I don't think I've mentioned it here, since I hardly ever do proper posts here since baby was born, but I've changed muscial monikers. Why? Cause I want to give the new stuff a fresh start, cause I feel it's on a new level compared to the old stuff, and kind of want to ditch whatever minimal baggage I had. Case in point: workmate is genuinely interested in my music, proceeds to download the weakest, most badly-recorded material I have.

http://www.myspace.com/raidovermoscowtheband

That's it. There's one song there, pretend it's the first 'single' from an album that won't be released for yonks. 

I've made a start on the vocals for the new material, without a lot of confidence and a little frustrated the song backing tracks deserve so much better, but here's a first go: it's mixed real rough, I know the volume leves in the bridge need some riding, but let me know what you think - honestly!

Broken Windows

But at the same time, realise this is one the 'B' songs, that won't be on the main disc of the album, it's mono and I've slammed it through some brick wall compression and mp3-d it.

Enough excuses. Hit me!

Honest opinions, please... this is the backing track (ie everything minus the vocal) to Call Me Wrong, one of the songs that's going to be on the new album (1.65meg, it's 128k quality in mono). I know it's hard  to tell without the vocal melodies, but what do you think? 

I'm itching for people to hear the album, but I have 30 sets of vocals to do first... The songs have been divided into two sets - I was planning for it to be a double album proper, then as I worked on the sequencing, I noticed quickly all the better songs were naturally falling onto disc one, so decided what the hell, disc 1 will be the album, and disc 2? Um, I think it's going to be an In Rainbows kind of thing. It'll be right there to download too, but is definitely the weaker of the two. In my opinion. I suppose that makes it more like Kid A/Amnesiac, Mesmerize/Hypnotize, and Load/Reload. Okay, perhaps not that last one...

I'm the fourth person in my team of six or so to take time off this week from sickness. I know I haven't got what the guy who started the meme has got, cause he had tonsilitis, and I have no tonsils. I could do work today, but my boss said it's more important that I'm available tomorrow than tonight - presumably 'cause no one wants to do Friday nights, haha. But damn it'll be good getting to bed at a proper hour.

I've spent this morning/afternoon working on what I imagine will be the first Raid Over Moscow recording ever, an old, old song of mine called 'DNA'. I have to rewrite the entire lyric though, as it's pretty farkin' emo as it stands, and the melody could do with some work too. This is what I have so far - keep in mind the guitar solo is missing and it's a very rough mix - there's probably way too much room reverb on the drums at the moment, and I haven't gone through and EQ-d/processed everything to hell yet. Oh, and no vocals. I ran it through a brick-wall slammer without much care and saved it to low-quality mp3 too. I can definitely hear it's still my work, but it sounds so different to luna spark, being more live/guitar based. Any thoughts?

I'm going to have some lunch. All I've had to eat today is a banana, and I'm not that hungry. Hmmm.

The NZ Herald gave us this shining example of fine journalism this morning:

Headline: Labour booklet runs gauntlet in Parliament
Article: National produced the 12-page booklet, titled We're Making a Difference for Everyone, in Parliament yesterday and said it was distributed at Waikato University last week - in the regulated period.

Anyway... I haven't written in a while, I don't really know what to say... been working and demo-ing songs for a potential new band I might be forming with a guy at work, Raid Over Moscow. That would be the band's name, not his name.

WINZ are so incompetent they've driven me off the dole and back into the slave wages of retail, haha. It's less hassle working every day for peanuts than it is having to deal with those retards. Helps that we're severely understaffed at the mo, so there are plenty of hours available. I had my second interview at TV3 earlier in the week, and it was really casual, and I've got a good feeling about it... fingers crossed, since the job title include pretty much the three words I was hoping for in any job I managed to get - online, news and editor - so if I don't like it, then who knows what I'm meant to do with my non-rocksstar life, haha.

Had our first couple of gigs with fill-in drummer Matt, at Fordes and Dogs Bollix (last night). Went good. We need some new material though, damnit. I'm sick of playing the same damn songs in the same order. There's one new one in the set, Realistic Computers, which is breaking it up a bit.

Mark showed me two of the funniest things I've seen on Youtube in recent times: Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel's (don't go, hear me out) pseudo break-up/fued involving one Matt Damon. Part One and Part Two. First one is good, but the second... is truly awesome. But you have to watch the first to make sense of the second, so don't go skimping on the bandwidth.

Alright, I'm off to work out the chords to these songs I've demo-ed.


TOP ALBUMS OF THE LAST FORTNIGHT!

1. Sia - Some People Have Real Problems
2. Replacements - Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out The Trash
3. Midlake - Trials of Van Occupanther
4. Liam Finn - I'll Be Lightning
5. Kinky (Reina)
6. Vampire Weekend  - S/T