Empty Z blogs

The Uncalled 4

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 13:01:45 -0500

The Uncalled 4 has a MySpace page that George put up. There were other great bands from Martinez in the 80s (Pariah, Audible Glamor), but this was the one we all love the most, I think. It was especially cool since Jakob was the drummer.

Check out the pictures of the Concord Veterans Hall shows. Halloween 1987 was an awesome show with spilled beer all over the floor making the pit a slip-and-slide. There was a moment when the keg ran out and suddenly there was a call for everyone to throw in money for another one. No cover charge, just everyone pitching in to make sure the keg kept flowing all night long.

Another great Uncalled 4 show was at the Stone in the City. That place was legendary for all the famous acts that played there. I remember driving over there in my dad's pickup, rain coming down and about 30 minutes to get there before the show started. Ty Barrick was riding shotgun and we made it. We were driving so fast on the bridge, it was crazy.

Check out the page to listen to a few of the songs. Unfortunately my favorite, The Spider, is not up there.

Summer (The Music Video)

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 02:30:51 -0400

Summer was the first song that Joey and I wrote together. Here is a music video using the track from our 1989 demo tape. I used Lionhead's The Movies to make the video part of it. Yes, it's very insane.

We're Sorry

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 02:13:38 -0400

We're Sorry is another beat-with-samples jam using the phrase you used to hear all the time over the phone: we're sorry, your call cannot be completed as dialed.

Kirk's Jam

Mon, 29 May 2006 20:31:44 -0400

This is a hip-hop styled song with a sample from a famous 1960's SciFi TV show. "Yo, I don't know what I can offer against paradise."

The Gibbon

Sat, 20 May 2006 17:48:08 -0400

The Gibbon was composed in Instant Music using only default instruments. If I recall correctly, I pulled it out of Instant Music so that I could run the pattern multiple times but with different instruments for each pass. Thus, the sitar solo in the middle.

There's something weirdly catchy about this song. And there are some lyrics to it that we made up spontaneously. The chorus was something like reefer madness takes control...

AMIGALUV

Sat, 20 May 2006 17:41:33 -0400

This song was written on my old Amiga 2000--Four channels of 8-bit audio. I had a sampler that plugged into the joystick port, so I was able to add vocals. These are short clips that appeared instruments. This was based on the standard used by Instant Music and Deluxe Music where an instrument contains samples of C and various octaves.

This song is the banner for a group of songs that I call AMIGALUV. This is separate from other Amiga-based music that I released as Route 666.

A Boy Named Tre

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 11:43:05 -0500

Here's a little song about a boy named Tre.

The Dirt of Martinez

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 10:01:38 -0500

The night before Thanksgiving is a holy night in Martinez. It inspires deep philisophical discussion. This short audio segment contains a discussion about whether the dirt of Martinez is what makes Martinez or if it's something less tangible. It was recorded on the Thanksgiving holy night of 2005.