tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-194390362009-12-30T18:09:52.552-08:00The Saga of Steele, plus other music I makeJeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-27893565350754458322009-08-14T09:57:00.000-07:002009-08-14T11:26:29.436-07:00

This maybe seems a little corny to me, but I'm posting it anyway...Les Paul, NYC 1998, by meWe each know that there are people out there, some close to us and some remote, who affect our individual lives in deep, foundational ways that form the core of our being. Parents, teachers, friends, enemies and people we admire for one reason or another help shape who we are, what we do and how we live.

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-64830794130316484522008-12-08T15:27:00.001-08:002008-12-08T15:30:00.369-08:00

Hey, my good ol' buddy Sideshow Steve has been out on tour a couple times this past year. Most recently he was out with an up-and-coming singer Jerad Finck, and he put together a video of tour footage set to one of the tunes. Check it out!In other news, I've got my recording studio working. There will be tunes this year. Dammit.

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-48766514765579429142008-10-27T09:32:00.000-07:002008-10-27T10:01:43.215-07:00

I've been getting comments on an older post about putting my 1996 CD "Steele" up for sale, so here's a repost:If you'd like to buy a burned CD-R copy of my "Steele" CD, you can PayPal US$7.50 for USA and Canada addresses, $14.50 for international addresses (covers CD and shipping) to me at jeff@jeffzugale.com, and I will send it right out to you. I will add the CD to my store, too.You can listen

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-40620949958648650062008-08-14T22:30:00.001-07:002008-08-14T22:34:48.962-07:00

I've put up a page on Myspace Music for my hair-band alter-ego self, the Artist Formerly Known As Jeff Steele. I've included some songs from the 1996 CD, so if you haven't heard them, have a listen! I'm still working on adding stuff to the page, but a pretty good bunch of my rocker friends are on there so feel free to explore the wide world of NY/NJ Tristate Area hard rock, hehehe...

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-65781671945597276212008-05-02T15:00:00.006-07:002008-05-02T15:21:24.448-07:00

I have been enlightened as to the power that is DragonForce:Now that, that's pretty metal.This is also metal, but funnier: Rhapsody in Fire:True genius.

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-21943683083394070952008-04-21T18:27:00.000-07:002008-04-21T18:37:44.937-07:00

My friend, prolific creator, and really interesting guy John Athayde, aka Boboroshi (and also bassist of Honor By August, from post below) and his buddy Kynz have released an album of electronica/ambient music through iTunes Plus. (direct link to iTunes store, so you'll need iTunes to view it.) If you like that kind of music, it's well, well worth your $9.99.Also, Honor By August just put up

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-47769762054679372502008-03-10T11:52:00.001-07:002008-03-10T12:01:26.069-07:00

OK, this is kinda freaky. There are, in fact, people on the Internet selling my 1996 Japanese-release CD -- for between $80 and $102!! (the ones marked with "CD" under the top Steele listing)That's weird to me. Well, the CD is, in terms of CDs, very rare - I'm not sure if the label even pressed more than 5,000 copies, maybe 10,000 at the very most. It only sold in Japan, and I have no idea how

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-76497653123174415842008-03-09T22:32:00.000-07:002008-03-09T22:44:46.481-07:00

Hey, following up on the video, here's a blurb from the web about Little Sister. I don't remember any of those pix being taken! Sure wish I still had all that hair... Still have that black guitar though, and it still plays great. Hey, look, there's an ad from when we opened for Trixter at the Stone Pony, heh...

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-33107569481608916422008-02-07T20:46:00.000-08:002008-02-07T21:00:06.286-08:00

In case anyone's curious, here's a video of our old band Little Sister at Studio One, N. Newark, NJ, around 1989:You'll see me playing guitar on the right, with what resembles a poodle on my head. :)

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-43209827834638363142007-09-27T13:31:00.000-07:002007-09-27T13:33:19.590-07:00

This band here is a darn good rock band: Honor By August.If you get a chance, go see them live. They're based around DC, but they're currently doing some tour-ish sorts of gigs.

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-69731847647900857142007-03-12T11:32:00.000-07:002007-03-12T12:58:44.364-07:00

Bummer that it has to start out with bad news, at least bad news to me.Brad Delp, singer of Boston, died last Friday. He was 55 - way too young.Let me put this in perspective from my point of view (which will take a bit of blathering, sorry). I first started playing guitar soon after we moved up to Maine in May 1976 - largely because since we were living without electricity, TV, and other modern

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1159824920095772742006-10-02T14:31:00.000-07:002006-10-02T14:35:20.113-07:00

...that I won't be getting my album done this year. And at the rate I'm going, probably not next year either. There's just not enough hours in a week for me to get it done without sacrificing a whole crapload of sleep.When I was 25 and looking forward to getting famous and touring the world, that sacrifice was easy to make. Now... not so much.I really would like to do more music, more often.

