500 Head
Monday, May 27 2002
Posted by brockp

Brock will be appearing on drums with 500 Head at their upcoming Marine Club gig this Wednesday, June the 5th. No news as to other bands on the bill as yet. Fans of Queens of the Stone Age type rock will probably enjoy this band's stuff, which also features Rob Clark, formerly of the Rippin Young Clarks, on chief singing and play by play.

Home sweet home
Monday, May 27 2002
Posted by brockp

I've been reflecting tonight on the pleasures of recording at home versus spending tons of dough at the super duper studio with the pool table and thousands of dollars worth of gear. Hey - who needs to play pool when you are making a record ? I'll tell you. The only time I ever did that, the engineer came in to tell me the Otari two inch machine had eaten the tape. God. These reels of tape cost hundreds of dollars and the machine eats it ?

This is a bit of a repeat rant for me since I wrote about that episode elsewhere but it does give a good example of the kind of situation you can find yourself in when you have a week to mix your record because after that you will have spent enough to be in debt for two years and some other cocaine addicts need the room anyway.

Tonight Heather and I were overdubbing some wacky analog synth tracks to Big Strong Love and Science Fiction and I later did lead vox for BSL. I have to say, this is the way to go for me. I'm sitting in my chair where I always sit (or standing in the case of vocals), I've got the amp in the closet surrounded by old coats, and if I suddenly get the idea that the Korg PE-3100 I am about to sell would sound cool in this or that place, I can just ask Heather to put down whatever dish she might be washing in the kitchen and come play the part. If my kid is bored and needs attention, he can sit on my lap with headphones on approving the takes. The recording will probably sound like my life does. I hope you guys like it, but if you think it sucks, at least I didn't spend fifteen grand US on it (the recording I mean...)

The other really great thing about working this way is I can mix, track, write music, write lyrics, or whatever in any order. The mix kind of evolves as I am working on the other parts, day to day. If my ears get tired like they are now, I just stop and go write a blog or something. I know that next time I am feeling like doing the guitar part in the bridge, I can just turn on the amp and the compressor, check the level, and go. I only wish I had room for my drums in here and a pair of 414's for the overheads. Ah but then that leaves me something to look forward to.

I'm going to Seattle in a week or two for my live baseball fix and can bring a submix along and invite friends down there to have at that bridge part if its still not done. I know Steve has a ProTools rig, and maybe by now everyone does since they are giving the software away for free. Clever fellows.

Lord Stanley pre-empted
Sunday, May 19 2002
Posted by brockp

I had an urge to blog last night about money and sports, particularly, Hockey Night in Canada. Now I know everyone will just groan and go, "Here he goes again" and click back on your browsers or surf away some other way. Sorry. I truly feel motivated to say something about this because it is really kind of funny. Well I don't know. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I sometimes listen to sports radio. I know, I know. Pathetic. But the truth is when you drive around making deliveries all day long, you would listen to pretty much anything that's on the radio too. Believe me. Anything and everything. AM. FM. Hell, I'd listen to CB radio if I had one.

Lately, the sports stations have become far less interesting here in Canada, unless you happen to be a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs (which I am not). I can't really bear hearing the same old comments made over and over again. How much can you say about one team, particularly when they are not playing ? I swear, what the coach said at practise or morning skate becomes newsworthy.

Anyway. Before this latest onslaught of Maple Leaf mania picked up a notch, I heard a guy on 1040 am explaining to Canadian listeners why that bastion of culture Hockey Night in Canada was not going to be broadcast on saturday night. This is sort of like Monday Night Football in the US. Fans of the game have been watching it on that night for decades. So the question comes up because now is sort of the penultimate hockey season for the fan, the Stanley Cup Playoffs. People are wondering why there is no game on Saturday night, when there has been every Saturday night all year.

The answer revealed by the sportscaster was twofold. Firstly, the arena in Raleigh, NC was previously engaged with wrestling - presumably of the WWF variety - and so the Carolina Hurricanes could not host their home game against the Leafs. Secondly, ABC (who paid like $60 000 000 US for the broadcast license to the NHL) didn't want to upset their prime time baseball package for the US market. So there you go. Poor CBC only paid like $6 000 000 Canadian to the NHL so they've gotta let ABC call the shots.

I know, I know. Who cares. Well, Don't you think it kind of funny that who decides when these guys play is the TV network with the most dough ? I wonder what Lord Stanley would think.

