Hughes Sessions - The Comforter

In July, Jim and I went down to Hughes Hall to record some songs using their grand piano. We shot a couple hours of video and recorded a whole bunch of takes for each song. This is the first of many future installments of the Hughes Sessions. Behold, The Comforter.



The Comforter Lyrics:

A brick fell on my head.
An ambulance scooped me up
to a hospital bed.

It's not the best time I've had.
Once I got all those drugs in me,
I really didn't feel so bad.

Everything was in a haze.
I traveled back in time,
saw you in those days

When you were my best friend.
Life goes on and on
till everything comes to an end.

We could talk all day.
We never said, "I have to run,
I don't have time to stay."

We never felt alone.
When your dad came after you,
I hid you in my home.

You know, I almost died,
I was comforted
when I found you inside.

There we'll still be pals.
You should call me up sometime
when your schedule allows.
Hey Hey Hey

Oh, I was comforted by your memory.
Oh, I was comforted when you were here.

Scarlet Gray and Green Fair

On October 3, we played the opening performance at the Scarlet Gray and Green Fair, an annual festival on the south oval held by Students for a Sustainable Campus. The Fair helps promote environmental lifestyles, clean energy, and recycling. There was free food, prize giveaways, booths, a movie, and lots of live music! The Blastronauts were there, and so was Our Cat Philip, two excellent groups with whom we have played several shows in the past. We were really happy to be a part of this.

Maggie the Mortician

A very special thanks to James Allison of the Blastronauts for the camerawork.

Shows Galore

The Neighbors have been hard at work lately producing our new Demo (which we finally completed) and playing lots of shows around Columbus. We would like to thank all of you adoring fans who came out to see us at the Scarlet, Gray, and Green Festival, Gallery Hop, and especially the Battle of the Bands at Bernie's. We won by just 1 crowd member over one of the other bands, so now we are on to the finals on October 26th for a chance to win $250, so come check it out!

Come see us this Friday October 10th at Midnight Victorian's Cafe at 9:00pm.



For a full list of our upcoming shows, check out our myspace page.

We have also been talking with Submersive Media Group about doing a split EP with Gigantopithecus, so get excited for that.

We're Back Baby!

We're back from our trip to New York where we spent 2 weeks writing new songs, practicing, and jamming in Jim's family's cabin. We had 450 acres of forests and lakes to hike and swim in and could play music as loud as we wanted any time. I'm working on a little video montage of the trip too.



In other news, thanks again to everybody who came out in the rain to our show at Midnight Victorian's. We got to play all night and it was an awesome time.




We also hope everybody enjoyed our performance at Gallery Hop on Saturday. Playing on the street in front of Gypsy Cafe was one of our most fun shows ever. There were lots of people dancing around, little kids, and even a group of mimes who came by and started acting out our songs.

Stay tuned to find out about our upcoming performances at the Columbus Marathon, Victorian's, and Gallery Hop.

Xenon Jam

As many of you have noticed while watching the live performance of the Xenon Jam that we did at Rayfest, it's totally f'in awesome.
It's one of my favorites of our experimental, electro/jazz, trip/hop rock jams.

I was just listening to a recording of an hour long improv jam that had a rendition in it, and I thought, this is just too good for me to keep it to myself. So here it is for all the world to hear!

This was recorded on January 17, 2008. It is a spontaneous live recording (no post-production effects or editing has been added).

It also features friend of the Neighbors, Bryan Brown tearin up the bass. Know that he had never even heard the Xenon Jam before he contributed to this rendition of it. You can tell when we first get into it, he is still riffing around, then he slowly fades his volume down when he notices we are doing the quiet intro to the jam.

The Neighbors will return!

As many of you know, The Neighbors have been on hiatus from the live concert scene as of late; the main reason being that our drummer has been vacationing in China, and he was in Florida before that, but he laid down some nice drum tracks before he left. We've been spending a lot of time in the studio working on the demo and writing new songs. Once we get the new demo totally polished, we'll be playing out and touring some more around Columbus, hopefully even beyond.





Also in recent news, Jim and I just got some new geetars!

I am now the proud owner of a Takamine 530SSC dreadnought acoustic/electric guitar. She sure is a beaut, and it's very inspiring to have a nice new guitar to play. The dreadnought body gives it a nice loud, but very bright sound.

