I had to re-record a version of Can’t Start Over for something quickly today, so I thought I would share it with you guys. You can check out the “Special 2011 version” on the music page. In new music news; Although I haven’t been talking too much about it, I’ve been making good progress on the new album and I’m excited for you guys to hear it. It’s still a little while off yet, but not that far.

After further listening to the Pink Floyd remasters, I give the “Most Improved” award to The Wall and Wish You Were Here, with an honourable mention for Meddle. I don’t know if the other 15 versions of The Wall I have are different, but it seems like there is so much more revealed that I’ve never heard before on an album I’ve listened to about a gazillion times. Im particularly impressed with the new depth of field and re-focus on some of the background happenings.


A listen through a stripped down song like “Goodbye Blue Sky” now reveals all kinds of subtle synth work harmonizing the vocal and extra sounds effects that got completely buried/lost (on me anyway) before hand. I’ve noticed the same thing on the rest of the album as wel. I’m sure if I go back and listen to an older version I will be able to hear them, but only because I now know they’re there.

On a slightly different note regarding The Wall, I really appreciate the renewed strength in the instruments sounds. Particularly in the guitars, bass, keys, and kick drum (is there anything left?). Lot’s of the bass tones on the record are really cool as well; the more driven ones sound exactly like a Ampeg SVT, but it’s probably a Hiwatt of some sort. Actually, a Hiwatt DR103 head (a very clean high head room tube amp) sounds a lot like an SVT (a very clean, very high head room tube amp) on the normal channel. John Entwistle, of Who fame, used an army of DR103’s in the late 60’s and early 70’s when his tone was subjectively the best. Roger Waters studio bass tone doesn’t get talked about much, but I’m a really really big fan.

The Wall as a whole feels more cohesive and a little bit more slick, but in a very good way. This improves the presentation and adds both depth and interest (possible?) to the already killer album as a result. This same trend is evident in Wish You Were Here and Meddle as well. Aces in my book!


Last week I also had the amazing opportunity to play a couple of times with the amazing Danny Michel. Danny, who had a gig booked for Wednesday night, showed up a day early and made it to the Jam on Tuesday. He ended up sitting behind the kit to rock a few Bowie songs with us and great times were had by all we all. To my surprise, at his gig on Wednesday he asked the band if we would join him, after his awesome set, to play another set comprised of only Bowie songs. How many times does that happen? It turned into what was a second bizarre night and a hell of a lot of fun. I’ll see if I can dig up any “photographic evidence” *update, see blurry iphone pics below*. Thanks Danny!


On a second and more significant note, Mr.Michel has a great charity for school children in Belize, no middle man, no wasted money, no bullshit, all good. Please check it out here, and if your situation allows, throw a much appreciated donation in the pot.

This year I decided I would do some enumerating for Elections Alberta. While I divulge too much detail, I think that the feeling towards enumeration is highly influence on the area you’re designated. My designated area was less of a bowl of delicious cherries and more of a garbage can of two week old meat packages and the little packs that go underneath the meat to soak up the excess blood. You know, the garbages that not only smell terrible when opened, but let out hoards of disgusting flies at the same time. Blah.

The enumeration combined with the beginning of the school semester has been a bit of a time sink and as a result I’ve listen to a hell of a lot more music lately than I’ve recorded. I think it was a good thing. I listened to a few new albums and a couple long shelved favourites that I think I needed to listen to with a clear head.

Recording update: I’ve been doing some more writing for a quirky new project that I’m working on, I’ll have some of that stuff up soon enough as well and I think at least a few people will get a kick out of it. Now that my schedule has shed a layer of time suck skin I’m be resuming work on the New Weather Machine stuff I’ve been doing lately. Stay tuned in the next couple weeks and I should have something fun posted for you. Yes you.

Im happy to be able to say that I’m knee deep in work with the new record, and happier still to announce that the drumming duties are being handled by the legendary Kenny Aronoff. So far the tracks are turning out great, leaving me nothing but excited to get this stuff out and to you.


