Will Records In The New Year

I stopped by Philadelphia to say hello to 2009 for a few hours and did some drawings of Will. He's the one on the left. (Click for a larger version).

THIS SATURDAY FOR REAL AT THE FIRE ALL AGES WITH THE ARMCHAIRS AND TOY SOLDIERS ALL AGES ALL EXPENSES PAID

So yeah, that show is happening and it'll be a load of fun. The lineup will be:

Will: on bass
Gretchen: on violin
Rick: on guitar
Kyle: on drums
Paul Rodgers: vocals

Which will be interesting and vastly entertaining. Speaking of vastly, I just came across this fabulous old interview with Rick, Will and Doug from the banner year of 2006:

THIS IS THE LINK TO THE INTERVIEW SO CLICK IT

I really loved this couple and their podcast. I also love Doug and Will. And goodness knows I love promoting things that are three years old. So there you have it, a little blast from the past.

TFS Sketchbook

I drew this page while waiting for Rick to get out of work - we spent the next five days or so drawing and brainstorming art ideas for the album, getting sick, drinking with Will at his house, walking around with Gretchen, shadow-boxing Harpo, watching the Concert for Bangladesh, etc... until it was time for me to get back on the train to Virginia.

The Illustrious Career Of Nick Krill, Famous Musician and Mix Master of Our Album

PHOTO : Mr. Flom and Mr. Krill sing for pizza and beverages, State College, PA 2008, taken by G. Lohse

If you don't know, how it works in music is: you make an album in your house (hopefully you have some instruments and some songs and a tape deck with "REC" function) and then you get them to sound as good as possible and then you send it to Sony. But wait! What if it still sounds like junk after all that hard work? Well, what you do then is you get Nick Krill to take your album and work real hard on it for a while and then it will sound Just Terrific.

And if you're anything like me, then Nick Krill used to live upstairs from where you made your album. He doesn't live there anymore (we've turned his room into an aquarium), but when he did it was pretty great because he was able to mix the entirety of The Farthest Shore and I didn't have to go anywhere except up some stairs in order to tell him to turn up my guitar. And he really did do an amazing job; if you ever heard the original mixes that I did of these songs you would run out of the dance club screaming your head off.

So I asked Mr. Krill to talk about some of the projects he has worked on over the course of his career in Music. Of course, Nick is known the world over (and over) for being in The Spinto Band, but here we'll focus on his yeoman work as recordist, engineer, and mixer.

..

Thus below are the words of NK, discussing (in chronological order) his Adventures in Sound:

The Rude Staircase "Sookie Jump" - engineer
i helped engineer this album way back in college. i met the singer, lynn, through mutual friends and ended up helping with almost all of the overdubs and some of the basic tracking...all in a combination of studios ranging from college stairwells to the wonderful inner ear recording. it was a pretty great experience for a youngster because the band would give me instructions like, "i want this vocal to sound like a half inch tall person is singing it inside your ear canal."

Walker Lundee "40 Love" - co-producer, engineer
these guys are a really fun pop outfit that invited me to share an amazing warehouse space in philadelphia. the recording space also had a skate ramp in it, and between takes i learned how to ride a half-pipe....although i never made it more that about halfway up the dog-gone ramp.

The Teeth "You're My Lover Now" - mixing
rest in peace teeth. it was an honor to work with these fellas. all of this was mixed in the drummer jonas' spare bedroom. when i was done mixing we packed up the whole mini mobile studio into his roommates thirty year old VW beetle and drove it back to my house.

And the Moneynotes "new cornucopia" - mixing
one of scranton PA's finest. this was a lot of fun to mix because while the skeletons of the songs and nice old time rock n' roll tunes or odd sailor type chants and gypsy music, the songs had a great deal of odd ball sounds going every which way. it was also interesting, and sometimes challenging to mix as the style of recordings varied
from song to song. some were live on a four track, some were built up with overdubs, some were the whole band pounding away as a full group.

The Minor White "Old Theatrics" - producer, engineer, mixer
another great scranton group. these fellas are an amazing stew of the beatles, wilco, and television. seeing as the aesthetic of all these groups have all been an influence on my recording ears at one time or another it was really fun to make some recordings influenced by all three.

