Dogs...in the studio.

A new recording project has begun! OK, perhaps a little background is in order. About a year ago, I decided to put together a band...along the lines of a garage-rock, blues-infused, occasionally noisy kinda thing. At the time, I was heavily into working on my solo record "Seven Years Now" and needed an outlet for raucous, visceral explosions of face-melting bliss. You could say that I had all the yin I could handle and was out shopping for a mad dose of yang. Thankfully, I had the good fortune to befriend drummer Brian Arnold and bass player Sam Sanders. And thus was born Dogs On Television. In this pic, Brian is on the left and that is Sam on the right:


I already had a bunch of songs ready to be rocked...in particular, the songs "Start A Fire" and "The Jailer" left over from my old band were clamoring for attention. And I knew down the line their pleadings would turn to dreams of being recorded. I dug the idea of writing for DoTV and song after song came along. Some hung out, and seemed to work...others seemed to come and then go.

Anyway, this past weekend DoTV began the recording of a full-length record at Taylor Barefoot Studios in Brighton, MA. After two 10-hour sessions, the Dogs had barked up a storm. We were...dog tired...


Seriously though, it's going great. We are fortunate to have as engineer and co-producer, Shane O'Connor. He definitely has a knack for going after the right sound. Plus, anyone who breaks out a theremin is after my own heart! Spooky electronics aside, we are finding all the sounds we need at this studio.


It's a little early to say when this will be done, but it is a much simpler project than "Seven Years Now." So my guess is a CD will be available by Spring 2010. But don't quote me on that. Much work to do! Stay tuned Dog-lovers, I will post more soon.


P.S. A super big thank you to Fallon O'Brien for snapping all the photos!

Videos posted from the CD Release Show!

Some videos from the CD Release Show have been posted on You Tube. See below for the first song from the evening... The rest are viewable here: http://www.youtube.com/jahoulah

Album for sale online!

"Seven Years Now" is now available online at CD Baby:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/houlahan

You can purchase it in CD or mp3 format. Please feel free to leave a review or comment on the album at CD Baby. Or, you can leave comments here, on MySpace, Facebook, etc. I welcome your thoughts and reactions!

(flier from the release show featuring original artwork by Dan Blakeslee:)

not exactly solo...

I keep referring to this record as a "solo record." All that means is that it has my name on it. In fact, it is anything but a solo effort. Many exceptionally talented local musicians lent their time, ideas, and manifold skills to make the music possible. I want to say that I am totally humbled by all the awesome contributions made by the following people:

Tom Eaton: Producer, accordion, melodica
Mike Null: Producer, guitar, back up vocals
Tom Bianchi: Upright and electric bass
Paul Schultheis: pump organ, Hammond, Wurlitzer, and all keyboards
Andy Plaisted: drums
Jake Armerding: fiddle
Kevin Barry: lap steel guitar
Kristen Cifelli: backing vocals
John Curtis: banjo, national guitar, mandolin
Kristen Miller: cello
Sara Colb: backing vocals
Daniella Colb: backing vocals
Dan Blakeslee: backing vocals
Scott Aruda: trumpet
John Aruda: saxophone
Jeff Galindo: trombone
Paul Ahlstrand: saxophone

You should follow the links and check out their music!

Dan Blakeslee, Mike Null, Tom Bianchi, and Kristen Miller will be performing at the CD Release Show in Somerville! It is going to be a lot of fun. Come check it out!

Seven Years Now CD RELEASE!!!!
Sunday, January 25, 2009, 8PM
The Burren
247 Elm St., Davis Square
Somerville, MA

All done.

DONE. All done. The record is now at the factory being duplicated...I will have copies for sale at the release show at The Burren in Somerville, MA on January 25, 2009. Soon after that copies will be available online in both digital and CD formats.

Phew. It's been a wild ride! I don't have much else to say right now...while it may be a violation of blogging etiquette, I just don't have much more to say about this project. It now goes out into the world, and will be there for your consideration. I hope you like it.

More news and info will be forthcoming concerning the release show and purchasing information. Happy Holidays!

CD RELEASE DATE & VENUE!

Sunday, January 25, 2009
8:00PM
The Burren
247 Elm St. (Davis Square)
Somerville, MA

Please join us for the release show for my solo album "Seven Years Now"! There will be a guest set from Mr. Dan Blakeslee, and other special guests...

More info coming soon! Save the date!!!

whales & angels

About half of the record has been mixed so far...at this rate I should have a finished product by December. After it gets mixed, I need to finalize the artwork and send it off to get pressed (i.e., mass-produced). So, optimistically I should be able to do this before Christmas. Also, plans are in the works for a release show early next year. But I will announce those details as they become available.

Tom Eaton has an interesting computer program to clean-up vocal issues. Apparently, whenever I (or anyone, I guess) pronounce the letter "p" into a microphone it has a jarring result. Too much percussive content in the sound. It pops. So Tom has a program that he uses to clean these things up...file it under "studio magic."

The program is called Izotrope RX and it basically presents a graphic representation of every sound frequency inside a given vocalization. For example, if I sing the word "you" the program shows a variety of different sounds as individual frequencies that all go together to make the complete sound. This completely blew my mind. I had no idea there there were that many mini-sounds within a simple vocal sound. And, what's crazier is that you can hear the component sounds played separately! So, each frequency can be isolated and heard on its own. This also blew my mind! Within a simple sung word were so many different sounds: some lower frequencies sounded like whales, some higher frequencies sounded like angels, and other deeper frequencies sounded like evil noises emitted from a dark subterranean source. I could not wrap my brain around the fact that they all run together to make a sung word.

I asked Tom if we could break down the frequencies even further...get even more mini-sounds, perhaps components of the frequencies themselves. I was met with a blank look. We were at the edge of science, and being the naive person I am, I did not realize there was not a deeper level to access. You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one. Seriously, someday they will break down audible frequencies and unlock smaller component parts. Nano-sounds. Or something like that...

So the mixing is ongoing, and updates on album progress should be coming soon! Stay tuned for information on the official release show and the possibility of getting a copy of the album before the show!