Confessor and Loincloth Updates, Plus More Decompositions Studios Images for Enhanced Eyeball Pleasure

Confessor have been working on our first really mathy song for the new album in the last couple of weeks.  It's great to see everyone excited about how the track is coming along, and I have had an avalanche of ideas and patterns to play with.  The original riff is one that Brian wrote a long time ago that I have played with from time to time, keeping it in mind as a 'must do' riff whenever the right time came.  This has been one of those occasions when each minor tweak leads to another vicious dynamic worthy of exploration, and I came up with a brother riff with equally endless opportunities to create very different beats and rhythms without having to change the actual riff.  Restraint will be essential so we don't turn this into a lifeless, robotic exercise, but if there is one thing that has sunk in from writing with Confessor's evil twin, Loincloth, it is the ability to cut things out for the sake of brevity.  Confessor will always have more room for things to expand, but to stay mean you have to avoid being too longwinded.  We want this song to beat you up, and judging from everyone's reactions and excitement in the practice room we are on the right track with this one.  It's a damned good feeling!

On the Loincloth front, Tannon came down from Richmond last weekend so that we could get the ball rolling with a few different ideas.  There is a certain kinship that Tannon and I share when we write music together that is always inspiring in a sort of jubilant way neither of us has experienced before.  Don't get me wrong!  Being excited about a new idea with other people is always the thing that makes playing worthwhile, no matter who it is.  Something about the frequency with which Tannon and I find ourselves saying "Oh yeah...  This one is going to be a beast!" makes it different.  A lot of it has to do with the fact that he and I usually see the same kind of potential in riffs almost right away, and  the speed with which we understand each other makes it really easy to rip through little tweaks.  We came out of the pressure cooker experience of finishing 'Iron Balls' more attuned to one another's way of thinking, and now we have no problem getting right back to ideas when months have passed since playing together.  In short, it's a blast being in Loincloth and Confessor right now and my hope of being able to feed off of each other's energy seems to be kicking up a little.  Both bands are totally psyched about new music, and that is a wonderful, wonderful thing indeed.

Since I can't really post what either band are working on at the moment I thought I'd at least change the scenery at The Poundry for you guys.  So here are a few more examples of what I have done at  Decompositions Studios for you to peruse.  Shameless... yes, I know.  If it makes you feel any better, I have helped redefine the term 'non-profit'.  Many 'non-profit' companies somehow pay the people at the top very handsome salaries.  Not so at Decompositions Studios.  We keep it real.  Very, very real.  Eventually I'll apply for "Massive Piles of Profit" status, but that will have to wait while both bands are deep in the process of writing music that will change the world forever.  Once everyone of you falls under the spell of super heavy, twisty riffage I will begin my campaign for Total Planetary Dominance.  That's where these images come in, complete with subliminal messages and kill words translated into thirty seven languages.  We go the extra mile, always thinking about what's best for you so you don't have to think for yourselves at all.  Kneel, and thank me.

A Crack in the Ether

I like the feeling that some layer that keeps things out, or perhaps one that keeps us in, has been breached.  There are several lines that look like brushstrokes which make it difficult to see this as a real, physical thing that can be photographed.  I love photos that look like paintings.

Truth

In my review of Decapitated's album 'Carnival Is Forever' I wrote about a dream I once had in which a giant white tornado was a permanent point in the universe which eventually sucked all life and all matter into it.  That was the ultimate fate of all things, whether animate or inanimate, living or dead.  This image reminds me of that apocalyptic dream.

On the Second Day...

This photo made me want to pursue abstractions in daily life more than any other I have taken.  It makes me think of an ocean forming, hence the reference to Creation.  I snapped several pictures of this thing that afternoon.  I've found a few of these since, but none have had the kind of naturally occurring patterns this particular guy provided. 

Truth II

This horror movie looking shot seemed to be an appropriate match to go with the photo that felt like my dream about the white tornado.  I guess I could have named one 'Death' and the other 'Taxes' but I'll stick with the wide range of personal interpretations a name like 'Truth' makes possible.  This is another example of a photograph that looks like a painting.  If I could actually paint I might have created this a long time ago.

Awash

You know, I would like to say that this photo has a soothing effect on me, but that little oval that looks like an eye just under the dark, horizontal line where the lighter color passes over it freaks me out.  I can't help but feel that something on the other side of this surface already knows everything about me.

A Dying Sun Sets

I have several photos that feel like post apocalyptic landscapes.  It's something that often comes to mind when I get so close to an everyday object that you can't tell what that object is anymore.  Sometimes I happen upon something that looks like it may have come from another solar system altogether. This is an old favorite of mine because of the colors and the heavy concept of a dying sun in its final stage.  It's so sci-fi!  Every day this cold, black sun sinks a little lower until your planet is plunged into frigid darkness. Cheers!

So that's it for now.  Monica and I are going to leave in a little bit to have lunch at our favorite Mexican place ( mmm... juevos rancheros, con juevos revueltos!  Que rico! ) then later this afternoon Ripp's foster mother is going to swing by for a few minutes.  It's hard to believe but we adopted Ripp a year ago!  We just celebrated our first Rippiversary!  Yay!  He's become quite the sweetheart, and though he's as tall as I am when he stretches out I can pick him up and lay him on my chest.  He'll stay there as long as I keep petting him, which I do for as long as I can breath.  He's about twice as heavy as his sister, and you never know whether he'll bonk you in the nose when he gets up or if he might step on something 'delicate'.  What you do know going into it is that there is a good chance something is going to hurt once he gets up, but it's worth it 'cause he's so damned cute!  After Ripp's foster mom leaves it'll be an afternoon of reviewing Confessor and Loincloth riffs and drum mapping while we wait for The Walking Dead to return to the airwaves for the second half of this season.  Or should I say "The Walking Dead and the Restless"?  Sometimes it can be surprisingly violent, but other times it's just another soap opera.  It's kinda like politics in the sense The Walking Dead is the only 'candidate' that even brings the faintest hope of vivid zombie violence to network television, so I guess I have no choice but to vote for it even though I know I'm going to feel used and lied to the first time the show has a chance to actually do something right because in the end, it'll cave to the pressure to compromise for the sake of 'getting along'. But I swear to you, I will never vote for more 'Reality TV'!  Who really wants to watch boring, awful people scream at each other every night?  Oh right, millions of people design their evenings around that very thing.  Yikes!