Another semester has ended, but being the ever-vigilant artists we are, we are using this break as an opportunity to create more projects. Here is the concept for our latest project-in-progress, entitled 30 Seconds, 30 Days:

3 musicians collaborate (Dave Jacob Hoffman, Jake Albaugh, and Dan Huff) to record exactly 30 seconds of audio every day for 30 days beginning December 10th, 2009. The result is 90 tracks, totaling 45 minutes, which is then compiled into a freely released album.

As I'm writing this, we have just completed the third day, and there is already a broad range of sounds to tickle your earhairs. So click here to visit the 30 Seconds, 30 Days project, and then bookmark it and check back regularly to see how it's progressing. When the whole thing wraps up, I'll be sure to post the final compilation here for easy downloading.

Labels: music

Watch this video on Vimeo or YouTube.

While reading about how to make your own tape loops from cassette tapes*, I was reminded of the Buddha Machine (a sort of electronic ambient music generator), and how some people buy multiple Buddha Machines to create more complex layers of sound. I just threw together this little experiment, but the idea could definitely be explored further.

*I found that the added washers and stuff this guy adds are unnecessary. You really just need to open it up, pull out the tape, splice it to the right length, and put it back in.

Labels: music, video

I Need Sleep (that band I used to play with) just came out with a new EP called "Welcome to Monsters." You can download the whole thing for free here. Or, I've embedded it here if you wanna listen:



Gotta love that album art.

Labels: bloggy, music

Watch this video on YouTube or Vimeo.

This was my first shot at playing along with myself on video. I was so impressed by this young lad's performance that I had to try it for myself. The logistics are a little tricky to figure out, so I kept it pretty simple with this one, but I'll probably try some more daring videos like this in the future.

Thanks very much to John Hodgman and Jonathan Coulton for introducing me to this song. It's also worth watching the more complicated version from the Jerk, which nobody can seem to agree on how to play, as well as this one with a young lady who has a much better voice than myself.

Labels: music, video

YouTube | Vimeo

Tina's little nephew lives far away, so we've devised a series of short movies to entertain and educate him. So here you have it: Warrencast episode 1, featuring original songs made up on the spot.

Labels: music, video, warrencast

YouTube | Vimeo | MP3

My good friend Dan Huff came to visit last week, and he brought copies of his new album. Dan is the most prolific songwriter and music maker I know, and absolutely one of my greatest influences. Writing and recording can be daunting tasks for normal musicians, but Dan has a love for music so intense that no barrier ever stands in his way. If Dan Huff can record an entire album in the back of his truck, then there are no excuses for the rest of us. Nothing should get between the artist and the audio tape. That's why Dan's newest album is so important. You can listen to some samples on his myspace page, but he's given me permission to post the album in its entirety on the internet, so I suggest you download it here:

MUSIC FOR MUSICIANS OR: How to make a 60-minute album in less than 8 hours for about $200 as performed by the Dan Huff Solo Experiments (68.5MB ZIP file)

Now, I have to warn you, it takes a special ear to really appreciate a Dan Huff album. You might think that it sounds terrible. What you really need to do is listen to the potential of the music. Shine it up a little bit, and you could find a pretty great song. Dan's music isn't about saving up for that expensive guitar at the store, or buying fancy microphones, or renting a studio, or taking years of guitar lessons. It's about capturing music and ideas in their most raw state, and moving forward instead of tweaking, procrastinating, and digging yourself into a creative rut. Why is this important? I've had so many ideas go unrecorded because I didn't think I could make them sound good enough. I didn't have the right microphone. I didn't have the right instruments. I couldn't play the part well enough. I didn't have the right software on my computer. All of that goes away when Dan Huff drives his truck out to the Walmart parking lot and records whatever's in his head through a $5 microphone into a battery operated 4-track recorder. If you have music inside you, there are no excuses anymore. Get it out.

Labels: music, video

The first time I saw the band I Need Sleep was in a Halloween-themed basement show. I can't remember the year exactly, but October of 2002 sounds close. I was an immediate fan, and as the ever-changing cast of members rotated, eventually they invited me to play with them. We played some terrible shows, we played some incredible shows, we made a studio album, and we went on tour, we won a battle of the bands. I left the band sometime in 2005 or 2006 (I can't remember exactly anymore), and although I've got a whole heap of memories and stories from playing in the band, I was a disappointed that there seemed to be so little video of the band performing. People frequently had video cameras at the shows, and there were rumors that some totally awesome tape was going around, but they never seemed to surface.

