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The Blairnt Central Studio Log 2-22-10 - Recording some guitar with brother Tim. Re writing some parts and making some mixes to get ready for some bass tracking. So while I am writing this update I wanted to thank my friend and sax player Paul Hyde for the whole Dr. Mumbai name for the project. You see Paul had thought up the name Dr. Bombay from the old Bewiched TV series. Another friend Dale came up with the idea to bring the name to the modern age and we changed it to Dr. Mumbai. And as they say the rest is history. Until next time...
2-1-10 - Recording continues... Aaron Arntz is currently doing overdubs at his studio, Aaron is a talented multi instrumentalist known for his work with Zappa plays Zappa and will be handling some accordion, keyboards, and trumpet. Meanwhile guitar recording continues here at BC... It's been raining outside but here in the studio it's sunshine all day long. I think I'll get a Studio Tan. Bill
1-13-10 - Keeping busy with new keyboard arrangements and horn arrangements for "Bring Em On" man this is time consuming but some interesting ideas.
1-10-10 - Hi All! Working on horn arrangements and guitar leads today and started the daunting task of arranging the tunes... You might think hey its just a bunch of songs but this is definitely more then just a bunch of tunes and the glue that holds them all together is just as important to the whole soundscape of the record. Way too much material to go through. Also started on some keyboard programming. Hopefully I will get back in the studio tomorrow. Hope everyone had a great weekend.
DnR Theatre sound check 1-1-09 Steel Magnolia and Jessica Corban concert
1-3-10 -
Hi Everyone! Happy new year! I hope everyone is having a
good one so far. The concert at the D and R theatre this weekend
was a big success and I can't tell you how happy it makes me
to see a concert venue back in good old Aberdeen, WA.
Until next time, Bill
Jessica Corban sound check
Jessica Corban band during the concert
Mike Peterson contemplates the set
Jim at the monitor mixer back stage
Winners of "Can You Duet" Steel Magnolia
A view from stage left
Meghan and Joshua aka Steel Magnolia give an outstanding performance
Steel Magnolia and Jessica's band backstage after the show
Backstage after the show
12-29-09 - Hello All, I hope everyone is having a good holiday season this year. Things are moving along at a snails pace here at the studio given the holidays and all of the tasks involved in this project that don't have anything to do with the recording aspect. Today I'm helping to setup for the Steel Magnolia concert this Friday at the D&R theatre and this coming weekend will be back in the studio getting some mixes ready for John Novello to do some of his B3 magic. Looking forward to getting the live band together and will be auditioning musicians as well as tracking a few new tunes. Bryan Beller mentioned this project on his website and twitter update... Thanks Bryan for the mention and for playing some great bass! This project wouldn't be what it is without the help of all of the wonderful musicians who are involved. Thanks a million everyone!
Bill
12-5-09 - Winter is definitely here in the old northwest and things are getting frosty outside. Meanwhile back at Blairnt I am toasty warm in the studio working on the intro music to the CD. The Bryan Beller bass tracking went very well and I'm excited to have such a wonderful player part of the "Dr. Mumbai" lineup for the new CD... well I guess I better get back to work, so much tracking to be done and so little time to do it with.
Cheers, Bill
11-27-09 -
Well I haven’t updated the info here in a while so I figured I’d
write a little bit about what has been happening in the last
couple of months. Namely the Dr. Mumbai recording project and
the upgrade to the recording studio. First of all things went
horribly wrong in the hardware dept. so I was forced into a
computer hardware upgrade which complicated things even more
because the software I knew and loved
Bill
Here are some videos of a few of the personnel on the new record. Enjoy!
9-18-09 - The official Dr. Mumbai band website is up and running. This will be a temporary website until the new one gets designed and built but it will serve until then. If you would like to put your name on a list to pre order the CD email me at the link above and I will put you on a list and notify you when the CD's are ready for shipping. Thanks.
Temporarily removed until the website gets updated.
9-17-09 - Just finishing up some Synth and re amping an acoustic guitar track... very interesting sound and doing a little editing on the tune "My Brain". Then I think I'll back up my system just in case lightning strikes twice with a crashed hard drive.
A big welcome to Bryan Beller who has joined Dr. Mumbai in the World Watches TV recording project. Bryan will be playing some bass on a tune or two. Bryan is currently on tour along with Mike Keneally with the Heavy Metal band Dethklok and will be tracking some bass sometime in December. Thanks Bryan and talk to you soon. Ty Tabor has finished tracking some great guitar solos for the project so a BIG thanks goes out to Ty Tabor and Alien Beans studio for all the hard work. Hopefully we will see you sometime this winter to do some mixing.
