Local music

Section 8, an Upstate NY metal band confirms reunion!!!

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This morning some pretty big news was announced that surprised the local music scene in Upstate, N.Y. Local metal legends, Section 8, announced their reunion. Learn more about Section 8, here. Above is the reunion photo. As you read in their biography this band was pretty big in the early 90’s but they disbanded years ago. All of their fans from the past stayed loyal to them to this day even if they were gone for way over a decade and they even grew some new fans over the years when they discovered Section 8’s music online. Isn’t it incredible how fans stay loyal to a band’s music even if they’re gone? I guess that’s what inspired this reunion ’cause they still have the popularity. This band was big enough to be signed to a major label but they broke up before that even happened. Their music is really heavy. They play death metal, hardcore kind of stuff but I like them a lot myself. I know who their lead singer is who is pictured in the center of this photo, we used to hang out years ago. The lead singer’s name is Kasey Dorr and he posted this statement about the section 8 reunion on facebook this morning: “Status Update By Joe Jack Section 8 rehearsal was absolutley Heavy as all Hell . You have been warned. It came back to us like a reflex. Someone put us on pause for 13 years and decided to hit play. New things will also possibly be in the works.In short. WE ARE GOING TO DESTROY YOUR FILTHY PLANET.”

This is pretty exciting news! Look like they got more planned than just a one off reunion show, I think it’s possible they maybe back full time and as you read, it maybe possible they may have new music in the works. So new album on the way too? When they announce their reunion show, I’ll post it asap. I think I’m definitely gonna go to their reunion show. They are a great band. Check out a few tunes in the videos below. Enjoy! Follow Section 8, if you like what you see and hear: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Section-8/313554378789684

Kev

Random/off topic posts

Home recording setup… would like to improve my home studio down the road…

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After that one comment, inspired me to write in this blog post about home recording setup. Like I said, I don’t have much of a setup or a rig like they call it. I just have a cheap M-Audio Fast Track interface that was about $100, a couple of small piece of shit speakers, headphones, I have a Shure SM58 microphone, and of course, a few guitars.

I would like to improve my home recording setup down the road whenever I can afford it. Whenever I get a job and start working again, maybe I’ll start saving for more recording gear. However though, when you want to become a home recording musician, you don’t need to get all of these fancy and expensive equipment. You can still make a studio quality demo at home for $500 worth of home recording gear. That’s all you need for a home recording studio. You can still sound like a PRO recording on the cheap.

Sometime down the road, I would like to get better monitors (or speakers). I would like to get a MIDI keyboard so I can learn how to put band back up behind my music and all that stuff. I would like to get a better Audio interface too. My guitar sounds perfectly clean in recording but I would like to make the vocals sound better ’cause there’s a little bit of hissing noises in the background. Maybe if I get better software and a better interface, it’ll help make the vocals sound cleaner.

I used to use Pro Tools Academic to record on but it’s really old and outdated so for now I just use Cakewalk Music Creator 5. I bought Music Creator 5 cheap ’cause I needed something to record on. I was planning to use that until I find a better ProTools software to use. I will buy a new ProTools software down the road too.

You see, you don’t need to waste a lot of money at a local studio to record your albums when you can record your music on the cheap at home. It’s worth it, trust me. Cheap recording equipment is great for recording acoustic demos. You can even record a full band at home if you wanted to. I’m always trying to find ways to improve my home recording setup.

Before ProTools and computer software came around, I was just recording my music on a piece of shit Tascam 4-track machine, remember those, yeah?

I’ve been recording my songs at home for many years. I may have recorded a demo in a professional local studio once in 2006 and that’ll be the only time I’ll do that, I think. As long as you can make a decent sounding demo at home, there’s no need to record in a professional studio. I don’t really enjoy someone else recording my music when I prefer to do it on my own. Have the training, learn the software, and you’re good to go.

There’s a lot of famous bands that recorded their own music and they didn’t really have a producer. Led Zeppelin recorded all of their own albums and Jimmy Page produced all of them. It’s good to record your own music and not have someone else do it for you. Your own vision, your own sound, and your own creativity.

