The Shape of Ska To Come

I really hate it when bands break up, but when I seriously have to question whether or not Refused could have followed up "The Shape of Punk To Come" with a better album doubt creeps into my heart and I think all sorts of terrible things. Maybe it was just so perfect that the band's live shows just paled in comparison. Maybe the process of writing it drove the steaks of division through Refused's tight unity. Maybe they never had much unity at all since a permanent bass player was non-existant. The one solid fact that does sit with me is that Refused didn't just make a "hardcore" record. They made a cohesive recording.

It has jazz parts. It has techno parts. It has synths. It has crushing guitars. It has lilting string arrangements. It breaks all the punk rock rules. It is totally pretentious. But it totally works.

The reason I feel that "The Shape of Punk To Come" is one of my favorite recordings is because it oozes artistic intent. Everything is there for a reason. Nothing was extraneous ear candy. It all fits. And this is just a focus on the aesthetic. I can't really compare HP2's endeavors with the politics behind Refused. It's straight up apples and oranges. But if I made an attempt this weekend to try to channel any sort of musical inspiration, my divining rod was pointed squarely in the direction of Umea, Sweden.

And the best part of all is that some of my expectations were met.

Starting out this process I was half fearing that I was wasting an entire weekend. That technical problems would arise and negate our efforts. That someone would drop out last minute and we would half complete a half finished recording. I don't want to think I'm a pessimist, but I tend to ultimately prepare for the worst. Let's start with what I sought out to do.

(in order of importance)

1. Record/Mix/Master 4 songs for the EP

2. Record and post a video cover from each member of the band

3. Barrage Twitter/Facebook/YouTube with an avalanche of content

and...

(what really happened)

1. Record most of 4 songs for the EP

2. Record (1) Ke$ha cover, post it on YouTube

3. Sporadic blurbs on Twitter/Facebook/YouTube

Not too bad. I wanted to leave Anthony's by 8 or 9pm Sunday night and I ended up staying till 1am, but outside of that nothing really catastrophic happened. I wish I could apologize to Anthony's neighbors for accosting them with quite literally "balls to the wall" guitar sounds for a good couple hours, but nothing too offensive that a borrowed cup of sugar can't fix. Do people still borrow cups of sugar? Anyways, here are some highlights and I'll follow those with some closing thoughts.

I've absolutely fallen in love with the idea of "house recording." I wish I took better pictures to document the complicated process involved to route audio signals to and from Anthony's garage to his master bathroom, but this one will have to do for now. Basically, we had a snake that was long enough to run from point A to point B. This tape/blanket job was a poor attempt at sound buffering, but it did keep flies out of the garage.

This picture of Dave looks like...

amirite?

I actually used a $3 tape recorder from Goodwill to make "trashy" drum samples. I hope that I'll find a place to put them in mixing.

Curtis is an absolute boss of a drummer. I've been playing with him on and off since...2003 and he's definitely raised the bar on my playing. He has some super exciting things coming his way and I wish him nothing but the best.

One of my wiser microphone purchases throughout the years. You find SM7s in radio applications since they have INTENSE off axis rejection and come hard wired into a fatty wind screen. They also sound great on hihat, male vocals, and guitar cabs.

I've been playing Magic cards (also off and on) since 1994. While I can't claim much for serious tournament success, I can infer a great deal about the comings and goings in one's head from watching their play style. Bhakti used to play more, but doesn't really have an active group so his cards have been gathering dust for a few years. He did manage to bring his deck for the weekend and ran shenanigans all over us in our larger 5 player game. Curtis, however managed to put him in his place with a straight ahead small white creatures deck. What did I learn about them from their playing? Bhakti is a thinker and Curtis is persistent. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time away from engineering to meet Curtis' challenge for a 1:1 game. Next time.

I don't really imbibe much, but I hear Red Stripe is cool if you like trad. The weird thing is, I can't really tell whose head it is by the watermelon in the upper right corner.