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1150744281177780212006-06-19T12:06:00.000-07:002006-06-19T12:11:21.186-07:00

I'd planned on doing some recording this weekend Sunday but with the Fix Up My Apartment Project going on (see lifeblog), I felt obligated to keep doing fixing, which took up pretty much the whole day. Seems like with everything else going on, recording is at the bottom of the list. Life is that way sometimes.That said, things look good for doing a good live acoustic version of 700 Miles with a

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1148438335824557292006-05-23T19:36:00.000-07:002006-05-23T19:38:55.833-07:00

Woke up this morning with a riff in my head, and I had a bit of time before I had to leave, so I recorded it direct in Digital Performer. It sounded good in my head but not so good when I played it. I lost some part of it somewhere. Ah well, every riff can turn into a cool tune with a bit of time and work.In my art blog I talked about fighting procrastination and getting some stuff done, so every

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1144865515297194542006-04-12T10:57:00.000-07:002006-04-12T11:11:55.323-07:00

Here's the bit I did on the Innocence dance remix (1.8MB mp3/160) over the weekend. I've been listening to it quite a bit... currently it's kinda more chintzy-electronic-y than I'd like. That will change as I keep working on it and mixing. It's on the right track. I'm borrowing bits from several different techno/trance/electronic artists that I like, but I think it needs more "Dirty Vegas" feel

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1144691525647657382006-04-10T10:15:00.000-07:002006-04-12T10:36:41.130-07:00

The year was 1984. I was a freshman in college. And I was... A ROCKER. Here is your proof:Hard to believe that's me, ain't it? One of my old friends found this in a scrapbook somewhere, scanned it and sent it to me. I actually still have a print of this too, in one of my photo books. It was taken in my dorm room, with its lovely artistic bare brick walls... stylish! The guitar is actually a

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1142284615957730172006-03-13T12:50:00.000-08:002006-03-13T13:17:12.336-08:00

I was able to put down rough guitars for "700 Miles," but that's all I got done. I did one track each of 6-string and 12-string, using The Girlfriend's Variax. Sounds pretty good, but it's rough and a little sloppy in places. I need to get in some more practice time, dangit.That's all to report, gonna try to do more tracking this weekend coming up if I can.

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1141859199125889582006-03-08T11:52:00.001-08:002006-03-08T15:06:39.180-08:00

This weekend I'm going to start recording the re-do of "700 Miles." It will be pretty quick to put that one into a workable state, because the roots of it are really very simple. The album version got pretty over-produced, really, but then that's my fault anyway. It's really supposed to be pretty much a simple acoustic song played by maybe 4 or 5 people sitting around with guitars and a banjo and

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1140118979651415492006-02-16T11:41:00.000-08:002006-02-16T11:42:59.666-08:00

Haven't done much musical stuff this month, it's been a busy one on all my other fronts, I guess. I need to step thing up if I want to have any hope of completing the remix CD by November, but I'm starting to think that's not going to be possible. Ah well. I'm still gonna try. I have this Monday off so I hope to get some recording done.

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1138918939158411942006-02-02T13:37:00.000-08:002006-02-02T18:43:37.836-08:00

Happily, I was able to get a full pass of rough vocals done last night on the song, so I present it to you for listening (7MB mp3, 160K).This is what your average first rough pass at a song sounds like. The mix is just a quick "put the levels where it sounds ok and run it," there's plenty of wonks and fnerts and thubs and spangs in there (you'll see what I mean). It runs a bit long because I

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1138834768061086622006-02-01T14:47:00.000-08:002006-02-01T14:59:28.253-08:00

I haven't done any studio work since I laid the bass track down last Friday, but I did promise to put up the original demo version of Only In Your Mind, so here it is (5.91MB mp3, 160K, mono). Right-click (Mac: Ctrl-click) to download. (Does everyone know that already? Seems as though they should...)This is the instruments track only, without guitar solo or vocals, mixed down from the 4-track

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1138394481134099792006-01-27T12:35:00.000-08:002006-01-27T12:41:21.156-08:00

The crunch at work has been putting me home pretty late for most of the week except last night, so I haven't much felt like recording anything, just want to relax and sleep. Tonight I should be home at a decent hour, and though I have to do some laundry, I'm gonna take a few hours and work on more tracks for Only In Your Mind (Bummer Version). I ought to be able to lay down bass and some vocals

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1138052504457519872006-01-23T13:32:00.000-08:002006-01-23T13:41:44.466-08:00

Well, I was able to get the rough basic acoustic and rhythm guitars done Saturday night, but that was the end of my progress on recording for the weekend. Sunday was taken up mostly with sleeping late, football, more sleeping, more football, and then working on a strip for the webcomic. Not having the MIDI drum track really put a dent in the progress.So, since I didn't actually get a full cut

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1137901149946034832006-01-21T18:50:00.000-08:002006-01-21T19:39:09.963-08:00

So it turns out I do not actually have a MIDI file for the drum track of Only In Your Mind, which I thought I did. Well, all right then. That just means I would need to record them over again, which would be the first time I'd recorded with my e-drums.Now, I thought this would be problematic, in that the studio is in my bedroom, but the drums have been set up in the living room. So either I had

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19439036.post-1137639721527768562006-01-18T18:04:00.000-08:002006-01-18T19:02:01.556-08:00

This past weekend marked the first "serious" use of Casa Del Jefe Studios, where The Girlfriend came over to start working on recording a simple demo for herself, which she's never done before. She's been pretty nervous about the whole thing, but she did really well. Still plenty of work to do, but we'll get it done. She's coming over again tonight for a few more takes.The Groove Tubes GT67 mic

Jeff Zhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03208793232384147634noreply@blogger.com0