The Relationship Between E and PI

So I missed sunday morning politics again. But that's alright since we all know the score: Rove isn't getting fired, Roberts will be confirmed for SC, Hillary is looking good for '08, and Bush is laughing his ass back to Texas. Now, a couple 'me' items to report.

My music production buddy from back home gave me a call the other day. We usually jabber on about this and that every once in a while and this time was no different. But during the conversation, we simultaneously realized that we were coming up on our four year anniversary. You see, four years ago around this time, he and I met each other while we were both, ahem, in between jobs. We both had an intense interest in music and music production and we immediately began writing songs together. The music started flowing like water and before we knew it, we had more than enough stuff to go into production. Lucky for us, he had a full studio setup at his house, so our studio time was unlimited. The results after the summer of work became a set of fully produced songs, all without lyrics.

We knew our stuff needed vocals on it (the songs weren't built as instrumentals), but our search for a vocalist/lyricist came up short, especially since we both found work quicker than we expected. So, we held on to the songs, periodically coming back to listen to them, but never making another move. Well, until now...

With renewed literary prowess (and some helpful inspiration), he's been able to find workable lyrics to many of the songs. And with ongoing encouragement from some of his friends and coworkers in his field (he teaches music production), he's interested in finishing them. He's connecting himself up with a set of interested vocalists to come in and perform for the songs. And, he's finally convinced me to send him some of the work I produced outside of our sessions to be included in the project. As he describes, we're basically going to finish the songs remotely: finding a set of vocalists for each track, finishing the recording and post-production, and finally releasing it as a full length album. In fact, I set back up my music production software on my laptop so I can pitch in when I can and send stuff back to him on the fly. Do we have another Postal Service in the wings? I think not, but I'm sure that in a few weeks, I may have some original mp3's to post for your consumption.

But this brings us to the next news item of the day. After setting up the production software on the laptop, I started tinkering around with one of the newer versions of this live dj suite I had in the past. Like any old habit that's hard to break, 5 minutes of tinkering resulted in a few hours of work. Before I could account the time I wasted, I had a nice little half-hour set on my hands that sounded somewhat decent. I basically put together a set of songs that are showing back up in my playlists and somewhat make sense together. A lot of _good_ hip-hop, some breakcore or whatever you want to call it, a little lounge, and some old favorites. It's here if you want to take a listen to it. Please realize up front that some of the volume levels are off and there's a couple weak transitions in there (hey, I only spent a few hours on this), but give it a listen and let me know what you think. Who knows? I might be the next pretentious asshole out there to start up a Podcast.

073105 Mix:
1) Lyrics Born - The Last Trumpet
2) Mos Def - Sex, Love, and Money
3) The Hunter - The Relationship Between E and PI
4) Massive Attack - Blue Lines
5) Quasimoto - Greenery
6) King Britt - Che Sera Sera
7) MF Doom - Raedawn
8) Prefuse 73 - I got no time for rearviews
9) RJD2 vs Polyphonic Spree - Soldier Girl (Yes, the transition's horrible)
10) MF Doom - Hoe Cakes
11) M.I.A. - Galangaton (Diplo Mix)
12) Roni Size - Sound Advice
13) Nicola Conte - Tema De La Onda
14) DangerDoom (w/ Talib Kweli) - Old School (Oh yes... that's off the new Adult Swim / Doom album, which btw, is brilliant)

Although finishing the music from the past and mixing full songs together is fun, I'm anxious to try some my hand at some original stuff, again. I'm going to be piecing my old studio back together here, trying some new techniques and incorporating some new influences in some of my stuff (I'm looking at you Savalas!). I already know a few musicians out here, so I'm kind of pissed I haven't started this earlier. I can't believe I'm doing this again, but I think there's a little room for music production Brian in DC, don't you think?

iPod Battling

"Brian, you need to get out our release to the press and our people before the end of the day, ok?"
"I'm halfway there," I replied.

It was already 5 in the afternoon, and I was late. Considering traffic, changing time, and general b.s. time, I should have left the office an hour earlier. I needed to be at Saint-Ex early to sign up for the night's iPod arena. Unfortunately, the memo for the board still had a paragraph left. Not to mention the formatting for the press release. I had no choice but to plug in the ear-buds and focus. If the iPod was the goal of the night, the iPod had to do it's damn part in getting me out of there.

An hour later, I was walking out of the elevator downstairs towards my car. Work was done for the day and I planned on heading straight to the bar to engage in happy hour drinks and iPod DJ goodness. Along the way, I finalized the playlist I would submit:

1) Iggy and the Stooges - Search and Destroy
2) MF Doom and MC Paul Barman - Now That's What I Call Hot (a CCR cover, believe it or not)
3) Prefuse 73 - I got no time for Rearviews
4) Jamiroquai - Travelling Without Moving

The list came in at 10 minutes 15 seconds; Well beneath the time limit. All I had to do was make it to the bar on time to get on the list. Traffic was killer, but I was able to drive over and park all within 20 minutes (I love city life).