When we used to host ska shows in a parking lot by an It's A Grind in Anaheim, I put a bunch of sound gear in a huge vertical rack enclosure and called it Wintermute. When we used to play at Downtown Disney I put a bunch of sound gear in a huge horizontal rack enclosure and Dave called it Summermute. Now that I have most of my recording/outboard gear in an angled rack enclosure I'm not sure what to call it. Springmute? (If you're getting all my Frank Gibson references we should really be friends)

This is what I have to deal with. Not just on recording weekends but every day pretty much. But I really like cables. The make everything able to communicate with everything else. The green ones are actually called "Kiwis." You can't make this stuff up.

So what did I learn this weekend? That having the right mix of people is key to any musical endeavor. Being one of the band's old timers, I can definitely say that we've seen a myriad of lineups. I've personally played a number of instruments and worn a variety of hats, and can squarely say that this is the most cohesive incarnation of the group so far. It took us a bit to get going, but everyone found their niche and offered what they could to the overall sound. I can personally say the recording was so much less about people imposing themselves on the songs and much more on doing what's best for the song.

Look at "It's About Time." That album is so guitar-centric it's not even funny. While I can definitely claim a bigger portion of the writing credits than this session, guitar riffs, guitar solos, and Tyler was pretty much everywhere. It was so much more about "proving" that I could play and "proving" that I could double track and "proving" that I could harmonize and solo that it took the focus off the songs. While I personally love "Dare Don't Tell," it really is a guilty indulgence in EVERYONE SET YOUR KNOBS TO 11! Guitar riff! Horn riff! Synth riff! All on the chorus! Too much. There was a definite rivalry in having "my" song included because there were too much of "your" songs included overall. That isn't what music is about. It's not about giving Ringo his one lead just to appease him. It's about the overall product.

Let me share some thing with you. Dave absolutely hates 2 things on guitar: reverb and wah wah pedal. Guess what? He used both on the EP! If we were in some kind of my parts/your parts/my call/your call battle with the rest of the band, the core part of David would have stood up and cried from the mountains:

"DAVID PARRIS DOES NOT USE REVERB ON GUITAR PARTS"

But because we were all locked into the same productive vibe, the core David was able to take a nap and the creative David took over the pilot's seat. Creative David was able to hear parts for what they were and what they added to the song. Creative David was able to drop the baggage of "NO WAH EVER" and just add what the song needed.

Tyler (in the third person) was the same way. Tyler is a rhythm guitarist. He plays rhythm guitar. He did not, however, play any of the distorted guitar in "Day Goes Down." He let David handle it because it's not supposed to be a rip-your-face-off-with-distortion part. It's supposed to be an "I have a fake Bri-ish ac-cent" part. And who is better at that than Dave? On another song I play muted guitar for...half the song. And don't play on the other half? Why? Because it totally adds to the separate of the verse and chorus. Curtis did an amazing job of helping me narrow down my parts. He suggested playing with the horns instead of running circles on Anthony. And it totally worked. Anthony however...

Got his ass kicked. Hard. He had all this riffs and fills and notes that could have eclipsed the entire song. But just like the late Amy Winehouse, we said "no, no, no." And what effect did that have on the songs? It cleaned them up tremendously. It started our quest to simplify the music instead of bogging it down with mud and complications. That same aesthetic carried over to the horns as well. But we're really proud of the decisions we did make. They really proved to us that we had "paid our dues" long enough to warrant self production. And my proudest moment was when I handed Dave the keys on producer duties. I could definitely see the songs in a different light, but that wasn't the point. The point was to get one person's view across. Where I would put in a wobble bass, Dave would put in a trombone solo. We needed someone's vision to tie everything together, and Dave definitely got it on this one. Of course, he received a lot of help from our horns who were amazingly flexible with their parts. I'm really glad I can think of myself reaching a level of musical maturity. Looking back I have no idea how my hot headed 18/19 year old self would have been allowed in any band, haha.

So there you have it, a long winded account of our trials and tribulations from the past weekend. While I really can't say that this was a catalyst in reigniting the HP2 fire back to our "glory days" of 2 shows a weekend, I can say that I am totally content with waiting it out to find strong material with a strong production quality that I can honestly say I'm proud of. This weekend marked a number of personal bests, and more importantly the realization that my personal bests will sound like nothing compared to the full cooperation of a live interactive rock and roll band.