Jim bought a Floyd Rose Stratocaster. Let me tell you, it plays like a dream and has a really sweet tone. It's the same sort of custom Strat that David Gilmour of Pink Floyd played, that's why they're called Floyd Rose.

We've been gettin into some real nice jams with our new equipment, and coming up with new material. I'm learning how to play the mandolin for the Yellowstone song, and I think we should have a big jam party when JD gets back.

Also, Check out the new lyrics posted on the live Amused and Code for Love videos, as well as the Deaf Generation Music video.

In even further news, Jim and I just recorded a bunch of the songs on the grand piano at Hughes Hall, and I filmed the session, so look out for those new vids.

Hempfest - Instrumental

This was the big day for us. After many months of eager anticipation and diligent practicing, we finally got to play Hempfest. Hempfest is probably the second biggest and most well known music and arts festival in Columbus (besides Comfest). It is definitely the biggest festival on campus, and it's free!

Special thanks to the eminent Zach Germaniuk for inviting us to play.

Also many thanks go to Kelsey Stehli for her stellar videography.

This song is called "The Instrumental" because there are no lyrics, there is however a bit of spirited wailing at its climax. This was one of our best performances to date and the sound engineers had us mixed quite nicely.

Enjoy!

Chrysalis

During Hempfest and Rayfest, we passed out about 60 or 70 copies of Chrysalis to fans, friends, other bands, and random people who looked like they might appreciate it.

Chrysalis is an odyssey of experimental improvisation. It was recorded in the Fall of 2007 after Jim and I came back from a Mike Perkins concert. It was about 5:00AM and there was a thunderstorm rumbling outside. We recorded our psychedelic insanity non-stop for over an hour in the darkness of the viper room.

Due to the intensity of our mental states during this session, Chrysalis tends to be very dark and haunting. It also has moments of terror, but it is also often soothing and the last track has a sort of tranquil zen quality to it, as if a catharsis took place during the recording.

2 of the 7 tracks that we broke Chrysalis up into are available to listen to on our Myspace page. (Pistols at Dawn and Runner's High)

This is the CD liner that I designed for our Demo which includes Chrysalis and 3 refined studio tracks. (The front is the second part - you fold it in half)
over 80 copies of this have been printed, limited editions in color. When the studio tracks are completely polished, the Demo will be released.



I'm still making copies of Chrysalis too, so if you want one, just ask me.

Rayfest

The day after Hempfest, on Sunday we played at Browning Amphitheater again for Rayfest! This was the first Rayfest ever, a showcase of bands organized by Ray Mattila. It's pretty awesome, huh? This guy is like hey I want to have a music festival and name it after myself... and he did it!

The man behind the music, Ray Mattila:


Our final performance of the set, an experimental electronic jam:

Thanks to Kelsey Stehli for the camerawork!

Xenon Jam



This is a drawing that Sam Warman created while watching the show.
That's Jim playing a piano, Count Funkula DJing, and my guitar, the Peacelock.



Texas and friends enjoying themselves in the crowd:



Browning Amphitheater is such a beautiful and relaxing place to play and watch performances. People can just chill in the grass in the sun with the Mirror lake fountain towering in the background, cooling you with a gentle mist. You can climb the trees and share some shisha while we lay down some grooves.

The Lost Indians

The Lost Indians is an experimental project created by Zach Germaniuk of Red Sun. The line-up of The Lost Indians is always subject to change, but the idea is to have a psychedelic experimental group that is always changing. Their jams are improvisational and impromptu.

Jim Stehli, frontman of The Neighbors has played mandolin with the Lost Indians at both the Hempfest Benefit show at the High Five, and at one of the Outer Sounds showcases at Scarlet and Grey Cafe.

This is a clip of The Lost Indians from that show:

Protean Rock

When people ask me what type of music The Neighbors play, I reply, "Protean Rock". Many people want to hear some sort of common genre description that would supposedly give them some idea of how we sound, but that is not possible or desirable for The Neighbors.

Jim decided to use the term 'protean' which comes from the Greek god Proteus, a shapeshifting sea-god who constantly changes forms.

pro·te·an
adj.
1. Readily taking on varied shapes, forms, or meanings.
2. Exhibiting considerable variety or diversity: "He loved to show off his protean talent" William A. Henry III.



