Here are photos from Tame Impala and MGMT at the House of Blues on June 8, 2010. House of Blues has a strict camera policy, but it was nice to be able to stand on the stage-facing side of the barricade to get my shots. That was super helpful! The full set of photos is available on Flickr or at PegNews.com.

Visit here for the full set.

The group Miike Snow (don’t be confused by the singular name that represents the entire group) dazzled at Granada Theater on Monday, June 7, 2010. I was blown away at the energy of the crowd. It felt like a giant dance party. Here’s some video I shot at the event. Shot on a Canon 7D with standard kit zoom lens. Audio recorded using a Zoom H2.

I’m running a bit behind on blogging. Sorry! My semester is coming to and end and things are crazy busy. Anyways, here’s some photos I have shot lately (some for PegNews.com).

Sir Silky at the Double Wide

Dallas FourSquare Badge Crawl

Musink (Telegraph Canyon and Old 97s)

Deep Ellum Arts Festival

On a whim (and on a nudge from MobileLab) I downloaded the VoiceBand for iPhone app. I think this will be fun as soon as I can actually get some time to play with it. Here is a quick sample I made while sitting in my car. This is the sound of my car on idle, as played by the bass guitar simulated instrument in VoiceBand.

I wonder what it would be like to record random city noises and assemble them in to some sort of hodge podge song. Perhaps something like what Mona Kasra has done with Daily Tones.

Art Conspiracy was neat. This was my first year to attend, and I was blown away at how many people contributed and how fun this event was. This even gets a strong recommendation from me!

Here’s my first piece made with my new Canon 7D. Audio recorded with a Zoom H2.

Lessons Learned:

• Recording live audio in a warehouse is difficult. Don’t move around because the location change picks up on the recording
• Stabilization is important. Waiting on help from Santa for some reinforcements
• Shooting with a DSLR is a little bit easier than the Canon HF10
• Don’t buy memory for your camera from an overseas vendor. It’s harder to return if you get a crappy dud (shame on you, flahsmemorymall and SanDisk!)
• Zoom H2 doesn’t play nice with final cut. Conversion to AAC format required

Imogen Heap’s concert bordered near-magic status last night. Even though she played to a sold-out crowd at the Granada Theater, her performance was peppered with moments of direct address that helped her achieve a playful, friendly level of intimacy with the audience. Her setup was incredible, and her backing band provided extra “mmph” to her performance. I was amazed to see her mic setup. From what I could see, she had at least three lavalier mic kits on: one for her vocals and two mounted on wrist bands. These wrist mics here helpful for when she played other instruments; they picked up sound directly from the instrument itself.

I included one of the crappy iPhone photos I took at the show. After reading the tour’s camera policy, I decided against taking my nicer camera. In my opinion, artists should be open and welcome to any and all publicity from amateur photographers and video makers.

Here’s a recording I made on my phone. I used the voice memo application, and then pieced the bits together in GarageBand and plopped it in to one file.

Imogen Heap: The Moment I Said It (Live @ Granada Theater, Dallas, TX, November 17, 2009)

This was the last song she did in her encore… you will notice some funky beer bottle noise and talkin’… I was in the back. Yeah, like right next to a trash can.

UPDATE: here’s a nice video from @Got80s of her song “Just for Now” from the Granada show.

So tonight was the guys night hall pass! And my best bud Bill and I put together Eric Clapton’s arrangement (we think) of “Key To The Highway.” So here’s to Friday night!

Guitar: Bill Sinclair
Vocal: Ben Smithson

Download it now!

Key To The Highway (mp3)

Oh Mary Don’t You Weep

Performed by Ben Smithson & Bill Sinclair

Sunday April 26, 2009 at Saint Andrews Christian Church – Carrollton, TX
Recorded on Canon Vixia Hf10 mini shoe-mounted shotgun mic.
Special thanks to Bill Sinclair for accompaniment and vocals help.

Hallelujah (arr. Reeltime Travelers)

Performed by Ben Smithson & Bill Sinclair

Sunday April 26, 2009 at Saint Andrews Christian Church – Carrollton, TX
Recorded on Canon Vixia Hf10 mini shoe-mounted shotgun mic.
Special thanks to Bill Sinclair for accompaniment and vocals help.
(My mic on the sound system was turned off for the first part — oops!)

Listen: Hallelujah

Bill asked me to get video/audio of him playing a traditional [flat picking] song. He starts slow, but picks up quite a bit at the end. Recorded April 10, 2009. Shot on Canon Vixia HF10. Audio: Sennheiser Evolution G2 wireless lav.