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May 29, 2009
I know some of you are programmers. Today I'm going to write the spec for a Sponsorship application. Not only
will it be an easy to use interface for listeners (and sponsors), it will help the artist organize and track their
sponsors.
Seems to me that half the battle these days is creating some wizz-bang application (Facebook) to manage functions you can
easily do yourself. And then selling ads on it. So imagine creating the next Napster here, only, call it...Sponster!
(later)
As promised- the Sponster Demo!
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May 28, 2009
Just in...
I think the rolled jean cuffs say it all, don't you?
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May 27, 2009
Some Steam Powered statistics this morning.
Like anyone with a website, I'm addicted to checking my visitor stats daily. My new site host gives me lots of stats
to look at, many of which mean nothing to me (do I really care what operating systems the servers connecting to my site
are running?) and some of which I think would mean something to me if I understood them. The "pages" stat is one
of those.
I was reading these wrong for a long time. I just noticed the word "Average" in the column for size there in the green
paint- for the longest time I was thinking that the size it referred to was a total. Which would be totally depressing,
to think that the 100 people who clicked on Turnin' Out Wrong only got a couple of seconds of the song each. Now
I understand that they each probably downloaded (or streamed) at least enough of the song to decide if they liked it or
not. Some of them probably downloaded the whole thing, while a bunch streamed a couple of seconds and said "feah!"
Point is, the point of the Steam Powered project is to get songs "out there" where you are. This is the hardest thing to
do in the whole making music and finding an audience for it thang, in my opinion, and these stats are showing me
that some of the music here is indeed leaking out to the public.
Most of that traffic is coming from sites that link directly to the song files- the stats in this graphic are either of
songs that were featured or otherwise offered up on the "blog". One that sends a lot of traffic my way is actually
from China. I don't think too many of these people see the Steam Powered website itself, they just hit the song file.
Which is too bad, but at least the songfiles include the web addy of this site, so future fans may find their way here.
Anyway, I'm glad to see that some of the songs are getting into circulation. I don't understand why these particular songs
are getting hits (except that Orgy of Hate appeared in a comments section in the New York Times months ago and
got a lot of attention there). It's an odd mix of stuff- Under the Bridge wasn't recorded here, it's just a sample I posted up one day because it was interesting. But that is a title that people might be searching for. Nobody is searching for Turnin' Out Wrong, but there it is. I just wish some of the more worthy stuff would climb "the charts" a bit...
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May 24, 2009
I did manage to find my recording gig last Friday. I did the thing with a little stereo mike on a pole in front of
the band, because I really had no idea who was going to be there or what they would be playing, or what PA gear
they would have. Lucky for me, the table directly in front of the band was vacant.
The band was Trixi in the Matrix, which on Friday consisted of Trixi Greiner on keyboards and vocals,
Chris Moser on drums, Mark Ryan, guitar, and Andy Roberts, keyboards and "hooter". We were treated
to a rather nice show.
Here's an example of what we heard- Please, Please, Please Surrender, an original song by Trixi. As usual with
these more or less ambient recordings, they sound best with headphones (or earbuds), because you really hear the
space you're in. Silverware is clacking in the background, people are yakking at the bar, and the balance of the band
is pretty much the way they were hearing it. I did some tricks this morning with the eq- after 11 or 12
attempts I got it sounding nicely balanced. (Human ears to a marvelous job adjusting to their surroundings, but when you
listen to recorded music things have to fit into a certain "space")
So enjoy Trixi in the Matrix. It's fairly long, but be sure to stick around for the hooter break!
Please Please Please Surrender.mp3
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May 20, 2009
"Things," as they say, are getting back to "normal" around the Studio.
I hope to be on location this weekend making a live recording, if I can figure out where.
And while I was uploading samples and updating the catalogue pages, I realized that there were a bunch of people
who had not had featured songs. Today, one from the Cat Ranch in Paradise, by Bill Nork.
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May 14, 2009
Jason Mundok and his band Living Fables will be throwing a party tomorrow to celebrate the release
of this CD, Order's Up. You can listen to the entire CD online at Jason's
website.
