tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36442747421708657962024-03-04T22:15:21.119-08:00the rebel wheel broadcastA behind the scenes account of the prog-rock band, The Rebel Wheel.Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-56070726981212900512020-07-18T19:06:00.001-07:002020-07-27T21:58:43.908-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The 2020 War.<br />
A couple of weeks ago a friend, with whom I have since had a falling out, was talking about how she was afraid of a race war. She kept saying that looters were destroying America in an over-reaction to an incident that only involved one cop and one victim. Much of what she said was so ignorant as to not warrant comment, but the idea of a war happening is one that took some hold on me.<br />
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Although I don't think it is a race war, I do believe there actually is a war going on. It isn't right versus left (although its outward appearances are certainly that), nor is smart versus stupid (something I tended to think until I realized a lot of people I felt were pretty smart seemed to be on both opposing sides), rather, as this mask debate has made perfectly clear, it a war between decent people and fools.<br />
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On the one hand we have people who are concerned about their neighbours, who are determined to try to do the right thing and who tend to get their facts from scientists and qualified researchers. They seem to understand the vagaries of scientific conclusions and would rather err on the side of caution if it is in the the public good. On the other side are those who have to adopt an increasingly absurdist world-view in order to maintain the belief that their delusional faith in a mega-maniacal moron is rational and reasonable. <br />
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This cognitive dissonance is borne by their inability to trust intelligent, educated researchers and their insistence that right wing agenda "information" sites are actually telling them the truth. They smugly believe that a steady diet of hate filled rhetoric is actually doing "research". And what research. Never mind the sex rings and conspiracy theories of control via face covering, what is underneath all of this is a contempt in the value of a human for just being a human. Instead, humans are fodder for votes; for money; for power; for status, and mostly, for creating a marketplace.We are, at our most basic, nothing more than potential consumers.<br />
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The right wing has become an inhumane enterprise where anyone who doesn't agree represents a dangerous and "fascist" voice. Voting against any social agendas like free health care, or free education or any social assistance, makes sense to these people simply because they believe people, at their most basic, are greedy and willing to take advantage of them. Because of their own political choices, they struggle to keep afloat themselves, so believe anyone who doesn't enter into the self-same downward spiral of defeatist lifestyles, will just end up burdening them further. They are so inundated by hate rhetoric from the established right, they have ceased to acknowledge the innate dignity of man or the intrinsic value of anybody. Instead they view others as competition for scanty jobs and diminished resources. Anyone who insists that humans are basically good and deserve basic human rights are delicate buttercups who expect hand-outs, and are overly educated and arrogant in their "superior" intelligence (the term pseudo-intellect is bandied about a lot).<br />
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This is the dumb-ing down of society and those who allow it happen, who believe they are representative of the new order of the informed as they buy into more and more absurd scenarios of hoaxes, conspiracies and "research", are the fools who are trading in their own futures. Instead of fighting to protect their children and create a working viable way of life (that people all of the world have been able to create), they instead prefer to consider themselves a marketplace and a "free" labour force devoid of human decency and any sense of community or social responsibilty. They parade mask-less in the streets hoping that their their ersatz saviour actually gives a flying fuck about them other then getting their votes and their money. <br />
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They are endorsing a policy where profit is more important than human lives, that life should be enjoyed by only the privileged few and everyone else should lead lives of suffering and hopelessness to provide that for them. To think otherwise is being a communist and after decades of propaganda, they know that that isn't any good. So the blanket descends on any measure of social responsibility and years and years of work trying to establish a decent standard of living gets eroded away by the very people who need it the most. <br />
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<br />Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-1865150779518769472020-03-31T14:31:00.002-07:002020-03-31T14:31:26.010-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Popular culture would have it that the definition of a crazy person is someone who keeps doing the same thing over and over and somehow expecting a different result. By that standard, I guess we are all crazy to some degree, but there are times when I wonder if I haven't truly lost it. For the last 18 months I have been dealing with terrible shit and I realize after repeated crashes, that I am never going to break this cycle if I keep expecting to get a different result each revolution. I let this stupid cycle ruin a lot of 2019 for me and I know it will do the same in 2020 if am not careful. We are the architects of our own demise (another popular culture belief which, just the earlier one, is wholly accurate!) so I am saying farewell to the denizens of C.S.R. and their sordid little vipers den.<br />
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Whew!<br />
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So the album is over halfway finished. Like most of the world, the band is in isolation mode right now but we were able to record four tracks already and are working on demos for the other four. Given that we all have our own studios, we were able to track keeper drums (over ghost bed tracks we had earlier tracked) and then each of us re-do or augment our parts at home. I am especially happy that Alex and Andrew are so heavily involved in the writing, arranging and production of the album; it not only makes my job easier, it also makes the whole project unified and sustainable.<br />
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Right now everyone is writing more material to record. The concept of simple machines is still very much an underlying theme but we aren't being dogmatic about it. For my part, each of the simple machine motives is being woven into a larger machine (all complex machines use simple machines as component parts so that suits), but even just the concept of a simple machine is fair game (Alex wrote a piece called Hammer and it deals partially with assassination and guns!) so we are being very broad in our interpretation. It is really more about getting a cohesive album together than some slavish devotion to a concept.<br />
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Here are some pictures of the band recording. </div>
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Andrew</div>
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Alex</div>
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Mics</div>
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Mic'd up kit</div>
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Andrew checking mix</div>
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Tracking guitar</div>
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<br />Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-62334902335520890022019-12-13T19:45:00.000-08:002019-12-13T19:45:05.393-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yah baby. 2019 is drawing to a close and it can't come soon enough. This year I have been embroiled in various dramas with characters like The Cowardly Postman, The Vain Armchair Farmer, The Cinderella Narcissist and The Malevolent Troll. It has taken quite a toll. I could regale you with their antics as they are certainly noteworthy (if being disgusted by one's fellow man, can be called noteworthy) but if only for the sake of my mental health, I will take the high road and put them on permanent ignore. Instead, what I would like to do is offer a hearty round of thank-yous to the OTHER people in my life who have been simply amazing.<br />
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I will start with Andrew Burns and Alex Wickham (bass and drums respectively). They have been an absolute joy to make music with. There has never been a time when I play with the lads that I have ever felt less than totally comfortable. I play with some players who, although good, always need to be referenced and adjusted to as their time and grooves wobble along. That is never been the case with the lads; their pocket is deep and steady and I never need to re-calculate time, rather I can play whatever enters my mind with complete confidence and easy control. Given the fact that 90 per cent of our music is on odd meters, that is a stunning accomplishment. Not only are they immensely talented, they are both intelligent, kind and responsible men. After last night's Rebel Wheel rehearsal I drove home delighted that the band is kicking ass and totally on point, especially considering the chaos and general "running-amok" all the other facets in my life have taken. <br />
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Lately I have been writing songs with Becky Abbot and that is another total delight. Becky is one of Canada's best vocalists and it is privilege and honour to be in the studio with her writing and recording songs for her next album. I haven't been so jazzed by a project in years. Like the lads, she is also smart and kind (qualities I admire greatly) and also happens to be drop-dead gorgeous. I don't think I have met many people who I am totally convinced will be STARS and house-hold names given the chance. I am working industriously to ensure that if the chance is given, the songs will be worth her time.<br />
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Sometime last year DeeDee Butters asked me to join Claude Marquis' band for some gigs that promoted his solo stuff. He is the main force behind The PepTides, for whom I used to play and Andrew, Alex, Becky and DeeDee still play. From that she and I went on to do a jazz duo act, a trio act and a kick-ass Aretha Franklin tribute. DeeDee is one the single best improvisors I have ever worked with and her stunning range and perfect singing pitch astound me time and time again. She kicks ass in ways few entertainers can and I consider myself lucky to be a part of her many projects.<br />
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As I mentioned, I used to be in The PepTides, and am still called upon to do any gigs the new replacement guitarist can't make. In effect I end up replacing the guitarist who replaced me.<br />
Claude Marquis is the brains behind the band and his music is at once, poppy and other-wordly. Full of unexpected twists and turns, it never fails to astound and invite. His vision is unique and his vocal talents impeccable. Again, like all the others I have listed, he is smart and kind and talented. This of course leads me to Scottie Irving, the keyboard player for The PepTides, as well a Rebel Wheel alumnus. He is another brilliant musician and all around brilliant guy. I love talking with him and he is impossible to lose and always has the most esoteric and serendipitous information gracefully at his disposal. I thoroughly enjoyed doing gigs with the band, and the drive from Orillia to Hamilton, where Scottie and I, along with vocalist Dale Waterman, spent several hours in deep and meaningful conversation. Dale has perfect pitch and is one of the single best soul singers I have ever heard. He is brainy and decent and works super hard at his craft as well as taking a ton of responsibilities for the band.<br />
