Analogue Overload

This weekend we finally wrapped on recording down in Olympia, WA. There's something to be said about driving into Olympia and taking the Sleater-Kinney Rd. I-5 off ramp to get to the studio. Sleater Kinney defined my early teenage years and it was at their One Beat tour that I attended my first rock show without a parent (okay, so my folks were really protective).

We recorded a total of 9 songs but we'll probably only release 8 of them. The process was analogue beginning to end—though we haven't gotten it mastered yet since we're broke and crossing our fingers for some kind of miracle. Or sugar daddy. 

I will be the first to admit that the art of analogue recording goes right over my head. However, the sound is so much warmer and nicer. Especially the vocals. I just feel really lucky to have had this opportunity.

Speaking of opportunities, a while back a buddy of mine asked for us to contribute a song to a mix-tape he was putting together. I should mention that this friend of mine, Danny, is a legit music junkie. I mean, he works at a record shop—That gets you major [music] junkie points!

Credentials aside, this mix tape has totally blown my mind. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting anything. I had no idea what musicians would be included in this. But, man, I have not stopped playing it in my car.

I absolutely (and surprisingly) love "Big Boi" by Hair Vest. It's choppy, distorted, synth-punk that my friend remarked sounded like a "more punk" Spurm. Then on the other end of the spectrum is Prisoners with "No Place Like Home", which I swear has been stuck in my head these last two days. It has this innocent charm that reminds me of early Daniel Johnston recordings and I actually want to pay attention to the lyrics (I never listen to the lyrics). And of course, the two songs by Orca Team. I seriously think they're my favorite local band at the moment. So, so, so good.

12 Bands/12 Hours

This past summer my band took part in a project dreamed up by local producer/all around good guy Aaron Schroeder of BLDGs. His idea was simple: gather 12 bands that represent Seattle's underground scene and give them each an hour to record a song. Schroeder single-handedly recorded, mixed, mastered, and videotaped the process. The compilation is available for digital download on his blog, and each week he releases another music video from the recording session.

We chose to record a song that we had decided to keep off of our full length, which we will be mixing this Sunday! It's called Fuck & Kill and actually has me on the drums, and Jon on the guitar. We wrote it one day by chance when I was going through my "I want to be a drummer" phase.

Jon has always played guitar, he's kind of a whiz when it comes to music. However, I had only been playing drums for 2 months when we recorded this. I have since abandoned the drums as it didn't really jive with our sound, but I'm glad we decided to do something out of our comfort zone for this project.

 Enjoy!

Decisions Illustrated

 

A day's worth of decision making.

 

Should I brush my teeth before or after my morning cup of coffee?

 

I used to keep my toothbrush in a coffee cup. 

But I've since grown up. 

 

Breakfast is my favorite meal because it's the easiest to prepare.

 

 

Videos of The Breeders get me excited about playing music. 

This one's from 1993.

 

Tonight we're playing the Nectar Lounge.

I get stuck loading the gear into the car by myself. 

 

Since I'm driving I have to keep track of what I drink. 

We use the mom-mobile for shows.

 

My Mom put lots of bumper stickers on it even though it's my Dad's car.

One of them is the gay Jesus fish.

 

In my mind, gay Jesus would look like this. 

Tech the Halls

Some time earlier this week a project I had been working on last month was launched. It was headed up by Microsoft's Branded Entertainment & Experiences Team over in the South Lake Union 'hood. It's a virtual house decorator/lightshow creator for the holidays.

I created over 30 illustrations for it ranging from MC Snowman to the scrawny Christmas tree. Some illustrations (specifically the animated ones) were provided by a 3D studio. It was a lot of fun to work on and super neat to see it all come together.

Gmail Then & Now

Lots of chatter lately about Google's redesign. As an avid Google user, I first noticed the change on Blogger and most recently made the switch to the new look on Gmail. The changes are similar—cleaner/more simple layout, more icon links, lower contrast, and so on.

I actually really like the new look of Blogger. I adapted quickly to the change and have begun using certain features that I wasn't even aware of before. It's easier to manage posts and navigate blog entries. Overall, I like the change—and that's coming from someone who hates change.

As for Gmail, I have been using the "new look" for at least a week and still hate it. This has gone beyond my usual dislike of change and into the realm of being a disoriented user. There are certain changes that are subtly annoying from a design standpoint, but the ones that really annoy me are the changes that have gotten in my way as a user.

I have pointed out the changes I have beef with in red and will go through them alphabetically. Here it goes...

SIC2011 Recap

I've rounded up all of my notes and am ready to dive into all that I learned this past week at the Seattle Interactive Conference. I liked what @gknutson wrote over on What the Klout about how he used Twitter to take more effective notes.

"[W]hen I sit down to write a recap...there will be no need to sort through pages of hand written, torn, coffee stained notes"

 I was smart enough to ditch paper notes after the first session, switching instead to Macbook Stickies & tweets. Still, all I have are shorthand notes and I really dislike writing. So, what I have decided to do is copy my notes directly onto this blog post.

Lazy? Sure. I'll own up to that. However, I will go an extra step and flesh out the discussion points that are a little vague or could use a bit more meat. Here we go...

AIGA Creative Morning

This past week has been so amazingly hectic. I feel like I've been a sponge for all kinds of educational nuggets. I'm still compiling my notes from SIC2011, so I'm just going to write about the AIGA Seattle Creative Mornings session I attended today.

Matt Shobe (Chief Design Officer at Big Door) discussed the benefits (and trend) of gamification when engaging consumers. It's a topic which I have been aware of, however I have typically been more cognoscente of how social elements are integrated into gaming rather than using gaming elements to enhance social interactions.

It didn't take too long before Shobe brought up the example of Zynga and, more specifically, Farmville. I've never played Farmville, however I did go through a brief period of playing Empires & Allies. The reason why I stopped playing was because I became increasingly frustrated with how easy it was to acquire achievement badges. Not only that, I found it incredibly annoying that I was continually prompted to share my success with my friends via Facebook and Twitter.

Smart gamification, according to Shobe, requires a balance between providing the right amount of challenge and social. To paraphrase, if it takes under half an hour to achieve level 32, then the gamer will lose interest. Similarly, make it too difficult—either by not providing easy acces to sharing your progress online or the game play itself—and the level of engagement suffers.

Now, it was the example of MLB Gameday (one of Shobe's projects) that really got me thinking. He asked the audience (by show of hand) if they enjoyed baseball. Very few hands were raised. He then asked how many of us had ever collected baseball cards. Nearly every hand shot up. The action of collecting/ sharing/ showcasing is what kept us engaged in a sport we didn't even enjoy watching. By including this type of interaction, baseball fans were afforded the opportunity to become engaged with the game in a whole new way.

This is where my imagination stepped in. Music has lost it's way in the digital era. Everyone loves music, everyone collects music, yet music stores are shutting down, record labels are going under, and musicians and consumers alike have no way of navigating this.

I believe I have the best taste in music. My friend, Paul believes he has the best taste in music. Where can we boast about our respective amazing taste in music other than in our living rooms hunched over the record player? And, to take it a step further, when will we be rewarded for our dedication to music listening?