Until next time, I will probably be burning the midnight oil programming bass and drum samples to have a listenable amount of groove. Thanks for reading.

-Tyler

PS Now we're probably at the hardest part! Figuring out a schedule to finish the mix!

Sound the Trumpets! (Figuratively Speaking)

Hey All!

This is Geoffery, the (fairly) new trombonist for Half Past Two! Thought I'd take some time out of my busy, hectic, over scheduled, manic, depressing, callous, shallow (and from the look of the list, slightly melodramatic) life to update you on the status of our horn section and throw in some tid bits about myself.

My name is Geoffery Danger(lie) Munger and I am 6'9" (lie) blonde hair (double lie) and live in the moment, not Orange County based on popular belief (pretentious lie). When i'm not rocking on my t-bone I enjoy long walks on the beach, puppy dogs and the letter Q. ;)

ANYWAYS...

We've just brought on a new saxophonist fresh off the Skarm (too big of a ska-ism stretch?) from the Guilty Parties. His name is John and will be rocking with us on stage quite soon! Our other sax player has been around for a while and most of you should be well acquainted (or should start acquainting ASAP) with Bhakti AKA Doc Bhak. These guys will be heading up our saxophone section. I bring up the bottom of the voices (when the Bari isn't being played) on the trombone and hopefully soon you guys will be seeing me on the keys well.

Which brings me to the biggest reason why I am blogging...OUR SHOW!

July 30th...BE THERE!!!

It's going to be fantastic to say the least. We are opening for THE SLACKERS, one of the biggest and most respected names out on the ska scene. It's their 20th anniversary tour and it's guaranteed to be a mind blower. We are dishing out a couple of new songs just for the occasion as well!

I have been hard at work transcribing all of our old, new and obscure songs onto sheet music to make the lives of horn players a bit easier (especially since we're all fairly new!). So you would be doing me a HUGE favor by coming to our show and listening to our stuff! Especially considering ALL the hard work I've been putting into the horn parts. *

So again JULY 30th. We ARE selling tickets and we want YOU there!!!

Until Next Time,

-Geoffery D. (lie) Munger

*Yes, that whole sch peel was to guilt you into going to our show.

Woo!

HELLO HALF PAST TWO BLOG READERS IF ANY OF YOU STILL EXIST BECAUSE WE ARE REALLY REALLY REALLY BAD AT UPDATING!

Lindsey here!

You may be asking yourself after months and months of zero blogging, why break the silence now? The answer is quite simple my friends,. You see, I have run out of other modes of procrastination. What I should be doing right now is catching up on the homework for my two summer courses, but after sitting in a 4 hour class tonight discussing Ellison's Invisible Man, or as betterbooktitles.com has renamd it WTF Did My Grandfather Mean? I'm feeling a little bit antsy. I can't stand the thought of reading through another 3 essays about "theories of writing and literacy".
I
JUST
CAN'T
DO
IT!
SO
BORING!

In other news, HALF PAST TWO IS PLAYING A SHOW! WITH THE SLACKERS! ON JULY 30th! AT THE HOUSE OF BLUES IN ANAHEIM! WOO!
If you get your tickets from us, you'll be saving yourself a lot of $$ ($13.50 vs. $25.00) so bug us on here or our facebook if you want to go. We've already blown through the majority of the tickets but there are definitely plenty left for those who are looking for a bargain :).

It's been WAY too long since we've played a show. I'll take some of the blame since I OD'd on school work. The good news is, even though we haven't been playing shows, we've been very busy on the song writing front. I think we're up to something close to 14 new songs now which means another full length is in the relatively near future! WOO! The competitive spirit in me is annoyed by the fact that one of Dave's newest songs is far catchier than mine. Damn you Country Dave!!!! YOU MAY HAVE WON THE BATTLE BUT THIS WAR IS NOT YET OVER!!! I still have a couple tricks up my sleeve :)

Seriously though, this is really my first experience writing songs as part of a band, and sometimes it's nerve-racking, but it's also fun! It's really cool to start out with an idea and watch it take shape with everyone's additions. Everyone has a hand in the song writing which is rad. I'm excited about hearing some of Geoff's songs that he's has yet to unveil. Speaking of Geoff and how awesome he is, he's BRINGING BACK THE KEYS! WOO! Not only will he be trombonist extraordinaire, but he'll also be keyboarding mack daddy! WHAT UP! So ya, that's exciting :)

Well that's it for Half Past Two news.

