June 2011
1 post
March 2011
3 posts
February 2011
46 posts
1 tag
Last night at E Street Cafe
David Dewese and I headed down to E Street Cafe in Encinitas last night for their open mic. We had no idea what to expect.
E Street is an awesome coffee shop with a decent-sized room. There’s no PA just a two channel amp. So it’s a bit weird not to be able to check your levels properly. But also fun and slapdash. Very Carter-Admin-practice-in-Todd-K’s-apartment vibey.
...
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Two word beer review
Too Budweisery.
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Neil Gaiman on copyright, piracy and the web
Via Boing Boing comes this great interview snippet with Neil Gaiman.
You’re not losing books, you’re not losing sales by having stuff out there…. That’s all this is: is people lending books.
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Tonight at E Street
David Dewese and I are heading down to E Street Cafe in Encinitas to play their open mic tonight. Starts at 7pm if you’re interested in hearing us!
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Where is my 8-bit Mind?
Excellent.
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5 Ugly Truths about the Music Business
My friend Brad of BigHowdy posts 5 Ugly Truths about the Music Business:
1. Networking is just another name for using people. And it’s a shitty way to live your life. Success in this business (or any other) isn’t just about who you know. You have to actually do something and offer something of value or no one is going to do anything for you. It’s true and it’s a good thing.
Yup. It is shitty. ...
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The Worst Gig
I can’t wait to dig into this website, The Worst Gig. It’s a collection of musicians telling the stories of their worst gig. A sample from Flaming Lips:
We were playing at Red Rocks, the big prestigious venue in Denver, to a sold-out crowd of about 10,000 people. We were working our smoke machine backstage, and it kept triggering a fuse blowing the electricity. We’re there all...
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The Teapot Party
I forgot to link this when it happened:
Willie Nelson starts a Teapot Party movement
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Siamese Dream cover girl now bass player in band
Well this is totally weird. Smashing Pumpkins new bassist was one of the little girls on the cover of Siamese Dream.
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Today in Eric Koda Art News
Eric posts the art he created for my IRL EP last year.
Eric’s new stuff for X-Men: To Serve and Protect appears in Preview. Jump to page 8 for his work.
Also, our friend Mic in Poland informed us that he was listening to college radio over there and they were talking about a new artist in X-Men: To Serve and Protect #3. Gotta be our friend, right?
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Judge John Hodgman
Are you listening to the Judge John Hodgman podcast yet? It’s cracking me up. He rules on important issues like “Are Machine Guns Robots?”
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Fixing it in the mix
So I mentioned the other day that a mix of I Gave Up was bothering me. I’m pretty sure the cajon and guitars do fall out of sync now but I remixed it last night to add some more separation which seems to rectify the wobbliness for me. I haven’t yet resorted to tweaking the tracks digitally and trying to sync them artificially. I’d rather just re-record the cajon.
The new...
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Mad Men on Bass only
From Adam Ben Ezra. So good.
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jmfischer88-deactivated20110409 asked: love that you write for the misfits, nerds, awesome !
Todd A — Twin Bed Built for Two
(download...
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Good Taste
All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit....
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The Half-Assed is the enemy of the good
Sometimes it isn’t just the perfect that’s the enemy of the good.
I’ve been sending out a few emails about the new album and thus, listening to the tunes again. There’s moments in I Gave Up where it sounds like the cajon and guitars come out of sync. I’m not sure if this is actually the case or if it’s an audio illusion caused by the guitars’ slight...
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Woody Guthrie's New Year's Rulins
“Keep Hoping Machine Running”
And more goodness from Woody Guthrie.
[via Buzzfeed]
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Todd A — An Apostrophe Never Made Anything...
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Eric Koda's Pencils for "Storm Front"
My friend Eric Koda posted pencil art from his first Marvel job, the story “Storm Front” in X-Men: To Protect and Serve #3.
Eric is of course the artist who drew the IRL cover for me and is part of the production team making the music video for Selina.