With iPod in hand, I walked to the downstairs to the lower level of the bar. iPod DJ night was on for sure, and the crowd was itching for it. The room was filled with 20 something year old hipsters, yuppies, and geezers, all with iPod in hand... fondling their eletronic messiahs in constant search of the perfect playlist. The musky scent of cheap cigars and cheaper gin couldn't stop DC's digital music-weilding finest from venturing out on a early Thursday evening.

Noticing the signup sheet near the back of the room, I immediately jotted my name across their nearly filled dry erase board. "Bri... err, Will." With growing fear that my playlist would immediately ban me from the event for life, I chose the more simplistic moniker over the real name. After all, as great as it can be... funky Jamiroquai can really turn off some people.

I found a seat at the bar and quickly downed a half-price Yuengling while I waited. People watching and playlist listening ensued. The weird thing about the night was that people were actually meeting new people. I didn't realize it at first, but the "what's on your iPod?" query served as the ultimate ice-breaker. Guys, girls, groups... it didn't matter who you approached or who approached you. We all know why we were there that night, and there was no playing it cool. No matter how hard you tried to hide it, everyone there knew that you had an unhealthy addiction to your iPod and your music... and your sinful vanity in your musical tastes brought you out there to subject everyone to a small list of your choosing. We were all attention whores and we loved every second of it.

The whole event felt like some backwards addiction support group. Every conversation you joined in on would quickly digress into why you loved the pod so much. Only at this meeting, we openly engaged in furthering our addiction. Imagine an AA meeting at the bar on happy hour, and you'll start to get the idea.

After my second beer, I started to realize something. The music that was played by others... well... it sucked. I mean, people would come up set after set and play songs that were either way too quiet for the bar, way too serious for the drunken mob, or way too cheesy for the self-described music snobs that filled the smoke-filled room. Granted, there were some brilliant selections over the night, but for the most part, the lists were hurting. I started to wonder how well my list would fly. As much faith I had in my list, anyone could get a bit nervous in this setting.

"Will?" the MC announced. I took another swig of the bottle, pulled out the iPod, and pointed them to my On-The-Go list. I walked back to my new friends of the night while the DJ finished up the song from the last set.

"You're up Will," the hipster chick on my right mentioned. "How's it going to sound?"
"Ridiculous, I'm sure." I replied.

Within a minute or so, my first song started up. As I expected, no one noticed the change. Groups were talking, beer was flowing, cell phones were ringing, that damn bar guy with the roses was walking around, whoring his goods (you know who that guy is. He really deserves a punch in the face already, I'm sorry). But something interesting happened around a minute or so into it. The bartender, whose musical tastes and vinyl collection outweigh anything I come close to, started clapping his hands against his hips. Heads started nodding all over the bar, not really noticing the music, but enjoying it nonetheless.

"I guess the crowd digs Iggy," I thought.

Then something even weird happened. Another one of the bartenders started walking around the room in search of something. He came to our group and started quizing us... "Is this yours?" He asked my buddy across the table.
"Nah, it's his," he said while pointing in my direction. I've been caught, I thought. No more Saint-Ex for you, Brian.
The bartender came up to me and started shaking my hand.
"Great job, man" he exclaimed. "I needed this. You win the gold star for the evening."
"Uhh... thanks man," I replied as he went back to the bar, bobbing his head with the beat. I downed another Yuengling while trying to contain my smile.

As the rest of the list played and I learned a few other things.
1) People find CCR very danceable when you lace a hip-hop beat over it.
2) Prefuse is the greatest ever... but half of any random room will never get it.
3) A funky bassline will work in any crowd. There's nothing else to it.

Once the set was over, I redeemed my iPod from the DJ booth. The MC for the night gave a quick smile my way as she mentioned "great list." She plugged in the next iPod for the night and the bellowing sounds of Phish immediately filled the room. The room-wide nodding stopped.

Needless to say, I may have to schedule another one of these in sooner or later. August anyone?

Got a date with my iPod

Well, Thursday should be fun...

iPod DJ night at Saint-Ex

I need to come up with a 12 minute playlist for the night. Hey, I might actually link the songs, mix them, and set them up as a real set. I can't explain how excited I am on this one. I'll be sure to do a recap and post it here instead of this post once it's over. I'm just saying...

Unplugged

On a long enough timeline... your cell phone will eventually be called by every one of the 600 million cell phone users in the world. Each of them will apologize for dialing the wrong number... even the person on whose call you were patiently waiting.

