My Favorite Albums & Concerts of 2011 12/07/2011
My Favorite Albums of 2011 (Alphabetical Order)
The Beach Boys - The SMiLE Sessions The Decemberists - The King Is Dead Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues PJ Harvey - Let England Shake Portugal. The Man - In The Mountain In The Cloud Paul Simon - So Beautiful Or So What St. Vincent - Strange Mercy TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light Tom Waits - Bad As Me Wilco - The Whole Love My Favorite Concerts of 2011 (Alphabetical Order) David Bazan – A Milwaukee Living Room – March 2 The Decemberists – Pabst Theater – Feb. 5 The Flaming Lips – Summerfest – July 9 Peter Gabriel – Marcus Amphitheater – June 29 Paul McCartney – Wrigley Field – July 31/Aug. 1 Portugal. The Man – Turner Hall Ballroom – Oct. 14 St. Vincent – Turner Hall Ballroom – Oct. 3 Paul Simon – Chicago Theater – May 17/Riverside Theater – Nov. 11 Steely Dan – Riverside Theater – Aug. 27 TV On The Radio – Pabst Theater – Sept. 1 Wilco – Riverside Theater – Dec. 9 CLICK BELOW FOR SOME OF MY FAVORITE SONGS OFF MY FAVORITE ALBUMS Add Comment Haven't updated in quite some time... 09/13/2011
A new song up under "Just Me" that I wrote. Jeanna Salzer Trio has been working on a lot of cool new tunes, very different, modern than previous material. Hope to record it sometime soon. Think people will really dig it. See this for an example. Kinetic also hopes to record soon, been playing more, just expanding our repetoire. Yellow Ostrich has signed to Barsuk, very jealous. Really dig the new St. Vincent, Wilco albums. Really want to buy some Moog Taurus III's. New Jeanna Salzer Trio, New Me 05/10/2011
New studio recordings from Jeanna Salzer Trio: Recorded, mixed, and mastered at The Exchange Recording Complex in Milwaukee, WI. Rreleased May 08, 2011 Jeanna Salzer - piano, B3, vocals Harrison Dole - bass, guitar, B3, vocals Alex Bunke - drums, trombone, B3, synth, vocals Songs written by Jeanna, arranged by Jeanna, Harrison, and Alex. Produced and engineered by Ben Glawe; mastered by Harry Brotman - Cage Fight Productions Music video for Better: www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4BOWrkG0Gg And a new little song by me. The Grammy's 02/14/2011
Let's get this clear first: I don't like the Grammy's. I never have. I probably never will. If I were to somehow be nominated and won would I be excited? Probably. But not that excited. I'd rather be part of Mojo Magazine's Best of Year End List. Let's get another thing clear: I didn't watch them this year, because they make me livid usually. The very thought of them gets my blood boiling. But this doesn't mean I have some thoughts about this year's Grammy's results or the Grammy's as a whole. Alright, just one more thing to clear up: I don't like Arcade Fire. Their latest single "Ready to Start" sounds matt pond PA, but I don't think as good. I don't like Win Butler's hair either. Ok. Now that that's all out of the way... here are my few thoughts. I like Florence and the Machine, but am just fine with Esperanza Spalding winning Best New Artist, anyone but Justin Bieber. She is original and talented enough. How could Arcade Fire win Album of the Year but lose to The Black Keys in Best Alternative Music Album? Album of the Year is the biggest category, and one would think that the smaller, more genre-specific categories would feed into that, right? I guess not. Apparently The Black Keys album was a better album than the Album of the Year, but was not nominated in that category at all. If you think about it like a sports bracket, it's like the Bears, who lost to the Packers in the NFC Championship, somehow winning the Super Bowl, despite already losing ...? Yeah, it's confusing. I don't get it. Now, I'm not saying that The Black Keys should have won Album of the Year, because they've done better work in the past, I'm just pointing out a flaw. Umm yeah, I guess those are my thoughts. I could go on. But I didn't watch them. So yeah. The Grammy's are the least credible of any awards show. It's basically a party for the Music Industry thrown by the Music Industry to give themselves a congratulatory 'handy' for doing such a good job this year with their dwindling music sales. (Side note - Does the Music Industry really think that Internet piracy is the worst thing happening to it? Perhaps it's the total loss of musical integrity, ability to play instruments and American Idol that's the real enemy here. Although, Internet piracy does really get in the way of this award show. It's hard to pick the winner simply by album sales anymore.) By the way, does anyone know who won the best Hawaiian Album this year? Best Native American Album? How about best New Age Album? Can anyone name ten winners out of the 109 categories? Nevermind. Recording at The Exchange 02/01/2011
