Josh McNeill

May 19th, 2008 www.joshmcneill.com Opens

We're open. This is a spin off of www.penanonymous.com as I realized that the direction I wanted to go made that site a lot more useful for just my hip hop work and this site more useful as a general location for any project I want to do in the future. So, anyway, enjoy.

July 11th, 2007 New Words With Music

I've posted a new hip hop track today. This is the first time I've used a sample in a song. If you can guess what it is I'llll... say congratulations. But anyway, check it out.

July 6th, 2007 Supporting Your Library

I mean, almost everything you can find at a library is now at your fingertips on the internet but at least the library still gives you a place where you can physically meet people who like books. I don't get it, but my friend does and she asked me to write a theme song for them to use in their children's department for the summer so here it is. If you wanna check out the Cape May County Library's children's site as well here that is.

June 18th, 2007 My Fingers Are Tired

Sooo, apparently I'm really out of practice with playing acoustic fingerstyle OR I just have trouble arranging things in that style. Either way I've finally finished a song I've been working on for what seems like forever. It's not perfect but it has an important meaning for me so it's there. Anyway, in the future I think I'll try using open tunings when I play acoustic. Barring a chord or two on the 8th fret while trying to throw a little lead in there with the same fingers is way more trouble than it's worth.

June 14th, 2007 Microphones at Parties Can Be Fun...

...as long as you make sure that no one will completely disown you afterwards. I've managed to come close to that line and not go over it. The result is a fairly catchy electronica-esque song mixed with some sound clips that will probably only be funny to you if you know what they're about. It was fun to make either way, check it out.

Also I've added photos of my gear in the equipment section so, for instance, you can check out my sweet guitars (particularly the 2027x) here.

May 20th, 2007 Fun With Time Signatures

Just finished another rock song. I was experimenting a bit with polyrhythms in the middle of this one. I thik it worked out well but if you understand polyrhythms and would like to give some feedback it'd be appreciated. I was trying out some new microphones on the guitar and bass as well. I used an MXL 991 on my guitar amp and it seems to be a clearer sound than my AKG D790 BUT when brought into the mix it doesn't have enough mids to make it naturally stand out. On the other hand, if you get a chance to pick up a Blue Kickball go for it. I'm pretty happy with how that worked out on my bass amp (previously I just used a DI and software amp modeller).

May 4th, 2007 Punkier Than You

Yet another rock song has been posted. This one was based off a riff I wrote some 4 years ago and never got around to making into a full song. Regardless it's probably more cohesive and representative of the sound I'm really going for. Take a listen.

Apr 28th, 2007 A New Speed Record..

... for me putting out another song. I just finished up another hip hop song today complete with vocals. Check it out.

EDIT 6:30pm EST: Mixing on a rock song that I started today was really quick and painless so it looks like I'm posting 2 songs today. Go here for the other one.

Apr 27th, 2007 Instrumental Hip Hop Track

I just completed another hip hop track. This one is instrumental. It was SUPPOSED to have vocals, I even had lyrics that I liked written, but I couldn't come up with a strong enough delivery so instead of doing either the music or the vocals injustice I kept it as an instrumental. I may just use the words in a different song later on. Well anyway, check it out here.

Apr 6th, 2007 Another Rock Song

Yet another song has been completed. I used a different drum machine this time which I think helped give the drums a more natural sound. There's also snippets of accordion in there. The next rock song I do I'm planning on having more synth based stuff implemented to fill out the sound. I have a hip hop track that I need to finish before that happens though. Enjoy.

Feb 21st, 2007 New Rock Song

I finished another one and didn't screw up the mix with my lazy mastering (I'm not into mastering AT ALL). So if you're here, reading this, then you have enough time on your hands to check it out.

Feb 6th, 2007 More and Less Work

So I started recording another rock song today, I've got another hip hop song coming along (just need to finish up lyrics and work on the arrangement a bit), and I also got laid off today. The laying off of from Sam Ash is probably ok thought since they were barely able to pay over minimum wage with their current commission system, the store was in utter shambles and always will be, and I'll probably get paid more being on unemployment and doing under the table work. So yeah, the rock song will probably be all recorded within a week or so and maybe another week to mix it, if all goes well.

Feb 3rd, 2007 Finally Finished a Rock Song

I've been working on this song off and on for almost a year and I've finally put it together in a way that's worth showing around. It's still a rough version simply because it's only intended to be an example of the sort of sound I'm interested in playing with other people. A huge part of the reason that it took so long to finish it is the fact that I was originally going to do everything, including vocals, myself and various versions of it have been recorded where those vocals ruined the song. So here you have it for download and here you have it on MySpace. If you're a musician and you enjoy this sound and you live in NYC somewhere, contact me and maybe we can make some better stuff.

Jan 15th, 2007 Busy Busy Busy

So I've been stupid busy for the last month+ but now I've somewhat got some time to work on things. I'm still working full time and have 2 internships at recording studios but I don't have to look for a place to live anymore and just today I actually obtained a real internet connection again (gasp). So yeah, I've almost got a rock song recorded, then I'll be uploading it and making a MySpace page for that whole thing. Hopefully within a month or two I'll have a band of some sort goin' and there will be real updates to make. Maybe another web site even specifically for that. Who knows.

Jan 1st, 2007 Chipmonk: The Official Crap Opens

After lacking an official internet existence for far too long the infamous Chipmonk finally receives their much deserved web site. Although it is a work in progress there is now a reliable location to obtain all of their works from. Expect big things, very big things. The world will not be the same now that this monstrosity has been let loose.

You can find the site at http://www.chipmonkownsyou.com.

Dec 16th, 2006 Pen Anonymous Opens

Yeah, that's about it really. I'm in the NYC area now after saving for a year to move back here from South Jersey and I'm getting some things recorded to show you people. I'll update this stuff as seems fit (probably just to say what I'm working on at the moment). I'm not sure what use news is on a site like this but what the hell, ever site needs a news area.