General Ramblings & Actual Info.

As the title suggests… I’m bored, and therefore “blogging”.  Funny how those two words fit so nicely together in a sentence.  No doubt, your own boredom is what’s led you here, and what’s kept you reading on this far.  In fact, I’m actually starting to wonder if you’d keep on going, were I to keep up this nonsensical stream of guessing at the state of your boredom.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for sticking around.

I’ve had Planet Earth episodes rolling in the background for the last two days.  The dog barks at all the bird sounds, but leaves the lions & tigers alone.  He thought about growling at an elephant once, until he saw it on the screen.  It’s all actually quite distracting.  Currently, I’m anticipating a chimpanzee war.  Intense.

Maybe some band news is finally in order…

We’re well on the way to completing the album now.  Just a few touch-ups and additions left to go before mixing.  We’ve added some horns, percussion and strange noises, and we’ll be taking care of backing vocals and polishing over the next couple weeks.  It’s been a lengthy go, but I think it’ll be well worth the wait.  We’re hoping to have some sort of a pre-release listening party at some point soon(ish), so if you’d like to catch an early earful, then keep your eyes peeled for info on when that’ll be going down.

Shows are also starting to pile up for the next couple months.  The FREE ABBEY benefit is taking place tomorrow (Fri. Feb. 5) at Sealed Art, and we’ve got some GOOD TIMES planned for the Ship on Feb. 28th with our new friends Folding Colour.  Between those, we’ll be at the Casbah on Feb. 18th.  You can dig the full schedule on our Calendar.  And, please, tell your friends!

I think that just about does it, unless you’ve something to add…?  No?  Yes?  No?  No.  Ok.

Adieu.

J.

Recording… That is All.

Ladies & Gentlemen.  A brand new recording update is currently up for diggin’ on both subcollective.ca & on ReverbNation.  Check out “New Funk”, which has got some new guitar and keys tracks, as well as a completely revamped recording of “Sorta Like I’m Flyin’”.  We redid the whole of it, so tell us what you think!

As for the rest, we’ve got the bases basically done, with some bass & keys tracks yet to lay, which’ll be done hopefully by the end of the week.  I’ve been hammering away at vocals for the past week or so, getting an idea of how the harmonies will sound.  Most of the lead vocals & rhythm guitar tracks are complete, with a bit of polishing left to do.  By next week, we should be moving on to the Collective’s overdubbing, getting Tarek & Sam in to do their thing(s).  We need some other help as well, however, specifically a trumpet, a french horn, and a lap steel.  If you, or someone you’re aware of, plays one of these get in touch with us at subcollective.ca.  Actually, we’re going to need some art for the record too… If you make things that look interesting look us up at that same spot, we’d love to check some things out!

For anyone who’s been following since Jon & myself were playing acoustic, there’s a few tracks that’ll sound familiar.  We’ve recorded new versions of “At Night’s End”, “On the Road”, and “In Praise of Idleness”.  These songs have been kicking around for some time, “On the Road” had been (I’m pretty sure) the first song we wrote and recorded back in the Loft studio days (on N-Track, and a dusty 16ch yamaha mixer, with only one mic) and it’s now been totally revamped into something I can’t help but enjoy.

We’re taking the remainder of the year to try to finish up tracking, so you’ll have to be patient for some live Subterraneans… But stay tuned to our various channels for recording updates, videos, and more, leading up to the release of the album.

With some extra free time the past little while, I’ve also begun kicking around some ideas for the next project already, which aims to be a hip-hop compilation, of sorts.  I’ve put together a couple of rough idea tracks, which I may post at some point, somewhere, to see what you folks think.  That’s a ways off yet, but it’s now definitely in the works.

As ever… keep eyes.

J.

Recording Update #6

FINALLY!!  It’s time for a brand new recording update.

We ‘re humming along on the base tracks now, with only three more songs to get laid down, so we’ll be moving forward onto overdubs real soon.  We’ve got some awesome guests lined up to lend us a hand for some of these, including our good friends Nate Powers (MC Undun), Tarek Ajak (Mother Tareka-Peak Soil), Sam Klass (Hood Klass Perri), and plenty more.

There’s a whole lot of new sounds, for those who’ve only heard the Busride EP, or even the Live recording from Pepper Jack Café, things are sounding remarkably different these days.  As far as the audio updates (which you can dig at subcollective.ca/recording.html or our ReverbNation Page), we’ve got brand new versions of both “New Funk” & “Sorta Like I’m Flyin’”.  It’s mostly just cleaned up guitar and keys tracks, but there’s plenty more on the way.