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The only other pepTide I have to mention is Olexandra Pruchnicky. She is the third female vocalist in the band and she and I wrote quite a lot together when I was in the band too. Many of the songs from Vinyl cafe were our co-writes and she is an esteemed writing partner. I am delighted to say I have re-kindled the magic we shared and am whipping up a few tunes for her perusal. Not only is her singing informed with an academic, almost acousmatic sensibility, she also has an amazingly sultry and breathy voice which I find so invitingly easy to write for. She is a sweetheart and a dedicated talented artist.<br />
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In the other Non-PepTide associations I have formed this year is a working relationship with ex-Blinker The Star drummer, Colin Wylie. In some ways we are soul-mates, having had many extremely similar experiences in the business, in studios, and with writing and producing our own music. We did a remarkable gig this year at the Ottawa Folk-Fest where we debuted his latest album in a four piece setting. We both love guitar, XTC, effects pedals and pop songs (although quite frankly I have very very few in my repertoire) and Colin is a gifted songwriter whose music is multi-layered and brilliantly done. I consider myself lucky to be involved with his project, and probably not surprising at this point in the blog, I am in total admiration of his brain power and innate goodness.<br />
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<br />Alex, Andrew, Becky, DeeDee, Claude, Scottie, Dale, Oly, and Colin, have all been very, very bright points in my otherwise dark year and it is working with friends and artists like these, that keeps my faith in the whole life style together, especially important when the charades of the Ottawa Valley Viper's Den C-S-R chapter have derailed so much of my goodwill. Cheers <br />
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<br />Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-19098946907382823452019-09-06T15:55:00.001-07:002019-09-06T16:05:12.654-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well here we are in the cool fall weather. Finally. It seemed a fairly abrupt change really. Aug 31 was hot and humid and then on Sept 1st, it was like summer never existed and fall had taken over. You can almost see the edges of these months.<br />
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So we are busy at work on re-tooling the band, the web-site, the album and the stage show. We have written most of the tunes, but now that we have drafted a new member into the fray, we are both rehearsing old material, as well as opening up the arranging process to accommodate a new voice. As such we are delighted to introduce our newest member, Marianne Dumas.<br />
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She is a wonderkind keyboardist with a meticulous ear for synth programming. On top of that she is incredibly fleet fingered, a great singer and an overall delight to work with. She will be able to help us get our old songs dusted off and presented closer to the album versions than we have been able to do with the three piece. We are all excited about that and with her input on the new material.<br />
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We did our August 15th gig with aplomb, for, what can only be described as a small but enthusiastic crowd (if five people can be termed a crowd). We didn't get on until late as the other acts had a shit-load of gear to set up and tear down (the smaller the act the more gadgets seem to be needed). They acquitted themselves admirably however and were fun to watch but all in all, they took as long to set up and tear down as they did to play. That put us on around midnight on a Thursday night in sleepy ByTowne; not a great position to be in. Nevertheless, we all had fun and played well. I really am lucky to have such stalwart companions as Andrew and Alex, both of whom deliver their complicated and convoluted parts calmly and professionally.<br />
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Now, we are taking a bit of time off from gigging to get this album done and to embrace Marianne into the fold! <br />
<br />Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-8084171046685269222019-07-16T07:53:00.002-07:002019-07-16T07:55:02.115-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaa-MZJZW8i9yyAnp7OXck27E0sAAJGzHual_ZJ7FP49WINsx5uCVpyeTr18KyJOTnuh82aOdmzd-sQG8OZpNGeAOcy60evC6E2pLvkawspHlyCJFaNcAcHo4bUtvxQDmZ0kl5BAvkyXU/s1600/rwbroadcastsmid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaa-MZJZW8i9yyAnp7OXck27E0sAAJGzHual_ZJ7FP49WINsx5uCVpyeTr18KyJOTnuh82aOdmzd-sQG8OZpNGeAOcy60evC6E2pLvkawspHlyCJFaNcAcHo4bUtvxQDmZ0kl5BAvkyXU/s320/rwbroadcastsmid.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
It has been a weird summer; stifling hot and chillingly cold, wet and dry and all within days of each other (or on the same day). Here at the Rebel Wheel HQ buried deep in the farm-land of the North Ottawa Valley, things are progressing quite nicely. We had written a plethora of tunes and we have finally decided which will be used for the album. There is only one Alex tune that needs to be finished but other than that everything is ready to record. Finally. I was hoping to be done in July but there were a lot of events (cool and uncool) that made that impossible. I won't detail the uncool events (LOT'S of that in earlier posts), but one of the cool ones was Andrew and his dad rode the Tour De France bike rally route together. Hills and dales baby, hills and dales. They are both in amazing shape and had an amazing time. <br />
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We have been asked to play an Aug 15th gig at the Avant-garde Bar in Ottawa along with two other bands (L'Orchidee Cosmique and Chloe Dances In Twilight) and are rehearsing a few of the new songs for that gig. Here is a poster Flo from the L'Orchidee band put together. We all love it. Noisy Prog Fuzzy Gig indeed!<br />
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Well that's all the news that fits, lest I go into bent finger pointing mode again, so we will end it there. Play safe, have fun, be decent. Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-84114699927386455732019-05-25T08:27:00.000-07:002019-06-05T06:21:30.428-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaa-MZJZW8i9yyAnp7OXck27E0sAAJGzHual_ZJ7FP49WINsx5uCVpyeTr18KyJOTnuh82aOdmzd-sQG8OZpNGeAOcy60evC6E2pLvkawspHlyCJFaNcAcHo4bUtvxQDmZ0kl5BAvkyXU/s1600/rwbroadcastsmid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaa-MZJZW8i9yyAnp7OXck27E0sAAJGzHual_ZJ7FP49WINsx5uCVpyeTr18KyJOTnuh82aOdmzd-sQG8OZpNGeAOcy60evC6E2pLvkawspHlyCJFaNcAcHo4bUtvxQDmZ0kl5BAvkyXU/s320/rwbroadcastsmid.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
For a lot of us songwriter-y types, our tunes are a consequence of our lives and relationships. Songs become our diary in a lot of ways and are a creative way to expunge the hurt and abuse all of us feel.<br />
While relationship woes are hardly the inspiration for this current batch of Rebel Wheel tunes, they do create an impetus to get the album finalized and finished. I might even include a tune or two about how the intent to deceive is the emotional distillate of lying even if the carefully chosen words are technically true. Pointing a bent finger is still pointing a finger (and it's pointing at you Missy).<br />
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The album is coming along nicely; almost all of the songs are written and fairly well-rehearsed. The band members play in a lot of other bands as well (often together in fact) so with the current spate of Dee-Dee, solo and PepTide gigs, Andrew, Alex and myself have had a lot on our plates. Thankfully things are slowing down, and with the consequences of TWO May 25th revelations (2018, 2019), I suspect I will have FAR more time to dedicate to music. <br />
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Right now I am starting pre-production and I hope to be recording the band live off the floor in June or July. We'll see I guess; there are always factors that hit you sideways, but for now, that looks like a realistic goal.<br />
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Adios for now, play safe and ALWAYS trust your instincts.Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-57015907856476653122019-04-15T08:04:00.002-07:002019-04-15T21:46:46.550-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A little south of Nowhere's-Ville, there is a tiny cottage that houses a weird black lab and an even weirder composer. If you were to walk along the meandering creek that runs fast around the place you would hear strange music emanating from the cottage, music that moves among areas of angular dissonance, textural soundscapes and full blown shredding.<br />
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Right now I am re-designing my pedal board for the current iteration of the band. I vacillate among several states; having no pedals at all (usual state), to incorporating a few, then to having a HUGE pedal board. During that sequence of events there are many tearing sounds as velcro-ed pedals get torn off and re-positioned and minute details like having a buffer before a wah, or after, or between a wah and a fuzz are posited, researched (You-tube time) and experimented upon.<br />
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It is hard to achieve a perfect balance between sonic variation and onstage usability, especially on the budgets I work with (read NO budgets at all). Nevertheless, I am close to having a pedal board that works well. It is by no means finished, but the basic infrastructure is there. Let me detail the set-up.<br />
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To begin with, one of the biggest problems with guitar effects, especially those that have a lot of knobs and tones, is tweakability. On the test-bench there is no problem, but onstage it becomes a major one. Say that you use an analog delay pedal and you want to alter the knobs in real time to create a wee bit of sonic mayhem. If the pedal is on the floor, then you need to crouch down, squint (at least I do) and spend an inordinate amount of onstage time hunched over your pedal board. Not only does it look weird, it also irks me that thousands of dollars of pedals are put on the floor getting dusty and trod upon (I guess they come by the nick-name "stomp box" honestly).<br />
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There are options of course; mostly expensive and mostly for digital pedals where different parameters can be controlled by OTHER pedals attached to the main one. You can use an expression pedal to control a set parameter, or use another pedal to switch between several pre-programmed states. These options do work, but they never are as powerful as twisting knobs and, in the case of the analog delay mentioned earlier, there really is no alternative but to bend over and tweak onstage. It seems silly. The other option is to have one pedal for one sound only and get yet another one for any other tonal variation. That seems sillier still but explains why so many pedal boards get HUGE quickly.<br />
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Over the years I have migrated pedals from the floor up onto a platform (a music stand) that allows me to tweak the knobs by hand. It is so much easier to adjust a delay parameter in real time while playing, than to plod about looking for the expression pedal on a dark stage, and hoping it is still connected to the parameter you actually want to adjust.<br />
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In order to do that though, I have had to populate my pedal boards with a lot of boxes that don't anything other than turn things on and off. I will explain my signal path and you can see what I mean.<br />
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From the guitar I go into the tiny floor pedal board.<br />
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That is "Effect Chain One". In it is a wah pedal (a Morley Wah-volume which is probably the pedal I have used most over the years, having bought my first one way back in 1977; in fact I think it is the very first effect pedal I ever bought.) Then to a boss tuner, then to a MXR overdrive-boost pedal (which given its associations to a snake-referred purchase has, through no fault of its own, a VERY negative connotation and is destined to be swapped out soon). That chain can be bypassed by a quick stomp on a Road Rage loop pedal. The beauty of this set-up is I can have my wah pedal cocked to a position I like going into my distortion and turn them both on at one go. The pedal order is the result of MUCH experimenting and I find it gives me the best sound.<br />
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On the floor board is also a Gig Rig Remote Loopy II, which turns on two other loops remotely. They are "Effect Chain Two" and "Effect Chain Three".<br />