One great thing about turning off the radio or the tv or whatever is it becomes possible to remember that I really don't care that much about the hockey game in Raleigh or Colorado, its just that the network thinks I do (or don't as the case may be).

Another thing that struck me today was something I overheard while in line at Home Depot. The guys behind me were yapping about computers. They fancied themselves real geeks, you know, the kind that love to discuss what sort of power supply to put in the computer you're upgrading "for your girlfriend". Its always for someone else less tech minded. We're generously helping these less fortunate people in our lives who actually could care less about how many watts of power are in your PC. You know.

So the conversation goes on about operating systems and more tech specs. Then it shifts to the subject of internet piracy and mp3 files and the idea of a new tax imposed on hard drive purchases in Canada. You know, like the one people pay on blank cds and cassettes, except much more exhorbitant. One guy said something like, "As far as I'm concerned, if I paid a license fee on the media I'm not pirating."

I commented to the guy that he's obviously not a songwriter. He said he figures its not his responsibility what contracts people who make music sign with record companies. I could tell he was pissed and was waiting for me to say more so he could perhaps pummel me (he was a big dude).

Anyway, I know this is a hot topic and, while I understand this guy's view is now the norm, it still pisses me off. Yeah, sure, I upload mp3 files for people to download from my site. But let me tell you. I am not getting any checques from the NMPA for my share of fees collected on blank media sales. Most little guys aren't. Even big labels and publishers who do, what percentage of that is going to the songwriter or performer ? Little if any. I'm not trying to start an anti-download crusade, but I would like to inspire a little more consideration for those involved in creating music works. These same guys who might complain that big record companies deserve to be ripped off are just making them more and more rich by buying every new high tech piece of hardware or software released. After all, who owns the record companies anyway ? Some big electronics companies.

I actually don't have a problem with music being free, which is where we seem to be headed now. I just wish I could trade a CD for some groceries, or an mp3 file for parking, or a performance for a week's rent. Anyone have any ideas ?

Bond Head at it again
Sunday, May 5 2002
Posted by brockp

I should probably stop calling Jon "Bond Head", since I'm sure I'm the only one who still does. Nevertheless, Jon has re-invented himself yet again and the new Electronic Humans Guild is the latest result.

I hope to have some of those new CDs for sale here soon, but in the meantime his website is now up and you can stream a preview on the new music canada site. Jrobot lives.

Extinguishment
Thursday, May 2 2002
Posted by brockp

I'm reading this book by Farley Mowat about a people called Ihalmiut. Basically, another tale of extinguishment by the white man. Hard to believe that on more than one occasion the RCMP at the behest of Ottawa just up and moved them forcibly and dumped them somewhere else. The idea seems to have been something like helping them get back to living on the land but sounds a lot more like putting them somewhere where they would starve to death without anyone knowing.

I never knew that one could eat spruce bark or caribou skin...Can you believe that these people were so destitute at one point that they began eating their clothes ? Yup. Caribou skin. Eat it up son, its all there is. Don't worry that your sister was born deaf and mute due to extreme malnutrition.

One problem with eating your clothes when your only shelter is an iglu is that you wind up not only starving to death but freezing to death.

Its amazing how in such a short time an entire way of life gets decimated once and for all. A fashion trend in Europe wherein arctic fox fur is all the rage winds up wiping out entire populations of caribou and the people who depend on them.

I have read (and probably posted here before) how the US government of the nineteenth century intentionally extinguished native poulations by wiping out the north american bison. It seems the same thing went on in the far north as well.

I guess I was doomed to eventually get around to the topic of this so-called "referendum" in BC on treaty negotiating principles. For those of you who aren't from around here, what this boils down to is more of the same kind of thinking by the colonial powers, this time the provincial government of BC. It amounts to hoodwinking the public and provoking racist sentiment into giving a political mandate to continue this business as usual. What business ? Complete disregard of Native rights and legal title of lands.

You see, here in BC, all of the land is unceded. Meaning the people who lived here did not give it away, or sign any treaties (not like that would make it any better). But the point is important. According to the Royal Proclamation of 1763 the Queen of England recognises these nations rights and titleship of the land. Every constitutional update since then reaffirms this and there have been plenty of court decisions supporting that law.

So now we have a government defying the very laws it is supposed to be founded on in order to gain a popular approval for more illegal tactics which are all in the objective of gaining control of the land and recources. I guess they have to do it this way because there are no more caribou to kill.