we’ll be in the Annex of the mill valley-based jagtown records this weekend recording for a new upcoming compilation album with the jagtown records crew. expect a few new musicians on this album and lots of cool and original tunes. scheduled to drop Dec 25, y’allz!

listen for the new keyboard i just bought in travis’ song… and a quote from a movie… can you ID the film?

Do The Try

(this song is also on our myspace, if you prefer to listen there)

LYRICS – Do The Try
by travis beauchamp

Hold on with vigor
the cradle over your head
You’ve got a heart in the back

When you go out with the creatures
under your neck they’ll bring you out to the track
never to go back

I’m running back with a manger stuck in my eye
It’s weighing down on my head

The simple things are in danger
fork in the road
holding the spoon as we try try again

<interlude>

Go to this page where you’ll find myriad videos to play at your leisure, all at once, starting them as you feel like or listening individually.

Here’s some more information on how the idea for this awesome project got formed:

Bb 2.0 is a collaborative music and spoken word project conceived by Darren Solomon from Science for Girls, and developed with contributions from users.

The videos can be played simultaneously — the soundtracks will work together, and the mix can be adjusted with the individual volume sliders.

In Bb 2.0 FAQ

Q. How did you come up with the idea for In Bb?

A. I was making a site with embedded YouTube videos (as a complement to this blog post) when I realized that YouTube doesn’t stop the user from running more than one video at a time. I was curious to see if there was a musical way to explore that concept, so I recorded some instrumental videos and eventually came up with In Bb v1.

Q. Are you playing any of the instruments?

A. I played the instruments in v1 – glass marimba, electric guitar, Kaoss Pad/synth, Rhodes electric piano, and the electric bass. Those are videos 1,2,3,4, and 6, counting from the top left, in the current site.

Q. How did you get the rest of the videos?

A. I sent out emails, and I put up an open call on the website for submissions, with these instructions:

-Sing or play an instrument, in Bb major. Simple, floating textures work best, with no tempo or groove. Leave lots of silence between phrases.
-Record in a quiet environment, with as little background noise as possible.
-Wait about 5-10 seconds to start playing.
-Total length should be between 1-2 minutes.
-Thick chords or low instruments don’t work very well.
-Record at a low volume to match the other videos.
-You can listen to this mix on headphones while you record.
-After you upload to YouTube, play your video along with the other videos on this page to make sure the volume matches.

VERY cool.
–demilo

after winning 1st place in san francisco’s regional rock division karaoke contest, he’s singing “the way you make me feel” by michael jackson tonight for a battle to the LAS VEGAS finals.

stakes are high. he invited me along to do some back up dancing and acting. remember the girl from the video?

i’ve packed a short black dress and heels, and i’m ready to rock.

in other performance news, i have an audition on sunday for which i’m regularly rehearsing. it’s an exciting week!

xo
–aimes

PS stay tuned for a variety of videos and audio files from our jams with VEX over the weekend! we did quite a few funny rando tunes…

what can we say but YAY! and wahoo?!

thanks, mats.

xo

his music is all kinds of inspiring to me. he’s got the jason mraz verb with the word and rhythm to the beat with some funked up tunes and groovy acoustic instrumentation. if i could choose a sound to make, this would be it.

mostly, “weight on your shoulders,” “spent” and DEFINITELY “gabriella” are on my to-do list of songs to write.

LOVE LOVE LOVE.

love,
.demilo.

check them out!

i love the drive thru post and the song monet (embedded in the blog)…

go bruins!

xoxo
–aimes

check out this song “home is where it hurts,” from her new album.

i’m trying to focus on singing with more breath control (ie less breath escaping) while singing, and this fascinates me (altho it’s a little gross)

listen to some first tracks from a set we played at calvin & natsuko’s wedding at our myspace.

i recently rediscovered my roland edirol, so i brought it along to hear what happens to the recordings outdoors. (as a journalist, i had only ever used the thing at very close range inside.) turns out there’s a reason this thing costs what it does! it was surprisingly good.

of course, there’s the ambient “guests arriving” noise (but i rather like that).

