In tidying up my bookmarks,

I came across this website. I must have bookmarked it with the intention of checking it out later. I've spent the last two hours or so completely absorbed in it.

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/

Also, this one is brilliant. I hear Phil Elvrum (Microphones, Mt. Eerie) might have something to do with it and I really hope he keeps it up.

http://woodchopping.blogspot.com/

Yeah, this is pretty standard Saturday night behavior.

Carl, are you going to post that riff2 interview or what?

For the archives...

Tidying up the old myspace...



Dave & Vega are CRAZY!

Greetings from Traverse City.

Blog day special

Today's the day we start blogging. In celebration of blog day, here's a cover song that Mike, Dave and Tommy recorded last year when they all lived together.

download "Ain't it a Shame"

Et Cetera tentative track list

1. What I Want
2. When We Kiss
3. Sorry I
4. Hold My Baby
5. More Than Ordinary
6. All of it All
7. Praise
8. She's Wanting Me More
9. Houses Not Homes
10. Zeitgeist
11. Better Days
12. Right Where You Belong

We still may tweak the order a bit, but this is roughly how it's going to play out. A handful of these songs came together in the studio, and we're going to have to learn how to play them together in time for next Saturday. We haven't written a set list yet, but I'm sure we'll be playing most of the new record along with most of our EP. Some of these songs date back years and years ("Right Where You Belong" was an old You and Yours song, "All of it All" was on Mike and Carl's electropop demo and "More Than Ordinary" and "Better Days" have been Blasé Splee songs as long as we've been Blasé Splee) and some ("Zeitgeist") were written as recently as six weeks ago.

Before Blasé Splee had a MySpace page (assumingly before Mike and Carl had decided to form the band), I stumbled upon Mike's wife Chelsea's page, which at the time had "Better Days" up as her profile song. I believe this was some time around summer '06, it was a recording that Mike made in our old corner house on Knowles before I had even met him. This was around the time when Chelsea was telling me that I should get together and play music with him and Carl, and I was all "ehh....."

download "Better Days (demo)" (2006)

Et Cetera update: May 24, 2009

Mixing is boring.


day 1



day 2



day 3

Et Cetera update: May 9, 2009

Last night, Carl, Mike and I (Jon) began work on one of the final songs for Et Cetera titled "All of it All." The song dates back to the original 2005 electropop demos that would eventually coerce Tommy and Dave into collaborating with Mike and Carl for future songwriting purposes and led to the creation of Blasé Splee. These songs haven't been heard by many people that aren't close to us, and we're very pleased to be able to include one of them on our upcoming album.





Carl and Mike recording "All of it All"

The song was originally recorded with acoustic guitars, with pots and pans used as percussion. We decided to stick with the original formula for the song, but expand on it and improvise a bit.


Mike playing the anatomy book (props to Arcade Fire)


the vocal booth after the tracking of the anatomy book


Carl recording glasses filled with varying amounts of water


Mike playing the typewriter

not pictured: the garbage bin, the steel chair, the compressed air, sock mallets

I'll continue to update as we finish the song over the next couple of days, and contunue these updates as our record nears completion. We're very close, and we can't wait to share it with everyone!



Cheers,
Blasé Splee

Et Cetera update: May 6, 2009

Hey everybody,

We're one month away from our album release and we're definitely feeling the pressure. The first tracks were recorded well over a year ago and we're now working on recording (and re-recording) the last little bits of the album and plan to start working on the final mixes a week from Friday.



one of Mike's handmade pickguards

The record will consist of twelve songs--six of Carl's and six of Mike's. Some of these songs are older than everything on our EP and a couple of them were just written over the last few months. We're really happy that we've been able to spend so much time working on this project completely on our own in the house where Mike and Carl live and can't wait for you guys to hear our newest material. A number of these songs have been tested out live; "More than Ordinary" is as old as we are and was played at our EP release show along with "Better Days."



Jon's 3-keyboard recording setup--for recording "I Never Hoped" (tentative title) and "Houses not Homes"

Mike's "Hold My Baby," "She's Wanting Me More" and "What I Want" have been played out several times over the last year and a half, and we're excited to finally be able to release these songs. A couple of Carl's songs have actually already been played out back when he and Mike were in "You and Yours" (with members of Macramé Tiger) and have now become Blasé Splee songs.



behind the scenes at our latest photo shoot @ the Maple Art Theatre w/ Joe Gall

We have a few special guest appearances on this album. Dave Jakubowski, who played trombone on our SubSprawl xmas jam added some horns to "When We Kiss" (which is previewable right here on our page) and another song we're currently referring to as "Praise" which we introduced at this year's blowout. (That's Dave playing piano in the McDonald's drive-thru on our myspace page, btw.)


the piano featured on the majority of the songs on "Et Cetera"

We're also very pleased to be currently working with Nicole Varga of Tone & Niche, who is adding viola and violin to "Praise" and also an old song (which dates back to the early 2005 electropop demos that would ultimately become Blasé Splee) called "All of it All."



recording Niche in the empty house next-door to our rehearsal space/studio

Also, WRIF's companion online HD radio station RIFF2 (riff2.com) has chosen us as "band of the month" for the month of May. Go check it out! We'll most likely be scheduling an appearance in the studio and may bring along exclusive tracks and/or perform a song or two live on the air.


Dave recording bass


pink & purple vocal booth built entirely out of "found" materials

And lastly, we neglected to mention our amazing writeup after the Blowout on The Post Rockist (post-rockist.com). Check out Scotter's kind words about us:

Blasé Splee is incredible. The songs are extremely well-crafted and performed, the lyrics are great, the songs are soulfully sung and the harmonies are not just striking to the ears–they’re striking to the body. They played a song last night that started slow and then kicked in with a three-part harmony that threw my body into a shudder. They were one of my favorite Detroit bands before this performance and after their performance last night they’re one of my favorite U.S. bands. After next year, they’ll probably one of my favorite world music bands.



Mike playing Wii fit

See you in a month!

Cheers,
Blasé Splee