What happens when Jagged Spiral consumes too much alcohol during a practice session?
This.
Mon.
Don’t ask why my Jamaican sounds Italian.
Yours Darkly,
metal!!
Paging through Rift magazine brings me to the following observation: it’s simply inconceivable to me that anyone would react to the bands being reviewed the same way I did the first time I heard “Ride the Lightning.”
I know how biased and unfair a statement that is, but it’s true. This doesn’t just go for weird indie bands with asymmetrical haircuts; it goes for music in general, these days. Slipknot kinda rocks, but there’s no *atmosphere*, no sense of real purpose. Slipknot doesn’t offer the kind of escape Metallica or Napalm Death did, and you can be damn sure the Current doesn’t either. Maybe it’s that I’m older, jaded and cynical. All of these things are true.
But, dammit, what happened to music?
-josh
Shanghai-ed
It was a strange weekend.
There we were; Josh, Colin and myself, all minding our own business and peacefully enjoying the scenery at BJ’s bar in Minneapolis. I had just finished my standard poison of choice, and ordered a second: Tequila, Whisky, Diet Coke, twist of orange, dash of cinnamon (I haven’t named it yet)
Next thing we knew, we were on a Russian Trawler, tied to chairs and being interrogated by a group which I think was the Siberian/Lesbianese Army. Whoever they were, they did not shave, had horrible breath and were as unintelligibly drunk as we were. (We later agreed that the food was slightly better than at BJ’s bar.)
Sunday night, we were returned. Our band manager, Sugar, gave us a quite severe lecture on safety, sobriety, international law, and the Geneva Convention. She showed us a letter which seems to suggest that since our manager wasn’t responding to the ransom notes, our captors decided to return us. We couldn’t figure out which one of us was “the loud one” although I probably snore the loudest of us three, especially after drinking.
I’m sure there is a moral to this story, but I’ll be damned if I know what it is. Probably “Don’t mix Tequila with Whisky unless you know what you are doing.” Hell we’re professionals, and we still got Shanghai-ed.
Yours Darkly,
A Jagged Jam (Take Two)
Another night of slaughtering our own works. This time with videotape to prove it. After grinding through “I Am Death”, “Hallowed Ground” and “Forced Entry” we took a shot at “Monsters” and came to several decisions:
- We suck.
- We suck just a teeny-tiny bit less than yesterday.
- My Bass simply can’t handle being tuned down to B for the song I Am Death. How we actually recorded the song with this bass in that tuning is beyond me. So until I replace my bass guitar, we won’t be performing songs in that low key. It’s a shame, because I Am Death is quite fun to play. I’m in the market for a new bass, but my bank account is not.
After the practice, we tried jamming on some new material, and I came to a couple more decisions:
- It’s a whole lot easier to structure songs using cut-n-paste in Sonar. Identify the verse, the chorus, the bridge, the key changes Here and Here, cut/copy/paste and press play. Bam.
- Jamming the song live is WAY more fun than cut-n-paste.
We found a groove, and some new material manifested itself that might not have come out in a Studio session. I’m thinking that this approach of writing songs in the practice session instead of in the recording studio might result in songs that sound more ‘organic’ and less ‘synthetic’ than our “Days From Evil” material. When recording in the studio, the temptation to toss in a virtual instrument or sound effect is hard to resist.
This new writing process might result in more simple songs, less layers, and make recording easier, (Although “Let It Out” was supposedly a “Simple” song with FORTY TRACKS!!!!) but I can’t say yet whether it will make better songs or not. Time will tell.
Yours Darkly,
A Jagged Jam
The second Official Jagged Spiral Jam met today, and let me tell you…
…it was Jagged.
Well, what the hell did you expect? For the past two years we’ve been a studio band. Pieced together one take at a time, and some song parts haven’t been played live for over a year!
