Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, now Billy Mays. June's death to celebrities month I guess. Gonna wash w/oxyclean for you Billy!

My band Civita's next soiree is coming up next month! It's actually the second show in a row that's in our own home town. That's really somewhat rare. So all of you Tacoma people better take advantage of it! For the details check the flyer below. And you should print the flyer off and bring it to the show. It gives you a discount and the amount of flyers different bands fans bring in determine the split of the cover charge.

Hey everybody! If you're looking for something cool to do this weekend (and who isn't?) then come on out to The High Dive this Saturday for Civita's CD release! We recorded a little 5 song EP recently and have just got the it back from being pressed. It's called "No Time For Love Doctor Jones" and we're going to go out and play the songs live to celebrate completing the project. Of course we'll have CD's available at the show so everyone should come on out!

I really like the raw energy of this EP. We basically went in with the idea of testing out our equipment since we'd just set it all up. So we planned on just jamming together and getting demos done to see how the gear worked. Well, it came out really good, so we got our friend John West to come in and run the board so that we could just sit back and jam and see what we could come up with. We came up with three new songs and to round things out, we also recorded two songs that we've been playing live for some time, but have never released. The recording method was very different than what I'm used to. Generally, I'd have all the songs written and arranged well ahead of even thinking of going in to record something to be released. And I like to record everybody's parts separately so that it's easier to adjust levels, or redo parts that might need tweaking. But Mel(instantkarmma) really wanted to capture the energy of our jam sessions and since we were starting out just testing, we just went in with a blank slate and basically started writing with the record button on. SO MUCH FUN! It was kind of weird to go in without a game plan, but also very freeing. We didn't over think anything and if something had the right energy, but maybe had a wrong note or something, we decided to leave it. This release is more about a feeling than it is about perfection. Not that we'd let crap get on there. HELL NO! But we really wanted this to sound like you're listening in on us in the comfort of our studio while we have fun and jam stuff out. I'd say SUCCESS!

The new songs are much more straight forward than I usually come up with. With so little time to think about them before laying them down, there wasn't much opportunity to get too fancy with them. And that works really well for these songs. I felt like we were channeling Black Sabbath and Soundgarden at the same time. I think our next release after this will probably be recorded here again, although in a more traditional manner. And it will likely be a full length album instead of another EP. But this was really fun and we may do other EPs and record on the fly again in the future. It's just so much fun and liberating! And I just love hearing the energy on the this recording. Everyone should come out this Saturday and check it out!

Speaking of the show, we'll play every song on the EP, but we'll obviously be playing some oldies but goodies. It's an early show, which I like because people can come out, and then hang out after with us and chill. The show starts at 6pm although I think we go on at 7pm. Come early though and hang out with us. We love that. It's ages 21+ and cover is $5.00. Click the flyer below for the address and stuff.

Long day of recording new Civita songs today. I'm pooped! We've turned our jam room into a digital recording studio, and we're getting decent results so far. Mel(instantkarmma) really wanted to try recording everything live this time, which I was reluctant to do. I've never recorded this way before. Usually I track each part separately but this way, so far, is really fun! We're doing it to put out a new EP. Recording live is soooo much faster than tracking. I think if we were doing a full length album though I'd still rather track each part. It's not as spontaneous, but you get way more control over everything. Still, as skeptical of this recording method as I was, we are getting very usable stuff put down. So far the plan is to record the songs Transitions, "Tablecloth Killer," "Small World," "Necessary Bruise" and "Basket." And maybe one of the ones we recorded before like Unsure, just so we have something from that era that Tim is on. "Unsure" doesn't have Robbie on it either because it took him awhile to get the bass line down. So I put it down. "Transitions" and "Small World" have been in our live set for awhile, and "Tablecloth Killer" made its debut at the Rendezvous show we did with Nathaniel Johnstone(nathan_fhtagn) So "Tablecloth" has only been heard once.

Man, these new songs are quite the departure from what I usually write. Way more....commercial? I guess?. They definitely have the whole bands influence on them as opposed to just me. The first album was basically songs I had written before even forming the band. But I never wanted to be Mr. Songwriter man. I'm much more interested in a collaboration. It seems much more freeing to not have to come up with EVERYTHING. Even the ones that are all me have the bands input as far as arrangement and stuff. It's just so cool to see what different peoples ideas are and to have everyone get a chance to execute them. No dictatorship here that's for sure.

