Here is a looping improv I recorded yesterday.

My live setup is constantly evolving, but I do tend to keep a few things as part of my basic arsenal: two Gibson/Oberheim Echoplex Digital Pro units, a Line 6 DL4 delay modeler and expression pedal, Line 6 AM4, Boss DF-2, Line 6 Echo Park, el cheapo Tapco mixer, and a Behringer FCB1010.

This video has a pedal/foot cam for the people who have been asking about my looping setup… Anyone have any other questions about the setup or looping in general? Please comment below!

UPDATE 3/29/10: It seems like a lot of people are finding this page by searching for ‘Echoplex Digital Pro Manual’ so I figure I’ll post a link to the user guide here. This is for the Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro Plus: PDF, 1.7MB, 310 pages. DOWNLOAD HERE.

So I’m pretty lucky to be able to go racing (in my spec miata) every once in a while. I’m not that great at it but it’s one of the most fun things I’ve ever done.

This particular video is a couple months old… it’s of my race at Buttonwillow Raceway back in April. My first race on a real racing license, not just a rookie permit. I spun out during the qualifying race so I got the pleasure of starting 2nd from last. My motor was on it’s last legs so I don’t have a ton of power, but was able to move up a several spots throughout the race.

Biggest bummer was my last lap spin, nearly got slammed into by the orange car (missed me by a few inches) and I ended up losing 3 positions in about 5 seconds. Overall an incredible amount of fun, but sucks to make a big mistake on the last lap.

Note to self: stick to songwriting

So, the day has finally come. Today is officially Mustache Monday. Though I may keep it for the entire month.

EDIT: Here are the other members of the Mustachathon providing their own personal brand of mustachitude.

Thanks to all the mustache pioneers for making this day possible, here are just a few of the greats: Tom Selleck, Burt Reynolds, Weird Al Yankovick, John Oates, Ned Flanders, Mario, Freddie Mercury, Wilford Brimley, Cap’n Crunch, The Nuge, Frank Zappa, Gene Shalit, Sam Elliott, Salvador Dali and Yosemite Sam.

The first song on my still yet to be titled Collaboration Album has been finished, and is posted below!

Thanks to the amazing audio provided by Orchestral Movement of 1932, Dave Patrikios, James Santiago and Yumenomado, I was able to cut, remix and shape their samples into the song “Cassettes” this evening. Hope you like it.

Cassettes – DOWNLOAD – Lyrics

More songs will follow in the coming weeks.

You send me audio. I remix and sing. Together we make an album.

Even though 40 people were nice enough to get involved with this collaboration project, I still don’t have enough audio samples to create an entire album of music. How about you get involved in this super-fantastic open source music project and submit some samples of your own? That would be great!

Join the likes of Tim Godwin (he played in Air Supply, for chrissakes), Dan Friel (Parts & Labor), Dave Patrikios (of the kick-ass yet now-defunct band The Realistics), Chris Fudurich (producer for Nada Surf, Sophie B Hawkins, Rx Bandits), and a bunch more talented and creative people who you don’t know but absolutely should:

* Bill Belina (a bunch of guitar parts)
* Brian Page (a ton of phat drum beats)
* DJ12XU (super noise)
* Chris Fudurich (piano, drums, loops, wurlitzer!)
* Dan Cohen (geetah)
* Dave Patrikios (guitar, piano, synths)
* Eric Pokorny (guitar, vocals, screaming kids)
* James Santiago (supah guitar parts, samples)
* Jeremy Starpoli (a ton of trombone)
* Terry Burton (guitar)
* Fluffy (synth, bass)
* Jon Eric (noises)
* Nate Quinn (drums, djembe, conga, sax)
* Jeremy Quinn (ebow guitar, noise)
* Tim Godwin (guitar)
* Brent Stansfield (songs, guitar, vocals)
* Matt Larsen (piano)
* Dan Friel (noises)
* Orchestral Movement of 1932 (drums, bass, gtr)
* Artemis Strong (noises)
* Yumenomado (synths)
* Wyatt (synths)
* Bartley Hinson (guitars)
* Steve Rydz (guitars)
* … and more

Send me drumbeats, noises, guitar parts, a cappella vocals, accordion, part of a song you never finished, spoken words, screaming, your cat. Whatever you’re inspired to send. I will merge, tweak, remix and piece together all of your samples and make an album. Be a part of open source music. Your audio submission will get used. Everything you send will be incorporated in to the album. Do it now.

Thanks and good evening.

