Yeah, I’ve been slacking. I’m sorry! But I have remastered the four tracks I already had released from Mental Breakdown, and I decided to release them as an EP instead of as part of the album. Huzzar!
Shiny, isn’t it?
Why the departure from the album? Well, I haven’t been focusing on music as much as I would like to, so I kind of fell out of the swing of the album. Essentially, I want to get back in the swing of things before I try releasing an album. Of course, this means that whatever album I do end up releasing will be much different than what Mental Breakdown would’ve been. Oh well.
But fret not, children! This EP is pretty great, in my opinion. Please download it for free! Right now! Replace your old MP3’s with these far superior remasters! Yay! Blessed are the meek!
Howdy folks,
I’m guest DJing on Team Debaser’s radio show, which is a part of Cal State Long Beach’s radio station, next Wednesday between 11:00AM and 12:00PM. I’ll be joined by my good friend Nick Houghtaling, along with the show’s regular hosts, Sammy Rothman (of Tubby Boots) and Alex Humphrey, my cousin. I encourage you all to tune in on your computers and support college radio.
I can’t believe that’s the extent of my update. I’m terribly sorry that I haven’t been posting as often as I usually do lately. I’ll be sure to upload a few more songs in the coming weeks. I’ve written one I’m certain you’ll all enjoy (as long as you have a good sense of humor.)
Alright, take care?
Howdy, folks. I’ve decided, for a variety of reasons, to expand the length of my album from seven tracks to ten. First, I’m not entirely convinced that seven tracks would really be enough to qualify this as more than an EP. Besides, if I were to charge people for this album in the future, I’d feel like I’m ripping people off by offering so little material. So, I’ve increased the length to ten tracks. Second, I’ve been recording phenomenally quickly. It only took one day to record Voyage of the Argo, and I’m already halfway through recording the next track on the album, which I started putting down last night. Third, the track order didn’t sit right with me. The first two tracks are remaining the same, but something didn’t feel right about having Monster so early on in the album. So, Monster has been changed to track number three.
I might as well give you an updated track list:
- Amber Skies
- Voyage of the Argo
- Starlight, Moonlight
- Mēnis
- Cosmonaut
- Nazi Sharks with Jetpacks
- Monster
- Raptors! Raptors Everywhere!
- The Memories of a Past Life
- Black Hole
It’s closer to the original version of Mental Breakdown than the previous iteration was, but it retains the concept and feel of the last one. It should be great. It should also be out before I go back home for Winter Break, seeing as I keep getting my dorm to myself so often and I’ve been recording so quickly. I’ll be posting each track as it’s completed.
Also, I edited the recording of Voyage of the Argo, a song that I’ve mentioned quite a few times already. I suggest re-downloading it if you already have.
Also, I have a Facebook fan page now. I also suggest checking that out. A link is provided in the sidebar. Okay, tootles.
As previously mentioned, I’m feeling nostalgic for northern California. I’m actually heading up to the San Fransisco Bay area sometime this January, which I am super-awesome-excited for, especially because I’m going with the three lovely folks who joined me for the British Grenadiers video. Anyway, I’m not feeling entirely as wordy as I was when I wrote the original spiel on Southern California, so allow me to express my nostalgia for Northern California briefly.
Northern and Central California contain a few of the most beautiful locations in this country. Be it the majestic and breathe-taking forests of Yosemite (which I highly highly highly recommend visiting if you have not already, as very few places in North America contain as many truly beautiful natural landmarks) or the exceptionally planned, and thoroughly entertaining boardwalk of Santa Cruz, Central California is definitely one of the best places to visit if one wants to have a truly positive experience in the state.
Northern California is one of the only places in California that you will find well-planned cities, such as San Fransisco and Sacramento, as well as a few exceptional towns and smaller cities, such as those in the Sonoma and Napa areas, as well as Berkeley. These cities are also home to a refreshing art and music scene, and are worth visiting for the entertainment alone.
Okay, this is all starting to sound like an advertisement. I love Northern California. I love the fog that rolls through the beach cities and I love the nature and man-made structures. Almost everything about the place is so much better than the southern portion of the state. A+ highly recommend, ja.
I promise to post something more intelligent and satisfying to read soon.
This time I decided to try my hand at a cover. I think the results turned out well enough (vocals excluded), especially seeing as I’ve felt like vomitting for the last two days (today included.) So, please join me in appreciating the lesser-(and I use that word in the least powerful sense) known works of John Lennon…
Love – John Lennon
If you are reading this blog, either 1) you know me personally or discovered me on YouTube, Twitter, etc. during an early stage of my online presence, or 2) I’m already Internet-famous and you’re stalking me by reading back on my old entries. If the first situation is the correct one, then you obviously know that I’m from California. If the second is the situation in which you are reading this then hey, guess what! I’m from California! You learn something new every day!
