03/28/12

As promised via Tweet, here's this week's blog... on Wednesday!

Last week didn't pick up steam until the weekend, so I'll start there.

On Sunday Zack from Arch Drive Goodbye stopped in at IND HQ to sing on a couple of songs; meaning we only have half of a song left before the vocals are wrapped on their CD! It's looking like the May deadline 'may' be met!!

Because of a long nap, I almost missed jamming at Aces later that night, but I hustled over there with enough time to crank out unplugged versions of "Out of Our Hands" and "Settling." Afterward I shared several cokes and talked shop with my new buds James and Marty until 3am.

Being wired and getting home so late (or early), I started some extra studio work.

I've had a plan to record a stripped-down version of "Before it Gets to Me" for a little while now. I wrote the song in late 2006/early 2007 with the help of Matthew Groschen (ex-Chemcoma) and have been playing it a lot in my unplugged sets over the last year.

After wrapping guitar tracks by 7am and grabbing another nap, I got some guest tracks from Matt Amos (The Cocaine Wolves) on triangle and Brady Joseph (Lafayette Live) on djembe and tambourine. Later in the night Drew and Chris stopped over to record bass and bongos, respectively.

I wrapped up vocals yesterday and bounced down a mix this morning.

So, how would you like to get a free download of it?

I had a few more guests lined-up to throw down some tracks, but it didn't work out with my deadline. So, hopefully I can get another tune worked up for them.

Moving on...

Did you catch Episode 10 of The Dig N’ Graves Radio Show on AudioKult Radio last night? Well, the results for the Burial Brawl were announced at about the 19:04 mark...

 

In what was described as a landslide, “Out of Our Hands” won! Also, the band will receive a 30 minute Burial Brawl Arena showcase show on AudioKult Radio, advertising on their site for 30 days, and potentially 20 ShamWows!!! :-)

They may have been joking about the last part.

 

Thanks again to Dig, Graves, Nikki, and Sarge for featuring the track and to all of you that helped us get the win!

That does it for the update.

Remember, you can subscribe to the blog, follow @ChrisJuneIND on Twitter, and 'like' Chris June IND on Facebook. Sharing the links is appreciated! :-)

If you're out and about at Lafayette Live at the theater tonight or at Applebee's in Frankfort tomorrow night for Jason Wells' open mic, I'll see you there.

Sidenote: Mr. Wells has a cool new video for the song "Friend or Foe." Check it out HERE.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!!!

Over and out

03/22/12

Apologies for sliding on blog day this week. I’ve been busy with other priorities. Specifically, I’ve been hanging out with my mom at a hospital in Indy... a hospital that cracks down on sites that I use to post and promote the blog.

This update will be quick…

I’ll start by giving kudos to Matt from the Cocaine Wolves for kicking last week off with me with coffee in the studio, the Lafayette Live crew for helping turn downtown into a late-night playground midweek, and all the dudes at Aces for Sunday’s open mic!

The polls have closed for The Dig N’ Graves Radio Show Burial Brawl. I haven’t seen the results yet, but pat yourself on the back for voting for “Out of Our Hands.” Thanks again to Dig, Graves, and Nikki for featuring the track!

Again, you can catch the show on AudioKult Radio and, if you listen in to the station, you may hear some of the new station ID’s that I recorded for them!

Before I forget, The Mound Builders advanced in Heavy Planet’s March Bandness Tournament. You can help them get past the Sweet 16 HERE.

We made a last minute location change and got some new band shots last week at the Lafayette Theater.

What do you think?

Kudos to DropYa Fightwear for hooking up the wardrobe and to Dave Mason at ISPhotographic for snapping the shots.

I booked/solidified some new shows last week:

• Artists United Benefit at the Lafayette Theater on May 4^th with Minsky Kinks, PLOT, Red and the Roosters, and Traveling, Broke, and Out of Gas
• Knickerbocker on May 26^th with tba
• Visions on July 27^th with Kramus

Also, posters are up for the Java Roaster (unplugged on 4/6 in Lafayette) and Animal House (plugged-in on 4/7 in Frankfort) shows. My little bro will join me again to jam on the 6th and the IND crew will be sharing the 7th with our buddies in Archdrive Goodbye and I-Exist. 

RSVP and get more details on these dates (and eventually the new ones) on THE SHOWS CALENDAR or THE EVENTS PAGE on Facebook.

PS: The I-Exist dudes just dropped a teaser from their new CD. It’s super awesome! Check it out HERE.

Also, we’re close to being done with vocal tracks for the new ADG release. I’m digging on it too!

That does it for the update.

Remember, you can subscribe to the blog, follow @ChrisJuneIND on Twitter, and 'like' Chris June IND on Facebook. You can share the links too. :-)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!!!

Over and out

03/12/12

I hope your Monday (and week, depending on what day you read this) is going alright with the DST switch! On the bright side, we have 70's all week here in Mid-North-West-Central Indiana.

You know what I'm thinking? FIRE.

Since I spent most of last week on administrative biz (sending my lyrics to the Discovery Channel, booking shows, artwork, tweaking the new timeline crap), there's really not a whole lot to report.

Btw, totally not kidding about Discovery Channel... They wanted them and I was humored.

So, for my guitarist buddies: How about some guitar talk?

If you're not into the technical side, my normal weekly-ish scoop is below.

