Saber - They Say

The last of the three songs I recently finished:

  They Say by Saber (Major Awesome)

CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!

Saber - Pilgrim Struts

Alright, here's the next one:

  Pilgrim Struts by Saber (Major Awesome)

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Three (3) NEW Songs! - First up: 'The Palette'

I FINALLY got around to finishing three of my latest tracks. It took way too long, but now I am able to present to you a bunch of songs that I began recording last year and mastered this year. It was a long journey, but I feel it was worth it.

I'm going to start with The Palette. Enjoy! Lyrics & more info on the song after the jump.

  The Palette by Saber (Major Awesome)

CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!

Major Awesome on MyIndieLifeTV

I just got a message on Youtube from the guys over at MyIndieLife, notifying me that they featured one of my videos in their latest episode. They presented the bands Everything Everything and Delphic (at about the 4 minute mark), and they have included a very short clip of me playing Doubt on guitar. Check out Ep 39 of MyIndieLife right here:



And here's the link to my cover of Doubt.


... whoo! I'm so psyched right now - just the fact that my video got noticed and picked for some internet television feels extremely awesome. Gotta work on some more stuff, I think...

Major Awesome - The Factory Worker's Blues

I just spontaneously made a new song. I call it: The Factory Worker's Blues.
Despite being completely improvised, it tells a little story. What does it tell you?

Enjoy!



PS: No time and mood for updates lately, it'll change someday.

Song Updates

I revisited some songs tonight and reworked them a little. The more I listened to them the more I found things to tweak on and things to add. They will never be finished, I guess...

Right. I changed a few things about Got It Right by my band Awesome.
I disliked the drums from the very beginning, so I tried getting a little more punch out of them. I'm still not satisfied, not at all, but it sounds a little more the way I want it.
Also I tweaked the volume of some parts here and there, I hope it sounds a bit more fitting overall.
The final thing: I rerecorded the guitar solo (remember: it was a first take to begin with), because there were a few mistakes that stopped the flow of the solo. Now it should sound more thought through, if still a little rough (I actually dig that sound).
There's just one thing I absolutely hate... I just can't get the bass drum to sound through. You might hear a faint bass drum in the distance, but that's it. Meh... I'll work on that later.

The other song I modified is The Grass Is Listening which I just put up recently. While listening to it again I noticed that one major element was missing: The Timpani.
That's right, I actually had a timpani in there to accentuate the timing, and I absolutely love it. When I was composing the song it was one of those things that just flew at me because it sounded so right.
Also I added a single distant guitar that I actually played (no synthesizer here). It adds just about the right amount of depth I wanted.

So what do you guys think? I put both versions of both songs up so if you like the one version better, you may keep it.

Again: Enjoy!

"Time together is just never quite enough"

You might remember my little experiment with my guitar effect board a while ago, where I arranged Delphics Doubt to play on one guitar with help of a looping device. Sure enough I got hooked on the concept and have been experimenting ever since.

Some of you might know Owl City. There's a few songs I like but this is one of his best as far as I know:



It's really simple too - despite having many layers of different instruments it can mostly be played with the intro riff playing throughout. With that in mind I arranged the song for my guitar and looping device, but I also wanted to add some vocals. Since my original choice of a female singer won't be available for a while I simply made an instrumental out of the song.

Hope you enjoy!

Attention all units of the Solar Federation...

WE HAVE ASSUMED CONTROL -

Over Guitar Hero!



*enter air-guitaring rock pose here* Hell yeah!

You might remember one of my older posts, were I got together with a few friends and we had a Guitar Hero night. Afterwards I had Diegos Xbox360 over for a few days and played the hell out of the games' story modes, when I discovered that one had Rush's Yyz in it. I was so extremely flashed that I could've died right then.

Now imagine my excitement upon seeing this trailer for Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock. I'm not much into that "warriors" thing (Brütal Legend for that matter wouldn't interest me that much), but this game has me dancing through the room. I'm a giant Rush fan, always have been, and now they're making a game about the story of their album 2112 - which means the developers are actually using every song from 2112 in its entirety.
I'm so turned on right now.

Also, there's this clip:



The setlist seems to be very excellent - this being the first time since the first Guitar Hero that I feel confident to say that about any game of that kind. Money For Nothing by Dire Straits, No Way Back by Foo Fighters, fucking Bohemian Rhapsody!

I don't own any of the modern consoles, and never have I regretted that - until now. Consider me a lunatic, but this is the first game that I would actually consider buying a new console for. I won't do it of course - but who knows, maybe in a few months or years, there'll be a bundle with a console and Warriors Of Rock for a buck or two...

Oh well, one can dream.

