mardi 13 décembre 2011

Rehearsals at CyberSound Studio (10/12/2011)

Hi,

Last saturday was our second rehearsal session at CyberSound. As we moved our asses to Tourcoing to see the Black Lips and didn't go to bed early, we were not in the greatest mood for work but things went pretty not that bad.

We nearly finished Electric Snake (formerly The DRE_07) and it's not impossible that we start recording it track by track soon to make a proper demo now that everybody is happy with the song structure.
We spent nearly the whole 4 hours of the session working Electric Snake and only tried a couple of time Palinopsia so there's still a lot of work to do on it.
We also retried The DRE_01 (I'm working on the name) and it sounded cool without any specific rework (sorry, we didn't record it) so it'll definitely be on our list.

Next move is working songs this weekend and next week in Steven's house (our spiritual HQ) and either Steven's flat or CyberSound.

If anyone has tracks they like or ideas on how to make massive amounts of "winter 2010 style" snow fall over Villers au Bois, please tell us on our FB page.

Stay evil,
W

dimanche 30 octobre 2011

Rehearsals at CyberSound Studio (29/10/2011)

Hi !

It's been a long time since last time you may have heard from us and the band has basicaly been on hiatus for the summer. But the good news is we are currently reworking some songs from jammed records and doing it the professional way this time, no booze, no party and renting rehearsal space in various studios.

For this first rehearsal, we landed at CyberSound Studio in Lille and locked ourselves 4 hours in a hot soundproof room. Miraculously, insead of turning into a gay orgy, we reworked Electric Snake and Palinopsia.

Being kinda disappointed with the way we first reworked these tracks back in april, we spent the previous evening working on the structure and parts of Electric Snake, taking the version from The Dick Riviere Experience as reference instead of continuing what we did in april. As a result, the song is shorter but has way more intensity and is considered nearly finished.

Palinopsia was also restarted using DRE001 version as basic in order to keep the evil tribal vibe of the original recording. Unfortunately, reworking Electric Snake took us a lot of time and we had to work less on this track so it cuts abruptly because we still need to find a couple more sections to finish it but I think we have a good start.

This first session in rehearsal studio was a try to see if we were able to work seriously without being partying at the same time and what the result would be like, being doubtful about the future of the band last summer. As you can hear on our Bandcamp page, the result is pretty good (still a bit messy but it's only the start) and we will keep on reworking songs seriously until we have enough material for starting live shows and recording a first album.


Keep it evil,
W

dimanche 24 juillet 2011

Bandcamp

Hi !

Just created a bandcamp page : http://thedickriviereexperience.bandcamp.com/

I'm currently uploading our main records (The DRE, Chemical and Garage) and you'll soon be able to listen to them online and get a download (lossless available for people who hate mp3s) for "name your price" (you still can get them for free but if you wanna improve your karma, go ahead).

We really might start doing live shows this fall and I'll do some highly collectible home-made CDs for selling at shows (thinking about limited editions of 25).
Still no plans for t-shirts so don't hesitate to do your own ones if you feel creative (and why not post photos of them on our FB page).


Keep it evil,
W

samedi 25 juin 2011

Garage (21062011)

This is the complete recording of all the jams we played live on the DREtv tuesday (21st June 2011).
I did editing on this as quick as possible for those who might be disappointed by the bad quality of the webcast.

As I told before, Max couldn't play with us because of his summer job and the lack of vocal parts on these recordings made us declare him as the official vocalist of the band.


GARAGE
(21062011)

CD 1

CD 2

Covers courtesy of Fanny Ritzkowsky

There's no mentions about copyright in art or mp3 tags but this is, as usual, licensed under Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC-SA). Which means, you can share it with friends and strangers any way you want and use our music for your own projects (videos, movies, remixes, whatever) as long as you mention it's our work, don't make money on it and let others do the same with your derivative work.

Keep music evil and play this freakin' loud !
W

jeudi 23 juin 2011

Webcast #1 (debriefing)

Howdy folks !

A big "thank you !!!" to those who watched us play tuesday afternoon. Any comments welcome (even bad or angry ones).

It didn't really turned into what I expected but it was really representative of the way we usually rehearse.
The usual joke about drummers is that they're always late at rehearsals and ... it's true ! Sorry for the ones who might be compulsivly obsessed with hours, we started 3 hours late because Gwendal missed his train being hooked on phone with his mother and had to wait 2 hours for next one and we took time to cook and eat some pasta.

I'm sure some of you might thinked we are a bunch of wankers while waiting an half-hour after we played 30 minutes but it's the way we rehearse and our plan was to immerge you into it and chat while not playing but unfortunatly, wi-fi connection cut when moving the macbook 10cm ahead so taking it with us outside the garage wasn't possible and not so many people showed up in the chat.