Now, as of this writing I am attending school in Tacoma, Washington, which clearly means I left California. But, if you’ve read the previous post of mine, I’m feeling kind of nostalgic. The weird thing is, I’m not feeling nostalgic for Southern California at all; instead, I miss Central and Northern California. Now, if you aren’t from Southern California, or California in general, you might not really understand the distinction between the three parts of the state. I’ve provided this handy-dandy map to show you the areas that I currently long to visit again versus the part of California I’d rather avoid for the majority of my remaining life:
As you can see, the area marked with an “X” is the part of California I designate as Southern California (although anybody familiar with the geopolitical boundaries of this state will remark upon how Southern California is much larger than that, and includes Ventura County, which I have roped into the upper portion of the state. To those people, I say, “Fuck off.”)
You may wonder I why I demonstrate such hostilities towards Southern California. There are quite a few reasons, actually, but I’ll only hit upon a few of them.
1. Los Angeles
Fuck Los Angeles. Los Angeles is perhaps the worst city on the entire West Coast (unless you include Tijuana as part of San Diego, which it is, but even then at least Tijuana has a significant lulz factor that places it above Los Angeles.) The city is an endless mess of entirely unplanned communities with no green-belts and a river you can’t even swim in without risking infection. You can’t even see the North star at night due to the immense light pollution, and, oh yeah, the smog is so intense that you can’t even see the giant mountain range that is right next to the city.
Bullshit.
2. Water?
People in Southern California love water. And why shouldn’t they? Water is the reason we’re all here, after all. It keeps us cool when it’s hot outside, it keeps us alive when we’re dehydrated, and it keeps us comfortably warm when we shower in the morning. It seems perfectly logical to love it. Problem is, there is no water in Southern California. Well, at least there’s no naturally occurring water. We steal all of our water from Colorado. We’ve been in a drought for years and yet the people of Southern California continue to waste water as often as possible, whether it be through watering their Hummers or filling up swimming pools in every backyard despite the fact that nearly everybody in the state lives next to the largest ocean on the planet. Imagine how the people in Colorado feel.
Seriously?!
3. Nobody Should Be There Anyway
This kind of ties in to the previous reason, but Southern California is a continuation of one of the largest deserts in the country. The Los Angeles metropolitan area, which spans from around Ventura County to around San Diego/Tijuana is the second highest populated area in the nation. And nobody should live there in the first place. There is no naturally occurring water. It’s a desert. Why the hell is everybody there?! And I mean everybody. Actors, musicians, socialites, corporate figures. Everybody. It. Doesn’t. Make. Any. Sense.
Now, that’s enough of my bitching about how terrible of a place Southern California is. Why do I miss Northern and Central California? Well, I’ve been to Central quite a few times in my life, and I lived in Northern very briefly (if you’ll recall, I mentioned in my last post that I lived in Sacramento.) The culture is just so much better than this rampant consumerist car-based community that has taken over the South. It’s honestly really difficult to put into words why exactly I miss the upper parts of the state. I suppose I’ll dedicate a separate post to it later. Yeah, this just ended up being a rant. Oh well. Tootles.
I’m entirely unsure of what the contents of this post will end up being, but I’m going to write this nonetheless. I guess it will just be stream-of-consciousness, which I’m fine with.
I’m feeling nostalgic, which happens rather frequently, but I’m starting to have realizations about my life. For the past few years I’ve been the kind of person who tries to separate his past from his present, which usually involved me getting rid of things and trying to “start anew”, if you will. Lately though, I’ve had a certain longing for my past, which I’m sure most people around my age are also experiencing currently, especially people in this generation. I’m a highly logical person, and I really don’t run off of my emotions, so I’m sort of analyzing my own longing. Now, I know that there really is no such thing as a “simpler time.” Life is always complicated and chaotic, but I yearn for my old naive thought processes. Put as simply as possible, although life is never simple, I miss thinking that it ever was.
Most people, or at least most people I have met, seem to share a common problem in adjusting to college life: missing home. I’m not one of those people, but it’s mainly because I don’t really have a sense of “home.” I know that sounds entirely depressing, but I don’t view it as a negative. On the contrary, I believe the fact that I don’t really long to be “home” has helped me adjust to many changes in my life throughout the course of the last few years. I never really stayed in one place as a kid. Hell, I don’t think I can even count the amount of times I’ve moved to a different house or a different city on both of my hands, and that’s only including the times I remember. The longest I ever lived in one place was between 2000 and 2007, and even that wasn’t exactly constant. But I honestly appreciate that that is the kind of life I had. I’ve experienced a lot, and if anything I’ve at least found that I sure as hell know California really well.