If you’ve not already done so, please go to subcollective.ca/contact.html and join our mailing list.  We’ve got a bit of a “Thank You” for those that do, in the form of a free download, an album preview studio jam, never before heard by human ears (besides our own).

Lastly, a massive Cheers! out to all of you that came out to the SuperCrawl after-party at Sky Dragon last week!  We had an awesome night, and we hope you dug the additional members, Sam & Tarek on guitar & sax respectively.  We got an opportunity to wander through and dig some of the crawl, and I must say how happy I was to see so many folks out supporting the event despite the weather.  It goes to show the support the people of Hamilton have for their city & arts community.  Well done!

If you have photos and the like you want to share with us, feel free to send them to us at subcollective.ca@gmail.com

Cheers!

Stay Tuned…

We’ve got some recording updates for you to dig, and some videos to share from the studio. Plus another little surprise for you to enjoy while we’re finishing up recording.
Keep eyes…

What Happened to Recording?

Well…It has been a busy summer around here, we’ve been playing weekly for the past month and a half, and so haven’t had a great deal of time to get any recording done.  This Saturday is the last show of what you could call our summer “tour”, so we should be able to get ourselves back into the studio in the next couple weeks to get back to work on the album.

In the meantime, if you’ve not already, you can get “the Busride EP” for free download on our ReverbNation Page.  We’ll have some more audio updates available to dig there as well, as soon as we get ourselves back in gear.

We had loads of fun playing over the summer though, and we want to thank everyone who invited us out to play, as well as all you folks who came out to check us out!  There’ll be plenty more opportunities to catch us live (and some mild banter about traveling westward, but you didn’t hear that from me) so keep up to date and in touch through any of our various web-based channels, links to which can be found at thesubterraneans.ca.  We’d love your feedback, and photos and whatnot.  If you see a typewriter lying around at one of our shows, clunk out a message for us!

Big thanks to Tarek (Peak Soil), Mark Wilson (Come Together Festival), and Tom Kremer & Folkin’ Blues (Lose Yer Shoes) for the chances to play some really great shows.  Also our new friends from  Must Stash Hat for hosting the jam in Toronto.  They’ll be out here for one in Hamilton for another one in the next little bit, so look out for that!

‘Till next time…

Dig.

J.

Thank Yous!

To start, a massive thank you out to everyone who came out, this past Saturday, to the show at Sealed Art.  If you missed out, I’m sure we’ll be throwing another similar party together at some point soon.  Big thanks to the boys from Gruve, who got things rolling, and to the newly-formed Gadzooks (featuring Nate, aka MC UNDUN & the Subterraneans own, Jon the Bassist), who put on a great first showing!  We were also glad to have our friend Tarek (Peak Soil) join us on Sax for our set.  It sounded great!  We had him out for a jam last night as well, so you’ll more than likely get a chance to dig his sounds at a future show.  And a final HUUUUGE thanks out to the cats from Satisfied Customers, for playing hosts and coming through at the last minute with the venue-change.  Plan B indeed!  You can dig some photos from Saturday on our Flickr Page.  And speaking of Gadzooks, I’m currently recording their first EP, which is coming along swimmingly. Keep your eyes peeled for news on that front.

Moving right along, we’re in the process of redesigning our webpage a little.  Nothing super major, just adding a couple things and changing the layout around a bit.  There’ll be 300% more typewriters, that much is certain.  You’ll be able to see the changes sometime early next week at thesubterraneans.ca

Look out for our typewriter at the next show, hammer us out a message, and remember what it was like before computer keyboards.  We had a bunch of messages left on Saturday, but the paper mysteriously (or drunkenly) vanished before the night was through.

Creation, Destruction, Creation, Destruction, Creation, Destruction, Creation, Destruction……

Dig.

J.

Recording Update #5

Spent the day recording bass tracks with Jon the Bassist.  We mic’d the cab with a “Kick Ball” on one speaker and an SM57 up close on the tweeter.  They’ll definitely need compression before they sound just right, but the body is there now which is nice.  Lots more to play with and fatten up later on.

Regardless, updates to “New Funk” (which still needs a proper title) & “Sorta Like I’m Flyin’” can now be found on our Recording Updates Page, so go check ‘em out.  Things are coming along, just trying to find time between playing live to get stuff done.  We’re not too far off getting some outside help on some other instruments (Horns, Percussion, etc.), which’ll be a good time, and we’ll be sure to have a crap-load of photos and at least a video or two from those sessions.