Hey! Look at that! I've successfully procrastinated long enough that now it's midnight and time to sleep. Woops ;)

Before I go though, I just have to declare MY UNDYING LOVE FOR THE BOSTON BRUINS! AHHHHHHH! SORRY, BUT I STILL CAN'T GET OVER THE FACT THAT MY HOCKEY TEAM WON THE STANLEY CUP! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that that's out of the way, I'm gettin' some shut eye!


Your face,
<3 Linds

P.S. Shout out to those of you who are lucky enough to be in San Fran at the Asian Man Records fest! Have fun, be safe, and be sure to say hi to Dave or Anthony if you bump into them up there!

HOLY CRAP, DAVE STARTED AN HP2 PODCAST!!!

It's true, HE DID IT!!!

You can download it for free right now at http://halfpasttwoska.com/store.cfm

Dave wants to talk to people in ska bands and around the ska scene about ska!

Have any suggestions? Please send them to hp2pod@gmail.com

First blog of 2011!! Party!

Hey gang,

Lindsey here to update you on what's going on in the world of HP2. We played with Chase Long Beach on Dec. 29th, which was good times, as always. It was super exciting for me because I got to use my brand spankin' new Sennheiser mic that I got for Christmas and personalized soon after. For those of you who missed the show, I'll go more into detail about my super party microphone at a later date. It deserves a blog of it's own. Also, there are a few videos up from the 29th show, be sure to check 'em out on our youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/halfpasttwoska

As of right now, we don't have anything on the agenda other than writing/practicing and hopefully recording in the near future. We've still got some work to do, but everything is starting to pull together which is EXCITING! It's really fun to be playing and experimenting with new songs. Dave & I have been working away trying to mush our various song fragments together to make something awesome but we tend to get distracted and do silly things like make vlogs instead.

For example:


So ya, there you have it! Another non hp2 related cover. I mean, it's no "Party All The Time" but, few things can live up to the awesomeness that is that song.
Seriously though, don't worry, you'll be introduced to more new songs soon enough :)

Check ya later,
Linds

RECORDING MULTIMEDIA OVERLOAD!

So I finally finished mixing the "When Worlds Collide/Dragula" medley that we are submitting to the nu metal/ska compilation. I posted the video already, but in case you didn't catch it you can find it here:

Now it's time to go on a journey. A photo journey!

This is the guitar rig I used to get close to nu metal territory for the cover. The 5150 has been my live amp since...2004? The Voodoo above it graced the 1s and 0s of most of "Closet Polar Bear's" distorted tones and that little guy on top is what Country Dave calls an amp.

I decided to reamp the guitar DIs through real amps, instead of using PodFarm 2.0 that I use for demos. Since PodFarm doesn't have a dual mic option, I decided to try out the "Studio Fredman" dual 57 mic technique for extra metalic girth.

Some sort of cable tester is essential for any sort of complicated reamp bedroom -> garage -> amp -> bedroom monitors setup. Test tones will keep your friends from shooting you after you ask them to play the same riff 50x straight.

I tried a few pedals as input boosts before the signal hit the front of the amp. This OS-2 has a story...and is broken, but you can hear more about that in the video.

Here is the back view of my epic "Tower of Power" (take that horn section!).

Rear view of the Voodoo Amps custom built JCM800 clone.

This is how it looks with the "garage door" up. I found a pleasant ambience added to the sound after the Isis sticker was added. But seriously, the presence and global mid sweep knobs came in handy in dialing in the HP2 grind.

Curtis called my 5150 "vintage" a while ago, but I'm starting to realize that his assessment was somewhat accurate considering that there is now a 5150 II, a 6505, and a 5150 III. So here it is: the slightly "less-vintage" back of my FJA modded 5150.

