gigabytes and alcohol

Movint

2006-08-18T09:39:00.000+01:00

The blog is moving to http://daaaan.livejournal.com

Hopefully you won't notice

Winter Collection 2005 review

2006-08-16T11:01:00.000+01:00

Winter Collection 2005 by Daniel Vincent-- A Cool Noise

Hahaha I forgot I even recorded it :-)

"Cool Noise" reviews A New Career

2006-08-07T12:47:00.000+01:00

Cool noise reviews Karma Pilot - A New Career

UDDERS for everyone!

2006-07-18T14:37:00.000+01:00

History Of Guns have re-released their recent EP "Udders" in digital format - you can download the tracks for free.

Definitely worth checking out.

Link : UDDERS for everyone!

eBay Pilot

2006-07-06T10:11:00.000+01:00

More copies of "A New Career" are up on eBay.

I'm not sure if I like selling through eBay. Sure, it's a way of getting new people listening to the music, but does it cheapen it somehow?

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Universal overhauls CD packaging

2006-07-05T14:35:00.000+01:00

Universal overhauls CD packaging

"The world's biggest record company is to sell CDs in basic cardboard sleeves in a bid to compete with online sales."

I think that this is a pretty good idea...

"Unpeeled" review of A New Career

2006-07-01T12:17:00.000+01:00

Another good review... phew!

Unpeeled Magazine - "what the NME used to be"

I like this stuff. Especially as the new career seems to be neatly stitching late Beatles to early Genesis with some very eastern threads, but that's Infinite Sky for you and when I've finished making cheapo-easy comparisons it's only fair to say that it's a cool, multi-layered elctro treat.
By the time you've hit "Thirteen Numbers", you know that this really is a disciplined artist shaping some classy influences into something interesting, something else.
Current favourite at this end is the speaker-jumping electro Nuremburg rally of "A New Career Pt1", all delicate effects ruthlessly stamped over with drum machines and guitar churning, if the Chemical Brothers produced this for Oasis you'd be wanking yourselves silly to get at it. Do better and get the lot : www.karmapilot.co.uk

A big thanks to Shane at Unpeeled for that one...

Nearly good

2006-06-12T19:14:00.000+01:00

John Boye has updated his blog once again. He's promised to use it to document our attempt to form a band for Mark's "Campbellbury" bash.

Enjoy!

http://johnboye.livejournal.com/

Karma Pilot promo re-selling

2006-06-12T19:12:00.000+01:00

Is this a good thing or not?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KARMA-PILOT-A-NEW-CAREER-V-RARE-PROMO_W0QQitemZ100500650284QQcategoryZ1572QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

David Cameron in knee-jerk ill-informed shocker

2006-06-07T16:58:00.000+01:00

BBC NEWS | Politics | Cameron attacks Radio 1's hip-hop

Label boss dismisses Thom rumours

2006-06-06T16:41:00.000+01:00

Ho hum

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Label boss dismisses Thom rumours

What I've been listening to...

2006-06-06T15:40:00.000+01:00

In case you're interested:

fakemoon's User Page - Last.fm

New History of Guns

2006-06-06T15:38:00.000+01:00

New HoG free album "Electricity Is The Answer" out soon.

The second part in Max Rael and Co's series of free CDs.

Get it HERE

:: Formula One news, fun, results and features from Planet-F1.com

2006-06-02T12:52:00.000+01:00

Lewis Hamilton says he's ready for F1, and McLaren.

Next British World Champion?

:: Formula One news, fun, results and features from Planet-F1.com

Watch your back, jenson...

MSFT announces first major Xbox 360 update - Joystiq

2006-06-02T12:50:00.000+01:00

Geek alert!

Some new stuff coming from Microsoft for Xbox360, basically user interface enhancements to make thing work nicer.

Shounds good to me.

MSFT announces first major Xbox 360 update - Joystiq

David Gilmour at the Royal Albert Hall

2006-05-30T09:29:00.000+01:00

I'm going to see David Gilmour at the Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday, looks like I missed out on this though (from last night's show).

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Unsigned bands get download store

2006-05-25T16:45:00.000+01:00

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Unsigned bands get download store

But downloads are still too expensive?