I recently tabbed out my song "Guilt that Keeps on Giving"; going as far as to make every ' - ' an eighth note.

For this entry, we'll start with the intro section (which has 3 guitar parts) and the first verse. These two sections are pretty similar (use the B Major/G# minor key signature: B C# D# E F# G# A# B or G# A# B C# D# E F# G#).

Make sure your guitar is tuned low-to-high: CGCFAD and your metronome is set to 200bpm.

Here's the Intro Rhythm. Play the whole section 4x.

If you're a boss, you'll be able to down-pick all of this. Also, if you're new to tabs, the PM indicates notes that are palm-muted (shoot me a message if I need to explain that technique).

Note: I am not a boss. :-)


The main melody section plays through the whole intro. This is a very basic part, but could be tricky timing-wise. I think you'll get it pretty quick though. Play each group of measures 2x (the second group changes a little when the harmony comes in). Because of formatting, I had to make this picture smaller to get the whole part in.

The main harmony section jumps in half-way through the melody. The notes are all a 3rd down from the melody line. Play this 2x.

Here's the rhythm end tag.

 


Finally, here's the rhythm for the first verse. See? Very similar to the intro rhythm... Play the whole section 2x.
There's part 1 of the "Guilt..." tab. Good luck!

Who knows? Maybe something new will inspire you.

I'll note that the song is copyrighted in case anyone tries to pull some funny business!

Back to the scoop...

We didn't get the new group shots last week, but it's happening tomorrow. If you haven't checked out the gear at DropYa.com, shoot them a visit. Perhaps you can guess what they sent.

As previously mentioned, we're sporting some of that goodness in front of the camera...

Also on this-coming Tuesday night (3/13/12) at 8pm, the crew on Dig N' Graves Radio Show on AudioKult Radio will be featuring tracks from Whistle When We Break Down in their Burial Brawl contest. Voting lasts for one week following the show. You can tune in and vote HERE.

Also, kudos to the AudioKult Radio crew for spinning my tunes!!!

Speaking of contests, thanks to all that helped our bros in The Mound Builders advance to Round 2 of Heavy Planet's March Bandness contest! If you have a second, they can still use a couple of clicks from you: VOTE HERE

One last thing, don't forget that I'll be hosting another jam at Aces Pub this Sunday night (3/18/12). RSVP or program it in your calendar now! It's a blast even if you're only spectating!!

Well, that does it for the update.

Final Plug: these links allow you to subscribe to the blog, follow @ChrisJuneIND on Twitter, and 'like' Chris June IND on Facebook.

Thanks for stopping by!

Over and out

03/05/12

Greetings! Did you survive those crazy storms last week? Holy crap.

Well, it's the first blog of March and I'm looking forward to nights warmer than 30 degrees... because, you know, I want to get my fire pit out! :-)

Ready for the update? Here we go...

Last Monday night, conveniently after last week's blog post, I was informed that the Artist United Benefit (the show I plugged for Saturday, 3/2) had been canceled. I did my best to get the word out about this. Apologies if you went anyway.

The good news is some of the groups involved have joined forces to make this event happen downtown on May 5th. Thanks to the IND crew, Minsky Kinks, PLOT, Red and the Roosters, Seema, and Traveling, Broke, and Out of Gas for showing compassion and investing in their community. We look forward to raising some coin for the Tippecanoe Arts Federation and a 2010 shooting victim.

Side note: A benefit is a benefit. A cost is an opportunity for a sponsor, not an excuse to take money from the benefit.

Back on track...

Most of the rest of the week consisted of an over-the-counter medicinal blur. Finally, after describing to a nurse that I was 'sick of being sick,' I scored some antibiotics and began the process of purging this rotten cold from my system.

Still woozy, I shared an unplugged show with my little brother for the first time on Friday night at Java Roaster. If you're wondering: Yes, my mom still comes to my shows and, yes, she was proud seeing both of us jam. :-)

Here's the set:

"Out of Our Hands"
"No Second Chance" - Adrenaline cover
"My Rx"
"Settling"
"Dear Reason"
"Amputee" - Oceansize cover
"Before it Gets to Me"
"Pocket and Soul"
"Bed Intruder" - Auto-Tune the News cover
"Guilt that Keeps on Giving"

The meds really kicked in at the end of this set and I have no idea what the order of the rest of the night was. Looking back, I think I played some material that would be rated beyond the typical G or PG content of a coffee shop show. Apologies!

Thanks to those in attendance and my brother for stepping up and getting out to play. Being the vocalist of the very mean and very heavy band, Thor, I know this is a bit different for him.

The remainder of the weekend was very productive! I finished my long 'thanks list' to the radio stations spinning Whistle When We Break Down, we started tracking vocals for the new Arch Drive Goodbye EP, and I received a shipment of new shirts from DropYa Fightwear.

Special thanks to Shawn from DropYa! The shirts are killer and we'll be rocking them at our photo shoot this week as well as on stage for FUTURE SHOWS.

That does it for the update.

If you haven't already, you can still vote in Heavy Plant's March Bandness Contest for my buddies The Mound Builders and The Hedons.

Also these links allow you to subscribe to the blog, follow @ChrisJuneIND on Twitter, and 'like' Chris June IND on Facebook.

Thanks for stopping by!

Over and out