One on Orange: an audio blog

You were one inch from the edge of this bed

2009-12-04T09:44:00.001-08:00

To the Internets,

I apologize for my unexcused and unexpected absence. I have no doctor's note with which to present you. I do have a bunch of whiny excuses though! So in the past 5 months or so, I've gone to Japan. Explored Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, Chiba, Yokohama, Roppongi, and pretty much most of Tokyo. I've moved to LA and gotten a new day job. But most importantly, I've finally gotten an apartment to myself! Which means much more frequent Youtube updates for this blog! Maybe I can actually stick to my "once a week" schedule now...

So let's get to it! This week's video is "Sleepyhead" by Passion Pit. I've had Passion Pit's album, Manners, on heavy iPod rotation for the past month, and I just can't get this song otu of my head. And when that happens...this happens:

If you haven't heard the original version of this song, you should check it out:

Also! I got a Google Voice account! AND I've decided to Mike Jones it up and put the number up on the internet! (If only just to share my awesome acronym-happy number.)

My phone number is:
(213) LE-SNAKE
or
(213) 537-6253
For those of you too lazy to de-acronymize the number.

Anyway. Love peace and chicken grease. See you next time.

So Sentimental, Not Sentimental No

2009-07-12T05:50:00.001-07:00

BEHOLD! The first video blog with vocals!

In case you are not aware of the band, Phoenix - this song is off their latest album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. If you don't have it, go get it. It's great, it'll change your life...well, probably not.

Anyway, it's late, and I'm not feeling very verbose, so here's a link to the original.

EDIT (07/20/2009):
Due to popular demand, I am going to post the tab for this song. Note that this tab is written in my own personal short-hand (though I've formatted it a bit for a little more ease of comprehension) - you will most likely need to reference the Phoenix acoustic performance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seU5S5DLDpU) to see/hear the rhythms and performance nuances for yourself. Besides, the best way to learn is by ear anyway - and that's also the way I learned it.

Click here to view plain-text "Lisztomania" tab

It'll be an Adventure!

2009-07-01T01:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, sorry, I missed last week's post - I had shit goin down yo. It happens. But I reward you with a VIDEO! Yes that's right, official VLOG post #2. AND! It's relevant to the last VLOG post!

Yet another late night writing jam recording - this time we revisit the song from last time, but...in a different way. Enjoy, hopefully the next time you and my Youtube account meet, there'll be some singing o'er top this piece.

And now a word from Queen. Watch it, live it, love it.

(And check out them ugly teefs. <3)

Oops, I did it again

2009-06-12T04:21:00.000-07:00

Shit y'all, I'm sorry, I didn't get the second track done for this week. Got sidetracked by other songwriting inspirations and preoccupation around my little brother's high school graduation (man, he makes me feel old). But I don't want to leave this week totally empty-handed, I've been doing pretty good with the whole weekly-posting thing. So! I'm going to throw up a few snippets of things that are in the works (and I will hopefully have completed productions of in the coming weeks).

GBGL (Sketch Recording)

This first audio clip is just a recording sketch of ideas, not really formulated into any kind of song structure at all. Partially an experiment in recording a direct line-in electric guitar and post-processing for amp effects as well. I hope to do something with this one in the next few weeks, so cross your fingers :).

Beat Sketch (06/12/09)

This one is a potential foundation for a beat that I may or may not use for the autotune album. Still not sure if I like it or what it's potential is for making the alubm, but I do love me some Rhodes synth.

So this is what sluts feel like

2009-06-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

Introducing: The Autotune Album

Yes, that's right folks. You heard me right. Autotune album. Coming your way. Tell your friends.

For the next 4-5 weeks, I intend to produce 1 track per week of horrific autotune goodness. Why? Because it just seemed like big heaping piles of fun. And I want some more experience producing with synth instruments and drum tracks.

And so, I present to you the first track of the autotune album:
Drum Tracks and Heart Attacks
G-Nib - "Mercury (Rock You)"

Click here to download mp3

When I have finished producing all the tracks for the album, and satisfied this ridiculous urge. I will put up a link to download the entire album. In the meantime - if you like the tracks and, god forbid, want to download them, I will include the links per track. Just be aware that I may further edit songs before they make it to the final album.

