Smeex!

www.smeex.com

Go here. Now. Just do it.

Oh, very well.

Smeex is the new Malaysian music community website. Of sorts. Rather than simply catering for musicians, the website has lots of nifty features that should attract pretty much anyone. It's quite awesome, really. It's still new but there are lots and lots of members, so join us now and check it out for yourself.

• Free hosting for your music. Plus you can sell them directly from Smeex.
• Loads of tutorials and articles- plus you can contribute too!
• Dedicated forums and groups.
• You get points based on your activities in the site, and these points can be converted to gifts, and even money. Awesome, that.
  

www.smeex.com

Click it.

CIMP Talent Night

Andrew and I got in. It's going to be on the 15th of October. Not sure whether non-CIMP people are allowed to perform but we'll try to ask. Envisioning a flute intro.

Probably will only get to play one song, so we'll play an uber extended version of Blink 182's I Miss You.

Hoorah!

1. In case you didn't read the last announcement, we've failed in our bid to become a club thanks to Ken, from the SSD. Go egg his house or something.
2. Please send in clips of your musical talent. Take a vid of yourself playing whatever musical instrument you can and post in online or something. Then send me the link. It doesn't need to be a 12-minute movie soundtrack orchestral epic. We just want to gauge your talent so the recording process can run more smoothly.
3. About CIMP's Talent Time- Andrew and I will be going for the auditions, so wish us luck. Won't hurt it you bribe the judges too. :) I jest, I jest. If we manage to get through, we'll ask to play 2 or 3 songs and get as many people as possible involved. We've already got a rough draft of what the full version of our 'I Miss You' by Blink 182 cover will be like. Dual guitar solos, harmonized licks, flute intro, pounding bassline etc etc. P.S.: You're free to audition separately if you like. We can get more spots that way. :)
   
4. I've bought the Toneport GX for RM205. Going to buy the Shure SM58 mic + cable + converter this Friday, so please hand in your RM50 donation collection by tomorrow. The mic costs RM350, cable and converter will be about RM70 extra.
5. If you have a laptop that you want to use for recording, tell me NOW. I'll send you a list of software to get, and you'll have to install Gearbox to use the Toneport, so I'll have to pass you the CD and tell you what to do. Cheers.
   

It STARTS!

Our fundraising efforts, that is.

Tomorrow's meeting will be at G7 at 4pm. I will be passing out the donation cards. Each member has to collect at least RM50 by the end of this week. Don't care how you do it, just get it done. It's simple enough. You can collect RM1 per person, which equates to 50 people spread out over a period of about 5 days. That's only 10 people per day that you need to collect money from. :)

You HAVE to collect RM50 whether or not you're attending tomorrow's meeting (and you really, really should). Here's the 'card'. Download it, cut it in half. I'll be handing out copies tomorrow though.

http://www.4shared.com/file/62186072/7f02aa88/Donations.html

Annual General Meeting.

Next Tuesday.
Room G7.
4pm.
9/9/2008.

BE THERE.


Bring anything you want to help you showcase your musical talent. Microphone, guitar, keyboards. Whatever.

And bring some extra members. :) See you there.

Important Matters.

We're applying to become a club.

So, we have vacancies for two Vice-Presidents, as well as a Secretary. Interested? Leave your name down here in the comments. If more than two people want a single post, I'll draw lots. Fair process.

PLEASE PAY YOUR MONEY TO EITHER ALIZA, ZALEHA, LIL GUN, OR ME. It's not fair on the people who've already paid up, because we can't get anything without the full amount. PLEASE pay up by tomorrow. We're not even asking you to part with your money forever. Once our fundraising efforts get into gear, you'll get paid back whatever we earn from those.

What is the exact name of the soundproof room on the first floor? LT3? We need to book it, and use it as our 'venue' in the application form to become a club. And please vote on a convenient day for 'meetings'. I'll take the one with the most votes. We won't even be holding our recording session every week on that particular day, so don't worry. It's more of a formality.

