it's going to be nice this weekend, which you'd think might get me out. but, rather, i need to stay home and make sure the windows stay open. the fellow above me carries roughly thrice the weight of the average individual and will turn the basement into a meat locker should he be allowed to, in order that the temperature upstairs stay below 20. that's what happens when you're grossly obese.

it's summer. you want the temperature above 20. so, fuck that guy. maybe he should move to baffin island. or hit a treadmill. i learned last year that i need to get out in front of this if i don't want to be shivering in june - i've had the heat cranked the last two days, and will have the windows wide open so long as it's over 20 (and cranked over night, when it's below 20). that may actually take the temperature in here down a degree or two until the humidity picks up, but the key is to break the seal on the air conditioner upstairs. he's either going to freeze me out or i'm going to fry him out. i need the space in the short term, but i might not in the long term. i can handle everything else about this place in exchange for cheap rent, but i hate the idea of being cold all summer.

i mean, he can't win. not unless we skip summer this year. 35 degree humidity pouring in from the basement 12 hours a day will break his air. too bad. so sad....

what i'm missing is the "blowout" in detroit, but i'd argue i'm not missing much. this magazine is focusing on an aspect of detroit that is too mainstream for my tastes. as for touring bands, i'll check out perfect pussy at some point - although i'm more excited about white lung next month. tonight, they're playing in a mall. it's going to feel awkward and sound terrible. i'll hold out for a small bar with a lower ceiling. if it were a different band, i might feel different about the venue, but this is a bad combo. tomorrow is fucked up, but i've seen them enough to know they do short sets, which is going to end the show at 11:40 and get me stuck in ferndale until 7:00 again. not excited about that for a $20 entry fee. i'll wait until they play somewhere i can walk back to the tunnel with...and they will....

the likely next show is may 6th, but i'm iffy about it. it seems like an early show. we'll see where my head is.

the only feasible way for this guy to exist in the temperature he wants is to not live above anybody. nobody is going to want to live in a 15 degree basement over the summer so the obese guy in the upstairs apartment doesn't break a sweat. he could/should have moved into the empty unit on the other side over the winter - there's nobody under him, there. i hinted at it, but he didn't listen. *shrug*.

vocal tracks. i do them so seldom nowadays, and it's largely because i've never really been able to get my head around the voice as an instrument.

when i was a kid, i use to scream into the mic a little - there was no subtlety to it. you've heard this over and over again. it's punk rock. then, i started just reciting lyrics, almost deadpan. the screaming ended up striking me as contrived, but i still wanted a vocal component....so it was about all i could do. it was never really integral, or what the music was ever actually about. it was just convention. eventually, i gained the abstraction of thought to move beyond it...

since then, vocals have been pretty sparse - and essentially never melodic. i might have a poem, or a political statement. if i hum during recitation, it's either for emphasis or even by accident.

what my brain wants me to do is play the notes on a guitar, convert them to midi and then just run it through a sampler/sequencer combo. perfect pitch reconstruction. but, my gut is rejecting that and forcing me to do it live. if i do the sampler, it will be as a remix, and only after i get the live vocals down.

anyone can sing a tune, right? if given infinite takes. well, you'd get hamlet out of a monkey with infinite takes, too. the way this is going to work is that i'm going to struggle with it for two or three days, then it will "click". randomly. wait for it...

in the meantime, the ep is legitimately almost done. i'm just skittering out some la's and running them through a barrage of effects and then playing with it until it's "right". feel free to enjoy what's already uploaded.

to be clear: it's written. i have a clear plan. if this was a guitar part, it would be very quick. it's just not easy for me to produce the sounds i want out of my voice.