Over the last year or so I’ve been trying to get rid of stuff. Stuff I never look at, stuff I don’t need, stuff that’s just sitting in a box. After a while it just starts to feel like extra weight, like a burden. Maybe with the exception of the instruments in my studio, I don’t really want to own much of anything at all. I’ve had weird dreams that on the day I die I won’t own anything. Just lying on an old wooden floor of an empty 2nd story apartment. Would certainly make it easier for whoever needs to take care of the situation after I’m gone, all you’d need to deal with is a body.

I have hundreds of these old cassettes just sitting in milk crates and plastic tubs, most of them contain songs I’ve finished, songs I didn’t finish, songs that my friends an I worked on, guitar ideas, horrible synth ideas, live jams, spoken words, songs I love, songs I hate, skits I did with my sister and brothers when I was a kid.

They contain a lot of memories. But they just sit in the closet. Taking up space. Taking up mental space.

I must have spend thousands of hours recording stuff to cassettes. Started with a portable Panasonic recorder, recording what I thought were awesome piano ideas, and incredibly retarded 7-second improvised a cappella songs. I moved up to my mom’s boom-box, and did some crude multi-tracking by playing one tape recorder while recording to another. Sounded amazing, as you may have guessed.

Then finally the day came and I bought a Yamaha MT120 4-track. Came straight home from school every day and sat in front of this machine for 12 hours straight. I must have at least a thousand songs in various states of completion, just sitting there as magnetic particles encased in plastic. From the looks of it, I have at least 100 tapes that I recorded on my Yamaha 4-track, and another 100 tapes that I recorded on a newer Yamaha MT8X 8-track. And at least 60 in my series of “Tune Tapes”, where I’d just record skeleton ideas, musical sketches, guitar parts, keyboard ideas.

What the hell should I do with all of this music?

Let it sit and slowly degrade and demagnetize? Or spend months and months listening through all of this stuff to find the gems? Import the cassettes to my computer? And then do what with it? Now they’ll be sitting on a hard drive instead of in a milk crate.

I could upload unfinished stuff to ccMixter and see if anyone wants to remix it. I could do some sort of strange performance art piece where I do perform the music of one tape per week in various locations around the US. I could actually finish some of these songs I never finished when I was sixteen. Or I could just throw everything away.

After all, they are just memories. Like the photos of my childhood that sit in a shoebox. I look at them every few years, and it refreshes my memory. But it’s also a time that has passed, a time that is getting less and less significant with each passing second.

So, on my last day on this earth, do I really want to still have a crate of cassettes by my side, just to remind me of my past?

Untitled Instrumental
An instrumental I wrote when I was 17 or 18

Q
Wrote this for my friend Scott in ’97

Wrong Planet
My idea of a song, in 1984-ish?

Midnight Cowboy
My friend Adam and I did a cover of Midnight Cowboy (in the style of Faith No More), sometime in high school…

Weggy Wah Solar Neutrino
I like this one. Not sure how to explain it though.

There were a ton of very well done remixes for the State Shirt “Fell Out Of The Sky” AcidPlanet.com remix contest. Thanks to everyone that entered. It was very difficult to choose a winner, but one song did bubble it’s way to the top. Jasinski gets the honors with the 1st place remix, and goes home with brand-spanking new Acid Pro software and five loop libraries.

Here is his winning remix:

Jasinski – Fell Out Of The Sky

And here are the runner up remixes:

S:t Vital – Fell Out Of The Sky (Analog Overdose Remix)
Yumenomado – Coming Down
Vynil Rob – Out Of State
700P3D – Fell Out Of The Sky (700P3D.de Remix)
Silenx – Fell Out Of The Sky (Silenx Renaissance Mix)

And, here are a couple more really sweet remixes that have been added to ccMixter.

Here’s a crazy mashup of This is Old — DJ Vadim vs. State Shirt:
Caujito Ben – Saturday Is Old

And a kick ass trance-y version of Fell Out Of the Sky by Khaustic:
Khaustic – Fell Out Of The Sky

StrangerOnEarth put together a nice flowing Don’t Die remix:
StangerOnEarth – Don’t Die

Cool 1980′s/DrumNBass/Synth Pop version of This Is Old:
Sloan – This Is Old (Hartkern Reassembly)

And you can find a ton more here… I’ll be updating the remix page soon with all of the new remixes that have been made.

Which one is your favorite? Is there a State Shirt remix you’ve found that isn’t posted on my site? Comment here!