They’re here! Those two news items I talked about in the last post? Well, websites for both are now live.
Distinct Kicking Motion can be found here: http://distinctkickingmotion.net
The website for my music education venture is live as well! I will start posting videos in the near future. Check out Guy With Guitars right here: http://guywithguitars.com
See you soon!
Posted in Music
Wow…. been a while, huh? Sorry about that. I’ve been playing regularly, but I guess my job has kinda taken this stuff out of me. I’ve been coming up with all sorts of ideas and riffs, but haven’t actually taken the time to record any of it. I will, though, and soon.
NEWS PART 1: Distinct Kicking Motion will return – in fact, it looks like I have a bass player lined up! Now the hard part: finding a drummer… But the whole band idea is starting to gel even more and I hope to solidify the band and get it off the ground when I return to Rochester in the summer.
NEWS PART B: Yes, you read that right. I’m leaving my job – and central Ohio – at the end of June. So what am I gonna do? Well, I’m going to try to be my own boss. My new music education venture will start to trickle out online in the coming days/weeks/months. Stay tuned! I’ll keep you posted here.
Well, I think that’s it. See you all soon.
P.S.: Yes, I realize it’s April Fool’s Day. This is not one of those April 1 joke posts, though. Not intentionally, anyway.
Posted in News
Well, friends, it’s that time of year again. It’s Christmas time… and most of you know what that means. Yes, it’s time for me to dust off the ol’ Christmas music book and skewer four more songs! This year’s batch is one of the shortest I’ve ever done, only longer than the first real batch I did with Mike Huurman in 2008. Unlike last year, though, I’m way ahead of the game this time around, so I’ll update this blog with more detailed descriptions of these tracks. In the meantime, though, here’s the entire EP, free to download, in one convenient spot. Enjoy!
All of my Christmas recording traditions are here, including the harmonized guitar lead and the “holy crap” sound file… twice! This year provided its own set of unique challenges, though. Since I now live in an apartment in central Ohio, I could not use real drums this time – these drums are all as a result of Toontrack programs. Everything else is real. This batch also has a first for these things – a guest guitar solo! My friend Mike Sukhenko played the solo in “Winter Wonderland”. Thanks, Mike!
Instrument recording and Drum programming by Ed at Thea Partment, Columbus, OH, November 2012. Vocals recorded at The House, Rochester, NY November 23-24 2012. Additional vocals on “Winter Wonderland” by Rob Klingenberger. Guitar solo on “Winter Wonderland” by Mike Sukhenko. Mike’s solo recorded in Rochester, NY. Mixed at Thea Partment, Columbus, OH.
For those of you who don’t know, I teach private lessons as my main job. I’ve been doing this for years, but now it’s turned into a full-time gig and exclusively on piano. As a result, I’ve been subjected to variations on the same three chords for months. Whee (Take THAT, punk rock. Piano method books use THREE chords, not four)! This “primary chord” idea was bound to stick with me in some way shape or form… and here is the result. It started as a nice little clean riff using the minor primary chords…
Sometimes, music just expands in a way you don’t expect. That’s really the only explanation of how this guy turned into seven minutes. Clearly, two influences show in this song: Opeth and Dethklok. Love ’em both, seen ’em live once… truly amazing stuff. Opeth, in particular, is the band that really got me back into metal when I was still in college, so they’ll always stick with me. Enjoy!
Posted in Uncategorized
Hello again. After an inexplicable week off, I’m back on the Distinct Kicking Motion… uh… kick… again. ‘Twas good to get crackin’ on some new material, I must admit. I have some good (well, I think they’re good, anyway) riffs coming down the pipeline, too, so this should be fun…
So… “The Call of the Punch Bowl”. What’s the story here? Well, it’s fairly simple. This song, like good punch, was made entirely from scratch. I booted up my recording software before I knew what I was going to play – I just said “OK, it’s time. I don’t need to take another week off. Let’s go.” The first riff that came to me was, well, the first riff. I had been doing a lot of “2 against 3” ideas, so it was well past time for a “3 against 4” riff, wasn’t it? I also decided that I was overdue for a clean section, so there it is about halfway through. Overall, I’m happy with this one. Who knows – maybe lyrics will wind up extending the thing… Anyways, enjoy and I’ll see you next time.
P.S.: Distinct Kicking Motion is now on ReverbNation. Check it out!
Posted in Music
One thing I like to do, as a writer, is essentially take requests. I’ve always thought that other people (musicians and non-musicians alike) have some great ideas, so I make sure to listen when somebody shares something. That’s led me to all sorts of stuff, from the opening bit on Dancing For Patriotism to the whole Bowling Is Metal album… even taking a lot of musical suggestions through the course of 30 Clubs in 30 Songs. Well, the latest instance happened when, about a week ago, I received a text message from my cousin Steve:
“Can you compose me an epic ringtone? Sayyyy 30 seconds? Maybe less?”
Well, Steve: Done and done. Here are two mixes: One as normal and one with a high pass filter at 150 Hz tailored for cell phones. Enjoy!
Posted in Music, Pointless Nonsense
Well, make that 3-for-3. This one definitely turned into a full song… and in pretty short order, too. Of course, that’s ironic because this is the longest song I’ve made since the last track from The Football Project.
I wanted to slow the tempo down a bit this time around – I tend to write mostly in the mid-to-uptempo range, so I thought a change of pace would be good. Luckily, the first riff I came up with for that was the main one, which I really liked right from the start. Unlike last week’s tune, I sort of let the proverbial muse take the song where it wanted to go… and before I knew it, this thing had cleared the six minute mark. Go figure, huh? Like the previous two tracks, this one needs words… and I think some synth/keyboard parts would work nicely here as well. However, I really like the riffs and how they all came together. Enjoy!
Posted in Music
Here’s the next thing. I didn’t intend for everything that I post under the DKM moniker to be a full song, but I’m 2-for-2 in that regard…
I’ve been intrigued by the whole tone scale for a long time now. Ever since I started to write a lot of metal, I’ve really wanted to mess with it to see how it works. I’ve written a few whole tone-based riffs before, but this song here takes that idea to another level – every riff is based off of the whole tone scale. It’s kinda weird sounding, but I’d like to think that it works. Like the last entry, this one needs lyrics, but it also has background vocals buried in the mix in the second half of the chorus. Enjoy!
Posted in Music
This post is a big one here. Today, I debut a brand new band-type project: Distinct Kicking Motion!
Distinct Kicking Motion, ideally, will be a progressive rock/metal band with a prevailing sense of humor to go with all the crazy chops and whatnot. With this project, I intend to do two things:
The plan is to release something new every Friday, most likely first on my brand new SoundCloud page. This is located here: http://soundcloud.com/distinctkickingmotion
So, when will the first song be released? How about right now! Here’s an unfinished – I say that because it needs lyrics – track called “Hamdingers”. Enjoy and I’ll see you next time.
I guess I’ll just leave THIS here, then…
Posted in Music, News, Pointless Nonsense
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