean Danelectro reissue, and a project guitar I made from parts...) on it, and has samples from the 1958 film "The Screaming Skull". I only sample from public domain sources these days... lol.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/0e7ceb120929272a8b531f97dd9faace3a4e1c25/original/like-to-pick-cover.jpg?1508694580" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p> </p>4:22MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/47962162017-07-28T21:05:27-07:002023-12-10T08:55:10-08:00Sampling and Marketing!<p>I got my first vinyl single pressed ("The Strong" b/w "Fez"), and delivered in a rainbow of colored vinyl. It is a truly satisfying thing. I plan to send some out as a promotional device. I printed up some cards to help turn the vinyl single into the centerpiece of a promo kit. I also added a "DPK (Digital Press kit) page to the site. Why? MARKETING! My friend hooked me up with some logos and stuff, and it all looks way more pro than the effort deserves.</p><p>My trusty Roland SP808 sampler (powered by Zip Discs) died in February after nearly 20 years of service. Its place in my studio has finally been filled by the mighty Akai MPCX Professional. Fucking-hell this thing a beast. It seems to do a bit of everything, and thus might take a minute to wrap my head around. </p><p>With the addition of the Akai, which, despite it's depth, is proving to be rather intuitive and yielding some immediate results, I am back in the studio and getting back to a regular recording cadence. I was off for a few months, and am feeling fresh and ready. It might take a bit longer to get the first few songs out, but I have no deadline. Full speed ahead.</p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/a3d305f71132ae3b371e18b683b99bdecad6ae09/original/img-2083.jpg?1501301061" class="size_l justify_center border_" />...looks like fucking NASA in that room...</p>MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/47808662017-07-15T18:12:47-07:002023-12-11T04:32:55-08:00The vinyl single The Strong/Fez is now ready!<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/012258d5e4374b38e4d8659fd2ba0f61708f7fc9/original/img-0440-jpg.jpg?1500167548" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/46554322017-04-02T16:22:04-07:002023-12-10T22:40:02-08:00Vinyl ambitions...<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/1dcd6a072530b91ae3c4abd43835c58f3e2fd9b9/original/mechanicrashpluggingawaycover.jpg?1491175227" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>It's been about a month since my last post, and my last recording. The past six months have been an intense period of recording. I initially started recording, and sharing recordings online, as a creative exercise. The purpose was to become better at it by forcing myself to finish recordings, and to make them available to be heard. This would also make them available to be critiqued too, but that would be part of the process. 40 songs later, I decided that I should evolve to more challenges. I decided that my next big thing would be to actually create a physical product. No band I have ever played with has ever produced a physical offering (record, CD, etc...) of a song that I participated in its recording. After finishing my last recording in February, I decided to piece together an album, and press it!<br><br>Well... long story short... I prepared the files, designed the album at, and was all ready to go. I uploaded everything to the record-presser's site. The last stage was a form to certify ownership of the materials uploaded. Then it hits me right in the face. I use samples heavily. Samples from recognizable pop-culture references. I never cared if they were others intellectual property because I wasn't selling or distributing anything. I thought of it as found pieces in collage hanging in my home that only my friends would see. Because pressing a record was a bit of an afterthought, I had prepared a work that wasn't mine to reproduce, even if intended just to give away. I stopped. The image above is the in-progres art for the unreleasable album.<br><br>An interesting sidebar is that my beloved Roland sampler, mainstay of my recording arsenal for 20 years fatally broke down before I finished my February recording project. The situation forced me to complete several songs without samples. To my surprise, they turned out quite well. I realized I was probably using recognizable samples, and the cultural frames of reference they contained, as a bit of a crutch to distract from too much attention on my actual playing. These sample-free songs forced me to rethink my sampling approach.<br><br>In the end, I decided to only press a vinyl single of two songs that have no intellectual property issues. Those files have been sent, and the order delivered!