SPEAKING IN CODE!

so i have been waiting for this a couple years now, but finally on april 23rd we all get to see it premier in boston. i’m talking about Speaking In Code, a documentary by Amy Grill that follows several figures in the electronic music scene, from Modeselektor to Ellen Allien to the Kompakt records crew and few people in between including basstownian David Day.

Click on the flyer below to get tickets!

You don’t want to miss this!

Official trailer:

speaking of david day, what an extraordinary dude. i first met him when he wrote for the boston phoenix and he found my mixtape on the counter of Proletariat and gave me my first press ever as a dj. he booked jeff’s and mine old band, the peasantry, at the great scott at a party called basstown a little bit later on. sadly. jeff was hit pretty bad by a car (he is ok now obviously) and the band had to pull out but i ended up playing one of my first club dj gigs. david asked me to join the resident crew at basstown and basically started my career. many great things came from that, including opening up for my hero’s and meeting some of my favorite people who were part of the basstown crew as well as getting to present new local groups to be featured at the saturday night allston party. one of those groups was passion pit, which lead to being asked to join the group 8 months later, which lead to my eventual absence from basstown haha. anyways, i owe a ton to david. and i’m really happy to see the film he worked on so hard (and is featured in) and i hope it helps to get him some of the recognition he deserves for his relent-less and self-less commitment to the boston music scene.

so check it out if you can, i know i will if it isnt sold out already…

east or

happy easter everyone that celebrates easter!

some of us went home for easter, i’m in maryland. holidays are great.

been working on a mix for annie mac a lot lately that takes all the seperate tracks from the new album and remixing them into a 5 minute mini-mix. then i’m gonna sync 5 minutes of visuals to that and it’s gonna be out probably sometime in may right before the album comes. i’m really excited about it,  i will try my best to not make it boring and amateur.

back to boston in the a.m. and back to reheasals. i think things are going a lot better now, we have 7 of the new songs down and the rest will come together.

we debate a lot about whether using a laptop is responsible in our live show. ayad is convinced i have ruined every show ever because of laptop and audio interface problems. it paramounted in austin when the shaky stage kept making my firewaire cables come loose and killing the drum machine and i was so delirious form the heat i threw my computer and knocked over my snare in the process. it’s never been the same since then… i’m pretty sure it’s only been a few shows and that the hiccups were my fault, not the computer’s, i mean, thousands of bands realy on a laptop every night. granted, ayad is right, a really rich band get’s pro tools HD and taxes less of the computer’s CPU. stewart copeland even uses a complete mac tower and digital performer rig, which maybe makes sense since i use a motu interface. ugh, i wish soundsystems could just listen to our minds, things would be so much more reliable and so much more boring/annoying.

on a somewhat related note, ableton live 8 is completely brilliant. nothing huge has changed but the whole zoom thing and grouping and new warping algorithm sounds sooo good. i just need to get plogue bidule up and running again and i think i could disappear for 5 years with a computer and speakers and be the happiest person on  the planet.

have a good nite innernets.

practice day 1

rehearsal went ok today. we are throwing a surprise bday party for karl from yes giantess (ayad’s roomate). hope he doesnt read thins in the next 20 minutes. have a good nite internet.

KETCHUP AND REVIVAL.

easter bunny...

So in the spirit of Easter, we are bringing this blog back from the dead.

Now anyone who knows me, knows i hate condiments. Especially Ketchup. So i will do a condensed catch-up of everything that’s happenned since the last studio blog post.