Regarding the track posted above:
I did something bad. Real bad. Like music blasphemy bad. Like if music was Jesus, and Lil Wayne was the Romans, then I just became Judas. Like if music was Caesar, and T-Pain was a knife, then I just Brutus'd the hell out of it.

But I understand now why mainstream rappers make horrible renditions of classic songs. And perhaps why some engage in frequent, promiscuous, and unprotected sex. Because it's just damn fun.

P.S.
The profane yelling that you hear in the intro/outro of the song are from the infamous Christian Bale rant (if you haven't heard it, go youtube/google it, it's classic). The choruses are sampled from the original Queen recording. And all verses are myself "singing".

VLOG Attempt #1

2009-05-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

Alright kids! So I'm starting out slow, here's a video from last night of a typical writing session.

Eventually I'll work up to talking to the camera...or perhaps showing my face more. Baby steps.

On another list of firsts, I went to the UNLV gym today for the first time. Ran myself 1.5 miles in a time...that is probably really embarrassing - good thing I didn't time myself. Anyway, just a short post today. <3

Sometimes a little is all you need

2009-05-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

What happens when you record an after-work-hours cover band in a yoga room with bad acoustics? This!

This Love (Maroon 5 cover)

Clint Eastwood (Gorillaz cover)

Are You Gonna Be My Girl (Jet cover)

So the story behind this one folks. To keep myself sane during my corporate working days, I took it upon myself to put together a band of similarly frustrated/bored musicians. Just a little jam band of individuals getting together every now and then to get some play in. I stumbled upon these recordings of our rehearsal sessions, and decided to embarrass myself by posting them for you all. Be gentle with me, it was rehearsal.

FYI: Band Members Included -
Guitar/Vox - Myself
Keys - Chris Pasillas
Drums - Steve Jaccuad
Bass - Steve Cambouris

Ahh, home again. I have returned from my second west coast tour of social duty: starting in Las Vegas then going to Los Angeles up through to San Francisco and back the same way. This past week has been an intense mixture of spontaneously hectic travel and peaceful, clairvoyant moments. Sometimes a little quality time with a car, an iPod, and the road can be good for you. And on top of that, add some good old times with familiar faces doing the usual things in familiar places. It's like watching old episodes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or G.I. Joe - you know what's going to happen, but it never gets old.

Also, I've rediscovered the simple pleasures of meeting new people - or more specifically of serendipitous social circumstances that remind me that not everyone in this mixed up world is full of shit. People that don't suck, are awesome. Sometimes it's the little things in life that make living so damn fun.

P.S.
I promise to post again very soon to make up for my delayed and lack-luster post this week.

It's a new dawn, It's a new day

2009-05-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

Lookie what I found!! The autotune effect a la T-Pain/Lil Wayne/Kanye fame.

(Editorial Note: Autotune for serious music = stupid. Autotune for shits & giggles = stupid fun.)

Kids (MGMT Acoustic Autotune Cover)

Click here to download mp3

It's been almost half a year since my last post - apologies to the 5 people that used to read my blog. For a while there, there was too much work to do and not enough time in the day to fit in anything other than sleeping, eating, or working. Now I've got a little more time on my hands and so begins the revival of this blog. Time to Phoenix Down this ish.

So this week's post is the result of me discovering the joy and wonder of the 4-track recording mode on my portable field recorder (Samson Zoom H4). This was my first experiment using it to lay down a simple acoustic multi-track recording of MGMT's "Kids".

I <3 technology.

Here's the music video for the original MGMT - "Kids" recording.

And a video by former musical partner-in-crime, violin extraordinaire, Jason Yang.

P.S.
I swear someday I'll start video blogging. PC's aren't so great with the whole video-editing thing. But I'll get something worked out soon.

Jersey to Jerusalem

2009-01-23T04:25:00.000-08:00

Untitled (guitar break excerpt)

Next time we'll go to Brooklyn...