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In "Effect Chain Two" is a EHX Ring Thing and an EHX Small Stone Phaser. The Ring Thing has an expression pedal plugged in so that I might control seperate parameters on a patch by patch basis (the Ring Thing has 9 presets and one WYSIWYG setting). It is fundamentally a ring modulater, but is equally a trem pedal and harmoniser. It does all of these things splendidly. The phaser is a pretty standard thing and used seldomly but is fun to set to crazy settings and does offer a lot of tonal variation. The fact they are both on the music stand means I can reach over and tweak any control easily and in real time.<br />
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In "Effect Chain Three" is a TC Electronics Echo Brain analog delay and a Hall of Fame 2 digital reverb. They both have a lot of knobs that get tweaked a lot. I can get any number of sounds from them with ever having to run through presets (the delay has no presets but the reverb has 11). It is so much easier to adjust the delay setting to tempo with a quick twist of the wrist than to tap it on a excruciatingly small tap tempo stomp box. Of course the analog delay doesn't even allow that anyway so...<br />
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That is the basic rig, but I am currently awaiting a few more pedals to include into the fray.<br />
In EC1, I will swap out the MXR for a Rat2 (I LOVE Rat pedals and wished I had never sold my 1985 Rat) and add a EHX Nano Looper 360 at the end of that chain. In EC2 I will add an EHX Mono Synth pedal (it will be the first in the chain) and a Tube Screamer clone (probably a...Behringer clone!) between the Ring Thing and the Small Stone. In EC3 I will add another looper (TC Electronic's Ditto) at the very end of the whole path and it will reside on the floor. I would also like to add an EHX Attack-Decay and a Grand Canyon into Chain 3 but space and budget are a problem there.<br />
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With the EHX looper at the end of chain one, I can basically get it to act like a step sequencer into the Mono Synth and Ring Thing, allowing me a pretty cool modular synth type set-up. With a Ditto at the very end of the entire path, I can record an effected step sequence (say a guitar figure looped by the nano, sent into the Mono Synth and Ring Thing and tweaked in real time) and then play over it. I am hardly a fan of solo artists building up layered loops one by one, but given the nature of the current line-up and our analog synth paradigm, this seems a cool way to incorporate synth sequences and arpeggiated patterns into a guitar-based "synth" set-up.<br />
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So that is basically it.<br />
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To sign-off I will include a picture of the weird black lab I mentioned earlier. <br />
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<br />Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-90477053964555992622019-03-24T10:59:00.000-07:002019-03-24T11:02:22.967-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"Work, work, work...work, work, work...work, work, work...hello boys; have a good nights rest?" Lot's of work going on over here...not so much hanging with the "boys" but hanging with the lads is good too.<br />
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The album is getting put together slowly but surely with well over half the music written and solidified. Andrew has brought in a large piece as has Alex. We are going for a Diagramma-ish vibe here, using a lot of analog synthesizers and fewer traditional prog nuances (read mellotron and organ). We have been compared to Porcupine Tree before and that is probably a reference that will be used again.<br />
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Alex's piece is probably the strongest foray into that aesthetic and is quite exciting. He has written a nice guitar part too...very idiomatic with some nice natural harmonic melodies. Andrew has written an odd-metered latin-ish piece that is proving to be quite challenging to play. For my part I have brought several pieces in that use the simple machine motifs, but are all over the map stylistically. As we produce this stuff up I know there will be a consistent aural vibe that will unify some of these seemingly disparate elements.<br />
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So last night I had a bit of a disaster. I have a new studio buddy: WallyDog. He is a Black lab and very, very boisterous. Last night I put my guitar down on the couch and as he walked by his collar snagged one of the tuning pegs. He panicked and took off running, twisting the collar firmly around the peg. He scrambled out of the studio, into the kitchen and off up the stairs, dragging my guitar with him all the way. It is my favorite guitar; a Howard Roberts Fusion III. The guitar is a semi-hollow body and I was terrified the hollow body part would shatter on its wild ride through my house. It didn't. But it got LOTS of scrapes and dings. Two of the tone-volume knobs were broken off and two of the very cool finger style tailpiece thumbscrews were sheered off. The neck was unscathed (which was another worry) and for the most part disaster was averted. Wally was scared for hours (my shouting didn't help) but now, twelve hours later peace has been restored to the studio and my guitar, much the worse for wear is again being used for recording. <br />
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<br />Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-74085232704984243482019-01-15T04:58:00.000-08:002019-01-18T09:01:05.012-08:00The new band.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well well well. Despite the lurid "Year Of The Snake" 2018 proved to be (as well the lurching spill-over into the current calendar) at least 2019 is off to a great start band-wise. The new line-up has been rehearsing for our upcoming shows and I am delighted to say that it is shaping up very well. There is a new energy in the unit and the two new members are doing an amazing job. The lads have been doing their home-work and the thorny odd meter stuff the band is known for, is being played with aplomb. It is all very exciting.<br />
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It makes sense then to use this opportunity to introduce the new members of the band. I will go alphabetically starting with....<br />
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Andrew Burns-bass, vocals, keyboards. </div>
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Andrew is part of the new incarnation of the band, but actually has been the Rebel Wheel bassist since 2012. He brings a calm air of quiet virtuosity into the band. Although his main instrument in the band is electric and upright bass, he is a multi-instrumentalist who is equally adept at keyboards, vocals, guitar, banjo and mandolin. David and he met at an early PepTide's rehearsal back in 2010 and have kept a strong working relationship ever since. A full-time musician, Andrew plays with a whack of artists (The Rebel Wheel, The PepTides, The Powergoats, Al Tambay, Ty Hall, DeeDee Butters) as well as releases his own music. He also runs a studio and music school (Living Music Studios).<br />
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Alex Wickham-drums, vocals, keyboards.</div>
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Alex and David met towards the end of David's five year residency with The PepTides. Together with Andrew they played to a crowd of 14,000 at Ottawa's Westfest (among a few dozen other festivals and gigs) and formed a solid working relationship. David drafted Alex for his folk-rock act The Rapids and then for the precursor to the latest iteration of The Rebel Wheel, The Bag of Snakes. Alex enjoys complex odd-metered material so gave his hearty assent when asked to be a fellow Wheel. He has chops galore and a strong work ethic and all in all is a joy to work with (as artists like The PepTides, Junkyard Symphony, Bradley Scott, Caveman Techno, Chantal Hackette etc. will attest).</div>
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Both players have at a high level of craft and professionalism and are making The Rebel Wheel V8 a really unique and overwhelmingly fun project to be involved with. Our first gig will be in four weeks time (as The Rebel Wheel, we have close to a hundred gigs playing together in other units) and we are very excited about it.<br />
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Here is a brief excerpt of our latest rehearsal recorded on my i-phone:<br />
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/rebelwheel/rehearsal-short" target="_blank">Rehearsal Excerpt</a></div>
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<br />Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-9211784470387962882019-01-08T20:39:00.002-08:002019-01-18T12:03:48.900-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This will be the last post about snakes. I promise. Well...I expect. </div>
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So 2018 is over and the lurid details of The East Coast Percussion Syndrome have been already been mentioned. This post is about another snake I met in 2018 and is closely related to some other similar snakes I have met in the past, (poor snakes; they get such a bad rep when people like those I will detail are compared to them).<br />
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Way back in 1991 or so, I was in a band called the Barbara Lynch Band. We were all full-time musicians with a pretty good management contract so we were able to rehearse daily and hone the band's sound and stage show pretty well. We did a ton of show-cases, and like any band who works hard and has even moderately good players and material, we were able to attract a fairly large following and generate a lot of buzz. Eventually we came to the notice of the Toronto press and for about a year or two, were the darlings of the King Street scene. We won a ton of press accolades (like best band in Toronto etc.) and were featured on Much Music's The New Music (along with Keith Richards) and on CITY-TV's music shows. In fact, I think there are some very bad copies of a few of our performances at CITY-TV on Youtube.<br />
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The band eventually started to be wooed by labels and booking agents. We were offered quite a few tours overseas, and several pretty good deals with small independent labels. Our manager refused them all and was waiting for interest from the American majors. Given that he had just signed two of his acts to similar deals it made sense to follow his advice. The only problem was that we weren't really all that fashionable as far as commercial music went. We were more like Sword-Fish Trombone era Tom Waits meets Weather Report. Nevertheless a parade of deals crossed the table.<br />
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Quite a few producers offered us demo deals and we ended up in quite a few major studios in Toronto. Eventually we settled with Metalworks studio and recorded an EP with Roxy Music producer John Punter and Rush engineer Rick Andersen. It was a delightful time and something which I will detail in a a post about amazingly good experiences. This post is about the opposite.<br />
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So. Before we ended up at Metalworks with the amazing aforementioned production team, we did quite a bit of demo recording with other producers. One of them took us to a great facility. Back then it was all SSL boards and 24 track Studers coupled up via Adam-Smith synch units. It was all very impressive so we were awe-struck to be in the studio recording with this one producer. He was super friendly and kept telling us how great we were and how unique. All he wanted to do he said, was choose the best two songs we had and produce them up for a more radio friendly sound. We had a song that had this very cool drum intro we loved (think of I Mother Earth's Used To Be Alright, a wholly appropriate choice given that we shared management and a ton of stages...in fact I am sure that intro to their song was inspired by ours).<br />
