l'Incroyable Hulk

D'oh!

Downloadable Album

the Hardstuff by theHardstuff

process...

Arg.  So I spent the weekend adding sizzle and shine to the tracks and prepping art and a bunch of scilearn stuff.  I went too far though and now that I am listening to them here at work they sound squashed and clippy.  Not only that but the fx I put on Prep to Scream made it sound like someone is turning up and down the volume as the song plays.  Easy fix.  Good news is I found a local vendor who is in Berkeley to Duplicate and print the art on the CDs.  And I have tonight to finish up and burn the CD image and tracklist.  Phew.

Other than that, I dropped the art off at Kinko's today.  Didn't have to wait in line and the guy set up a proof for me right there.  I cut it, folded it, and well, I'm super happy with it.  And I'm pretty sure they're cutting them too and I'm picking them all up today.

Also ordered the clear jewel cases online to be delivered to the house.  I should be getting a fat box on the side of the house tomorrow.

Friday, everything should be done and we can spend the evening putting these things together.  FUN!

More packaging...

How about no title on the illustration?  We have another option.  One thing in designing the inside CD tray is that there is a vertical strip that shows through from the tray, through the clear plastic and to the front.  So I've put the "Prepare to Scream" main title there.  Which means we can take it off of the cover "proper" entirely if we like.

I'm at work so I can't mock this up for better explanation But here's a screenshot of the CD tray art with template lines.  The vertical text to the left is what will show through to the front.  As far as the color choices Shay posted, I would go with whichever looks best in CMYK.  I like the warmer colors better I suppose.

 I went over to Don's place yesterday and we touched base on the inside art of the album.  He put together a couple photo collages that are great.  I spread some of the photos out and I'm quite sure we're getting close to wrapping this CD package up.  I'll be posting the mockups soon.

This reminds me of the Hardstuff

Additional Possibilities

Hi guys, Shay here...

I made some slight color adjustments to share as examples. Just messing around with the color/hues.

Orange bg + Red title



orange bg



Red title



Green title



-your thoughts on these variations???

album cover mockups. Which one?

CD wrap up

So here's the scoop.  Album music is on the way to done.  Final final adjustments have been made by me including pulling the mind curdling scream down in the end of "prep to scream".  Erika gets back from LA next week.  My side is done, notes written up for her and WAV CD ready for burning to take to her school for final processing.  Hopefully she'll be able to hammer out the last changes a few days before Shay gets here so I can send the whole thing in for duplication in time.

I just got off the phone with the CD duplication guy I found online.  We settled on a price of 390.00 for 300 CDs.

• Plastic jewel case (sorry Don)
• four panel insert. So the paper thingy that goes into the front of the CD will be basically a long strip of paper folded in half.  This gives us four square panels to fill up.  I've mocked up the album cover.  Still playing with "prepare to scream" font.  But that's the album name.  I'm done thinking and asking about it, and I'm pretty happy with it.  It looks like a bit like a comic book in CD format.

• CD tray will be clear plastic.  In addition to the front insert there is a "tray" insert.  This is what shows on the back on the CD and also what will show through the clear plastic when you pull the CD out of the tray.

• CD will be silver with black graphic tracklist, bandname and album name

Anybody who has time to work on this is free to.  I'll be working on the cover this weekend, then moving on to other stuff.  I put the template files on the FTP in a root folder called: AlbumArt:
InsideTrayInsert
OutsideTrayInsert
HS_4panel
other Hardstuff stuff is in there too.

Don, you mentioned you did a collage of studio and instrument shots.  I'd love to give you a few more to integrate into the collage and propose a delivery dat of middle of next week to get it to me so I can pop it in there.

Looks like we get 100 stickers for 5 bucks extra and 100 color posters (size 11-17) for free!  Lets spend some time thinking about what we want on those and get it done yawl!

Also I set up a new blog for the band as a landing base of info for anybody interested.  Doesn't look like there's room for lyrics on the CD, but we can post them on the site and offer more stuff there as well.

here's the url.  Nothing there yet:
http://thehardstuffmusic.blogspot.com/

Finally, we need to think about "thanks".  Lets stuff em all together and say "the hardstuff would like to thank…"

Send me a list of who you want to thank and I'll pop them in there.


g

Stoked.

Erika and I woke up early saturday morning and hit her school to take the songs in to get mastered.  Place was really cool.  We didn't get the studio she wanted but we were still able to patch into some great equipment in another one.  Here's a couple shots from inside where we were.  We got there around 8am, left there around 1pm with all but 2 songs ready for a first listen.  And she said after we left she finished up the last two.

Dope.  Big, boomy and rockin.  We did something right guys.  These things sound great.  Of course I'm nitpicking the fuck out of it right now but I'm so stoked.  I can turn the shit all the way up and smile while I air drum in the car.  Loud.  So I'm making slight adjustments, passing the new wavs over to Erika and you guys will NOT hear them until we're done.  Depending on her schedule, could be a week or two...which actually speeds things up a bit.  Album name.  Should we have one?  I mean really. It's the one and only album.    How about: The Hardstuff:

On the Rocks
Neat!
Keep it comin'
On the house
on tap
naughty burger
last call
happy hour
Straight up
Bar Wars
Magnum

On the way...

Erika is still working on the album.  Last week I dropped off the current CD to Tana's friend Brett (drummer from the band Rancid) who's been around the house a bit.  He's been into producing music for some time now and he's got some great equipment to monitor the music with.  When I got home from work yesterday Erika and Brett were talking about what hardware/ audioware to run it through.  Overall he thought it was rocking, vocals really at great levels cutting through.  His main feedback was he wanted to hear the snare pop more.  Thought the drums sounded a bit "dark" but good.  Made my night sorta getting the feedback from a credible musician who worked in the industry and from the punk side of things too.

Been researching CD packaging options and still looking for album names.