Recording and mixing was fun as always. I went through 5 mix iterations before I was happy enough with something that I could present to the band. I hope Curtis isn't going to rage quit the band because he's been replaced by triggers. Actually the room and overhead mics made it to the final version, I just replaced his toms, kick and snare with Steven Slate Samples.

Other highlights included "correcting" (not because they were out of pitch but because they were actually wrong) the first 3 notes every time Anthony played his bassline on the "When Worlds Collide" verse and finally figuring out how to automate my wah-wah in PodFarm. I kept the "in the box" tone for the extra guitars that come in on the instrumental parts between verses on the "Dragula" part of the song. I actually "played" the wah with one of the faders on my Akai MPD24. It's so much easier than multiple takes with your foot, haha.

Now your real reward for making it this far down my blog: the premastered mix that the rest of the band is currently deliberating over. Enjoy!

When Worlds Collide/Dragula Mix 5asdfk; by Half Past Two

Party All The Time

Hey folks,

Lindsey here! Long time no blog, eh? I know we've kind of been slacking. The last blog was before our Skaloween show. We fail.

Anyway, lots of exciting stuff has been happening here in the world of Half Past Two. For one, we are working away on new songs and having ever so much fun with the demo process. We're just about finished laying down all of our tracks for our super awesome "Zombie Medley" (When Worlds Collide/Dragula Cover) for the ska/nu metal compilation. Can't wait to hear the finished product of that.

Speaking of super awesome silly covers, back in the summer, Dave & I got bored and created an acoustic cover project we call Lemon Law. After reconnecting with my love for Eddie Murphy's "Party All The Time" we decided to do our own take on it, which you can enjoy here:
Party All The Time by Lemon Law: It's a Thing

Of course it's nowhere NEAR as amazing as the original, but we felt like we needed to pay homage to Eddie Murphy for creating the best song ever.

Well that about does it for my blog. Follow me on twitter, my name is liveviamusic annnnd don't forget to PARTY ALL THE TIME!

TTFN

Linds

Blog Frenzy!!

Hey everybody! Anthony here with a blog update not being sent from my phone (featuring 5% less typos!).

So I'm sitting here avoiding homework and watching the world series and it got me thinking: are Dodger fans boycotting the oranges and blacks of Halloween because they would be wearing Giants colors?

Anyway, something more HP2 related:

I couldn't let Tyler be the only one getting into the Holiday spirit and bringing out his inner nerd! So here's a sweet promo for the show!



My apologies for biting Lindsey's "Stay Classy" but I really wanted you all to stay classy!

So, that's it and that's all folks
-Tony Grizz.

P.S. Buy Tickets Here!

SPECIAL COVER SONG ANNOUNCED!

I know the anticipation has been building for a while, but I'm glad to finally announce our special "Halloween" cover!

"Dragula" by our favorite band from the Great White North: (no, not rush) Black Coffee!

If you're wondering what all of this excitement is from, you must have been living under a rock and completely oblivious of our Facebook feed. I took a DJ gig on Pandora and ended up like this:

And finally, I gave Curtis a grueling interview on all things drums, mole people, and "death metal." Country Dave also mentions his diminishing role in the recording process.

That's it for my video recap. We'll have additional rhythm section recording interviews and some footage from the Halloween, but if you can make it out be sure to come. We have a very cohesive costume theme that we're all excited so make sure to see it in person!

Checkin' in from the East Coast

Hi friends :)

I'm writing you from my sister's house in Philly! I've been having an East Coast adventure since last Tuesday. I spent a few days in New Hampshire visiting friends I made when I lived out there, spent a night in Boston, played in New York for a day, and got into Philly last night.

The fall colors here are AMAZING! I wish I could bring them home with me. I will miss playing in piles of leaves like a 5 year old when I get back to CA.


I'm definitely going to miss all of the amazing food out here too like the German food in NH, Carnegie Deli cheesecake, and apple dumplings from Philly. I think eating is my favorite form of entertainment while on vacation, haha.

I've loved my time out here, but I can't wait to get home and play the SKALLOWEEN show at The Vault. Our costumes are pretty much amazing. I've just got a couple more finishing touches to put on mine before it's ready to rock. I don't think I've been this excited about dressing up in costume since I was a kid. I'm thinking about bringing a bowl of candy to put out by our merch so if you come say hello I may give you a trick or treat, most likely a treat though because I don't have many tricks up my sleeve.