By this point, The Neighbors have a repertoire of around 30 songs, along with a number of improvisational jams which have basic song structures that we often rework on stage.

Some of these songs feature classical sounding piano and guitar and some have heavily distorted rockish guitars. Still others have a poppy, western sort of groove to them. We also delve into psychedilia and electronic synthesizer sounds. Often many styles are combined within a song, hence the proteanity.

Amps Against Apathy - Amused

Remember that show that we played at Browning Amphitheater on April 24? You know, it was called Amps Against Apathy, the event held by Democracy Matters to promote fair voter-owned elections and fight corruption in the elective system?

Well, if you missed it, it was one of the greatest events I've ever been able to be a part of. The bands were awesome and it was a beautiful day. Democracy Matters had an important message to spread and they collected signed postcards from registered voters to help their cause.

Mike Cargioli didn't miss it! Thanks for the awesome camera work buddy!



This song is called "Amused". It's one of the classics.

Amused Lyrics:

So today I was reading in the New York Times newspaper
There was a man who remade the first submarine
And he rode in it through the water wearing only his boxers
And people waved and cheered, and photographed the scene.

Within 200 feet of a ship, he was apprehended
They thought they were stopping a terrorist attack.
The man said, "Well, I'm not much of a technician
So perhaps someday you can give me my submarine back"

And I was so amused, so amused
So amused by the world and the crazy people here
Ah, ah, ahh

So the other day I learned about an interesting parrot.
Read all about him on the BBC
He's got a 950 word vocabulary.
He makes funny jokes about other parrots and chimpanzees.

He loves to chat, and watches television.
You'll never see him stumble, stutter, or fall.
Poor folks have a lexicon of about 1000
And many of them can't tell jokes that are funny at all

I was so amused, so amused
So amused by the world and the crazy creatures

And I was so amused, I was fascinated
And overcome by the sensation
That the world, yeah the world
was ballin crazy.

Maybe I, Maybe I might fit in.

So the actress just checked out of the rehab clinic.
On her way out she said, "You'll be seeing more of me soon!"
Now she's back there again, and in the papers
The girl sure knows how to make the media boon.

She took off all of her clothes to taunt the other junkies
She did because she was stuck in a boring place.
Maybe I should go back to rehab and get my life straight.
Then, maybe I could get to see a naked actress' face.

And I'd be so amused, so amused
So amused by the world
Right on!

And I was so amused, I was fascinated
And overcome by the sensation
That the world, yeah the world
is ballin crazy.

Maybe I, Maybe I might fit in.

Hempfest Benefit - Code for Love

We opened up the Hempfest Benefit show with one of our most popular songs. This one is called "Code for Love".

A very special thanks goes out to Eric Summers for shooting this video.



Code for Love lyrics:

In the made-up realm of cyberland
My computer came down with viruses.
As we stumble down the super highway.
We'll scratch our names in the electron carpet, yeah.

Now the nerdies surf imprisoned in their rooms
Shoot lightning bolts from their mouses.
If a certain amount of ones and zeros could be turned to material things,
Will you believe how rich they are?

Now the wireless modems send porno waves to your hard drives and to our brains
Will you know if you are insane?
Living in a binary land of lightning now to find
To find the right, the right code for love!

And the climate feels all right today.
I'm getting such wonderful waves.

I want to show you my appreciation for you babe.
show you my appreciation for you babe.

You brought me into this place.
Ubiquity to my space.

I want to show you my appreciation for you babe.
I want to show you my appreciation for you babe.

Ah, Ah, Ah

Parking Lot Jam

On April 23, 2008, The Neighbors played a show at the High Five as I mentioned in the Hempfest Benefit show post. What you don't know is that some of the timing got messed up as usual, so while we were waiting in the parking lot for them to open the doors and let us set up, we decided to get our jam on right then and there. Zach was playing the guitar, so I filmed.



Zach Germaniuk of Red Sun and SSDP is playing guitar with Jim in preparation for their psychedelic electric side project called the Lost Indians which features numerous musicians in a free-form, experimental jam style.

More Lost Indians and Neighbors footage on the way...