Here's the thing.  I'm not sure this thing will be done by the middle of August.  There's a really good chance it will, but just in case, we're going to have a release party regardless.  The things may not be printed and done, but we'll be able to listen to it and celebrate the work we all put into it.

I'll be getting an evite going for a shindig at my place sometime around the 17th.  Shay, how long are you in town for?

My initial review of material...

Just reviewed all the songs.  Looks like one more round of editing, but I should be able to tweak everything very quickly. 

Here's my feedback.  Maybe it will help to compare what we hear.  We'll most likely hear similar things but it would be nice to check these comments out while reviewing the music:

Still in Maxamillian:
Snare needs more treble
Mike vocals need to be lower
maybe the track is too low in volume
Bass guitar is too big.  Needs to come down

Smoke In California:
It's loud (look for clipping)
Take some reverb off shay's vocals.  Vocals may need to come down a smidge

Zartan:
Guitar down a touch
Bass guitar down a touch
Kick drum needs some punch

Baby Nolte:
Take some reverb off Mike's vocals
vocals down (too trebley) mostly at end of song

Clonan:
Snare needs limiter (too soft yet not all the time)
Check kick drum for clipping, might be too loud
Bass too loud
Toms need to come up in volume
Clonan chorus is too loud

Prepare to Scream:
Fucker is done...sounds real fat

Chewie:
Bass sounds really deep (sub bass) or
Kick drum may have too much reverb
End chewie vocals too loud

Lobot:
Done!  (cut 2 seconds off the end)

RFBG:
Samples got moved, they're not in the right spot (whoops)
Second verse sounds louder than the first (choruses sound fine though)
Bass guitar maybe a bit too loud

Mo Nore Nilk Mow:
Drums may be a bit too loud (bus them down)
Check snare, might be able to brighten it up

Pirate Song:
if guitar has reverb, take it down
More kick
Second verse sounds louder than the first
Take some reverb off Mike's main vocals

Hulk:
Is there a phaser on?  If so, reduce to 50%
Mike's vocals too loud
Toms need more presence

Check point! WooHooo!

I finally got through all 12 songs on the album!

Please take a couple days to listen to them one last time (as I will) and then...time to send off.  I've added samples and effects, Smoke in Cali is totally different, all others got some love too.  Please please send comments per song (if any).  Listen with headphones.  Also it'll take awhile to download them.

Grab em off the FTP:

Same as before, these are lower in volume and will be enhanced.  EQ (treble mids and bass) and overall volume will be adjusted by the professionals on their wonderful devices.  I'm asking for hi-hats that are too loud, kick drum presence, guitar and bass volume, clarity of vocals...

Also, do we want a hidden track?  "Army of Hamsters" redo?  Shite Rider?


Enjoy!
g

A bit behind, but fuck it, it's worth it.

Big Machine update:

I'm lagging on these songs.  Thing is, now that these songs are not getting sonically squashed by me, it's a lot easier to work on them and fix them.  I've posted 4 of the songs (due to convenience of having them at work today) up on the FTP for you guys to get a sense of what I'm doing:
in Album1_scifight/BigMachineNoMasterFinals:

piratenomaster2
Noltenomaster2
Maxnomaster3
Lobotnomaster2

  These are the versions I'll be sending to the audio mastering company (in WAV form).  I'll be posting more on the FTP later tonight.  At least 3 more.  The difference you will hear is they are significantly lower in volume, BUT you'll hear everything.  And to me, it sounds like all the frequencies are out in the open meaning if these guys want to punch the kick, it's there, you can hear it, same thing with the bass, guitar everything.  Nothing stands out as annoying or grating.  I have 4 more to go really until I'm done with Smoke in Cali needing the most work.  Maybe this week Don and Mike and I can whoop it up in the studio and add some fun vocals to it and banjo?

After all 12 of these songs are up on the FTP, I'll let you all know and you can give them one last listen.

Album cover still not settled on yet.  Hmmmm...

Last night we all got the "Hungry Eyes"

New cover song up in Kitty Glitter album on FTP.  Gotta love the total disregard of original chord structure eh.

Close to send off.

Things are going well in the land of music.  Slow, but well.  I'm writing songs again on the acoustic, which is strange but rewarding.

More over, I hear that Shay and Peter both are going to be in SF area around the 17th/18th of august.  If you guys need to crash at my place, feel free, I'll set you both up.

I'm saying this is the time to have the album release party.  It'll be done this month most likely.  Working on my first pass of corrections to the new tracks.  3 down, 9 to go.  They sound a lot lower in overall volume, but you can hear everything.  So I'm working on this and then off to the mastering professionals where they'll get sonic love and boosting hopefully using analog hardware.  This should take a couple more days to get through the editing and a week to process.  Think I'm still hitting my mark for the 15th of June to wrap up my side of things on the tracks.  Which will be awesome to get all that shit off my multiple hard drives.

I'll be posting the finals that will be going out for final mastering on the ftp probably early next week.  I'll need you guys to run through these versions with a critical ear.  They are different, there are samples and everything sounds a bit different.  These versions as I said will not be the final versions, but they are the ones going out to get shiny and professional (so they say).  So once I send em in, I don't want to hear any feedback.  They will be done, I will be done and moving on.

Shay, the money you gave me for the car will be going toward the album production and/or shirt printing.  Just so you know.  Everything else is on me except CD printing and packaging.  This may be pricey, but I'm looking into it.  I might just make a few for our 3 fans and loved ones and set up a download site for others to grab it. I'd love to be able to sell it but how online?

Mike's working on an album cover, I will too.  Shay sent one in.  It's funny and the theme is good but it needs some love.  Mine, I suck and I haven't come up with anything I like, but I'm still going to give it a shot.

wish me luck!

Progress and the white towel

I had a bit of time this weekend to do some editing.  I think we're still good for mid june release for the first album.

I didn't hear hardly any feedback on the album as a whole as I'm sure you guys are all sick of it by now.  Me too!  No, not really.  BUT…I can't keep putting hours into editing this shit to no avail.  I think I really got something, then listen to it the next day and don't know what I was thinking.