Kev

Politics/war

Thoughts on the US thinking about attacking Syria over gas attacks…

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Honestly, the US should leave Syria alone. If we attack them, then Syria will retaliate and we’re gonna end up into another war. On top of that, it is unconstitutional to declare war on another country without congressional authority. What happened during the gas attacks was horrible but we should stay out of that stuff when it doesn’t involve us. Women and children were killed during the gas attacks and they shouldn’t have to suffer even more if we decide to attack Syria. What’s attacking Syria going to solve? Once again it’s just going to lead us into another pointless war. All this is proving is that the Obama Administration are evil war criminals. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the Obama Administration aided Syria terrorists the chemicals like some people are saying. We seriously need to uphold the Constitution ’cause President Obama haven’t been faithful to it since the start of Presidency. We also need to stop him from attacking Syria and he needs to be held accountable. Get with it, and wake up. Obama is a madman. All he is about is power and greed.

I don’t see how you could defend him over something like this. Of course, the liberals would have his back and would make claims that Obama is doing this to save the people in Syria but it’s not true, and you know it. Obama is a war mongering son of a bitch. He started a lot of wars without congressional authority and this is the worst of them. If you think the US attacking Syria is a good thing… think about how Syria will retaliate. They will want their revenge so they could come over to the US and attack us anytime they wanted. They could send those chemicals to the US and wipe us all out if they wanted easily.

If it’s true that Obama sent those chemicals to Syria, then he is the one who killed all those women and children.

Obama is getting pretty scary, guys. I’m scared of him being our president and you should be too. We really gotta do something about him.

Kev

Kev Brock music

Home recording is cool…

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Why do I find home recording better than paying by the hour at local studios? For a lot of reasons. I’m just trying to show people that as a local musician you don’t need to be all fancy and special with your music. Home recording may not be all that perfect quality but you can still make a decent home recording. Keep it old-school. Home recording is great. You can be your own boss. Record all day, all you want to and do whatever the hell you want. Bands shouldn’t neglect home recording. They don’t need to spend all kinds of money at a studio when you can save a lot more recording at home.

Anyway, just recorded rhythm and riff ideas for 5 different songs. I got lots more to go. Plenty of song ideas spinning in my head, it’s crazy! Yep, I think it’s time to get my music going again. I miss it and wanna do it all over again.

Will I get back to playing live again? To start playing these new songs in front of an audience? I’ll try to play a few gigs for them and maybe hit a few open mics, why not. For now, I’ll just release music for the internet only.

I’m proud of how these new songs are coming out so far but I still gotta record vocals for them which I will do soon. I’m gonna try to make the singing good this time. I’m most focused on recording guitar parts first. How many songs will I come up with? I’d say if you’re the type of songwriter who’s gonna say, “I’m planning to write 10 or 11 songs for this album”… then you’re doing it wrong. What a lot of songwriters do out there is write a bunch of songs all day. They would come up with around 30 – 100 songs and then they pick the best material for their albums. That’s how it’s done mostly. It shouldn’t be planned ahead of how many songs you plan to do. It should be unpredictable. Your mind is like a radio. You have songs spinning in your head, all the time. You gotta get them out of you, the best you can.

Kev

music

More on Miley Cyrus and her “twerking” performance…

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As expected people have been going on and on about the Miley Cyrus performance all day on FB. I think that’s pretty much proof that people just don’t understand how the media and the entertainment industry works. The industry is all about “sex” these days. People go crazy over that stuff. Anything sexual in the media about celebrities, you can very well believe it’s going to be a media frenzy for days. The Miley Cyrus “twerking” performance was obviously staged by MTV. MTV doesn’t give a shit how offensive their material get through their VMA shows. They’re gonna do whatever it takes to bring up ratings. I just read on Deadline today that the ratings for the VMA’s during the “twerking” performance went sky high. No surprise there. Like I said before this is nothing new with MTV… they’ve been doing offensive sexual stuff for years… Howard Stern’s Fartman, Diana Ross feeling Lil Kim’s tits, Britney Spears in 2000, the Britney/Madonna kiss, etc.

Remember, this is MTV. They’re just doing whatever it takes to keep people watching and the sex all over those shows is the only way to do it since a lot of people aren’t into today’s mainstream music. Sex sells, folks. That’s all there is to it. The sex seems to be the only way to promote things in this day and age. Just watch. MTV will come up with something else for next year. Will Rihanna suck on a dildo during a dance or will Justin Bieber moon the audience? You get the point, I think.

