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by George Ziemann New Month, New Band, New StartMay 2, 2010 -- It was a bad omen when all of our gear tried to commit suicide at the last gig, plus a cosmic debris personality clash. We probably could have gotten past all that, but a week later, Peter Schiff stole our guitarist and Carl won't be coming back. And I don't think Schiff even has a damn band. (More...) Fun and Fumbling in the SunApril 21, 2010 -- Last weekend's performance had a high degree of difficulty and a couple of disasters, but we got through it. Plus, progress on the Category Two album, the upcoming Cara LaFemme CD, and a look at the suddenly uncertain future of the band. (More...) Hurricane Alley Preps For Category TwoFebruary 18, 2010 -- Since last August, Hurricane Alley has taken their first album, Category One, pulled most of the album contents into our playlist, and gave them a test-run with live audiences, which responded favorably to them all. Now it's time to make another one. (More...) Things I Forgot to Put HereFebruary 16, 2010 -- There have been a few stories added concerning the band since my last update of this page in July, although I forgot to add links on this page. Maybe that's because the next mention is in November, when we played at Famous Sams and the Branding Iron North (both in Tucson) on the same weekend. There were a couple more gigs in early December (Branding Iron North and The Bashful Bandit), back to The Bashful Bandit for New Years Eve, and then a return the Branding Iron North again, now under new ownership. The new guys immediately made the stage bigger to bring in Gilby Clark, which doubled my personal stage space when we play there. While I missed writing about some of these, there are photos which are the beginning of the Category Two photo set. Okay, I think that brings me up to date. At least to the beginning of the next chapter in the story, which I was starting to write when I noticed how sad our "Home" page for the band was. Carl thinks we need Flash graphics. I'm not so sure. Category One Now Available
I put a few hundred hours into this recording. I think it came out very well and we're all feeling pretty good about it as a finished work. Please, give it a listen. Physical copies are supposed to be available from Amazon On Demand, but I don't think it actually launched yet. They've got "Video On Demand," but not music. In order to whet your appetite... Free samples from the album, along with more information about the Category One album, including options for physical copies. Starting OverJuly 1, 2009 -- When we did Hayden's Wall in 2002, the RIAA ended up inspiring us to more or less give it away for free on the Internet. Now that the entire music industry is irrelevant, a better plan is in order. (More) A Few Free SamplesWe're giving you a limited opportunity to grab 6 tunes off of Hurricane Alley's Category One (128k mp3s), most of which will be vapor once the record hits retail. But it's certainly enough to give you a feel for the album. Elusive Jackalope DisappearsJune 29, 2009 -- It's kind of a bummer when you drive 150 miles or so to play a gig, only to find out the club has been abandoned. This past weekend, that bummer was named The Jackalope, a club in Nogales, Arizona. (More) Hurricane Alley's Category One Released to RetailJune 23, 2009 -- It seems like it took forever, but our new album is finally done and delivered to retail. Now, it's time to consider all of those things I've been dreading -- like selling it. And giving it away. (More) Follow-up -- June 30, 2009 -- Makin' Copies. A Memorable Birthday BashJune 1, 2009 -- A report from my third show with Hurricane Alley, this time from a private party in Rio Rico, Arizona, almost at the Mexican border. (More) Step By Step...May 17, 2009 -- Last night I did another gig with Hurricane Alley and things got a little weird. While this was not a good thing at the time, it should be entertaining for readers. (More) Rocking Out With Vietnam VetsMay 5, 2009 -- Two days ago, we played for a crowd of Tucson-area Vietnam Vets and had such an great time that I just have to write about it. (More) April 25, 2009 Ran down to Amado for another recording session with Carl, Tim, Manny, and Cara last weekend. Carl and I listened closely to the songs on his stereo system, which colors the sound slightly different than mine, which are actually stage speakers anyway. I usually rely on my headphones first. But we noted discrepancies and little things about almost every song. For one thing, Carl has really started getting "bigger" ears lately, or at least is getting better at communicating. The next day, we recorded two new songs, then started on the items on the list, recording an extra harmony, secondary bass track, or a new part to change the dynamics of a song, give it a better groove to work in, or maybe just that "one little thing" that it was missing. The next task was to rebuild a couple of Cara's songs, add another verse to a couple of them. Her songs have a habit of only coming out to 2 minutes or so, which is plenty of time to deliver the message, but we like