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Anyway....the song chosen was one of our stronger pieces so we totally understood why the producer wanted to start with it. So we started tracking. We got about 40 seconds in and the producer called us to a halt. He wanted to iron out something in the drums he said. So we went over the intro with a fine tooth comb. Maybe not so many clicky rim sounds was the first directive, so Jim Casson the drummer began voicing the pattern on just the heads. None of us liked it as much, but we were doing our best to be professional and follow the producer. We started recording again. Forty seconds later we stopped again. Hmmm, maybe a snare hit on three would be better, was the next directive. Ok. Snare hit on three it was. On with the tune. Ten seconds later we stopped again. Maybe the snare should hit on 2 and 4 instead. Ok.<br />
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This went on until the intro had NONE of the flavour it originally had, but instead, sounded like every other drum part from that era. The producer was beaming; "see how much I have improved your sound in so short a time?" was what his face radiated. We spent the next 12 hours trimming off every unique burr we had laboriously inserted over several years of performing, writing and rehearsing. We took a wholly unique band song and trimmed sections off and idiosyncrasies away until we had just another mediocre pop pap piece.<br />
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Our manager was delighted: our producer was delighted: we were totally deflated. This was NOT how we envisioned the band. In the end we dropped the producer and convinced the manager to go with John Punter instead and we ended up with the songs the way we had arranged them only with a far superior sonic thumbprint and of course, world class production.<br />
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I now know that the demo producer was just another snake. He figured he knew how to make us better when he absolutely no idea what we were. I understand trying to be radio friendly. I understand wanting fame and fortune. What he didn't understand was that we wanted our music to be our music first and foremost. All of us made fairly good livings as musicians already (I was writing for TV's Nature of Things and 5th Estate etc. so was doing VERY well and the other lads were first call session guys) and wanted this project to reflect our musical tastes, not our need to be rich. But there will always be that guy who shows up and starts directing everybody, smilingly telling them how good they are, but all the while forcing their own weak aesthetic into the room. Behind the smile lies a conceit that their mediocre vision of music is real and that the band's is charmingly naive.<br />
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Fast forward to 2018 and a band I had been in for several years. We played the folk rock Tara and I had written and produced and were called <a href="https://therapids1.bandcamp.com/album/the-rapids" target="_blank">The Rapids</a><br />
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We had just started doing gigs and in a attempt to incorporate more tunes in our set-list we asked a local top 40 guitar player to join our band. As most of the songs featured two guitars, I was excited about having another player involved. It meant we could perform the album with the same arrangements we had recorded originally, plus we could supplement our set list with some covers. Both Tara and I knew we wanted NOT to be a cover band, so we decided early on that we would approach the covers from a unique point of view.<br />
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So in came the local hero. Smiling. Complimentary. Humble. At the first rehearsal he started out quite amiable but by the end was making lots of faces. This went on for a few weeks until about the third rehearsal when he stopped the band and said that something didn't sound right and that he thought we should focus on the drums. So we focused on the drums. How about we play the song VERY slowly so we can put the drummer on the spot? Once we allowed him to do that we had opened the flood gates. How about we excise this whole guitar part so we can make the material more "radio friendly"? Let's lose these tunes from the set-list because they are downers. After half of our songs he played a country riff and laughed saying he thought of that every time he heard "songs like these", without thinking that his association revealed more about his lack of imagination than any real plagiarizing on our part, which was what he was really getting at. We were all good sports and let this guy have his way, but none of us were having any fun anymore and felt like we were being given some kind of "master class" by a moron.<br />
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We decided to change gears and just worry about covers instead. So we did a few the way we wanted to. The local hero was quick with his comments; "Oh we can't play "These Boots Were Made For Walking" like that! To begin with, it is a swing type song, sung by a woman, not a head banger sung by a man. And what is with the extended guitar solo? No-one wants to hear that!".<br />
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The truth is we had already played that version of the song and it went over like gang-busters. It was good that we had, because for me, my growing suspicions became confirmed. What we really had in our midst, was a conceited, mediocre cover tune musician who had never worked in an original band in his entire life, treating us like we were rank amateurs who needed his expert guidance.<br />
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He was able to derail our project for a long time with his antics and his bullshit. The fact he never learned a tune properly (he simply hadn't the chops to actually perform ANY of the guitar parts, preferring instead to strum campfire chords on his expensive 12 string, smirk and generally dis the material) and refused to gig with us (his "professional" top 40 reputation was liable to be sullied by our "amateur hour" take on covers) did him in in the end, but not before he brought us to a grinding halt.<br />
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That was a year ago and we are back up again, but just like that other snake on the East Coast mini-tour, not without a bitter taste and certainly not without some other far-reaching and actually gut-wrenching consequences. Just like in the studio 20 years ago and on stage in the spring, one should always be on guard for the people who not only don't understand creativity, but who are also consumed with a smug satisfaction in themselves and what can only be described as their overwhelming mediocrity. <br />
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<br />Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-87659454512459939762018-12-24T02:29:00.002-08:002019-07-16T07:36:16.321-07:00Year End Review and the Coast Percusssion Syndrome<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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2018 was a busy year for the band. At the beginning of the year we were really out gigging as Bag Of Snakes but as we covered more and more material from The Rebel Wheel catalog it became fairly obvious that we were quickly becoming the next iteration of THAT band. My Aunt (who is in hospital right now) told me that "Snakes" is an unpleasant word with bad connotations and my very good friend Rachel actually shuddered when I told her our name. So. Bag Of Snakes is no longer a band, it is instead just another album in the ever-growing Rebel Wheel canon (albeit a more hard-rock "angular garage-band" album than usual).<br />
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There have been lots of high moments this year. It was a delight to watch my friend Tara develop as a seasoned and confidant performer (she was already a strong song-writer but even that aspect of her career has developed too). Watching her become more and more at ease with the stage and allowing me to be part of that growth was a real privilege for me. Local song-writer and leader of The PepTides, Claude Marquis drafted me into his band for his first solo show featuring his "folky" tunes. The show was a great success and we have re-kindled a very strong working relationship.<br />
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Another PepTide front-person, Dee Dee Butters, also decided to start her own solo career and I was honoured and delighted to be asked to join her in her jazz gigs. We play as a duo, or sometimes as a a trio with PepTides, Rebel Wheel bassist Andrew Burns. <br />
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I also have been doing a lot of solo gigs myself, mostly jazz guitar "chord solos", where I might play any number of standards or originals playing the melody in four part harmony, usually with contrasting motion bass lines. It is a challenge but is immensely fun as well.<br />
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But it wasn't all lavender and jazz. I went on perhaps the single worst road-tour of my life in the spring. The much touted "East Coast Mini Tour" was a disaster from the get-go. In retrospect I should never have climbed into the car when the "driving force" of the project arrived an hour early and over-the-top-surly at 5am. We all scurried about in a panic so that when we left (an hour ahead of schedule and grumpily impatient), it ended up I had forgotten my wallet. I noticed about 100 miles in and spoke up, thinking that we still had plenty of time to turn around and fetch it. The driving force bluntly refused so I was looking at a ten day tour with no money of my own. As another friend of mine said, I should have gotten out of the car right then and there, but as I was the "band" for both artists I felt duty-bound to stay.<br />
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I am not going to detail each and every abuse I endured along the way, but the gigs were done against a back-drop of escalating tension and many whispered conferences and dirty looks. It all came to a crashing halt in Halifax when I was onstage enduring abuse hurled at me from the driving force who had perched herself at the bar (much to the bar-tenders dismay). It all got messy: she was booted out and everything went due south. I originally detailed EVERY abuse that night when I first posted this, now I will leave it at it being the lowest point in my entire career. <br />
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Of course it all worked out but now I know EXACTLY why Rachel shuddered and my aunt warned me when I told them my band was called Bag Of Snakes. When you actually meet a true snake it is a totally disgusting experience. <br />
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<br />Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-78899097298114810012018-12-04T21:52:00.000-08:002018-12-04T21:58:44.794-08:00
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Simple machines. The concept fascinates me. The idea that there are simple physical mechanisms that can use leverage to multiply force is intriguing to me. The actual physics of "mechanical advantage" are more complicated than I care to explain (or could do justice to truthfully), but the product of levers and pulleys multiplying the magnitude of a force by any factor is very revealing of man's ingenuity in transforming his world. The idea that several simple machines in conjunction create a compound machine (think bicycle with its wheels and levers and pulleys) inspired my musical design for the new Rebel Wheel album, "Simple Machines" (that and i just love the sound of the term).
<P>The idea here was to create a series of motives that would operate like simple machines, from which we would build longer form compositions (as opposed to say writing a series of pieces called "Screw" "pulley" "lever" or "wedge" say, all of which tend to evoke sexual connotations for me). Coming up with motives was easy, simply because of the visual aspect of a guitar neck and of how notes look on paper. If you visualize a root, a b5 and a m7th (say C, F# and Bb) as a shape on guitar it kind of looks like a wedge. If you think of a series of tri-tones stacked up (C, F#, C, F#) it looks like an inclined plane both on a guitar neck and on paper. If you take a pattern like C to C8va, to A (down a m3) to Bb (down a ma7) to F (up m6) to F# (up semitone) to C# (down a 4th) to D (up a semitone) and put it in motion, it looks like a screw. You get the idea: the actual note patterns are visual more than aural.
<P> These then became the building blocks for the music (which is still being written) and as is always the case, these motives serve more like spring-boards for further machinations rather than hard and fast musical statements. In other words the simple machine cells can be altered traditionally (with techniques like retrograde, inversion, retrograde inversion, expansion, contraction, transposition etc. etc.) or freely.