Would you buy one of my albums for £7.99 as a download or buy the CD for £5.99?

Ho hum

johnboye: Karma Pilot: A New Career

2006-05-25T11:04:00.000+01:00

John Boye's blog is back in action with a comment on the new KP album.

johnboye: Karma Pilot: A New Career

A Cool Noise: Karma Pilot, Sub-Rosa, and GunsLikeGirls

2006-05-18T11:06:00.000+01:00

A mini-review of the new Karma Pilot album "A New Career"

A Cool Noise: Karma Pilot, Sub-Rosa, and GunsLikeGirls

Never Seen This Before

2005-12-19T10:30:00.000Z

First review of Karma Pilot material...
http://www.dprp.net/reviews/200565.html#karmapilot

Ticket To Ride (part 1)

2005-11-21T13:10:00.000Z

Well, just got back from Cologne In Germany, where I went to see gigs by Fish and Porcupine Tree.

We arrived in Cologne on Thursday evening after a short and relatively pleasant flight (i.e. we didn't crash or anything). We took a cheap and quick train ride to the city center (British Rail take note) and tried to get our bearings.

This clearly wasn't very successful, as about half an hour later, we were still wondering around backstreets trying to find any street sign that we recognised. In the end we decided that hailing a cab would be a quicker option, using my amazing grasp of the German language ("Guten tag... " " ... bitte").

Amazingly enough, the cab driver was able to understand our request without having to resort to speaking English, and drove us to our hotel.

It was just after 10pm. Time for the pub! We dumped our case and headed off down the road to find the nearest bar. An Irish bar. Typical - we travel to a new country to take in the sights and try to understand what makes our European neighbours tick - only to find the nearest Irish bar and get pissed up. The bar shut at 1am, so being the the sensible drinkers that we are, we decided to head across the road to a late night bar which was recommended to us by one of the bar staff.

We got back to the hotel and passed out at around 3am.

Most of Friday came and went as we slept. We got up at around 3pm, congratulating ourselves for making the best use of being away from work/home by drinking and sleeping a lot. We headed into the city center and grabbed a McDonalds. Surely it is by understanding the commonality between our two nations that we can truly understand our differences? Nah, we were just hungry and everywhere else seemed a bit pricey.

We then took a wander around Cologne's massive shopping district. We counted 5 different branches of H&M - maybe because the main street was so long it was too far for the average shopper to walk to them all - plus all the European shops that we have (Zara, Esprit, Mexx etc).

After a couple of hours, we headed back to the hotel again, got changed and set off for our first gig of the holiday - Fish at the E-Werk...

Good Vibrations

2005-11-14T07:00:00.000Z

It has been implied in a few of my writings, and also in conversation, that I've become bored of playing live. I'm not great at it - words are often forgotten and songs often shoot off at a tangent when I play the wrong chord - but it's a means to an end, it's all about exposing people to the music and hoping that they'll go to the website and listen to the studio material and think that it's amazing :-)

Last night, however, was nothing short of brilliant. It's easy I suppose for me to say that, it's my job to tell you that I was great and that you should spend money to come and see me play live. For the first time, everything seemed to come together - a great audience, a great sound, a real vibe.

Having the whole day to relax and prepare for the gig definitely helped. We managed to go to Wagamama in Islington for something to eat before my soundcheck. We then headed up to the Hope & Anchor and, after a short but very efficient soundcheck, we had a couple of beers and waited to be called for showtime.

Things ran late because one of the other bands arrived late to do their soundcheck, but it was just a case of sitting around and chat with the people who had come to see me play. Being a bit late worked out well as a few from my crowd were late themselves.

So, on stage and straight into it. The gig flew by, and even though I broke a string on Party Girl, I was able to continue with 5 strings without making too many compromises. Loads of applause at the end of each song - I don't know if this was just because my lot were louder than normal! Chatted briefly with a few strangers in the bar, for the first time people were asking me for flyers rather than me forcing them on people. Surely a result in itself.

Honourable mentions in dispatches (in no particular order) for Lisa, Dawn, Gregg, Simon and Sarah and co., Carina, Marcus, Alison, Wez, Mrs Wez and Joel. Cheers guys.