National Eye - "The Farthest Sewer" - mixing
hey rick, remember when you emailed this to me asking if i wanted to rent a room in your house: "You'd probably end up producing our next album just because you'd be there." dreams do come true. i was able to hear a lot of these songs while they were recorded and rehearsed as they seeped up through the floor boards and heating ducts. when i finally heard the full versions blare over my loudspeakers i was on cloud nine. kind of crazy....the music was played in the basement, recorded on the first floor, and mixed on the third floor.....good effort house.

And good efforts, all, to you, Nick. Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

..

P.S. I only had to edit one thing in Nick's portion of this post: he called our album "The Fartest Shore." I have to admit, this is a problem with the title I never anticipated, but I expect this won't be the last time that happens.

The Free Farthest Shore Streaming Album Player Is Here

And stream, stream, stream it does, like a mountain stream. Or like a mountain lion, if you prefer.

In other words, if you haven't found it within you to purchase the album by National Eye called The Farthest Shore -- if you're still uncertain that it will be the dynamondo-est listening experience you'll have this whole year (whale songs excepted), then you can dip your toes into it with this lovely thing which plays the whole album and shows you some neat pictures and looks deep down into your blouse -- all for the price of nothing!

CLICK ON THESE WORDS TO GO TO THE NATIONAL EYE FARTHEST SHORE STREAMING ALBUM PLAYER.

Thanks and compliments are owed to Corey Watson for the layout and techwork. Cash and favors are owed to Jeff Love for the artwork.

Oh also: I'm excited to get back to blogging. I threw out my shoulder and my pencil last furlough and haven't had a chance to talk about a great many things. Needles to say, NE is firing on all (four thousand seven hundred fifty twelve) cylinders, recording and laughing, and much news is to come. See you then.

First Lope

Here's the letter Rick included with the first version of the rough album he mailed to me.

Call Off The Revolution! Everything's Cool! Plus: Another Demo of a TFS Song from the NE Lab's Rubbish Bin

In the final days leading up to this presidential election that just happened, I received word from a reliable source that not only were the bad guys going to win, they were going to loot and pillage and spray shaving cream all over our stuff in a last-ditch power-grab, coup d'etat bonzo doo-da deal so ferociously ruthless that it would have taken nothing less than a Superman-style reverse-planet-spin to undo.



What I'm talking about is not merely an old man assuming the presidency, but a steely-eyed repudiation of liberty itself by forces hitherto unimagined in this nation. So I did what any sane person would do, I took to the mountains. Not to escape, mind you, but to regroup and fortify and launch the effort to reclaim freedom. And also to hike:

Well, you can imagine my relief when I stopped in the General Store at the foot of Mt. Foom (for supplies: eggs, milk, "fruit leather," paper towels) and saw a newspaper that said "GOOD PREVAILS" and so we excitedly packed our stuff and headed on back to the city.

Which is why posting has been light. Needless to say we're all thrilled to have found ourselves in this new age of hope and palpable relief, even if running around the woods with dogs and waterfalls is pretty nice. But it's time to ENGAGE, and the only place to do that is back at NEHQ in Philadelphia. Which is where this demo of Eva the Atom-Smasher was recorded way, way back.

Many of you know this song in the key of D (as it is on the album) but this one's in E flat. For you non-music scholars, that means I had a capo on the guitar for no discernible reason other than to make it slightly more difficult to play on most instruments.

Enjoy, and don't forget these fun demos for Several Beaches and Effortless Plane from past excursions into the Land of Lazy Low Fidelity.

(Rugged Mountain Man Picture credit: Gretchen Lohse)

Tom Cruise Inspired By National Eye Song

This movie was inspired by the song "Abwehr" from National Eye's album "Roomful of Lions".

Invisible Blue

Pure Film

A lovely piece by Jeff Love.

Coming soon on the blog: an in-depth article on TFS technicians Nick Krill and Burleigh Seaver, lots more demos and recordings, pictures of my speedboat, a centipede race in Athens, Greece, and much much more!

