Here you will be able to read and take note of all things that I believe to be relevant and true. My opinion matters and for those that agree, you will find it oozing out of this blog…
Today I had several really good meetings that all made me think about why I do some of the things that I do.
As with most of us, I spend my time doing things to help me get through this mess of an existence. The goal being to increase my own mental and physical being. What about those times when it is not for myself though, why should I feel inclined to give my efforts and thoughts to anyone else?
The answer is actually much simpler than you might think…
Today I am launching the web presence for my recording studio, the Ozone Lair. During the month of January, I have been putting together all the pieces required to really make this thing happen.
Over the past 3 years, many bands from all over the country have come through and recorded some fantastic music at the Ozone Lair, some of which you can hear by visiting the Portfolio page over at the Ozone website. Working with these bands has given me the hands on experience to use the knowledge that I have gained while being a student this world of audio.
Already in 2010 I have had the chance to record some old and new clients. As well I have been extremely fortunate to be introduced to a high level professional in the industry. This person is allowing me to sit in and learn from their years of experience which I am soaking up like a sponge.
Needless to say I am very excited about what this year has in store for the Lair, and I hope that you can be a part of it as well.
What can you do? Some very easy things, and while I certainly do not expect you to do all of these, I am definitely not apposed to the idea…
Word of mouth and getting that ‘warm contact’ has definitely been the key to meeting and working with all of the artists that I’ve had the pleasure to record, so please keep my service in mind 
To everyone that has supported me in this endeavour thus far, please know that I appreciate it more than you might know. Without the support of my own family and friends I would not be able to follow this path and do the things that I love to do.
So here we are, the year is 2010, what have you been doing? Have you been slacking off, slowly churning along in the daily grind, or pushing things forward?
Christmas and the new year came and went by fast. I had already been working on getting some things together in order to help jump start my progress in 2010, but it still feels like the time flew by and I have more to do still.
Now into the second work week of the year, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed, but by no means unmotivated. There are a few new years resolutions and some long term goals to get cracking on this year, so lets cover a few of them shall we?
Number one on my list of things to do in 2010 is work on my businesses. There are a few ventures that have started to get off the ground, but have not made the kind of progress I would like to see. Part of this, I am sure, is due to me working on all of these at once instead of focusing on them one at a time which is something I plan to remedy during the course of this year.
What ventures am I talking about?
Read the rest of this entry »
Christmas 2009 felt a little to me as if it were in the shadow of the end of the decade that was just around the corner. For my family this year it was low key littered with all of the cliche family events you would expect to see in your favorite holiday movie.
This was my nephews second christmas and he has definitely shown vast improvement in his present opening skills. Still needs to work on showing appreciation for the gifts, but getting paper off the boxes is one of his obvious natural talents.
As this post was mostly designed as a way to post up a little of my holiday loot, I am going to get right to it.
For starters, I scored some new threads to keep me from looking a bum as well as help me with my resolution to stay ’sharp’ this decade. One high level button up, a couple of nice sweaters, and a hand full of plain T’s for undershirts. I asked for socks, I get no socks =/
A pair of Roland RH-200S headphones for the studio. These were not ones that I personally chose but have turned out to be excellent. They cancel outside noise, sounds great, and already have 10 feet of wire.
Another magic music night in GA.
This past saturday was a much anticipated show featuring Jungol, Stokeswood, both from Atlanta, and The Zou from Ohio.
All I can say it is was very sweaty in there.
Here are some videos I managed to catch.
A good friend of mine insisted that I see this show. After having recently heard some of his stuff online I did not appose.
This was my first time at New Earth and the place is nice, especially for a party like this.
SeaDub was hosting throughout the night with some awesome mixes. Also the live drum and bass set was great.
While we were waiting for Rusko these guys were doing some sick popping and locking right beside us, then eventually disappeared.
They then reappeared when Rusko hit the stage, wearing gold outfits and masks. They did their thing for about two songs and it was awesome.
Then it was time to turn the bass up and get crazy.
Seriously once Rusko took off it was 2 1/2 hours of jams until they turned the lights back on. He had a great set that kept moving keeping people dancing. His energy is enourmous on stage and everyone ate it right up…myself included.
If you havn’t taken a second to check out DJ Rusko yet, I recommend you do so. If he’s coming to a town near you, definitely go check it out, just be ready to get sweaty.
