New Music Download Website

Hey everyone. I have a new website which will host downloads of my music. I have the new E.P. - "Duets For Synthesizer" posted up there currently along with some other gems. The website address is

http://www.ic-musicmedia.com/artist_pages/artistpage.php?id=102893

I will be changing up the music on there frequently just to let you all know.

Spring is almost here so Jack and I are going to make the final push to get the condo up for sale. I took today off of work so I could pull the weeds in the front of the house and clean up the outside so it looks presentable. Jackie painted in the shower recently so that looks much better. I still have to caulk the bathtub for the sixth time. We can't wait to get a house and more inportantly we can't wait to leave the condo!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone.

Went to Scott Lozon's last night. What was weird was there was a period of 15 mins or so that Mick Senish, Rob Armitage, Scott, and myself were all in the same room. The combination of us 4 is what constitutes according to leading music critics and fans, the "classic" Tonto Savalas lineup.

Spent most of yesterday at Jackie's Mom and Dad's doing the Easter thing. I had a good time. We watched "The Birds". Dinner was great as always.

We are going to my Mom and Dad's today for Easter dinner there. Dinner should be good as well.

Have a good holiday and as Leon Russell once said, "Don't Get Hung Up About Easter".

Website Resurrected?

I have started to rebuild my original website. The original website revolved around my musical activities whereas I always intended this one to be an online journal of sorts where I could write about whatever. It seems like lately this site has concentrated more on "The Music" but that will be changing soon. The address for the new website is

http://home.comcast.net/~sonicworkshop/ArcherSite.html

The guestbook that was on the original website is still there and was quite funny to read after so long. Please sign the guestbook if you get a chance because most of you that will read this are really twisted and I like to read your insanity in word form. God bless you all and have a blessed day.

Update On Ongoing Musical Projects

In my last update I listed the ongoing musical projects that I have running at the moment. I didn't have time to get into the details at the time of that posting but I do now.

"The Paradise Tapes - Volume 2" (Album)
I recorded this album between December 24th and December 31 of 2004 at "The Northern Estate" in Paradise, Michigan. It was recorded to 4-track cassette. The album is finished with the exception of two pieces which I need to remix. This should have been done long ago but I cannot seem to concentrate on one thing musically. This is as the name implies the sequel to "The Paradise Tapes - Volume 1"

"Experimental Music #2 - Electronic Music" (E.P.)
This E.P. is about 80% completed. I played Joe Lafata the rough mixes of this a couple of weeks ago and he liked it. It is being recorded onto the 'Cakewalk" program. It was originally supposed to be finished in October of 2004 but I have decided to once again (see Albatross) play "the perfectionist" with this E.P. This is the sequel to "Experimental Music #1 - Moog Music" and the second part of the 4 part "Experimental Music" series.

"Experimental Music #3 - Answering Machine Music" (E.P.)
This E.P. is about 90% completed but I stopped work on it a couple of months ago to concentrate on completing "Electronic Music". I never did. This E.P. is made up of recordings I made using 20 second and a 30 second "endless loop" answering machine cassettes recorded onto 4-track cassette. The idea is that the tapes never end so I start by recording the first track or loop and when I am satisfied with it I record up to three other tracks on top of it (4 tracks = 4 loops). Then during the mixing process I am free to start the piece with any of the 4 loops I want to and I can bring the others up and down in the mix as I please. Since the tapes never end I can make the piece 2 minutes or 2 hours. I don't think any of you reading this really know how insane I am.

"A Thread Of Light In The Cloak Of Darkness" (Album)
This album is about 90% completed. It consists of recordings made via the Boss RC-20XL "Loop Station" pedal. It is being recorded onto the "Cakewalk" program. It is related in theory to the "Answering Machine Music" E.P. in that it is "loop" music but it is produced by a much different process. I start by recording a single loop onto which I then overdub various numbers of other loops (one piece on the album features over 45 guitar loops).

"The D.J. Wonderbread Experience" (Album)
I have 4 finished tracks for this album. I have about 20 other tracks of which the recording of is in progress. I must keep details about this album shrouded in mystery for the time being.

"Northville Soundtrack" (Album)
I have 4 tracks finished for this project as well. Over the last 9 months or so I have been composing and recording "soundtrack" music to video footage of the now demolished Wayne County Child Development Center in Northville, Michigan. I have about 5 other tracks for this project started but not completed. One of the guys from the W.C.C.D.C. site www.northville-tunnels.com plays the cello and we will be collaborating on some of the music in the future. It is being recorded onto "Cakewalk".

"Albatross" (Album) (as always)
Ahhh "Albatross". I started the writing and recording of this album in the fall of 2000 and I still am not finished. It is a double album consisting of one "vocal" album and one instrumental album recorded onto 4-track cassette. I have 14 songs completed so far. I wouldn't usually be such a perfectionist about the album but it really is the greatest thing I have ever done. "Albatross" is my Masterpiece. It is my "Sgt. Pepper's" or my "Physical Graffitti", or my "Quadrophenia". I am so extremely proud of this album that I can't half-ass anything on it. It will be finished sometime before 2010 I hope.