if you listen closely, you can hear the difference between the organic capture of my voice right above the device and the capture that came through our little mic amp. crazy.

also, some kids run by arguing and shaking rice, which adds extra flavor. :)

challenge! because the edirol was sitting at my feet a good two meters from the back of the speakers, the resulting amplitude was very small (the audio track was reading below -38 in playback scope). but after duplicating and tracking the original about 20 times, i got enough power out of it to achieve the current (acceptable? too low? you-tell-me!) volume.

we would be interested to hear what anyone thinks.

your criticism helps us grow.
–demilo

what do you guys think?

and, last but not least, joan baez!

having rented a karaoke machine, we all got our sing on. the best karaoke hit was the full beatles hits album, which we sang from front to back without stopping.

one of the best musical moments of the evening, though, was this performance by kathi (original song!) and sam barry (fabulous harmonica!). travis accompanies on guitar.

and we absolutely love the lyrics. :)

happy birthday, amy! and thanks, kathi and sam, for the great performance!

–demilo

let me know what you think!

–aimes

i dressed up for my company’s costume contest and, since we’re in the wedding industry, i was an “inappropriately-dressed drunk new jersey skank” wedding guest. :)

this blog officially goes under the “making fun of ourselves” category.

have a good holiday,
–aimes

for me, songwriting starts with a glimmer—something that emanates from a conversation, someone i pass on the street, an idea or an experience. that glimmer becomes a theme. once i have the theme, all i need is some cogent adjectives to fill out the verses with detail.

recently, i’ve been having a brand new experience: i’ve been getting inspired by books.

my reading material over the last two weeks:
-brave new world
-1984
-animal farm
-the glass castle
-outliers

it’s a lot of negative utopias, a memoir and a statistical analysis. strange that emotive songs could have their beginnings there. as a result, many of the lyrics—most of which are penned on the inside of their back covers—center around greed, the limits of the human condition, alcohol… and pigs. yes, pigs. (having the swine flu may have helped inspire that one. don’t worry: the pig is not named snowball.)

meanwhile, travis wrote a killer song yesterday. it’s still in early stages, but it could be my favorite song on the upcoming album. we’ve been discussing combining pop song structure with a jazzy arrangement for “pink friday.” imagine the style of the beatles songs “all my lovin’,” “please please me” and “baby you can drive my car” with the production of damien rice meets the rescues. EXCITED.

in other news, i am getting really tired of not owning a piano. was going to buy myself one for christmas, but now considering getting one in the next few weeks. i will keep you guys posted!

xo
-aimes

ps for shitsngigs, and because i can’t stop listening to this song:

try this. it’s freaking amazing.

our personal favorites from binaural beats are “hangover help” and “deep meditation.”

if you do this right, you really will trip out. careful – NSFW. especially if you operate heavy machinery.

xo
demilo

if you haven’t heard it before, you can listen to “youth gone awry” at that link, or even buy it. we’ll ship you out a personal package with the album art and tunes!

this weekend, there’s a lot going on — i’m off to santa cruz to visit my very musical brother, tommy van vechten—whose music you should also check out—and then travis’ mother amy is having a big birthday party on saturday night. look for more blogs on sunday — there’s going to be tons of updates!

xox
–aimes

just a heads up — the way you find us on myspace is changing!

please add my new personal music site and consider it where to find aimes. otherwise, for demilo’s myspace, go here.

please friend either or both! we’ll be deleting the old ones soon.

–aimes

alright, alright. i can’t make it through this post without a tiny little rant. in the midst of facebook and many other emerging social networking sites that make user experience nearly flawless for the fantastic growth, how in the hell is myspace so backasswards? as a company, they must simply not care about our experience and how much we all hate their lack of attention to detail and usability. or maybe they came along just before they got their heads around how important functionality is these days. although some musicians claim reverbnation has supplanted myspace for the musician’s home base, i have to argue that the important musicians still have a myspace presence. thoughts? comments!!! :)

they recently posted this video on their myspace. we like the funky groove.

check it out!

Meadowlark Jivin perform ~Junkyard~ on KRFC 88.9FM

Cindy | MySpace Video