For lack of words

2008-08-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

Chris Hui: "Get Gone" (working title, a jam of 08/19/08)

So I've come to the conclusion that the portion of my brain that deals with prose and verbal expression is completely separate and at odds with the portion of my brain that processes sound and interprets audio stimuli. This is frustrating and has left me with a notebook half full of thoughts in written form - and fingers full of thoughts in guitar form.

The two portions of my brain have been battling it out for the past year and a half and seem to having about as much progress as getting North Korea to get along with its Southern sister or orange juice to get along with toothpaste. But still I try hard as the mediator between my mental factions to create harmony and good will. It's a hard battle, and one that I often feel I am losing - however in this post I present a message from the South Korean toothpaste nation of brain. It hopes that you enjoy it, as the message was hurriedly sketched while sneaking past the orange juice patrol. We hope for a peaceful reply from the North Juice nation soon...

Wow, hiatus much?

2008-08-07T15:57:00.001-07:00

Chris Hui: live cover of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

Ouch. My last post was 3 months ago?!? Holy crap, my bad guys. Either life got really busy or I got really lazy, but either way, I've had quite a hiatus from blogging. Though in all fairness, I did give forewarning in my very first blog that I would probably lose interest in blogging about halfway through.

Anyhow, I have a bit of a 'welcome back' treat for y'all. On a random 80's whim in the wee hours of the morning last night, the cover performance posted above was recorded in my bedroom.

The song was originally released by Eurythmics and is titled "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" in 1983.

And then there was that cover by Marilyn Manson...

P.S.
Everybody go and watch Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog RIGHT FUCKING NOW! Even if you've already seen it, go watch it again. Do it.

LINK TO DR. HORRIBLE! CLICK ME NOW, WATCH ME, ENJOY ME

P.P.S.
My birthday just passed by this month. I guess I should update my profile to being "23" years of age...

Kina Grannis "Digg Girl" - Live Radio Show/Interview

2008-05-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

Kina Grannis: Live on KSCR 'Fresh Sesh' Radio Performance w/ Interview Q&A

Kina Grannis, of "Digg Girl"/Youtube/Super Bowl renown, performed live on radio at KSCR (the University radio station at USC). I caught onto the show a little late, so I think I missed the first song and started recording at the beginning of the first "interview question," but here's the rest of the show in case anyone missed it and wants to hear.

I Just Had an Eargasm (A Post of Epic Proportions)

2008-04-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

First things first, listen to this:

Prince - "Creep (Radiohead Cover)"

Yes, that's Prince. Doing a cover. Of "Creep" by Radiohead.

I don't I ever saw this one coming. But I'm so glad it happened.

Also note: I had the youtube video posted at first, however all video evidence of this ever taking place has been stripped from youtube. Thus I am resorting to posting the audio stream instead.

Now, time to post some me-things:

"Grand Migration (Jam Session 03/30/07)"

I was digging through recordings to try to find a suitable blog post when I stumbled upon an old jam session I had with my old band-mate, Jason Yang - Violin Extraordinaire. This was originally based off a tune I had written for a friend's indie video game project, it was going to be the title theme of sorts, but that fell through. So this is what became of it instead. This jam was badly recorded between my acoustic-electric guitar feeding direct-in (which by the way is the WORST way to record a guitar) and one single condenser mic pointed 80% towards the violin sound hole and 20% at my guitar to try to capture some semblance of room acoustics. Also, Jason kicks ass, which will become readily obvious from listening to him. This was the first time we'd ever jammed this tune, and the violin is all improvised. Seriously, I don't think I've met a more talented violinist. Big ups to Yang-Bang.

And now a solo post:

"Strolling Home: A Tale of Octopi"

Two guitar tracks layered over one another, both me, as usual. The song is about an octopus mother and her 3 octopi babies. Make of that what you will.