If you have not heard about Pandora yet, it is time that you check it out.
Pandora.com is a serviced based on the Music Genome Project.
I have been listening to Pandora for a few years now and it continues to get better and broader.
Today I wanted to talk about the holiday stations. Typically around this time of year one would need to either play from their own collection of holiday jams, be it CD’s, records, MP3s, etc., or they would need to tune into that one radio station in the city playing all holiday jams exclusively.
Sometimes though, especially from personal experience, this is not enough.
For one thing, the holiday jams on the radio are the same holiday jams I’ve been hearing on that station since I was just a tiny little tot. Don’t get me wrong, they are good jams but there e so many other takes on those jams available, why not mix it up some?
As for my own personal collection of holiday music, I will always fancy it. It continues to grow every year and I definitely play MY favorites from it annually. These might not be everyone elses favorites though…which is where Pandora comes in.
This year around December 1st, I went to Pandora.com and typed in “Chirstmas”.
As you can see there are at least 99 holiday stations ready for access.
I’ve have not nearly been through all of them, and to be honestly this year have mostly stuck to Jazz Holidays. There are some real sleepy tunes that play there occasionally, but for the most part, it is some great jazz musicians playing some excellent holiday covers. I highly recommend you take a listen to that station stat.
I plan to do a future write up about Pandora as a whole, as I think it is a very interesting project and am very excited to see how far it has come in the time that it has been online, so stay posted.
B
I was taking a look at my web page stats and saw that I had a reference from http://www.garageband.com/artist/bretphillips. As I have never set up a garageband.com account I was curious.
Many of you know that I am a musician, but just for the record, this is NOT me. I am not that Bret Phillips.
I will say this however…thank you for the link and the traffic. This is me returning the favor.
I have been debating on whether or not to post a ‘top’ albums for 2009 list, mostly due to the fact that I might induldge in posting a top albums of the decade which would require a good bit of time.
Over the past decade I have listened to 90% of the music I have ever listened to in my life. My musical pallet has sampled many a sound in that time.
This year I have also sampled a good amount of new music, some from bands I already enjoy and some from new bands that I have come to enjoy. Unfortunately some of the music I have come to love this year, was not necessarily released this year so I might just have to make that Albums of the Decade post after all.
Normally I would throw in some “key” songs for album reviews, but all of these albums are all good all the way through, so if you are going to give them a try, just go all the way. Go big or go home…
My top 5 picks are the albums that I listened to the most when I first heard them. They inspired me and played with my emotions more than the rest.
In no particular order:
I’ve been a fan of Fall of Troy for a while now. They write passionate, high energy music that makes my ears happy. While I was not super stoked about their last full release Manipulator, I did enjoy it.
Something was missing from it though. It seemed like the technical skill of the band had progressed where I had hoped it would by then, but the direction of the song writing did not necessarily do the same.
Insert Phantom on the Horizon. A rerecorded and finished version of the Ghostship EP which the band released in 2004. I had never heard anything from that EP but immediately snatched up the Phantom on the Horizon as soon as I could.
The album showcases the band in a more experimental way that I was hoping for after Doppelganger. I realize much of this music is older, they reinvented it in a way that feels more like progress.
As long as Fall of Troy continue making music that makes them happy, I am confident they will make music that makes me happy.
Since the release of Deloused I have been ready and awaiting anything Omar Rodriguez comes out with. His last few released efforts have not been as exciting and re playable for me as earlier work, but that all changed with Xenophanes.
From the very first song there is a change of pace that hasn’t been there on the last couple releases. The music is tight but still carries that signature Omar weirdness. I know we were all curious about how Omar’s vocals would be sounding on this album, and I have to say, they are much improved and sound especially good complimenting the female vocals.
As a whole this album feels more cohesive than some of the stuff he has been putting out, keeping a strong vibe from start to finish, instead of feeling like a bunch of random songs thrown together.
This is the Omar Rodriguez we all know and love.
I would like to preface this particular section with the fact that my good friend Keith Freund told me about Dirty Dishes. Keith recorded one of the 13 Day Mission album, as well played a hand as producer and engineer for the Dirty Dishes.
All bias aside…this EP is great. Having found this EP any other way, I am positive that I would still be as hyped about it as I am.
