Update 7/27/11: Just a small update. Were finishing up on writing the new EP, and getting demos ready to have the EP produced in October by a guy with a pretty awesome track record (He's worked with two of my favorite bands ) Debut EP "Shamrocks" here http://shortofthesun.bandcamp.com/
Some rough mixes http://www.shortofthesun.com/music/Pining_Rough.mp3 http://www.shortofthesun.com/music/With_Envy_Rough.mp3
Not a big fan of the vocals to be honest, but I like the music quite a lot. Some great tones too - should sound very nice when the mix is finished. As a word of advice though, I think you should really get that triggered snare multi-sampled. Right now it sounds exactly the same every single time it's hit, which makes it way too obvious that it's not real IMO.
Update: Mixing should (hopefully) be done either today or tomorrow. And then we will be sending it in to Jamie King (worked on all of BTBAM's albums except The Silent Circus) for mastering Should just be another week after that.
ah, they've only got an upright. i want to record a piano-bass duet soon but i'd rather a baby grand somewhere
yeah i always bring up the fact that i play piano, but i never had anything to show them. now i have something to show them, but no one to show. mother fucker.
Hey Yousie I just listened to the EP. It's quite good! I'm assuming you would love feedback so I'll give you mine: -You can tell there was much effort into the song writing and arranging. Sounds like you are the keyboardist? Your playing sounds great! -Like others I don't prefer the vocalists voice but it's actually much more tolerable on some songs over others. For example on "Anything but Green" it sounds great. Maybe it's the narrow EQ and delay effects applied to his vox on this song. He kind of reminds me of the lead singer of Dredg actually. His vibrato sounds extremely unnatural and forced at times. He's not a bad singer or anything though, just not my taste the majority of the time. -I absolutely love the distorted guitar tones on this EP. It's got such a nice crunch to it but not too chunky or too lo-fi. Excellent! -Are all of the drum pieces triggered samples? I have to admit it sounds pretty artificial throughout the album. Other times it fits in well and I don't notice. -I love the diversity of songs on the EP. Sometimes songs on artists albums all kind of support their "sound". Others just try WAY too hard to change it up but it ends up sounding forced. You guys, however, blended it just right! -I like how some songs catch me off guard. they will totally takes a turn you were not expecting but it's always awesome. Good job!
Thanks man! Yeah, I am the keyboardist. The singer gets mixed feedback. I like him. He's nothing special, but he's good. He's not primarily a singer, anyway. He plays the smaller guitar parts on the album. It's mostly his band anyway. Theyve been together for years. The drummer and I only joined a year ago. The drums are triggered. Our drummer isn't too great. We actually had to cut/paste each individual drum hit in a few places to get the fills we wanted (especially those fills in Jaded when the piano comes in haha). He's only been playing for 2 years, but he's been getting better, so we definitely think he has potential. We were actually afraid of the diversity on the record. We were afraid that, like you said, it would sound too forced. But I'm glad you think it's balanced out! Our writing process is a bit unorganized. We all pretty much write down ideas in Guitar Pro and upload it to a repository we have set up. Thing is, before I joined, they had so many unused ideas up there. They wanted to use it all up. So we pretty much just mixed and matched. The first piano riff in Jaded was pretty much the only thing I had a hand in writing, which is a funny story. I wrote that riff years ago, back when I was big on metal, so I had imagined it as a more metally riff. But I could never figure out where to go with it. Showed it to the singer, and he wrote Jaded. Even though i loved where he took it, it was such a different direction that it took us forever to finally get an arrangement that worked. I swear there are at least 20 versions of that song on the rep. Thanks for listening!
I've made you a small donation to download this. It's not much, but I wanted to show some support because it's really come out well.
awesome! thanks! Someone actually paid 1.34 for it. After the cuts that bandcamp and paypal take out, it came out to exactly a dollar. We think he did it on purpose.