Sooo after “finishing” in the studio (we had to reference masters while on the road…we didn’t get to meet Greg Calbi… o well) we did a short Midwest and East coast tour with Cale Parks and Paper Route. Pontiac, Michigan was the first show and we didn’t think anyone would come and despite the snow, that was one of the best shows of the tour. The snow decided to follow us through Chicago and Ohio to Philadeplphia (another one of my favorites) and then i got really nervous in Baltimore and DC (alot of my old friends came out which was great but i got really scared and messed up a lot, it’ll be better next time i promise) Then there was New York where we went on too early and the sound guy’s didn’t finish patching us in so we ruined the first two songs. Some of the bloggers hate us there anyway so im sure they loved to see us screw up, because you know, they are perfect after all… Then both Massachusetts shows in Boston and Northhampton were really really fun and the crowds were great, the Middle East show actually felt like a hometown show, which was really cool and weird a the same time (none of us are from boston we just moved here for school…)

Then there was the first european mini-tour with Bear Hands and Hockey. Despite having an engine blow up, having a spare tire stolen, having a full tank of fuel siphoned, blowing 5 bass amps, blowing the fuses at several clubs, having mike’s medicine lost in the royal mail for a week, ayad getting his visa denied by the embassy (!!!!!!) and SOMEONE SHITTING ON IAN’S AND MY LUGGAGE… we still played every show and had a blast. It was our first time playing anywhere overseas and we were pretty wide eyed the whole trip. Glascow, Dublin, Leeds, and Paris were the best shows in my opinion. Dublin was a really interesting one for me. After telling the first few dubliners i met that i’m totally Irish and my grandparents used to live on the Shannon I realized proabably every American that visits Ireland brags about their Irish heritage expecting a free pint of Guiness and a shot of Jameson, so i layed off it and amidst a crowd of people that all looked like my cousin’s i got unexpectedly homesick when a man downstairs was playing slide guitar blues and country. Which is weird because blood-wise, i was “home”.  Go figure. Paris was amazing i just wish i knew french. O and to top it off Ian and I both lost bags on our flight home and Ayad was stuck in England for a month waiting for his visa (which is a whole other level of messed up and i honestly don’t feel comfortable speaking about the details because I don’t want to risk this ever happening again to him, just know we live in a terribly racist country).

Then there was SXSW which was like the panic-attack fenzy of CMJ but 85 degrees and most of our girlfriends were there to clear our head. We learned you can’t drink before playing a tent with no breeze in that kinda heat. I think we all lost 15 pounds and 500 brain cells because of that radio room show but at least i got 3 cool new dents in my laptop! Emo’s and Stubb’s were infinitely better shows for us and then we just soaked up the preview of summer before heading back to beautiful, cold and wet Boston.

That brings us to now. We have pretty much a whole month off to rehearse and learn new songs and make the old ones better so maybe we will sound closer to a real band by May. I gotta thank Kerry, Cliff, and Jordan who were our tour mangers/sound engineers on these three past trips. They all are awesome people with so much experience that really helped us figure out how to do this touring thing right and if it weren’t for them i doubt we would have made it to half of our shows.

i guess we will be updating form the rehearsal space till we go on tour. Ahhhhh my own bed….

[fin]

Well, its just me now.

The record is done. I mean– it’s pretty much done. Kind done. We finished mixing about a week+ ago, and actually got the thing mastered a week ago today. It sounds amazing. However, and there usually is one with me, there was one track that didn’t make it in time for mastering, and actually had to be mixed this week, and will be mastered now, and thrown on the front of the record. That’s what Alex & I are doing right now. Putting the fiinishing touches on the last mix, and sending it off to get added to the record.

The band left the studio about 10 days ago, to do a quick little run to Chicago and back. Last night they were in town, and everyone reconvened @ Bowery Ballroom. It was a good time, although less of a good time this AM when I woke up.

Sheesh. So  this was quite a record to make. I often leave albums feeling this way, but this one in partiucluar was a monster to make. To think how it started out, and where it ended up is surreal. I orginally sat down with the intention of  writing a long drawn out, sappy summary of this process, but in the end I think I’ll keep it short and sweet: It was a blast to make, and I just hope people enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed being holed up in the studio w/ these young, really talented, really inspirational musicians.

Officially signing off for ‘Pits and lands’. ’s been real.

-cz-

cheggit

a smattering of sorts, of course

To be completely honest, I have no idea where or how to begin this post.