As Tony Grizz mentioned, we are indeed revealing a very special cover at the show, but it's the one and only time we'll be playing it so make sure you're there! You'll be bummed if you miss it. A little reminder to any of those who have to travel a bit to get to Temecula, make sure you leave early enough to avoid traffic so you don't miss any of the bands.

Well I think that about does it for my blog. I'm going to head out to Rittenhouse Square (a park in the middle of the city) and work on writing some lyrics for new songs. I'll see all of you on FRIDAY! Can't wait to see your goofy costumes :D

thanks for stopping by,
Lindsey

p.s. i'm bitter grizz stole "stay classy". now i have to think of a good sign off. grrr

The Headphones are Working!

1Hey everyone! This is Anthony with your monthly (I'm trying to be more accurate than weekly) update!

Today Half Past Two is recording! What are we recording you ask? New material? A new album? No! We're recording a cover song! It's for a compilation on Animal Style Records due out New Years Eve! We're unveiling this cover for ONE NIGHT ONLY this Friday at the Vault in Temecula where we'll be sharing the stage with Voodoo Glow Skulls, Chase Long Beach and more! So make sure to come out in costume and join in on the party!

So, back on the recording day! Tyler Moore, Dave, Curtis, and myself are all laying down the milky goodness that is the rhythm while Lindsey and the Doc are out of town. We'll have video soon of the whole process along with the incredible slow moving man!

Anyway guys, I have to jet so we can get this thing started. Stay classy and eat abba-zabbas to slow life down a bit.

Stay classy,
Tony Grizz

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Country Dave Speech Bubble Contest Results

Good news! EVERYONE IS A WINNER!

We had a contest on our facebook earlier this week to caption Country Dave at The Grove in Anaheim.

Congratulations to all the participants and while Country Dave was a little too busy (important) to reply to all of you, he had me acquire highly authentic forgeries of his autograph accompanied by personalized notes. Enjoy!

Tyler Thinks He Can Sing...Again...

Whoop The Whooping Cough by All Hell Breaks Loops

So a while before recording "It's About Time" I worked up some demos showcasing my less-than-stellar vocal chops. They were meant to be more of a reference for "what could be sung" by the lead rather than "this is the melody," mostly because of my liberal use of the "extremely flat" stylistic effect.

It seems that new demo season is now upon us once again, and to kick things off I figured I might as well start it with a bang...err a whoop! Here are my amazing lyrics:

Whoop Whoop Whoop Whoop the whooping cough.

I gotta a song to tell all the masses

Be aware and keep your minds active

Petrussis transmission can stop

Infants and young at the highest risk of all

Adults can spread all it takes is a little cough

Immunize and we will

Whoop Whoop Whoop Whoop the whooping cough.

Don't even try to blame Dave for the out of time ska guitar. That was 100% Tyler.

Bhakti's Favorite Song Live Is...

...Legacy. But maybe not this fast. I was doing some sound design for a friend of mine who wanted a solo "so insano fast that no human could play it" so I ended up penciling in 64th notes in Cubase. With liberal amounts (abuse) of pitch wheel automation and a hasty sampling of one of my real guitars I ended up with this:

I Know Mix 4 (no vocals) by Gnardvark

And that made me think of Dragonforce and all sorts of other studio tomfoolery, such as playing at half speed and then doubling the tempo. For the video clip of Legacy I just skipped to the doubling the tempo part. Lindsey's headbanging is a lot more epic in normal time. From 0:27 - 0:30 it's actually Dave singing, but you can barely tell that Lindsey takes over at 0:30 because of the super artificial sped up pitch shifting.

If enough people are interested I could share more fun facts about Legacy (the original and not the 200% version). If we have enough interest we could have interviews with Dave and myself about the meaning behind the lyrics, where the music came from, how many versions of the song we had to go through, etc. For that matter, if you want to know any more "Behind the Music" details on any of the songs (especially with ones with less sensical names...Sean Connery I'm looking in your direction) we would love to spill all the gorey details.

Comment away and let us know what your favorite song is!