I have a lot going on at the moment musically.

Productive Saturday

Saturday I wrote and recorded a new 30 minute E.P. entitled "Duets For Synthesizer". It was recorded directly to the Cakewalk program using both the Micromoog and ARP Odyssey synthesizers with extensive effects processing. I think it turned out really well. I gave Rob Scheys a preview of it Saturday night and he really liked it.

Although I am pleased with finishing a new E.P. in the span of 3 hours or so I really should be concentrating on the projects I have going right now. At the time of this writing I am working on the following projects.

"The Paradise Tapes - Volume 2" (Album)

"Experimental Music #2 - Electronic Music" (E.P.)

"Experimental Music #3 (E.P.)

"A Thread Of Light In The Cloak Of Darkness" (Album)

"The D.J. Wonderbread Experience" (Album)

"Northville Soundtrack" (Album)

"Albatross" (Album) (as always)

So as you see I have plently on my musical plate to contend with.

I will be updating again very soon as I am pleased to announce two new blog pages for all of you to view at your leisure.

The Mars Volta And Other Subjects.

I wrote last time in the music meme (I still don't know what that is) that the last CD I bought was "The Mars Volta" - "Frances The Mute". I had bought the CD at that time but I didn't receive it in the mail until the next day. I had never really heard "The Mars Volta" before I bought the CD and I only really bought it because the guitarist Omar A Rodriguez-Lopez has appeared on a couple of John Frusciante's albums and I liked what I heard of him. This CD is INCREDIBLE. I usually play about three CD's a day in my Jeep driving around. One or two songs from this one then a couple from another, ect. "The Mars Volta" CD has not left my CD player since I bought it. Once every three years or so a CD will come out that really gets me excited about music and being a composer/musician and this one definately has. It reminds me of old Yes and King Crimson and all the "progressive rock" bands that I really love. It has blown my mind.

"The Shield" starts it's fourth season this Tuesday at 10p.m. on FX. It's probably my favorite show of all time.

Aaron and I went out Sunday to take some pictures two of which can be seen below this post. When we were driving up to the Adair church I said to Aaron "One day we will come here and the church will be caved in". As soon as I said it we saw that the church had indeed caved in and in a bad way. It must have made a hell of a sound when it came down.

Rob Scheys lent me a book called "The Mixing Engineer's Handbook" It basically contains tips for mixing multi-track music down to Cd or whatever format. For a nerd like me it is a really good read. I have always been very proud of my mixes and have considered them to be of high quality but this book has caused me to think of a couple things differently.

That's all I have for now. I'm boring as hell.

This picture of the Adair church was taken about a year ago. This was always one of my favorite photography subjects. I always wanted to go inside of it and look around but I always thought (righfully so) that the structure was very unsafe. 

This is what the Adair church looks like now. 

This is a classic pic of myself taken after drinking alot of beer and Jagermeister up in Caseville. I have to use it for an album cover someday. 

Day Off Yesterday

I called into work yesterday to see what they had for me to do. It was pretty slow so I took the day off. I love days off especially when I'm not sick and I can actually do things.

After I talked to my boss I went into my parents house and drank some coffee and hung out with Jessica and Ozzy for awhile. I took some containers up to storage in Richmond and I cleaned pretty much the whole house, vacuumed, and did some laundry.

Yesterday was a pretty productive day musically. I worked alot on "Electronic Music" and I am pleased to say that I am going to make my first CD of rough mixes of the E.P. tonight and I will play it for Joe Lafata tommorrow before the "House Music" gig to see what he thinks. Joe also gave me cassette copies of the latest "House Music" albums "Across Your Teeth" and "What Was..." for me to put onto CD so I started the mastering process for those yesterday as well.

My life is just chocked full of excitement isn't it?

Music Meme

Scott filled out this music meme (whatever that is) on the Tonto/Buddha blogpage so I thought I would try it out.

1. Total amount of music files on your computer:

Approximately 5 GB's. I really thought it would be more but whatever.

2. The last CD you bought was:

The Mars Volta - "Francis The Mute".

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?

"Lever Pulled" by John Frusciante.

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.

1. "A Shield For Your Eyes" by Melt Banana - Probably the coolest song I have ever heard.

2. "Opel" by Syd Barrett - Six and half minutes of the most beautiful music ever commited to recording tape.

3. "Sea And Sand" by The Who - No other song reminds me of my childhood and the carefree feelings of my youth than this one.

4. "Man-Erg" by Van der Graaf Generator - Peter Hammill wrote this song about himself and it remains the greatest song ever written about one's self and the personality traits that they are capable of exhibiting.

5. "Where Do We Go From Here" by The Band - This song shows why Rick Danko is my favorite singer of all time. I would give ANYTHING to be able to sing like he did.

5. Who are you going to pass this stick to? (3 persons) and why?

Who said anything about a stick? I don't know what they mean.