Paperback

Whats up party people!!!?? I just want to say thanks to everyone who has been coming out to Magnoliablack shows and supporting us and our friends in fellow other bands. Looks like our June mini tour got canceled due to a couple clubs switching around shows and such. Its time for us to start making contracts for clubs to sign so that they still have to pay us even if they cancel our show. Who knows? It might make them think twice before fucking with us. Its cool for now though. It gives us all time to do some more work on the new album and for our stimulus checks to roll in :)

On another note, I have been reading lately. I just finished a book called, Love Is A Mix Tape, by Rob Sheffield. Its a great love story which ends tragically and leaves you hopeful and wanting more the way any good read should. Its a true story and told through the beautiful art of mix tapes. Its only 220 pages so its not a difficult read. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys music and/or making mix tapes.

I have recently gotten into the band, Strata, lately. They are a band from Campbell, Ca. Eventhough the singer has left due to personal reasons, the music and lyrics have captured me. Its really hard these days to find good music, especially as a musician, which gives you goosebumps or that you fall into passionately. This is one of those bands for me. The album I just got is Strata Presents the End of the World. Fitting title, huh? I recommend this album to people who enjoy music by Dredg and other such types of artsy rock. There is nothing really over the top here. Great solid beats and fills, spacey guitar riffs, interesting basslines, and soaring vocals with strong lyrics to think about. I feel this is how we, Magnoliablack, try to get our music across. Hopefully, when we get some new music up soon, you will see what I mean. Its a very exciting time, and scary time.

This will be our first full length album and will have everyone's blood, sweat, and tears put into it. We are recording and mixing it ourselves, just as we did with the last CD, but this time we will send it out to get mastered. We hope people will like it as much as we do and the album will take off enough so that we don't have to have day jobs anymore and do what we truly love to do. Make music.

I also bought Portishead's new album, Third. I have not however, listened to this whole album through yet. As with all other Portishead albums, I have to be in the right mood to listen to it, dark and depressed.

If anyone has a book they think I should read or let me borrow, let me know.
Thanks all!!
Much love,
Ian

"It was a fifth!"

Phrase:
"It was a fifth!"

Description:
Can be used to describe or explain an unintended foul-up while implying that no other explanation is necessary.

Example:
Person A: "Did you just spill mayonnaise on your pants?"
Person B: "It was a fifth!"

Person A: "Why didn't you come to your son's football game today?"
Person B: "It was a fifth!"

The Story:
Before recording our individual tracks for a completed song, we all play together and just record with one microphone so we can hear the general flow and see if we need to make any changes. We call this rough take a "Scratch Track". Scratch Tracks are cool because for the first time we get a chance to just listen to everyone else instead of focusing on the parts we are playing individually. Still - Scratch Tracks can be a pain because everyone has to play perfectly for the entire song because we're only using one microphone and we can't retake a mess-up. Usually it isn't a problem because small mess-ups get hidden by one of the other 4 musicians in the band (there tends to be a lot going on at any one minute).

Which leads us to the phrase "It was a fifth!" ... We had been trying to lay the scratch track for a new song "Frequency Fence" for a few hours and screwing it up every single time. I think we were all tired and during every single take we attempted one of us would screw it up. By about the sixteenth time, we get through the whole song to about ten seconds from the end when we arrive at a break where the drums cut out, the guitars go into the background, and the bass hits a single droning note. On any normal day, I would hit that note flawlessly ... but not this day.

This day I straight-forgot which string I was supposed to pluck and played something that resembled a duck farting on a cello. Instantly receiving death-stares from the rest of the band, and half-mad as a result of our inability to track this song, I then shouted: "It was a fifth!".

Because my exclamation nailed the coffin shut on that take, we all burst into laughter and I was made fun of ... profusely.

(The note I actually hit was five harmonic intervals up from the note I should have hit which works sometimes but not in this song)

O'Connell's,Waiting and Photoshop

My first post... Thanks to everyone that came out on Saturday to O'connells, we all had a blast despite the technical difficulties. Birthdays, friends and bands we like, does it get much better? BTW, I think a bunch of us are gonna go check out Children of Nova tonight at Canes, hope to see you there!

Well since we have been waiting to start tracking the drums until our new mics arrive I decided I would have some fun with photoshop. Now I'm no photoshop pro (that's Ray) but its nice to have fun every now and then, especially at the expense of other band members . Check em out and let me know what you think. Hopefully next time I post it will be with an update on our recording!