I realized a few hours ago that the super awesome Bigwood IV festival is creeping up quickly (August 27th), The New Weather Machine will be playing at 4:00 along with a hundred million other bands throughout the day and night. For $20 you get to see all hundred million bands and food as well, which is a hell of deal and kick ass time. They will also be collecting donations for the Lethbridge Food Bank so make sure you bring something good for the less fortunate.


We’ll also be playing during Arts Fest at 9:00pm on Saturday, October 1, which is a weekend long music and arts festival held primarily downtown. I’ll have more details on this on as it approaches.


In the CD player lately (I know I know, welcome to the 90’s) : Dio is still kicking ass and taking names, Holy Diver, the 2 disc, 2 set Dio Live at Donnington, and Heaven and Hell are getting a lot of play. The Darkness’ debut Permission to Land has made a comeback (as have the Darkness apparently), and I had forgotten how much fun this record is. Aces! Also on this months most played list is the Beatles mono catalogue (which is far superior to it’s stereo counterpart) and The Go-Go’s first album.

The New Weather Machine will be playing in Calgary at the Distillery next Wednesday the 13th during Stampede week with Shred Kelly. Jesse and the Dandelions will also be playing. You can check out the facebook event here. If you’re in, or going to be in Calgary on the 13th it’ll be a great place to show off your brand new cowboy boots and hat, or conversely, find someone else in their brand new cowboy boots and hat.

I forgot to mention a couple other things in my Dio/Sabbath bit. I had misplaced, but recently found my copy of Past Lives, the only official live Ozzy-era Black Sabbath album and had a listen to it. Unfortunately, the first disc is terrible and probably doesn’t deserve to be released. Fortunately, the second disc has a couple tracks from the absolutely fucking amazing 1975 New Jersey show (Hole In The Sky, Symptom of the Universe and Megalomania) and has led me to re-locate and listen to the bootleg again. You can read about it and download it here, and I promise it’s worth it. If you’re only going to listen to one track, listen to Sabbra Cadabra, and yes, the whole thing. Actually, the whole second disc is quite good and well worth the listen.

If you only made it to the first disc of the two disc set (which is is the logical way to listen to a 2 disc album), you would realize it’s not very impressive or representative of the generally above average to excellent studio albums, and would probably keep you from bothering with the second cd. Because someone made the choice to have it be the first of two, I’m going to briefly and arbitrarily pit Past Lives Disc 1 against the newly released solo Ozzy live show coupled as a second disc to the restored reissue of Diary of a Madman that I’ve been listening to recently.

While I generally enjoy Black Sabbath songs to solo Ozzy material, Past Lives Disc 1 (Disc 1) has the shit totally kicked out of it by by Diary of a Madman Disc 2 (Disc 2). Disc 2 sounds better, the performance is superior pretty much across the board, and it’s overall a more enjoyable listen that I wouldn’t be completely embarrassed to show a non-fan. I can’t say the same about Disc 1. Although there are some awesome moments, it’s not presented in a flattering manner and at other times is so bad at times Im embarrassed for the Black Sabbath.

End result: Past Lives Disc 1 suffers a horrible defeat a the hands of Ozzy Disc 2, and if you have it throw it in the garbage and just listen to the second Past Lives cd or Ozzy Disc 2.

The interesting part (and roundabout point) came in my realization that there’s no way the best live solo Ozzy trumps the best Black Sabbath. It took the awfulness of Past Lives Disc 1 make me compare the two, but I’m glad it did because it led me to re-find the Jersey ’75 show. Have a listen to the New Jersey show (which is just a straight sound board recording), turn it up really loud, and you’ll understand what I mean. It’s by no means perfect. There are fuck ups and missed notes (looking at you Ozzy) everywhere, but the energy and approach is so bang on that it leaves even a non fan no choice but to appreciate the awesomeness of Supernaut. Apparently there were failed plans to officially release it in the late ‘70s and I wish they would have if not only so more people would be able to listen to it.