<P> This is always the fun part for me: taking small cells and fucking about with them. I myself am a simple machine.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7D_iLTBUI8kesUdNNiPyNGGlQifqYWCdqyaJL7Cl70Ecdi1xCJMxARdXkB_7XHc8bJeQ-LIvpM9YQoU-AJVFE-2_Qxlof0CWKdyd01pfraNUYLwUoaSvaeExB1w4duaM3HV26ir_opTk/s1600/IMG_1144.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7D_iLTBUI8kesUdNNiPyNGGlQifqYWCdqyaJL7Cl70Ecdi1xCJMxARdXkB_7XHc8bJeQ-LIvpM9YQoU-AJVFE-2_Qxlof0CWKdyd01pfraNUYLwUoaSvaeExB1w4duaM3HV26ir_opTk/s320/IMG_1144.JPG" width="320" height="240" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1200" /></a></div>Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-31559407924330830282018-12-01T19:22:00.001-08:002018-12-01T22:16:24.737-08:00What a Bag of Snakes (or how The Rebel Wheel was re-born)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2W2cIfa-5oEoBAZx_1ASSqo195izo_uxy6L0qzGhwX39lSR2oQHgrjmyB9e2XjNPDmtknbv6XgzSeTSEge64JcNuh7SXqe_5othIXE4cnOwf1929SuDhe05hyphenhyphenbnmvkLPeRJYq1eMjTMo/s1600/rwbroadcastsmid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2W2cIfa-5oEoBAZx_1ASSqo195izo_uxy6L0qzGhwX39lSR2oQHgrjmyB9e2XjNPDmtknbv6XgzSeTSEge64JcNuh7SXqe_5othIXE4cnOwf1929SuDhe05hyphenhyphenbnmvkLPeRJYq1eMjTMo/s320/rwbroadcastsmid.jpg" width="320" height="320" data-original-width="540" data-original-height="540" /></a></div>
It has been a long time since our last blog in this series of Rebel Wheel Broadcasts. Usually when someone starts out with "it's has been a long time" they add, "and a lot has happened". Of course it has. The one thing anyone can count on is stuff happening. The longer the time, the more "a lot" enters into the sentence.
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In my case, divorce, a series of deaths in the family, several heart-breaks and a lengthy detour down a folk-rock rabbit hole that started so well and ended so terribly is the bulk of what happened to me. Through it all though The Rebel Wheel kept on ticking, albeit in a kind of off-the-radar way as far as the prog-rock community was concerned.
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I was also able to finish my 4th Symphony, my 5th string quartet, a whole series of electro-acoustic compositions, a batch of TV work and some hard rocking proggy stuff. Right now I am finishing my master's and am writing a large scale percussion piece using several techniques derived from my study of Bartok's technique of poly modal-chromaticism.
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Since Whore's Breakfast (the band's first all-digital release) I have relied heavily on the splendid "bandcamp" site to distribute my music.It has worked a charm. I released four more albums for the Rebel Wheel in succession, all of which were either albums that had been released under other titles (Filth Therapy, Bag Of Snakes) or compilation albums of released tracks (5 Epics) or unreleased ones (3rd Wheel). These all basically helped me keep my hand in the game (foot in the door, head in the clouds).
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Last year I wanted to do some hard rock after a disastrous tour to the East Coast with a certifiable sociopathic, megalomaniacal, loud-mouth, red-neck boor. A year of doing gigs with this person pretty much soured any taste I had for doing any work with posers. I should have known better. No matter. The good part was I immediately jumped into a hard-rock odd-metered aesthetic and after writing and recording for a few weeks came up with a new project called Bag Of Snakes. I released it on bandcamp and Cd Baby and it did well right out of the gates. It was only when a reviewer said that it sounded like Stone Temple Pilots meets Rush, did I realize I had basically written the perfect successor to Whore's Breakfast (the two compilation albums and Filth Therapy notwithstanding).
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While touring the album with Alex Wickham and Andrew Burns it occurred to me that I also had a new Rebel Wheel unit on my hands so I very gleefully re-formed the band with them and swallowed The Bag of Snakes into the Rebel Wheel canon. Six months later we are writing, recording and rehearsing new material for the 2019 release of "Simple machines" which will be the 9th Rebel Wheel album and the 8th iteration of the band.
Here is the Bag of Snakes unit before we decided we were really The Rebel Wheel
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<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2460021906/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=3577910576/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://rostfreirecords.bandcamp.com/album/bag-of-snakes">Bag Of Snakes album</a></iframe> Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-8933142549107740612010-06-07T19:17:00.000-07:002018-12-08T10:50:41.350-08:00Album release dateIt has been a long-time coming, lot's of hard work, some tough decisions and a lot of talk, but finally the CD is officially released to day. It can be purchased <a href="https://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks"> here </a>.<br /><br />I'd like to use this post to thank everybody on the project. First the band; Ange MacIvor, Claude Prince and Aaron Clark for doing such a stellar job. Then the guests; Rick Barkhouse and Guy Leblanc, for considerably raising the bar on our keyboard status. Of course a special thanks has to go out to Guy Dagenais who played on only one track of the CD, but has since joined the band full-time and has had to learn over 90 minutes worth of pretty complicated music. He has done so with aplomb and has also raised the bar for the band. <br /><br />I'd also like to thank: Matthew Thomas of Shattered Wing for his wonderful engineering prowess, Francis Depuis for his amazing art, Roger Woods for his kind permission to use his iconic clocks, Socar Myles for her Discoverie art, and of course Nick Brisebois for the inspiration for the whole album in the first place.<br /><br />I'll be sending each of you your very own CD's very soon (or of course you can go to any number of sites and simply download it illegally as so many people have already done). No matter; that's a rant for another post!<br /><br />Ok, thanks all.Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-50575771484402055752010-05-31T20:56:00.000-07:002010-05-31T21:39:47.138-07:00Who does what and we aren't Yanks thank you very much.As I have mentioned numerous times in the past I love Robertson Davies' writing. In his novel "A Mixture of Frailties" some of the characters have a magazine called "The Lantern". In it they take critics to task for their inaccuracies and ignorant assumptions. Named after Diogones and his quest for an honest man, the magazine ostensibly gives a forum for the artist to correct his critic's unbased assumptions, but in reality is nothing more than a chance to rebutt the opinion's formed and published by them (which in itself is a pretty cool idea).<br /><br />I remember talking to Guy Leblanc from Nathan Mahl about similar ideas where he would review the reviewers. As vindicating as it might appear I think it ultimately would do nothing more than reveal the artist as petty, thin-skinned and childishly nurturing his sour-graped grudges. <br /><br />Nonetheless I also think having a blog allows me to address certain issues I have with some reviews we have been getting, so at the risk of looking petty I'm going to set certain trifling yet niggling details straight.<br /><br />To begin with; WE ARE NOT YANKS!!!! I realize that to some Europeans, making a distinction between Americans and Canadians is a silly and unreasonable one, after all we essentially share a continent, a language (I'm honour/honor bound to say that) and much the same media, but as ridiculous as it might seem, we actually consider ourselves pretty different. <br /><br />To our German friends who consider my son's "Evil Clock" story as a typically "Yank" (said with a disparging sigh no less) endevour, let it be said that he was only 10 when he wrote it and the Walmart in question (it's a strange tale, but in my son's story the Evil Clock in question gets bested and ends up working at Walmart) is a few kilometers from us and has been a growing (and highly unwelcomed) presence in most Ontario small towns. Working for Walmart then would be a just punishment for the fallen Evil Clock. Weird eh? Maybe there is a language barrier at work, but missing out on THAT nuance is actually missing the point of my kid's brain-power and sense of irony. Calling us typical Yanks as a result would be about as insulting as if we called our erstwhile German critic Norweigan (or Swedish, Dutch, South African whatever, they're all kinda the same aren't they? non-english ie).<br /><br />To our French critic who thinks that by naming some high-profile (can that term even be used in reference to progressive rock?) prog bands as influences we necessarily think we sound like them; grow up! I grew up listening to Zappa and Gentle Giant and they were huge inspirations to me (among others like Antonio Carlos Jobim, Igor Stravinsky and John Coltrane) but that doesn't mean I write about yellow snow in 4 part counterpoint, play a recorder and love dirty-worded Doo-wop any more than some author who loves Ernest Hemmingway is going to pepper his novel with a thousand "fines" and write about characters who've had their balls blown off.<br /><br /> I guess being stupid enough to play in the "prog-rock" idiom invites these kind of <br />assumptions.