<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>Carpentron</title>
    <link>http://virb.com/carpentron</link>
    <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
    <generator>Virb 2.0 (@carpentron)</generator>
    <language>en</language>
    <item>
      <title>My Life Inside</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212177</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:35:11 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212177</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The First Kill</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212176</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:33:24 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212176</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Spiders</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212173</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:31:23 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212173</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Anonymous Man</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212172</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:29:48 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212172</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>All Falling Down</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212170</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:28:54 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212170</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Mud-Boy</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212169</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:27:37 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212169</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Plutocrat</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212168</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:26:44 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212168</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Progress</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212167</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:25:30 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212167</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>There Are Monsters</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212165</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:23:36 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212165</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>This Is Your World</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212163</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:16:44 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212163</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Teeming Megalopolis</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212162</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:15:11 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212162</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Interordinary Time Patrol</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212161</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:13:37 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212161</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Subcultural Identity Crisis</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212160</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:12:39 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212160</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Existential Lullaby</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212158</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:11:34 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212158</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Looking for Something New?</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212156</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:09:30 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212156</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>There Is Profundity in Madness</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212139</link>
      <description><![CDATA[]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 Dec 2007 15:44:50 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/audio/212139</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Psychotic Face</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/photos/1517650</link>
      <description><![CDATA[<a href="http://virb.com/carpentron/photos/1517650"><img src="http://g.virbcdn.com/i/resize_575x575/Image-116192-1069309-PsychoticFace.jpg" /></a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 08 Jan 2008 21:26:32 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/photos/1517650</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>A new blog</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/posts/text/627940</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Just checking in. I haven't done so in a while. I've been very busy, unfortunately a bit too busy to work much on music. I guess I'm making up for February.

In the meantime, I started up a new blog, CarpenBlog, which focuses on songwriting and its theory. It's here: http://carpenblog.blogspot.com/.

I've been thinking a lot about songwriting theory lately. By "songwriting theory" I don't mean musical theory, but a sort of examination of the process of writing songs. I've come to think of myself as a songwriter above all else, and I think it's an even more appropriate term for me than "composer", at least at this point.

In the meantime, I took a trip out to California with my wife (our first trip together without the kids since we've had them [that being 5+ years]). It was great. I even got to meet up with an old friend who is out in LA now. We primarily visited the Palm Springs area. It was totally alien to me. I'd never been off the east coast before - ever. All that desert and empty space was hard for my brain to handle.

Anyway, I have a bit of time after work today so I'm going to try to work on some ideas in my head, at least try to lay down a few basic song ideas.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 21 May 2008 10:37:45 -0700</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/posts/text/627940</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Forward March</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/posts/text/524683</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Okay.

It's spring now. It's been the better part of a month since the RPM thing. I've had sufficient time to recuperate, I think. Back to thinking about the Very Us Artists. VUA started out as my friend John's passion project, and he got me excited about it, but until now I've been doing little more for it than contributing music. Now I have a bigger role to play.

Really, the work should have been more evenly divided earlier on. But distance and the confusion of starting up a project led to me not being able to do everything I could. Now I have a more defined role within the project, which is much better and gives me something more useful to do than asking John how it's going and just throwing ideas at him. It's my job to try to figure out how to better promote this thing.

I wish I had more time. I don't think it's possible to impress upon people without kids just how much time kids take up. It's one of those things that just has to be experienced. Not that I'd ever want to give up my kids or anything - no way - but having them does limit time and make my free time unpredictable.

But the more narrow focus allows me to make better use of the time I do have. So I have a couple of leads I need to investigate and some ideas for promotion. I'm thinking that VUA would benefit from some kind of viral marketing campaign, and if what I have in my head can possibly make it into reality, I may have a good idea. There is a character John and I created some time ago who I think would make an excellent spokesperson for VUA. Actually, he's a horrible spokesperson for anything, but that's what might make him good. It's a variation on the character, really, but very close in spirit, especially considering that he was originally conceived as the antithesis of an extremely popular marketing figure. I'm excited about the idea, but it isn't entirely fleshed out. And it would be hard to pull off, as the concept in my head certainly wouldn't be to everyone's taste. Certainly it would be called surreal dark humor.

On a more album-specific level, there is promotion for the soon-to-be-released The Future Is Now to think about. It's an album of songs purportedly from the future, recorded by various artists (as always). I love the concept, but our budget for promotion is pretty close to nothing, and this is the sort of concept that would benefit from a big-budget promotional scheme. Of course, what isn't? 

So I'm thinking and thinking, and hopefully some good ideas will pop into my head or I'll come across some sort of promotional opportunity. We shall see.

Anyway, the season of rebirth is here, and it's time to get things going.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:40:07 -0700</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/posts/text/524683</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Ordering the Songs</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/carpentron/posts/text/479778</link>
      <description><![CDATA[So I finished my recording and did my mixes yesterday. I probably won't have much of a chance to redo things, so that is likely to be it. I may end up doing some slight retinkering, but really, I don't have much time. I posted everything on my site: http://carpentron.com/music.html

I've put some thought into the order of the songs. Song order is a sort of old idea in a world where people just download singles, but I think the order in which you listen to songs creates a context that actually changes the feel of the songs. Here is my theory:

- The first song is the most important, for obvious reasons. But it doesn't have to be the best song. In many cases, it shouldn't be. It should be something that has a lot of energy or tension in it, something that will make people notice it in some way. This could be due to a fast tempo, a loud abrasiveness, a particularly catchy melody, or a variety of other reasons. It should not be a mellow mid-tempo song.
- The second song should counterbalance the first song. If the first song is tense and tiring, as I think mine is, the second should be easy on the ears. If the first song is very catchy, the second might be less so.
- There are a few different ways you can go about things from there. The third song, in my case, is another "tense" song. I think the alternation accentuates the tension and the release of the songs. I could also have put my strongest song here, but I haven't had a chance to step back and figure out which song that is.
- The middle of the album should avoid putting songs that are similar next to each other, unless the goal is to create an album that is basically background or meditative music. Songs that sound similar start to sound bland. I was careful not to put "The Legend I Was Meant to Be" and "My Sanctuary" together because I think they are similar in feel. 
- As the album goes on, it can get more adventurous. Now that you've hooked people in this far, you can stretch them a bit. In my case, I didn't have something particularly out there, but I put "Cheese" late in the album because its mood is very different and it kind of goes to a different place than the other songs. I put "Biggest Bear" near the end because it's a stark deviation from the other songs and, well, the mix isn't good so I didn't want it earlier.
- The last song should give a sense of closure. It can recap the themes or something like that. The most important thing is that it doesn't leave you hanging. It's usually best to go out with a bang.

Naturally, there's no one way to put the songs together. It's more of an art than a science, but not entirely.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 23 Feb 2008 11:30:51 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/carpentron/posts/text/479778</guid>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>
