shawn avery

i started editing the drum tracks for the song "beautiful" last night. actually that isn't true. i did some editing about 6 months ago, but now i'm tightening everything up. i decided to try the drum beat in the intro, all the way through the verses, and it sounds pretty amazing. it's funny that we have been living with this recording since spring when we did the drum tracks for it. i've probably heard it at least 200 times since then. now it is going to be very different, and much better. i've also redone the bassline. i've actually made it more direct and simple. i'm thinking about creating varied bass loops for the track. the editing will be quite intensive on some tracks. we have some quirky ideas and they must be realized. also... the micro-site that is currently up is getting a face-lift. the new gallery is very sleek and minimal. i like it. on the 34 track local music compilation on skybucket records , there are a few bands that kill. great ...

this weekend was incredibly action packed. thursday night, jen and i went over to ashby's house for a four way pumpkin' carvin'. christine, ashby, jen, and i did up 5 different pumpkins... all of them rocked... we took pics... friday jen and i got comped tix (thanks amber) to the alabama theatre for the rocky horror picture show halloween ball. very cool venue for this kind of thing. i've seen rocky horror on halloween all over the country, and this was the best production. amber got her camera stolen, only to later find the abandoned purse/ wallet of the thief. a trade was made early saturday. some people are so stupid. the rocky horror crowd... i edited some more of the album. I'll probably be saying that phrase well into my 40's. went later to the nick where i hung out with what is coming to be defined as the "nick group." james, jody, his girlfriend, amber, judah and some others... until well after 5am. saturday was comprised of sleep, shower, and ...

this is one of the best clips i've seen regarding the election, via salon.com, could this be the real enemy ? also check this out... 1. this lady does some great art. it reminds me of some of matthew barney's work. 2. she uses dead animals. and - yep... she kills them herself. that's creepy and brilliant at the same time. here's the nathalia edenmont exhibit . and here's the rationale for the art-killings via the host gallery, wetterling. i don't really have an opinion. i just thought i should share that little art nugget. ...moving on... i got the final packaged verison of the jesse payne solo album. it was very well done. the front and back photo is of canterbury church here in birmingham. the liner book is solid white, with plain black text. very simple and clean. i like it. i'll post a pic in a few days. pay attention to rock radio in the next several weeks and you'll probably hear some promos for the album that is slated to drop in election day. ...

i went online this morning to get my stack of new cd's for the fall and noticed that the album cover i did for stateside has different looking text on amazon.com than the copy that i have. speaking of album covers... i guess ashby has decided that our new album will be titled wiseblood. i agree. very short and direct. southern. for the entire year so far, we had been considering ...and then we shall walk in endless light as the title. pretty longwinded. we shouldn't have that problem with the new title. i got the jeff buckley re-issue of grace. damn. that boy was good. probably too good. the included documentary was very well done. jeff was kind of a space cadet.the new u2 song being played all over the planet has some interesting lyrics, but the riff is kinda lame. it sounds a little too forced. although i love it when they rock out, this seems a bit to mainstream rock to me. the name of the album however, how to dismantle an atomic bomb is genius. and finally... jesse payne...

i had a pretty interesting weekend, scene-wise. friday night i went to see the pierces at workplay. they are a sister-singer-songwriter duo, presumably from birmingham, but now based out of nyc. great voices. before checking out the duo, i ran into sidewalk ceo / og-mtv-vj, alan hunter . we talked about opening night at sidewalk and agreed that the editing of silver city could have been better. we spent some time pondering donnie darko , and ended up chatting about his new feature film, dreamland , the possibility of me providing film score material down the road... and the lifeless yet brilliant music of photek . alan is a great conversationalist. a dying breed. after seeing the duo sing some incredibly moving songs, i relocated to the workplay bar, where i struck up a conversation with graphic designer / filmmaker carl ross. we also talked about the festival, the films, zombie movies, " shaun of the dead " , local filmmakers and the annual sidewalk scramble , for...

i went to laser's edge to get the new tears for fears cd and ended up getting a ton of local stuff. for some reason our ep is priced at $9.98. hmmm. ran into george, the guitarist for all tomorrows parties . apparently they kicked him out. i personally think he rocks. hell of a nice guy. that's probably why he got the boot. we talked about the new compilation, and a band he was helping promote called sniffle. kooky stuff. i'm really looking forward to the new skybucket compilation, whenever it finally comes out. much better bands on it than this first set of bands. i'm anxious this week. too much to do, and not enough time to do it. i need to be putting in more hours editing. something has to go.

i went to the opening night of the 6th annual sidewalk film festival . sidewalk film festival. according to ex mtv vj, and current ceo of sidewalk / hunter films, it is now one of the top 10 film festivals in the country. there was a lot of talk about improving our image as a state. forget it. it will never happen. we should embrace it anyway. besides, other film towns aren't perfect. seattle/vancouver is packed with artisans hooked on smack. hollywood is in the same town that produced the film known as the rodney king beating video . what about their race riots, marches and problems in the 1960's? but i digress. the opening film at the alabama theatre was silver city , sort of the "primary colors" as it applies to dubya. pretty funny. chris cooper plays a stupid rich politician with grammer issues being strung along by greedy land developers. sound familiar? before the film they gave an honorary award to the woman who wrote the 13 ghosts stories. fabulous ...

i had my bday party at the coffee shop / art gallery, downtown last night. all week ivan the terrible had been threatening to literally rain on my parade. but he came and went pretty quick. i never lost power at my apt. ivan knocked around all day thursday and fucked up some trees and left over 1 million alabama residents without electricity. friday was a different story. perfect weather. i remember this happening growing up in florida. the night of the hurricane you pack for the beach. because the next day is going to be excellent weather. but back to the party... i ended up having about 25-30 people including jesse and ashby performing some acoustic songs and aaron and shep throwin' down their usual excellent dj umm..."skillz." the cake was killer, the upstairs loft was chill. the entire band made their way there by 10pm. new friends, old friends. i can't complain. the only bummer was not being able to play my version of under the milky way tonight because we onl...

i've been pondering whether or not to do this diary thing for a while now, and having recently read the fabulous diary entries by daniel ferris and jessica grant of lunasect, i'm somewhat more in favor of the idea. i've liked the band and reading their diary entries made me admire them even more. protools editing, pets, being too tired to rehearse, problems with city stages, mastering the art of self promotion all-the-while-hating-it... we've got more in common than i thought. that sounds like us. their new cd is coming out this month, and like us, they record much more than they perform live. touring vs. recording. i think having done both, with this particular band, i like it more this way. i see bands, who are friends of mine, trampling across the country, or the state chasing the golden carrot. packing their gear night after night into the back of a car or an suv... for what? only to play to the same 27 people again in 12 days? i would much rather record, wri...