SO I'm going to finish up my final sweep of the songs, take off the compression and limiting and send it off to an online mastering service.  It's going to be around 200.00 bucks.  That's not much considering the amount of time it would take me to learn this "black art"  as I've heard it called.  They'll take the tracks, polish em up and that will be that.  Pretty much they will add more punch, crisps and body to the music also making it more cohesive across the playlist balancing out the volume.

So it sounds like we're going with "Big Machine" for the album name.  Any objections?  Good.

Lets all work on an album cover.  Pretty sure Mike wanted to go kinda serious with the illustration.  I was thinking black and white messy illustration.  I think Shay was thinking some huge robot thing…they all sound good to me.  Lets get em up.

Downloaded a cd insert template from online, got the liner notes pretty well laid out.

Questions:

• Put the lyrics in the leaflet or post them on a website?  And why?

• I'm making shirts too.  Black cloth with white text on the front middle, our fake intergalactic tour dates on the back.  Objections?

• who do you guys want to thank?  Nobody?


On the studio side of things I hooked up the 8 track to the PA in a way we can record live just by pulling up a template in Logic on the laptop.

4 mics on the set.  1 on the guitar amp, 1 straight from the PA output for live singing, 1 room mic that can pick up anything, 1 left over for bass or whatever.  Stoked.  Tested it out, got the drums sounding nice and new in the recording.  So that's cool right?  Now I just need a fucking band.

One Takes

So last night we had a bunch of fun jamming out.  Sometimes it's good, sometimes not.  But before I went through the ton of iphone recordings, I knew i liked these two:

Drownin
Yamaha

Find em in the overflow album on the FTP.
g

versions/ new nolte up/ prep to scream adjustments

Time to start comparing versions.  Get your fancy headphones out and keep em out.

Don't have any?  Time to get some.  I use the Sony MDR-V6 digital headphones.  Online they are about 60-80 bucks.  Totally worth it though.  They aren't the best but even I can't see buying 400 dollar headphones at this point.

Slowly I'll be posting updated versions of all the songs as I get around to the big frequency problems.   The current standing version and the new updated one.  Here's where it is in the FTP:

Currently, there is two versions of Prep2Scream and the two versions of Nolte including one I put in there this morning I adjusted last night.  Use your smarts to figure out the newest version.

Only listen to Nolte though.  Prepare to scream isn't done.  I went a little overboard on the EQ manipulation of the cymbals and snare last night and comparing it to the previous version sounded less vibrant.  Oh well, back to work!  Somewhere in the middle of both is going to work better.

So check out Nolte9nokeys!  I think it's better.

Album critique time!!! Rip it up.

I think Don drank Black Willy’s Washboard Liquor.  Great for vocals, horrible on the liver.

I cut a bunch of stuff out of the extra guitar and key tracks and like I said, it’s what I could do with what was left.  I didn’t put Shay’s backing vocals in there, didn’t get to it.  As it was, I had issues with Shay’s guitar tracks because I didn’t have the patience to turn them to mono once I realized he bounced with pre-existing panning and volume adjustment.  Made it a bit difficult, not the worst.

So at this point I am gathering the feedback from everybody into a main doc.  This is it guys.  The Album.  I took all the old versions out of the scifight mp3s updated folder on the FTP (nolte stripped exception).

Album Review time:

***I need a list of corrections and a constructive critique for each song.  Not so hard really right?  If something doesn’t sound right, note the time and where in the song it’s not jiving.  If it’s aloover, specify instrument or frequency (too much bass, highs too high)

*** Please make sure you all have the most current versions.

*** also I need album order from all ya’ll.  (mostly Mike and Shay) Keep in mind the way a song starts, ends, potential samples, and samples that may be overkill.  For example, I don’t think Zartan needs a sample in the beginning.  Does it need one at all?  A few of the songs start off with just bass guitar.  I would like to avoid grouping these.

Gooooooooooooooo!!!

Baby Nolte got a spanky!

Happy Thursday fellas.  I posted a new version of BabyNolte.  Definitely interested in getting your feedback.  It's kinda bad ass.

Nolte is still giving me shit.

Sorry about the Nolte guys.  It's getting there.  Funny how editing music really mirrors my view on life right now.  If the recording sucks, I cut the parts out that are useful, toss the rest and forget about it.  Why hold onto shit that sucks?  Shit you don't need.  Clutter.

However, getting back to Nolte, the more I add shit into this, the more it gets away from the original rocking simplicity of it.  Can't hear the bass so much with 5 guitars.  So tonight I'm going to get a rough cut done with Shay's guitars, my guitars, Shay's extra vocals, Don's extra vocals and my keys.  All of these in very limited amounts because that's what sounds less messy.  K.I.S. fellas.  Then we can compare versions.  Nolte loaded or not loaded.  It only seems right that "Nolte" be "loaded" I guess, but we all should decide.  I'm the one that listens to it 20 times a day.

My plan is to have nolte edited by the 30th.  That will be the album's first pass.      Then I'll need help exporting tracks from garageband into Logic.  Probably help won't happen.  May get Erika to help me?  Once this is done, mastering and samples/overdubs will be a lot easier.  Not easy, but easier.  My plan is to have the first sweep of mastering done by the 15th and the album done by June 15th.

I think it can happen unless my dates with Vanessa start picking up.  WooHoo.  Last night was very pleasant for ol Greg.  No sexy sex, but we definitely like each other a lot.  And the future is uncertain and complicated, but I'm getting the idea that there's a wonderful world to explore out there with other people and life can be less stressful.  Awesome.

  Mike, Don and I went camping this weekend.  Man, we smoked a lot of pot.  The place was beautiful.  On the way there we went over the second and third album and talked about changes and additions to each song.