 

The past few days have been outstanding in terms of production and work, all while our spirits and bodies have begun to break down. We are tired — really tired. But the minute it dawned on us that we were easing our grip on the bars, we sat down, reflected upon it together, collectively rejuvenated, and got back to work. People new to this kind of thing, like us, learn from the Chris Zanes and Alex Aldis of the recording world that the light at the end of the tunnel should not be the light that symbolizes relief from the inevitable exhaustion and irritation of work in such close proximity to others, but accomplishment and achievement as a group of friends and artists who believe in each other. It is the end of a specific period in your life where you’ve not just learned a great deal about what you’re supposed to do and how you’re supposed to do it, but why you do it in the first place. Personally, my love of working and producing music has increased to an almost obsessive degree because of this great and unbelievable opportunity. We are so lucky to be working with everyone we work with because everyone we work with is brilliant and caring and understands us. It’s a rare thing in the music world. We are lucky and grateful. But, in this instance, it’s people like Chris and Alex that take guys like us in Passion Pit and help us fully realize and bring to life the things we hear in our heads and believe are only the stuff of dreams. Personally, as a songwriter, this is what I live for, and I could not be more sincere. 

The whole process is rather romantic in nature, and this post is perhaps the product of a true over-analytical histrionic, but it needs to be said. Literally, we are at our wits end, and this is what it comes down to — this kind of retrospective analysis. 

 

All this being said, we have had some AMAZING GUESTS . . .

Firstly, Cale Parks (who is touring with us this month and into February, hitting the rescheduled Canadian shows as well) came in and played vibes on a few songs. I have been listening to Aloha for years and years, and I sort of geeked out a bit when we went out to eat prior to his session. My friend Frank turned me onto Aloha when I was a freshman in high school, and since then I have been enamored. They have remained, to this day, one of my long-standing favorite bands, and Cale’s solo music extends into pop territory that is colorful, hypnotic, and just plain well written. I have always been such a huge fan and having him on the record was enthralling and really fun. His new record is amazing and i’m so excited to watch him play every night. Another reason for you to come see us on our upcoming tour!  You can check some of it out here. 

 

here’s a pretty awesome music video too:

 

***************
The brilliant, lovely, incredibly talented, and unwaveringly supportive Sofia Degli Alessandri came and sang some backups as well. I’m really glad she took the time to come in. Her voice is not only versatile, gentle, and pretty, but I’ve been meaning to have her work on a few songs for awhile now and we finally got around to doing it. It’s about time. We love you, Sofia. Thanks. 
 
 

***************
Paul Hogan (of Frances) has been laboring over a string arrangement that is so gorgeous and has so surpassed not just my expectations of what could be done in the short amount of time given, but the expectations of someone who I had just recently met and had never worked with before. He’s a genius — plain and simple. His work ethic and enthusiasm is infectious and I wish I could be as smart as him so I could write parts half as brilliant (even in such a short amount of time with such little guidance!). It’s as though he read my mind, and then improved upon the idea. It was extremely humbling and it was an honor working with him. The string players he brought in to work with us were excellent too. They were tired, but fought through it. They were excellent. Believe they played on Paul’s new album which is absolutely gorgeous and needs to be heard.
On that note, Julia from Frances also stopped by to lay down some really pretty vocal layers and “nuggets.” She was amazing and I really look forward to working with her again sometime in the near future. 

You can check out more about Frances here

 

***************

Then, there was this. The monster. The PS 22 chorus, consisting of 55 amazing, wonderful, talented, wide-eyed kids that love pop music, that love to sing, and have remarkably good ears. Their harmonies were spot-on after, let’s say, 2 or three tries. They were so quick, so professional, just unbelievable. Keep in mind that these are tired, over-heated, thirsty fifth graders, pumping out take after take after take for something they hadn’t even heard before. It took a monstrous amount of planning, but with the help of  the Chris, the amazing and inspiring Greg B (who directs the chorus), a few very nice chaperones, and the help of the Gigantic Label and Tell All Your Friends PR firm, we got the whole floor handled — 15 devoured giant pizzas and all. 

