This week end I went to a metallic orgy, The Priest Fest! On stage there was Two of my all times favorite bands: Megadeth and Judas Priest!! There was also Testament to start the fest, they did a pretty good warm up even if the sound was a bit too fuzzy. I found some pictures of the fest here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/iceman75/. Aaaahhh it was soooooooo freakingly good. By the way I used earplugs at the concert so I enjoyed the music and I can still hear annoying sounds:
I just came back from Japan, I'm currently collecting pictures and notes I've taken during the trip. I have to find out how to transfer the notes from my iPod touch to my iMac... I can't believe Apple didn't integrate this feature in iTunes or so, it just makes the note thing useless. I took the notes in French, so there is a translating job to do, it could take some time. I will post bilingual posts as I will have both versions available, it will be easier for the French fellows who don't master Shakespeare's language to read the crazy adventures of the Clem in Japan! It can also be a good exercise for those who learn French. Also I decided to put everyday a list of album I've listened to during the day, usually I listen to at least two albums a day while commuting. I'll write the date in French so you guys will learn how to read dates in French! Crazy stuff, isn't it?
Yes, at last, I get some holidays! I'm leaving for Japan for a two week trip with Julien and Cyril. Cyril has been living in Tokyo for a bit more than a year. It's gonna be a crazy adventure! We will travel mostly by rail and buses to visit some traditional villages, some awesome natural hot springs (Japanese Onsen), some dramatic sceneries and ultra high tech cities. I have been preparing my apartment for a few days, because I want it to be clean when I come back. Imagine, going on some great vacation and then coming back only to discover an horrible stinky mess. That would be quite depressing. So I repainted my closet that was tagged during my house warming party, repaired some holes in the doors and walls and mopped the floors. There is still some cleaning to do before the little exhibit/farewell party tonight. I wanted to post a video of myself painting, since many probably can't imagine how Clem painting would be possible but I haven't found yet how to export the avi files from my camera to a iMovie-supported file. All hopes aren't lost anyhow, maybe I'll find a way to do so and you'll get a good cheap laugh :)
Yeah I love my iMac! It's so awesome! Oh didn't I tell you that's what I brought back from London? It's a 24" flat screen mac, with a double core 3ghz CPU. Freakin'ly strong and cool.
Here is what I did with it tonight. I used the Magic Garageband feature, which generated automatically a backing track with istruments and a style that I picked up. Then I plugged my guitar and improvised some "Santana" style solo... Quite exciting!
The sound is great, I love that software, it's the perfect scale/improvisation learning companion!
It's been a busy week-end for the Clem! It started on Friday night with a farewell party for Benoit who left wat.tv to work for a Rich Internet Applications (RIA) start-up. Then Saturday morning I had a rehearsal with The Acolyts, it was a good one, we managed to settle the structure for the songs My Psycho Dinner and Zoidberg. Ruben came and took a lot of awesome pictures! You can find them on his blog: http://www.boubablog.fr/. Then I ran to the railway station to meet with my parents in London!! There we did some quick sightseeing and some shopping. Shopping indeed as we went to the Apple store on Regent Street. Pretty awesome place I tell you! I will write another post about what I bought there, which will make all of you completely jealous! Well, enjoy the music, don't hesitate to comment about it and let me know your listener experience! NB: For those who never listened to some The Acolyts music material, I have to warn you, some of it is quite heavy indeed. However there are also some light delights!
Paris Clem: for those about to blog!
The Acolyts - Rehearsal
Harbinger covered by System of a dawn:
The great successor:
L'anus artificiel:
Harbinger, first take:
Harbinger, second take:
My Psycho Dinner, first take:
My Psycho Dinner, second take:
Zoiberg and bonuses:
Harbinger one more time:
Edit: I realized that the mp3 player wasn't working on IE from the begining :) I found a workaround but I won't do it on the old posts.
It's important for me to keep doing this recording exercise, it pushes me to practice my guitar, improve my ability to mix and the composing process.
Last week's interpretation of Opeth Harvest was quite poor, so I decided to record it again. It's better:
I also kept writing the song I have in the pipeline, It is called "Peculiar land whispered to mind". It doesn't have lyrics yet, but a few guitar riffs and arpeggios that I like, so I've put'em all together and here is the result: I'm singing some random Finn words on top. The song is pretty far from complete but I just want to show the progress, kind of a "making-of" a song.
It's a Opeth song and damn it's good! So, well, I tried to play it and after about a whole freakin' Sunday afternoon spent recording/learing how to play the song... Here we go, a new song for Paris Clem Ze Blogue !!
Apart from that there isn't some exciting new stuff. I bought a hat lately and quite frankly it rocks. I've been writing a song during the past week but it isn't finished, I think it will take some time because it's a bit ambitious (ruuuun ruuuuuunn !!).
Bisous!
The Clem.
Edit - For those who don't know Opeth, you're really missing something! check this song : Face of melinda (live)
I've also been working on some Acolyts song, the one called "The Nameless". I wrote the intro for it in november '07 but I couldn't find something to follow it. It's been progressing a bit with a few more riffs, but still it is pretty far away from the complete thing I'd like it to be (does that make sense?).
As my list of "stuff I got to do in 2009" says, I have to record more stuff, even if it's weird! After last night's heavy partying I had a lot of sleep to catch up. So I got to bed at about 6pm (crazy!), I was falling asleep watching 1968's The Thomas Crown Affair. I usually don't hit the sack that early, so I had some weird sleep, sweating, having nightmares, my brain thinking about weird stuff at full speed. At some point I decided it was better to get up, that it was probably something like 4am or so. Well it was 10pm! So I grabbed my good old pal Harbinger (the SG guitar) and started playing. Somehow the weirdness of my dreams was still present, I could remember how it felt and I wanted to put it in a musical experiment. The music... I had to add a lot of effects on my sound, to make it blurry, chaotic. I used some harmonizer with a slow attack so the guitar sound signature becomes more like a strange violin/cello. Just a tad of a bluesy crunch. Massive echo/reverb to add texture and gloominess. Just what I was looking for. But I wanted also some kind of industrial sound, then comes the idea of inputting a drum sample in the effects. It made it sound like some evil desert caravan, with a hypnotizing rhythm pushing the listener in some horrific oriental scenery... I love it! The Lyrics talk about The Mule a mind controlling character from the book Foundation and Empire. Imagine a slow spaceship caravan, gliding in the deep silence of the universe, taking control over the planets one by one, winning battles against impossible odds... At its head, The Mule. A general who rose from nowhere, he is a legend, but no one has seen him. He inspires despair in the heart of his enemies. Now to make it even more original I used my Doom/Crooner voice tone. The result is some Metalish Industrial Oriental Sci-Fi Doom. And it's uber weird! The Mule : Download
The shadow rises, upon terminus A wave of fear, spreads on the foundation Worlds collapses, combatants lost courage The dark prince, will rule us all !
He controls your emotions Raises your deep daemons You can't resist his hold He possesses your soul
All fear the Mule
No one will, stand in his way His darkness, corrupts the hearts of men The old kingdoms, have already fallen The battle cry, roars upon terminus
He controls your emotions Raises your deep daemons You can't resist his hold He possesses your soul
http://www.boubablog.fr/