So what do you think? Is the setlist alright? Would you ever consider a Guitar Hero/Rockband game worth buying a console for?

Delphic - Doubt

This is Delphic, a pretty new band (formed in 2009, if I recall correctly), and below you see their third single, Doubt, off their debut album Acolyte.




After watching Subdivisions remade by Jacob Moon a several hundred times now, I felt inspired to experiment a little as well, since my guitar pedal board has a built-in looping device. It's a little clumsy and leaves basically no room configuration, but with some effort you can build yourself small tunes and play along.
What I did was try and remake aforementioned Doubt to play it on a single guitar using only one looping device and several (three) different guitar sounds. This is the result:






Yes, my singing voice kinda sucked. But I swear it was the low quality mic! And I was hoarse as well. Also it was late and I didn't want to annoy the neighbours. And... yeah.

Rush - Subdivision

Now here's something amazing.

There's this Canadian band called Rush; it's probably the band that has influenced me the most in my musical and lyrical development. I have been listening to their progressive, melodic and diverse rock music since the day I grasped the concept of music (thanks Dad).

Rush wrote a song called Subdivisions during the early 80s, an epic piece of synthesizer-heavy, rhythmically complex structure.



The reason why I want you to know that song is because it got covered. Usually this fact alone isn't extraordinary, but this is different. Check this out:

There's this guy on a roof top while the sun sets, practically playing two guitars at once, singing along, recording his voice on a dictaphone for later use, playing bass drum and nailing some kickass guitar solos. His guitar playing is beautifully done, to say the least; the structure and key of his version of Subdivision are different yet absolutely fitting; his voice is magnificent. This song is perfection.
 


Oh, and Rush asked him to play this rendition of their song for their induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame this month.It's that good.

Sunshine Playlist: Part #2

There's a guy called Justin King; he's a guitar player and fairly unacquainted to the radio-consuming public (I count that as a good thing, mind you). He gained some internet fame though, partly due to his incredible guitar work and rather unique style, and partly because of his beautiful melodies in the music he makes.
King started with acoustic guitar and recorded an album completely with acoustic, instrumental compositions, called Le Bleu. One song in particular evokes certain images in my mind when listening to it, and it is one of my very favourite songs to relax or enjoy the sun to. This song is called Paris Morning, and you can check it out below (after the jump).
CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!

Robbie McIntosh

A while ago I stumbled across this video: John Mayer doing an amazing cover that seriously is way better than Tom Petty's original.



(watch a better version here without the lyrics)

I wondered who that sympathetic fellow with the white hair and the steel guitar was, and found out that this is an Englishman who has played with more than 30 well-known acts. Most prominently he provided guitar for The Pretenders and Sir Paul McCartney, but he also played with (for?) Norah Jones, Mike and the Mechanics, Joe Cocker, Roger Daltrey, Talk Talk, Mark Knopfler and - holy crap - Boyzone. Dude's been around.




McIntosh playing a small solo piece on stage with Paul McCartney. It's a tiny joy of melodical sweetness, seriously, I really like it. It doesn't seem like much, but he sounds like two guitars at once, which makes this song almost classical. And he delivers the melody with such a breathtaking precision that it's just a joy to watch.
Little anecdote: McIntosh was a very good friend of Douglas Adams, who actually urged McIntosh to record a solo album. From his homepage:

"Prior to [recording his band's debut], at his mate Douglas Adams' insistence, Robbie had recorded all his instrumental tunes. "This was a collection of compositions and arrangements that I just played for fun at home to amuse myself. Douglas insisted that I record them. This collection became the album Unsung, which was to be my second album, even though it was recorded before Emotional Bends."

 Douglas Adams and Robbie McIntosh jamming away on Adams' 42nd birthday. Did you notice Adams was a lefty? Never knew. RIP.

Image belongs to RobbieMcIntosh.com.

 While a master with the acoustic guitar, McIntosh shows some intense skills on the slide guitar and the bottle neck. Watch in awe:





Incredible. A nice blues and a beautiful sound due to the metal bottle neck, and again just perfect precision. I'm really not a fan of anything country-like, but this is grand.

Something else I found out: one of the initial band members of McIntosh's band project was Pino Palladino, a bass guitar grandeur with a long life of stage presence. He also accompanied John Mayer on his Try!-Tour, where he and Steve Jordan (Steve Jordan!) formed the rhythm section to Mayer's guitar. The videoclip from the beginning of this post was taken from Mayer's live DVD Where the Light is, where Mayer performed an acoustic set, a Trio set and a set with his pop band, ending the show with all his band members on stage for three more songs - reuniting Palladino and McIntosh on stage. I know it's not important or anything, but I really like how music always seems to come full circle, this being another good example.