Till next time!

This Thursday (May 19th) The New Weather Machine will be playing The Magnetic South Festival, which is a unique little event that takes places across several different Lethbridge locals and includes a ton of different bands from different music circles. For $20 you get a wristband that lets you go freely between locations and check out bands all day. We’ll be playing at the Slice, I’ll update with a time when I get it.

**Update - Our time slot is 11:00 at the Slice **

A big thank you to everyone who came out to the hugely successful Esper Records launch party on Saturday! As you may have noticed we had several camera people lurking in the shadows throughout the evening, and we’ll have some brand new live videos up in the next short while.

We also just got in some great new girls/guys shirts and tote bags. They’ll be available in the next couple days from the web store after I’ve taken some proper pictures.

I’ve modernized the music player, adopting HTML5 and ditching Flash, so it will now work on iPhones and iPads.

Here’s a sample shot of the girls shirt:

Check out the awesome poster for this Saturday the 26th’s Esper Records launch party.

The New Weather Machine will be playing, along with Jesse and The Dandelions and Church. Lots of brand new material, amazing new shirts, and great music! Here’s a link to the facebook event. We would love to see you there.

You can also check out a little preview at LA Beat

I am happy to announce the launch of our new Esper Records and the official launch party on March 26th. You can check out the Facebook event here and the press release here.

The show on the 26th will showcase great new music from The New Weather Machine, Jesse and the Dandelions, and Leon Twig. We will also doing a live recording and video taping of the evening.[]’
=p;p

For those brave enough to face the cold, you can catch both the Low Flying Penguins and The New Weather Machine this coming week. Thursday February 3rd the Penguins will be playing at the Slice for Chinese New Year, and Tuesday the 8th The Weather Machine will be hosting the jam, also at the Slice. The band has been notably absent in past few months while Ive been working on new material, but you should be hearing a lot more of us in the near future, including the possible debut of new songs on Tuesday.

This Thursday (January 27th) I will be playing a short acoustic in the midst of several greats acts at the Slice. There is no cover and free breakfast food will be served from 8:00 till 1:00. You can check out the Facebook event here. Lethbridge’s Sheala Miller, the Necessities, Andrew Scott, and Rob Ursel will also be performing.

On another note, I went hunting for 2 early solo Ozzy albums yesterday and was terrifically disappointed at the near impossibly of finding any cd’s at all. The pawn shops that only a couple years ago had stacks of forgotten treasures and Kenny G, offered little more than an eclipsing shelf of Matchbox 20 and Backstreet Boys. HMV cd collection has been all but replaced with dvd’s and video games but, for better or worse, I did manage to find what I was looking for.

My hands and voices are finally coming back into shape after the few weeks I was away from playing music.
New songs are coming along nicely.
The tone of the new album in progress is taking shape.
The lightning and thunder tonight was fantastic.
I’m going to be reconfiguring my recording setup next week.
I’ve been listening to the bowie mix of Raw Power, the 1970-1978 Sabbath box, the wonderful 2nd disc b-sides and live tracks from the not supposed to buy Radiohead reissues, Mudcrutch, and the new Dead Weather.
Rickenbacker 330’s are not for me.
We will be playing this Saturday at the Slice with Edmonton’s Red Ram and Mattias Kroller for Red Ram’s cd release party.

No really I am. I was in europe for a good part of the month of June taking in the sights, sounds, and food of France and Spain. Im still re-orientating myself and catching up on on what I missed or didnt do while I was gone, but I managed to focus my efforts and record another quick and dirty demo today. This one’s called End of the Road, I hope you enjoy it.