This really is more of a spiel than a rant, and even then it’s rather pointless. Perhaps I’m just delaying the annotated bibliography I’m supposed to be writing, but even if that’s the case it’s nice to write about this.
Anyway, my nostalgic sense isn’t really me missing “home.” Rather, I miss people from various locations throughout my life, with no specific location taking president over the other. I guess I mostly miss time periods. Although my high school experience was complete and utter shit, I miss the deceptive simplicity of the friendships and living situation I had during that time. I especially miss my middle school days, when I truly began to develop into the person I identify myself as now. (I’m the kind of person who believes that you go through certain phases in your life that are more similar to becoming a complete different person who is living a completely different life than just growing up, but I suppose I can contribute that to my constantly changing living situations, which I suppose has always given me a sense that life is a series of phases.)
Seeing as I’ve hinted at the fact that I’ve lived in a variety of locations throughout my life, I suppose I’ll list a few cities I remember living in, in the order that I at least remember living in them (I like to believe that I have a fantastic memory, and usually this belief has proven itself true, but I’m also a human being…)
- Long Beach, California
- Cypress, California
- Sacramento, California (briefly)
- Belleview area, Washington
- San Diego, California
- Cypress, California (again)
- San Diego, California (again)
- Poway, California
- Costa Mesa, California
- Long Beach, California (again)
- Cypress, California (again again)
- Tacoma, Washington
Mind you, these are just the times I remember moving. If I really wanted to delve into my memory, I suppose I’d be able to tag the years that I lived in these locations too, but that’d probably be far more confusing and tasking for me than just listing the locations themselves. Also, I do suppose that if I were to label any place as the area that I have a sense of “home” it would be Long Beach, but the place I truly associate with Long Beach is an apartment I used to live in (I’ve actually lived in that same apartment twice. It was one of the first places I ever lived, when I was extremely young, and it is where I lived for a large amount of time between 2000 and 2007.) Still, that apartment is no longer a part of my life, and I can’t really return to it, so it doesn’t make much of a difference to me.
Anyway, I guess this all ended up being a kind of rant about my lack of a sense of “home.” Don’t get me wrong: I honestly am fine with the fact that I don’t have this sense of “home”, but I find it fascinating. I find myself to be an interesting case study. Strange, I know.
Alright, that’s all for now. I should probably start this bibliography.
I was recently interviewed by a good friend of mine, Nick Houghtaling. The interview obviously concerns my music, so if you’re interested in that kind of thing I highly suggest checking it out. You can read it by clicking here.
In other news, I’m going to be perfoming at an Open Mic Night in my house’s basement later this month (on the 30th, to be exact.) Chances are you don’t attend the same school as me, which is makes this information pretty much useless to you. Seeing as I don’t want to be a tease, I’ll try and get my song(s) on film and post them on YouTube, and, obviously, here.
On another note, I’ve been rather sick lately, so I don’t expect to record for at least a few weeks. So, unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to pump out the rest of the album next weekend. Oh well…
Hey, folks. I wanted to let you know that for the time being I am releasing 4 of the 7 tracks from Mental Breakdown for free! You can find them on my BandCamp page, or by clicking on the Downloadable Music tab above. I’m super-ultra-excited about this, because I’m very proud of the work I’ve put into these four songs. Please check them out, and feel free to show them off and distribute them.
The tracks I’ve released are the first three and the fifth:
Amber Skies
Voyage of the Argo
Monster
The Memories of Another Life
Of course, seeing as these are free copies, I’m not holding them to a completely strict rule of not being editted sometime in the future. If I feel like I forgot to do something to these, or that I need to rerecord certain aspects, I will, and without warning.
Anyway, please feel free to give them a listen and/or a download. Thank you!
Alright, so I’m finished recording nearly half of the album. I’m still working on the song order, and I’m leaving slots open if I decide to write more songs. As of right now it appears that there will be a grand total of seven songs on this album, which isn’t much at all, but I feel like the line-up will be pretty solid. The styles are pretty eclectic, and although most of the song is depressing as hell, some of the songs are quite poppy (while still being depressing, I guess.) I can at least guarantee that there is one mindlessly-fun pop song on the album.
Here’s a peak at the album artwork I’m planning on using at the moment. Of course, it is subject to be completely replaced, as I probably won’t have this album out before December.
I’ve decided to also give you the tentative track listing of the album. Ignore the “???” slots, as those are songs that I have not decided upon yet:
- Amber Skies
- Voyage of the Argo
- Monster
- ???
- The Memories of a Past Life
- ???
- Mēnis
Also, you might not have noticed, but I’ve uploaded a new video-song to YouTube. It’s the old time classic British Grenadiers, a traditional marching song. It’s mindless and fun, so please don’t take it seriously. I sure as hell am not.