Work Blogging

Greetings from the afterlife.

If you watched Dave's video blog, you know that I'm unfotunately deceased.

Turns out the Egyptians were right. Good thing they buried me with a Double Double from in-n-out. You really work up an appetite travelling all the way to the other side.

You know, it's kind of weird....HP2 members seem to be dying a lot these days. Luckily Dave has 9 lives and was able to come back to life after both the tragic shark attack and the car accident. I'm still waiting for someone to summon me back to life, it doesn't just happen automaticaly for me. Shux.

Before I continue I just want to give a big giant THANK YOU out to all of you who came to the show on Saturday. It was so much fun and we really appreciate everyone's support, it helps us stay motivated to keep this party ska train going.

Anywho, I'm at work right now...somehow, despite being dead. It's slow today/boring. I guess people aren't in the mood for smoothies on cloudy days. You know what would be really awesome? If someone came to visit me at the Robeks in Fullerton! Then perhaps I wouldn't have to stand around watching the clock slowly tick.

Oh shoot, my break is over....I guess I won't be able to continue writing about nothing....

Well I have something really awesome to put on here, once I'm finished making it, so stay tuned....

seriously,

it's rad.

LOTS OF LOVE!

Lindsey Smith

Expert Smoothie Maker

Robeks Juice

Fullerton, CA

Dave's Video Blog #1

Okay, so I know this is a video blog so there shouldn't be any writing, but BACKGROUND TIME!

I'm terrible at blogging, just really really bad. So instead I'm going to vlog, because that should be better?

I figure there is no better way to start off my vlog then with someone who's not me staring in the video, so I turn you all over to my friend Margie, the professional Lindsey Smith impersonator.

As you can tell, I'm a great camera man.

Now the real question is, how does this new (and dare I say improved) Lindsey Smith-like person sound? WELL HAVE I GOT AN EXTRA SPECIAL TREAT FOR YOU!

Sean Connery by Half Past Two

Party!

Hiya friends!

It's Labor Day Weekend...you know what that means, put the white clothes away until memorial day. Just kidding, that's a stupid rule. Anywho, loooooong time no blog. I've just been really busy....with um...uhhh...ya. Okay so I'm just lazy, whatever! Don't judge me! Not everyone can be as awesome as Anthony with his weekly posts! I think the problem is, I usually have nothing interesting to say. Nothing has changed, I'm just procrastinating because I have to pack for my trip up to Parchers to see mi familia.

SO since I'm not exciting, I'm going to tell you about the top 10 things that are currently exciting me.

1) THE SHOW COMING UP ON SEPTEMBER 18TH AT THE GROVE - sorry, I had to plug it.....besides, if you're reading this blog, it means you're cool, and all the cool kids are going so you already have your ticket, right?

2) SAVERS!!!!! Seriously, have you been to this place? It's a giant chain of thrift stores - only they are AWESOME, GIAGANTIC, METICULOUSLY ORGANIZED, AND AMAZING! Ever since they built one in La Mirada I've been a fan, but it's really grown into an addiction over the last few months.

3) GUPPY TEA HOUSE SHAVED ICE - do I really need to explain myself here?

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER - It's my favorite show. Can't wait to buy season 5 and for season 6 to start. IT'S GOING TO BE LEGEN - wait for it - DARY! WHAT UP!? Barney Stinson is my hero in life

PHIL SHANE - A God amongst men, truly. He may only be 5 feet tall, but his hair, glittery jackets, and Vegas style lounge singing is nothing short of amazing. He plays often in the OC area, but if you're curiosity gets the better of you, and you want to see this guy in action, the only place to see him is Rembrandts in Placentia. Why you may ask? The walls are coated in velvet....and the people are just...classic. HINT: Have him sing his Birthday song to you. Also - be prepared to say HOT DAMN!

ASIAN PHOTO BOOTHS - Okay this is nothing new, I've just been more obsessed than usual as of late. I have this evil plan in the works that involves somehow getting all of HP2 into one of these things. I'm not sure how this is going to work quite yet...roofies?

THE ROOM - Worst movie I've ever seen, ever. It's so very, very, very bad....yet incredible.