So we went into the studio on Friday, and were there for a considerable amount of time. Our goal was to record two of our new songs, "Better" and "Jo/e." We were invited there by our old friend Ben Glawe, who recently started working there and it was a lot of fun. We worked hard, but it was fun. We recorded the two tracks at The Exchange. It is owned by Joe Puerta who played in the band Ambrosia and with Bruce Hornsby and The Range. He also played on some Alan Parsons Project things. There is a signature of Alan's in the basement on the wall, which is quite exciting, because as you may know he engineered The Beatles' albums Abbey Road and Let It Be, as well as Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and Atom Heart Mother (I'm not a very big Floyd fan, but they are very good sounding albums, I must admit). There is also a picture of David Bowie working in the studio. It's dated 1975, but I can't find any information regarding him being there or what he might have done. My guess is that it is dated wrongly by one year, and is in fact from 1974, because he was in Milwaukee for a tour that year for a handful of days (He played at the Milwaukee Mecca Arena on October 13th, had the previous day off and didn't play again until the 16th in Detroit). Regardless it was probably some early tracking or demo work for one of three albums, I figure (Diamond Dogs, Young Americans and maybe Station to Station if the picture is dated correctly). Here’s a picture of David Bowie (the one in the hat) in the studio control room and myself in the same room many years later. You can tell by the speaker and the pattern of the wood paneling it’s the same place. The studio used to be called Star Studios back in the day.  But anyways, back to us recording. When we got there, Ben had everything set up. The grand piano we were going to be able to use was already miced. The mics were all set up for the drum kit to be in place too. The grand sounded wonderful and you’ll see once we are done with the tracks. We were also able to use some other fun gear in the studio. We were able to utilize the studio’s Hammond B3 and its Leslie too. We had brought our own cheap synthesizer to use for some parts, but we quickly replaced those parts with the Oberheim OB-8 that was there. It was surprisingly light weight for an analog synth and easy to use. We had thought about using the old pump organ for some parts, but ultimately chose against it. These new tracks even feature some trombone, which is a new for us. Good thing Al still remembered how to play. But everything sounds really great as of right now, and we haven’t even mixed anything. Ben has done a great job and it is clear he knows what he is doing. He even contributed an idea for a backwards recorded swell, ala the beginning of Yes’ Roundabout,which sounds awesome. We are planning on heading back into the studio tomorrow to finish added a few vocal parts and maybe to mix. So hopefully we will have two new tracks for everyone soon and maybe even a music video… The Exchange 01/19/2011
The Jeanna Salzer Band is gearing up to jump back in the studio to record a few songs pretty soon. We are to be recording it with an old friend Ben Glawe, who recorded our first recording of "Awake While the World's Asleep" a number of years ago. He works at The Exchange, which I have never been to, but from what I saw online it looks very nice. So keep an eye and an ear out for new stuff coming soon. My Favorite Albums of 2010 12/18/2010
These are my favorite albums of 2010. Below are some of my favorite tracks off of these albums.
CLICK BELOW FOR SOME OF MY FAVORITE SONGS OFF THESE ALBUMS Holiday Cheer from the Jeanna Salzer Band 12/06/2010
Here's a little video to help bring some holiday cheer to everyone out there from Alex, Jeanna and myself. It's an Irving Berlin song entitled, "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm." There are many popular versions of this song out there, including ones by Dean Martin and Ella Fitzgerald. I'm sure this version will quickly become a favorite too... well perhaps. We worked in a couple of other favorite Christmas tunes too. It features Jeanna on the thrift-store keys and myself on guitar, as well as a surprise guest. Alex, band drummer and cinematographer, shot the video and edited it. Enjoy. Yesterday I got word that Yellow Ostrich's The Mistress was going to be pressed to vinyl, and yellow vinyl to boot. This is very exciting news, for Alex Schaaf (Yellow Ostrich) and myself. Obviously it's more exciting for Alex, but still. I never would have thought I would someday be able to hear myself on vinyl. But now I can spin the 1:57 of "Hate Me Soon" (the track I play on) on my record player over and over if I want... and I do want to. Anywho, should you care to also hear it on vinyl you can pre-order it here. It is being released on Afternoon Records on February 15, 2011. Here is the single off of The Mistress, "WHALE." Listen to it. It's good. Found this just now... it actually works and sounds pretty gosh darn like a human beatbox. Here are the basics: 1) Go to Google Translate 2) Set the translator to translate German to German (or just click here, I set it up for you) 3) Copy + paste the following into the translate box: pv zk pv pv zk pv zk kz zk pv pv pv zk pv zk zk pzk pzk pvzkpkzvpvzk kkkkkk bsch 4) Click “listen” 5) Be amazed :) Apparently these sounds work really well too: zk = suspended cymbal bschk = snare pv = brush bk = bass tk = flam1 vk = roll tap kt = flam2 kttp = flam tap krp = hi hat tap pv = short roll th = better hi hat thp, ds = instant rimshot. But feel free to try your own... for example 'pssshsk tk ttsssspssshk' is one I just made up and will blow your mind, maybe. I found out about the whole thing here, but you can do your own investigation into its real origins should you dare... | About This Blog
This is about anything musical that may be occurring in my life or that is just in my mind or constantly playing in my head. ArchivesDecember 2011 CategoriesAll |
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