And that's in for now. More info once we get the Toneport and can start recording outside of the cramped Audio Room that completely boils our creative juices.




Also, this is the first song we're going to record.

http://www.4shared.com/file/60908608/7f780655/Planet_Wishful_Thinking_.html

Check the post below this for Lyrics and lots of other details about this song. We're going to expand on it, splice it up, bastardise it etc etc. Just get to know the basic form. Thank you.



MONEY.

Recording Shall Commence!

• Next Wednesday, 3/9/2008 will be our first rehearsal and recording session at the Audio Room, Multimedia Production Lab, Lower Ground, Sunway Uni College. Drop me a comment here if you can't make it. Try your best to make it. From 4pm to 5.20pm, DO NOT be late. We'll be doing one of my songs. I just recorded it. Refer below.
  

• Working on officially making this a club. Any help in this department will be greatly appreciated.

• We need suggestions for the Stereostatics T-Shirt, as well as our first EP (due end of September). Drop them as a comment here now.

• We will be buying gear next weekend. Everyone, please pay up RM30 (or more) to either Aliza or me by our recording session next week. Provided the T-shirt and EP sales, as well as the other fundraisers, do as expected, we'll be able to pay you guys back in no time. :)

• This is the song we will be recording. I'm looking to revamp the sections after the second chorus; we'll look into that during recording. Please download it and listen to it (many, many times) as well as examine the notes below.

http://www.4shared.com/file/60908608/7f780655/Planet_Wishful_Thinking_.html

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
TV's in my head,
I can't turn it off.
Shampoo ads and family dramas
Don't let me think straight
If I screw up my life
I'll lay the blame on them
But I screwed up my life and
I'm the one to blame

Chorus:
I'll make you a planet
If that's what you want
I'll make you a planet
If that will make you happy

Verse 2:
TV's in my head
It just won't go off
My head's a commercial
For deranged sadists and
I'm a prison
For all the psychos on Earth
And I thought I could just
Shut it down but



Structure:

• Intro (Starts with bass slide. Based around A5-G5-F5-E5. Played on a clean guitar. Distorted lick comes in halfway.)

• Chord Intro (Bass comes in. Am/G/F/E, two times. Lick comes in halfway through the second time, slightly after the beat to create an unstable entry into the verse.)

• Verse 1 (Am/G/F/E, repeated. Strumming is lax and irregular.)
• Chorus (A5-G5-F5-E5, repeated once. The chords are played on a distorted guitar.)
  
• Chord Breakdown (Am/G/F/Em. Distorted guitar plays a lick. The bass guitar pops the root notes lazily, ends by sliding down to the 12th fret for entry into the verse.)
• Verse 2 (Same chords as Verse 1. Aim was to make chords more sparse in the second verse. Volume dips towards the middle then rises, creating contrast.)
• Cut-off Chorus (A5-G5-F5-E5, once only. First line of chorus is dragged on to the instrumental breakdown over the Dm chord, creating a dissonance.)
• Instrumental Breakdown (Based around Dm/Em/Am. Also a bass solo over this part. And volume swells on the E and G note. The rhythm guitar is on the bridge pickup for this section.)
• Chorus (Final two times. Voice is panned from zero reverb to full reverb.)
• Solo (Final line of chorus dragged on to two repeats of the chorus chords, played by the clean guitar. Based around chorus chords, verse chords come in later on. Guitar solo. Extremely short delay to obtain a wet, thick sound. Tone knob turned all the way up for higher-pitched sound. Aim was to get a squealing noise without resorting to harmonics. Lead guitar panned very slightly from right to left repeatedly at the middle of the solo. Solo is based around a combination of the Dorian mode and the A minor pentatonic scale. The rhythm guitar ends on the final E chord being pounded violently. The solo extends up to the Dorian mode, pans from the left to right, and ends with a slide on the right channel.)

Notes: Recorded using an Ibanez Gio guitar and a Micro BR recorder in 30 minutes. One-take for each track.





Also, here's a list of good artistes you really should check out. I've tried to make a list that encompasses many genres. Enjoy.