Richard's Music Criticism Corner

As you all know, every Thursday our friend Richard checks in with his roundup of the latest music releases in the pop, rock, country, r&b, swing, oldies, latin, quaker, and country categories (and also jazz), giving readers his thoughts on new music and how it makes him feel and what it says about our times today in the world. It just goes to show: National Eye isn't just about making music, we are about listening to it and saying things about it. And so, here are this week's picks!

NO STRESS EXPRESS by Halfpint

This album has the perfect name because not only will you not be stressed when you listen to it but you'll get there super-fast with no stops because the music is Just That Good. Some of the instruments played on it are drums, keyboards, and singing. I don't know how to describe the music because it's all in French, but buy it anyway and enjoy! Rating: 10 smiles

TODD by Rattlin' Razors

This new album by Newport, VA's favorite sons Rattling Razors is called Todd and I think you know why: all the songs are about famed comedian Todd Lazenby. If what your ears like is fast beats and honking horns and clever lyrics, then this is the album for you. On side one there is one long song called "TODD" and side 2 is totally blank until you get to 28:31 and there's a bunch of people laughing. Joke's on you! Rating: 4 punches

WITH AN EXTRA BIT OF LUCK by My Fair Lady

Finally, here it is: the album you've been waiting for from Boston quintet My Fair Lady. No one does it quite like them and here they do it and do it and do it until your head hurts from trying to keep track of how great it all is. The best song is probably "Need More Of You In My Life" because it has the best lyrics but that would be selling short other great songs like "XYZ (The Zipper Song)" and "Let's Go Screw (in a Light Bulb!)" That last song sounds dirty and you'll think it is until you realize they're talking about light bulbs. Rating: 90

THE LIVING MUSIC by Michael Jones

Attention irony fans: this record by producer-turned-singer-turned-actor-turned-tugboat captain-turned-singer Michael Jones features NO PIANO, despite the piano you can see quite well with your own eyes right there on the cover. But this album could be called "Living Room" just as easily as "Living Music" because your living room is the perfect place to put it on and LISTEN. Rating: hhhh

TALES OF TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS by Yes

This reissue of Yes's classic rock opera comes with an 18"X42" poster (featuring all the members + Kate Jackson), a booklet with liner notes by Pat Nixon and Charles Schulz, and all the songs sequenced in alphabetical order. New re-mastering has the bass sounding crisper than ever and we can all agree it will be nice to finally have something to listen to in the car. Rating: 14/32

Don't Wait for the Box Set!!: Part Two In Our Unearthing of Crummier-Sounding Versions of Songs From The Farthest Shore (Doot-Doot-Doo Edition)

Now that the album has been available for a full week, it makes (marginally) more sense to throw some more crummy demo versions at you. That way, you can sit down and carefully notice all the interesting musical things that can happen between Conception and Reality (i.e. demo version vs. final album track). It's a mystical journey every time, I assure you.

We've already offered up the demo for Effortless Plane, which was pretty darn different from the album version -- a fact not lost on our readers. Here's what some of you had to say:

"This is a much slower version of this song than the one on the album. Is there something wrong with my VCR?"
Linda Winston, Des Plaines, IL

"where r the drums?!?"
Edmund Softel, Battersea, London

"I have to agree with bombdroppa99: mit Sicherheit eine (längst bekannte und zugängliche) Bereicherung für ihre Studien, als Projekt ohne echte Angabe von Gründen oder Nutzen und als bloße Quelle für sinnlose Verlinkungen: eine."
Andy Conroy, Nebo, KY

"Hey Caruso, ever heard of singing lessons? Just kidding! Call me."
Admiral Cornelis Cruys, Taganrog

Good points, all. But let's move on already!

Our next primordial offering is the song Several Beaches, presented here without the benefit of Gianmarco's drums, Will's bass, Josh Newman's guitar, Doug's backups, Charlie Hall's electric piano, or decent lead vocals. Nevertheless, fans of accidental tube distortion and mid-song coughing will not be disappointed!

In other words: COMPLETISTS ONLY!

[Also included above: another great page from Jeff Love's Farthest Shore. This one looks beach-related so it feels appropriate.]

Animagic

A trailer of sorts I threw together for the album.

