Photos from The Embassy, Urbana, 19 Oct 2003

The Beauty of Lies has moved to KirkKittell.com (Subscribe to the RSS feed). This post has been copied to http://kirkkittell.com/2008/03/27/photos-from-the-embassy-urbana-19-oct-2003.

While I'm in the mood for archiving things on my laptop before it finally fails, I've posted some photos to Flickr from when Finite Element played at The Embassy in Urbana, IL on 19 October 2003.

Link to: the photo album

The photos:


And if you had a look at the album, why not add me as a contact in Flickr?

Finite Element on WEFT Sessions, 1 Dec 2003

The Beauty of Lies has moved to KirkKittell.com (Subscribe to the RSS feed). This post has been copied to http://kirkkittell.com/2008/03/27/finite-element-on-weft-sessions-1-dec-2003.

In 2003, my band during grad school, Finite Element, played live on 90.1 FM WEFT, Champaign, IL. It was a three-piece band consisting of Sunil Chopra, Kevin Welch, and I. I'll use the phrase "my band" loosely here -- Sunil wrote all of the music, Kevin had some musical talent, and I was... the guy who would talk on the microphone in between songs, and that was only because I wouldn't shut up.

I had some kind of grandiose plan to post all of the songs from that concert one-by-one, describing each of the stories behind the songs. You can see the detritus from that if you follow the tag WEFT Sessions 1 December. Don't follow it; I'm not sure what I was thinking. I didn't write the songs -- Sunil did -- so I'm not qualified to explain much. Dumb idea. So, I've uploaded the remainder of the songs, and I'll let this post serve as the gateway for the whole concert, which is what I should have done from the beginning.

So, if you -- yes, you! -- would like to download our music, instead of this one-post-every-so-often setup, here's the whole album. It's not a torrent or anything useful like that; I've just posted them to my wiki and you'll have to save them to your computer. I'd feel bad for you, but I'm posting them mainly for archival purposes and your enjoyment is secondary. If you really, really want to know more about any of the songs, please post a comment and I'll track down Sunil or Kevin to talk about it. They're more interesting than me anyway.

Finite Element: Live at WEFT, December 1, 2003

Download the mp3's from this event:

1. Turning Into Energy


2. The Patterns of Her Eyes


3. Under the Steps


4. Don't Believe It


5. Pull the Knife


6. Behind Your Eyes


7. You Could Be Mine


8. Stay Awake


9. Feedback


10. I Know Everything


11. The Beauty of Lies


12. I Don't Want to Know


13. Forget About the Sun

You may ask yourself: "What is on the cover of that album?"

It's Quaoar, kids, a trans-Neptunian object. Nerdy, yes, but cut me some slack. I'm an aerospace engineer -- and cut Kevin and Sunil some slack: this wasn't an album we released, and the image is something of my own doing, they didn't have any say in the matter. Then again, our band was named Finite Element, an eye-rolling experience for those that knew what it meant, an "is that the movie with Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich?" experience for those that didn't know.

Finite Element, WEFT Sessions - (10) I Know Everything

Download it here: (10) I Know Everything

The 10th installment of posting music played in my university days is "I Know Everything." Sure, sure, it sounds a little overconfident, but it shouldn't be taken so seriously. It starts mellow, minimal -- feeding from song #9, "Feedback" -- then builds up during the middle. In song #12 we'll undo this with a song called "I Don't Want to Know."

For all songs from WEFT Sessions, 1 Dec 2003, see the posts with the label: WEFT Sessions 1 December 2003

Finite Element, WEFT Sessions - (9) Feedback

Download it here: (09) Feedback

"Feedback" is a song about life as a robot. Not audible during the live song, but present in our demos of the recorded song is Kevin, the drummer, reciting Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" during the breakdown. It's a slow song, a counter to the louder "Stay Awake" played immediately before this one.

For all songs from WEFT Sessions, 1 Dec 2003, see the posts with the label: WEFT Sessions 1 December 2003

Finite Element, WEFT Sessions - (8) Stay Awake

Download it here: (08) Stay Awake

This is the loudest song we played. Lock.

For all songs from WEFT Sessions, 1 Dec 2003, see the posts with the label: WEFT Sessions 1 December 2003

Finite Element, WEFT Sessions - (07) You Could Be Mine

Download it here: (07) You Could Be Mine

Note well: this is not like "You Could Be Mine" by Guns 'N Roses from the Terminator 2 soundtrack.

Also note: I think this is one of my best -- if not the best -- bass line I've ever played. That's not saying much for those of you with a moderate amount of skill. Sunil suggested the cool part of the bass line, I added a little extra, and then in this live version it all blended together well. And, of course, I think this is one of Sunil's least favorite songs that we played. Coincidence? Hmm.