I posted about the upcoming show I'm playing in, but here's something else for you Californians. Robert(robert_from_ap) asked that this flyer be sent out into the enterwebz so here ya go. Click on it for ticket info.



And here's the one for our local show again:

As I've mentioned, I've been out of the country. So I'm a bit late in mentioning this again, but Mel(instantkarmma), Nathan(nathan_fhtagn) and I will be playing a make up show soon at Jules Maes in Seattle! This is to make up for the one that got canceled by snow back in December. We'll be playing with Blackbird Orchestra again, but Civita is not playing. The Details are on the flyer below that Danny(cyclpath) first posted. Even if you can't go, and you'd better have a damn good excuse, this will rock...I'd love it if you could pass this along. It'd be cool to have a good crowd there!

Well, we're back from Mexico. I'll post the details soon. I had hoped to do a running commentary but the bastards turned off the free wi-fi while we were there! Oh well. There will be pictures!

Well, we made it down here to Mexico safe and sound. I LOVE Cabo San Lucas. Best weather in Mexico. It rarely gets hotter than 80 degrees and there's always an ocean breeze. We're here for my good friend Jody's wedding. Jody and I were flatmates for something like six years. I just love her to pieces! I'd say about 17 years ago we partnered up and bought some property down here at the Pueblo Bonito Blanco and have been chilling out in Cabo ever since.

Jody's getting married on Saturday on the beach and so all of us that have property here and can fly people in cheap have donated for the cause of getting guests and family down. We have about 60 people flying in. 60 drunk ass, partying merry makers in Cabo San Lucas. AWESOME!

I'm actually not staying at Pueblo Bonito though. The weddings there so it makes more since to have the bride/groom and family there. I'm staying at my friends Steve and Brenda's place. It's really nice. We get an ocean and pool view...well 3 pool view. And free wi-fi. Actually I don't think this place has free wi-fi but we're grabbing it from a near-by building. Glad we brought our computer down! I'll post pics maybe tomorrow of the place.

Today Mel(instantkarmma) and I went out on a time share presentation. We like to go on those. Well, not really like too, but the bribes they give you to do it totally make up for the hour and a half it takes out of your day. Today we got 1800 pesos/160 dollars, free lunch and a free sunset booze cruise. The cruise is all you can eat buffet and all you can drink booze along with whale watching, music and cruising aroung El Arco and other landmarks. All just for looking at pretty rooms and thoroughly pissing off the hard sell dude by saying no, we're not buying. Have a nice day. GIMME MY STUFF! Since the airfare and rooms are all free, the time share stuff pays for all of our food and activities. We're doing it again tomorrow at another place that promised us 2300 pesos/200 dollars and taxi transportation. So yeah. A pain in the ass dealing with all the hard sell pressure but we're going home with more money than we left on vacation with.

Ok, until tomorrow! Au Revoir!

Holy crap! I've have sooo sick with the flu/head cold that I can't even begin to express it. And I haven't been able to take off work or anything so basically any free time I've had (free time? Yeah, right) has been spent resting. So I'd like to make up for my incognitoness by thanking everyone that came out to see me and my band(s) perform back on January ninth. It was AWESOME! We totally sold out the Rendezvous. Standing room only crowd! The cheers after the songs was DEAFENING! I will blog about it later as I'm getting ready to go to work. But thanks again to everyone that came out to support my band Civita. And also thanks to Blackbird Orchestra for coming out to play with us and Nathaniel Johnstone(nathan_fhtagn) for performing as well. And for jamming on our songs. And letting Mel and I jam on his songs!

I'll post later about the make up show Nathaniel, Mel and I will be doing soon. We had to cancel a benefit gig during the great snow of 2008 here in Seattle, and we'll be making that show up pretty soon.

Ok, I'm outta here. One more day of work, and then it's into the studio for some recording with Civita. Plus some rehearsals with Nathaniel Johnstone and then on Tuesday I'm off to Mexico (Cabo San Lucas) for a week. Never a dull moment around here!

~Jean-Paul

My buddy Nathan(nathan_fhtagn) has been described as a dirty music whore because he plays music with just about anyone willing to share a stage with him. Thanks for the term Rachel!(melantha71) At last count he's involved with six different projects. Of those six, I'm either currently or have been involved with four of them. So come on out tonight and watch us dirty dirty music whores as we swap members in each other's projects! (Sounds like a keychain party). Plus, we're playing with Blackbird Orchestra!!!! I can say for a fact that we in Civita absolutely LOVE these guys! Info is on the flyer below.