To properly convey how moving this experience was for us is virtually impossible. I have been waiting to do this since I began this project. The character behind the Passion Pit voice modeled a euphoric, blissed-out children’s choir — that youth and energy. It was all there. We were so afraid that we were going to be unable to obtain a chorus, or that we were going to get a choir that was overly professional, that didn’t get pop, have any feel, that didn’t get the real sing-along feel that we were going for. Greg B’s energy was amazing, and he even let me direct the kids for one of the hooks in a song, and as I punched the air to signal the intensity of the parts, the kids began to follow me. Take after take, it got tighter and tighter. It felt so unbelievable to have the exact sound that I wanted coming through the headphones, directly connected with my movement and my idea for the songs development. It’s just always been a dream of mine, really. 

Here is me singing in the soprano section (with a giant red bull in hand, no doubt)
 

The kids sang on three songs, took breaks, hung out, we talked, I answered some questions, I asked some questions. I couldn’t believe how mature they were for their age, how well they were behaved (55 kids!!!), and how much they loved singing songs by Bjork, Keane, Coldplay, you name it. So. Cool.

We were exhausted by the end of the day, and so was Greg, but these kids made the record what we had been dreaming it to be, as they are integral parts of three songs. At the end, the kids sang the Mary O’Hara sample in Sleepyhead as I belted out the first verse into the chorus. It was a really fun way to end our session together – it made me like the song a hell of a lot better, actually. Everyone clapped, smiled, shook hands, hugged, and we ended the session knowing that we not only got the best chorus we could possibly have asked for, but we made some new friends that will more than likely being showing up in the near future on a stage in NYC    ;)  

But most importantly, with the school systems having virtually no music programs whatsoever, seeing a program like this exist at all made me feel like there was some hope. We need more Greg B’s in this world. Until this situation, it had not occurred to me how seriously bad the arts are suffering in public schools. This, of course, makes the PS 22 situation even more impressive.

 

 

***************

Now, it’s finishing vocals for one more song, cleaning up a few things here and there, mixing, and we’re done. That sounds like a lot, but we’re there. This is the sprint to the finish line. It may sound like one, but this also isn’t a final post. It’s just one of those, you know, really intense posts that get written every once in awhile. 

That band hasn’t been here for awhile, it’s mostly been just me and Nate, but today I missed them the most, because today was probably one of the most reinvigorating days I’ve had as a songwriter and a musician. It’s a been a rocky  week, but we’ve made it through the hardest part. I can’t wait to get the whole band back together again. It’s seriously time. 

 

 

Time and time again I am reminded that it takes a lot of difficulties to distinguish the easy things in life. For now, I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts, as I’ve finally been able to recognize all that it has given me.

This is one of those times where you just admit how lucky you are.
Yep, I’m pretty lucky.

 

- Michael

Erm, we’re still here….kind of.

I forgot about our ‘blog’. Eesh. It has been an insane last chunk of time..

We finally started mixing the record over the weekend, and I think its sounding amazing. This is pretty much that last full week in the studio, and there is a mix of pure un-adulterated exhaustion,  total awe and exuberance over how good this record really has come  out, and a bit of sadness that this is our last week together hanging out everyday, and getting to make a bunch of stuff together;(

 

BUT, ’s all good! We have some very BIG things up our sleeve for this week, and it’d be a sin to throw them out into the blogosphere now, when we can post some kick ass proof that we really pulled it off later.

 

Thats all for now, as I need to seriously ‘get to it’.

cz

officially the best new sleepyhead video

GOODBYE EL PELON

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/01/fire_destroys_7.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed3

we are gonna miss you el pelon. best burrito in boston, in my opinion. our thoughts go out to the employees of the 7 restaurants that burnt down.