I have succumbed to Facebook.

Well, I finally broke down and joined Facebook. The odd thing is, unlike most of the "tools" on MySpace (search for friends, search by location, events, etc...) the tools and networking interfaces on Facebook actually work! What a concept.

I'm not sure how much I'll actually log on and "interface" (you can get lost in that black hole), but I've at least got the info up there for when people come looking for the music (Dan Beahm and The Invisible Three, DB3, Cats or Cars).

The iLike thing seems to be the music app of choice, but I think it's pretty lame that your Facebook page for your band and your iLike page are not the same (or even linked for that matter). Makes things confusing for all parties involved.

For instances, the above links go to the Facebook pages for each artist, but below are iLike Facebook links to the iLink pages for the same artists (confusing, no?).

Cats or Cars


DB3


Dan Beahm and The Invisible Three

The other frustrating thing with Facebook and MySpace (and this is a Gmail thing): any notifications that come in from either service go straight to spam. And it's infuriating that you can't set up a Gmail filter to place mail in the inbox (only archive, star or trash). WTF?! Who cares if a label or a fucking star was placed on a piece of mail that's in my spam box?! Why can't I whitelist text or a subject or a domain? And I know this is a feature that people constantly write to Gmail about ('cause I do it about three times a week).

The Stones are haunting me.

So last night we were driving home after the gig in Colorado Springs, and to keep from falling asleep we turned on the radio. First song up was The Rolling Stones, and I just wasn't in the mood. "Change it."

It's a one and a half hour drive from Colorado Springs to home. With last night's snow it was closer to two. Here's the bizarre part:

Now I know that it's been said that I am prone to hyperbole. Yes, Dan sometimes exaggerates, but I have witnesses on this one. For almost two hours, every time we changed the radio station --every time-- the first or second song was either a Rolling Stones song, or made reference to one. And the vast majority of the time it was an actual song (only twice was it a reference).

This was very strange. I fear I am being haunted by Keith Richard's pre-ghost.

drawing by Sebastian Kruger

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Rockin' out at the coffee shop.

You gotta love second billing to the craft show.

Sweeeeeeet...

Comin' atcha live on the Internets!

Check it. I'm playing a show with my buddy Jeff Caylor this Friday, December 7, at a place called Nemo's in Colorado Springs. We'll be doing mostly stuff from his new album, Okay (I'm playing guitar, singing, jumping up and down, etc...), but I plan on interjecting a few tunes of my own into the mix (worry not --he's ok'd this).

Anyway... Jeff has set up a web stream for the event, so those of you 1500 miles away (or more) can watch the show live, streaming on the web.



You can come back here and watch the show on the screen above, you can go to Jeff's blog, or you can go to the site that is providing the service. Either way, 7pm MOUNTAIN TIME is going to get you a live show worth tuning in for.

Hope to see you there.

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Mazzy Star/Eric Clapton Cover Added to YouTube

Please visit YouTube to check out the new acoustic cover of the week from Dan Beahm and The Invisible Three. For those of you who used to frequent the Round Bar, you should recognize this little ditty combo.

Recording cello for the new album

what's playing - Tito Puente, "Mambo Tipico"

Well, it seems odd considering all that is going on these days, but we started moving forward on the new DBi3 album. Erika pointed out that once she and I get to Boulder, it'll be a bit of a trek for the current band to get into my studio, so for the past two days, I've been tracking Talia on "In the Meantime" and "By the By." As you can see, the "studio" is a bit makeshift, but the sound is surprisingly good for the surroundings.

Guitar, vocals and percussion for "In the Meantime" were already tracked for the most part; I just had to add the new "she loves to be his wife..." all-stop and slow section. The recording of "By the By" I had previously recorded was too slow (at 151 bpm), "undanceable," as Talia pointed out, so I re-tracked the vocals, guitar, tambourine, shaker and drums at a much more upbeat 161 bpm. Now y'all can shake your groove thangs when you hear it.

For Talia's cello, I'm using an AKG 414 aimed directly at the body just above the bridge and run directly into the MOTU 828; I'm also using an AKG C411PP run hotter than the 414 and then run through my Aphex 207 with the "MicLim" function engaged. That C411PP is a great pickup... but make sure you get the "PP" (normal sized XLR) not the "L" (mini XLR) if you're in the market for a condenser for your stringed instrument; I've heard horror stories about the tone of the "L."

Who knows how this "lighting a fire under my ass" will affect the release date of the next album? I've got about 9 songs intended for this project written and with rough tracking, but considering the fact that I'm about to pack up the studio and move it 1,200 miles West, I have a hard time believing that I'll be able to finishing anything up soon. Maybe I can get a couple songs cranked out to final format before the big tear-down though.
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Harder Better Faster Stronger

what's playing: Daft Punk, "Harder Better Faster Stronger"

Sometime, you gotta just sit back and say: "Damn... Daft Punk RULES!"

ps Panda Bear doesn't rule. What's up with ripping off all the bad parts of The Beach Boys? I mean, I love Pet Sounds as much as the next guy, but in what way is it cool to rip off a band so blatantly? Boo to Panda Bear.

My arms hurt from coding/designing. Thank the MCP for my Zero Tension mouse. While it has it's problems, it's all but eliminated my ulnar nerve strain. My neck still hurts though (turns out this Microsoft keyboard is so damn wide, you have to strain your shoulder/neck to use a mouse --let's start a revolution and get that number pad moved to the left side!).