This project seems to have taken on a life of its own and so far the recording project will include performances by:
Bill Pitts - Guitars, Keyboards, various noises, the blame for all of this Marco Minnemann - Drums Arthur Barrow - Bass Tim Pitts - Guitar Bryan Beller - Bass Ty Tabor - Guitar Dave Meros - Bass John Novello - Hammond B3 Alan Morse - Guitar Jason Turner - Keyboards Paul Hyde - Sax
More guest musicians to come so check back to find out who...
9-14-09 - The "Dr. Mumbai / World Watches TV" recording project continues. So here is a good one... Tim Pitts and Pete Ross are coming to the studio Sunday to do guitar overdubs and review some stuff so I go out to the studio and boot up the computer to find that the hard disk has failed! Dead! Again! Does any brand make a decent hard drive these days? I've been through Seagate, Seagate Enterprise, Samsung, Maxtor, Western Digital, and Fujitsu to name a few (I work in the Computer Business) and they ALL fail. Luckily I had a backup of everything but what I had recorded the previous day on Saturday so Saturday didn't exist. You can't let these things go for even a day. So after recovering Tim got some guitar overdubs done. We messed around with sounds for a while first using a Stratocaster with a humbucker for some BIG chords. Then that wasn't ballsy enough so we switched to my Stratocaster that also has a humbucking pickup in it but only a Gibson pup and that definitely did the trick. Yikes a Gibson pickup in a Fender guitar, that's like a Ford with a Chevy motor. Some things just aren't standard around here. In other news Dave Meros of the band Spocks Beard will be joining us for one or two tunes. This is turning out to be one heck of a Super Group for the recording. This project definitely has taken a life of it's own and I am amazed and humbled at the guest musicians involved. Not so many months ago I would listen to these guys in total admiration and now to be working with them on a record is just fantastic. Thanks Ty, Arthur, Marco, John, Dave, Alan, Paul and Tim for breathing life into this music.
9-12-09 - Recording guitar overdubs today... fun!
9-11-09 - John Novello has just completed a Hammond B3 part I will be loading into the computer for overdubs tomorrow. Sounding nice so far, very nice indeed.
Please visit Blairnt Central Music on the Myspace Music pages at: www.myspace.com/blairntcentral
A Special Announcement!
9-7-09 - Well, it's nice to have a few days off of the day job to work on the new record "The World Watches TV" Now that I have got the record well under way I can feel free to tell everybody a little bit about it. It is a very exciting project to say the least. I've managed to assemble some of the finest musicians on the planet to take part in a project group called "Dr. Mumbai" tracking is being done mainly on the weekends but I manage to slip in a few hours here and there during the week. I'm no longer a full time musician so these things tend to take a little longer then usual. As far as I know this will be the first time this combination of musicians have ever recorded together and it should be very interesting indeed. I plan to take this thing on the road at some point. The touring lineup will be announced at a later date. So far recording is going great having captured some fine tracks by Marco, Bill, Arthur, Tim, and Paul. John Novello, and Ty Tabor are currently tracking parts at Alien Bean studio and Studio 2B3 and word has it that Alan Morse of the progressive rock band Spocks Beard will be playing on the project as well so stay tuned for more news as things develop.
The World Watches TV including performances by:
Marco Minnemann is no stranger to eclectic and instrumental music having recorded many solo records such as "The Green Mindbomb" and "Comfortably Homeless" to name just a couple. His work covers everything from big band jazz to heavy metal punk. He has some amazing instructional DVD's available as well. Marco has played and recorded with with Eddie Jobson (current lineup with UKZ), Paul Gilbert, Illegal Aliens, Freaky Fukin Weirdoz, Paddy Kelly, Mike Keneally, and the legendary Buddy Rich Big Band. Arthur Barrow is best known for his work with Frank Zappa having played and recorded in one of Franks many lineups. Arthur has graced such Frank Zappa records as Joe Garage, Tinseltown Rebellion, Man From Utopia, and Shut up and Play your Guitar. Arthur has played and recorded with Billy Idol, Diana Ross, and Joe Cocker to name a few. He has also worked on numerous movie soundtracks such as Scarface, Top Gun, and The Breakfast Club as well as many others.
Ty Tabor is a legend among rock guitarists with his signature sound and soul rocking tone. Ty has recorded over 14 records with his band KingsX and has played on side projects such as Platypus, Jelly Jam, and Xenuphobe with Wally Farkas. Ty still finds time to record solo records as well as play on projects like this one so while you wait for the record to get finished check out Ty's sixth official solo release "Balance" at his website www.tytabor.com and don't forget to see KingsX when they come around.
John Novello is perhaps best known for his work with the band Niacin along with band mates Billy Sheehan and Dennis Chambers. These guys really burn with this rocking organ trio. Novello is a master at the Hammond B3 / Leslie speaker combination and is currently touring with his group B3 Soul. John has played and recorded with Chick Corea, Andy Summers, Gloria Rush, and Mark Isham to name a few.
