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The Pendulum
Thursday, May 5, 2005 • Page 21
ARTS ENTERTAINMENT
Ilead Chemists have all the elements
Despite working together over long distances, these Elon students bring a new sound to campus
In the
Bubble
Tonight 5/5
Elon Dancers Spring
Concert
7:30 p.m.
McCrary Theatre
Tickets needed; $12 or
free with ID
Friday 5/6
Elon Dancers Spring
Concert
Twisted Measure Spring
Concert
8 p.m.
; Whitley Auditorium
Saturday 5/7
Hlon Dancers Spring
Concert
Twisted Measure Spring
Concert
5 p.m.
Whitley Auditorium
Cavin DeGraw
, 8 p.m'
Alumni Gym
$10 with Elon ID
tbesday 5/10
Elon University Wind -
Ensemble Performance
7:30 p.m.
McCrary Theatre
Sweet Signatures Spring
Concert
S p.m.
Whitley Auditorium
Virginia Galvez
tditor
“Meeting in Lx)ndon is where it
all started,” said John David Parsons.
Parsons, who makes up half of stu
dent band Head Chemists, credits an
Elon study abroad program to the
joining of two musical minds.
Parsons met up with now graduated
Ben Prichard in London the fall of
2004 where they started combining
musical talents, bringing them even-
tu^ly to the future release of the^
first album “Bittersweet Melody.”
The album release party will be held
at the Acom on Friday 13 at 6pm as
a charity event for Project Pericles.
While the two of them lay down
some of their tracks using guitar
chord progressions combined with a
drum beat, what makes their album
interesting is the actual way m which
they produced it. “We write our
songs with guitars first and start
playing around,” said Parsons.
“When a chord progression sUcks
we recorf it. And then we will
import it into the program and then
we just start adding the insmiments-
bass pattern, drum loop, small
effects to trick out the sound.
Using a computer program called
Reason 3.0 by Propellerhead
Software, Parsons and Prichard are
able to use real-life hardware devices
that are combined on this computer
simulation. While aU the devices
have been around for several
decades, it is a fairly new develop
ment to have them all condensed
into one program without taking up
any “real-life” space or costing thou
sands of dollars to own.
“We like to confuse people, we
like to use instmments on the com
puter that sound like real life but also
real instmments that may sound like
a computer made them,” said
Parsons. Using these different ele
ments has truly opened doors for the
direction in which “Bittersweet
Melody” could have gone. Take the
track “Legacy” for example. Parsons
and Prichard took JFK's inaugural
address and made him "rap" to the
backing of a hip-hop beat, synthesiz
ers and bagpipes
“We wanted to do a tribute to
5FK and the beginning background
melody was the Danny Boy
melody...its kind of always been
used in funerals,” said Parsons. “Plus
we both like JFK quite a bit and he
had some good things to say about
how the world should be.” While has
hints of hip hop, symphonic ele
ments as well as basic acoustic gui
tar tracks, “Bittersweet Melody” can
reach a vast array of listeners.
“If we have a catchy melody we
want people to sing it over and over
in their mind but we want the mes
sage to make them do something
beneficial,” said Parsons. “We don’t
have a lot of real political songs but
we always had it in the back of our
minds that we wanted to write songs
i^jELODY
IRSW c c
that impacted people.”
After the initial meeting in
London, Parsons and Prichard
selected the top 17 songs to make it
onto their first album. As they have
reborded nearly 70 onto Parson’s
computer, there are thoughts of more
albums in the future. Working with
producer John Loy in Chapel Hill,
Parsons credits him for helping with
the selection for “Bittersweet
Melody” and for guiding them
regarding production in the profes
sional world.
Prichard, who communicated
with Parsons from Hawaii during
part of the CD production process.
Graphic courtesy of David Parsons
will be returning to Elon for the CD
release party. Starting around 6 p.m.
on Friday May 13th, Parsons and
Prichard will be selling “Bittersweet
Melody” for $12. They also plan on
having a screening of the new docu
mentary by Project Pericles and $2
from every CD sale will go towards
the organization. For more informa
tion about the Head Chemists, check
out their website at
http://www.Headchemists.com
which will be fully up and mnning
by the release party.
Contact Virginia Galvez at pendu-
lum@elon.edu or 278-7247.
In Concert
Sunday 5/8
Gavhi DeGraw
Doors open at 6 p.m.
Show at 7 p*m.
Winston-Salem
$20
Wednesday 5/11
Narallis
Turn
Doors open at 8 p.m.
Show at 9 p.m.
Ziggy’s- Winston-Salem
$5
Friday 5/20
Sam Bush
Doors open at 8 p.m.
Show at 9 p.m.
Ziggy’s- Winston-Salem
$20
Saturday 5/29
The Faint
Bright Eyes .
Doors open at 6 .^
Show at 7 p.m.-'
$22 in advance