The release party is at Community Mennonite Church of Lancaster, 7:00 pm, which is located at 328 W. Orange St., Lancaster, PA . Admission to the party is absolutely FREE...
You might remember that this room was where the Old Time Liberation Front held their CD release party,
and the room sounds great, so it's well worth a visit. There will be treats!
(later)
I just discovered these guys today-
Grizzly Bear. Ties in, somehow...
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May 12, 2009
Climb every mountain!!!
I have nearly got through adding samples links to the
public catalogue page!
Like much of life, this truly heroic effort mainly involves tedium and attention to small details, interrupted
by catastrophic and mysterious errors of typing, some of which are nearly un-recoverable-from. Nearly.
But, as we all know, the true hero saves, often.
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May 09, 2009
Well, I dusted off the old acoustic guitar today. I didn't play anything, just dusted it off.
I get suspicious of guitars with too much shine on them, of pretty guitars. Before today I hadn't intentionally
removed any dirt from my Epiphone in many years. But the drywall dust is just too much- it gets like an ancient
sacred crypt of Egypt in here if you don't keep after it.
Then Drippy (our plumber) failed to check that the main water valve was not leaking after he had turned it off and back
on. It dripped into the studio area for several hours, or maybe a day, I don't know. It's kinda damp down there now,
especially since I had shut down the dehumidifier and moved it out of Drippy's way so he could add some more spaghetti
to the previous generations of plumbers' mess.
Needless to say, there is little going on in the studio lately, because it is all rett up. Now I know, the
purists out there will say, "but Liv Pooleside, rett up is a verb, meaning to clean or tidy up, not an adjective
(or whatever part of speech that is) as you have used it!" And I say to those purists "Phooey on your rules! Language
evolves, it changes, it grows, and "all rett up" now means "in need of retting up," so there!"
Now I'm tired of all this retting and ranting... maybe I'll go mix a Playboys song...
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May 02, 2009
Did I ever tell you about the bluegrass jam session I recorded a couple of years ago? Dave Francis is known
to arrange jam sessions in his home from time to time, and this particular time I had gotten
a portable stereo recorder and had fashioned a boom mic for it from a TV antenna, so on the night of the jam
session I set myself up in the middle of the room and began "taping".
Let me try to convey what these things are like. It's like a gathering of wine connoisseurs, and they all bring their
bottles and compare notes. It's like a bunch of baseball freaks who are amazed that so-and-so hit .365 during the
1933 season. It's a lot of fun, and yet very serious business. It is prevented from becoming weird by the fact that
the enthusiasts must actually re-create (and sometimes improve on) the established musical canon- a huge body of
work by any measure, obsure and actively defended by those who know.
And it's very much alive and kicking. Guys like the Honeycut Brothers respect and maintain tradition while
they re-arrange it. I'm happy just knowing that they're out there singing and playing.
Years ago, I heard the amazing Jim and Jessie play at the Guernsey Pavilion. They had daughters or
grand-daughters selling records out in the parking lot. It was the real deal back then, and it's the real deal now.
Two words- corn liquor.
So anyway, there's a lot of odd-sounding music here, odd because it was recorded in a room full of people actively
talking and drinking and carrying on, while another bunch of people did something that probably matters as much
to them as anything they've ever done. In public, anyway. Put headphones on and turn it up, it will make sense
that way. Nine Lb Hammer is the featured song- more in the catalogue.
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Featured Song:
#128
Bill Nork
Bring Back the Limbo
mp3
or
ogg
1:22
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Spons-O-Meter
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Support the Studio via:
Or write us for other arrangements...
Steampowered
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Features:
Repairing a Kurzweil piano key.
Repairing a Tascam Porta-Two.
rant03:
the End of an Era.
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Steam Powered Videos:
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Studio Archives:
April, 2009
March, 2009
February, 2009
January, 2009
December, 2008
November, 2008
October, 2008
September, 2008
August, 2008
July, 2008
June, 2008
May, 2008
April, 2008
March, 2008
February, 2008
January, 2008
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Steam Powered Swag:
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Click here to buy Jeff Coleman's Keeping Time.
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