Yousie, I like this stuff. Pining, the rhythmic stabs throughout this song really make it stand out. I know how hard it can be to line that stuff up in a band scenario, so I can really appreciate it. As much as I enjoyed this tune it wasn't very memorable. Emerald City, I really how it starts to layer and build up on top of your piano riff in the beginning. However, I feel there isn't enough change in dynamics and instrumentation in the first chorus, but the second one where it builds up is pretty nice - the arpeggios in the keys there are sweet. I basically just love all the synth/key features in this song. That last grooving section is my favorite part of the song. With Envy I liked the guitar riff throughout, it really reminded me of Muse in a way. It was a bit too monotonous for my taste, I really like distinctly separate sections. Jaded Again, I really like it when you have these types of keyboard intros with the vocalist. The subtle buildup throughout really makes this song shine. I like when you sort of increase the harmonic rhythm by doing a much denser and faster accompaniment. Guitar sounds really good on the outro riff. Anything But Green pyr0x mentioned this, and I have to agree, the FX on the vocals in this song aren't quite to my liking. In any case, it's still a good delivery. This is probably my least favorite song on the EP, but with that said I still enjoyed it. All of the songs are good. Overall, I just didn't make a connection with it, it may have been the lack of keyboard Shamrocks In the middle when the singer works up to that beautiful 4-3 suspension...that makes it for me, and I think that's the point where the song truly starts to shine. That iv chord @ 4:05 too...:-D so beautiful. Overall this song is just really pretty & nice. So to summarize my thoughts...You guys definitely has a sound and I think it's very marketable and easy to listen to. Your singer has a distinct sound and his vocal delivery is very consistent and good. The keyboards were very good, and IMO, one of the most important aspects of most all of the songs. I would like to hear more fire in your playing, though. Really, I have no complaints, except, I wish there was more variety. The mix is good, the instruments all sound great. I really enjoyed the thickness and tone of the guitars. Keep it up man. I will be donating some money when my paycheck goes through on Friday.
Your negative points actually addressed everything i was afraid of about this EP. I just couldnt figure out what it was. Glad to hear you like it overall, though. Also, there is piano in Anything But Green. But yeah, it's my least favorite as well. The ending of Shamrocks is definitely my favorite part on the entire EP. And your Muse comparison is pretty funny because I actually thought The Emerald City would get all the Muse comparisons. Also, guys, thanks for the donations. I really appreciate it.
The synth melody in the breakdown of Emerald City is so damn great. Even better once the guitars kick back in. I definitely hear why you'd expect the Muse comparison on that track though. That said, it still stays the right side of sounding too much like them.
Haha that actually didn't cross our minds. The idea is that we wanted people to keep listening to it. Like "oh it's over. WAIT NO IT'S REWINDING O SHIT IT'S STARTING OVER CONTINUOUS PLAYTHROUGH FUCK I CAN'T STOP LISTENING" something like that.
This is good stuff, is it a concept album about 1700s Ireland or something? Judging by the song titles
Billy is our singer Me(1:57:53 PM): so there's someone on my forum who says he knew frank in HS lol Billy(2:09:40 PM): haha Billy(2:10:08 PM): he might have links to any of us if that's true, we all went to the same high school Me(2:30:37 PM): http://home.comcast.net/~hankbaskett/photos/58names.jpg Me(2:30:41 PM): it's the guy tagged as Talon Me(2:30:52 PM): on the left Me(2:31:11 PM): that's from the meet up the forum had last year Billy(2:38:23 PM): hholy shit Billy(2:38:24 PM): hahaha Me(2:38:31 PM): so you do know him? Me(2:38:32 PM): lol Billy(2:38:41 PM): i'm pretty sure that dude was in my tv productions class in junior year Me(2:38:45 PM): haha amazing Billy(2:39:14 PM): he would have had to watch one of those horrible videos with me and Zack being idiots Me(2:39:34 PM): oh man lol Billy(2:39:34 PM): that's so weird Me(2:39:39 PM): better picture of him http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z223/moonman9j9/meetup/15.jpg Billy(2:39:54 PM): yeah that's gotta be him
Just a small update. Were finishing up on writing the new EP, and getting demos ready to have the EP produced in October by a guy with a pretty awesome track record (He's worked with two of my favorite bands )