MTV knows this stuff offends people and that’s why they do it. it’s all part of the entertainment. You think MTV is gonna tone this stuff down? HA!!!! They don’t give a shit how people feel. They’re happy with the ratings.

If you hate MTV so much, then why watch anyway? I don’t like MTV. I don’t watch it at all. Not even the fucking VMA’s. I avoid that network like the plague. Also, don’t blame this on Billy Ray, Miley’s father… I’m sure he was all for it ’cause even he would know it’s just a performance and it was for entertainment purposes. I’m pretty sure Miley got his approval before the performance and besides, people, Miley is not a little girl anymore. She’s in her 20’s. Let her be all sexual and perverted all she wants to.

My blog was kind of slow today ’cause I spent most of my day recording songs. The recording is coming along well. I’ll have another post about that soon.

Kev

Kev Brock music

Song recording…

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I found myself recording a lot more over the weekend. It’s pretty amazing really. The inspiration for songwriting is coming at me like crazy. I got tons of great ideas. Tons of melodies inside of my head and I’m just trying my best to get ’em down on recording so I don’t forget ’em. The way I used to record is that I used to record the whole song down in one take. Write the song first, and then record it down. I used to never agree with recording little by little and editing them together but I find that to be much easier now. I’m just recording a bunch of riff and rhythm ideas for now. Just trying to get ’em out of my head. Yes, I’m playing along with a “click track”, this time. I’ve really gotten the hang with the metronome. The metronome is pretty easy, it’s not that hard to play along with to stay in sync. Just takes a lot of practice and it pays off.

Once I get the ideas down for all the songs, I’ll start finishing them up. I’ve got about 5 song ideas down and pretty proud of how they’re coming out. I’ll have to warn you though, that these songs could be a little intense and emotional. The lyrics may be a little deep too. I’ll do my best to make these songs great. I’m hoping these songs could get a lot of plays and could go viral. If nobody still cares, that’s okay… I’ll enjoy ’em for myself.

There has been a change in my singing voice. I don’t sing as deep as I used to. I’ve been working on my singing really hard… have a bit more range now and you could already hear that in my Richie Havens cover in youtube.

Practice makes perfect. If you want to improve, practice is key and you’ll get better.

Kev

music

Miley Cyrus at the VMA’s thoughts…

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I didn’t watch the VMA’s last night, nor did I watch the Miley Cyrus performance and don’t care to watch it at all. All day long, I’ve been seeing people posting about Miley Cyrus on their newsfeed. People saying how horrible and racy it is. Her tongue sticking out and all.

Well, if you want to know my thoughts… that’s how MTV is. Every single year at the VMA’s, they will pull some kind of controversy with an artist just to get people talking and to help bring up the ratings. They will do anything to attract attention. Not a lot of people watch the VMA’s anymore and MTV knows it too. That’s why they do this shock factor stuff on the VMA’s hoping that will get people to tune in. That’s why some people still watch every year ’cause they’re wondering what kind of controversy MTV will pull off next. They’ve been doing the shock factor stuff for years. Goes way back in the 90’s when Krist Novoselic of Nirvana threw his bass up in the air and hit him in the head when it came down. Controversy goes way back before then too. I’ll never forget Howard Stern’s Fartman. Most of the shock factor stuff were fake and scripted except for the Novoselic bass throwing incident… that was pretty real.

I don’t know why people continue to support the commercial mainstream of music but whatever. If you think these artists are talented and if you think the industry is real, then you’re delusional and need to wake up. Like I previously said before about fame, most of the industry are auto-tuned and lip syncing bullshit. That’s the VMA’s.

I had a lot of respect for the industry during the 90’s grunge and metal era but since pop & rap took over… there’s no good music anymore.

To be fair to Miley though, she’s just trying to get out of her Disney image. She’s trying to grow out of her child role model stuff.  I’ve been saying that on this blog for years now. No matter what you think of her VMA’s performance, she is succeeding with her goal of getting out of her Disney image. She clearly doesn’t wanna be Hanna Montana anymore. I haven’t seen the video of her performance yet but I will get around to it.

