Take note! Hungry Ghosts by Ok Go!
Oct 24, 2014 New Music, New Songs, Purchase Music, Review, Take Note, Video
The fifth installment of the Take Note! review series is of a CD called Hungry Ghosts by Ok Go. ‘The Writing’s on the Wall’ off Ok Go’s new album ‘Hungry Ghosts’ is one of the saddest songs I have heard in a long time. I hear in it missed connections and longing. It is a song of little hope mixed with a gigantic serving of despair. And yet the words are catchy and the music is upbeat! It feels wrong to have such a sad song be ~that~ upbeat. My brain has been full of this song for weeks. This song has taken up residence there and shows no signs of moving out. This is a shame because the rest of the album is interesting and fun and filled with songs you want to bob your head along with. If only you can get past song #2.
I really enjoy reading about the process different band use to write music and lyrics. What inspires them? Damian Kulash from Ok Go shared the band’s process and inspiration for ‘Hungry Ghosts’ in this article. He explains the origin and process song by song off the Hungry Ghosts album.
The music of Ok Go is so excellent and goes well with their TOTALLY AWESOME videos. Here is the video for The Writing’s on the Wall.
Tags: Hungry Ghosts, new songs, Ok Go, purchase music, sad song, Take Note!
Ruby Calling gets some airtime
Dec 10, 2012 Airtime, New Songs, Ruby Calling, Uncategorized, Video
I recently shared the new Ruby Calling EP with a great local radio station KZME. I guess they liked it because they played a song today! Yay! It is a dream come true to share our music with the world. Do you have your copy of our EP? If not go here: rubycalling.bandcamp.com.
In other news, the band is working on a cover for Christmas for our friends at The Big Show. It is now stuck in our heads and we are contemplating busting out a video. Stay tuned.
My Ruby Calling Recording Experience – Part 2
Dec 4, 2012 Crow Girl, Northcott, Recording, Ruby Calling, The Patio, Video
In this post I want to tell you about Ruby Calling’s second recording experience. To find out more about our first recording experience, go here.
There was a lot of thrash about when we would record. I had originally wanted to record in the spring but our schedules didn’t align to make that happen. Honestly, I had a bit of a crisis. I felt like I was committed to recording but the rest of the band was not. In fact, I felt like I needed quit the band and start a new band of people who wanted to record! After an emotional heart to heart with my band mates, we decided to set a goal to record in the fall — together. We spent a lot of time honing the list of songs to record and practicing them and practicing them and practicing them.
Jean and I had done some research on recording studios in Portland. We narrowed our list down to two which we visited. We liked both of them but the funky 70’s colors mixed with the high-tech vibe of Jackpot Recording Studios appealed to both of us. There were two recording engineers at Jackpot!: Larry Crane and Kendra Lynn. Having been a huge fan of TapeOp magazine and knowing that Larry Crane had recorded many of my favorite bands (Sleater-Kinney, The Gossip, The Decemberists), I was partial to him. One of my band members thought it would be cool to have a woman engineer. We decided to go with Kendra. Kendra was super responsive and very professional. We had not recorded in an official recording studio before and she was very patient with our questions. Our band fumbled around a little but Kendra never missed a beat. She got everything set up and ready to go. She told us what to do and expect. She guided us to record the very best takes. She was an absolute pro with the recording software and driven to find the best sound. She was very calm and made the entire recording session a pleasant experience. It was awesome.
And then…she took our raw tracks and performed magic on them. Not that we don’t really sound that good [insert winky eye here]…but she took the best of the best and wove them into something…more. I am extremely pleased and proud of the results and happy that we went with Kendra.
I am not going to lie though…recording was kind of brutal. Even after practicing the same thing over and over, I am not sure we were prepared to play it again and again with the added burden of being recorded. At one point I thought my fingers were going to fall off! (Who wrote that damn bass line..oh yeah…I did). And recording isn’t all playing and playing and playing. It is more playing and playing and sitting and waiting. It is exciting. And scary. And totally fulfilling. I loved it.
My friend Mike, Ruby Calling’s official cinematographer, came and shot some photos and some video. I am curious to see what became of it…perhaps he is still working on it??? Mike???
After the recordings were agreed upon we had to get them mastered. Since we were adding in a song that wasn’t recorded with the rest, we needed to find someone who could take two different recording sessions and make them one seamless EP. We chose to go with Sky Onion and Gus was great to work with. He mastered the songs such that they flowed from one to another plus he helped us determine the order. I enjoyed working with him.
So here is the end result: http://rubycalling.bandcamp.com/. We are a band of many, many songs. These songs represent but a sampling of our repertoire. I cannot wait to share the rest with you.
Exposure for The Patio and other news
Sep 22, 2011 Appearances, Northcott, Ruby Calling, The Patio, Video
Ruby Calling donated an MP3 for “The Patio” to friend-of-the-band, Colleen Wainwright. Colleen recently raised over $60,000 for a LA non-profit called WriteGirl which benefits teen girls. The MP3 was given to people who donated as a perk. It was included in the “communicatrix song pack” and the “Digital MONSTER Pack”. It will go out in a total of 507 packs which means we may get 507 new fans! For more information on Colleen’s campaign go here.
Speaking of fans, our Facebook fan page has 98 fans. Who will be number 100?
The band has been working up a new song. We have already begun sketch out the storyboard for the video and we hope Mike Northcott will collaborate with us again! We also invented a little dance to go with the song. You are going to love it!
We still don’t have any shows booked right now. After a busy summer it was nice to take a break but we are ready to get back out there and play. Know of anywhere we should be playing? Let us know!
New video available for viewing!
Sep 22, 2011 Northcott, Ruby Calling, The Patio, Uncategorized, Video
Our awesome cinematographer and editor, Mike Northcott, just uploaded a new Ruby Calling video of our fan favorite song, “The Patio.” Check it out here.