I made a rap remix

I made this remix of the clipping. song “Get It.” Juiceboxxx did a guest rap.

This is only the second time I’ve done a remix; the first was this one I did for Simo Soo a while ago. I really don’t know what I’m doing but it’s fun and now I want to make more. Anybody is welcome to send me stems. I’m ready to party.

Filed under: geoff geis, mp3, clipping, geoff geis, juiceboxxx, remix

the Termite Sound

I’ve decided to “go reggae.”

Filed under: geoff geis, mp3, vanity projects, althea and donna, bob marley, geoff geis, reggae, termite sound

One fewer Wizard

So, back in September I told So Many Wizards that I needed to leave the band. This Friday, January 18, marks my final appearance as bassist in SMW. We’re playing at the Smell, and we’d love it if you came. You can RSVP on Facebook.

Though necessary, my departure leaves me with a heavy heart. I’ve had a lot of fun playing with the Wizards, and I’m proud of the album that we made together. I’m also really glad I’ve had the opportunity to become great friends with such talented and warm people as Nima, Erik, Frank, and Melody. Even more than that, I’ve enjoyed playing for the most energetic and supportive group of fans I’ve ever known.

However, I’ve put a lot of my personal priorities – both musical and non-musical – on hold to be in this band. Now it’s time for me to return to them.

I wish nothing but the best for the Wizards! This band deserve all sorts of accolades, and I hope they’ll give me tickets to watch them be inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in 2037.

Here is a video we made with director Walt Gorecki. Enjoy!

Filed under: so many wizards, Video, geoff geis, i like it here, so many wizards

New covers

I’m pretty bad about keeping this site maintained. Here I am in 2013 and I haven’t posted anything in months!

In that time, I’ve been working hard making demos for a new album. I just started rehearsing for the recording process. In the meantime, I’ve also recorded a few cover songs. Many of them have ended up on Kyle Mabson’s Mabson Enterprises compilations, like this version I did of Cher Lloyd’s “Want U Back:”

Others I’ve done “just for me,” like this version of Ellie Goulding’s “Anything Could Happen:”

I hope you enjoy the tunes. For more, you can visit my Soundcloud page.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Cher Lloyd, Cover songs, Ellie Goulding, geoff geis, Mabson Enterprises

Pre-order “Warm Nothing” by So Many Wizards

Last October, I joined the band So Many Wizards. The guys in the band were my good friends, and I was a longtime fan of their music — I included their initial single “Fly a Kite” on the Big Whup Industries compilation I co-curated in 2009, and the next year I reviewed their album “Love Songs for When You Leave Me” for LA Record. They needed a new member around the same time that I was looking for a new band, so I lobbied singer Nima Kazerouni to let me in. Because they’d already added Frank Maston as a guitarist, I bought a bass and took to learning it. A couple of weeks later, I played my first show.

Since then, things have been pretty interesting. In January of this year, I started getting emails from Nima with acoustic guitar/drum sketches of songs I’d never heard — I’d listen to each song twice, write a bass line, record it directly into my computer, send it to Nima, and then get another song. I even had the pleasure of helping to produce one song, “Deep Down,” which required electronic drums. I don’t think that I even knew that we were recording an album until Nima said “it will be called Warm Nothing and it will be released this summer via JAXart.”

I was still dubbing parts on top of new tracks when the boys started mixing the songs with Niko Bolas at Capitol Records. The next thing I knew, it was early March and we were in a stranger’s kitchen in Liverpool sharing mastering notes via Skype with Richard Dodd. And then it was done. Other things have happened since then, but this is a post about the album so I’ll keep it at that.

So now it’s about to be released, and I’ve had a little bit of distance from the whirlwind recording — enough of a distance to actually listen to it and think about it. And it’s good. It’s cohesive, it’s compelling, and it’s brisk. If I were still outside of the band, I’d give it a glowing review.