Then, about a week ago, a friend of the band named Paul from DeKalb uploaded some videos of an old show to YouTube. The clips are incomplete, and the audio is terrible, but it still embodies the spirit of what those shows were like. I realized that I had a few videos on my computer that I had never bothered to upload, and that maybe if I added to Paul's videos, perhaps others would make their private collections available as well. Since I feel it's so important to preserve this stuff for posterity, this post will hopefully serve as the ultimate I Need Sleep video repository. So, here they are:

• I Need Sleep on October 4th, 2003 - This was my first time ever playing on a stage (aside from being in the school orchestra). I was asked to stand in because Justin Powers and Dan Huff couldn't make the show. You can see how low-key the band was in those early days.


• I Need Sleep at the Fat Bean on February 6th, 2004 - The Fat Bean was a coffee house that served as the petri dish in which early I Need Sleep was allowed to grow. The band was still relatively calm at this point. I had planned a series of mini-documentary videos like this, but it became hard since I was more frequently playing with the band than watching them. Notice Dan Nagy playing drums and synth bass simultaneously, and don't miss Dan Huff's words of wisdom at the end.


• I Need Sleep at 602 North part 1, part 2, part 3, & part 4 - You can see the beginnings of the bat-shit-insane I Need Sleep in these videos. Dan Huff is gone at this point, but Brian and I have become official members. Justin wasn't at this show, and I don't generally regard this as a very good performance, but it was the beginning of a seriously fun stage in the band's history.


• I Need Sleep at Huskies Bar & Grill in Dekalb part 1, part 2, & part 3 - The audio on these videos does the actual show no justice, but the energy is there. Here we have the band's lineup as it was represented on the album: DL, Justin Powers, Dan Nagy, Brian Shebake, and myself. This was one of the first shows in which we passed out things for the audience to bang on, which made the whole room our rhythm section. Talk about audience participation.


• I Need Sleep at the Shape Shop in Chicago - There's a big chunk of time missing between this video and the last one. This video is after Brian Shebake, Dan Nagy, and I had left. This is even after Kevin Kozak, who was one of my favorite members, had come and gone. You can see that the choice of instrumentation had been pared down to the basics here, but the structure of the songs was starting to get more complex.

This is not a complete video list. I know for a fact that there is at least one more video I have on a tape hidden somewhere at my parent's house, and with any luck I will find that. Also, I'm sure there are people out there with videos who have not put them online yet. Please send an email to davemakes@gmail.com if this is the case, and if you need help putting it on the internet, I will lend you a hand.

Another thing is that I Need Sleep is still around making great music, albeit in Tennessee and with an almost completely fresh lineup, but hopefully as they play shows in the future, people will be more vigilant about recording and sharing them.

Thanks to the people who have uploaded their videos. I hope to see a many more in the future.

Labels: bloggy, link, music, video

YouTube | Vimeo | MP3 (demo version)

This was taped back in June of 2006 at some kind of art space in Chicago, back when I dyed my hair, my glasses weren't quite as goofy, and I felt compelled to open my mouth as wide as it would go when I sang.

"Someone Else Tonight" is a song by my good friend Dan Huff.

Labels: music, video

YouTube | Vimeo

I forgot my friend Jim's birthday the other day, and it reminded me of this little ukulele ditty I wrote a while back as a blanket apology for all the forgotten birthdays. It's meant to be played with a big goofy smile on your face to really make the apology work. So, Jim, this one's for you.

These youtube videos are a lot of fun to make, and I've worked out how to keep the audio from being all blown out like on the blah blah blah recording, so you can expect plenty more in the future.

Labels: music, video

At the request of my friend micayetoca on Metafilter, I recorded a cover of Poison Ivy League by Elvis Presley. This one was really fun because I decided to make it sound completely unrecognizable as an Elvis song. You can listen to the original to see what I mean.

Labels: music

YouTube | Vimeo | MP3 (original banjo version)

Here is my debut play-a-song-in-front-of-a-camera-and-put-it-on-youtube video. Everybody's doing it, apparently, and I had no choice but to jump on the bandwagon.

Labels: music, video

Here's a quick and dirty cover of Jonathan Richman's song I'm a little Airplane. My dad got me a new microphone for my birthday yesterday, and I decided to break it in a little bit. I didn't have the levels set quite right since I was just messing around, so it's recorded kind of hot, but it's still fun.

Labels: music

I just posted a little musical composition on Metafilter Music called Pull Out My Teeth. Check it out!

Labels: music

I just completely embarrassed myself by doing the following:

1. Trying to sing in Spanish (I don't speak Spanish)
   
2. Trying to cover Devendra Banhart (I'm just not that good)
   

It was all for the Mefi Music Challenge, though, so it's forgivable. You can hear the result here.

Labels: music

Here I am, about to start working on the music part of Dave Makes dot com, and then this fascinating new service called Bandcamp shows up. I'm giving it a shot, and if it works out, I might incorporate its services into this site. Here is my page:

Dave Jacob Hoffman on Bandcamp

Labels: music