On the way back, Don and I went over the 1st album, the main set of songs, and did the same.  Lots of fixes need to happen, but I knew that.  It's good to have a clear understanding of what needs to change to make the music sound better…and Don to jot down ideas and bounce thoughts with.  We now have that info.  I hope to encourage both Shay and Mike to go over the set list and write down for each song anything you hear needs to change.  Or additions…samples…get creative.  Think simple, stuff that's easy to put in, take out.  Then we can throw all the notes together and see start fixing stuff.

All in all there's going to be over 40 songs over 3 albums.  1st one out of course is the originals.   Then we'll be changing pace and going with the more hip-hop/dance stuff.  There's roughly 13 songs or so that can work on this.

(Don, lets remember zombie shuffle)

There's a serious itch to play live, but I just don't see the dedication from any of us it takes to form a set of new songs, master playing them, and set up gigs.  But I'd like to.  And I think Don needs to be on stage at some point in his life before his knee blows out completely.  There are some songs that we could perform from jams we've done.  But that's only like 4 or 5 tunes with a lot of work.

Shay, we all missed you this weekend.  I poured some whiskey on the fire for you bud. 

Chan came into the studio and got a bit aggresive...

I recorded it...Check it out on FTP.  Peter, this one's for you!

Albums/ALBUM3_OverFlow/DericiousDuck

Nolte update...

This last week Don and I worked on keys and extra wah guitar for nolte.  The backing vocals are great and the bass in synced up.  I was going to put a version up, but I'll wait to see what magic happens with the extras.  Maybe I can do some panning!

Still have Shay's backing vocals and guit bits to throw in making this maybe the most tracked song since Clonan.

Don and I are also making slow but sick progress on "What Kinda Party Is This?".  Or as I write it, WKPIT.  Needs some lyrics.  We seem to have the basic arrangement and sound minus some floaty top layer gangsta scifi whistle.  Email exchanges of lyrics are always awesome.  Don, you and I, lyric for lyric.  That's how a lot of our song lyrics progressed over the years and still.  Over email.  And it's a wonderful distraction and "mini session" which pays off totally when we hit the studio with all the lyrics.

Anyways.  Tomorrow I;m going to listen to that shit and write some shit and send that shit out and shit, I hope we get shit back.

Sound Cloud - Can You Hear The Thunder?

Hi Guys,

I wanted to introduce you all to Sound Cloud. It is a music sharing site that will allow us to post and share music with one another without taking any ftp space. This is what it looks like and sounds like...

08 Zartan Master of Disguise by Neckbeard

You can share and embed this player practically anywhere. You can allow tracks to be downloaded, add them to groups for others on Soundcloud to listen and comment on directly on the track. Check out the buttons on the right side of the player.

Currently, I have a few tracks up there and when we are ready, we can post some updated tracks and share them with the world through the web.

Right now it says "by Neckbeard", cause that's my user name, though we can change this if need be.

-S

Quick Max in photoshop from sketchbook.

Baby Nolte is REAL!

Check it out.  I snapped this picture of him in his vodka bath today at the gym.  Amazing.  Who knew?

Nolte gets a facelift and Louda gets louder...open discussion on album tracks

Baby Nolte
• bass is fixed/done
• lyrics finalized and printed/done
• ready for final vocal additions

Louda
• bass recorded/done
• need to go over song lyrics with Shay
• Ready for backing vocals

Heavy Horizon
• On hold.  Not sure if it will make the album

Stringfellow Hawk
• On hold.  Not sure if it will make the album

And since no one else will bring it to our attention, I'm addressing it here.  Someone feels that he should be a part of every song on the album or the song shouldn't be on the record.

So we're hitting a small creative wall here.  And the three of us need to hash out whats actually going to be the done album.  And we all of course have a say in that.   The way I see it, Adrock isn't on every Beastie song.  The albums I like most usually are a work of collaboration which extends beyond the core members of the band.  And in producing the album and putting so much fucking time into this and heavily considering my genuine interest in making everybody's performances shine, I ask myself:
  "Would I fuss so much if I wasn't playing an instrument or represented on every track on an album in which someone cared enough to involve me so much in with such minimal effort or practice on my part?"
My answer to myself…no.  Sorry to bring this to a head, but you know what, I'm tired of being under appreciated and talked down to when I'm stretching so far to make someone shine, especially in this time in my life.  Lets not get so selfish right when this thing is wrapping up.  Everybody had put their time into this project and we're getting close to the end.  There's been many pats on my back from everybody involved so don't think I need that.  I just need someone to see the true reality of giving versus getting.

Lets name the fucking album! / updated album track list / New Baby Nolte lyrics for review

Album title:
 I don't like the name Scifight anymore.  I like it, but it doesn't apply really to our track list.  Not so much sci-fi. 

Can we please try and brainstorm here?
I like:
• PREPARE TO SCREAM
• ANIMANIC


So here's the track list as of right this second:
Automatauntaun (instrumental)
Prepare To Scream
Lobot
Chewie Got Shotgun
Smoke in California
The Pirate song
Zartan
Mo Nore Nilk Mow
2 Face Mofo
Sk8 for Life
Baby Nolte
Still in Maxamillian
The Hulk
Clonan
Real Fat Bald Guy
Louda!
Sexy Fly
Heavy Horizon

Stringfellow Hawk (proposed






Baby Nolte updated Lyrics:

Weathered and wrinkly
He don't look like all the other babies
Baby Nolte
Milk bottle full a bourbon and baileys

Baby Baby Baby
Baby nolte
Baby Baby Baby
Baby nolte

Steal your car keys
And take your cash
Slickin his hair back
With corn beef and hash
Nolte Smash

Baby Nolte he'll drink your gin
And your rum
You better hide it
Baby Nolte stinky and greasy
Like a bum
He don't cry
Baby Nolte don't take no shit
You better run
You can't fight it
Baby nolte, born straight from
a black lung...
In the middle of a bar fight!