First off, they sound great. Sonically this album is everything you would hope for from a modern recording.
To boot, the song writing is very tasty. The guitar riffs are a little spacey, a little mathy, and very fun for my brain. As well the drums are holding down some unfamiliar beats that are refreshing to hear. Lets not forget the vocals that sound great without auto tune, but add in some heavy reverb for some additional ambient spaciness.
You can hear this album in its entirety at http://thedirtydishes.bandcamp.com/
I have been a fan of Mastodon for a couple of years now. I have even had the opportunity to play a show with one of Brent Hinds other bands around Atlanta.
Leviathan was my first taste of Mastodon. That is a really good album but it wasn’t something that I necessarily felt attached to.
The same happened with Blood Mountain, although this was definitely a lead in the right direction. It still did not captivate me.
Crack the Skye is both of those albums combined, plus the additional growth one would hope for in a band. For several weeks I listened to this album over and over picking it apart slowly until I was satisfied. This bonding was what I had been waiting on from Mastodon and I look forward to their future efforts.
Closure is Moscow is an Australian band that a friend of mine recently gave me the heads up on. They are apparently recording at the same studio that this album was recorded at. All I can say about that is I hope the same person is mixing and mastering because this album sounds GOOD.
These guys are a great mix of a lot of different things that I enjoy about music.
Technicality, I strive to increase my skill level with instruments all the time, and I appreciate hearing others that obviously do as well.The guitarist, bass included, have some awesome riffs and some unique tones. The drums easily keep up with and compliment the guitars, and finally a vocalist that can actually sing. This guy hits some crazy notes but writes really good melodies using his voice more like an instrument.
“Do you think if Friday was the weekend, and Thursday was Friday, that it would be as hard to work on Thursday as it is on Friday?”
I think it was after having seen the stream of facebook messages which all had similar meaning.
It is hard to work on Friday because once you are finished you are FREE!
Think about this. It is 11am Friday morning, and you are sitting there halfheartedly working on a not so important work project. Clicking around on the computer, reading whatever not work related websites you can access through your companies firewall. You are READY to GO! It does not matter what you plan on doing once you leave work, all that matters is that it is what YOU want to be doing.
Almost like the anxiety you get when waiting for christmas eve to end and christmas morning to be there. The same feeling you get right before the big game that you and your team have been practicing for all year. It’s the weekend, it’s your time to do whatever you want.
So I started thinking, what if you had more time to do what you want. How many days of doing whatever you want to do are fulfilling enough to warrant a feeling of going back to work?
Hence the question, “Do you think if Friday was the weekend, and Thursday was Friday, that it would be as hard to work on Thursday as it is on Friday?”
Would you get more work done if you only worked Monday through Thursday than a full 5 day schedule? Would you get that same feeling at 11am on Thursday morning knowing that as soon as you get off work you’ll be free again?
Based on the replies that I received, the general consensus is Yes, it would be just as hard to work as it is on Friday right now.
Ok, lets take it to one more day. Thursday is now the weekend, you are only working 3 full days, Monday through Wednesday.
You take your job seriously, there are things you have to do in order for business to keep on trucking. Are three 8 hour days long enough? Do you think if you really buckled down for those 24 hours in the week you would be able to get everything done?
Instead of going to Tuesday being the last day of the work week, I want to try and flesh out an idea about this and commerce.
I suppose it really all depends on where your income is coming from, and what your income is numbers wise, for this idea to really get detailed. So lets just go with a standard 9 – 5 M – F work week. No 24 hour shops, no 7 day shops.
Most employers require that you work 40 hours a week. This has been stable now for quite some time, and at least the last 15 or so years that I have been working.
At 32 hours a week you have to be really on your hustle to fit in 40 hours worth of work. If you had 40 hours worth of work to do. If you had about 8 hours a week of idle time at the office, you at least now get to spend that time at home.
Cut to Wednesday and that is only 24 hours of work time to do what you normally do in 40 hours. Can you do it? And if so, why are you not already doing that? Why drag out 24 hours worth of work for 40 hours?
Anyways, I guess I am starting to babble. These are just some things to think about. Maybe after some more diliberation one of us can come up with a solution that will give everyone more free time to do what they want and less time at work.
What if working is what you want to do in your free time?
- b
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