<br><br>I also decided to move forward with a new sampling mandate. Creating the next block of songs would be done in a manner that only samples public domain sounds, or sounds I created myself, or otherwise own. The goal would be to create a body of work that I own enough to reproduce, distribute, and even sell, if I want. This is a meaningful evolution of my process, and I look forward to the challenge.MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/46165152017-03-04T09:15:19-08:002023-12-10T22:34:54-08:00RPM 2017: "20th Century Regrets"<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/b60fdd1af7b4d669e6153aa8d28a27a5d0f379b5/original/sp808-gal.jpg?1488647711" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>Last week I completed the "2017 RPM Challenge". As I have mentioned in the past, this whole "MechaniCrash" project started with the 2014 RPM Challenge. I described the challenge like this in an earlier blog post: <p><span style="color:#e67e22;">This is a thing where a couple of audiophile/musicians were having a discussion about the recording realities of modern mass music. They observed that in the 60's, studios like Motown or Stax would send a group of musicians into a studio for a week with nothing pre-written and no multi-track recording abilities, and end up with an album that we are all still listening to today. In contrast, a typical modern pop single could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to make, and involve 100 people. Meanwhile, there are thousands of us amateur musicians and bands with home studios that make the equipment that Motown used seem like it was made by Fred Flintstone. </span></p>
<p><span style="color:#e67e22;">The RPM Challenge is for us, with our closets full of guitars and multi-track home studios, to get off our collective asses and record something. It wasn't a contest, but a challenge... to record an album (at least 10 songs or 30 minutes of music) in one month. By the way, they picked February, the shortest month. They ask you to not even think about it until 12:01am on February 1st, and that you send them a CD of your efforts with a postmark dated and time-stamped before noon on March 1st. All they offer for your efforts is a spot on the page's "jukebox" streaming player... oh.. and the enormous satisfaction of actually recording an album in a month.</span><br><br>I did the challenge in 2014, resulting in the concept of the "fake band" called MechaniCrash, and the album "Time Crash". Time Crash was hacky and rough, but the product of a fun and rewarding creative exercise. I skipped the 2015 and 2016 challenges, as I generally have very travel-heavy Februarys, but this year was oddly free of travel, so I jumped in again. The result was the album called "20th Century Regrets". You can find it in the FREE MUSIC section of the site. The completion of the challenge marks the 39th song recorded since the start of the "2014 RPM Challenge". <br><br>Let me just say... this challenge is hard. It is like having a second job. In retrospect, I don't know how I actually completed the first challenge. This time I was plagued by equipment issues as both my digital recorder and sampler went bad during the month. These things were almost insurmountable, as I had to pause and rebuild big parts of my recording infrastructure. The resulting album just barely hits the minimum requirements of 10 songs or 35 minutes of music, clocking in at 8 songs and 36 minutes of music. These problems forced some deviation from my normal methodology, creating some new sounds, and made the finish line feel like much more of an accomplishment than the first time. <br><br>Cheers to three years and 39 songs under my belt, and more to come.<br> </p>2:12MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/45323782016-12-31T15:32:32-08:002024-03-22T05:10:05-07:00What I did on my Christmas vacation... or "Tattered"<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/d7868163ea3984bb2864a6c92d2b93e8d976838d/original/mechani-crash.jpg?1483227101" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>I have had roughly two weeks off work for Christmas, and I spent a meaningful chunk of my leisure time in my little makeshift recording studio. I recorded two songs during the break. I spoke about "Absolute Gentleman" in a post a few days ago. The new song is called "Tattered". It's just a song... but it represents the last song in the "album" with the working title "MechaniCrash IV". "MechaniCrash IV" has 11 songs and is about 55 minutes of music, perfect size for a vinyl record.<br><br>My intention was to record an album's worth of music, and spring for a pressing of about 50 copies, and give them to my friends. As I have said before, there is no money to be made here. All of the songs are posted here for free download anyway. The completion of this particular body of work, on the last day of the year at that, causes me to reflect again on the point of this exercise. <br><br>I have no delusions as to the quality of my music. I am a bit of a hack, getting a little bit more proficient at playing and producing with each effort. More to the point is the fact that I gain a lot of spiritual comfort from my recording activities. I have a very stressful job, and really loose myself in making music. Its hard to do while thinking of anything else. It is also a very satisfying means of personal expression.<br><br>I think the real point is twofold:<ol> <li>To put my music out there, accessible to friends and public, and critique. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it... etc...</li> <li>To finish songs, and complete a body of work to the best of my ability. Finishing things is important.</li>