a song to last a little longer than that. I think we've got enough for now because I'm officially overwhelmed. I really don't want to start any new individual recordings until we release something (or two somethings) from the sessions we've already done. While all of it is for the best, I don't want to fall into the trap of "improving" them to death. Our recording standards have improved enough that some of the tracks from our November sessions are already in danger of being deemed unworthy for quality reasons. Another Name Change When we last visited, we realized that The Hurricane was already taken as a band name, the band having apparently never having given that a moment of thought before they bought a banner with the name on it. I suggested Hurricane Force, which let me use the weather symbol of a hurricane in a logo. They all liked that a lot. Instant approval. Then one of Carl's clients said he thought the band name sounded like a heavy metal band, for reasons he wasn't quite sure of. So now it's Hurricane Alley, which is still a good name, but I haven't come up with artwork for it yet. Personnel Change A lead here, a rhythm track there, and before you know it, that quiet guy who has been hanging around has finally managed to insidiously work his way into the band. So I'll be playing with them on May 16th at the Branding Iron North in Tucson. Be there or be... somewhere else. Category One Nearly FinishedMarch 28, 2009 -- I've been working on this recording for more than the last month, and a few more weeks before that (we started in November) and it's finally coming together. The band is still listening to these tracks, but the entire album is now available for preview as 128k mp3s. (On the Music page) March, 26, 2009 -- Didn't realize it had been so long since I updated this page. So much has changed, like the name of the band, for one thing. Hurricane was already taken, as were The Hurricanes and Hurricanez. We ended up with Hurricane Force. My goal for today is to correct all the references. Went back to Carl's and the Shred Shed again in February and we recorded 6 more songs for the upcoming album, bringing the total number of tunes to 12 or 13. We're about ready to give away free versions as well as a bunch of photos that I haven't had time to deal with. I'll get to that right after I design a new Hurricane Force logo. December 31, 2008 -- Started a bio of Carl. Not a lot of information yet, but there are photos. November 27, 2008 -- The recording is done, but only 7 songs. A pretty thorough recounting of the recording process is available. The new songs are on the music page. October 23, 2008 -- New version of "Hold On" now available. Stream..Download..4.2 MB (192k) October 14, 2008 -- Finished the remake of "Hold On." Just need to listen to it another 50 times or so and then decide what to do with it. October 7, 2008 -- For a couple of months now, Carl has been sending me pictures from his cell phone of the interior of his house, which has been going through some sort of destruction/redesign process. I just figured out a couple of days ago that he is building a studio, which has been the source of the delay. He's saying we should be ready to go next month. In the meantime, I'm finally getting back to re-working "Hold On," a mere 2 and a half months after I decided it was a thing worth doing. August 30, 2008 -- Carl swears that they've got an album to record and that it was not an idle rumor. Apparently, Tim has been off in Montana and Washington for a few months, so when he get's back, they'll have to rehearse again before they're ready. July 5, 2008 -- Fortunately, I remembered to make a back-up of my back-up. The only things truly "lost" were the master tracks of the cover songs from January. June 24, 2008 -- While going back to correct the drum problem in "Hold On," I discovered that my wife accidentally erased all 70-plus master sessions from our back-up hard drive. All of the work from this project is gone, as well as the masters for Hayden's Wall, Lazy Tiger, TrainWreck and my solo work. The only thing to survive was "Strawberry Fields," which had not yet been moved to the back-up drive. June 14, 2008 -- DMusic was asking for Beatles' songs, so I decided to do some more work on Strawberry Fields Forever which was stuck on the last verse for about 2 months because there was no way to even approach what George Martin did there. Ultimately, I decided to forget my preconceptions and wing it, using whatever instrumentation felt good. It seems to have worked out okay. January 24, 2008 -- Down to the last few songs from the Jan 4 & 5 recordings and I'm running out of steam, which is going to slow me down a little, but since less than three weeks has passed since the songs were played, I think we're making good time. January 9 -- Last week, I said indies should record some cover songs. Then I went to Tucson and spent the next two nights doing exactly that with The Hurricane. A few more days getting the ADAT tracks into ProTools, and the first finished tune has appeared, with another 20 or so in the pipeline. Here's the handy listening guide for the tracks as they