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Geek Valentine
[via fuckyeahgeekgirls via cutelittledeadgirl]
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Last night in the home studio
Allen came over to my apartment last night with his mobile studio in tow. We spent about an hour and a half working on a guitar line for the bridge of I Fall Hard. I had one that I’d been playing that closely followed the vocal melody but when I heard it recorded, I realized it distracted from the lyrics.
So we woodshedded which I’m not entirely comfortable doing in the presence...
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Steve Martin's Tour Ideas
Love this guy.
Here are his leaked tour ideas.
“Throw back if poly-blend.” Classic. More on his website.
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Adult Principles
Via Miguel de Icaza comes John Perry Barlow’s great set of “Adult Priniciples” which JPB tweeted recently.
Adult Principle #1: Be patient. No matter what.
Adult Principle #2: Don’t badmouth: Assign responsibility, not blame. Say nothing of another you wouldn’t say to him.
Adult Principle #3: Never assume the motives of others are, to them, less noble than yours are to...
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Waiting for a Train
This looks awesome.
The story of a “Japanese man who fell in love with bluegrass in the 50s, moved to Texas, and adopted the genre and lifestyle as his own.”
[via TokyoMango]
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Another weekend in the home studio
In addition to recording a 4-track album this weekend, I worked on another two songs with Emelyne: her song “Beauty Queen” and Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love.” We recorded all the basic tracks on my 4-track and video’d everything. Then I sent her the individual tracks and she’s mixing them in GarageBand and making videos in iMovie. It’s a huge amount of...
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Tonight in San Diego!
David Dewese and I are playing the Local Brews, Local Grooves night tonight at the House of Blues in San Diego.
David and I met in Nashville about ten years ago but didn’t play a gig together until 2007. He joined me onstage in 2009 in Nashville. This is our first West Coast show together. Be there.
PS — David made this awesome poster for the show.
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5 Days Left...
…to pledge to the Kickstarter fund for Selina, I’m a Wreck. It’s going to be an amazing video and we’d just like to cover some of our production costs.
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Inspiration exists
Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.
- Pablo Picasso
[via swiss-miss]
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Four word beer review
Just what I needed.
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2 Days, 4 Tracks, 10 Songs
I made an album this weekend.
Saturday night I recorded all the guitars and vocals. Sunday, I did the percussion and Emelyne sang backup on three tracks. Then I mixed and made an album cover. And here it is: 2 Days, 4 Tracks, 10 Songs.
Listen right here. (I’d prefer you download the zip though.)
[audio:http://media.toddamusic.com/2Days/2%20Days%20Complete.mp3]
Click to Download a...
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The best way to complain
The best way to complain is to make things.
- James Murphy
[via SwissMiss]
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How To Tour In A Band Or Whatever
A list of Touring rules by Thor Harris of Shearwater. I don’t know where this originated but I saw it on Buzzfeed. It’s so good I’m reblogging it entirely.
1.
2. Dont Complain. Bitching, moaning, whining is tour cancer.
3. If something is wrong fix it or shut the fuck up you fucking dick. Goddamn.
4. If you fart, claim it.
5. Dont Lose shit. Everybody loses shit. Dont...
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Sampling 101
NPR’s Science Friday talking Sampling and Remixing.
[via Boing Boing]
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Proper
Thank you, Siobhan, for the design.
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Apostophes
I went old-school last night: grabbed the Flip cam and quickly recorded a new song: An Apostrophe Never Made Anything Plural.
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Ante Up!
I’m 6 million views late but this is cracking me up.
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Provocation and Privacy
A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy.
— Edward P. Morgan
[via musicalmasturbation]
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I've been trying to imagine the conversation...
So you’re like Allison Krause’s dad? —
— *Sigh
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The ultimate David Lee Roth Karate Kick...
Have I blogged this already? Cause it’s incredible and I’ve had it saved for months.
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Bing!
Happy Groundhog Day!
I really wanted to find a clip with the quote: “This is one time that television fails to capture the excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.”
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Wondering...
Wondering is the seed of genius.
—William Mocca
[via Quotes on Design]
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