Next gig - 2006

Thank you, and goodnight!

Special / Blown It

2005-10-30T12:15:00.000Z

A big thanks to everyone who came down to Croydon to see me and Wez play a rather shaky set on Saturday. It was great fun, although I wish I wasn't so hung over at the time... very unprofessional!

I was very pleased this morning to get an extra hour in bed due to the clocks going back.

afraid of sunlight

2005-10-29T11:19:00.000+01:00

Well, only a few hours until my gig at Beano's. I really wish I hadn't gone to the pub last night...

Tales Of Endurance

2005-10-17T17:21:00.000+01:00

My brain hurts today...

The past weekend started on Thursday evening with the John Peel Day gig. A great time was had by all, and the few brave enough to stick it out until last orders nipped across the road afterwards to the E Bar, Croydon's only late night venue that doesn't get swamped with bouncers and queues. It's almost like it's still 1993 in there - all flashing lights and raised hands and commercial dance music will never die... anyway, a few more beers and we were done. Kebab and cab home for 1am, or was it 2?

Friday we lazed around at home until the afternoon, deciding in the end to head up to Victoria to meet Carina from work... more beer... we called it a night at around 8:30-ish after drinking some cocktails. Erk.

Saturday came round in a blur (quite literally) and I spent the day working on a mix of a track for Cheapskate. After a quick journey into town to collect my guitar from the Edge (the bar not the guitarist hahahaerrrr) and get some photos developed for Lisa, we then headed out for dinner with Lisa's brother and sister-in-law. A late start meant that we were all happy to go for another drink after 11pm, and once again we ended up in the E Bar. It's important to note that this is not a conscious lifestyle choice I'm making here - they're just open late and it was near to where we ate!

Sunday morning - up early to watch an altogether unfulfilling Chinese Grand Prix before leaving the house at 12.30 to meet Lisa's family again, this time her Dad. Brother, sisters and kids were also there. Got chatting to one of Lisa's sisters and a nephew on the subject of work, which at times appeared to be quite heated, but on the other hand was quite productive. A fun time was had by all. Got home just before 8pm. Watched Rocky V and fell asleep in front of the TV. Woke up at 9.40pm, went to bed.

So, here we are, a new week (well Monday's work has actually been and gone, if that's how you count the days).

Next Saturday should see me going into the rehearsal studio for the first time in ages, just going to jam with Scott and Wez. Chris has no free time at the moment so it seems as though The Parallel Rise will have to go back on ice for the moment.

Next gig - Saturday 29th October, Beano's Record Store, Croydon - be there

another tricky day

2005-10-12T18:33:00.000+01:00

I've been quite busy the past few days - I suddenly realised that the John Peel Day gig was only a few days away and I wanted to have a handful of copies of the new Winter Collection 2005 CD on hand to give to people.

I'm actually really pleased with it - what started out as being a tough job that I had to do turned into something fun and also quite revealing - I'd completely forgotten about some of the demos I recorded last year for Onion Jack - we should've worked more on one or two of them and put them on Imaginary Comeback Special. Oh well.

The acoustic tracks were recorded at home completely live, with three recording inputs - vocal, guitar (via my new guitar effects, although on a "clean" setting), and instrument mic, set up just by the strings. I'm quite pleased with them - I recorded all of them first take, except "Go From Here", which is the second take - the instrument mic was too far away and so it sounded a bit odd compared to the others...

Anyway, here's the Winter Collection 2005 tracklisting, (items marked * arepreviously unreleased tracks)

Karma Pilot - exclusive new track
1. Take The Next Step *

Daniel Vincent - exclusive live session tracks
2. Whatever You Want To Say *
3. Miracle In You *
4. Go From Here *
5. Live A Little *

Onion Jack - "Imaginary Comeback Special" demos
6. Along The Border
7. Ghost Texture *
8. Them There Aliens *
9. Peace Demo

Karma Pilot vs DATW remix
10. The Last Place On Earth (Commercial mix)

2005-09-28T14:34:00.000+01:00

I've just booked three gigs:

Thursday 13th October 2005 - John Peel Day @ The Edge, Croydon
This free gig is part of Radio 1's John Peel Day. On stage at around 8pm. More information can be found at www.mrsvee.co.uk/peel

Saturday 29th October - Beano's Record Store, Croydon
On stage at around 3.30pm, possible meet-up afterwards in The Ship. Another free gig, yay :-)

Sunday 13th November - Hope & Anchor, Islington
Big gig for me - if you can make it down to this one I'd be really greatful. I'm on at 7.30pm, try to get down early though as I think I'll be playing as the doors open :-/
Note that you have to pay to get in this one, but come down anyway as it'll be worth it!

