grasshopper hill

@jalopy-jones

no vocals v2-1

i like this one, mixed very nice.  wish they all mixed this well.  still sounds a little thin, exp with it it try to thicken, maybe pan different on next v.

update - added vocals, less than impresive, needs lots of work, and i don't to hear my voice, so put away for later.

realign the beats, run side chain compression, find vid for that i copt it.

 

v2-2 (with vocals)

@jalopy-jones

 haven't done much in the way of recording or mixing lately, getting discouraged. everything sounds crappy.  been practicing and relearning some rush songs.  stopped watching production videos, feeling like i got info overload.  i want to go back to square one and start over.

on the mental health side of things, i'm losing it, feeling no progress there either, still just barely get out my door.  will get evicted any day now.

 i have to figure out who i am

i've lived my whole life being the scagegoat of my family.  as a kid, i don't recall how many times i ran away from home.  as an adult, i've walked away from my family multiple times, but i am hoping to stay gone this time (its been three years... no more second third forth fifth chances.

anyway, i was mistreated by my father, a very, very angry man.  the abuse was physical and psychological.  i was constantly mocked for the things i loved that he didn't approve of.  if he wasn't berated me, he simply ignored me.. my mother was (is) cold, silent and unloving, and just a few year ago, i discovered that she gaslights me behind my back to her friends and the rest of my extended family.  which explains alot, why the rest of the family avoids and looks down on me

of coarse, all of this abuse was solely aimed at me, not my brother or sister, just me.

i'll get more into this later, i need to talk about identity 

so the only identity that i have ever known is the identity that they gave me, which was the bad kid.  i was the bad kid.  that was me.  i was a fucked-up kid, and i gravitated to other fuck-up kids, and we could all be fucked up together.

but that was never my true identity.

most of the time fucked up kids grow up to fucked up adults, that's me.  i'm 55 now, and spent my whole life living in suedo self.  incapble of haling health relationships, broke most of the time, jumping from job to job, isolation from other, and miserable.  a waste.  i wasted my life.

but my life isnt over yet

and now that i know a lot more about myself, and more about what they did to me, i feel like, i don't know, somehow better.  somehow i feel like there is a path forward, a way to retrain my brain, and find and be my true self.

this is the first step on a new path

 

project: pity this busy monster manunkind not

the idea, i have no idea what the idea is yet

 i'm working on what i think might be a series of concept songs, kind of inspired by the ee cummings poem "pity this busy monster manunkind" plus some other ideas.  maxheadroom (the content song) has the pink floyd "ghost of syd" riff. decline of society, dystopian devo-sapian tragedy, etc

ep length, concept album - (remember whos' face is on the front) humanity

instrumentals, like mini concertos, like 5 or 6 songs? how many minutes? 

max headroom - (demo) no lyrics  5:15

enter darkness - (demo) instrumental  4:37

polyester (started) lyrics

caligula's razor (not started) lyrics

rise (demo) no lyrics  *maybe*  5:02

etc

total = 14:44  songs = 3

@jalopy-jones

the first song, max headroom, the music is complete i think, and lyrics half formed.  inspired by the cumming poem plus the precarious concept of "content" plus... part of an old poem, the ols poem is "fresh bread" i wrote 2007 i think, and the most vile poem about american culture i ever wrote with a blatantly placed "hidden message", and the message was quite beautiful  (contrast intended) anyway, i lifted that hidden message for this song, the last section.  this will be a spoken word song, i'm not singing anything till i start writing punk songs.

lyrics almost complete

@jalopy-jones

second song, either called "i wander darkly" or "enter darkness" or ?. mostly instrumental.  play with some language-sound art i guess, a little poem in the song in the breakdown part (remimder stop with all the breakdowns, gag is getting old) right righ breakdown fails but maybe with some vocals to focus on it will take new life, will see. 

@jalopy-jones

third song, rise. music complete, no lyrics.  and right there most of my problems with this project.  i really have no desire to write lyrics.  i'm burned out on that.  i'm getting by on salvaging old poems, which is ok, but kind of stifling to the creation of new ideas.  i just don't want to write

i may not include this one here, this might go elsewhere, the the storm song

anyway rise will be the end song(or not) i think, positive, uplifting, uplooking, etc, and strong, the main beat has a swagger... it came to fight. the beat came to me ina dream when i fell asleep watching afro samurai, i forget who made that soundtrack, wu tang clan i think.  i think its my best songwriting/arranging so far.

and i think one or two more songs would do, but i don't know what the full theme is yet

polyester

caligula's razor maybe, not even started.

end of the world (stray dog poem) have music

manmademan ?? 

what else ?

enter darkness

@jalopy-jones

 

demo 1-2 instrumental, don't know what to call this

must have mixed up the guitar tracks, don't match the bass parts, stop rearranging these in the middle of the night, go to bed.

middle sction is utter confusion, i hate it, change all of it, breakdown fails.  third section is muddy, too many instruments in same frequence, rhythm guitars, move one octave up maybe.

i could fix the drums and guitars tracks, but i hate this version so just start th next.

update 8-4-2026

tried the trick with the vol on guitar tracks, works so much better, still need to rerecord the rhythm guitar and bass on the first verse, and the middle section... still not loving it

seven dogs

@jalopy-jones

 

demo 2 with vocals

using channav, no mix yet on vocal, working that now.