Instrumentation - Drums

Jim Dickson sure loves drums. He's got a bunch of them.

This is his E-Drum Kit. It's a Yamaha DTXPress II Electronic Drumkit. I talked a little bit about it in the Friday Practice session post, but this drums post would complete the instrumentation section. (Until Jim learns how to play his accordion).



The DTXPress II has 48 preset drum kits, but you can mix and match all of the different instrument effects which include electro-drums, steel drums, gongs, and even birds and screams and crazy stuff like that. It also has preset drum loops like Jim sneakily uses at the end of the Shenanigans Jam.



He also has an acoustic drumset which he is very fond of. It's supposed to be really nice or something. Its a TAMA star classic performer series drumset in Aztec red fade with Sabian cymbals and a couple of Zyldian cymbals too. It's made out of 5-ply birch wood and the drums are all really large so it really kicks.



Partial Drumkit setup from the parking lot jam waiting for the Highfive to let us set up.

Jam of Shenanigans

Behold! This is an inside peek into what may or may not go on during The Neighbors Practice sessions. It is also an excellent example of why you shouldn't hand the camera over to your roommates when you are trying to make a SERIOUS MUSICAL DOCUMENTARY!! The resulting shenanigans are quite humorous however.



Points to notice:

Superb Ebow usage

Delay looping effect on the GNX pedal

Melodic arpeggio hits on the Edrums

Jim's Keyboard is not a stable place to put a camcorder.

Ebow Demonstration / GNX 4 Pedal

This is what it looks like when I use the Ebow. The Ebow creates an oscillating electromagnetic frequency that vibrates the string for infinite sustain and blah blah blah (See the Ebow post for more info)



I am also using the Wah effect on Jim's incredible pedal.



I gotta say... This pedal is the shit. Or, uh, to be more specific the Digitech GNX 4 has a Built-in 8-track recorder, USB I/O, MP3 playback, phantom-powered mic preamp, and endless combinations of customizable guitar effects. With everything from wah and yah to divebomb to retro effects, as well as the hilarious riffmatic effect which plays automatic arpeggios, its not just a pedal, its actually referred to as a "Guitar Workstation"

Instrumentation - Guitars

The Neighbors are a group with many guitars... So let me break it down.

When it comes to electric guitar playing, I use my BC Rich Warlock Metal Master - Bronze series. This axe features a Basswood Body, Bolt on Rosewood Fretboard, 24 Jumbo Frets, 2 BC Rich B.D.S.M.Humbucker Pickups, and a wrap around fixed Bridge.





When the Steely Man gets on his axe, he uses a Jackson with locking tremolo, a whammy bar, 24 frets, and Seymore Duncan pickups.





Jim and I also use a couple of Acoustic/Electric guitars such as the Takamine and the Ibanez. They are acoustic, but have pickups and equalizer sliders to control Highs, Mids, and Low frequencies.


Ibanez Acoustic/Electric


Takamine Acoustic/Electric

Finally, Jakey plays this here Yamaha RBX-170 Bass Guitar.



It's a bass.

Instrumentation - Keys

Here's a little bit about the keyboards that Jimbo plays for all you instrument tech fans out there:


The Steely man rocks a Yamaha DGX505 full portable grande synth piano. It has 494 instruments including pianos, woodwinds, brass instruments, and percussion. It has 88 weighted keys, midi capability, a floppy drive for storage, and it looks a little something like this:



He also recently purchased a badass synthesizer by Korg called a microkorg synth/vocoder. This little synth features 37 keys, 128 programmed effects that are infinitely customizable, and the vocoder which is the microphone part that you can alter your voice with. You wouldn't believe the sounds that come out of this thing when you start turning all those dials. We are hoping to diversify our sound with this versatile instrument. Stay tuned to see what we can do.

Hempfest Benefit Concert

This Wednesday, April 23, between 7:00pm - 10:00pm there will be a concert taking place at High Five Bar & Grill to raise money for Hempfest. The show is being hosted by SSDP (Students for Sensible Drug Policy). The Neighbors will be playing a set, as will SSDP's The Waves and numerous other bands.


Mouth of the Architect


The High Five is located at 1227 North High Street in the short north. Well, it's actually at the intersection of High and 5th, go figure.

