Crazy Eight's!

Greetings my friends!

It’s been a whole month since we last updated you! Our show in Dallas was a success! Due to ice and plane problems we landed about an hour before we were scheduled to play. We ripped through a 2 hour set with no “live” rehearsing between the two of us and I think it turned out nicely! Go to http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gibytoof&aq=ft to see 9 videos taken from the 2 hour set we played!

This month we’re breaking all the rules and releasing a large group of songs that have been built up since July 2010. Sometime a few weeks back we gathered up a list of some 20 different songs. They were all in various stages and from there hand-picked this little collective that we’re each going to spend time and talk about. You can hear them all over at www.reverbnation.com/presentlyfalling


Walk On Stilts

Cluthe (lyrics/music): Rhythm Guitar, Bass, Vocals

Lee: Lead guitars, Drums, Mixing

A song that Matt wrote. I latched onto it quickly and had these two competing riff ideas that I was trying to make work together in the song. The work on the song has long been finished, and so when it came to picking this collection to release, I threw this one in there. Matt said he had indifferent feelings about the song and I convinced him it was worth sharing. I had to agree to mix the song before I got my way though! Ha! I’ve decided that Matt has a signature method to playing guitar and Walk On Stilts showcases his knack for beautiful melodic chords & time signature changes. The drumming on it was a bit tricky, and shows another example of how Matt challenges me as a musician.



Out The Door

Cluthe(lyrics/music): Vocals, Rhythm Guitar

Lee: Lead Guitar, Backing vocals

This one came together in a way we’d never done. The main recording was done on Matt’s iPhone! Instead of working it up like we typically do, we decided that I’d add one live lead track and backing vocals and that’d be it! This version is the demo version and nothing more. The song came together quickly if I remember what Matt said. He used lyrics from 2005 and the guitar chords were total improvisation. There’s a magical quality to this song I think. It’s about as representative of what we sound like playing live together (in the same room) I think.


Breakout

Lee (music): Drums, Rhythm Guitars, Bass

Cluthe (lyrics): Vocals, Lead Guitars

This one started as a bluesy riff and drums and just blew up from there. Live mic’ing was used for it, which is rare for me on Cluthe/Lee stuff. I just couldn’t get past how good the tone was on the original track. I think one of the few songs where Matt is screaming. He says that he upset his neighbors


Said & Done

Lee (music): Acoustic and Electric Guitars, P-Bass, Drum Kit, Shaker

Cluthe (words): Vocals & backing vocals

January 2011, I was practicing nearly every day for our February show in Dallas. These practices would last 2-3 hours and inspired a lot of improvisation. During one particular warm up, I strayed and started working on a slow burning acoustic number in Open G tuning. First song using a new cymbal set I got for Christmas too. I think the kit sounds refreshing, more like a full kit now. I have really come to love drumming being in this band. I’ve learned a lot since getting the full kit to my house in May 2010 and am excited to continue learning how to play better and better!

Hey everyone...Matt here…
Chris did most of the mixing for this collection of songs. I still had some recording to do and he did an awesome job mixing those songs. As for the ones that I mixed, here's a little info.....

Your Shore
I wrote this one when I was pretty sick and you can definitely hear the strain in my voice. We usually have to make several adjustments throughout the mixing process for each song, but the simplicity of this song allowed for an easier mixing process. Chris has some beautiful lead lines in this song & his bongos make their debut.

Cluthe (words/music): vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass
Lee: rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bongos, bass drum

I'll Crawl
I wrote the basic acoustic rhythm track for this song back in September, I believe. It's one that we both really liked, but we kept putting it on the backburner because we had so many other songs swirling around. When we decided to clean house & finish all of these songs, we both gravitated towards this song. Chris recorded his (awesome) drumtrack & his guitar tracks, then I was off & running. The words came quickly, as did the bass and my electric parts. To put it simply, this one was a lot of fun to record and finish.

Cluthe (words/music): vocals, acoustic guitar, lead guitar, bass
Lee: lead guitar, drums, rhythm guitar

Exact Sense
Man, this song is old! I wrote this back in July of last year and much like I'll Crawl, we kept shelving it for one reason or another. I was sitting around with my acoustic one day & started playing the main riff. I immediately went upstairs, plugged in my guitar & the MOTU and gave it a go. If memory serves, I ran though it 2-3 times to develop the other parts of the song....then hit record. The mic was plugged in using the same effect setting as my guitar, and I hadn't written any lyrics yet. When I hit record, I just started singing. That's where the "distorted vocals" came from. The other vocals came a day or two later, I think. In any case, Chris has some truly amazing leads on this song...actually, they're some of my favorites because he was totally dialed in & letting loose at the same time. The original drums had to be scrapped because of some popping issues, but this new drum track is a clear representation of just how far he has come as a drummer. Awesome stuff to hear, in my opinion!

Cluthe (words/music): vocals, rhythm guitar, bass
Lee: lead guitar, drums

I'd also like to talk about the other tunes in this collection of eight.......

Walk On Stilts: I would like to thank Chris for mixing this one. for some reason, it was giving me fits. He's always been a fan of this song...me? not so much...and I wrote it. I was getting really frustrated with it & asked him to give it a shot. He did an awesome job.

Out The Door: total improv. I recorded my parts on my iPhone, actually. It was a demo idea using some old lyrics. We kept it very simple on this one, and it was great to hear Chris return to the mic for his backing vocals.

Breakout: one of my favorites that we've done in the last couple of months. I just had a lot of fun with it. Chris wrote the music for this one & I immediately wanted to work on it.

Said & Done: I'm a big fan of this song. it came together very quickly & I have a feeling it will be on a future release.
The Observer: I think this song is different for us. Beautiful picking by Chris & I had a blast recording every little part of this song. Some of my favorite lyrics to sing....which is odd because I didn't really think about them too much when I wrote them. I'm telling you, Chris can wrote some seriously great music.