I'll post flyers to all the gigs as soon as I have them!

Thank you

2005-09-25T20:18:00.000+01:00

A quick "thank you" to everyone who came to my gig last Thursday.

A few people have asked the names of the new songs I played - the full set list was:

Heavy Traffic / Ordinary Jack / Whatever You Want To Say
Take One
Party Girl / Miracle In You
The Last Place On Earth
In The Country
Selling Yourself Down the River
Time Is Slipping Away
Whatever You want To Say (reprise)
Train Conversation
---
Lying The Time

I've included links to the original studio versions of the songs so that you can download them.

My next confirmed gig is a return to Beano's Record Store in Croydon, where I made my solo debut back in summer 2003. This gig will take place on Saturday 29th October 2005, on stage at 3.30pm. It should be great fun, both a relaxed show and probably a good opportunity to meet up and have a few beers afterwards :-)

Currently residing in the "where are they now" file ... a tupee on the cabaret scene

2005-08-16T06:56:00.000+01:00

Lisa asked me the other day if I knew what happened to my old flat mate Matt... well I can report that he is the owner of a blog called World Wide Wuh. A very interesting read, probably more so than this blog...

As I mentioned the other day, I have been quite productive with the guitar over the past week or so. I've now almost completed another song "time is slipping away", which I hope to be able to play for you all when I headline Thursday 22nd September at The Betsey Trotwood...

http://www.mrsvee.co.uk/2005/news.php?artistid=103&date=2005-08-16

How exciting.

Only a few days now until the V Festival, I have a feeling that it's probably going to be crap, I only booked V tickets to see Oasis but, having seen what was a rather dull performance at the Milton Keynes Bowl last month, I'm not really bothered...

Lisa and I are taking our chums Gregg and Sam in our car, so it will be a bit cramped on the way there and back, but should be a good laugh providing the weather holds out (please!)

I'm probably going to make some CDs to give out to people. I'm not sure that there is any point in doing this but it gives me something else to fret about.

Weekend

2005-08-14T11:51:00.000+01:00

Friday's working day was interrupted by the evacuation of our office due to a suspected gas leak. We ended up spending the rest of the day in the pub.

I had to leave around 6pm anyway, as Wez the drummer and I had booked a room at Scream Studios to have a play around with some musical ideas we'd had. Keyboard drones, ethnic percussion with occasional bonham-esque drum soloing... it all went rather well, although I wished I'd completed a full day's work rather than had a few beers which did nothing to enhance my guitar or keyboard ability.

Saturday was in the studio, preparing CDs for people, all packing tape and strange sized envelopes. Two new songs were written while I was waiting around - "Selling Yourself Down The River", which is 90% complete and quite poppy, and another untitled song, which is just a couple of chords, but the right couple of chords!

Meanwhile, things are progressing with The Parallel Rise. You might not notice though, as everything is taking ages. Chris is currently going scuba diving every week which so far has written off most of our opportunities for rehearsal. On top of that, both of us have been busy with work, which has left us with a couple of evening sessions on acoustic guitars and keyboards. We'll get there eventually I'm sure.

The new mrsvee.com site is up and running. Go and take a look.

