Matthew C Good : Musician, Web Developer, Hobbyist.

I haven’t blogged in a while, even though I think I’ve been doing some cool stuff. So I am posting a life update.
First of all, I’ve had the overwhelming urge to build crap. I’m building a small whiny synth-thing, building an amp for it, and putting the whole assembly into one half of a coconut, strange as that may be. I’m also building a speaker-mic (a 6″ speaker, wired backwards to be used as a mic) for bass instruments and kick drums, as well as working on a fish-cam. I’m also continually considering building a vintage mic preamp in kit form, guitar pedals, and/or a tube guitar amp. Like I said, I’ve reaaaaaaaally been int he mood to build crap. I’ll post some before/during/after shots when stuff is done.
I just finished reading “Yesterday’s Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future.” It was sort of depressing. It’s talks about some of my favorite things: really great hopeful futuristic images of yesteryear. You can literally see the optimism for the future in some of these images or design concepts so strongly, that you can’t help but feel nostalgic for an era you perhaps were never a part of. But the book does a great job of explaining that all these hopeful fantasies without fail assumed that by some miracle of technology, human nature would change. They assumed that in the future, humans would be less greedy, that we would be content with “enough,” that we would be able to end the inequality and power struggles that cause social unrest even today. Of course, no amount of science or technology can change humanity’s underlying nature. It was more than a little depressing to see these really great naive and innocent ideas taken to the mat by these ugly and unfortunate truths.
I haven’t stopped making music, though I think the podcast is nearing an end. I’ve got several song demos that never mad it to the interwebs, but I am starting to shift my focus from writing to recording again. I’m still kinda holding out for one or two more particularly good songs (i.e. maybe a new good opener, and one to give the title track to), but I think more or less we’ll be working with what I’ve got.
I’ve started the long and boring process of taking the half-written acoustic demos that I did and finishing them and re-recording them to a click track to work from. This is boring stuff, but it eventually picks up. I’ve got some neat stuff going on in Fairy Tales now, for example.
I’m also doing this sort of open collaboration with friends on this record. I’ve uploaded submixes (like groups, one track of drums, one of guitars, one of vocals, etc) of some of the songs to my site, and some of my co-conspirators can download them, play on them, and then send me their work. I will then choose what, if anything, to include in the final song. It’s a great way of getting inspiration for a track if you’re tired of it. Chase has already done some work on Any Happier (unfortunately destined for the b-sides, I think), and I’m trying to work it out where John can play on some too. Kordik, you want to make some bleeps and bloops on some songs? Heck, you could totally remix some of these tunes to pieces and back. Anyone else who would be interested in playing with some of the tunes and potentially contributing is welcome – just contact me for details. Chase, if you’re reading this, record some crap for “Please” already. I’ve got plenty more once you get done with that.
One cool thing of note: This album will have b-sides. lots of them. cool, huh?
I bought a Ukelele in Hawaii, and I’m itching for a chance to use it on the album, haven’t found a place…. yet. But I will.
So that’s what’s going on. You won’t hear too much on the music front until an album of some kind is ready. I’m just gonna hunker down and keep working. Could be a while, though… Thanks for (perhaps) caring.