I hope everyone has a great new year! New years eve was pretty anti-climatic around here. Both Mel and I had to work. She worked graveyard and I worked swing shift. (2pm-1230am) It was ok though because I liked making doubletime plus a half.

Anyway, to ensure you start the year off right, we've planned a great night out next weekend! Cuz we're just those kinds of people. So come out to the Jewelbox Theater on January 9th to see our band Civita perform with Blackbird Orchestra (featuring cyclpath) and Nathaniel Johnstone(nathan_fhtagn) doing his solo stuff. I'll be helping him out with his solo music along with our singer Mel(instantkarmma). Details on the flyer. Click the flyer for the venue's contact info and/or directions:

For everyone that had planned on coming out to see Nathaniel(nathan_fhtagn), Mel(instantkarmma) and me perform last night, we're sorry it got canceled. But none can stand before the fury of the gods during this, their sacred time. Yes, it has finally come. That day that has long be fortold in the prophecies. It is

SNOMAGGEDON!

Bow and be humbled! Lest ye suffer the HORROR and the PAIN!!!!!!

Yes, I'm a nerd, but yeah. We may have a make up date in mid to late February after Abney Park plays a local show and Mel and I get back from Mexico. Stay tuned! We'll keep you informed.

Oh, and I TOTTALY LOVE THIS GUY! Watch both of these:

I'm playing with my band Civita on Saturday. And the cool thing is it's a happy hour show. Meaning it's early. Six O'Clock. That's cool because after the show there's still plenty of time to hit the streets with us! We can actually go out for drinks or whatever when we're done playing! So come out and party with us. It's up in Seattle (Fremont district) at the High Dive. Info on the flyer...

Anyone who has ever played music with me, and played along to songs I've personally written, knows that rhythmically I don't like to be too conventional. Every once in awhile I like to go total math rock. I like to do things like write a simple 4/4 song, but have a bridge in it that's subtle but not 4/4. So people feel the familiar groove at first, but then wonder why their brains are tweaking all of a sudden. Listen to the Civita song Unsure for an example. It goes from 4/4 to a 6/4 bridge. Only the bridge has quick little 2/4 hitches that switch the beat from the kick drum to the snare and back. Plus it's got distorted little bits that jump back into 4/4 for a second before going back to the 6/4 count. All of that was intentional. I tried to do all of that but to do it really steady and smooth. So you don't really notice the changes, but you just kind of feel them. Like I said, math rock. In our song A Clown And A Boy, I go from 4/4 to 3/4 to 4/4. But there is purposely no standard verse, chorus, verse structure. The idea was to have a linear song that goes step by step from point A to B to C to D. It's not good to always be predictable. Even though it can drive my drummer and bass player mad sometimes. In fact, on unsure I recorded the guitar and bass both because it took a while for our bass player to rap his head around it. Even though it sounds super easy if you're not trying to learn it.

I must admit though, Tool has me beat. Especially on their song Lateralus. They actually based the whole song on various aspects of the Fibonacci sequence. If you're not familiar and haven't read/seen The Davinci Code, I'll explain. The Fibonacci sequence is when you get the next number in the sequence by adding the previous two digits. Like this.

0+1=1, 1+1=2, 2+1=3, 3+2=5, 5+3=8, 8+5=13 etc etc... or, to be easier to read
0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13...

So Tool based their crazy time signatures for Lateralus on that. The main riff switches from 9/8 to 8/8 to 7/8. This is the 16th step of the Fibonacci sequence. And they didn't stop there. The cadence of the vocals follows the sequence starting at one and goes up and back. Plus the lyrics are all about the sequence and expanding the mind, even though they never mention it point blank. Maynard's a genius! The lyrics speak of spiraling out into places unknown. Another way to illustrate the Fibonacci sequence is with an ever expanding spiral based on the increasing area of a triangle based on the sequence. Like this:



Most of that stuff about the Fibonacci sequence I just happen to know because I'm a big math nerd. In fact, when ever it's 11:23 on a clock in our house, Mel(instantkarmma) and I try to be the first to yell out "It's One One Two Three!!!!" Yeah, we're freaks. But here's a video showing all the stuff in Lateralus dealing with the Fibonacci sequence. It's way cooler when you can see it all happening!

Lateralus Explained

Don't forget! Civita is playing a FREE show tonight in Olympia (Lacey), Wa. tonight! It's at the Firecreek Aie House near the corner of College and Yelm Highway. See below.