Jon

Im in the tough-but-good position of having written far more songs in the last few days than I have had time to do proper first demos of. This new one I started writing a few days ago, but finished it up and recorded it last night. It’s called Hold On and can be found for a short period of time on the music page. The recording was a fun experiment of 451’s, yippie. I’m also pleased to announce that I’m going to start recording a new record this month, that will hopefully be finished and out before the end of summer.

Ive been strangely busy the last week or so now that the school semester is done with tons of writing and recording/mixing work for a few other people.

Here’s the story behind this new demo:
I was in the middle of writing this new song a couple weeks ago when I realized it was the last day to have songs in for the South Country Fair songwriting competition. On a whim I finished the song and threw together a quick demo which with Ive been lucky enough to move on to the finals with (on May 15th at the Slice). Another opportunity that required having a better demo of the song came up on the weekend and this is the result. The song’s called Razor Heart Strings and can be found on the music page.

Yesterday, Jesse Northey and I recorded a tune we wrote with Branden Hamilton back in February for a school project and although its not really a New Weather Machine song, I thought id share it with you. I’ll leave the song up here to download for a short while, but if you miss the download it will be on the music page for a bit. Here’s a little break down of who did what.

The song’s called First Line

Lead Vocals - Jon/Jesse
Guitar/Bass/Backup Vocals - Jesse
Drums/Piano/Mixing - Jon

Written by Martin/Northey/Hamilton

An exploration of different creative perspectives today has both piqued my curiosity, and completely ruined the very little tv I watch. The basic idea is that there are 6 possible view points in a given scenario or dilemma. If you are aware of the classification, the roles are easily identifiable in most television shows and social situations. Maybe it’s just that insight into the creation of something I know nothing about stole a piece of the magic, but in any given scene of an episode of Law and Order the characters fall so perfectly in these categories that the obvious scene writing formulas ruin the sense of social drama. That being said, using perspective swapping as a creative tool out weighs knowing that a fictitious cop will side with a fictitious rapist. This supports ideas from a book im reading about how different personality types are perceived in social situations. The benefits and disadvantages of appearing shy, outgoing, mean, deceptive etc. exaggerate themselves over time and dictate the strange, awful, and wonderful the things that people do or dont accomplish as well as opportunities that present themselves. Anyway, on to music.

Now I know that last month I was talking about a side project album, so i might as well mention that. After the first 2 or 3 get togethers life and school regrettably intervened, and only a few songs were written. I wouldnt mind recording a couple of them in May or June just for a souvenir. Speaking of May and June, Im gong to start recording the next Weather Machine record in May, and planning to have it finished by July or August. Although I havent really come to any conclusions about who’s going to be playing on it or anything, Ive been enjoying the writing process and think this is going to be an somewhat of an oddball album.

If you’re looking for something new, try a mono overhead or check out my brothers sculpting site.

February is upon us and, as some of you know, its Record Production Month. The basic goal is to write and record 10 songs or 35 minutes of music solely in the month of February. Last year I had a go at it, but did start until the last few days and only really got 6 songs written and 4 recorded, which I suppose is a fail. This year I’m taking another swing at it, but I’m starting at the beginning of the month and have recruited 2 of my classmates to join in on the fun. We’ve got 3 songs written and, given that today’s the 2nd, I think we’re in relatively good shape . The group is yet to be named, but I’ll keep you posted.

Hmm what else, oh yes! There are a number of happenings being spoken about on the interweb that could lead one to believe that Mr.Bowie will actually be making a go of it this year. I am currently in the hopeful mindset that Tony Visconti is recording a record for him right now (check out his twitter account). There’s a ton of stuff online if you look around.

The recordings I’m doing for treeline have been turning out quite well. While I haven’t done any proper mixes of the tracks yet, I have been experimenting with a Michael Brauer inspired mix method that is quite challenging and quite powerful. If it works out the aural payoff is definitely worth it.

As far as whats going on with The New Weather Machine, I still working on new songs and sounds. The other day I got a couple of new pieces of gear that are going to have a pretty significant influence on said sounds in very positive way. Especially if you like 1964-1968 british invasion music. hoorah!