Baby Nolte
Baby bay bu bu bu baby
Baby Nolte
only baby in AA

Clonan color

Still going.  I know, needs blood and uterus goo.

New Baby Nolte up on FTP and other updates...like anybody cares but Shay

albums/scifight/mp3supdated/BabyNolte_2b.mp3

So it's totally not done.  Bass still needs editing and adjusting, vocals have too much reverb and are too loud in spots, and I put a generic compressor on there here at work that boosts the sound and takes the clips down.

On Mike's vocals I applied a hi-pass filter which makes it sound tinny.  I like the effect and what it adds to the music, also helps the vocals sit on to of the mix…but I've heard it a few times so maybe I'm just used to it?  I wasn't sure about the character of his voice, but I think with the megaphone effect it works well now.

Shay sent me a midi track he plugged in for bass on Heavy Horizon.  I messed around with it last night moving bars around and getting excited about the complete creative freedom to manipulate the bass line.  It's not there yet, but once the notes are all synced, I'll toss it over to Don so we can take advantage of his bass software (trillion?).  I'm going to try and get something raunchy.

Shay also sent me a version of CalibosBlues with extra guitar.  I think it helps for sure, but I'm still not cool with the vocals on the track.  I don't like any of them and the drums still sound too plastic to me.  This one doesn't need to make the album.  It could be what is is and lump up with mekanek later on if that even happens.

New RFBG up in FTP

Don added his voice to the song.  Mike put some yells in there.  I took myself out of course...boo hoo.  Took the advice of Shay on this one.  Hope it pleases.  Again not totally mixed, but it'll all get there.

RFBG_v2b.mp3

clonan sketch!

I'm still working on it a bit, but I want him popping out a cow's vagina...as specified in the lyrics!

The belly button patch is because he's a clone I guess?  Whatever.   Color coming soon for all these.  I'm inspired.

g

Low-bot and Real Fat Bald Guy

Two more in the works...no finished color yet.  I want to try and do all the songs as drawings.  These 3 (prep2scream, Lo-bot, RFBG) I did yesterday and today.  Jade's been sick so I've been hangin out with her at the house and drawing while she's been sinking into the couch.

With lo-bot, I was trying to avoid copyright issues by changing the name and then using that to create humor.

Hopefully we can make the CD in a way that refers to a website where you can buy high res color prints at a very very low price.  I've written the idea before but I think it's a great way of snowballing our "product"  and skills if we put a website at the bottom of all the art.  Then, when printed if somebody sees it and likes it, they can check out the website and download songs, art, stickers, comics, paintings or anything else we have to offer up for cashy cash.

Let me know your thoughts guys.  As David St. Hubbins says: It's such a fine line between stupid, and clever.

Happy Valentine's day to all that love me!

Prepare To Scream illustration

Here's my quick ill for Prepare to Scream.  I thought if we did some printable art related to the album we could sell full pages for cheap online to accompany the release.  Anyways, not done but I like it.  Got another one coming...Low-bot.

g

Finishinzez the album

We have some decisions to make.  There's a few songs that need finishing...or not.  We could cut it to the original set list and start working on the final mastering and CD innards or we can keep going and put these suckers on there:

Baby Nolte
Calabos Blues
Mekaneck
Louda!

At this time, I'm thinking two things.

1) We've gone this far, lets finish em all up!
2) Lets cut it and get the fucking album out!

I propose a compromise.

Erika spent some time adjusting EQ and frequency settings on Prep2Scream with me the other night.  Mainly I sat and watched her adjusting and cutting unneeded frequencies out of tracks to make sonic room for other instrumetns to shine unclogging the muddiness of the song.  Aint done yet, but hopefully I'll be able to create some preset based on her adjustments that could speed the process up.

So this may take some time to get through all the songs.  While she and I go through them, maybe we could finish up another song or 2.  I'm guessing Louda! is a good one that I can get the bass done on.  Vocals, I'm not sure.  Also Heavy Horizon needs a bass or keys or to take the main guitar track, double it and pitch the new track down to bass levels thus complimenting the guitar and adding low end.

There's plenty to do and I could go on and on and on adding shit to this album, but I'm thinking I want to put something out this fucking year.

Lets concentrate on a limited set of songs for the first album.  This is sort of the order I'm thinking in the compromise for "scifight":


Automatauntaun (instrumental)
Prepare To Scream
Lobot
Chewie Got Shotgun
Smoke in California
The Pirate song
Sexy Fly
Zartan
Mo Nore Nilk Mow
2 Face Mofo
Still in Maxamillian
The Hulk
Clonan
Real Fat Bald Guy
Louda!
Heavy Horizon

I'm going to start working on CD art for the cover and collaborating with Shay and Mike about credits, lyrics and thanks and whatever else we want to put in there.

My main feeling is, lets keep it simple(ish) and get it out.  I want to have a release party THIS year.  Preferably summer.  I think we (Shay, Mike and Me) should agree on a temporary new release date so Shay can get an idea of when he might be able to come out here.  This will help push us (me) into getting it done.  Then I'm much needing to move on to other projects and be free of this "chapter".

Thoughts?

RFBG up on FTP

albums/scifight/scifight_mp3s_updated/RFBG_v2a.mp3

Real Fat Bald Guy's been itching to get lovin for maybe a year and a half?  Anyways, I played bass and sung second vocals on this recording.  I'm pretty happy with it.  Needs to be finessed, pull this up, that down but the basic flow is good.

My thoughts were, the song would be sung from 2 different perspectives.  The Fat bald guy and the other dude.

Anyways, animating George the Animal Steel will be fun, if by chance that ever happens.  Regardless, enjoy.

Rock it don't stop it.

I keep thinking Zartan is my all time favorite Hardstuff song.  Then I hear Max, then Mo Nore then Lobot and oh my god.  Spend some time away from these songs and they really do sound rockin.