I stopped watching the VMA’s years ago. It’s the same garbage every year. I got better things to watch. I was watching “Breaking Bad” last night instead.

Kev

Local music

Do people really need to rely on bars for local music? I’d say definitely no…

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It really bothers me that people have to rely on alcohol when it comes to local music. I understand bands need to play them in order to make cash and they need to have a place where their fans can go and see them but you don’t really have to rely on the bar scene. I really hate bar gigs. I really really do. I used to go to bar gigs all the time when I was younger and I try to avoid bars more often to this day. People claim to have a blast hanging out at these places but really? I don’t find bars fun at all. They’re ridiculously stupid, boring and uncool. Starting now I think I’m going to avoid bars completely. I will try to at least. I can’t stand being around a bunch of drunk people to begin with. Why? You might get into potential fights and you might get hit on by some strange drunk woman that you’re not attracted to. Bars are also not a good place to pick up women. Just my opinion. People are also weird as hell when they’re wasted.

If the bar and club scene is not your thing, there are still ways to support local music that doesn’t involve alcohol. What about cafes? Bookstores? Churches? Places like those. You just gotta use your imagination and plan. There are other ways of making money for playing music and you don’t have to play bar rooms.

It’s not that I’m anti-social, I just can’t stand the bar & club scene, that’s all. All people wanna do these days is drink and drink and drink. That’s how local venues make the money ’cause they exploit people with drinking and take their money from them.

Bars really are terrible and I’ve had a mix of good & bad experiences with them. When I get back to playing live again, I think I’m only going to play cafes & diners types of places. I like playing those venues better ’cause that’s when the audience will sit and listen and not talk over your playing. That’s another reason I don’t like bars ’cause they’re too loud.

You don’t always have to play for a bunch of drunks. I think the only reason bands wanna play bars ’cause it’s just a lousy excuse for them to get drunk themselves. Check out their facebook pages for proof on that. They seem to be more psyched on the drinking more than playing the music for the people. Alcoholics. Too many of them out there. It’s nuts! There is nothing cool about drinking. I’m glad I gave it up.

Kev

Kev Brock music

Why it’s okay to not rhyme in poetry…

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I was just doing a little googling and researching more about poetry about rhyming. I found this interesting little article that explains perfectly why you don’t always need to rhyme.

10 Reasons Poems Don’t Always Need to Rhyme…

I forgot about the poet, Ezra Pound. He was another poet who never believed in rhyming.

When I write these new songs I’m planning to do, the lyrics are going to be very poetic. In order to make my lyrics poetic, I’m not gonna make ’em rhyme at all. I’m planning on writing the lyrics just like a poem. Gonna try to, anyway.

I started writing my own poetry ’cause I might turn some of them into lyrics.

I’m hoping my songs will get the respect they deserve with this new direction. Writing folk songs and slow ballads in poetry form, that’s my idea. I’m also planning to record a few spoken word tracks and acapella stuff. The acapella stuff, I’m planning to do is just so that I can show I am pretty confident with my singing. I got something to prove with the next release.

Kev

 

Kev Brock music

When will these new songs be out???

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I’m thinking sometime in the Fall, I’ll be ready to release these songs. I think I’m gonna pick a release day. Sometime in Sept. or Oct. Before then, I’ll release one video clip of each song, a preview and do some kind of count down thing to help create a buzz. I won’t sell these songs, I’ll just release them all on the same day for people to make them downloadable. I’ll think of a plan.

I’ve been coming up with a lot of great ideas in songwriting. I’m not making it up when I say I’m changing a different direction. Slower ballads maybe in the likes of Leonard Cohen, acoustic Neil Young and stuff like that. After the large response to the Whitney Houston tribute, that’s what inspired the change and figure something like that is my genre.

I don’t think I’ll write too many political songs… kind of changed my mind about that. I think people get bored of them. I think I’ll write about other stuff. More autobiographical songs and write about topics people can relate to. I’ll write about a mixture of things.

I think people are gonna like these tunes and can’t wait for people to hear them. Hopefully, these songs will get a lot more listeners and fans — I’m gonna try my best.

Kev

The Official Music Website of Kevin Brock – Brocking N' Rolling