No one learns kung fu around here!

My goodness! haven't blooged in over a week or two.

I've been reading this book:

Its super good. But seeing as I don't read that much, I'm bound to like it. However, sometimes I feel like its directed specifically to the "confused young black man," which I don't happen to be.

Watched this movie:

"The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin," circa 1983. It starred the Nick Cannon of kung fu. I liked it a lot. The grammar mistakes in the subtitles might have been the most exciting part of though.

Found this CD:

Gawsh, 'Attitude is Everything!' with Keith Harrell! Don't we all love/never heard of Keith Harrell? Anyways, I'm going to sample it like 1,000 times.

My Omnichord had an accident. Here's its guts, after I took it apart:

Yikes. I'm going to leave out details, because... its pretty stupid. But, alas! It will be fixed - do not worry!

I'm hope you're enjoying the stellar camera phone pictures I've posted thus far.

I think I'm able to record drums pretty well now: 2 condensers + 2 dynamics. Here's an old song, a lot of you have probably heard. But I re-did a few parts, and its less annoyingly loud overall. "The Saddest Tree On Earth pt. 1."

The Saddest Tree On Earth pt. 1 by G N 8

This will be found on a tape (Brady and) I are putting together. But less news about that.

LOOK AT THIS!

Omnichord + Distortion pedal + Drums

Here's another jam brady and I decided to record. We were just kind of amazed to hear how cool the omnichord hooked up through the GRUNGE pedal we stole from Billy's house sounded, so we recorded a little bit of it to share. I'm also overusing a Zildjian oriental 14" china cymbal that I stole from Julius' house. Its kind of long.

MURDER by G N 8

How about Jay Reatard?! That sucks! Its just too sad! And pitchfork was talking about how they were investigating to see if it was homicide. I don't want to hear that. This is a really cool documentary. It shows how nice of a guy he was.

Waiting For Something - a short documentary about Jay Reatard

Jay Reatard | MySpace Music Videos

My pal TYLER W (aka Phillip Oskar Augustine) got reviewed on Pitchfork!? Woah! He drove my sister and I up to p4k in chicago this summer and its totally crazy that he's on their site now. Good for him!

Oh god... who thought of the jazz harp?

Auditions and Gnu Toyz

So yesterday was my audition for the South Carolina region band. I didn't do so bad. My etude was alright (the one in the last blog). My rudiments were ok, just those were the first thing I played, so I was still kinda shakin'. I got all the terms right. But the sightreading, sounded like puke. I'll find out if I made callbacks tomorrow morning... so... don't want to put any words in my mouth till then.

The basement is becoming the messiest it has ever been... so many instruments... Sorry mom and dad...

Yes, there's a glockenspiel with a few microphones hovering over it...

Brady and I (G N 8) will have some things for you listeners in the future. He recently traded a broken first act drum set for a working bass guitar. Yay for us.

I recently made a purchase on eBay. Probably the best online purchase I've made. I present, straight from 1981: The Suzuki Omnichord OM-27.

Its mega cool. And here's a video I did to prove it:

My new Omnichord OM-27 from Garrett Burke on Vimeo.

So how about that Vampire Weekend? I feel like they've been the biggest winners of 2010 so far, just because they're able to surprise everyone with music no one expected. You should assume that, myself being the music snob that I am, I should hate Vampire Weekend, but I really can't get enough of Cousins (though that and Horchata are the only songs I've hear off their new record). I say keep it up, Vampire Weekend, even if they are still doing pointless shows like MTV unplugged, I can't really say anything bad about them when they write good music.

I listened to Toro Y Moi's "Causers of This" 3 times yesterday. A very good record. Besides that I feel like I'm very behind right now. I haven't done any downloading in forever, because my hard drive is full and I haven't really gotten the time to figure out my new external (its 1.5 TB HOLY SHIT).

Thanks!

Gross

I had an accident this weekend. We were all at YMC practice, and my pal, Gage, and I were having a conversation. All of the sudden, the strap on his bass snapped, thus propelling his inconveniently placed bass guitar to plummet down on top of my foot. To make a long story short, my toe is broken. It was really gross the first few days and kind of looked like a zombie. Well, I'm not going to go out without shoes for a while now, and dad says it probably won't be 100% healed until the summer or sometime... so here's what it looks like:

HA! I drew it!