National Eye's Extracurricular Activities: The Lohse Session 10/18

It's never a dull moment for us over at National Eye Studios International, which is the place where we record all our music and also eat breakfast and read romance novels.

For instance, just this past weekend we had a rollicking recording session for a Gretchen Lohse song called "Ursa Ultra," one of many wonderful numbers our intrepid violinist has cooked up.

For this tune, a whole bunch of people gathered together including NE's Will and Rick (banjo & guitar respectively), NE/Cap Yrs drummer Kyle Lloyd (drums, respectfully), Lisa McHenry-Bendel from Caves of Mercury (bass, expectantly), and Dave Hartley and Adam Granduciel from War on Drugs (phantom guitar and piano, repentantly).

Below are some fun pictures that got taken by Lisa & GL. We'll be recording lots more of Gretchen, National Eye, and whoever else feels like stopping by, so expect more images of microphones and blurry people-shapes in the weeks and months to come.

Absolute Carnage at the American Swedish Historical Museum

4:42pm: Gretchen and I arrive exactly 42 minutes late to the competition, which is already in full, aggressive swing. Ameri-swedes usher us into the museum with helpful smiles, but we are already receiving mucho venomous glares and vibes from the other competing bands. Crackers, cheese, and lingenberry (sp?) juice is served on tables.


4:55: We peruse the Lego exhibit for "inspiration" on the advice of one of the Museum staff. Nathan Sawaya's sculptures in Lego are actually cool as all get-out, but this is a serious contest and we must hurry back to the table. Pictured below is one of his pieces.


5:01: There's nothing like looking at a crate full of Lego to drive a stake through your heart when you know you have less than three hours to make something out of it that's impressive enough to defeat the likes of The Sw!ms, The Brakes, and the Spinto Band, all of whom outnumber us and have a time-lead of a good half hour. We are determined to vanquish, however, and so we begin.


5:30: Things're looking grim. Some cheating heel has removed all of the army-fatigue-green pieces from our supply, nixing my idea for a bust of Fidel Castro. I have overconfidently left my "Hornik's Ultimate Lego Guide" at home, and we need ideas FAST. Gianmarco and Will are still AWOL.


5:39: Gretchen has hit upon the inspired idea of a dramatic 3-D depiction of The Voyage of the Vessel Vetrovka, based on Royko Fleming's famous epic poem. It's incredibly ambitious, but we didn't come here to play with toys. We came to win.


5:57: I run over on a recon mission to see what the Brakes and the Spintos have cooking. They are looking impressive, so I "accidentally" cut the power on their side of the building. For 12 minutes, they are literally building blind.


6:13: Brian from the Sw!ms suggests the lingenberry juice. Luckily, both Gretchen and I are on a strict no-juice cleansing regimen and decline his offer. It is later revealed the pitchers were spiked with dihydromorphinone hydrochloride. Several Spintos and one small child are now passed out in a wooden boat in the Viking exhibit.


6:55: Giamarco arrives. We put him directly to work on the optical illusion portion of the sculpture. He succeeds brilliantly: it looks exactly like what we wanted it to look like.


7:20: Judgment time draws near. Jon Eaton of the Spinto Band recommends a colonial era painting on display on the second floor, but is immediately escorted out of the building. My hull has just completely crumbled before my very eyes due to a poorly-constructed lego foundation. There apparently is video of me weeping over a plate of meatballs.


7:32: The Sw!ms have created a smorgasbord (Swedish!) of weird objects including a sword stabbing a burger and an elephant in a wheelchair. And an airplane, which is hard to do with legos unless you have directions. Spinto have created a gruesome and gory scene, with some kind of Revelation-style beast laying waste to a whole village of infidels. I always knew those guys were fanatics. Meanwhile, The Brakes have created a highly elaborate and fully-operational attack ship out of some deranged sci-fi nerd's worst nightmares. We have nearly fulfilled the promise of Gretchen's vision, but it takes Will's eleventh-hour arrival to complete the piece with touches of grace and beauty. Judges are already looming, taking pictures, jotting notes, being extremely pleasant. I have sweated through my fourth shirt.


8:00: The Awards Ceremony. Moment of truth. And the truth is... Everybody wins! The Sw!ms especially win but also everybody wins. I feel relief that the conclusion wasn't too vicious but then again this was always about getting people to visit the really great exhibit at the Swedish Historical Museum, not glory.