And speaking of, our housemate Erika is going to be helping out with mastering...tonight!    She's certified in Logic and knows way more about audio engineering than I do.  We made a date for this evening around 7 to go over Prepare to Scream.  All the tracks are there and it needs the most help sonically in my opinion.  I'd love to drop a fat 808 in there when the lyrics start.

Tonight I'm going to finish recording the bass for RFBG.  I've been practicing and think I got it down.  Then lyrics hopefully tonight as well.  I have Shay's vocals from like 2 years ago and hopefully Mike, Don and I can pump it out tonight.

Don and I threw the old Wurlitzer organ out of the studio, rearranged a bunch of shit and set up his electric set to work with his old G4 tower.  I'm thinking about taking the TV out, hiding that trunk somewhere and getting a bookshelf.  But the playstation certainly came in handy for when we were recording so maybe until we're done with this album I'll leave it in.

Come spring I'm throwing a lot of crap out and hopefully building storage outside of the studio.

With the extra space we'll be able to spread out more...or store more instruments that aren't being used.

Hey Shay, last I checked, there was no space left on the FTP.  Or very little.  Let me know how I can help with that.  I think it's important to have an archive of our material backed up.  If this costs money, maybe I can figure something else out.

So hopefully by monday we'll have a new song up and Prep to Scream will be shiny and pumping. 

Erika's got a good ear, she's certified in Logic and loves rockin music.  She's got a pretty nice singing voice too so we're going to try getting her to sing "hit me with your best Shot" in like a club remix.  I'm joking, but you never know!  With this update I'd like to invite her on the team as she will be working closely with our music helping to polish it up for release...for as long as she can stand it.  So all you guys say "Howdy Erika"!


Have a fantastic fucking weekend.

HardStuff Update 010610: Brundle sex

Hey all,

New version of Sexy Fly up on the ftp:
sexyfly_v5.mp3

Don ripped pretty much the same samples I did (whoops and, great!) and one night awhile ago, he laid these samples in place.  I boosted, cut, slightly rearranged and added a whole lot of bits and bobs production wise.  Enjoy.  I love this song.

update 120409. Get your jiggle on.

Hey buds,

JiggleOnExtenzed_v1.mp3 is up on the fTP.  Check it.  It still needs some work but who am I to keep you all from shaking your asses on a monday.

Hardstuff/albums/TheOtherSongs/JiggleOnExtenzed_v1.mp3

enjoy.
g

update 120709 smokin Cali up and running.

So theres a version Of Smokin California up in the Scifight_mp3s_updated folder.  Enjoy.  Smoke it!

Also theres some new versions of extra songs up in the "theOtherSongs" folder within Albums:

• Mindbender's got Mike with a Megatron filter I made.  Sounds just like megatron (80's one that is) Added some echo to the beat.  Kind of plays in the left ear but that can be fixed.  I'm liking this a lot now.

• Mr Goldbody is something Mike and I did very very stoned at the end of practice and neither of us remembered doing it.  Don found it on my laptop.  I added some nifty FX and bass that ended up with some ethereal fx.  and hey it makes no sense what so ever but I love it.

• Whitewolf is something we're working on.   Don's got an updated version of this with the guitar cut up but I like listening to this version.

Last but not least, thank you guys soooooo much for your love and words today.  I really am happy to have such great friends.  I'm blessed.  Despite how much pain I'm in, please respect my wishes and don't be mean to or pester Tana.  We have built a world together, and created a human that we're still trying not to screw up and I don't want to fuck any chances of getting her to come back.  I know I'm a puss, but I love her and she she loves you guys. 

Talk to you all soon.  Much much love.

feedback to the feedback

Hey it's December and I'm not dead!

Funny, short posts...lots of feedback.  Here's my feedback to the feedback.

I guess I'm pretty tired of having back fat...so I'll stop drinking too.  Probably take care of the tobacco issue as well that seems to be resurfacing.

Peter...start practicing now.  I'm not sure I want to play around with your farts with headphones on so maybe I'll just let you make your own beats for that.  But please do it!  We'll put it right in the intro!  I'm kidding Shay.

If no one else wants to do the art. I'll gather some shit I like and put it together.  The stuff that Shay did for the myspace site or Mike's little what nots I'll gather and ask for hi res if you got it. I'd like to get a band shot but not sure if we're going to see Shay anytime soon.

I'd also like to make the flash board game interactive.  If somebody can think of a better ending to that game then dope.  But no bongs.  Maybe landing in the arms of a really fat bald guy?  Also if we can fit more song refs in there the better.  Peter do you know Flash?

Get To Know Me, Black Splatters, Mindbender, Blacksplatters, holmes, war pigs, Mankid, Hauntaun vs. Fiddy centaur, Creeper, JiggleOns, blow the earth apart, wasted devil...all songs NOT going on the first album.
 I'm trying to round this bitch out and get some different sounding tracks on here but still gunning for the original set list.  I love getting feedback on this shit but I never said... you know what, check out the previous posts and you'll see what's on the album.  And after that, feel bad about attacking my ass for shit I'm not doing.  I think way more than twice about everything.  That's my problem.  I never "lax" my standards. 
I'm sticking exactly to what I said.  I do remember My Girlfriends Chub.  It was not a good song...and repetitive?  Come on, that lyric stuck and creeped out my brain for like 6 months.  Lyrically it was not good, but sonically it would've sounded right on the album mostly because you wrote it.  It was kind of a song where in it's delivery seemed offensive in a very real way.  With Get to know Me, I think it's beyond quite obvious that it's a joke...granted and still holding onto my initial claim, I don't really want to do a shit fuck bastard raunchy version.  Change "pussy" to "booty" and i think it's pretty pc.  Now Get you Jiggle On is totally not pc, but I love it.