In other news, this coming weekend is my audition for South Carolina's region/state band in Summerville. I'm pretty prepared, so here's a video of my solo piece:

Its actually TOTALLY sloppy, but after one take, I figured anyone watching this would not know the difference. The music itself is just stupid.

I had a pretty good jam with my pal, Kieran, last week. He had some really cool tunes to share with us. Not much to blog about though.

Toro Y Moi's album was released today, I think I shall buy it.

Milk chug is friday...

misc.

Here's two new tracks:

#1. "Elbow Grease"

A purely electronic song I collaborated with Brady on. I wouldn't call it collaborating though, because we do everything together actually. Anyways, he made the original beat and e-mailed the live set to me, where I took it, changed it and rearranged it. It starts pretty clean then turns around and sounds kind of 8-bitty. Ended up with this:

Elbow Grease by G N 8

#2. "Minimalistmas pt. 1"

I had this idea when the holiday season came around, that I'd mix awful christmas music and minimalist music. It began as a joke, then I started to think that it was actually really cool and wanted to make a full disc of it, but never got around to making any until this weekend. And its not even any good - its two tracks of a music box and a cymbal roll - nothing happens. Anyways, if you can, enjoy:

Minimalistmas pt. 1 by G N 8

There's one more tune I've been working on this week. Its a much fuller song, and I'll probably finish recording it tomorrow. Thanks for listening.

Silly

Above is what Brady calls, "christmas lights on a house, a Garrett Burk Minimalismiss haha." He takes a lot of cool pictures like this.

I have a band called YOUNG MAN CARBUNCULAR. I play drums in it, as usual. I've never blogged about us because we never do anything during the school year. Two of our core members live in rock hill, sc and go to school at Winthrop, whilst the other two of us still go to high school here. Anyways, we're all in town and decided to jam today. We've got a lot of cool you can find at our myspace. This is something a little stupid we did, called, 'YMSilly." In it you'll hear, glockenspiel, bicycle horn, sleigh bells, washboard, kazoo, etc.

YMSilly by G N 8

My friend IAN started blogging this week. He sings and plays guitar in YMC. Czech it out.

That's all for now. I've got a few works in progress I'll talk about later.

2010

This is my new blog. Its actually the same blog, same content and purpose, just different name. I could not change the url from "bloggers are lame," which is something I could not stand, to what the blog is actually called. I was then forced to create a new blog and just copy all the old blogs onto here. Anyways, if you followed my old one (www.bloggersarelame.blogspot.com) it'd be very nice if you followed this one too.

Thanks

hap hap holidays

Christmas was yesterday; I got some tings. Such as a metronome, a new microphone, some headphones, tee shirts AND...

this totally awesome snare drum! I was so excite!

I seriously love my drumset now more than ever, and am probably going to practice more, seeing as I have a much more ideal practice situation.

Also! My sister got a bunch of comics for me from Sam Spina. I've never met him, but I totally read his blog. They're really cool, and he also sent me this personal painting and note:

I finished some more music this week that I shall post in the next few days!

Footage

Here's a video of the Jazz combo playing 'Mr. PC,' by John Coltrane. Combo is drums, sax, bass, trumpet, and piano. I'm on drums. Just so you can hear what we sound like. It wasn't the best gig, but I like the video. And Yeah, I know, the video's sideways. Oh well.

New tuens

Here's a thing I've been working on. After remaking my ideas for this track about a thousand times, I actually recorded some instruments on it. It was going to be longer, but I couldn't think of any way to extend it immediately, so I decided to put the words, "part," and, "one," on the title. Thus, it is not finished. I called it "The Saddest Tree On Earth (pt. 1)." Its named after this really shitty 2-foot tall tree on the island behind main street auto. I think its significant.

The Saddest Tree On Earth pt. I by G N 8

Reading pitchfork's top albums/tracks of 09 has been fun. 'My girls' got the #1 spot, and 'Stillness is the move' got #2. I enjoy that. Taylor Swift got mentioned at #69. Wtf?