<br /><br />Ok. That's the vitriolic part of today's post. The other stuff is simply some clarification on who does what. Some reviewers are having an understandably hard time figuring out who is still in the band (we do change line-ups a lot and at any given time have tracks from members who are on their way out sitting cheek to jowl with those who have just joined) and just what each person does. The latter can be attributed to the very small info page included on the CD. It uses a arty little font that, along with its miniscule size, doesn't make sussing this stuff out any easier. The fact we all play keyboards at any given time and the fact that often I'll play bass as well as guitar doesn't help either. So..here's the inside scoop:<br /><br /><br />Evil Clocks P1 <br />Aaron Clark: drums <br />Claude Prince: bass on the verses <br />Guy Dagenais: 5-string bass and fretless bass solos on the chorus, <br />David Campbell: opening industrial synth ambiences, programmed drum loop, electric guitars (dbl'd left and right), synth solo, acoustic guitar, vocals, <br />Ange MacIvor: alto sax, vocals. <br />Composed by David Campbell and arranged by the band. <br /><br /> <br />Klak <br />Aaron Clark: drums <br />Claude Prince: bass <br />David Campbell: vocals, electric guitar, keyboard drones (bass swells at beginning and after solo) and mellotron pads in chorus, <br />Ange MacIvor: distorted organ, string synth pads in chorus, soprano sax solo <br />Music by David Campbell, words by Geordie Robertson. Arranged by the band. <br /><br /> <br />Wordplay <br />Aaron Clark: drums <br />David Campbell: electric guitars, mellotron pads at intro, bass, acoustic guitars, synth solo, organ and electric piano. <br />Ange MacIvor: vocals, soprano sax solo <br />Composed by David Campbell, Ange MacIvor, Aaron Clark. Words by Ange MacIvor. <br /><br /> <br />Scales of the Ebony Fish <br />Aaron Clark: drums <br />Claude Prince: bass <br />David Campbell: vocals, keyboard ambiences, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, <br />Guy Leblanc: synth solo <br />Composed and arranged by David Campbell. <br /><br /> <br />Settling of Bones <br />David Campbell: electric guitar, synths , bass, vocals, drum loops, pads <br />Ange MacIvor: lead vocals <br />Music by David Campbell. Words by David Campbell and Ange MacIvor. <br /><br /> <br />Convent <br />Aaron Clark: drums <br />Claude Prince: bass <br />David Campbell: electric guitar, synth solo before sax solo section, vocals <br />Ange MacIvor: keyboards, alto sax, vocals <br />Composed by David Campbell. Arranged by the band. <br /><br /> <br />Hags 1 <br />Aaron Clark: percussion <br />David Campbell: classical, steel string and 12 string acoustic guitars, ambiences, mellotron (strings, vocals and flutes), vocals <br />Ange MacIvor: vocals <br />Composed and arranged by David Campbell. <br /><br /> <br />Mad Night <br />Aaron Clark: drums <br />Claude Prince: bass <br />David Campbell: electric guitar, synth line after guitar (leading into B section), B-section synth swells, electric guitar solos, synth solo, vectory loop, whispers, autoharp <br />Ange MacIvor: main synth bass riff, B-section synth pads, alto solo <br />Composed by David Campbell. Arranged by the band. <br /><br /> <br />Hags 2 <br />David Campbell: classical, steel string and electric guitars, ambiences, mellotron (strings, vocals and flutes), vocals <br />Ange MacIvor: vocals <br />Composed and arranged by David Campbell. <br /><br /> <br />Invitation To The Dance <br />Aaron Clark: drums <br />Claude Prince: bass <br />David Campbell: electric guitar, mellotron at intro and exit, electric piano <br />Ange MacIvor: soprano sax <br />Rick Barkhouse: electric piano solo <br />Composed by David Campbell. Arranged by the band. <br /><br /> <br />Hags 3 <br />David Campbell: acoustic guitar, mandolin, electric guitar, ambiences, mellotron (strings, vocals and flutes), vocals <br />Ange MacIvor: vocals <br />Composed and arranged by David Campbell. <br /><br /> <br />Invitation To The Dance <br />Aaron Clark: drums <br />Claude Prince: bass <br />David Campbell: electric guitar, loops and ambience, screams and hollers <br />Ange MacIvor: synth lead <br />Composed by David Campbell. Arranged by the band. <br /><br /> <br />Evil Clocks 2 <br />David Campbell: synths and ambiencesFictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-47166256454966902612010-05-28T19:56:00.001-07:002018-12-04T22:16:20.034-08:00Some new tunes1st the new stuff. Lately I have been on a Charles Bukowski kick and among all that reading, I have been writing stuff that tends to focus on the similar seedy underside of life (read lots of substance abuse, grimy apartments, general low budget days and mostly transient company). I have had a ton of these type of tunes in my day stretching back to Vancouver 1979. In fact one of my favorite lyrics dates back from then (I have stains on my fingers I smoke too much). Really.<br /><br />Over the years I have written various pieces with that same perspective and on the first Rebel Wheel CD as part of a larger suite there was an instrumental piece called Whore's Breakfast. I wrote that particular section during a week-long acid buzz in some hotel room in Brockville in 1981. I always meant for it to be the centrepiece of a song collection, but I was having difficulty reconciling an almost modern classical instrumental with more lyrical songs. Several times through-out the years though I was able to get close.<br /><br />Now, thanks to Bukowski, I have managed to get a bit closer, so with that in mind, I'll post some new tunes that try to encapsulate that part of my life. Keep in mind these are demos only and that I have tracked all the instruments myself.
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<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=216941850/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=495573813/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/whores-breakfast">Whore's Breakfast by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe>
<P>The drums are Toontrack's Vintage and Custom kit samples and I used heavily edited midi files as well as my Roland midi kit to trigger them. The bass is my Fender Jazz through my Millenia media pre-amp and the gtr is my Howard Roberts through my Mesa-Boogie amp (mic'd with a Neumann and Millenia pre). The vocals are through the same mic and pre configuration.
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<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=216941850/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=3425563929/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/whores-breakfast">Whore's Breakfast by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe>
<P> The drum parts were played on an old ludwig kit and edited pretty heavily to create a passable performance. I also used some edited midi files. The bass is again the Fender Jazz through the same rig. There is no guitar on this one, rather I used Logic's electric piano, clav, synth and organ plugs.Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-37226314467127348942010-05-16T23:47:00.000-07:002010-05-17T00:17:43.814-07:00Something else again.I have been having a blast configuring and re-configuring my pedalboard. In my last post I mentioned it would probably be something else again by the time we gig and while that is certainly still possible (likely even), it turns out I changed it drastically since the last post.<br /><br />I had mentioned I wanted the EH ring modulator in the loop (literally) and with some tweaking and honest decision making was able to do that.<br />I dropped my Boss chorus, MXR compressor and Fairfield Circuitry distorion box out of the board and added the EH like I had wanted. The truth is, with the exception of one spot, I never actually used the chorus and the compressor anyway. I had liked the idea of switching between two effects loops and I remember reading the blurb the loop switcher maker wrote. In it he had said something like "imagine being able to instantly switch from a compressor and chorus as a clean sound to a distortion and delay for a lead sound". I liked that and as I had most of the effects I bought a chorus and compressor and I did just that. The truth is though I never liked the chorus sound, or rather, having used a Jazz Chorus for most of the '80s, have grown quite sick of the sound. Deciding to get rid of it all saved a few power cables and lots of real-estate.<br /><br />Losing the distortion wasn't as easy, but truthfully, I prefer my Mesa Boogie for that kind of thing and I also have the Fulltone front-end which can yield me that sound before the buffers in the Radial ABY box so the Fairfield got the boot as well.<br /><br />So. Now I have the EH ring modulator ("Frequency Analyzer") in loop 1 all by itself (which is convenient because I prefer to leave it on as it hasn't a led status light) and in loop 2 I have the EH phase, the Boss slicer and a Boss delay. I have also midi'd the slicer up to the Adrenalinn so now I can have both units in perfect sync via MTC. The Adrenalinn has its tempi pre-programmed per patch and now when I change patches via the FCB, the Adrenalinn and the Boss change tempo according to the song's pre-programmed BPM. I can also tap tempo on the Adrenalinn if I need (and of course the Boss follows).<br /><br /> What I also am finding is that the pedals are easier to acces when there are fewer of them. It was getting tricky there to get my big boots onto the right pedal, especially when we are ramming it out live. Now it is easier.<br /><br />This certainly isn't big news (not that there's ever really much of that hereabouts) but lots of fun nevertheless. Here's a pic.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieW-BKE98_HxEYaynXuuVN-tkpHUPokuOIhg-G8HoymCav0E1Az7XtD-LGfsLxoCvrmYUedUgBF9o9qiRAM-3ncCfSK3gSnNwpip9tELRV6riWeR7vdsUjVJS47mt3u9EHRLtbIUg07IY/s1600/pedalboard2.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieW-BKE98_HxEYaynXuuVN-tkpHUPokuOIhg-G8HoymCav0E1Az7XtD-LGfsLxoCvrmYUedUgBF9o9qiRAM-3ncCfSK3gSnNwpip9tELRV6riWeR7vdsUjVJS47mt3u9EHRLtbIUg07IY/s320/pedalboard2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472134694495619714" /></a>Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-61426686065676678112010-05-10T13:31:00.000-07:002010-05-10T13:56:29.695-07:00More gear info.Ok. Like I mentioned earlier we are now re-visiting the material with a sweaty-prog band attitude (ie a pretty scaled down trio of guitar, bass and drums). I also mentioned I had originally decided to eschew effects pedals this time out. Of course like a typical guitar player that idea has been changed. Typically I use no effects at all other than a channel switcher and maybe a wah/volume. Then of course I decide maybe a wee bit of delay would be handy here and there and over the course of several months I end up creating a huge rig of pedals and switchers. Then I get sick of it all and go back to square one.<br /><br />Well I was at square one a few months ago and when Guy first joined our rehearsals were pretty gear-deprived affairs. Once the flood-gates opened to allow a few effects, then in typical fashion I am now lugging my pedal board and midi pedal controller around too. The rig:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvgpWyZmMQKGcOCwTp2_gWa0_65PrfFWDqPoTpKLYwKDdI6RtnPNhptiQdvr-935LOruFoB-3pvADQwyqlvp9WN-DMfVxRxicQGjoU1vvnVhcV90f4Xwi1TPL2aNIixL6El4WY7cENA24/s1600/gtrrig.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvgpWyZmMQKGcOCwTp2_gWa0_65PrfFWDqPoTpKLYwKDdI6RtnPNhptiQdvr-935LOruFoB-3pvADQwyqlvp9WN-DMfVxRxicQGjoU1vvnVhcV90f4Xwi1TPL2aNIixL6El4WY7cENA24/s320/gtrrig.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469743400931272978" /></a><br /><br /><br />So here is how it works. The guitar goes into a Fulltone Fulldrive 2, then to a wah/volume. From there it goes to a Radial switchbone A/B/Y box. <br /><br />A-side continues on to a custom made effects loop switcher with two seperate loops (another A/B/Y configuration). A-loop has an MXR dynacomp, a Boss CH-1 chorus, a Boss SL-20 Slicer and finally a EH "Small Stone" phase. B-loop has a Fairfield circuitry "The Barbershop" overdrive and a Boss DD-3 delay. The looper pedal has a mute and a tuner out switch and for the tuner I use a Boss TU-2. The output goes to a Mesa-Boogie Maverick.<br /><br />B-side goes to an Adrenalinn III controlled by the Behringer FCB-1010. The output goes to a Fender Hot Rod Delux amp.