For a short time only, We're Your New Best Friends

As you can see we’re diving fully into phase 2 as they...

itsivanyu — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:57:08 -0500

As you can see we’re diving fully into phase 2 as they say, he’ll get a formal introduction in the coming weeks once he learns a damn song or two but let this be the warmest of welcomes to begin with while we wait…

Over the course of 2010, I was fortunate enough to see a few...

itsivanyu — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:55:45 -0500

Over the course of 2010, I was fortunate enough to see a few shows featuring AMAZING horn players, each one more ridiculously awesome than the last but at the same time not that much better than I used to be back in the day. This helped me decide that 2011 was going to be the year that I came back to the instrument after a 9 year hiatus of being dumb and not keeping up with said craft. On paper it was a brilliant idea, practice for a month or two and pop by an open mic from time to time to see the progress in action. I had a friend in the same boat as myself so he jumped at the idea to do this so we teamed up and started a little support group for peeps who used to enjoy playing but let life get in the way. How much can one achieve though with a flugelhorn and a trombone? It all made sense that in place of other musicians I could write and produce a backing track with piano/drums/etc and run it on my Iphone during events. These genius ideas just came coming and over the year we spent time making new friends and exploring new venues. For what we set out to do it’s been quite successful but at the same time it’s not nearly enough. We go to open mics and amid the sea of peeps with guitars, these singer/songwriters, we tend to mix things up slightly. I don’t want us to be those guys because there’s no future and no further prosperity in that role. I want us to be the guys that define themselves by how awesome they are, not the varying format used to achieve awesomeness. I want people to hear what we do and want more, not just be content with what’s offered at the time being because in the life goal of wanting to play more we’re not going to get anywhere with that. In the grand scheme of things it’s been a very successful year and I’m in no way ashamed of how far this project has gone but I want more. 2011 was the year we made contact, and now that the lines of communication are open let me tell you this: I’m done with the backtrack. We’re in the process of grabbing ladies and gentlemen to fill the void in our musical lineup to which I can take the same songs the past year I’ve been tweaking to further perfection and put live people in front of you and we’re gonna blow your faces off (with awesomeness not sexually :p). It’s about that time we should all engage our safety belts for ascent because we are embarking on the vast new waters of what can only be defined as PHASE TWO, heaven help us…

Well after a fun day of internet strikes and whatnot it’s...

itsivanyu — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:54:45 -0500

Well after a fun day of internet strikes and whatnot it’s time we dust off the old post button and get to work. I feel like there’s some bigger news on the horizon but for now let’s all bask in the greatness that is procrastination via VidRhythm

Ok so confessional time, I’ve been prepping a few holiday...

itsivanyu — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:53:13 -0500

Ok so confessional time, I’ve been prepping a few holiday songs since October but once it became societally acceptable to play them I’ve been too flipping busy to open mic! Well that changes tonite. It’s the last time this year I should be carolling so I’ll be doing my damnedest to be at Hugh Oneills tonite. What’s up with the rest of you fools?

As you can see we’re already back on the procrastination...

itsivanyu — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:16:34 -0500

As you can see we’re already back on the procrastination via VidRhythm bandwagon, but it’s so much fun!

Andy’s directorial debut, by which more often than not...

itsivanyu — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:33:48 -0500

Andy’s directorial debut, by which more often than not when I let him operate photographical equipment things tend to go awry awful quick. Not always in a societal sense sometimes just to my own expectations but imagine my surprise when he engineered a Vidrhythm that not only do I not hate it but it ranks as one of my fav ones so far…

The first of two fancy VidRhythms I stumbled upon whilst...

itsivanyu — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:26:39 -0500

The first of two fancy VidRhythms I stumbled upon whilst perusing my youtube acct, truly no good can ever come from that…

For all those iOS users out there

itsivanyu — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:18:22 -0500

my fav app of the year, VidRhythm, is out with a major update but more importantly IT’S FREE! so really theres no self-respecting reason why you shouldn’t be out and about in the app store downloading it for your quasi-musical entertainment. The best news of it all is that I went to youtube to look at a few of the versions we’ve done and I then realized there’s two vidyas sitting on there I haven’t had the chance to show you yet, oh happy day!