Outside of that, head over to THESUBTERRANEANS.CA and check out our upcoming show schedule, which is constantly being updated.  We’ve got a couple cool shows lined up, August 1st we’ll be up at Plan B Organic Farm (Branchton, ON) with some good friends in a new project, and we’re lined up now for a show in Toronto at the Imperial Pub on August 22nd, with our new friends Must Stash Hat, who’re not only great dudes, but a stellar band to dig live.  If you’re out in the Toronto area, you’d better stop in.  Or else.  Something.

We’re all over the internet, so Google us…and see what pops up.

Dig.

J.

Recording Update #4

Time already for another update, as I’ve been busying myself the past few days cleaning up the guitar tracks on what we’ve got laid down so far.  I set up the amp (‘67 Fender Twin Reverb) in the front hallway and mic’d it with an SM57 on each speaker, and an Apex Large Diaphragm condenser at the back, between both speakers.  The three mics together pick up the sound of the WHOLE amp, so it sounds more like it should vs. the single mic at the front.  This does, however, leave some of the other instruments sounding a bit flat, which we’ll have to take care of now.

At any rate, both of the preview tracks have been updated, and you can view them on our new Recording Page or on our ReverbNation Page.

***UPCOMING SHOWS***

Come Together Music Festival

Canada Day Party

Frontier Ghost Town, Durham(ish), ON

July 3rd & 4th, 2009

Info: cometogethermusicfest.ca

Rooftop Jam w/ Peak Soil

July 11th, 2009

10:30PM

More Details to Follow

Plan B Presents

August 1st, 2009

Plan B Organic Farm, Flamborough, ON

More Details to Follow

Lose Yer Shoes Festival 2009

August 14th-16th, 2009

Granite Ridge Campground, Kearney, ON

Info: Lose Yer Shoes Homepage

More summer show announcements are forthcoming, so keep an eye on thesubterraneans.ca, Twitter, or Facebook for all that and more good stuff.

Dig.

J.

Recording Update #3

Good day.

Last night we got a bunch of keyboard overdubs laid down, so there’s a brand new update to both of the preview tracks up on the website (or on our ReverbNation page).  Give ‘em a listen and let us know what you think!

I’ve been playing around with some guitar amp (‘67 Fender Twin Reverb) micing.  The next setup I want to try out is an SM57 on each speaker at the front, with a large diaphragm condenser in between the speakers at the back.  If it works out the way I’m hoping, we should have another update ready to go before Sunday.

We’ve got recording scheduled once again for this Sunday afternoon, but Jon the Bassist is still out with his hand injury.  Likely we’ll be finishing up the keys overdubs left to do on the existing base tracks, and probably start working out some background percussion (maybe some hand drums & what-not).  At the latest, there should be another update to dig by Monday, next week.

Stay Tuned!

Dig.

J.

Recording Update #2

So.  The past couple weeks has been pretty busy ’round here, and the recording has been progressing at an ever-quickening pace.  Over the course we reworked a couple songs, most glaringly “Lou Says” has been fixed up with a waaaay funkier rhythm, and I think it’s about a hundred times more listenable.  We’ve tossed a couple new songs into the circle too, which need a bit of working on still, but have some definite potential.

So far we’ve gotten the base tracking (four piece, Live-off-the-Floor) done on seven tracks, with six left to go.  Among those with bases complete are the two songs we’re previewing for you folks.  As I mentioned in the last post, we’ll be updating the tracks “New Funk” (which will feature our good friend, and MC, Nate aka MC UNDUN) & “Sorta Like I’m Flyin’”, which we’ve added to already.  You can now check out all the updates on both our ReverbNation page or on the Audio Page of our Website.  Please let us know what you think, toss us a comment on our Facebook Page or on Twitter.  We want to hear from you(s).

Tomorrow (Sunday), we’re scheduled for more recording, however, Jon the Bassist has had an unfortunate encounter with a table saw (this only a week since Dave Reed’s face-plant, it seems we’ve had a streak of bad luck around here…) he won’t be able to do much.  So instead of base tracking, we’ll be starting forward on some overdubs.  I got some guitar and vocal tracks done over the week, so we’ll probably focus on some keys and maybe play around with some sort of background sounds.  I’m not entirely sure which tracks we’ll wind up working on, but we may very well have another audio update in a couple days, so check back with us soon!

This summer’s shaping up to be pretty busy in the Live department, with the Lose Yer Shoes Festival in August, and several other shows currently in the works, with the likes of Satisfied Customers & the Rhyme Travellers, and our new friends from Must Stash Hat & Quadrafonics.

As always, you can check out theSubterraneans.ca for up-to-date info on shows, recording, and more.

J.