Amerinazica

The National Socialist party derived their beliefs on race from America. At the time America was cutting food supply from immigrants, african americans, and mixed races. To America the only superior color was white. Scientists were trying to prove genetically that there were distinct traits in each race. America started the ideas of the National Socialist party. We were doing the same thing to african americans that Hitler did to Jews. Why wouldn't anyone sand up to us?

Any credibility?

"We heard a few reports, in one case corroborated by photographs, that some soldiers had so lost their moral compass that they'd mocked or desecrated Iraqi corpses. One photo, among dozens turned over to The Nation during the investigation, shows an American soldier acting as if he is about to eat the spilled brains of a dead Iraqi man with his brown plastic Army-issue spoon."
-"The Nation" [http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20070730&s=hedges]

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I want to move to Europe. This government is being ran by popularity hungry politicians. Its turning into a middle school pageant. Few people know who a good candidate for president is. The only people that have a chance to run for president shouldn't be. Are politicians running a country or running their campaign?

A rare exception was George Bush made a decision to veto a tobacco tax that would provide 35 billion dollars to children's health care. This decision was obviously unpopular and not for his campaign. I rarely agree with the way he runs the country but this caught my interest. If he did tax the tobacco industry the economy can suffer from it. He does want to increase funds for child health care but not by 35 billion dollars. I'm not sure how much health care needs but 35 billion seems far more than enough. Bush only wanted 5 billion. [BBC]

I have no idea why we are in Iraq. At first is was because "Saddam blah blah weapons" and "bin laden something something hiding" or what ever. the conspiracy showed evidence(valid or invalid) that the government framed the 911 attack to have an excuse to retaliate but also take over the oil in Iraq. but oil prices are rising and the weapons Saddam had are missing. 

And it seams like we near at the end of the world. I almost feel a calm before the storm. All this talk about overpopulation and global warming doesn't stop. it may be another Y2K that many people made a lot of money from. But it never happened. Is it something the business conglomerates are making up to sell there hybrid cars. when to polar ice caps melt, the world will not flood. fill a glass with ice and water and see if when the ice melts the water overflows. it wont. Al Gore evidently never watched Bill Nye the science guy. If you are born again read Genesis 9:15.

Lyrics for Archaic Tocsin

Rush-
You shoud have seen the sky
it was burning red
you could develop film
in its crimson shade
but you were closing eyes
in a cave blinding fold

you gotta spill your eyes
in this tower here
it has everything
that you would ever see
it has everything
that you'd ever need

you must have felt the burn
of my boiling flesh
these are my cannibals
these are my prediters
say hello or they wil eat you alive

I couldn't see the sky
i was saving her
and my eyes would not
have kept an interest
all this time I was
cutting off my own arm

I built that tower there
with my own blood and sweat
to get away from the world
and your everything
it had everything
that i'd ever need

Archaic Tocsin

I have an album out in

napster and rhapsody called "Archaic Tocsin". I would like to give you a behind the scenes view of what all went on while making this album, and maybe you'll purchase it.

The first track "The Wake-up Call" is an instrumental that sounds much like its name. It is a warmup for your ears on what's to come. If you decide to skip over it, your ears will be rusty for listening. Everything is in reverse so i had to learn in reverse to record it. Simply i had to record this song and mix it once so i could learn it again to record it a second time. I am very proud of this accomplishment.

"Rush" was particularly organic to write but i only had an 8 track recorder so its kinda rough. It goes from 16th notes to triple-lets back and forth which gives it a catchy rhythm. The bridge has an odd rhythm but it simply cut time. The lyrics simply deals with one character so excited about this new view on life and another who missed it because he was sacrificing himself for his lover. He later adds that he himself gave the other character his view.

"The Ill" has 4 different time signatures. The intro and chorus are 10/4, the pre-chorus is 4/4, the verse is 9/8, and the bridge is cut time. Josh Levell played the drums and helped with the structure and yells. The verse vocals have one octavator going up and another one going down to make it sound jolty. The lyrics can mean whatever you want them to mean.

