Kris Norris, guitarist and songwriter for Darkest Hour and Locus Factor apparently hasn't been kept busy enough with two bands worth of recording and touring and making instructional guitar DVDs. Over the years he's composed and recorded over 700 little miscellaneous riffs and songs of various levels of polish with his guitar, a keyboard, a computer and a drum machine.
Now he's started trickling them out and making them available for free on his website.
I'm sure that lots of professional musicians are actually similarly prolific but it's rare that they let the world actually hear these rough little bits.
So far, I'm really enjoying digging through the ones he's put online. It's fascinating to see inside the creative process like this. I think it's similar to how I enjoy looking at artists' sketchbooks, seeing the preliminary studies and throwaway doodles that were never really intended for public consumption.
Of course it's not all very good and it's mostly really roughly produced with muddy sound and the really basic drum machine programming that you would expect from someone who's primarily a guitarist. But there are some real gems buried in there too like FUCKINA which mixes nice melodic acoustic guitar with massive doses of synths (I'm not sure if it's supposed to be pronounced "fuck-een-a" or "fuckin' a").
Actually, something about the mixed nature of the collection actually appeals to me in the same sort of way as digging through a big pile of unsorted used records at a flea market. Even though most of it might be crap, the promise that you might find something really awesome for next to nothing just cause you were willing to get your hands dirty and dig for a while somehow makes it all that much more appealing.
The Subjects - I Could Never Tune
You should know these guys by now - the Subjects, who we featured on our first compilation, are a quartet of New York City boys - two teachers & two (former) students - who make the most excellent of indie rock.
Their first full-length album, With The Ease, Grace, Precision and Cleverness of Human Beings, was released this last week on Pretty Activity Records - an album long in the making, recorded over a year ago in the lead-singer/bassist's parents' basement in Maryland, with the songs tuned, refined and worked out via tons of live shows here in NYC and across the US on various tours. The record is really great, and I've been waiting for the public to hear it for so long now, I can hardly believe it - visit their myspace page for lots more info and funny photos.
WTEGPACOHB is available via the Pretty Activity website, available for download via iTunes, and from your favorite indie retailers.
You can catch their intense live-show at the record-release party, this Saturday, March 3rd, at Sin-é, with their friends The End of the World, Luke Temple, Flying, and Robert Stillman's Horses. VERY highly recommended. The band has only continued to get better and better when they play live, and the power they summon on stage has to be seen and heard to be believed.