Bill Pitts - Guitar, Keyboards, Various noises Bill is best known for his work with the 80's rock band Sabre and top 40 band Nykko. In other words unknown. His demo works can be found on this website and numerous places on the web.
Bill: Having played music all of my life I have produced and arranged this project band called Dr. Mumbai and assembled this amazing cast of musicians to work on this recording project. A big thanks to all of you! I can't wait to hear what happens.
Tim Pitts - Guitar Tim has a musical mind of his own. Recording in his personal studio, Nooginbar Recordings, his projects include Sticks-n-Moles, Turnow and his current Progressive Rock project Stillwaters. Tim: I thought taking my old band to a new progressive level was interesting! Playing with the likes of these giants is truly humbling. This will most certainly be a historical musical event!!
Paul Hyde - Saxophone
Additional guest players will be announced soon so stay tuned...
9-3-09 - Hi everyone! Gotta get to work right now, no time to talk but something is brewing in Blairntville for sure so check back to find out...
Click here to Go to Studio Logs from years past
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I took the
evening friday night to help out at the Steel Magnolia / Jessica Corban concert. I was happy to just lend a hand and some
microphones and not mix the monitors as was planned... whew!
That was close. Mixing monitors can be a very demanding job and
I was happy when Jim stepped up to the plate to do the mix. So
when I wasn't standing around with my hands in my pockets I was
placing mics, setting up,
moving amps, and just being a basic helping hand besides I don't
get out enough anyways. Overall the
sound in this old theatre is fantastic only rivaled by the 7th
street theatre in Hoquiam which happens to
have some of the best
acoustics on the west coast. Both FOH and monitors are mixed
with Crest Audio desks which do a pretty good job in this old
theatre. Plenty of inputs and aux sends to do the job. The
theatre projects sound so well that we ended up pulling all of
the drum mics off except for the overheads and kick drum. Sound
checks went well after a little ground loop troubleshooting and
both acts sounded great. Next up is the Robert Cray band which
should be a lot of fun. Also stay tuned to this website about
upcoming Dr. Mumbai concerts. So that is the latest update. Now
its time to get back to the Dr. Mumbai recording project. So
many tracks to do and I'm only one guy... jeez this is time
consuming... but fun! Here's some more photos of the concert.
for so many years just would not run reliably on the new
hardware so I was also forced into a software upgrade too. Which
by the way I am still in the process of learning. Much time was
taken up doing these things which really isn’t as fun as doing
music. So after that not so fun interruption I was able to start
tracking some parts. So when I say something that sound funny
I’m likely referring to a song title such as “trout bum” OK, so
it has been a flurry of overdubs since the rebirth of
Blairntcentral Music. Arthur Barrow ex Zappa bass man has
finished up bass parts for My Brain, Boot Device Not Found, and
Double Plus Good. Arthur also plays Hammond organ on Trout Bum
and has finished tracking in his Lotek studio which despite the
name has recorded many notables such as Martha Davis of The
Motels, Robby Krieger of The Doors, Vinnie Colaiuta, Bruce,
Walt, Tom, and Steve Fowler, Albert Wing, Kurt McGettrick, Chad
Wackerman, Tommy Mars, Ike Willis, Ed Mann, ok, ok you get the
picture it’s a cool place to record. Dave Meros from the great
progressive band Spocks Beard has finished recording bass tracks
for Alternate
Agenda
and Poker for Plastic Turtles. I’ve also been working with Billy
Hulting finishing up marimba overdubs for My Brain, March of the
Neocons, and Alternate Agenda. Also on My Brain Alan Morse of
Spocks Beard makes a mysterious appearance on lead guitar. My
Brain also features the indescribable trombone wonders of the
one and only Eric Jorgensen. Billy Hulting also filled the
engineers seat and helped track a bunch of overdubs by Scheila
Gonzalez an saxophone and flute as well as some electric
fretless bass played by Pete Griffin. The internet can work
great for remote producing indeed! I should take this moment to
also give a big congratulations to Pete, Scheila, and Billy for
winning a Grammy award this year for “best rock instrumental
performance” for Zappa’s Peaches en Regalia you should check out
the video because unfortunately they don’t show the good stuff
on TV. It’s truly a lot of fun to
work with such wonderful musicians on this record. Bryan Beller
will also be doing some bass tracks in December so more on that
to come. So folks that
is it in a nutshell, I’ll not bore you with all of the details
because many, many details lurk within the making of this
record. On top of all of that I have managed to hold down a full
time computer business, record guitar parts, record keyboard
parts, edit a whole bunch of stuff and generally maintain the
ship here at Blairnt Central Music. Oh, I forgot to mention the
3 storms and power outage but I’ll save that one for later. So
until the next update take good care of yourselves out there in
music land.