Anyway — leading up to the August 7 release date, we’re offering a special deal to people who pre-order it on iTunes. Pre-order the album for $7.99, forward your receipt to somanywizards@gmail.com, and you’ll get bonus tracks including a B-side and some live versions from our UK tour.

Here’s a link to the iTunes pre-order.

We’ll be celebrating the release on August 18 at the Smell with some of our loveliest friends. Would you like to come? You can RSVP on Facebook.

Filed under: so many wizards, Uncategorized, geoff geis, jaxart, so many wizards

This Saturday at Human Resources

On Saturday, June 23, I’ll be playing my songs at the illustrious Human Resources in Chinatown. The bill was put together by Dylan Doren and features him as well as fantastic friends Michael Nhat, K the I???, Paper Slag, Orbless, and C Will. You can RSVP on Facebook!

Filed under: Events, geoff geis, c will, dylan doren, geoff geis, human resources, k the i???, los angeles, michael nhat, orbless, paper slang

Somebody that I used to know

I made this cover song for my housemate, the esteemed Kyle Mabson, who came out of his room a couple of weeks ago and announced that he was going to use Facebook to solicit covers and remixes of Gotye’s #1 super-hit single “Somebody That I Used to Know,” which sounds like Sting singing over Manu Chao.

My version is kind of country but also kind of “not country.” There are some airhorns and distorted guitars too. I also used the Latin beats MIDI preset on my computer, to make sure that it would be Geiswave. Dalton Blanco sang the Kimbra part and he really kicked its ass.

UPDATE (7/1/2012): Somebody at Gotye’s stupid record label had my version taken off of Soundcloud for violating their copyright. I’m flattered that they viewed my cover version to be such a threat to their bottom line. You can still get it on Bandcamp.

In total, 26 artists submitted tracks to Kyle’s mix! You can, and should, get the whole thing on Bandcamp! There are so many cool jams on here.

Filed under: geoff geis, mp3, geoff geis, gotye, kyle mabson

This Friday, May 11 at Home Room

Wow, I’m really excited about this one. Home Room is one of my favorite spots in town, and I’m playing with groups I really admire!

Body Parts is headlining the show and will be debuting the video for their song “Doing Things.” In celebration, they’ll playing an acoustic set rather than an electric one. Everything Body Parts does seems so meticulously crafted (their debut album is even called “On Purpose”), so I’m interested to see how they translate their tunes without electricity. I’m confident that it’ll be excellent.

Joining us on the bill is Norse Horse, a relentlessly-catchy guitar driven project that last year released the excellent Grids EP on Family Time Records.

Opening the show is iloilo, a project from ex-members of Pek Pek. This is their first show, and I couldn’t figure out how to embed their tracks, but they sound good! Lots of hazy, hypnotic acoustic guitars and reverb-drenched mystery.

Home Room is located at 3121 Beverly Blvd, in that area of town that could alternately be called “South Silverlake” or “North Koreatown.” The show starts at 9PM, and I go on second. It’s all ages and $5.

Filed under: Events, geoff geis, mp3, body parts, geoff geis, home room, iloilo, norse horse

March 2012

Happy birthday, Shaq! (March 6)

My debit card has had the expiration date of March 2012 for as long as I can remember, which has made it seem like kind of a milestone for years even though I’ve not had any reason to think of the month as anything particularly special. It seemed very distant once, but like all expiration dates it’s now come and will soon pass. Hopefully my bank will remember to send me a new one.

Oh, but in the meantime March 2012 actually became a real milestone. Thanks to So Many Wizards, I’ll be in the United Kingdom next week participating in my first overseas tour. Immediately after that, we’ll be at South by Southwest. We’re really excited to be supporting “Lose Your Mind,” the first single from our new album Warm Nothing that will be released by JAXART soon:

Juiceboxxx has been crashing at my house for the past month, stressing about meeting his new goal to blog every single day. Apparently, some TED Conference speaker convinced him that blogging everyday is the key to making stuff happen. I buy the argument completely. I’m not prepared to publish something every day, but Juice’s blogging has inspired me to blog at least more regularly than I have been blogging. March 2012 seems like a fun place to start, so here I go. Starting next week, I’ll be posting dispatches from the road…

Check the rest of the post for tour dates.