FRANK TURNER - This guy is awesome. He's a lyrical genius, seriously. He's Poetic, but not overly dramatic, poignant yet tactful somehow, ughh. He's just awesome, and I'm really hoping I can scrounge up the money to see him when he's in LA.

THIS HELMET - I fought Jengo for it.

DEMOLITION DERBY - Okay, so every year during Labor Day weekend, there's a county fair in Bishop, actually it might be a tri-county fair, anyway, it's awesome. Of course it is nothing close to as extravagant as the LA/OC fairs(no pig races), but they have rodeos and a DEMOLITION DERBY which features cars tricked out by local businesses. People get smashed on cheap beer while the cars smash into each other. It's kind of redneck, but it's always a good time.

So there it is! A blog, by yours truly. I'll try to make some room in my schedule for a weekly blog between making smoothies at my cousin's Robeks and floating on a raft in my pool.

lovelovelove you all :) :) (ya, all 4 of you who probably read this)

*Linds

HP2 (not at all) Weekly Blog!: The Return!

Okay, so when I promised to blog weekly I was just a slacker college student without a real job. Weeks later and I'm now a middle school teacher with an hour commute (both ways!) and the 9-10 hour work days, so I apologize for falling off!

Now that my apology/plea for sympathy is out of the way it's time for some news!

Okay, so we've got some pretty sweet shows coming up real soon! Let's get those out of the way right quick, shall we?

Sept 18 we're playing with some local acts at the Grove of Anaheim. We'll be doing our thang on the outside stage warming you guys up for the new-look Chase Long Beach (Sorry guys, I wont be sharing the stage with this this time), Starpool and Reel Big Fish!

Oct 4th We're making our very first trip to the Valley! We're playing at the SVC Sports complex with our friends Maxwell Smart and Kounterfeit Change. ($8 with flyer [to be posted later], or $10 at the door)

Oct 29 Skalloween in Temecula with Voodoo Glow Skulls, One Pin Short and one of our favorite So Cal bands: Skamikaze!!

So there you have it. That's the list of shows we've got going on for us for now.

Speaking of shows, we feel like we need to add something... something more than we've been able to give at recent shows... something like ANOTHER NEW SONG!! That's right, we plan on busting out another new song for your ears at the RBF show in a couple of weeks. Now, at the time of this writing I haven't actually learned this new song and we've never played it as a group, but I've got faith in our abilities! And now that I've told all of you faithful HP2 blog readers, we kind of have to play it, don't we!

Alright.. let's see.. is there anything else I need to cover? Hrmm.. not that I can think of. I guess that means I can stop blogging so I can go to sleep, huh? I mean, it's almost midnight and I need to wake up early in the morning so I can go to work and not get fired. Soo... I'm out!!

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa wait!! I forgot to tell you guys. You all should do yourself a favor and go out and see Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. It's seriously awesome! Ask Lindsey or myself. We'll gush about it and I personally will get super excited and probably hug you!! Doo it! And then after you watch it, please tell all your friends!!

Ok, now it's time to sleep. For reals. Goodnight!

-Anthony

1000 Miles Away 800% Slower

1000000 Miles Away by Half Past Two

"1000 Miles Away," covered by whales highly influenced by the Blade Runner soundtrack, paulstretch and Sunn O))). The whales had the following comment about the track, "if the entirety of heaven was trapped inside a glacier below 0 degrees Kelvin and attempting to play morse code upbeats as a way of communicating with the rest of the universe."

In case you're wondering how to pull this off with other HP2 tracks there is an excellent blog post on Create Digital Music and a how-to video on LifeHacker.

For those of the Mac persuasion (Dave and I included) you can get a OSX port of paulstretch on Kent Williams' blog.

Enjoy and post or tweet back with your own epic masterpieces!

Drum n Bass/Ska Crossover?

Solitaire by All Hell Breaks Loops

Not really a crossover...but the genres do share a surprising amount of overlap in terms of musical heritage. Anthony's steady blogging inspired me to do the same. So here is a little window of what is going on inside my head, musically speaking.

BHAKTI CHALLENGE! Put horns over my track! The shape of things to come?

PS Giving titles to songs without lyrics is hard.