appear, as well as some amusing stories from the weekend. October 19, 2007 -- Upgraded Masquerade again. After listening to the mp3, I could hear Carl's voice being limited, which took away the edge. Fixed that, repositioned cymbals, faded in the keyboards and made a few other small adjustments. There's a moment of weird at 1:23, but other than that, this one came out pretty well, I thought. October 17 -- Upgraded Masquerade (Stream.....Download), which was written by Ron Kimble of, uh, somewhere around Seattle, I think. Or at least that's where he was when he wrote this tune. October 15 -- Finally got the drum track done for Eve of Destruction. Which is nice because today is Barry McGuire's 70th birthday. October 11 -- Added a bass track to Strawberry Fields. Yes, it does have two bad notes. They're both A. I'll fix that later, probably when the bass line turns into trombones and low strings. Did some work on Eve of Destruction, but it still needs a drum track before I post it. October 6 -- Sat and listened back to the whole collection play in iTunes, which makes me realize that the compression over-emphasizes the vocal effects, which were supposed to be more subtle. I need to go back through and correct this. October 5 -- We had three takes of the song "Out of Love". I made Carl and Cara decide which one I should work on. I think Tim wrote this one, but Cara made it her own, and she's got this cute little Minnie Ripperton-ish thing going on. Tim and Carl both play guitar on this track. The orchestration just wrote itself, one piece at a time. (Stream.....Download) October 4 -- Got a CD in the mail from Tim, with a note saying to replace "Take Me Down" on the site with Track 22 on the CD. So I did. It's our first Category 1. (Stream.....Download). Now I've gotta go listen to the other 21 tracks... October 3 -- Added "The Bloodletting", which is a cover of a Concrete Blonde song that I've never actually heard anyone (including Concrete Blonde) do except Carl. I really like this song and I don't know why, other than it's really fun to play. This was a one-take vocal and acoustic guitar track and Carl was kind enough to leave a space for a keyboard lead. But I really needed that full band sound to do the kind of lead I wanted. The Origin of The Hurricane ProjectOn September 16 and 17, 2007, I (GZ) went to see Carl and Cara Hayden and record some songwriting demos for them, along with another member of The Hurricane, Tim Austin Jones. The purpose of this session was to get 30 songs down so "the guy" could take them to "the place" and get the added to "the library" that people go to when they need one more song to fill the album and just haven't found the right one yet. Over the two-day span, we recorded 43 separate guitar and vocal takes, sometimes re-doing the same song with a different vocalist. I took those tracks back home and listened to them repeatedly, getting rid of noise, touching up vocal tracks, adding effects and automation. The result, after dropping out the cover songs and pulling in a few Lazy Tiger tracks, was 2 CD set of songwriting demos, for the express purpose of licensing. Took 7 full days, but I said I could do it in a week and deadlines are very motivational, especially when I am being paid. So we had a mission and accomplished it in the alloted time. Cara and Carl still have another 20 or so songs waiting for the next time I travel to see them, and I'm sure Tim has more, too. Then we'll start recording the band, which does not include myself and Cara does do a few songs with them, but still gets "guest singer" billing because she doesn't stay on stage all night. Looking at the number of songs, it was obvious that getting band recordings of all these tunes would probably take significantly longer than another two-day session. After listening to all these songs for a week, I sort of grew attached to them all. Then I listened to them all again to make mp3 files, backed up all the sessions and got them added to the site. You have to understand that I've been waiting years to get exactly these sort of recordings out of Carl and Cara, but it never really happened before and the bulk of what we recorded I had never even heard before. Sept. 28 -- Carl had done "Strawberry Fields Forever" and you've gotta have that intro. So I learned the part and updated the recording. I'll come back to this one because it seems there may be another track or two it could use. Sept. 29 -- Built on to "Hold On", during which I learned how difficult it is to put in drums after the fact, especially when one is not that great of a drummer to begin with. But it smoothed out right after Cara sings a line with "...the timing wasn't right." Sept. 30 -- Moved on to "See the Fire" because it was kind of haunting me. There are two versions, one with Carl doing vocals, the other with Cara singing. Took Cara's version first and added bass and strings. Which brings me to today, October 1, 2007. That's how all of this came together. |
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July
16, 2009 -- We had a promise
date of August 2, but I looked around today and found it for
sale at both 