A TABLE FOR ONE

A new track for you just in time for the new year. I've been sitting on this one for a while trying to tune it to where I like it and I finally just got sick of it, so here it is. Hope it's to your liking. A pretty simple track, the idea behind it is a person trying to figure out their place in the universe mentally.

I wanted the music to have a spacey feel and a weirdness to it, if that makes sense. I feel like the drums and bass really anchor it, and the guitars make this lushness around it. I dig it, hope you do too.





Bonus Chicken Scratch:

MIND ERASER

I'm sorry it has been a while since Raise Hell Over the Summer released new music. I've been sitting on a bunch of tracks, but with schedules and life, the boys can be hard to get up with and record.

Moving forward RHOTS is going to go back to being a recording project for the foreseeable future. I may have some of the guys come sit in, and maybe even some new heads. We'll see.

That brings me to Mind Eraser, a new single I just released. It's a song about my mother and Alzheimer's disease, which she tragically lost her battle with. I have a few other tracks with similar themes as it was a long progressively hard thing to deal with, and obviously "you write what you know". So expect some other happy songs to follow this up at some point.

Regarding the music, I wrote the main riff and lead a long time ago as an idea for The Cabana Kids that never got used. I resurrected it recently and expanded on it. I like the outcome and hope you do too.

REWORK - Here Comes the Love

I decided to head back to some earlier tracks this go around (who am I kidding they're all earlier tracks) and I took a stab at another tune off of A Lonely Mouth. Which if you haven't been following this blog/site, A Lonely Mouth was an EP I released back in 2009. 'Here Comes The Love' was the first track I wrote off that album and was originally going to be a song for my old band The Sugar Report, before we dissolved.


I liked the OG version but I think it was real shrill and treblely, so I tried to fix some of that. I tracked live drums which I thought the original desperately needed. I retracked the rhythm guitars and remixed the vocals.


I think it turned out alright, I don't know, who cares Im just having fun I guess.


The New





The Old

REWORK - Game Genie

Game Genie was the last track on a digital EP I released back in 2012 called Twin Canals. I was really stoked on that release and generally still like all the songs from it. The only draw back to the whole thing (and everything before it) was I created it in Garageband, which severely compressed the .wav files and everything just felt flat and quiet compared to mastered music available at the time.


So with this rework I attempted to brighten the track and raise the volume. I added in live drums. I throttled the treble on the guitars and vocals. I added some new keys and retracked a few things.


I'm really happy with this track, it has a cool retro vibe that I dig. Hope you do too.


❤️ Curtis


The New



The Old

REWORK - Thunderdome

Sorry, been a hot minute (year) since I took a stab at a REWORK track. I've been dealing with a whole lot of life shit, and I also had to uproot my space for recording (wife needed a home office). I'm now in the garage. Pros: I now have a 24 track interface...so plenty of mics for the drums. The room is bigger and sounds better. I also got a few new condensor mics and a new set of monitors (so, two pairs to listen through). Cons: It's cold out there.


Thunderdome was one of the earlier track of 52 and one I had a clear vision for when I originally wrote it. I imagined a heavy stoner rock vibe, and what i came up with, I thought, fell real short. I always hear it and think I could fix it, so I tried my hand at it.


The main thing I hated on the original was the drum machine, just didn't give the track the true heaviness it needed. So I added them, I think it helps. I kept the bass. Retracked guitars with new amp settings. The other two things I disliked were the bridge and ending. So I killed the ending completely and redid the bridge. The new bridge is kind of more trippy and mellow, the original was a true mess in my opinion.


Anywho... enjoy.


The New.



The Old.

REWORK - Awful Holiday

I wrote this track for 52 closer towards the end of the project. I always really liked this one, and still do. I thought it could be a fun one to toy around with and try some guitars since the original barely has any.


When I started reworking this I noticed something seemed a little off when I went to add guitars... it almost caused me to scratch the whole thing until I figured it out.


Story time. When I was in Mexico years ago, I bought a wooden flute from a vendor outside of Chichén Itzá. The thing is super rustic and I thought it would be cool to mix it into a track for 52. I choose Awful Holiday as that track. It's the first thing you hear as the tune opens. It's just that repetitive loop playing under everything. The problem was, I was out of tune as shit when I played it.


So after I tracked drums, I tuned that sample into the correct key of the song. I then added some guitars and messed around with some of the vocal settings. I added some keys, deleted some keys, and a few other little tweaks. I think it's pretty cool sounding.


The New.



The Old.



BONUS: Scribbles

REWORK - Wild Horse

I originally thought this was one of my favorite of 52 when I first wrote it and posted it. I was a little over halfway done with the project and I was really pleased with the tracks I was putting out. When I listen back on it, I still like it, but I felt like I could rework it in a different way.

When I posted the original track I WROTE that it was bass, drums, and electronics... which was accurate, so I thought why not kill the electronics and do all guitars instead. So I did (I actually left some of the keys in the chorus). I added three guitar tracks and a baritone. I tracked live drums instead of the old dr-5 drum loop. I changed out some of the vocal effects. Hmmm what else... oh, I trimmed the final chorus.

I don't know. I kinda dig it. It's not perfect, but who is.


The New



The Old



BONUS: Scribbles