We’ve integrated the artist-friendly music site Bandcamp into Bounte.com, which gives you and us a number of great features.

It allows easy streaming, purchasing and download of all Bounte tracks in any file format you want: mp3, FLAC, AAC, ogg vorbis, yum! All songs are currently set to name your own price, so help an artist out, or ride the Free Train if that’s your ticket. You’ll find credits, album descriptions, lyrics and more on those pages as well. Also available is the Bounte: One CD, and you’ll eventually find Bounte: Two here as well.

It’s also super easy to share any album or song on your favorite website or social networking behemoth. Click on the Share menu by any musical item, and grab the code that you need.

You can access it all with the Music/Shop link in the header, or go to bounte.bandcamp.com

I met with Alan and Wade last night to wrap up Alan’s part of Bounte: Two. He took the songs in some unexpected, but cool and beautiful directions, definitely adding a lot of presence and connection to the tracks. I brought my camera to document it, but forgot to take any pictures. I could have captured Alan recording vocals, Wade working the tracks, Ella sleeping, even Charles Levi showing up. Alan is coming over Sunday to work on some of his tracks so maybe I can stage a shot of him singing and pretend it’s on my tracks.

Since I don’t have any other photos ready, here’s one of Jack Bauer.

One song still needs vocals, which Wade convinced me to rescue from tumbling into the trash heap. It has a great beat and groove but needs a human lead of some sort, so Wade is bringing in some local rap talent. So with that, the album is all in Wade’s hands now for the final mixing.

A productive day, so I’m taking a few moments to relax and watch 24. Such a high-tension show is a bit dangerous to watch on Netflix streaming because one could watch it 24 hours in a row.

winter photo from a real estate website

The quest for space is a long and arduous road. I’ve been looking a long time for studio space. Art studio, or music studio, nothing ever quite fits the bill. Can’t be messy enough, can’t be loud enough, not enough space, not enough light, too much mold… yuck. But I finally have a music studio space that I’ll be happy with. Plenty of room, and an ability to be loud. Maybe not full-on band performance loud, but loud enough to mix and record without disturbing anyone. And plenty of light for that matter. Near some great bars and restaurants. And I owns it, so I can modify it as I see fit.

I’ll be putting my studio back together in the next couple weeks as I get settled in, get my audio interface back from Black Lion, and plug everything back in. In the meantime, listen to some songs, and go get some beats.

I had a fun initial rehearsal this week with Alan, Tim, and Matt. A great bunch of musicians, crowded together, figuring each other out, and developing a foundation sound. It was a lot less electronic than I had anticipated, especially without a keyboard player, but I suppose I’ve been unconsciously steering towards that, with hopes of a less rigid performance structure. Still, it was heavily groove-based, which is where the core of my music comes from. We jammed on some of my tracks, and improvised a few more. I have a better idea now of what this particular set of musicians can do, and hopefully I can help guide us all to some great sounds.

Wade is recording vocalists this week for the album tracks, so I hope to see some more final mixes in the coming weeks.

I recently held a small meet-and-greet with Alan and my friend Tim, about putting together a live show. Happily both are on board and we all had a lot to talk about. Tim is a great guitar player that I’ve known for a long time. He’s also a great drummer, but I’d like to give him an opportunity to stretch out on guitar, since he understands the music well. We’re working on some flexible live arrangements, and will add some more instrumentation soon.

I’ve also been producing some solo work for Alan, who does some catchy songwriting in addition to his engaging vocals. So pretty soon we’ll all have some great new material to listen to.