• AC/DC
• Aerosmith
• Aesop Rock
• Against Me
• Aimee Mann
• Alanis Morisette
• Alice Cooper
• Alice In Chains
• Alphaville
• Aqualung
• Arctic Monkeys
• Ash Nair
• Audioslave
• Augustana
• Band of Horses
• Bat for Lashes
• The Beatles
• Ben's Bitches
• Blotted Science
• Brand New
• Breaking Benjamin
• British Sea Power
• The Bravery
• Buckethead
• Bullet for My Valentine
• The Cardigans
• Chester Bennington
• Chris Cornell
• Chris Impellitteri
• Coldplay
• Counting Crows
• The Cranberries
• The Cure
  
• Dashboard Confessional
• Death Cab For Cutie
• The Derek Trucks Band
• Downstage
• Dream Theatre
• Duncan Sheik
• Duran Duran
• The Eagles
• Elbow
• Elliott Smith
• Ferras
• Finger Eleven
• The Flaming Lips
• Flipsyde
• Foo Fighters
• Funeral for a Friend
• Funkadelics
• Gary Jules
• Ghosts
• Gnarls Barkley
• The Great Spy Experiment
• Grinderman
• Guns N' Roses
• Heart
• The Hives
• Incubus
• Iron & Wine
• Jakob Dylan
• Jamie Foxx
• Jamiroquai
• Jane's Addiction
• Jason Becker
• Jason Mraz
• Jeff Beck
• Jet
• Jimi Hendrix
• Jimmy Eat World
• Joe Satriani
• John Frusciante
• John Mayer
• Josh Woodward
• Kanye West
• Keane
• Kings of Leon
• Kunek
• Led Zeppelin
  
• Lenny Kravitz
  
• Lily Allen
• Linkin Park
• Live
• Lost Prophets
• Lupe Fiasco
• Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Madina Lake
• Mahavishnu Orchestra
• Marilyn Manson
• Mars Volta
• Mattias Ia Elkundh
• Megadeth
• Metallica
• Mew
• Mika
• Muse
• My Morning Jacket
• Nirvana
• No Doubt
• Oasis
• Opeth
• Outvile
• Ozzy Osbourne
• P.O.D.
• Pantera
• Paramore
• Pearl Jam
• Pennywise
• A Perfect Circle
• Permanent Me
• Pink Floyd
• Placebo
• Point of Grace
• Portishead
• Prince
• Queen
• Queens of the Stone Age
• The Raconteurs
• Radiohead
• Rage Against The Machine
• Rammstein
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Reel Big Fish
• Rilo Kiley
• Robyn
• Rolling Stone
• Ryan Cabrera
• Santana
• Savage Garden
• Say Anything
• Scorpions
• The Script
• Seether
• Serj Tankian
• Sheena Easton
• Sia
• Sigur Ros
• Silverchair
• Skunk Anansie
• Slash's Snakepit
• Smashing Pumpkins
• Snow Patrol
• Social Distortion
• Something Corporate
• Spandau Ballet
• Spastic Ink
• Spoon
• Staind
• Steely Dan
• Steve Vai
• The Stone Roses
• Stone Temple Pilots
• The Strokes
• Sublime
• Sufjan Stevens
• Super Furry Animals
• Switches
• Symphony X
• System of a Down
• Tears For Fears
• Tegan and Sara
• Tegine
• Tempered Mental
• Ten Years After
• Tenacious D
• Tenpenny Joke
• Tesla
• Third Eye Blind
• Thom Yorke
• Thrice
• Tom Baxter
• Tom Morello
• Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
• Tool
• Tracy Chapman
• Train
• U2
• Van Halen
• Vanderveen
• Velvet Revolver
• The Veronicas
• The Vines
• The Wallflowers
• Weather Report
• Ween
• Weezer
• The White Stripes
• The Whitest Boy Alive
• The Who
• Wolfmother
• Yellowcard
• Yngwie Malmsteen
• Zeptepi
• The Zombies
• 10 Years
• 3 Doors Down