Three things I love...

1. Our band. I can't wait to try some new jams and work on our songs! It's really exciting. Our stuff is phenomenal.

2. Triangles. I love each side.

3. "Nag Nag Nag" by Cabaret Voltaire. I am so excited that they used the same drum machine that we're using. Is there any way we can make some of these drum beats? Or at least use that crazy fill? Cool.

P.S. The gear I have is a Mackie CR1604, LexiconVortex (effects box), Alesis 3630 Compressor and an Alesis Quadraverb (reverb) - links provided. I think you said you have a Lexicon model too. All the gear is on a rack already so I could just bring it all down without much hassle. I just need to get the right AC adaptors. One of them takes a really weird 5 pronged kind of power... it looks like MIDI ... almost but it is definitely the thing that needs power.

EMO LYRICS

"the eyes are thirsty, cant get water from a stone

all these roads will take you there

anywhere but home

and the words we speak cant make amends to all the walls we hate

and the doors of filthy buildings will stay locked today


i just want to float into your heart again
i just want to float back to the start again"

NOTE: I JUST WAS SINGING ALONG TO THE RAD NEW SONG YOU GUYS DID AND THESE WORDS CAME OUT LIKE VOMIT

nothing too genius here but it sounds good to me, right now.

hehe
;)

http://www.slolum.com/band/fifthsong.mp3

New song me and Kat worked on March 30th. Then we watched YouTube clips.

-Chris

and a long flight home...

My flight home was so long. I finished reading Theatre of the Mind by Jay Ingram and then read The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and started writing songs. Long flight.

This one is pretty long but there are some good parts. I'm not sure if I'm done with it...

Keep the rayless morning cold

and the dusty clouds rapt

when a heart as big as yours

is all the light can hold

Pick up your pallid colour

make up the moon for me

I know too well the colour

of the secrets you keep

in the first pallor of dawn

you shine just like a sun

under the vanishing starlight

and brightening night

you're too bright to be so dark

And this one is shorter

The moon sets

and the sun grows red

and the moonlight dies

and the chill of dawn

dances in ghostly half-light

Before the night creeps in

a horror of great darkness

cannot escape me

and up I thought I could see ghosts

bleeding the colour of my fear

the moon dawns

and pale stars alone

and the moment stills

in a darkling [sic] calm

take the day away

So, yeah, most of the lines were taking from the time machine to some degree or another. I find the colour of my fear one sounds funny but I really like how it's said in the book: "expectations took the colour of my fears"

-Kat

okay i know we said we wouldnt do a cover BUT:

i think this would be an amazing song to do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUyZgXN6DBQ

we could sing it, all 3 of us, with harmonies and it has such a simple repeated synth bit..it would be really neat to try.

:)

-ghoulia

v-cool

Hey dudes...

I couldn't sleep last night so I'm up early to share lyrics I wrote on the plane trip out to Austin. I think I might have already written some down in that little book but I think I got the chance to refine them a little more.

SONG NUMBER 1:

Whatever she does she can't hide her dark eyes
lids drawn like dusty curtains
I breathed in when she exhaled
I wiped the darkness from my lips
(a line of dark stick off my lips)
to taste the lies like the lids of her dark eyes

it's isolation I don't care to listen
so long as I'm allowed to imagine
what those eyes must look like when they close.

AND NUMBER 2:

Like hotel room keys and hotel room doors
making nights on hotel room floors

This room leaves with nothing to say
lonely lives in the entrance way
lonely leaves me nothing to say.

There are some great bands out here. Blessure Graves are super awesome. I saw them on Wednesday night and I think I'm going to check them out again. I melted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezDVmwaa5WI&feature=youtube_gdata

Okay, I didn't actually watch that video yet so I hope it's okay.....

-Kat

Band 2

I checked out What About Baby Jane? and I find them rad.

I saw the Polyshores a couple weeks ago. They are also rad.
http://www.myspace.com/thepolyshores

THIS IS FOR KAT

http://www.renoise.com/download/renoise/

http://www.slolum.com/band/kat_template.xrns

I AM ALSO CHRIS

THIS IS A SONG

http://www.slolum.com/band/in_situ_-_third_song_demo.mp3

THIS IS ALSO A SONG

http://www.slolum.com/band/in_situ_-_fourth_song_sketch.mp3

I AM CHIRS

sorry i havent written on here lately!! i have been reading all you guys have wrote though DONT YOU WORRY

i am super stoked to hear this drum machine!! yah new order 80's beats!! i really think this will be awesome..i think it suits the way i play guitar anyways. yay. SO EXCITED TO HEAR IT!!

um, what else? ive mostly been listening to alot of early cocteau twins and smiths, but what else is new? haha. early cocteau twins is all about neat basslines and drum machine though so it might be worth a listen, especially "Garlands". what else am i digging lately? shoegazey stuff, like War Paint and The Cats Miaow. oh and... matthew good. hahaha. um, we can just pretend i didnt say that, ok? hah.

i saw that War Paint band last night at the Marquee actually..really beautiful layers of guitars. i definitely would like to fine tune that reverby sound i love so much.

I also like the band name "the Alice prince", which is a play on "the Alice Prins", which is the birth name of my idol, kiki de montparnasse. (pictured here)

i also (dont laugh), really like "Marks Dark Dazzle". its a line from a book describing courtney love being unable to tear herself away from "Rozz's dark dazzle" (a man she dated back in the 80's). And i like it with "Mark" instead because its funny, personally, and it rhymes. lemme know what you think!

-julia

Twilight Skulls!