So we ground out several sorry renditions of: Not Enough Bullets, Forced Entry, Hallowed Ground and I Am Death. We also played some new material. We also played some Virtua Fighter 4, and Josh completely slayed everyone. (It makes sense if you think about it: Percussion)
Practice, Practice, Practice. We just have to work at it, is all. And someday, if we keep practicing and focusing and giving it one-hundred and ten percent…
…we might finally be able to beat Josh at Virtua Figher 4.
Yours Darkly,
Days From Evil Premaster is COMPLETE!
The Premaster for “Days From Evil” is complete.
Let me repeat that, because it is significant. (And slightly louder, for the reading impaired)
THE PREMASTER FOR THE PHENOMENALLY UNCANNY, OVERLY-AMBITIOUS DEBUT ALBUM “DAYS FROM EVIL” BY JAGGED SPIRAL IS FUCKING COMPLETE!
I felt more emotional about a month ago, when we *thought* we were almost done. Over and over. There must be a dozen CDs laying around here that say ‘Premaster?’ on them. The differences between them are not obvious. Nit-picky, you might say.
But if there is one thing I’ve discovered in the past (nearly) two years while working on Days From Evil, it’s that the project is never Done until you proclaim it to be Done. It could always be edited more. It could always be re-recorded and tweaked and adjusted a little more. And it might even be improved. And it might not. At some point in the process, you gotta realize that no one else can even hear the ‘improvements’ you are making, and you are wasting your time re-re-recording tracks that were fine on the first take. At some point, you have to decide that you have done your very best, and sometimes the best you can do is get rid of everything you simply cannot live with.
At some point, you gotta take your hands off the wheel.
So the performances for Days From Evil are hereby proclaimed to be finished. And the mixing. And the effecting. And the arranging. We now move into the uncharted backwaters of Black-Magic-Mastering. The rule in recording your own music is: You don’t do the mastering on your own recordings. We have to turn our work over to someone else, someone who has not had two years of constant contact with the music. Someone to listen to our mixes with a fresh ear and an accurate sound system. Someone to tweak, polish, buff, shine, high-gloss, fold, spindle, mutilate and polymorph our songs into something better, and turn a collection of 9 songs into an album.
I warned you. The end is near.
Yours Darkly,
Mastodon
Zero informs me that Mastodon will be at SXSW.
Explain to me again the hype surrounding this band?
horns up!
Do you like ‘Lord of the Rings’? Do you like metal? Well, check out www.swordmetal.com.
It’s about dragons, metal and metal about dragons. Wizards, too. And swords, of course. Ale shows up from time to time, as do comely wenches. Mmm, comely wenches…
I keep pushing for some songs about swords and/or longboats, but it’s been an uphill battle (no pun intended…or is it?) The closest we’ve come is “The Last Song”.
We’re more comfortable here: www.gothmetal.net
Anyways, metal rules.
When is The Last Song NOT The Last Song?
When Jagged Spiral writes it, that’s when.
It’s un-ironic that The Last Song is not, in fact, the last song we will be working on for Days From Evil. The Last Song is finished, as in “mixed to Cigar version” although Josh said it was more like a Cigarillo. Regardless, that’s eight down, and one to go. The song Run will actually be the last song, which should be finished next Saturday.
I can’t tell you how exciting it is to be so close to completion. I mean, we are discussing things like liner notes and where to get the CD’s duplicated. How many do we order? What should we wear when we take the stage at the Minnesota Music Awards ceremony? What about a CD Release party?
CD Release party? Come again? Yikes, you mean we will have to learn all those songs? Songs we have NEVER played together live before?
Oh boy.
Maybe we can just have a real Listen-type listening party, and Jagged Spiral can sit in the audience and listen to the album in its entirity. Or hide backstage like Metallica did with The Black Album. Pussies.
Whatever. The cigar mixes for all songs should be done on Saturday, and then we go into mastering.
Yours Darkly,
Jagged Art
Heres a link to a lovely picture of a Jagged Spiral that you can enjoy.
If you run across any more cool pix or references to Jagged Spirals out there, drop them in the comments.
Yours Darkly,