Holiday break starts tomorrow, I'll be playing a few gigs. I'll cover that later.

Some more music!

I'm a big fan of Wavves. I saw him at p4k this summer in Chicago. He played with a cast on. I'm sure if I ever met him, he'd just be a giant dick, because that's what all the news makes him out to be, but he's got some good songs nonetheless. So I decided to cover one his tracks of off "Wavvves." Here's my version of "To The Dregs." To be honest, I think I did a really bad job on this. But I did the whole recording just today, and I had to much of a fun time making it to not put it on the internet. I play guitar, drums, synthesizer, and I cover both vocal parts on this track.

To The Dregs by G N 8

A while ago, I started making some dubstep tunes, then eventually just deleted them, because actually I just don't know how to make dubstep. Anyways, I had this one beet that kind evolved out of one of those failed dubs. Basically, the purpose of this track was to see how heavy I could make the bass and still have a somewhat listenable song. Not sure if I succeeded, but I am planning on putting this on a cd and playing it Trey's car, because its a subaru. So please please pleeeeease turn your subs up when you listen to this, or at least find a speaker system with sub woofers; just listening to it on your macbook internal speakers will not suffice.

Bass Reflex by G N 8

Thirdly, a new band was formed last week. We don't have a name, nor have we really started playing any music so I don't really want to write about it that much. But I can reveal that it involves just Billy and I. He's the bassist, and I play this thing:

Well, that's all for now.

OOPS MUSIC

So one of my more recent projects is called OOPS. It involves Tyler d. on saxophones/flute, Billy g. on Bass/tuba, Brady on synthesizers, and myself playing drums. It originally was somewhat of a joke, mixing popular rap songs with jazz and cheesy synths, but we ended up making some kind of cool music. Yesterday we recorded 4 songs, and they shall be presented here:

#1 - "Rap medly" - Our cover of "Ice Cream Paint Job" and "Wu tang ain't nuttin to fuk wit."

Rap Medly by G N 8

#2 - "Keyboard Cat" - Yeah, like the video.

Keyboard Cat by G N 8

#3 - "Hey Buddy Buddy" - All I'm going to say, is that there's this REALLY cool part at 2:14.

Hey Buddy Buddy by G N 8

#4 - "Charlie's Cat" - Basically just a latin version of keyboard cat in a minor key.

Charlie's Cat by G N 8

When lacking a microphone stand...

and the oops kit (3 piece; ride/hats)

myspace

A Wheely Important Invention

So, I'm taking a new class at school called "History In Film." And its actually pretty awesome. Mr A (coolest teacher on earth) just shows a bunch of different movies, then we talk about them. Haha. Anyways, we had do a project this semester, about "Innovations in History," and so two of my friends and I decided to make a movie about the invention of the wheel. How awesome it that? Well, see for yourself.

A WHEELY IMPORTANT INVENTION from Garrett Burke on Vimeo.

someone asked me what the year's best albums were...

Here's my top 20:

• "Veckatimest" - Grizzly Bear
• "Bitte Orca" - Dirty Projectors
• "Dragonslayer" - Sunset Rubdown
• "Merriweather Post Pavillion" - Animal Collective
• "Get Color" - HEALTH
• "Wavvves" - Wavves
• "Logos" - Atlas Sound
• "Women" - Women
• "Psychic Chasms" - Neon Indian
• "Actor" - St. Vincent
• "UUVVWWZ" - UUVVWWZ
• "Worse Than Alone" - The Number 12 Looks Like You
• "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" - Phoenix
• "See Mystery Lights" - YACHT
• "Bromst" - Dan Deacon
• "Losing Feeling" - No Age
• "Enemy Mine" - Swan Lake
• "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II" - Raekwon
• "Face Control" - Handsome Furs
• "Watch Me Fall" - Jay Reatard

Can't say they're 'the year's best albums,' but rather, 'what I've been listening to most this year.'

"Music Video"

Satan Doll from Garrett Burke on Vimeo.