<br /><br />The whole unit is on a Pedaltrain pro and uses a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 as well as an onboard power bar for the Adrenalinn and the Radial power supplies.<br /><br />The system can go from full-on to bypass with the switch of one pedal and the ABY configuration allows me to keep the Mesa side mostly for overdriven sounds and the Fender side for clean. I might get another looper switch pedal for that side so I can bypass the Adrenalinn properly (unlike the other side, it doesn't have<br /> true bypass) but seeing as how I mostly use that side for the Adrenalinn effects that isn't so problematic.<br /><br />Unfortunately I ran out of room for my EH ring modulator and even tjough I seldom use it I do want it for one solo. In the meantime I am using the Adrenalinn for that.<br /><br />So...that's the fullout version, knowing me, what I actually will use when we do finally get out will be likely be something else again.Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-15766176151402217282010-05-05T20:19:00.000-07:002010-05-05T22:03:28.786-07:00Peeking out of the trench.We have been hard at it this last few weeks; rehearsing, re-arranging and generally re-visiting the rather large Rebel Wheel song-book. This last album was actually album three for us and while we seldom touch the material from the very first album, the other two have almost two hours of stuff. Of course we don't do all of it, but I try to keep at least 90 minutes of tunes available for onstage use. Given the amount of changes this band has endured that is actually a whole lot of work to keep the set-list ripe.<br /><br />Right now we're closing in on 50 minutes of material freshly re-organized for our "touring" three-piece ensemble. It has been quite a daunting task to re-approach these tunes and arrange them for a trio format. A lot of the leads that would be otherwise played by keyboards or sax have been assigned to guitar and as we are trying to keep this unit stream-lined and capable playing any venue amongst a host of other bands (in other words severely gear-limited) we aren't bringing any keyboards onstage this time out. Usually we have three pretty complex rigs just of keyboards, controllers and triggers. Originally I intended to limit the guitar effects to just a channel switcher and a volume pedal, but recently I have been dusting off my rather extensive pedal-board to help capture some of the techno-elements (like effected odd-metered drum-loops and ambient soundscapes) we have used.<br /><br />The old system went something like this. <br /><br />Keyboard Rig 1: <br /><br />M-audio Radium 49<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6o-sKKhTwtTM2iFg5tHk5GuCOHSix-9Dhb4OXyET6zE_M6k9M0WGoMwAltidVapTBJepBdNsaXFJVUFTvV26hCKJsaDytVKL3NLKkOWdWH5DhI5tP7qtRAYzaHisPgLDths04_LKFoC4/s1600/keyrig2.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 167px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6o-sKKhTwtTM2iFg5tHk5GuCOHSix-9Dhb4OXyET6zE_M6k9M0WGoMwAltidVapTBJepBdNsaXFJVUFTvV26hCKJsaDytVKL3NLKkOWdWH5DhI5tP7qtRAYzaHisPgLDths04_LKFoC4/s320/keyrig2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5468013290356423442" /></a><br /><br />and an M-audio Axiom 61<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb-4QeRBAgec-oTFuQGKMBK3oDm1_LaEbq6XTtOxD9-b-XETnix2l96Co65W7Ee0JdEwdprG1Xp_DLdOttqyl1TRjhqNfCCC4D8fwzzQXZGlNrR3QJ5QvsdlQ1AC-I6hlOcJAACoQoqg8/s1600/keyrig1.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb-4QeRBAgec-oTFuQGKMBK3oDm1_LaEbq6XTtOxD9-b-XETnix2l96Co65W7Ee0JdEwdprG1Xp_DLdOttqyl1TRjhqNfCCC4D8fwzzQXZGlNrR3QJ5QvsdlQ1AC-I6hlOcJAACoQoqg8/s320/keyrig1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5468013196051260290" /></a><br /><br />into a Dell laptop running Live.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk-gWVxSeRpXHN1RHKl7Vr4t3XwX8wV2A2tjk8vUylrWKfuxY05dAd-_ok6jb9rmjA8wSZ7cPr00mSx6_geVOznlA37uOVbHnLItNiAVUOXIPZY5X17hT3h6IVouHqFppbpHA_6E_Z-JA/s1600/screen.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk-gWVxSeRpXHN1RHKl7Vr4t3XwX8wV2A2tjk8vUylrWKfuxY05dAd-_ok6jb9rmjA8wSZ7cPr00mSx6_geVOznlA37uOVbHnLItNiAVUOXIPZY5X17hT3h6IVouHqFppbpHA_6E_Z-JA/s320/screen.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5468013745602915746" /></a><br /><br />On Live there would be a seperate VST instrument on each channel that I would access via the lap-top keypad. I had it set so that keystroke number 1 would access song 1 and whatever keyboard/vst or combination of keyboards/vsts I would use (etc etc). Each vst's track volume was controlled by the sliders on the appropriate controller so that I had the complete set mapped out on the two keyboards. I also used some rotary sliders to control the amount of effect was being used as sometimes I'd used grain delays to screw around with a sound.<br /><br />Typically the session looked like this:<br />Number 1 keystroke:<br />Track1: Klak bass (Minimonsta) Radium<br />Track2: Klak pad (Mtron) Axiom<br /><br />Number 2 keystroke:<br />Track3: Wordplay lead (Sonik Synth 2) Axiom<br /><br />Number 3 keystroke:<br />Track4: Arachnophobia Combi (Zebra 2 Bass and Albino 3 pads) Radium<br />Track5: Lead Arachnophobia (Albino 3) Axiom<br /><br />Number 4 keystroke:<br />Track6: Threads lead (Analog Factory) Axiom<br /><br />Number 5 keystroke:<br />Track7: Mary Combi (lower Albino 3, Upper M-tron) Axiom For Cross-eyed Mary middle section.<br /><br />Number 6 keystroke:<br />Track8: D1 lead (Minimonsta) Axiom<br /><br />Number 7 keystroke:<br />Track9: D2 Combi (Lower zebra 2, pads and Upper Albino 3, leads) Radium<br />Track10:D2 Lead (Albino 3) Axiom<br /><br />Number 8 keystroke:<br />Track11:D3 (M-Tron) Axiom<br /><br />Number 9 keystroke:<br />Track12:Awaken Arp (Albino 3) Axiom<br />Track13:Awaken Combi (pads; Albino3, Flute lead M-tron) Radium<br /><br />Number 10 keystroke:<br />Track14:Karnage (general ambience for Evil Clox) Radium<br />Track14:Live Pack (general ambience for Evil Clox) Axiom<br /><br /><br />I addition to that, I used an external usb number pad to trigger drones and ambiences. Those also had sliders that were controlled via the keyboards (the Radium and Axiom keyboards have 8 sliders and 8 knobs each to control any midi number).<br /><br />Trigger 1: Hags 1 drone and ambience<br />Trigger 2: Hags 2 " "<br />Trigger 3: Hags 3 " "<br />Trigger 4: Arachnophobia middle ambience<br />Trigger 5: D2 Reaktor 5 Vectory percussion (set-up to play at 86bpm)<br />Trigger 6: D4 Intro (loop and ambience)<br />Trigger 7: Evil Clox Pulse (set-up at 110 bpm)<br />Trigger 8: Free<br />Trigger 9: Awaken drum loop<br /><br />In addition a Dave Smith Evolver was used via the midi out from the Radium with the knobs mapped to generally control filters and lfos etc.<br /><br /><br />Key-rig 2 wasn't quite so complex, it was a Roland Phantom with all of Ange's leads and pads set up in sequence (ie patch changes in ascending order following the set-list). Key-rig 3 was even simpler yet: A E-mu vintage keys controlled by a Fatar rig and key-rig 4 was just an Alesis Micron. All the rigs (except for 2) had their patch changes controlled by my FCB-1010 and outs going into my Traynor K4 amp and then to the house.<br /><br />Here is a picture of the set-up:<br /><br />While that set-up is emminantly flexible on a huge stage setting it is less so in the type of venues we will be playing this summer so I gave it all a boot. Well rather, I have it all packed up nicely in cases and will use it when Ange re-joins and we do gigs as a 5 piece. Right now it is trio all the way and a MUCH simpler set-up.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7BG5hrsIVqGRjjqEYI0Lqjm2fNuO41RrfK9M_2fDUBEuPLfrGY_iKLJSpvOJRqHP2GHYGD1V2bY_IddeiVoyU89gQ07-lRng8ZegCOwe-vyiVRbjJy4OYyKxMg8ScWlsBYjUaRLUQY6s/s1600/IMG_1134.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7BG5hrsIVqGRjjqEYI0Lqjm2fNuO41RrfK9M_2fDUBEuPLfrGY_iKLJSpvOJRqHP2GHYGD1V2bY_IddeiVoyU89gQ07-lRng8ZegCOwe-vyiVRbjJy4OYyKxMg8ScWlsBYjUaRLUQY6s/s320/IMG_1134.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5468018144480386866" /></a><br /><br /><br />The guitar rig will have to wait until tomorrow.Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-30564401447707319202010-04-23T20:23:00.000-07:002018-12-04T22:32:36.112-08:00The Evolution of a Song part 5I have detailed most of the songs on Evil Clocks, from their first midi versions through various studio versions and finally to their released versions. I have a few more pieces sitting around but with the exception of Scales, most of them sound almost like the final versions. So, Scales will be the last one I'll post in this evoltion series.<br /><br />The song itself is from 1979 and was my first contribution to the punk-jazz band I was in at the time called 3C-236. The name itself apparently describes a "Fanaroff and Riley Class II (FR II) radio galaxy" but as I didn't name the band, that was never really uppermost in my thinking of the unit. Anyway, we had a pretty cool approach to music I think. The guitarist and the drummer (Gerry Henri and Ralph Piedalou) were both Toronto ex-pats who had spent a lot of time jamming at the <a href="http://www.musicgallery.org/"> Music Gallery </a> with CCMC stalwarts like alto-player Maury Coles. Combined with that spontaneous composition aesthetic was a charted-out punk energy and earnestness. It was quite a band, and we would often play a frenetic punk-rock head arrangement that would usually devolve into free playing and, with the inclusion of composed cues, back out of the blowing into a re-cap of the head. The songs might last anywhere from 3 minutes to an hour depending on our moods.<br /><br />I brought Scales in as a number I would sing. The song's thudding 12/8 pulse was inspired by Robert Fripp's Exposure album (the song "Chicago" which itself was a prog-bluesy outing). We had the accordian free section (ie the length of the soloing was free to expand or contract as we saw fit, NOT something that was ever meant to be played on accordian, Pauline Oliveros notwithstanding).<br /><br />I liked it well enough in that context because it was my vocal spot-light and the first song I ever wrote to be played by others (usually I wrote stuff where I played all the parts on jerry-rigged cassette decks), but it was a bit of an anomoly for the band as the tune sounded neither all that punky or even jazzy. It was fun to jam on though and that qualified its inclusion.<br /><br />28 years later I did a version of the song that I put to 10T for their approval for the Diagramma CD (at this point we decided to expand the original release of 5 songs to a 7 song one and were dusting off "suitable" songs). It never made the cut. This time out I thought it might work as the lyrics were suitable to the vague album concept so I whipped up a demo for the lads. The tune was pretty well what 3C-236 did with it, even to the point that the solo section starts off almost identically (I played bass in 3C-236 and the bass part I played on the demo was almost identical to the original one).