When life gives you a lemon, Tune to Db and play that shit

2008-04-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

A year hence from the present day, I was jamming along in my room having a grand ol' time. My merry fingers were dancing along the joyful strings producing a merrily merry tune. But alas! The smallest of mine strings hath not the will to persevere in the face of such intensity and sought right to snap from beneath my hand. In shock and dismay I gazed upon my broken mistress. Unbound and in disarray - she knew not what to do. So I spoke unto her weary ears words of comfort and consolation. That all was well and though yet life may be dark at times, it is only so that the sun may shine again. Twas then that I loosened the and adjusted her strings such that all was even - although misshapen and unorthodox, her sound rang true a solid note such to drown the missing son. In chorus the strings they sang for her; loudly such that they could make up for their fallen comrade. They knew not the words nor the direction of their purpose, yet they only knew that now was the time for action. And the following is the conclusion of that fateful tale:

"D Flat Five Strings"

This is an impromptu jam session that followed after the high E string snapped on my guitar. In the process of loosening the rest of the strings to restring my guitar, I tuned the all strings to Db (except maybe the B string, I think I may have left that one alone) and hit "Record" - this is what came out.

9 Crimes - Damien Rice (Cover)

2008-04-07T23:30:00.001-07:00

First real vocal test video on my new video cam. Still getting used to the thing, hopefully the recordings will get better in the future.

I are a consumer whore

2008-04-05T15:44:00.000-07:00

I gave in and bought a video camera. Don't look at me like that. It was cheap.

How could you see love (Lyrics)

2008-03-24T13:04:00.000-07:00

(A rough practice recording)

1, 2, 3, 4
I don't think I can take this anymore
Look me straight - straight in the eyes
And i bet you can see the surprise
Cuz this all fucked up
This is all - this is all kinds of wrong
This is all fucked up
This is all - this is all gone wrong

[ CHORUS ]
How could you see love
in different shades of grey
How could you feel it
When you're too busy getting in the way
How could you see love
in different shades of grey
How could you feel it, how could you feel it now

Take my hand and we'll go out to play
is all I can do for today
If you don't mind, if you don't mind, if you don't mind
(oh, my love) if you don't mind, if you don't mind, we'll be fine

[ CHORUS ]

Yes, we can

2008-02-12T16:02:00.000-08:00

This is pretty much as close to politically aware as I get.

At the very least, it's a definite step up from the message American politics have been functioning under for the past 8 years.

Let's get Feisty

2008-02-10T12:40:00.000-08:00

So has everyone seen that iPod Nano commercial with the group of people dancing around in various primary-pastel colors and chick in all blue singing "1 2 3 4....blah blah blah"? (I'm going to pretend I don't know the lyrics, even though I can probably sing the entire song.) Normally I'm fairly cynical about consumer culture and have a fair amount of disdain for most things mainstream - especially aimed towards selling a product.

But the song was goddam catchy. So I looked up who the artist was in the video (it's Feist by the way) and proceeded to acquire her album, The Reminder. And wonder of wonders, I actually like it! I was completely prepared to be full of bitter-beer-face reactions to the 14 tracks on the album. However instead found myself bobbing my head and humming the melodies of choice tracks. That girl, Leslie Feist, can sing it up. Though not really your face-melting rock-belting type singer, she has the warm fuzzy-feeling thing going for her.

One of my favorite tracks on the album thus far is "Brandy Alexander" - the tune is incredibly sparse in instrumentation. Consisting of some snapping fingers and a deep kick drum with Leslie singing pretty much acapella over it for the first half minute. After that a majority of the track slowly layers instruments into the background until the end. The track has a subtle appeal. I'd like to think of it as the underdog of the album that you catch yourself humming when you walk down the street only to realize that you had no intention of humming the tune and don't even know the name of it so you have to go home and check all the tracks on your new Feist album because it's driving you crazy.

Aside from this is the upbeat/clappy/chorus singery "Sealion" that explodes into a surprising, but nicely placed American blues-crunch guitar solo. Also of course is the infamous "1234" track that alerted me to this album in the first place - still catchy as hell. "Intuition" with an emotive acoustic guitar/vocal duet. And finally I'll point out "So Sorry" that has a nice soft jazz percussion feel almost a la Norah Jones.