The worst thing about this webcast might be audio/video quality, I know watching a pixelised form moving while hearing distorted sound isn't a pleasant thing but it's the price to pay for an amateur live webcast.
But don't worry, nothing's lost because Simon managed to shoot about 1/3 of all jams in HD with his gopro and nearly everything was recorded by the H2 (the electric razor on a mic stand in the middle of the room) so I'm going to edit all recordings soon to make a proper record (I have one week left before starting my summer job) and hand the record to Simon for editing the gopro footage (or edit it myself if my laptop don't turn into a fire) and upload cool stuf on our vimeo profile.

As for now, you can (re)watch the whole webcast on Ustream (sorry for the ads and shitty quality) while waiting for record and gopro film :


http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15524456

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15524721

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15526340

Keep music evil,
W

lundi 20 juin 2011

Webcast #1 (Update)

Howdy folks !

Ustream channel I linked in the previous post looks like Simon's but saturday night, he told me he can't remember his ID and password si I just created a channel for tomorrow's webcast.
Here it is : http://www.ustream.tv/channel/thedretv

Gwendal still don't know if he'll be able to come and he thinks anyway about getting his ass back to Lille in the evening to see some local bands play. So, this rehearsal might turn into a very special and experimental session as a trio (don't worry, we can spend all night playing kaossilator in front of the gopro if we have to). Kinda thrilled about it right now, we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Hope to see you tomorrow, we might spend some time chatting with watchers if there are some (might not be sober while doing this which could add fun to it).
Keep music evil,
W

PS : Last minute update : Gwendal confirmed he will attend the rehearsal but he would like to go back to Lille around 6/ 7PM (UTC+1). Tomorrow's webcast might definitely be interesting, so be sure to tune in there around 11/11.30AM (UTC+1).

dimanche 19 juin 2011

Webcast #1

Hi there !

We're going to rehearse tuesday and, as it's the "fête de la musique" (for people outside France, June 21st is, since 1981, the day for music celebration in the whole country and that day, any band can play in the streets or wherever they want all day and all night long), we're going to webcast our rehearsal session.

We would have appreciated to play a live show in a street in front of strangers but Max is currently working in a well known French theme park (not Disneyland Paris) and will not be able to play with us this time and, to be honest, we're still kinda band of wankers with no properly written tracks so we hope to play live in front of an audience soon but we've got a lot of hard work between now and then.

Webcast will stream live, probably there : http://www.ustream.tv/channel/thedreexperience (any change will be noted here and on my myspace page).
We'll be at Simon's housearound 10AM (French hour time) so let's say that stream will start around 11 / 11.30 and last as long as it have to.

I think that highlights will have sound from the cam changed for H2 recordings and will land on our vimeo page soon after along with a new collection of recordings.

Anyway, keep an eye here or on our myspace for any news.
Stay away from bad trips,
W

lundi 9 mai 2011

Electric Snake / Palinopsia

Last April 16th, instead of buying lots of expensive limited edition wax plates in indie record stores, we rehearsed two tracks from previous records in Steven's living room.
After a long lazy moment exclusively playing lego star wars like a reject, I finally edited what was recorded.


Electric Snake is a remake of the 7th track off The Dick Riviere Experience.



Palinopsia is a remake of 4th track off DRE001



I don't know if it's useful to say that names are not final and tracks are work in progress.

No download will be available for these tracks but they are up for your listening pleasure on our soundcloud profile.

Covers are only for illustration on soundcloud and were made with a "double A-side digital 7inch" idea in mind which is why they are so minimalist, functional and ugly (I'd made the same if it was for sale on shiTunes).

Keep your cool, music evil, audio analog, Fonzy's thumb up and Ringo behind a drumkit.
W

jeudi 3 mars 2011

Chemical

Chemical was recorded in Steven's house on 25th of February 2011.

As it sounds more like a follow-up to The DRE than a DRE record, it's not called DRE008. I think that DRE records will now be the ones we make with limited gear in Lille and the ones we make with a real drumkit and big amps will have names.
You will understand the meaning of the title when reading what's in the artwork.
Simon doesn't play on this record because he was in Stockholm.

Chemical
7 untitled tracks - 74'31"
Up for listen and download on our Bandcamp profile.

Nobody in the band actually takes any of the pills that are shown on this record cover.

dimanche 20 février 2011

Signal / Noise

Hi, I'm pleased to announce the first side project to DRE geekly called Signal / Noise.

Band is only a pair of Maxs and it sounds like some downtempo electro thing.
We've only been working on it for two days and we already have some extended jams and a first track (with like a structure and stuff) currently under construction.
We decided it to be a new band just because it doesn't sound like DRE at all.