</ol>I will now be taking a break from active recording, as the beginning of the year can be a very busy time in my industry. I will focus on taking these tracks, and creating a finished vinyl record. I need to determine an order, accounting for the end of side-one, and the beginning of side two, accounting for flow, strong starts and strong finishes to each side. I need art for the cover (which I should probably do), and a logo too (which I may farm out...lol). I need to decide on a real title for the body of work. This tactile product will be the completion of this album. Giving it to people, getting it out in the world, will add a new dimension to the "fake band" project.<br><br>More to come... <br><br>Happy New Year!<br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/ff317859c99e852ebfd1fbd51c740a8545ed5345/original/img-0176.jpg?1483227113" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br> 5:17MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/45253602016-12-25T14:07:13-08:002023-12-10T09:08:29-08:00A Complete Gentleman<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/57f6af675030eff6fb904c63747f6bce617afe14/original/img-1231.jpg?1482703339" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br><br>It's been a while since my last post. I took a bit of a break from MechaniCrash and played bass in a show in Providence, Rhode Island. I had to devote my MechaniCrash time to practicing for a while. It was a great time, and I got to play with some very good friends with whom I've never had the pleasure to play a show. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.<br><br>Another thing that has happened since my last post was the presidential election. Being a black male in America, I was extremely disappointed with the outcome, and even more disappointed with the behavior of some people since. I won't dwell on that, except for the fact that this song is about the President-Elect. It uses samples from Kellyanne Conway, Billy Bush, and "The Donald" himself. This was an interesting process, and took a lot longer for several reasons. Firstly, about halfway through the process, I was listening to it and realized that it had become a bit of a Rorschach test... meaning that people who support him might think it was a pro-Trump song, and people that don't might think it was an anti-Trump song. I took some extra time to clarify intent, hoping not to be too heavy-handed.<br><br>Another thing that added time to the process was that the quality of source material on some of the more iconic soundbites I wanted to sample were of a terrible sound-quality. They were either poorly recorded, full of background noise, or people were talking over each other. There were some moments I definitely wanted to reference, and I had to make-do with some crappy noisy sounds.<br><br>Thirdly... Donald is vulgar, and there are vulgarities in the song.<br><br>So, enjoy my first political song...<br> 5:45MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/42496962016-06-26T13:29:20-07:002023-12-04T22:24:11-08:00Waiting...<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/016385b3453144931eefe1bee0478d9be0d6b275/original/img-0171.jpg?1466972844" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>My friend Mary pointed me at a movie a few weeks ago. It was called "Empire of the Ants", and it was well-described by her as "an amazing piece of crap". I watched every second of it. I brought it into my studio, and sampled liberally from its melodramatic readings of hokey dialog to create the new song, "Waiting". Enjoy. Thanks for the inspiration, Mary.<br><br>I've been thinking a lot about albums. The first MechaniCrash "album", TimeCrash, was done for the 2014 "RPM Challenge". It was conceived of, and executed as an album. For all of its weaknesses, it feels like an album. The tracks are created as parts of a whole, and written to balance each other out, and to have a flow in a certain order. The subsequent Mechanicrash albums are all really just collections of songs. Even though I have learned a lot, and gotten meaningfully better at playing and producing... the collections don't flow or cohere like TimeCrash does, because they were not created with the same ambition to make them parts of a bigger whole.<br><br>"Waiting" is one of five tracks filed under "MechaniCrash IV" (...obviously a working title...). I want to make the new album flow like "TimeCrash" does. If it is to really work as an album, I need to take the five completed tracks, and start to think about them as parts of a bigger whole, and look at them for flow, order, and gaps. New songs need to be created to fill those gaps, and create that flow. This is the next challenge.<br> 5:36MechaniCrashtag:mechanicrash.com,2005:Post/41713982016-05-08T17:07:59-07:002023-12-10T08:54:09-08:00Re-start...I have been on a bit of a sabbatical for the past few months. Those of you who know me know that I changed jobs around the new year, requiring me to relocate from Chicago to Los Angeles. Three months in temporary housing, and a complex bit of unpacking later, and I finally have a studio again. I had the welcomed luxury of spending a few hours in it working on a new song today. For some reason temporary housing seemed much challenging this time than previous times. Having little access to doing musical things was just one symptom of the situation... but really, I just think I'm getting a bit too old for all of the hassle. <br><br>...but... seriously first-world problems...<br><br>So, like I said... i'm joyfully back at it. I have a new Les Paul (...got bored in temp housing... there was a sale... lol), and a new tiny little Roland Jupiter 08, for 80's style analog synth-fun. I also reconfigured the newest version of my studio a bit differently, and am liking it so far.<br><br>...so... on with it! Next time I'll have a new song.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/149848/60a92b2025f6bcfbd18e041eac09687143774605/original/img-0079.jpg?1462752238" class="size_l justify_center border_" />MechaniCrash