Sometimes I record things when we practice and sometimes I pull...

itsivanyu — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 22:22:00 -0500

Sometimes I record things when we practice and sometimes I pull something new out that surprises even myself. Now I’ve spent most of the night rewriting the backing track for this particular song to make things interesting for Monday. Oh did I mention we’re trying another open mic on Monday? Ok we’ll find time to chat later I’ll give you all the details then.

|edit|

‘cept for the part where I’ve watched this movie a hojillion times and have just now seen the glaring typo on the screen. Ugh, dealing with it later…

Oh snap! If I didn’t know better I’d say...

itsivanyu — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:50:30 -0500

Oh snap! If I didn’t know better I’d say there’s a setlist up in this piece. Saddle up boys we’re going to Newton…

So I’ve been trying my hand at restoring an instrument...

itsivanyu — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 12:16:36 -0500

So I’ve been trying my hand at restoring an instrument Andy acquired on eBay and I’m hoping to use it tonite, sadly I won’t know until an hour before the open mic starts. Oh that’s not it in the photo either I just saw that and it looked ridiculous enough for me to post. So open mic tonite eh? It’s over at the China Pearl in Woburn (288 Mishawum Rd, Woburn, MA 01801 for you gps kids) signups at 8-ish and it runs till midnight I think we’ve evolved to the point that if you want to join you know what to do I’m not gonna spell it out for you today. Anyhoo I’ll see ya when I see ya…

Is this one of those, what have you been doing for the past 3 months kind of deal?

itsivanyu — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:53:48 -0500

You bet your sweet ass it is!
Anyhoo peeps, it’s not like we’ve been completely off the grid just mostly. Now if I felt the urge I could list a long line of excuses as to what we’ve been doing (vacations, being sick, or in my case spending 6 months working towards getting my license that superseded my practice time) but in reality I’ve mainly made the executive decision to pull back a bit because :certain people who shall remain nameless: needed practice. My previous mindset was one of “Oh you’ve mostly got it so we’ll play it live so you know what to work on later and possibly be more motivated to practice.” Instead the last time we played at Hugh’s I feel like we bombed and haven’t been back since. Oh but we will dear friends, 5 months later (ugh that it took this long btw) and we’re better than ever! I expect to be back soon but on Saturday we’ll be hanging at the New China Pearl in Woburn for Mike Walsh’s other Open Mic nite, maybe we’ll be seeing you there!

One more for good measure, this song’s a but more personal...

itsivanyu — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:31:00 -0400

One more for good measure, this song’s a but more personal to us. Being a sappy power ballad type song but per usual we still won’t take it seriously…

Based upon the frequency of these you’d be allowed to...

itsivanyu — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:28:15 -0400

Based upon the frequency of these you’d be allowed to think this is all we do anymore but really we just use these for mini breaks after rehearsing songs we can’t do so well somehow this manages to boost our self esteem and not the other way around, couldn’t tell you why…

Just to show you the levels at least with the others we try and...

itsivanyu — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:03:15 -0400

Just to show you the levels at least with the others we try and do something accomplishable (at least to our standards) otherwise you get videos such as these where we just end up acting like fools by anyone’s standards…

Is there truly such a thing as brass metal? The beauty of the...

itsivanyu — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:47:09 -0400

Is there truly such a thing as brass metal? The beauty of the ol’ VidRhythm is it kills the perfect amount of time to to take a quick break before we get back to real practicing :p

getoutoftherecat: stop that cat. you don’t know how to play a...

itsivanyu — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:10:31 -0400

getoutoftherecat:

stop that cat. you don’t know how to play a guitar, as is evidenced by your improper posture.

Here’s something for ya

These are less than exciting times for you internet peeps

itsivanyu — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:07:12 -0400

Mostly because between the two of us someone’s been sick for the past two weeks so it’s not as it I even have much to report. Now sure I could start with the normal filler of YouTube videos for songs I’d like to learn or wacky music laden stories I find on the interwebz but to be perfectly honest when it comes to media of any kind I only have to modes bring the urge to consume media or the decision to create. It’s a pretty hefty switch with no middle ground and as you can tell I’ve been firm position of media consumption rather than any creative tendencies. Now that’s not to say it won’t be returning shortly, I did boot up GarageBand just this day in the hopes of flipping that switch but for now I’ll just try sharing cool news when I find it so our time together doesn’t seem so sparse…

This one however, may be some of the finest VidRhythm action...

itsivanyu — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:56:56 -0400

This one however, may be some of the finest VidRhythm action we’ve come up with yet. This app is just on the threshold of both awesome and ridiculously silly but if you can ride that wave you have comic gold and entertaining too. In the near future they’ll de discussing how you the owner of the app can transfer midi files into the app for some level of audio manipulation. I’m hoping this is something I already know how to do/can learn relatively quickly because the thought of custom tunes for VidRhythm makes my day that much better. Until then, we’ll all do what we do best to pass the time…

had some more fun with VidRhythm over the weekend this is the...

itsivanyu — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:49:20 -0400

had some more fun with VidRhythm over the weekend this is the first of two videos, as odd as this one is just wait for the next one…