Album 2 is kind of a free for all at the moment and all the extra songs are getting lumped into "it" but by no means do we have a clear plan.  I'm not turning my hobby into an office job though, so we're going to continue working on and coming up with new shit despite deadlines.   We haven't even talked about who's got the right to what songs or direction really.  Each one could be it's own thing too.  And speaking of deadlines, didn't I just mention it on the update?  If you don't like the date, then lets all talk.  That's why I brought it up.  That's why I set up the update so we could all communicate better.  It not like we're having crazy due date discussions without you Shay.  I think on a semi healthy tip, your presence is always in the studio because we hear you through headphones every week.  I'm just trying to tie it all together and give myself a timeframe.

Sk8 for Life, well I'm sort of happy with that track after the sonic boost in logic (not up). but if Don wants to get on, shit he's a skater so, yeah I can totally see that ending up better with some extra love.

Personally I think about 70 to 80% of the guitar work you did on Holmes can be used if mixed in a bit.  I like the loneliness of that track as it is, but I also like some of the guitar work you did.  The backing vocals are off and take away from the vibe.  I still want Mike to redo those vocals too if we can't get rid of the pops.  I know Don listened to your version of it with me in the studio and he's thinking about what I'm thinking.  Can't speak for everybody else.  Everybody else?  How about the shitloads of updates and changes I've made this whole fucking year?  I don't hear comments back for every version.  Hours and hours.  So what?  Get used to it.  When the thing is done, we'll all buy super nice headphones and drink tea together and giggle.

In regards to Hulk, I listened to the bass track by itself and it's really bad in spots.
Just some fixups.  And Mike himself said the bass on that needed to be fiddled with.  Too muddy he says.

I'll get you mekanek Shay.  It's buried in a zipped file on a backup drive.  I should have time tomorrow.    Even when Mike and Don were over, Tana was out of town so my attention was mostly on Jade.
All in all, yeah, I'm happy with it all. I'm even happy with Smoke in Cali and I think we'll be able to punch that shit out really quick.

Finally, and on a personal note Tana's going through a bit of a mid life crisis.  I guess I'm happy I'm already in the final phases of mine so I can sort through this on semi-steady feet.  I'm spending a lot more time with Jade in the evenings and less time jerking off to the compressor plug-in in logic.  Still a lot of work to do but hell if we aint gonna make it now.


Whenever there’s dancing and poetry together, that's a neon flag for my ass to run away.
g

hardstuff update 11.30.09

So this is a short one today.  Don, Mike and I got to know "Get to Know Me" with a little help from Don's cron and sort of worked out the chord structure this last weekend.  Don rewrote the lyrics to make it a song that will probably offend every woman who does not live in a trailer or double wide, so I proposed two versions of the lyrics.  A radio version and a dickhead bastard version.  I see the song as potentially being a country/comedy cross-over hit, but I'm not going to be a McCartney and start micro-managing shit.  Always been a Lennon fan, but I see myself more as Paul.

I took the initiative and rerecorded some bass to hulk to fix up some of the missed strokes and am in the process of taking the whole song apart and putting it back together again.  Actually I think I can do this myself now without outside help.  After mixing polyester pirate and reworking prep to scream I think I know what top do...but I always say that.  I can get the songs damn close to where I want them and if I'm still not happy, well, there'll be time in the end for somebody to come in and give em a once over.  And there are people in place to do so.

Mike proposed a release date of March 1st.  I think this is a fair due date to get a website up, finish the last few songs, album art and jacket, credits, yadda yadda.

Ideally Baby Nolte, Smok in Cali, RFBG and Mekanek will be on the album but I'm not holding my hit...

HardStuff Update 11.21.09: Lyrics up

I found the lyrics Shay wrote up a long long time ago, updated them, created individual text files and added them to the other lyrics that I have had floating around my hard drive.

They are up in the root level/hardlyrics

Shay I need you to write up Prepare To Scream for me.  There are more I need to gather but right now I'm gonna pass out.

Hardstuff Update 11.19.09 Pirate Time!

Studio 1691 is sweating cannon balls.  So I did get a couple hours to fiddle with Polyester Pirate last night between pass out sessions with Jade.  I'm really fucking happy with the end of this (all of it really but as you will notice there is a lot of volume adjusting still to do with vocals and bass mostly).  I highly recommend listening on headphones.  It's sonically and potentially one of the coolest endings of any of our songs.  Once I get the levels right, I'll pop in the cannon blasts, Pirates of the Caribbean, and ocean samples and we should be golden.

Please grab the new version of Polyester Pirate in the Scifight_roughCuts folder in the SciFight album within the FTP:

PirateRoughCut1.mp3

In listening, we rteally need a new name for this song.  Here are my suggestions.  Lets try and land on something interesting.

Cap'n Blastard
Cap'n Shifty
Scabbin Boyz
Tickle Me Plank
A Day in the life of Cap'n Mofo
The Pirate Song
Pirate Boozy
(see I need help...)

Hardstuff Update 11.16.09:

Mike, Don and I have been busy in the studio recording.  It's funny how different the vibe is in there these days.  Lots of headphone wearing, vocal stumbling and cable fiddling.  But the cool thing is, week by week it's getting closer to plug and play.

Where do I start?  Well, like I said I'm still trying to get our original set plus some other "like tunes" done by the end of the year which still really seems feasible.  Last three that really need some work are Smoke In California, RFBG and The Pirate Song.  Unless a miracle happens I don't think Mekanek's gonna make it in unless I get that file to Shay and he somehow finds the time to redo the guitar.

Setlist as it stands:
Prepare To Scream
Lobot
Chewie Got Shotgun
Zartan
Smoke in California
The Pirate song
Mo Nore Nilk Mow
Still in Maxamillian
The Hulk
Clonan
Real Fat Bald Guy

(and add these in for filler)

louda
sexy fly
Heavy Horizon
Baby Nolte
2 Face Mofo
Calibos blues
stringfellow Hawk

Album2
Dr. Mindbender
ManKid
Black Splatters
Get to Know Me
wasted devil
Blow The Earth Apart



So The Pirate Song, formerly known as Polyester Pirate now has vocals but they are not quite done yet.  Looks like Mike may have won vocal custody on this one.  We've got to pop in the Yo Ho Ho's.  Mike went home with a bass, my old Acoustic amp, a couple cables, and the sound me me nagging at him about not blowing my speaker.  So Mike, next up for bass is Polyester Pirate, smoke in Cali and RFBG.  Any one of those.