"Kiss My Knee" is simple and sweet. The most accessible song on the album. If has hints of "Metric" melodies with my voice droning the pleading lyrics. After the subtle build up the song erupts and explodes into a post-punk jam.

"Electronica Anthem" was written on the spot with Josh Levell in my studio. We started with drums then bass, synth, sounds, egg shaker, trumpet, recorder and finished with lyrics and radio tuning. We typically discourage looping but we were to lazy to care at the time so the drums and bass are looped while everything else was was cut to fit. The lyrics involve another set of two characters or groups. The first acknowledges the fall of man and the second takes initiative to profit from it.

"Let Them" was written by Josh Levell and I helped structure it and put words to it. This song is very different then anything we've ever done and was a huge challenge with the equipment we had at the time. In the middle of recording the 8 track had filled up so we had to dump what we didn't need and put it into the computer to continue recording. Even then we lost the main vocal tracks and I had to go back and record the bare necessities just to record my vocals. So the main vocals you hear were not recorded with the instruments and backup vocals. All in all we were able to fit three electric guitars, acoustic guitar, stereo acoustic piano, mellaphone, bass, drum set, and two vocals (total of 12 tracks) on an 8 track recorder.

"Speechless" was entirely written, structured, and lyricized by Josh Levell. There is an earlier version where he plays all instruments and vocals for the recording. On this version he sings and plays acoustic guitar and drums. I play the bass and lead electric.

"She's so Cool" was written about two years ago but I didn't get around to recording it till this summer. At the times I was taking jazz guitar lessons and i couldn't get the those chords out of my head so I wrote a song with them. The end was all meaningless improvisation that is really nice when you're about to fall asleep.

"The Redeemed" is two songs in one. Radiohead loved to combine several songs together and we loved that idea and they fit well together with the second song being a slight relief or a "settle down". I wrote the first song and the first verse lyrics and Josh wrote the second/third verse of the first song, the second song and it's lyrics. For texture we decided on using a trumpet in the pre-verse. I don't know what the words mean at all. But since Josh wrote the second part I can say the second part is worth waiting for 10 fold. Its an amazing piece of work.

I'm really excited to talk about "Phonocamptic". About a year ago we had written a 11 minute song called "The Epic" and liked only parts of it but it was cool because we had written and recorded it in a day. Ever since we made it I always wanted to remake it and put different material in it but keep the good stuff. One day when josh and i were improvising with my brother on drums and I fell upon this guitar riff. I wanted to make another "epic" out of it but it turned out we were able to fit it in the old epic. Restructure after restructure after transition after transition we linked everything together with ebb and flow. We could start recording. Luckily i had my 16 track at this point. The piano starts of with just simple subtle notes. Hidden in those notes is actually a descending chromatic phrase. This phrase collides with an A minor-F major progression for the lyrics and vocals till it continues the chromatic descent to D major. The guitar quickly interrupts to bring in all sorts of chaos and brain damage. The vocals are so relentless your ears barely get a chance to breath. eventually it calm down and transitions to A minor and a haunting psychedelic jam. The jam then is interrupted by a Chorus the interrupted by structured noise (that transitions to F) then softened by a trip rock "postal service" mood only to fade out. The very last part was conceived by Josh Levell. I would have to listen to this song with you to point out everything and pause and rewind to tell you who did what, where.

The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta has influences all my writing recently. Musically and lyrically. Each one of their songs is stuffed with pure performance, musical genius, and trashing energy. Many people just see them as a punk jam band with little influence or constructive talent. Its true if you look them up on you-tube most of what you see is 7-8 guys spazzing on their instruments for a long time. Sometimes their entire set-list has been just one or two songs dragged out 45 minutes to an hour.