2005-07-01T17:41:00.000+01:00

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/mrsvee/message/37
Hello everyone
Last year, "The Parallel Rise", formed by songwriters Chris Williams and Daniel Vincent, split up afterplaying two gigs and recording an couple of albums'worth of demos. It was considered by many people atthe time as a disaster - the promise shown in theband's early recordings seemed to have gone to waste. Nothing lasts forever, and like so many bands these days, even a complete split is unlikely to be permanent. So it came as no great surprise last month when Daniel told mrs.vee recordings that he was once again rehearsing with Chris.
It seems as though this has been in the pipeline for some time, delayed by commitments to Karma Pilot and Channel 16 respectively.
"New songs are being written and old ones re-learned" Daniel revealed, "it was weird in that when we played through the old songs [in rehearsal] it was like we'd only taken a week off". [We would imagine by that statement that Daniel's keyboard skills have notimproved significantly then :)]
While we all wait for new material from The ParallelRise, we have some of their early tracks available fordownload from the usual place -http://www.mrsvee.co.uk/2005

Talking Garbage

2005-06-09T09:16:00.000+01:00

I'm going to see Garbage tonight in London. How exciting...

I've got some work to do for mrs.vee recordings over the next couple of weeks, some new bands will be joining the site, and I'll probably do some redesign work too.

On to music matters, I've had an exciting offer to do some new music, more on this next week...

Midnight Paranoia

2005-06-07T11:26:00.000+01:00

I've almost finished working on the new track which will form the basis of the new Karma Pilot CD.
It's currently edited down to 15 minutes, however there is some more work to be done, and it's quite possible that on the final cut it will be split into two parts.
On non-musical news, my car has broken down, so I'll be relying on the bus to get around. Seeing as it takes me just as long to get to work by car as it does by bus and tram, it's probably a good thing that I'm being more environmentally friendly...

2005-05-16T11:40:00.000+01:00

Once again Lisa and I got a cab back from London and made the driver play
a Karma Pilot promo CD. Slowly but surely every cab driver in London will
own a Karma Pilot CD :-)

money talks

2005-05-03T14:09:00.000+01:00

I really am getting addicted to Ebay...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14732&item=4724392020&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Brave new world

2005-04-29T16:18:00.000+01:00

It's now been a week since I met up with my new guitarist to discuss
working on a new band-based Karma Pilot. Since then we've rehearsed some
ideas and things are looking good.

Tomorrow we will go into the rehearsal studio to work on new material, and
to hammer out arrangements for The Last Place On Earth, My Life Away (as
played at my last Rock Garden and Betsey gigs), The Me & You (a new song
I've been working on for a few months on-and-off) and Train Conversation.

Hopefully it'll be a productive session...

Brave new world

2005-04-29T16:15:00.000+01:00

It's now been a week since I met up with my new guitarist to discuss
working on a new band-based Karma Pilot. Since then we've rehearsed some
ideas and things are looking good.

Hopefully it'll be a productive session...

Back In The Saddle

2005-04-21T11:30:00.000+01:00

Well, so much for a regular blog :-)

I've been advertising for musicians to join a new band, or possibly a new
incarnation of the old band. This Saturday I will be meeting up to jam
with a guitarist. Hopefully things will work out and we can move on from
there.

I've started working on new material, but it's early days yet, and I'm
quite happy to take my time on the next EP. I've recently bought some new
kit, namely a Boss Loopstation and a Korg Electribe drum sequencer. Expect
new material to sound quite different...

In other news, the Dead At The Wedding remix of the History Of Guns track
"Moonburn" appears on the band's latest promo EP. I remixed the track and
Max upped the tempo and compressed the whole thing to give it some
"oomph". I'll try to get an MP3 of it so that you can have a listen.

--
New Karma Pilot EP "Between The Darkness And The Morning Light"
CD available to buy now, or download the EP for free!

Official web site : http://www.karmapilot.co.uk
MP3 downloads from : http://www.mrsvee.co.uk/2005

Hello, Goodbye

2005-03-02T13:55:00.000Z

I'm parting company with my tape delay if anyone wants it... I'm going to have to start selling some of my old kit as the studio room is getting smaller and smaller...

eBay item 7305117949 (Ends 09-Mar-05 13:49:54 GMT) - Danelectro Reel Echo, Tape Delay Effect Pedal

untitled

2005-02-23T07:36:00.000Z

Comes as no surprise...

2005-02-23T02:13:00.000Z

here is the track listing to the karma pilot cd (at the moment at least!)