So it's Sunday morning and I have to head out in about 15 minutes, so I'm going to post up another oldie. This one goes back to my early college years. Enjoy.

Midnight ( Download - Midnight.mp3 )

Recorded this one in Freshmen year of college over spring break. It was actually my first experience ever with professional recording equipment (which is why the production quality sucks on this one). There are quite a few imperfections in the performance, that I admittedly would have liked to fix. But oh well, I no longer have the original project files and will have to re-record the entire tune if I want to fix it.

This track is purely a guitar-only instrumentation. It starts off as a solo guitar piece until about 1:30, where there begins a second layered guitar over the first guitar track. Both guitars are me. And after about 2:00, the lead guitar is an improvised section until the end of the tune.

A bit of background on this tune, it is actually an arrangement/rendition of a song on the soundtrack of Chrono Trigger. Yes, I'm a dork at heart. Leave me alone. Nintendo is the shit. Anyway, I had always wanted to try arranging the tune for guitar(s) and I think it turned out fairly well in the end.

Also, as a bit of an afterthought, I submitted this track to OCRemix.org to see if they would accept it and post it in their collection. It was rejected (cue sympathetic aww's), however I now claim the privilege of having the #2 most debated submission of all time on this site and in the top 10 of the most viewed judging discussions. So I take a mild amount of pride for that. Actually, I don't really care if it got posted or not, it was just interesting to hear different views and opinions arguing passionately or at least non-passively about my little production.

Yes, I'm a dork. Don't rub it in.

hello world

2008-02-07T18:17:00.000-08:00

So I'm normally a pretty fervent anti-blogger. I hate it. I dislike the act of blogging. However every year or so, I get bored with whatever lifestyle routine I've dug myself into and jump back on the goddam band-wagon.

So internets - here I am. It's that time of year again, let's hope this round doesn't suck quite as much as the attempts of yesteryear.

Also, I decided to make this an audio blog. Since I apparently can't keep up enough interest to maintain a purely hypertext blog.

Thus within every post I'll throw up some audio clip/recording. It will always be something I've performed or written myself - or at least had some part in creating.

So since I'm at work right now and obviously can't go recording some new stuff in the middle of the office, I'll post some old tracks.

Here goes:

Bocca Bella ( Download - Bocca_Bella.mp3 )

So this track is a bit of an unfinished work. Started working on it probably a year or two ago. Never really got around to finish it yet. Started when I was helping my friend rip her album to mp3's for MySpace. I, being probably the complete OPPOSITE of a classical musician, decided it would be fun to do something that used a theme from one of the pieces on her album. That piece was "Pur Dicesti o Bocca Bella" - I'd tell you more about the piece, but didn't I just tell you that I'm not a classical musician? I don't know anything about this crap. Really now, keep up. Anyway, I'll come back to this post later and update with more background info on the track. (Note: that's not going to happen, it was an empty promise. But you should be used to empty promises by now, so suck it up.)

Anyway, I used a short sample out of the recording - applied a bit of ancient magic and bam, I had the beginnings of something new.

Originally I had intended this to be a more literate remix of sorts. Y'now, perhaps turn her operatic masterpiece into a gangsta rap single and surprise her with it on her birthday. But that didn't work out. And it turned into the intro segment to an original piece. An unfinished original piece. But whatever, who's keeping score anyway?

Live Instruments Used: Guitar, Egg Shaker
Sampled/Sequenced Instruments: Drum Kits, Synth Stuff

P.S.
One might ask, "Why don't you just start a YouTube video blog? Everyone else is doing it. If 12 year olds can, so can you!"

Well, Mr. Web 2.0, I don't have a video camera.

And I'm not buying one for your sake.

You're not that special.

I don't love you that much.

Well...at least not now.

Perhaps someday.

It's only my first post.

It's too early for that kind of commitment.

Ok, I'm sorry.

I didn't mean it.

I love you.

Really.

I'm not just saying that.

P.P.S

Okay, so I bought a video camera. Disregard the latter half of this post. Love ya.