Fun day

Just met with the wonderful folks over at Tequila Mockingbird, a music house in Austin.  Such genuine, talented people and a gorgeous studio.  I’m inspired!  Here’s a track i whipped out yesterday for, well, for fun.  It’s unfinished, and I don’t know if I’ll take it any further, but it made Sarah and Ruby dance, so I thought I’d share…

Give us the finger!

Here’s an ad that I co-wrote the music for with my brother some years ago.  It’s been edited down, so I’m going to put the full version up soon.  The comments are great-this commercial killed the yo-yo industry!  hah.  I also played the guitars and bass….

blast from the past…

In my efforts to reopen old wounds and clear cobwebs, here’s some songs by my old band, Boston-based El Dopa.  The songs are from our full-length record “United in States of Narcolepsy”, which came out on Conscience Records (Powerman 5000, Mocean Worker, Acumen Nation) in the mid 90′s.  If was a great run…we played some awesome shows (opening for De La Soul, 311, Agent Orange, Soul Coughing, The Dead Milkmen, System of a Down, etc.), got to know the country (and our van) very well, got some great radio play and reviews, and have a ton of fun.  I played the guitars, my brother Krishna sang and did all the programming.  For your industrial-rock-funk-metal (or something) listening enjoyment….

United in States of Narcolepsy 

From Here to Reality 

Anti-Bullshit Machine 

The Financial Forest!

This is a piece I worked on for The Dave Ramsey Show on Fox Business Network.  The art/animation was done by an amazing illustrator named Mike Ciccotello…here’s a link to some of his work. http://www.schoolhousedaze.com

I did the music direction, editing and sound design.  Music pieces by VideoHelper.  Definitely a fun project.

Realz

Here’s a couple of reels that I put together.  The first is a sample of music (bands/singer-songwriters)  that I’ve worked on- either as producer, engineer, mixer or all of the above.  The second one has pieces that I’ve done the musical direction and sound design on.  Once I figure out how to embed non-youtube video on this blog, I’ll put the videos up.

Production / Engineering

Music Direction / Sound Design

just dug this one up…

This was a treatment for a commercial I did a while back. The temp track was by Kasabian… it’s simple but I like it.  I wrote it and played the instruments.

straight out the lab…

I just cooked this beat up the other night for a friend’s hip hip project.  It’s not finished, it’s not mixed, but it sure was fun.  I busted out the old MPC-style pad triggers for this one.  I was going for a kind of old school vibe.  The samples are pretty overt…can you ID them?

Readymade Breakup

Band breaks up.  Beautiful songs are written.  Oops, no band…no direction.  This record was an amazing project that spanned about a year from concept to finish.  Building the band and building the sound of the record from the ground up….such a cool experience.  Singer/songwriter Paul Rosevear is an amazing talent.  Check out his stuff!! He’s very prolific and continues to challenge himself…I always want to hear the next thing…

So I produced, recorded and mixed this.  I also played a lot of the guitars and did the programming…basically I joined the band and ended up doing a bunch of shows as their live guitarist.  Great songs.  Great band.  Check it….

“Starting To End” – First track on the record – pop deliciousness.

“Invincible” – the basis for the production of this song was the main acoustic line set on top of an evolving bed of synths, percussion, sound design, lap steel stuff, etc.  i really like the way it turned out…

“The neighbor’s house caught fire.  We stood and watched it burn.  and closed our eyes so tight…there’s no flame like your first”

“Ships” – One of my favs on the record.  Great song and wonderful harmonies by Allie Moss…check her stuff out if you get a chance…she has a beautiful voice.

Metalkpretty

Here’s a couple of tracks from a band from NYC called Metalkpretty.  I developed this band from their first recordings, ultimately creating 2 records and 1 demo which helped them recently land a deal with Eight O Five/Universal records.  The goal of my production with MTP was to help the band achieve a more modern rock/pop sound…tighter arrangements, bigger hooks, more up front and compelling vocal delivery.  We also added a programming/club/dance element to the mix.  It has been incredibly interesting, challenging and rewarding working with Julia, the Romanian-born lead singer, as she becomes more comfortable with the English language.

“Wake Up! Wake Up!”

Wake Up! Wake Up! is currently being used in Electronic Arts’ NHL 2010 and SIM video games…  soon to be on Rock Band.

“Under The Light”

An old fave from the MTP’s “Ruby” album… an interesting mix of modern rock and synth-club elements.

While I’m on the SOL thing…

Here’s the song that started the whole project…”Who Stands Beneath The Dream”.

It was given to me by Joe (Darone, singer/songwriter) as vocals and guitar recorded simultaneously onto a cassette…very raw, no real arrangement, but with those beautiful words and melodies!  This was sort of my audition…to see if I could find a compelling place for them to live.  The whole album was an incredibly fun project…I was thinking very visually while I was putting together the sounds and textures for the record, and we really didn’t go for consistency…each song is it’s own little world.   If you like it, please check out the rest of the album and the follow-up (which I also produced, called “Bacteria”…I’ll try and link them here…

Here’s another track from the eponymous album:  “Goodbye Silk City”

…beautiful lyrical imagery-a once great, now crumbling industrial town-a once strong, now withering man.

…and one from the next record “Bacteria”:  “American Music”

“….and Kennedy found just how intense it can get when American Music goes through your head”

Suit of Lights “Lifetime” vid

Check this video of another SOL song, “Lifetime”.  The singer Joe Darone put this one together…great movie, cool video.

Suit of Lights “Waking Up Is Good” video

Here’s a band that I make records and occasionally play live with. Shooting the video was a fun, tiring experience…hours and hours in front of a green screen.  production/engineering/mixing, guitar, bass, programming is by yours truly…

Hello world!

I’ll be throwing some stuff up here from time to time…let’s see if it coalesces into something….