Currently Listening to:
Mogwai - Mr Beast
Phil Collins - Face Value
Thrice - Alchemy Index Vol I & II

~J

The new year, so far...

Hello everyone, this is Ian here. I haven't posted on here yet so I thought I would tonight. Yes, we did play rockband the other night at Jason's house and yes, I suck at the drums. I did however pass out with my shoes on and woke up with many surprises. We will have to embellish on them later. As I type this right now, Ray is sick with stomach flu and is puking into a bucket. ( Ray and I are roommates) Other than that, we have been working on new music and going to shows and making new friends. In the meantime, I am waiting to get a new drum set to record with. It will probably be the Tama Starclassic Bubinga kit. I just watched Vanilla Sky the other night for the first time and it was really good. I have been told to see Abre tu Ojos . Apparently it is the original version of the movie. Musically, I have been listening to Sigur Ros and Invictus lately. I know, its a huge spectrum in sound, deal with it. I shall write again when I have better, more amazing news to share with everyone. This is Mochstar, signing off.......

Rince and Repeat

Let me preface the following by saying that in this band we all love each other and would never wish harm on one another in any sort of tangible way. Yet - when the time comes to set tempos for our songs... all bets are off

It starts when Jason turns on the metronome... a cube of plastic that ticks incessantly like Satan taping his finger nail on a chalkboard made of screaming cats. And of course, in order to hear the ticks (read: cat screams), we need to turn the stupid thing up to 11 because thats the only volume at which Ian plays (he is a gorilla after all).

Usually we can where some sort high-range-canceling ear gadgetry... but we like to keep the passage ways open when we're recording to make sure we don't miss anything important.

Once we've all wiped away the brains dripping from our ears, and accepted the fact that we'll all be deaf by time we're old enough to run for president, we turn our attention toward the task at hand: arguing about how fast our songs are supposed to be.

We never argue more in this band then when we try to figure out timings for new songs. That is to say, Ian wants the tempo one way, I want it another, Jason wants to switch tempos for the bridge, and Edilson wants them to stay the same. Rivera is a pacifist when it comes to timing fights so he usually just sits in the corner with arms folded.

Even being a musician, I can just barely tell the difference between 172 beats per minute, and 174 beats per minute. So you can imagine how fun it is to try playing a song at 170(which is fast), 172(which is still fast), 174(fast again), and 176(finally a little bit faster) and pick which one I like the best.

Its kind of like going to store and picking the best smelling tube of tooth paste.

... try it ... i dare you ...

Eventually, one of us will pick up on some subconscious cue (read: guess randomly) and proclaim that 172(which is still fast) is the best choice. From there it can go one of two ways:

1) we all agree because we are tired of playing the song.
2) mud wrestling.

Because Edilson was an all-state wrestling champion in high school*, he usually pins us quickly**. After we clean the studio to prevent the mud from damaging out gear - we move on to the next song - "rince and repeat".

And thats how we start the recording process. I'll see if I can get some mud wrestling pics up later this week.

~Ray

*this isn't even remotely true
**not as awkward as it sounds.

Easily Influenced

The new year is upon us and its time to start putting new material to track. But before we get started I think its worth mentioning that we wouldn't be the band we are if it weren't for the amazing musical contributions by others floating around the Indie scene just below the radar - and sharing some of them seems like a fitting way to work you into our new music.

Circa Survive is pretty much required listening for anyone who enjoys rich vocals and gripping music. Pierce the Veil is one of the most dynamic Bands out there with production values that could kick the crap out of Britney Spears any day. Minus the Bear released "Planet of Ice" last year, in my opinion their best album since "They Make Beer Commercials Like This". The Smyrk is starting up a new Genre on the east coast, and I can't wait for their eventual pop-culture domination. Kaddisfly adds depth to the alternative rock scene with philosophical natives that most bands shy away from. Thrice, Coheed and Cambria, and The Fall of Troy all with excellent releases to further inflate their excellent libraries. There's a whole bunch more and I'm sure the other guys will add to this list, but thats pretty good for me for now.

Go... Listen... Enjoy.
~Ray

Monkey-Octopus

Monkey-Octopus

I started drawing this at work today, and then finished when I got home while Ian was playing around on myspace. I'd like to dedicate it to everyone who has a job that they have to suffer through in order to get home and do what they really love. Also to people that wear hats.