<P> After the band ok'd it, Aaron laid down drums, I put some guitar and breathy effected vocals and then Claude Prince laid down an amazing bass part over which our dear dear departed musical genius friend Guy LeBlanc put down an amazing solo. The solo section re-unites two Nathan Mahl members and it is a delight to hear them doing their thing over Aaron's powerhouse drumming. quite frankly that one section alone is worth the price of admission for me. Hearing a song I wrote decades ago played by such masterful players is kind of why I stared writing in the first place.
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<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=5582080/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe>Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-90596836340838383612010-04-18T01:46:00.000-07:002010-04-18T01:55:10.740-07:00Left-over songAt one point in the whole process of doing this CD I had recorded a guitar piece I had written when I was 16. It was an odd-metered finger-picking ditty that I had really liked way back when. It went unnamed for over a decade until I read a fantasy novel called "A Face in the Frost". I loved that book. Anyway, there is a chapter where the heroes (Prospero and Roger Bacon) have to spend a night in an inn. The place they stay is called 5 Dials and it turns out to be a phantasm and actually unreal place. I really liked the title "A Night in 5 Dials" so I decided that would be the ditty's name.<br /><br />As the theme of the CD was clocks etc. I thought the piece would be perfect for it so towards that end I tracked a version of it playing drums, bass and guitar as well as some keyboard synth. It went along smoothly enough, but I was never sold on the piece and I decided early on it wouldn't suit.<br /><br />As I doubt I'll ever do anything with it I figured I might as well post it here so here it is:<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.therebelwheel.com/music/5dials.m3u"> A Night In Five Dials streamed </a><br /><a href="http://www.therebelwheel.com/music/5dials.m3u"> A Night In Five Dials dl </a>Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-56787604040212250032010-04-16T16:55:00.000-07:002018-12-09T11:56:47.386-08:00The Evolution of a Song Part 4Well here we are at the last of the D series and unlike the others I have posted, this song never went through such a tortuous series of recordings and re-records.<br />The only versions I have are the original demo and the final master. Along the way the song certainly evolved though. Originally there was to be a big percussion jam, but as I had mentioned in an earlier blog, Aaron's look of panic after hearing Ange, Claude and I whacking away on the various percussion rigs I set-up, put paid to that concept.<br /><br />So. The song itself stayed pretty close to the original demo but after making the decision to excise the percussion section, the transition parts that are on the demo where similarly excised. The subsequent return to the main theme was eliminated as well. The demo doesn't actually have the percussion madness, but it has the transitions to and from.
You can hear the difference between the two versions here.
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<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=3718296428/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe>
We threw this version away and re-recorded it with Claude, Aaron and Ange live-off-the-floor in its final form with no intention of adding a percussion section. I added my guitar later that same night.
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<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=3511201334/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe>Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-90854316611636840752010-04-15T11:45:00.001-07:002018-12-08T15:24:26.836-08:00The Evolution of a Song part 3I had mentioned <a href="http://therebelwheel.blogspot.com/2010/04/evolution-of-bass-part.html"> Keegan Melville </a> awhile back and his playing on D3. Click his name and you'll get to the post that details D3's bass evolution. Or, if you'd rather, just read on and I'll repost the links below. Before we get there though I'll explain how D3 evolved.<br /><br />To begin with it was a guitar vamp I just played one day and liked. When Aaron first came down to audition, he and I jammed on it for awhile. It was obvious right from the beginning he would do nicely! The song then was a perfect one to include on the album, but I wanted it to be a little less crude than how we had originally jammed it so I added keyboards etc. This particular version is the first midi sketch of the song leaning towards that "glossier" direction.
<p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=642772012/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe>
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The next version is Keegan playing over the demo I originally recorded of the tune. This is the version I gave to the band to learn.
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<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=3068896138/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe>
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When we were tracking it in March 2009, Aaron decided to swing it. Keegan was at at the session and we recorded this next version. As I had already explained earlier, one of the adats broke down and we lost all of Ange's solos as well as half of the drum tracking (I jerry-rigged a quick work-around but was unable to capture the band in its glorious confusion). We kept this but ended up re-recording it when Claude joined:
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<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=1859629475/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe>
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We tried a lot of different versions of the swing and we came pretty close with one that we did a day later, this time with just Aaron and I. I later went in and did a walking bass-line as an overdub.
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<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=1898811335/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe>
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Finally, here is the version that made it. It has a soprano solo from Ange, Claude on the bass and a deft snaky little electric piano solo from guest artist, the amazing Rick Barkhouse.
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<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=3494420050/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe>
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Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-63621485089560056622010-04-14T20:56:00.001-07:002018-12-08T16:56:55.138-08:00The Evolution of a Song part 2The next song that has a checkered lineage is D2 (discovery part 2 that is, officially known as Mad Night). In a fashion similar to D1, it was born as a midi demo, (only this time done entirely on keyboards) until it gradually evolved into to a gtr, bass, drums, keys/sax and vocals piece.<br /><br />This tune was a favorite for the band live and was a new sound for us, derived as it was (and indeed much of the album has been) on a 12-tone row and permutations therefrom.
<p><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=2248250153/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe></P>
We went to Shattered Wings and recorded live-off-the-floor with David on bass. We overdubbed guitars and whispered vocals. I really like this version but Aaron wanted to re-do it so we did...with Claude on bass. Anyway D2V1DC:
<P><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=1636382513/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe></P>
Then we re-did the song afresh at Ange's with Aaron, Claude, Ange and I live-off-the-floor with various edits and overdubs done later.
<P><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=1047132258/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe></P>Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3644274742170865796.post-81999260259871875002010-04-14T11:24:00.000-07:002018-12-08T16:52:10.340-08:00The Evolution of a SongI have mentioned several times we have a new bassist and as Ange is on Maternity Leave (official sounding term for being maternally pre-occupied) Guy Dagenais, Aaron Clark and I have been working out the material from the last two Cds in a trio format.<br /><br />As I listen to the tunes sometimes I am struck at how they have evolved from mental sketches to computer-based demos, to rehearsal re-arrangements to recorded tracks, and finally to performance tracks to suit the ever-changing line-up. Here's an example of what I mean.<br /><br /><br />The first part of the epic track on the new CD is a piece called Convent. That's its offical name. In rehearsing we have always referred to it as D1 (discovery part 1 ie). So here are some versions of it.
<br /><br />D1 computer demo. This is what I brought to the band. I played all the parts on guitar and bass and midi keyboards. I used Toontracks drum sample software and a Godin Multiac to trigger them (that is, I played the drums on my midi guitar...a lot of fun that) as well as added some odd-meter drum loops among that. There are two bass solos at the end. One we dropped out along the way and the other we totally changed. The 12/8 13/8 section (the bluesy part) got trimmed in half and ended up with sax on it (and no drum loops sfx which the demo has in abundance). Anyway here it is:
<p><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=1959866660/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe></P>
Now here is the version as it came out of Shattered Wings studio with Gary Lauzon on bass (recorded live off-the-floor). The ending is totally gone and Gary's solo is improvised. The sax section is far smaller and the "Dame Dame" part has undergone a transformation with the addition of guitar etc. This version never made it to the overdub stage so there is no Ange on it exept her tracking parts (keyboards and sax uni stuff; no solo and no vocals). It also is unmastered and has only the roughest of mixes. Here it is anyway:
<P><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=158854734/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe></P>
Here it is again with a new bass-line (after Gary quit the band) which we gave to Claude to learn. I totally threw out the bass solo and left it as a vamp between drums and electric guitar (it's at 4:52-5:16; I like that part actually). This version is the same tracking as the other one so lacks Ange's sax solo and vocals but does have the uni sax lines at 4:37-4:50 and all her keyboard parts. I give you D1 V1 DC:
<P><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=86306481/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe></P>
Finally here is what it sounds like on the CD with all the parts added, mixed and mastered:
<P><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1547691783/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=3201405552/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="http://therebelwheel.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-in-the-time-of-evil-clocks">We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks by The Rebel Wheel</a></iframe></P>
This last version was a total re-record. Aaron had changed his grips, Claude was on-board, and we had rehearsed the new version which we recorded at Ange's place. I added some guitar parts later (Dame Dame part) and Ange did her keyboards and sax solo as overdubs. We recorded the vocals at my place later.<br /><br />I have a bunch of these songs and I'll post them in the coming days.Fictionmusichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10572134442659851598noreply@blogger.com0