Today I Have Become
Never Seen This Before
The Last Place On Earth
Summer 99

deepest dark

2005-02-23T01:50:00.000Z

I'm working the night shift today. It's dark outside, and quite cold. I'm taking small consolation in that I've almost finished the Karma Pilot CD. I now have recorded five tracks, of which four will appear on the CD and one will be kept back for the "Onion Jack" compilation.

Exciting times...

I'm playing a gig on Sunday 6th March at Platform, the weekly new band event at the Rock Garden in Covent Garden. Please come and see me. It's days like these that I wish I was in a band with popular people.

my big mouth

2005-02-11T09:53:00.000Z

It's funny how time affects people's opinions of things: today I've decided that Oasis' Be Here Now is a lost gem. There are so many cracking tracks on this album - yes, they were recorded in a blizzard of cocaine and some if not most of the guitar solos are (a) self indulgent and (b) the same - but who cares? With the possible exception of All Around The World, it's all highly entertaining stuff.

karma pilot

2005-02-08T11:20:00.000Z

After the Karma Pilot announcement the other week, I've been keeping my head down working on the tracks that will form the first release. I bought a new Korg guitar multi-effects unit which I've been getting to grips with; the wah effect is better than my actual wah pedal which is quite surprising. The songs I've been working on are sounding good, the mp3s I placed on here last time give you an idea of where we're heading, but the arrangements are getting better each time I go into the studio. Very pleased.

The people at mrs.vee recordings have been canvassing people on the mailing list to see how people would like to receive the next CD, as a download, a weed or simply as a CD. I want to try and get as many copies of the CD out to as many people as possible, so I'll probably go for a mixture of all those methods.

The first release will probably be a 2-track promo single rather than an EP, to try and move away from the overblown progginess of the earlier releases. This will probably all change by next time I post though...

Things I have been watching/listening to the past week:

DVD : "Look Around You" - really funny and surreal spoof 70s science program
Albums : a-ha "Minor Earth Major Sky"; Porcupine Tree "Stars Die"; Marillion "Marbles"; Green Day "American Idiot"
plus various tracks by Oasis, Mansun, Blur, Graham Coxon...

2005-01-24T15:15:00.000Z

here are the new songs, as I said before, they're not quite finished yet...

Today I Have Become

They Always Said

until tomorrow

2005-01-24T12:44:00.000Z

well, so much for posting something to the blog every day...

I was meant to see Chris' band rehearse on Saturday afternoon, but I got caught up in the studio at home and didn't leave the house until the evening.

It's been a productive weekend though, two songs recorded, "Today I Have Become" and a new version of "Untitled #1" called "They Always Said". Both songs are almost comeplete, but they do need a bit of tweaking here and there.

I'm still undecided about whether to join Chris' band, although it was great fun to meet up with him last week and jam some songs, I feel that maybe the music is too far removed from what I want to do, and that joining the band would constitute "selling out".

I went to see the weekly "Platform" event at Covent Garden's Rock Garden (link) yesterday afternoon. A nice venue with some good bands on. I've made some tentative steps towards booking an acoustic gig there, so watch this space...

I might post links to the songs later.

the sound of music

2005-01-19T22:56:00.000Z

In this blog I will try to keep you, the reader, up to date with all the goings on with my music career (or hobby, as it is referred to if you're related to me). You'll also get to read lots of other exciting things.

Today I jammed with former bandmate Chris from The Parallel Rise. I left the band last summer, after getting annoyed that the band was becoming too middle-of-the-road and boring. Six months later, the band has changed name, and has indeed become very middle-of-the-road and poppy. Chris has asked me to pop in and help flesh out the arrangements of some of the songs and to play some keyboards: basically re-join the band doing what I used to do. It's a strange situation for me, having walked away from the band to work on the new Onion Jack album I now find myself rejoining as the "new boy". We'll just have to see what happens I suppose.

On the Onion Jack front, I'm still getting requests for Free CDs (send your postal address to freecd@onionjack.com and get a sampler CD with "A Dark Day" from the new album, plus some other tracks), which is nice. If only the people we've sent CDs to would tell more people. It's kind-of worrying that people are asking for CDs, then we're nver hearing from them, in some ways I'd prefer people to tell me the songs are rubbish rather than not saying anything. That said, the few people who have sent me an email saying "thanks" have been very complementary so maybe there's hope after all...