Well the answer is that a Glycerin song, Motionless, will be featured on tonight’s show! Word on the streets is that it will be the opening song.
We’re quite curious what hijinks those wacky Jersey kids will be doing during the tune.

Other Glycerin’s song’s (Freeway, Strangers Waiting, Free, and Serenade) have also appeared on past episodes of everyone’s favorite guilty pleasure. Freeway’s appearance means that every song from Motionless has now been on TV. w00t, w00t!

To celebrate this we’ve just released a brand new version of Freeway. It’s called Let’s Go For A Ride and is a Matt Harris mix. Matt (of The Posies) and Rich M took the song in a whole new direction.

Lastly, Anna’s other awesome project, Little Birds of Los Angeles, has a show on Thursday, February 3 at 9:00pm at the Bootleg Theater, opening for the equally awesome Sugar & Gold

Here’s a great write up at KQED.

Posing for two circa 04/10

Anna is due any day. We @ the Glycerin compound are very happy for Robbie and Anna.

I am personally happy someone near me is naming their new arrival Max. I’ve been trying to talk any expectant parent w/in my orbit apply this awesome name to their spawn.

Not only that, the full name is Max Strong. Brilliant.

Here’s a preview:

Max plotting his debut

Anna and I have been recording a bunch of vocals for the last few months. This would insure I would have plenty of songs to work on while she was on paternity leave.

Singing for Two

It was was different approach for us. We usually record final versions of vocals in the later stages. Heck, the lyrics are often finalized in the 11th hour. For several of these current tracks, we had the barest idea down (tempo, melody and an anemic piano accompaniment) when she sang them. I now have over a dozen songs work on.

We’ll be sharing a new song soon!

Palm Springs Palm Trees - Indigenous?

Shorting the Market

This is the first time I’ve been able to record on an SSL console. This event couldn’t go w/o incident, as one of the talk back mics shorted. Here’s a shot of Harper intentionally shorting the console to debug it.
The geek boy in me was super impressed. Any guy that can take charge and debug 800k console by shorting it with a pair of needle nose pliers deserves my awe.

More vids and pics of recording coming soon!

Bring on the desert heat….

Rich connected with composer JooWan Kim on Craigslist, of all places. They hit it off and were able to communicate musically right away. JooWan wrote 5 counterpoint accompaniments in ~2 weeks, an incredible feat, IMHO. Rich would convert the score files to MIDI and test drive the results with our songs. In each case, JooWan nailed it.

With string arrangements by JooWan in hand, Rich and I headed up to Berkeley, CA, to record the string quartet. It was also the first time that we were meeting JooWan in person. All of our prior dealings during the composition of the sting arrangements had been on-line or over the phone. So it’s was really exciting to meet the composer and to record the strings.

We arrived Friday nite, saying over a nite in SF with our good buds, Lisa & Ryan of Techno Squirrels. We had great Chinese food in China Town, and then went to City Lights Bookstore.

Rich, Lisa, Anna and Ryan in SF.

On Saturday morning, we all met at Reclaim-Music Studios, in Berkeley at 9am. After Valentino, the owner of the studio and the sound engineer setup and fine tuned the mics and positioned the players, the recording began.

Here are the members of the quartet: Adaiha MacAdam-Somer - Cello; Alexa Beattie - Viola; Liana Berube - Violin; Noah Strick - Violin

By 2pm, we were done and had cranked out 2-3 takes of all the pieces. The players, engineer composer were all really great, bringing their talents and good cheer to help Glycerin realize their musical goals.

Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, Noah Strick, Alexa Beattie, Liana Berube, Rich, JooWan Kim, Anna

It was a very successful trip, and it was so nice to work with folks that were so professional and kind. Rich and I are looking forward to the next trip up to Berkeley!

Like all new endeavors, Beneath the Surface, is both a continuation and departure from our previous work. While one can hear the DNA of our previous songs, Blind Spot and Andi’s Song, the new EP extends that sound, featuring Anna’s soaring voice nestled in an ether-pop mix of electronic sounds and lush string arrangements.

Speaking of strings, those were arranged by JooWan Kim. We loved working with this gifted artist. Check out a video of one of our favorite pieces by him, Ave M. You can read more about JooWan at our website.

We also love to work with Kris Giampa, who mixed and mastered Beneath the Surface. He is also the founder of Red Session Records. Check out his latest release, a compilation of 24 RS tracks, Best of 24, which includes three Glycerin remixes on Beatport.

You can listen live on iTunes radio (filed under Alternative, Spread Radio Live) or at spreadradiolive.com.

We all have built-in antennas. They pick up signals and noise, conscious and subconscious. We also have tuners, which we must maintain with vigilance. Otherwise, we follow noise or weak signals and get bogged down with futile activities.

Inspiration is an antenna. Keith Richards was known to raise his hand and say, “Incoming!” when a song was requesting manifestation.  Out popped the riff to Brown Sugar. Clearly, Keith had proper alignment.

I’ve recently undergone a deep musical “antenna realignment”. That’s why our new EP release, Beneath the Surface, sounds so different from Motionless.

Just in case you were wondering.

Me: What happens if you don’t launch or delay the launch?

A: You get fired. No deadlines can slip.

Me: Even if the scope changes?

A: The scope always changes.

Me: Is that why everyone seems so unhappy? I never see smiles or jocularity in the office….

A: There’s no room in the scope for smiles, let alone laughs.