I applaud if you watched the whole thing




You see them live and they are out of control. what they planned to play on the set list is tossed out the window. Bridges turn into elaborate epics of noises on solos on riffs on licks on distortion. It takes a fast ear and head to keep up. During this next song, they cut to a 29/16 timed bridge out of nowhere. It is all improvisation until they break into the next song. They later recorded this in a song called "Cygnus... Vismund Cygnus".



The next studio performance is the closest thing on the internet of them under control. Unless you rip an mp3 of their actual studio work.


This is them playing structured, written out material.

When they went into the studio to record "Amputechture", none of the band-mates knew what they were going record but the guitarist, omar. He had written everything for every instrument in detail with no room for improvisation. He, like Frank Zappa, doesn't even perform in the studio. He has another guitarist learn the music to perform it on the album. Omar becomes a genius producer and composer in this sense. The musicians dont even listen to each-other's part. They perform what is written in front of them and dont ask questions. All the parts are later cut together like pbj. Simply, Omar knew what he wanted and how to achieve it. The only person that was aloud to listen to the songs in their entirety was Cedric, the vocalist. He writes the lyrics and melodies while he listens to the song.

It is so rare to find such extremes in music composition and prog-rock jamming in an alternative punk band. While jazz musicians accomplish this all the time, most bands will fall to one extreme or another by jamming to write (punk-pop, alternative), or stuffing their heads with sheet music (Commercial Jazz). I hope to eventually accomplish what omar has accomplished by mastering both respectable talents.

Reading Response #1

Motherhood, Who Needs It?

This woman seems strangely angered by women wanting to be mothers. I am turned off really fast by this over reacting feminism. Everyone knows people survive without motherhood. This essay makes little sense if written currently but makes more sense in the 70's.

We Do Abortions Here
I'm impressed with the neutral position the writer takes even though she is pro-choice. I can hear subtle guilt and she says she wishes to wake up to a world without abortion. This was truly an unbiased view on the subject. The part when she recognizes the child's heart in the ultrasound is gut-wrenching. It's just amazing how many people have no conscious or are to lazy to make the right choice.



The Baby's Cry by Tanya LeBlanc

It's early still, the month is one,
And my life has just begun.
I'm so small, don't have to hide,
I'm but a seed growing inside.
Four weeks later, the month is two,
I'm still small but a part of you.
You'll love me a lot, wait and see,
You'll be proud as proud can be.
Time has passed, the month is three,
Now, I'm someone you can see.
My hair is black, and my eyes are brown,
I'll be fun to have around.
Now, I'm gone, the month is five,
Mommy killed me, I'm no longer alive.
Abortion is the name they gave it,
They take your life before you live it.
I wanted to be born, the month is six,
But it's already done, it can't be fixed.
I guess my mommy didn't love me,
She went and just threw me away.
She'll never forget me,
Forever in her heart is where I'll stay.
I have a new home now, the month is seven,
Congratulations, Mommy,
Guess what, I'm in Heaven.
Mommy still carries around a frown,
Cause I'm in her memory, but not around.
You would have loved me, the month is eight,
But guess what, Mommy, it's too late.
Murdered by my mommy's hand,
I guess I'm too young to understand.
Goodbye, Mommy, the month is nine,
I could've been born, doing just fine.
Although I'm here in Heaven, I still cry,
Because of my mommy, I had to die.
Mommy, mommy, the year is one,
And my life could've just begun.
Mommy now the days have gone by, it's year two,
And I can almost tie my shoe.
Soon, I'll be three,
And you would've been too busy to mess with me.
A long time has passed, and the year is nine,
I would've been happy down there with you all mine.
Now look, Mom, it's year 18,
Oh how the time has passed,
I've become a woman,
And I wouldn't have been able to last.
Well, goodbye Mommy, it's time to go,
I love you, I guess you should know.
But Mommy I see and I know,
That always and forever in you heart I'll grow.
Forever in your memory I've stayed,
And I see now that you've paid.