Hope everyone is having a david bowie new year. As long as the weather stays warmer I’m peachy. Working on some great new music I’m excited to share with you in the coming months. Im also doing some recording for a local band called treeline that may surface in the near future and is definitely worth checking out.

If Ham Santa (posted below) was a little much for you to take (understandable) here’s a brand new improvised Christmas song (we did one take and didnt write anything before hand) that might be a little easier to digest (than Ham Santa, see how funny?). Thanks to Jason on the bass, Cale on the keys, and Clayton on the drums. *christmas songs are down try again next year*

On friday the 18th The New Weather Machine will be performing at Henotic in Lethbridge. Our set starts at 9:30 in the main room with other bands to follow.

In an effort to stimulate tradition and invoke the festive spirit, I would like to share an improvised Christmas song that my old band recorded last year. Hopefully we'll do another one this year and in 15 years there will be a space age holo-disc of holiday favorites.

For your listening pleasure, Ham Santa:

*christmas over try again next year*

It's been a month since my last update, time flies! I've been very busy working on a bunch of new songs and with school. If anyone who really really wanted a copy of the free "November Basement Demos" Cd I was giving out through the Facebook group and didn't get one, I found a few more copies in my travel bag. Email me and a copy is yours. Some of the songs found on the Cd are on the music page and should be up for a month or so.

The tough part of this next album is just keeping focused with a genre. As far as new songs go, they're stylistically all over the board. I've got a good idea of where I want to end up, but I'm also not going to stop myself from working on song that isn't going to fit into that idea so I'm just going with the flow. The coming months will tell which direction it goes.

If you haven't joined already, check out The New Weather Machine Facebook group. I just gave away some free demo Cd's through the group, and will have more exclusive stuff in the future.

I'm trying to add and update a few things on the website including the addition of comments to posts, and updated bio/faq, and a few other things. If you find something that isn't working properly please let me know so I can fix it.

Currently listening to:

Get Yer Ya Ya's Out Remaster - Stones (1969)
Is There Anybody Out There - Pink Floyd (1980-1981)
The Airborne Toxic Event (2008)
Rory Gallagher (1971)

For the first time ever tonight a New Weather Machine song was recorded with some people other than myself, and i thought i would share it with you. Its just a demo, and im trying some new things out production wise, but I hope you’ll get the idea. Thanks to Brad Brouwer for the drums and Jason Schultchen for the bass! The demo is called Drifters Moving On.

A couple days ago I was figuring out what my set was going to be for Dr.hook. Instead of taking the easy way out and just learning a couple of covers, I wrote a couple of new songs. I had a couple hours today after a couple of classes, so I put up a couple mics and did a demo of one of the songs. Its up on the music page, the song(which is still a work in progress) is called If No One Knows, well for now anyway.

Last night I assembled a small group of people who have a secret love for 80’s new wave pop music and we recorded a very tasty rendition of modern english’s ill melt with you. thanks to tyson, taylor, and clayton for making this diet pepsi moment possible.

As far as new music goes, still working on new songs for the next record and doing some pre production stuff so i can really nail the sounds im looking for when the time comes. im just about finished the mixes for the live album, and also just about finished the mixes for an instrumental cd im working on with a couple of guys from around town.

until next time

June has been a rather interesting month. For some reason when you make plans to get certain things done, life has a way of interrupting and replacing. Hmm notable things in June.....

We’ll the most fun and disappointing was my crazy week writing and recording a theme song for a new animated tv series for Marvel’s Avengers. Unfortunately for me my song did not get selected for a very silly and fixable reason, but thats life. You can judge for yourself, the song should be posted on the music page by the time anyone reads this. **Please note that I had lyrical and content guidelines to follow!!** There are some cheesy moments, but really, its for a cartoon for 35 year olds and the song is supposed to sound like the foo fighters, ac/dc, and led zeppelin. hmm

Ive been working on 3 particular songs that will definitely be on the next album, which hopefully will be sometime before the end of the year, maybe early fall if im lucky.