A video of music / how to listen to it. If you really liked that song, which I know you did, here's the mp3. It has nothing to do with the jazz standard, "Satin Doll."

Satan Doll by G N 8

Happy Fellas

Hey everyone. Here's some music:

#1 - "Chocolate" - Me

Well, I was just messing around with some audio effects and this one synth that I really liked, and wanted to record something, so I quick thought up some basic I IV iii ii V I chord progression and made a punk song. I guess its about candy and whatnot, seeing as I named it 'chocolate.' This track is all me; I'm on drums, guitar, and synth.

Chocolate by youngmanHam

#2- "Happy Jam" - G N 8

Basically, Brady and I and the happiest dudes on Earth, and here's to prove it. Its just a jam between me and him; I'm on drums and he's playing some wacky distorted keyboard. Its all really happy music, mainly very danceable, yet obnoxious at times. This track is like 15 minutes long, its cool if you listen to all of it though.

And yes, we do phase into both "keyboard cat," and the theme from "UP," once. Ha.

Happy jam by youngmanHam

Ooh here's something cool!

When I was in New York last two weekends ago, I took a long venture through Grandpa's garage and found this gem of an electric guitar:

Its missing tuning pegs and the knobs and all the electronics are totally screwed up, but I'm gonna take it to the shop tomorrow and see what they'll do to it. I'm kind of hoping that in the future, some antique nut will find it and let me know that this guitar is worth millions of dollars... but its probably worthless. You can see all the dust on it from the flash... ha.

Thanks for listening.

But wait, there's more...

Here's another new track I've been working on. Just some house music, with some fun samples and really heavy bass and whatnot. Its called "Ice Cream Social." I'll give $10 to who ever can find where I got the sample of the Japanese guy talking halfway through.

Ice cream social by youngmanHam

Uploaded three songs in one day... sounds like a success to me.

Grooves You Can Use

Never made a video a video of me drumming. I've always wanted to, because that's what I do best, and I feel like most dudes on youtube don't know what they're doing.

Anyways, I had two gigs with the Jazz Combo last weekend (Combo is bass, trumpet, sax, piano, and me... and we are in need of a name, suggestions?) and so I kept the school's drum kit with me all weekend (the school's kit is nicer than mine). So I took the snare and kick and decided to set up a real minimal kit and play some beats on the camera. Its just like 5 minutes of footage with some words in the corner.

Here's a picture of it in the garage... Check out those K's right?

Might post some pics of the combo later; we've got another gig on saturday at the jazz corner, which should be fun.

Wainting

Wondering how long a china cymbal can stay inside a shower that no one uses. Started it last sunday.

Four Weeks

The cymbal in the shower came out on sunday; lasted exactly four weeks.

Here's something different.

"Mrs. Fletcher's Sick Month" 2009

Small Jam

Little Time by youngmanHam

This is a jam Brady & I did; He's playing bass, and I'm on drums. It was originally 25 minutes long, and I just tweaked the pitch, thus shortening it to about 6 minutes.

G N 8

AWKWARD IMAGES:

a series of unfortunate drawings and odd protrusions

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

OOPS plays Keyboard cat cover

My new project kinda jam band thing had our first gig yesterday. We had one practice the night before, and came up with, Keyboard Cat, Hey buddy buddy (a song our friend "wrote"), some random jam in F minor, and Best I Ever Had - yes the Drake song. We had me and bill on bass and drums, and a saxophone and a bunch of synthesizers. Most kids didn't like it, waited around for the metal band after us. But every one else said it was "different." Not bad.

Draaaaake.

"I'm Alright"

YOUNG MAN CARBUNCULAR

Yeah, we've got one of our new songs up. We have at least 3 more coming within the next few weeks. This ones called "I'm Alright," and it is my favorite song to play with these guys. It actually is one of my favorite songs ever - sounds pretty narcissist right? Oh well, its not like I wrote it. Its pretty light hearted and upbeat, so maybe we'll have critics calling our music "depressing." I'm planning on visiting these guys the first week of October, so till then, my project main project at home is OOPS (or the more formally known, 'Garrett Burkeband').

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