Baby Nolte got some love.  Don took it home and added some bass to it. Last night I added more bass to it.  It's fun to take one of these "old" recordings and get back into it.  Don also added a horribly frightening vocal track which will probably make you either laugh your penises off or cause you to willingly stuff sandpaper earplugs into your eustachian canals with sharpened pencils.  What I'm saying is it's really fucking bad but one of the funniest things I've heard.  Gotta love the vocal transformer.  As soon as I even out the bass and rerecord it a gazzilion times I'll send a copy.  It's the end where Shay is going bananas between 2 or 3 chords that's proving to be difficult to sync to.  Also started working on the keys and additional lyrics last night so hopefully it'll make it into the album.  We're hoping to shorten it but sometimes that's harder than it sounds.

Don and I touched on Mankid last night.  He did a spoken word Mankid.  I'll be sending it out soon.

So here's what I need help with in no particular order:
• Additional instrumentation on "Hardstuff playhouse"
• additional lyrics for Baby Nolte
• new lyrics for Heavy Horizon?
• look on Craigslist for someone who masters albums on the cheap in Logic Pro

Also, I'm going to start putting a CD jacket together so I will need some photos of you knuckle heads and whatever high res art you guys have.  Shay, can you set up a folder in your FTP so I can get the album semi-organized in there?  I'd love to be able to post songs and art there and have everybody grab them.  If not, Peter, you said you're the "King of server space".  How hard would it be to start a folder in a spot we could all access?
Peter came by for a visit this last week.  We didn't really make time to get his drums out of storage or tune mine but we jammed a couple reggae tunes for our band Speedo Crisis in the studio.  Look for us in Itunes hot 10 list.

That's it for now.  Let me know what's up.

Hardstuff update 10.26.09___iArt and HardArt

What do you guys think about this idea...and tell me if it already exists.

A website that promotes artists and sells prints of their art at high resolution.  Collect comic artists, art school friends, colleagues and studio artists that we liked and make an "itunes" for print where the proceeds go directly to the artist.  Each print would be 1 dollar and each artist could put whatever they want in there.  And artists would be filtered through ME!  I guess what I'm saying is, there are artists for 3d studios whose portfolios I'm sure are beautiful.  Comic artists could put their own characters up as pin ups for sale.  Kids would love it.  Studios could sell prints of trademarked characters there if we wanted to open it up to "select" companies.  Who says everything needs to be in a frame.  Lots of kids just pin shit to their walls or set a desktop pattern or stick it on the fridge with a magnet.

This idea came to me when I was thinking what we could be selling on our Hardstuff website.   In addition to CDs, shirts and stickers I thought hmmm....fucking artwork you idiot.  We are all artists!  If each of us had a little scroll bar with our fat heads next to it making funny faces when you rolled over a particular print, that would be funny as shit.  And it may be a tiny bit o' change in our pockets right up front.  Maybe a burrito a month even!
Anyways that's it for this hour.  I have ideas for the end of the year to have the album done.  "Done" done.  So I'll be bugging you guys about that sooner than later most likely....after I create more pigeon sound effects.  Don't worry Shay...pigeon FX are going into the bumFX playlist as I write.

Hardstuff Boardgame updated!

What do you guys think of the killer pencils of death I added as the ironic end to the game?  Also put Zartan on the girl's shirt.

update 10.22.09 appended

And an added note...well to be accurate, Calibos only had one goat leg.  So the lyrics need to change too.

Respect fo' Calibos _update:10.22.09

So I'm calling it.  Calibos is sloppy.  REDO!  And if there's one successful tip I've learned from creating art is "don't settle on shit".  If you draw a really cool hand and you accidentally put the thumb on the wrong side, you have to erase the whole thing and draw a new hand.  No buts about it.

And I'm not getting down on myself for sonic failure because fuck that, I tried, I got pretty close.  It's a new recording format for me.  I recorded the acoustic guitar first, hand percussion, main vocals, bass, backing vocals, rerecorded the main vocals, rerecorded the bass, added digital drums played live over the track, and a third backing vocal.  Mike added 1 track of extra vocals, but everything else was me.  So I can take most of the credit for ugly shit.  So, it's sloppy... it's an experiment!  And from an experiment POV, we're doing pretty good.  Our goal is to record a song clean whenever right?  Write some lyrics, make a loop, add instruments, burn it.

So next version of Calibos Blues is going to be played to a homemade loop.  Preferably one sampled from Clash of the Titans.  Guitar will be cut up into loops as well.  Don I'll need your help doing this. 

Tomorrow if we're meeting, we need to identify the clonan bass issues, rerecord them, then get started on calibos.  Actually I need to dive into the junkems song so I can get started storyboarding that.  We want to get it out by new years on our bum site which is not yet created.

I learned a lot from the sound producer I met with yesterday.  He showed me a better way to set the song templates up.  Going forward we will be recording IN logic.  No more garageband.  One or two files per song.  Everything...in it's riiiiiight place.

Busing is the way to go.  He said a typical song for him would hold about 60 tracks.  Right now the most tracks I have in a song are 15 tops.  He doubles and triples up certain instruments, buses all the stuff like drums over to one manipulatable channel so he can apply one or a belt of effects to a group of instruments.  Pan instruments just a touch off center to the left and right to separate them, cut the frequencies off instruments that aren't really important to make room for instruments that really need to occupy that sonic space.  Figured out how a compressor really works.  Thing is he wasn't familiar with Logic as an application.  Obviously he knew a lot about recording, effects, layout, frequencies but I was very interested in how to do very specific things in Logic.

Anyways.  That's the news bitches.