Amps Against Apathy

On Thursday, April 24, Democracy Matters will be hosting a free outdoor concert at Browning Amphitheater (South Oval OSU) to promote Voter-Owned Elections, get people more active in voting, and fight corporate corruption in the
elective system.




This concert will take place from 4:30pm to 9:00pm

Band Lineup:
Paper Tiger
Saintseneca
The Neighbors
James and James
The Lost Indians
The Blastronauts
Our Cat Philip


Browning Amphitheater



By sadprofessor, used under the CC BY-SA license.

New Photos: Friday's Practice Session

The shots you see before you as well as many more yet to be posted are from this past Friday's practice session. I also shot some pretty interesting video footage during this practice, but due to technical difficulties, it remains to be posted. Perhaps tomorrow.



If you're wondering what those funky black pads that Mr. Dickson is drumming on are all about, in addition to his acoustic drum kit, JD also plays on this electronic drumset. It's some kind of Yamaha DTXpress kit, I believe, but I will find out the specifics for you Percophiles out there. The Edrum kit allows us to have access to a repertoire or countless percussive instruments as well as electronic beats. JD's kit includes wind chimes, steel drums, marimba, sleigh bells, and gongs to name a few.

The Neighbors' Photos

The Neighbors' Music Videos

I recommend watching these music videos in fullscreen mode. You can go to my Blip page to see more of my videos and animations. "Earthborn" features Jim Stehli on synthesizers and drums.

Music Video for ’Deaf Generation’



Deaf Generation Lyrics:

The broken glass shards in the alley
crunching beneath him
softly bequeath him.
He passes by.

There was a shootout in his backyard.
Was there a winner?
The walls get thinner
every night.

A flashing patrol car in the distance
was touching his vision.
It speaks to a mission
and stirs his sight.

He watches TV now and sees the bad news.
earthquakes and monsoons
The man really wants to
Go change the world.
Change the world.

You wore your headphones to the table.
Upgrade your cable,
and try to disable
the world out there.

But, here he comes with his advising.
You say, Don't push it on me,
and don't you infect me
because I don't care.

It sure must be nice, though, to live for something.
Go buy your dumb shit,
and purchase the numbness
of plastic pride.

But, let me bequeath you with some wisdom.
Life is just wasted
when you're plugged in and faceless
Go change the world
change the world.

You deaf generation!
Oh yeah.

I don't ever want people to look to the history books and say they were a deaf generation!

You take my name from that page!

Music Video for ’Night at the Playground’



You might be interested to know that "Night at the Playground" is not so much a 'song' per se, as it is an improvisational jam. On the night of January 6, 2008, we decided to record an extended free-form jam lacking any prompt of a musical key, rhythm, or concept. We recorded this jam both on video and through the mixer into the computer. The piece sort of divided itself into a chaotic, yet bright beginning for the first 16 minutes. It then began to sound gradually heavier and darker as explored further into the soundscape. This lasted for over 6 minutes (the music video is a truncated excerpt). This was followed by a 22 minute improv piece with impromptu vocals by Jim that was dubbed "Baby, there's more where that came from". These 3 sections were then divided in post production into "Day at the Playground", "Night at the Playground" and "There's More Where that Came From".

The Amazing Ebow: Sustaining the World

You may be curious how I manage to get such strange, infinitely sustained guitar sounds on some of our songs such as "Runner's High" and the soundtrack from "Earth-born".

One of my secrets is the Ebow. Ebow, which stands for Electronic Bow, is a small device which creates an oscillating electromagnetic field around the guitar string causing it to vibrate at certain frequencies resulting in potentially infinite sustain, similar to that of a violin bow.



The Ebow is a truly versatile implement with 2 settings that oscillate at variant frequencies allowing me to switch between a more squeeling harmonic sustain versus a more melodic, legato, flute sounding effect.


Ebows have been around since 1976 and used by such groups as U2, Blondie, Elton John, Van Halen, Phil Collins, Queen, REO Speedwagon, David Bowie, Blue Oyster Cult, and my favorite, The Smashing Pumpkins. They go for around $100, but it is well worth it, and I highly recommend the EBow for anyone wishing to expand their repertoire of guitar sounds.