Spotify:

http://open.spotify.com/album/7ak7KcehwxVsVVl3US4B6U?si=mW5JV4u8TmS1O10OYWZnKg" rel="nofollow - http://open.spotify.com/album/7ak7KcehwxVsVVl3US4B6U?si=mW5JV4u8TmS1O10OYWZnKg

I enjoyed this ... it was nice to hear.

My ears, for some weird reason, kept hearing some moments that felt like old days Fillmore ... a really good blow out, let's say, and it felt good to hear it.

Interesting comment about keyboards ... I immediately thought ... heck he can add those on top of what he already has, although I am not sure it is necessary, since the stuff you have is pretty nice and stands out.

And yes, that bass is very nice ... need more ... more ... more ... 

Hey man, really appreciate you giving it spin, genuinely. I hold your opinion in high regard (even though you give all my favorite albums 2 stars  it's okay, I do the same to you). So yeah these all ended up being instrumentals because all though I can work my way around a few different instruments competently, singer I am not! I tried a lot of things but couldn't get it in a place where I was happy with vocals, Mountain I Am Spilling War is the track I especially set aside places for vocals. I originally started this project with my old roommate from college, he was also all over any instrument you hand him but an especially gifted vocalist. However, he was gone studying abroad in Australia so I decided to just go along with the instrumental jam tracks as is. He's back now and we've talked about going back and recording some vocals for the songs here, but I think we're just gonna make new songs rather then spend too much time looking backwards. 

Yeah so with keyboards, I spent a few years as a real regimented classical pianist and that was my main thing. I started playing guitar 10 years ago and long story short, things just got kinda old for me with piano. Had the epiphany that my passion for music doesn't lay in classical music, and years of 5-7 hour practice days just wore me out on it. So I started playing guitar again all the time, and I decided to put my energy towards that and kick out the jams. Found a real inspiration in artists like Hendrix, Ronald Jones (90s Flaming Lips) and Larry Lalonde of Primus and how they manipulated noise and distortion to be a part of the music. Mountain was the third song I recorded and I figured hey, I still got some chops on keys! I should integrate them even if it's just a supporting instrument. So looking towards the future I def plan to expand on the sound through more keys. Everything was recorded with one mic on a little two channel interface and meticulously mixed together. I kinda dig the sound cause at times it just sounds like a pretty tight live garage sounding band in parts, but on the same token I think it might deter some people from listening, so I'm hoping with future releases I can get a more ironed out sound as far as the mix goes, proper drum mic setup etc. Thanks again man!

Thank you so much for listening man! I really appreciate that filmore comparison, I was kinda going for a 'live' sound with how everything was put together! And since both of you mentioned keyboards, rest assured there will be plenty more of that coming in the future on any releases to come. Plenty more of that bass tone will be on the way too, dialed in something pretty punchy there! Thanks again, means a lot to hear this since I've mostly showed this music to friends that either aren't really coming from a musician or super attentive listener standpoint so it's nice to hear input coming from a source like this.

Vocals ... voicings, singing ... can I ask why it has to be like that?

Fun stuff that I'm working on in the book about IMPROVISATION I'm working on!

Exercise for fun!!! Take one piece that you might have lyrics to and whisper the lyrics with the song ... as if you were trying to make sure that you can make the kid go to sleep ... something different and unusual.

Pull a Robert Wyatt ... "different every time" ... and you will find a way to use the voice. Who says it has to be "singing"? Heck, for that matter the shower and the mirror are just as good, as long as you don't look at the mirror and think ... who's that monkey? And LAUGH!

Words, are not only to be "sung" ... they can also be spoken, and shown to mean a lot more than one sentence brought us ... take advantage of it ... no one else does it anyway!

(sorry ... a bit long ... editorial of sorts!) 

Keyboards ... keyboards ... I don't think I am the only person that thinks that keyboards are not necessary, specially for something to be considered "progressive mulchcrap" ... and I say that because too many things that you hear these days, the keyboards are simply an addon that is not adding a whole lot to the music, which always makes me think ... what is it doing there?

I've come, it could be said, from classical music, and made a film version (for a class on opera directing with Peter Mark of the Virginia Opera) of TOSCA's 2nd act, and seeing a score with 20 some lines for different instruments is a far better for my imagination, than watching a rock band with 5 lines, and were you or I to compare one to the other side by side, many would sound weak, and badly designed or composed ... simply following a beat or a chord or set of notes. To me, that is bad keyboard stuff and very poor band design, meaning that the focus is on something else, be it the lyrics, or the guitar, but the keyboards are superfluous and not necessary for the most part.

I guess that my image, from classical music, is sort of a movie scenario where the symphony or the concerto takes your imagination away, something that rock music can't do without "lyrics", which has a tendency to make me think that most listeners are not well versed in the history of music, and how people came to think of a lot of music ... to the point that they have to be TOLD with lyrics, so you can believe the song.

I love keyboards, but my best and special ones, are not always the ones that most folks like. I suppose that the odd one would be Keith Emerson, however, for me, right from the start he was the wayward student that could not get his professor's attention ... and by the time you LISTEN to Rachel Flowers doing the piano version of TARKUS, you know you had a massive modern composer right there ... and I have felt that from the very first day I got ELP (Pic's at an Exhibition was my 1st btw), which was done because I knew the piece and a lot of classical music by that time, that this was special and that Keith knew music a lot more than we thought ... they were brilliant. But the odd ones are better for me ... the artist and cover designer for Amon Duul 2 also played keyboards, but you would never think that they were not in tune with their music all the way to Vive La Trance. I never thought for one second that what Christian Decamps was doing in Ange with his brother, was not classically minded, specially now in his older days, he is creating very symphonic pieces that are super expressive and mannnnn does it ever need his brother's voice of the old days!

I loved a lot of music that did not have keyboards ... Edgar Broughton Band, Incredible String Band, Guru Guru and many others ... and still think that they were much more progressive than we give them credit for and then some. So, in essence, I don't need something extra to simply add more dust to the material (so to speak !!! sorry!!!) ... I would rather it added "magic" to it ... by making the "scenery" even bigger and stronger ... let's use a movie image ... make the piece of music be a David Lean or a Akira Kurosawa ... no one else was as visually minded, wide, and clean in long shots and imagery and let it live ... and I would love to see rock music do that a lot more ... a lot more. 

To me SF, had a lot of imagery and it wasn't the cheap stuff on the walls from the candles and the this and that in the light shows ... had the music itself not had a LIFE in it, I am not sure that the visuals would have been as valuable or important.

dougmcauliffe wrote: I would describe it as a mix of Heavy Psych, Prog Rock, Acid Rock and a little bit of Noise Rock in the mix.

Ow, this would not necessarily be a recommendation to me, but I actually very much liked what I heard!