It started about four years ago. I left the United States Military Academy after two years of cadet life. Moving back to Orlando, Fl. after spending your last two years under a rock is a bit tramatizing. I needed time to get readjusted to the real world, and the perpetual traffic and ongoing mobile ring tones of the UCF campus didn't help the process. Although a career in the Army wasn't my cup of tea, I quickly became disgusted with my new classmates who lived life with their cell phones soldered to their right ears. I knew I made the right decision to leave, but there had to be a balance to my new life. I simply couldn't become one of... ahem... them (yeah, I'm an ass). After starting school, I quickly made a promise to live the life unconventional; be outside of the box; don't become a part of the system, and all that jazz.

And I stayed true to that promise... for a while. Didn't have a cell phone to bother me and email was kept at bay. IM here and there, but for the most part, all communication was face to face. We all basically lived out of the local coffee shop anyways: my friends, their friends, loners, and that hippie chick that always had my eye. If I wanted to see someone, I'd show up for some coffee and say hi... that was that. Never mind the fact that I missed out on that job I really wanted because the answering machine was screwed up. My new life was unconventional. Forget that concert I wanted see, but didn't hear about in time since my web browsing time was self-limited. I was unconventional. Or how about missing a chance with the hippie chick thanks to my roommate forgetting to give me the messages she left. Unconventional.

Inaccessible was more like it.

The next day (may 2003), I went out and bought the first cell phone I ever owned.
Fast forward to July 2005...

On a long enough timeline, you will answer every phone call, attend every meeting, and finish every available piece of work left to do, only to realize that you are no closer to being done than you were at the beginning.

Things were getting a bit hairy for me about a week ago. Work was piling up and things just didn't feel like they were getting done. On any random morning, I would find myself stuck in traffic on the way to work, with the daily management call conferenced through the wireless headphone attached to my left ear, and my right hand searching the iPod for the newest additions. I love the career that I'm in, but the amount of stimuli from all of its activities were building up. Being the genius that I am, I started to socialize and relax the same way I did my job: in front of the computer, trading text messages, cell phone attached to the ear. If anybody wanted to get in touch with me, they could hit me up wherever I was at, and I would respond at the speed of cellular. If I needed anyone, the computer in my right pocket could find them, and they would respond with the same speed. I would pride myself on the amount of emails I would recieve a day, or contacts I had listed in the phone. Work, friends, whatever... it all played by the same rules. Never mind the crappy consulting task I had to take since I was the only one available to the VP when it mattered. I am a fully accessible person. Forget about that headache I get when both of my lines at the office are full, the boss is at my door ready to b.s. around, and I'm waiting on an email that just won't show up. La vida accesible. Or how about the fact that I lost a friend who caught my eye, because I got mad they didn't play the same text messaging game I lived by. Fully Accessible.

On a long enough timeline... you will finally add every person in myspace to your friend list, read every comment posted, and learn every detail about everyone... only to realize that you still don't know yourself.

This weekend I was supposed to fly into Florida on a emergency job to help a campaign finish up a set of finance reports that were past due. I was ready to get out of dodge for the weekend, but I was able to help them solve the issue remotely (humm... lucky me). Boom, emergency flight is cancelled and my entire weekend was now open. This called for some action. I finally got the guts to put the phone down for a while. And by "a while," I meant the entire weekend. After all the work was done and nothing was slated to come in, I simply shut it off. Believe it not, it was the best thing I've done for a while. I've gotten stuff done, had a couple great nights on the town, listened to some old music, learned new songs, found a cup of coffee... got unconventional for a bit.

On a long enough timeline... you'll have a weekend free from any type of work. No emails coming in. No phone calls from the boss, who's out of town. No text messages you that care to read are expected. You shut off the phone and don't touch it for a few days. You finally catch your breath; you're unplugged. You realize that you can keep the promise you made to yourself a few years earlier, while still being a part of the real world. You immediately break that promise to write a blog post about lengthy timelines.

What would you think if I sang out of tune?

Would you stand up and walk out on me?

So, It's back.

Yeah, I couldn't be away for long. Some things are just meant to be.

As far as my audience, those of you who continued to check... welcome back. The others are gone for good, I'm guess. And that's alright... I think I like it this way. I really don't want to know who's here any more. I just want to say my peace and be judged for it by the random eyes who glance upon this page.

This is going to be a bit different than before. I'd like it to be entertaining, but in truth, I can only be myself. If you choose to read, I hope the following posts brings a smile to your face and a new thought to your mind.

Sorry for the hiatus.

Yes I get by with a little help from my friends,
With a little help from my friends.

Let The Games Begin

It's is going to bit crazy in the district for the next few weeks.