O.M.G. I'm getting soooo stoked for SXSW. If either of you have time take a look at the panels, let me know if you think there'd be ones we could learn from and I'll try to check them out...

Wednesday Panels

Thursday Panels

Friday Panels

Saturday Panels

Also, I love the aesthetic of this picture - film, washed out, graininess. It's nice. I need to buy film before the weekend is over so I can take lots of pics in Austin.

Drum machineeeeeee!

-Chris

I just caught wind that "Wyrd Fest II" is coming to Calgary on april 30th and I think with the direction we have right now we could get a spot playing. We'd be way more electronic than the others but we have a nice jangley guitar thing going and a really good retro feel.

Other bands playing are Dead Ghosts, Nu Sensae, Women, COSMETICS, Grand Trine, etcetera... I don't think there's much of anything online about it besides on the bands' myspace pages.

Let's talk about it.

-Kat

K. So rather than feel sorry for myself, I've decided that I'm going to turn the living room in my house into a music room (my room mates are on board, fully supportive of the idea).

Going to paint the one wall that is shared with the kitchen a dark purple.

Then I'm going to move every synth, guitar, bass, electronic drum kit, etc. in there, and have them always set up so that anyone can walk up and play them. Also going to buy a piano as soon as I can find one for a decent price.

Beyond that, I'm going to have it set up so that anything in the room can be recorded onto a laptop and possibly also reel to reel, at a moment's notice. Will also have vocal mics, monitor, etc. set up.

Today I went out and bought 6 guitar wall racks like the ones they use in music stores.

Like this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001B7RAB8/ref=asc_df_B001B7RAB81053536?smid=A28RZEVTQ2NMS9&tag=nextag-mi-mp01-delta-20&linkCode=asn&creative=380341&creativeASIN=B001B7RAB8

I also bought a Boss tremolo pedal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp77ueBkqS0

You can adjust the sound so it's much more harsh cut off (square wave) or a softer one (triangle). You can control the depth (how much the volume drops, from 0 to 100%) with each cycle, and you can adjust the rate.

-Chris

Good news everyone!

I mentioned that I was in a band and now Dan (manager of Republik) really wants to put on a show for us when we're ready. We get to choose the bill and they'll put it on and the other sound tech will work it so I don't have to stress.

-Chris

i know that we are aiming for a more electronic sound, but i really love Morrisseys used of falsetto, and Chris, you are so good at singing high too...it just reminded me how much i would love to record a simpler more "folky" guitar and non-electronic sounding bass song.
we could still used some neat echoey little keyboard sounds as well, but i dont know...i just love songs like this SO much! it might be fun to try?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuILSSmByIY&feature=related

-ghoulia

i actuallymeant to post this on my other blog butnow im leaving it on here.who DOESNT want to see a pic of the greatest singer ever?

I'd like to work something around this line:

"this is the sound of the last dance"

And here are some more lyrics I came up with, I imagine the song to be in a style similar to more pop Cure songs like "Why Can't I Be You" or "Lovecats":

"You're so clumsy in bed

you turn the sheets

you bump your head

Ohh, accidental lover

underneath the covers"

3 things I'm digging:

1. Speaking of the Cure, I really like the drumming in Siamese Twins (the video is bad quality so listen to it for real instead)
2. I also really dig Douglas McCarthy's vocal style in Nitzer Ebb, how he just kind of shouts things. For instance, "lies, lies, lies, lies, guns, guns, guns, guns...." You know what I'm talking bout.
3. The synth line in Lose Him by I Start Counting is really catchy, in a good way.

-Kat

http://www.slolum.com/band/thirdsong.mp3

These are separate.

http://www.slolum.com/band/thirdsongsecondkeyboardpart.mp3

And so are these.

http://www.slolum.com/band/thirdsongvocalsandthirdpart.mp3

some stuff:

i love the layers of samples/weird sounds in this song. i havent listened to severed heads in soooo long and for some reason it was in my head today?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4mZ2D33v4o&feature=related

a band i just discovered today, 'Warpaint':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPv3eou3Ltg

i love the guitar progression in this..the walk-down bass line and the repetitive higher notes. and the lyrics are beautiful too...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3_YrOULNY0

and...does anyone remember this song? hehehe. was watching all these 90's videos last night..this is a really cool song though. love it!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x29niw_poe-angry-johnny_music

-julia

random words i found written on an old receipt in a jacket pocket:

there was a time
i counted birds on wires
symbolism in coffee cups
watched clouds stick and gather
and thought of us
and finding needles in haystacks

you were the one
you were the one
i told myself on bad days

i was lightened and safe

some more lyrical inspirations:

"The lighthouse dog lifted his brow
The crippled trees bent low to growl
And swans, they wrestled with lifetime's grasp
In hopefullness they nestled the past
Teachers and travellers made their mark
They dined and feasted on whale and shark
And so the ocean lost its depths
And boredom rained as the ocean wept..."
- Bat for lashes "jubilee"


"It's four in the morning, the end of december
I'm writing you now just to see if you're better
New york is cold, but I like where I'm living
There's music on clinton street all through the evening.

I hear that you're building your little house deep in the desert
You're living for nothing now, I hope you're keeping some kind of record.

Yes, and jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Did you ever go clear?

Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
You'd been to the station to meet every train
And you came home without lili marlene

And you treated my woman to a flake of your life
And when she came back she was nobody's wife.

Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief
Well I see jane's awake --

She sends her regards.

And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I'm glad you stood in my way.

If you ever come by here, for jane or for me
Your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free.

Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried.

And jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear ..."
- Leonard Cohen "famous blue raincoat"