Filed under: geoff geis, so many wizards, Uncategorized, geoff geis, mp3, so many wizards, south by southwest, tour dates

New free EP: “Diva” available now

Click here to download my new covers EP, Diva.

For me, 2011 was transformational. Since about 2004, I had been a guitarist and songwriter in bands — but both Pizza! and Big Whup dissolved this year. Until that happened, I had two songwriting modes: I could put songs together on an acoustic guitar, or I could contribute parts to collaborative pieces with other musicians. Both Pizza! and Big Whup were group efforts, and I’d prioritized writing with those groups over making anything on my own. This year, I decided to move in a new direction.

I got some technology, I collected instruments, and I started writing and producing songs on my own. I de-emphasized guitar and concentrated my attention towards the elements that I’d previously left to others, including beats, bass, and synth melodies. To practice production, I made some fun new albums with friends: Into the Forest with Magii was released in March, and Nima and Geoff (featuring So Many Wizards’ Nima Kazerouni) made an EP to release next year. Through these efforts, my process was upended. It was a very prolific time.

Princess, my solo debut, chronicles the earliest fruits of my labors. It’s kind of a hodgepodge of ideas and moods — some of them fresh, some of them rebuilt from the past, some of them improvised, and some of them orchestrated. I made and released Princess, above all, to prove to myself that I could do it. I gained a lot of experience while doing it, and I’m already hard at work on a follow-up that capitalizes on everything that I’ve learned.

This EP, however, is not that follow-up.

Instead, Diva rounds out 2011 with a some fun while paying homage to a handful of artists that have greatly influenced me. Throughout the year, I’ve been recording cover songs as well as originals. Covering this music has taught me a good deal about song craft and has given me many opportunities to experiment with technique and delivery. Diva is a collection of my four favorite covers from this year, including versions of tracks originally by Mariah Carey, Dusty Springfield, La Roux, and R.E.M.

Click here to download the EP in its entirety.

The lead track is my take on Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You.” When I made it this May, I was aiming to win the award for “creepiest song of the holiday season” with de-tuned pianos, off-kilter harmonies, and vocal effects meant to evoke a bad psychedelic trip. Unfortunately, Mariah decided to win that award herself by re-recording the very same song with Justin Bieber. Hopefully this is a strong contender for second place.

“I Only Wanna Be with You” is a duet with Michael Nhat. Michael Nhat is one of the most iconoclastic performers in Los Angeles, and also one of the best. He came over one day this summer and we covered this Dusty Springfield classic. We also started work on a Boys II Men and Brandy cover, but that’s fallen by the wayside (that’s my fault — sorry Michael).

La Roux‘s debut album is one of the almost I’ve most loved over the past couple of years. “Bulletproof” isn’t necessarily my favorite song on the album, but of course it’s the one that attracted me in the first place. I used an Omnichord as the basis of this downbeat, calypso-inspired version. Dalton Blanco (Sexting, Skull Tape, Robin Williams on Fire) provides some extra hard beats, and Big Whup’s Jenna Eyrich wrote the bassline. I think  this has already been covered by a lot of other bands. Oops.

The best recording on the EP, in my opinion, is my interpretation of R.E.M.’s “Tongue.” This was a cool experiment because it was the first time that I used a sample in a song. I built it using a loop I made from Mike Mills’ original piano line. When I was a teenager, R.E.M. was the most important band to me. They impacted both my taste and my worldview, and their demise inspired a lot of nostalgia and rumination. I finished this recording in September, immediately after they made the announcement that they had disbanded.

Filed under: geoff geis, mp3, vanity projects, Wonderful Christmas Music, all i want for christmas is you, dalton blanco, diva, dusty springfield, free music, geoff geis, justin bieber, la roux, mariah carey, michael nhat, r.e.m., vanity projects