marshal mod #8 mothership lead, i like this mod

update ? some time ago. added vocals, they sound awful need better everything i think

@jalopy-jones

gravity

 

max headroom

so this is rock i guess, punk band does prog?

the inspiration is pink floyd wish you were here and ee cummings pity this busy monster, plus some old poems

todays project, vocals, current version has no vocals

i hate recording vocals, mics suck, room sounds bad, have to process alot..  going to use the telephone effect on most vocals for now ,its easy and cuts thru.  get fancy on later versions 

language as instrument, ambient, etc. ready go

update-  i don't want to write anything, i just don't, work on this later.

update 8-4-2026

remixed, made minor adjustments, removed the annoying delay on the lead, sounds better, still haven't written any lyrics  

old version below

@jalopy-jones

@jalopy-jones

 

 

groove 6

@jalopy-jones

 

old project, starting new demo but wanted to mix this a few n more time times

instrumental, i don't know, a mix of jazz and ... elevator?

recorded double rhythm guitar tracks, both with "finesse" and pushed left right, added delay so they could ping-pong around and it really didn't work, sounded cool but guitar did sit in the front, and without full on delay just sounds like i'm drunk, might work in a fugazi style song but not this, went to single track 2 oclock and used voice thickener

verses are different guitar tones, i like the first one best.  marshal 800 clone thru analog amp and cab sim (the sinplifier)  it sounds better.  if i remember this was the first thing i recorded thru and i can hear the different.  not there yet but much better. 

next mix of this demo using channav, first experiments with channel strips, also adding tube sat plugin for guitar tone

update 7-31

ok so here is what i figured out, i think.  guitars always sound too loud, in the mix they sound right, but when i export to mp3, the sound way too load, like maybe 3 to 5 db too load.  so, when i get the right balance in the mix, just decrease the level 3 and then export.  i wond if its an issue with the daw, or maybe all daws to that.  only sems to happen with guitar and organ.  i will try that and see how it goes.

groove 7

@jalopy-jones

 

its blues, its weird

v1-2

i like this, need to re-record everything, time is way off, the bridge sounds very wrong with synth but human voice will sound good, still need to find the melody for backing, what i got here is week.

i got an idea for some lyrics, something quirky, i already got my folderol picked out. 

and its weird! kind of peppy and spooky, like something a garage band would play if they played in the garage of the adams family

work on this later 

where i when wrong

 i need to write this down

 where i went wrong... i gave a shit what others thought, that's where i went wrong.  i tried to bridge a gap, i wanted to use art to connect with others, be social, so i watered down my ideas, my language, to be more understandable and to fit in. i tried to explain too much. i compromised, and i was miserable for it, and was still misunderstood and all alone

my art was often called crazy, not always in a bad way, but that label, crazy, hit me personally.  its not anyone's fault, but i didn't want to hear it anymore.  it triggered me for personal reasons, again, no ones fault.

i fucked around too long in the wrong world, i wondered into suburbia without straypaint... never again.  i'm only making art for myself and all else can fuck off

also, i lost perspective, became fanatic over an experement that crashed, focused on the finger and forgot about the moon.  i tried to make literal music literally.  i tried to make the poem on the page more like sheet music, and trying to craft to make better sheet music i forgot about the music.  when actually spoken and recorded it just didn't work.  it sounded like captain kirk reading mad libs while sitting on the toilet. 

and there's more but, no point, it's clear that writtn word is again, the wrong world.

no worries, start over.  i know spoken word and real music works, like this classic buttholes tune from my youth.  i love this song

and that is where i went wrong

when the moon is fake and your mermaids cry

 

storm in the eye

@jalopy-jones

 

blues, instrumental.

this version 2-1, i keep labeling them wrong

i don't know, its weird, really hard to mix, and so sad

the storm is not working

update 8-4-2026

re-mixed, brought the guitars down and sounds much better i think, the storm still doesn't sound great.  and still don't have a good ending for this.  anted to make it feel like the storm was "all stormed out" but just sounds kind of broken.

vs: og version demo 1- 2nd song i made on audacity

@jalopy-jones

song #7

@jalopy-jones

newest creation, very rough, i do not like the guitar tones in this, try different amp.  the bass tone is nice, unmixed right now, but off beat, need to redo.  i guess lyrics of this, but i do now want to write, and don't want to put lead guitar on it.  anyway, work on it later.

update 6/29/26 demo 1-3 i think

rerecorded bass in verses, rerecorded guitar, fender twin mod, #3 i think.  went back to og drum loop, hate the tone. much better song, much!

kind of motown-y, kinda jazz, its pretty now

rise

@jalopy-jones

 

this one is kind of dark, a hip-hop groove, dark but upbeat

the mix is bad, not a master.  this mixing stuff is tough the only way to learn is trial and error, over and over and over. need to rework the drums at the end.

this should be a spoken work piece, something positive, not religious, an underdog uprising kind of thing.

without a good mix yet this is as i can go for now.  work on it later

update 8-9-26

play with the mix a little, sounds better.  having issues with my music platform, does not what to upload files, takes many hour just to process, something is wrong, may have to find another platform.

old versions - audacity etc

@jalopy-jones

@jalopy-jones