Don't worry, DRE is going well, we're doing new sessions next weekend so you might have new records to check soon (and maybe also a S/N release).

mercredi 16 février 2011

DRE007

DRE_007 was recorded in Steven's flat in Lille on 26+27/01/2011.
Only a few jams were recorded and we played without a drumkit (only a pair of muffled floor toms) on small 15w amps.
A "post-rock guitar player trick using a screwdriver" was used to create some "violin" tones on guitar.
The "DRExxx" chronology doesn't count our last release, so it's not called DRE008 despite it's our eighth release.
Will work later on an alternate artwork in the style of previous ones. This one seems weird enough to me to fit the recordings and it don't consider this release a major one as it's really short and at least 2 tracks are based on an idea we are currently developping into a proper track.


DRE_007
6 untitled tracks - 28'21''
Get it here : http://www.mediafire.com/file/pnhia1b98nhmmy3/DRE007.7z

This record was intended to include a "bathroom session" we did later but it sadly appeared that the recording (cheaply done with my cellphone) was just a blank .amr file of 42min (for ~4Mo) so please be aware that the Sony Ericsson Hazel is a piece of crap about audio and just can't record sounds (but it makes pretty not so crappy videos and even if the camera kinda sucks it still has those cool effects you can use to take weird photos).

vendredi 11 février 2011

Steven got his PC fucked up by a goddamn virus, that sucks !
(it means what we were doing on previous picture might have been flushed out of his HDD and ...  that sucks !).

And we saw The Black Angels (second time for me, third for Max, NASA is still calculating for Steven) at the "aero" monday, they rocks the fuck out and you must love 'em or die (sorry, no third option, sir). The curtain behind them was kind of a bad trip itself.




Working on a new concept for future video, might take some time to do but will be worth it.

jeudi 20 janvier 2011

DRE_006 / The Dick Riviere Experience

After a long wait, I'm proud to announce the release of our two new records.

DRE_006 and The Dick Riviere Experience were recorded in Steven's house on 27th and 28th of December 2010.

DRE_006 is totally in continuity with the five previous records, it's a record made of instrumental jams with a reduced line-up (Gwendal arrived on second day of the session). The Dick Riviere Experience is, as I said earlier, kind of different because it's the first time we are playing as a full line up si it's to be considered as a jammed demo. I think this record contains some of our best work yet and might be a good base for a proper album and future live shows.


DRE_006
 
7 untitled tracks - 65'25"
Get it here : http://www.mediafire.com/file/bssp2ykr1lil85f/DRE006.7z


The Dick Riviere Experience
7 untitled tracks - 71'52"
Check it out on our bandcamp profile.

Our first home video, shot during these two days, can be found as a DVD included with the physical release of this record. It's an hour long and includes 3 tracks off The DRE and one off DRE_006. Videos for the first two tracks off The DRE can be seen on our vimeo profile as a teaser for both DVD and album.

vendredi 14 janvier 2011

First videos

Hello, still haven't got CDrs so still no master = still no release but we just want to give you something to ease the wait and tease you with our very first videos. Everything is nearly done, tracks just need to get normalized and land on a master CD before being ripped and tagged with iTunes and get shared to the world.


The DRE_01 from The Dick Riviere Experience on Vimeo.

The DRE_02 from The Dick Riviere Experience on Vimeo.


These are the videos for the two first tracks off The Dick Riviere Experience which is our very first demo as a full band (it's why it's not called DRE007 and is not a part of the DRExxx project which is now assumed as kind of parallel to The Dick Riviere Experience like, for example, SYR records for Sonic Youth or The Viet Minh for The Black Angels).
The same videos will also be available as part of our first home-video that is finished but will only get physical release as the visual part of The Dick Riviere Experience CD.

Let us know if you're interestred in physical versions of records (including DRE records), we will work something out.

jeudi 6 janvier 2011

DRE_006 is coming

Before I even say a hell-fucking-o,  I WISH YOU A HAPPY 2011 !!!
(hold on buddies, so talked about apocalypse is only a bit less than 2 years ahead)


Hello, I surprisingly finished all editing earlier than I've expected on last recordings (it took me only two days) and I'm going to do artwork very soon. Waiting for CDrs to arrive home to do a master and start sharing it along all five previous records.

As for the five previous records, I'll be doing two covers (it's all about continuity, dude !) : one made with photos that will look too fuckin "post-rock" to be honest for online release and a psychedelic/pre-school computer-assisted drawing for possible future physical release.


I'm sure you're worried right now, asking yourself why is all that talking only about one record as we made a two days session. Aren't you ?

Well, let's say that what I expected to be DRE_007 is more important than what I thinked it would be, this one is going to be some kind of a "full album lenght" jammed demo because it's our first recording as a full band and not anymore a bunch of "experienced people".

So this record is just going to be called The Dick Riviere Experience (yeah, that's an eponymous record) and will probably be released in a less "I put it there, take it if you want, if you won't I won't mind" way along with a DVD of footage shot during same sessions with really well-done artwork and maybe, for the first time, a track listing with names (hope you've got a boner now !!!).


Keep away from bad trips,
Max