All in all, a lovely evening. I couldn't recommend the museum more, it's really nice and located in that lovely park down by all the stadiums on Pattison Ave. So don't go there during a game, but do go there.


Oh the things we do for music!

Gianmarco Cilli: A Man In Full

In 2007, America voted Gianmarco Cilli "Tallest Member of National Eye." But that was before he was the first member of the group to spin off his own solo album which is called Homely Joys and is a lovely piece of musicalism that spins and falls down your ears like a leafy breeze.

So you should buy that, but don't take my word for it, take your own eyes' and ears' words for it when you go see him tonight at Johnny Brenda's Tavern play with his amazing band of supergroupers -- and I don't mean fish, I mean great musicians.

Also playing are San Francisco's Citay and somewhere else's East Hundred.

Also, coming later today: a play-by-play of last night's cut-throat Lego Building Competition at the American Swedish Historical Museum. See directly below for a sneak peek at what we made and stay tuned for the whole, bloody story.

"Ocean Fantasy"

"The Farthest Shore" Listening Competition

So far I, From a Fountain, have listened to "The Farthest Shore" on my:

1. Stereo: from iPod.

2. Car Stereo: from iPod.

3. Tiny Computer Speaker #1: from iTunes.

4. Tiny iPhone Speaker: from iPhone.

5. Tiny Computer Speaker #2: from the Internet. 

6. Studio Monitor Speakers AS I WAS RECORDING ON THE ALBUM!!!!: from component .wav files.

So I win this competition.  SO FAR.  

Through which medium and via what technology (please follow inspiring format as above) have YOU listened to TFS?  GO!

Tonight: Weirdest Event Ever (LEGO BATTLE)

When you have a new album out you get asked to do a lot of really crazy things. The Church of England, for instance, sent National Eye an email wondering if we'd be interested in walking across the Gobi Desert for a cross-promotional thing to hype their new line of digital sunglasses and we had to say "Sorry can't" no matter how much we might love the COE because of scheduling issues.



Meanwhile, The Children's Television Workshop refuses to commit to this great idea we had about an island amusement park featuring furry creatures and loud guitar music. (Apparently the folks at CTW hate the notion of making millions of dollars.)



So when a promotional opportunity comes along and all the pieces fall into place it's a Very Special Thing and that V.S.T. is called "synergy" -- a word that combines the Greek root "syn" which means "together" and the Latin-American "ergy" which means "good timing."



Which brings us to tonight's synergical event where members of National Eye compete in a no-holds-barred competition against The Spinto Band, the Sw!ms, and The Brakes for Lego-Building Supremacy.



I'm just kidding. Wait, no I'm not! We really are doing a Lego-off with a bunch of other bands! Tonight at the American Swedish Historical Museum in South Philadelphia!



The Spintos are of course also in the midst of a whirlwind promo binge in support of their great new album Moonwink. You'll hear music by all these bands tonight at this crazy event but not played live because we'll all be too busy making our insane Lego stuff.



And don't tell the other bands, but I've already drawn up plans for what we're gonna build and between you and me and the moon, WE ARE GOING TO WIN.

The Unrelated To Our New Album Department Presents: A Really Great Live Song By National Eye!

Sometimes even this blog needs a break from the outrageous media blitz explosion that has accompanied our humble release of a little album we made called The Farthest Shore which you can download right now from any number of safe, secure digital music vendors.

But yeah, so I thought I'd change things up a little bit with this nifty recording from a while back where we played in Atlanta, Georgia (birthplace of Candice Bergen) at a place called The Earl (birthplace of Earl Palmer, drumming brother of Carl). I think this was on tour for The Meter Glows, if you can believe that! Or maybe it was just for fun.

At any rate, fun is what we had, as you can tell by this F-U-N rendition of the song "Between Sleep and Sleep" which was written by Jeff Love and would often feature him throwing his guitar down and doing "moves" in front of the stage to the delight of our Southern fans.

So here it is. Don't forget to enjoy the heck out of it!

photo courtesy of Freshout Media and Horse Fancy Magazine