project 52 » chris james http://developermusic.com/blog an attempt to record and release a new song every week for one year Mon, 25 Apr 2011 15:21:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Week 52 + Grand Finale Show http://developermusic.com/blog/2010/09/07/week-52/ http://developermusic.com/blog/2010/09/07/week-52/#comments Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:02:13 +0000 project52 http://developermusic.com/blog/?p=930 On September 5, 2010, 364 days after posting the first Project 52 song, I hosted a grand finale show at the Brillobox in Pittsburgh. The show featured River is to Train (Joel Grimes), Karl Hendricks, Pairdown, Endless Mike and the Beagle Club, and the debut return of Developer-the band. The show was an incredible success with great performances by everyone and topped off by the live performance and recording of the 52nd and final song, “Finally Home”, which includes an audience sing-along and ends with Endless Mike and the Beagle Club jumping in for a giant rock ending. Thanks to Geof Comings (drums) and Chris James (bass) for being such quick studies and really fantastic band-mates. Thanks to Joel Grimes for playing guitar on “Solace” and “Finally Home”, and thanks to everyone who made it out to the show, enjoyed the birthday cake, and took part in my big experiment.

Here is the final song, all sixteen+ minutes of it. Massive thanks to Keith Tassick for pulling together footage from the live feed and cell phones to produce such a great video for me.

Here is the audio-only version of the final song. Please feel free to download it and enjoy!

Here are the videos of the entire show generously recorded and streamed live by the fantastic folks at Incredibly Thin:

DEVELOPER

ENDLESS MIKE & THE BEAGLE CLUB

KARL HENDRICKS, PAIRDOWN

RIVER IS TO TRAIN

]]> http://developermusic.com/blog/2010/09/07/week-52/feed/ 0 Week 46, The Weekend http://developermusic.com/blog/2010/07/25/week-46/ http://developermusic.com/blog/2010/07/25/week-46/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:10:11 +0000 project52 http://developermusic.com/blog/?p=865 To listen on an iPhone, visit my Bandcamp site, or download the SoundCloud iPhone app. For the first time in several weeks I’m getting a song up without franticly writing something at the last minute, and that’s a welcome change. We’ll see how long I can keep it up. With only six weeks left, I should [...]]]> To listen on an iPhone, visit my Bandcamp site, or download the SoundCloud iPhone app.

For the first time in several weeks I’m getting a song up without franticly writing something at the last minute, and that’s a welcome change. We’ll see how long I can keep it up. With only six weeks left, I should be able to find the motivation.

Evo and Orange

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this song. It came together pretty well – even with the slightly ridiculous dual guitar solo at the end. This is another track where the recordings were all made on the iPhone using the Alesis ProTrack’s mic preamps to mic the guitar amp and the drums. The guitar on this one was my Dean Evo FT. It’s a great guitar that you should still be able to get as a steal if you can find one – it has a coil-tap switch! The guitar sound is just the Evo through my Orange Crush 30r using the amp’s distortion and miked with a CAD E200.

The drums were recorded with just two mics, both small diaphragm condensers in an xy pattern about four feet out in front of the kit. The vocals were recorded as usual with just the iPhone’s built-in microphone, and I added a tinge of distortion and delay on the back end. The melodica was also recorded with the iPhone mic. Everything was recorded into the MultiTrack DAW app and then mixed and tweaked in Reaper.

Things are coming together pretty well for the Project 52 grand finale. I should be able to announce a show lineup pretty soon. The venue is set. It’s going to be at the Brillobox here in Pittsburgh on September 5th. I’ll be playing with a band version of Developer that features Chris James on bass (currently in Assembly & formerly of Life in Bed), and Geof Comings on drums (currently in Becoming Projections & formerly of Songs: Ohia). We’ll be playing a full set of Project 52 songs and then cap the show off with a live recording of the final song, which will be posted here the next day.

]]> http://developermusic.com/blog/2010/07/25/week-46/feed/ 0