Im also finishing up the mixes on an instrumental album that im part of, which should be released sometime in the near future. Ill have more details as it approaches.

dont forget to wear sunscreen and listen to your fair share of david bowie. actually this week you can have a pass to listen to emotional rescue a few times too.

jon

As of today the album is official available on itunes for download and on amazon.com for download and physical purchase. If you havent picked up a copy yet this is the easiest way yet of getting one.

Sometime in october Red Rock Rebellion wrote and recorded a special Christmas song. Here’s a little background:

The song was initially a jam we recorded to test out some new recording equipment but setting up and getting the recording going, we didnt have enough time to do record a proper song. It would have been a shame to not finish anything at all, so we ended up just leaving a vocal mic on and doing 2 or 3 passes through the jam we had recorded. The end result was for one reason or another a Christmas song with the express purpose to make the listener feel uncomfortable. Without further ado I present

Ham Santa - C 2008 Red Rock Rebellion

Jason Oakes - Guitar/Percussion/Vox
Shad Chollack - Drums/Percussion/Vox
Jon Martin - Bass/Percussion/Vox


Feel free to enjoy, hate, share or delete!

A big thank you to everyone who has shown their support and bought a copy of the album! Then initial response has been really good and in the next couple weeks there will be an article in the Lethbridge Herald about myself and the album.

Speaking of the album, it is now available to purchase in physical and digital formats it can be purchased at

http://cdbaby.com/cd/newweathermachine

it will also slowly trick out on amazon mp3, itunes and the like.

So after 2 and a half years The New Weather Machine album is finish and is now available. Starting today it can be purchased for $12 from gigs and my web store. Within the next couple of weeks it will also be available at a few local shops as well as online from iTunes, Amazon, etc.

The first track, Sink Like A Stone, is now available to listen to on the music page to listen to.

The official cd release show will be tentatively be held on January 30th at the Slice.

Enjoy!

So i have added a music player to the site. you’ll need flash to use but in some peoples opinion its worth the trade off. It will open a new window so you can use the site and listen to music at the same time.

My finger is re-covering from a knife based injury, but there will be lots of new music soon.

So Jason from red rock rebellion and I got together tonight to play some beatles stuff and for a challenge we decided to learn, record, and mix a song in under an hour. we only did one take of everything in order to get it done it time, but we did do it. i thought somebody might find it interesting!

*update*
i spent another 5 minutes on the mix, so this is a revised version.
*now on music page

Sorry for the lack of updates as of late, here’s a little bonus. Last week we recorded a version of Changes, its just a quick mix that i did and it hasnt been mastered and all that but you may find it enjoyable.

*now on music page

Jon

Here's a couple tunes from last weeks Dennis 4 gig for those of you that missed it or just cant get enough. enjoy.
*now on music page



If anyone is interested in getting a copy of the show email me and ill email it to you. If dennis does make a return there will be some original music. They are very short notice shows what we play can be limited. Im making good progress on the Weather Machine album, Ill have some more information about it in the coming weeks.

Jon

ps i put a some new pictures up as well

Well here we begin. Officially my new project The New Weather Machine is a go. I’ll bring anyone who cares up to speed.

-Im working on a mildly ambitious concept album
-In the last 3 months or so Ive written roughly 30 songs for the project and have demo’d about a third of them
-The album will be 40-45 minutes long
-I will be doing as much as I feel comfortable with for the project including all the writing, mixing, and producing
-Touring and live performances of the album will happen at some point, right now its impossible to tell when - but sometime after the release of the record
-The album will be released sometime before the fall(sooner rather than later)

I guess that about sums up the current state of the project and the “band”. I thank you for checking out the site and the music, and hope you’ll stay tuned.

Cheers,

Jon