For all songs from WEFT Sessions, 1 Dec 2003, see the posts with the label: WEFT Sessions 1 December 2003

Finite Element, WEFT Sessions - (6) Behind Your Eyes

Download it here: (06) Behind Your Eyes

This is an upbeat song, but a sad song. I remember that after leaving WEFT, we went to Kevin's apartment to play with the recording that Mike the studio engineer gave us. (Did I mention Mike was awesome? Mike was awesome.) In between songs at WEFT, it was my job as the shameless talkative guy to introduce songs and chatter. I remember introducing this song as being about a girl in a car accident, which is what I thought it was about. Rather clearly at Kevin's apartment, I remember Sunil correcting me and informing me that it was a song he wrote about his mom dying of cancer. So, if you needed any proof that I am the biggest jerk of all time, here's another example.

For all songs from WEFT Sessions, 1 Dec 2003, see the posts with the label: WEFT Sessions 1 December 2003

Finite Element, WEFT Sessions - (3) Under the Steps; (4) Don't Believe It; (5) Pull the Knife

I'm delinquent on posting. Again. Surprise. Well, I've actually posted a few without notifying you, my rabid fans, who crave every electronic bit that I throw to the blog; in other words: hi, Mom and Pradeep.

Anyway, I've posted three songs in the past two or so weeks from my past band's foray into live radio music at WEFT Sessions on 1 December 2003. Download them here:

• (03) Under the Steps


• (04) Don't Believe It


• (05) Pull the Knife

You want notes about the songs? Here's a brief, then I'll rely on Sunil and Kevin in the comments. "Under the Steps" is a song about Sunil's cat. Seriously. This is one of my favorite things about playing with Sunil: he wasn't going to write a bunch of sappy love songs; he wrote about the things in his life that had meaning. So, it sounds weak to consider a song about a guy's cat, but it was a good song, and a good story.

What do I know about "Don't Believe It" and "Pull the Knife"... not much. It was fun to play "Don't Believe It" on WEFT because it was the first time I played live on my new fretless bass. That made the slow transitions more interesting, full. "Pull the Knife" was the newest addition to our repertoire as of 1 December 2003. It's not a bad rendition, maybe a little stiff, but I think it was one of Sunil's best songs.

For all songs from WEFT Sessions, 1 Dec 2003, see the posts with the label: WEFT Sessions 1 December 2003

Finite Element, WEFT Sessions - (2) The Patterns of Her Eyes

Today's selection from WEFT Sessions, 1 December 2003. Download it here: "(02) The Patterns of Her Eyes."

I should really get Sunil to guest-write some of this stuff; as it turns out, I'm forgetting some of the stories behind the songs. My likely flawed recollection is that Sunil read about a guy that was in an asylum (or maybe jail) who was obsessed with eyes -- understanding them, drawing them, etc. Something like that. That story inspired this song.

In this version of the song, we're moving much faster than in the studio version; nerves, I guess. Also, Mike the studio engineer reinstates Sunil's guitar volume. This causes the solo to be a bit loud in the middle. Sunil had already compensated for the low volume by adjusting his guitar, but the solo setting on his pedal plus the increased volume on the studio side blows everything up. (OK: not literally.)

For all songs from WEFT Sessions, 1 Dec 2003, see the posts with the label: WEFT Sessions 1 December 2003

Finite Element, WEFT Sessions - (1) Turning Into Energy

While searching through my archival boxes -- allocating junk from one box to another, too irresolute to part with much of it -- I found some artifacts from a bygone era: music. Oh ho, not just any music, but music that I had a part in making. I'd say it was more junk, but some of the songs that Sunil wrote were pretty good; it's not his fault I play the bass guitar like a busted robot.

Finite Element (go ahead and snicker now, nerds) consisted of three of us who were in the same aerospace engineering senior design course together at the University of Illinois. We also played together for a while in grad school, when we recorded our one EP in 2004: The Beauty of Lies (Now you know the namesake of this blog.)

So, in the interest of (1) sharing something of mine with you and (2) assuaging my paranoia by ensuring that not all of this music gets wasted if I die or my apartment complex burns down, I introduce you to the recorded catalog of Finite Element music. I'll post a new song periodically. I have a few things on .mp3:

• WEFT Sessions -- recorded live on 90.1FM, WEFT, Champaign, IL on 1 December 2003


• Various demos from spring and summer 2003


• The Beauty of Lies (actually... I need to acquire these mp3s from Sunil or Kevin, I just have the CD... so I lied about this one, but... look at the title, chaval...)

We'll start with WEFT Sessions.


Today's selection: the first song of our set, Turning Into Energy.

This song is notable because, well, the studio engineer -- who was quite awesome, he did lots of great work when I later volunteered as an "airshifter" at WEFT -- must have hit the slider for the guitar volume between sound check and the beginning of our set. That is: you can't hear the guitar. Ah, opportunity: you should be cranking up the bass anyway, kids, 'cos that's me. (Don't fret: the studio guy realizes the mistake in song 2, leading to just a touch of overcompensation, but we'll get to that tomorrow...)

For all songs from WEFT Sessions, 1 Dec 2003, see the posts with the label: WEFT Sessions 1 December 2003