Band
All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin
Random happenings of me
Prepare for bullet points.
- I’m so into photography right now, despite having a simple point-and-shoot digital camera. I’m now selling prints, taking more photos and stepping up from Paint.NET to GIMP. Oh yeah, I love the Epic Edits Photodump Flickr Group.
- I’m getting used to bass guitar. In my opinion, Phantom Scream is undergoing awesome change.
- Target sells Dunkin Donuts coffee! Actually, I’ll want to check Albertsons, CVS and Ralphs - they’re closer to me than Ralphs. (Redlands Daily Facts) My friends now see me as a coffee junkie.
- I’m still using CallWave and Jott, which are both still free at the moment.
- I’m off the GTD wagon. I haven’t given up.
- My mom and I are catching up on CSI: Miami starting from Season 1. We’re on Season 2 right now. We just love how almost every line of Lieutenant Horatio is epic. You can’t forget about the sunglasses, either!
Oh yeah…I officially have my Associates Degree!
Our band on Pure Volume
We finally setup a Pure Volume account for Phantom Scream: click here and have a listen!
Recording studio experience
Over the period of two Saturdays (June 30th and July 7th), Phantom Scream (my band) went into the studio to record tracks for our upcoming five-song EP (demo). From the recommendations of a few friends, who are also in bands themselves, we went with 459 Audio Recreations. In addition to the experience, he records local bands at relatively inexpensive rates. Considering the equipment he uses, it’s amazing!
Here’s some notes I’d like to pass along:
- Bring your own snacks and drinks. Plenty of water is a must.
- I’m not sure if this was specific to our situation, but the tracking room and lounge were toasty! If a fan won’t mess up the recording, bring it. Otherwise, a couple towels and spare shirts would help.
- Print lyrics for the audio engineer, so they can mark it accordingly for spots that need fixing.
Note: I wrote this a week or so after recording, but never got around to posting it.
My band’s EP is finished
Cross-posted at Phantom Scream.com:
We’re finished with our first EP! We just have to title it and make CDs to get it out to the world. It came out really good and we’re all proud of it.
Bill got the mastered copy, cut up the songs, faded them in and out, then saved it as a short sample. You can hear it at our Myspace page.
On a quasi-side note, we got Michael Tadman (deviantART) to do artwork for us. His work is tight!
Now, off to my day job…happy Friday! 
Friday night show in Pasadena
If you want a mellow place to hang out, you should drive out and see our band on Friday night! (Upcoming event link)
No Future Cafe
1500 E. Walnut St.
Pasadena, CA 91106
Cost: $4.00
Perks: Free coffee, hot chocolate or hot tea. All ages. Awesome environment. Great staff and volunteers from the local church.
8PM - Bella Fontaine (I can’t find their website)
9PM - Phantom Scream (my band)
10PM - A Midnight White
Will you take photos and upload them to Flickr? Please tag them with “Phantom Scream” and “No Future Cafe“.
If I convinced you to come and see us, please stop me, say hi, and take a picture with me! See you Friday night!
My guitar got stolen
A few weeks ago, our band was getting ready for practice in the garage — until a neighbor came over and asked us “not to do this today.” Reluctantly, we agreed and went our separate ways.
Yesterday, we came back to the garage to practice, only to find that my guitar was gone. (I left it there.) We’ve all left our stuff in the garage on a regular basis, and nothing was ever stolen. Drums, amps, Bill’s cabinet, PA system: all intact.
What kind of guitar did I have? A 9-year-old Squier® Standard Stratocaster Electric Guitar. It wasn’t the cleanest instrument, but it got the job done. I think its present monetary value is around $100. But, the memories… *sniff*
What also stinks is that it was housed in a SKB hard guitar case. It was a friend’s. Perhaps the thief thought it might be expensive; fortunately, the guitar wasn’t, but the case was.
As soon as my tax return money gets deposited in my account, I’ll have to use a small portion of it to buy a new (inexpensive) guitar from Musician’s Friend or Guitar Center. The rest of the money will still go towards paying off my credit cards.
Thief - I forgive you, but I’m not leaving my stuff in the garage like that again. James will also resume locking the door. I hope you change your ways.
Phantom Scream show at The Airliner Club!
If you’re in Los Angeles, I hope you’ll come and listen to our show this evening!
- What: Rockfest (Cherri Mob, Phantom Scream, Rot Evilution, The Hollywood 77’s, Symantic, more TBA?)
- Where: The Airliner Club (between CA-110 and I-10 freeways, east of I-5 and 1.5 miles of Dodger Stadium; Chinatown; please see the map)
- When: Starts at 4PM; Phantom Scream is supposed to go on-stage at 7PM
- Cost: $5/door (important - mention “Phantom Scream”)
- All Ages!
I just found the Myspace page for The Airliner Booking, so that looks recent and reliable.
Text “phantomscream” to MOZES (66937), especially after 1PM! I saw some comments from Symantic indicating that they’re set to play at 7PM, but their Myspace page says they’re on at 6PM. Grr! Bill or myself will hopefully confirm before the afternoon.
If you’re coming, do me a favor and text me on my cell phone so I know! 626-485-5484. Thanks, and I hope to see you there!
Latest band practice photos
Our band, Phantom Scream, is still active. Whether I realize it or not, Doc and Bill are constantly working on new material. Last Friday was special because we all got together at Unchained Studios in San Dimas for band practice. We haven’t been there since our first show last April. We needed to hear ourselves in a room with better acoustics.
This is my favorite picture of all the ones taken. That smile is priceless:
As far as I’m concerned, the lyrics are even more abstract, and the sound is more progressive rock than ever before. I love it.
Best method for band collaborating?
I created another WordPress-powered site for me and my friends for our band. I’m using Carthik’s Registered Only plugin to keep it private, in addition to removing all RSS feeds.
Currently, there’s two sections for the site: lyrics and members. I’ve setup each person at user level 6, and to be able to access their own page. From there, they can create subpages under their parent page. So, if they have edits to the lyrics, they can just create subpages where the rest of us can review them.
A few of the guys easily added content to their member pages already, without me really telling them how to go about it, so that’s pretty cool.
Thoughts? Should I just use a wiki?
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