Robot Cousin Soundworks

Just finished my first track (which will actually be track 3) of my RPM Challenge 2010 album. I have a name for the album, but I’m not putting that out until the artwork is all done. Yeah, I’m going all the way.

Anyway, I’ve already gotten farther than I did last year, and I don’t plan on stopping. I have a few other half-finished tracks on the go, hopefully will be uploading them within the week. Also, this track, along with any other RPM tracks, will not appear in the flash player below until they’re all done, or when February ends. So for now, here you go;

Element Zero

It’s out, it’s official; Project R has been announced. Check it out here.

The real name for it is “Bail-out! A Recessionary Rock Opera”. It’s a collaboration between myself, Chris Fulton, and Josh Linton, my friends from Fetal Films. I’ve worked with these two with both “Gamer’s Manifesto”, and more recently “Manic Chiropractic”.

I’m not going to give too much away, but I can say this: It’s going to be a short musical (it IS based on volunteer work through the NB Film Co-op, after all), and it will also be the first musical done through the co-op. It centers around one man’s plight with downsizing at his previously-well-paying job, all done through song! We’re planning on having about 5 songs in it, each about 3-4 minutes long, and I’ve already begun to write the music for it (rough demos, nothing polished yet. Drums aren’t timed up, nothing mixed, it’s all too loud, no vocals, it’s like everything is sonic drywall right now. Just the chords, and the melody-thus-far.) The lyrics are pretty much done, although up for tweaking if necessary

From the NB Film Co-op E-News…

Fetal Films and Robot Cousin Soundworks team up to rock the Recession in 2010!

The Great Recession of ‘08 calls up many colourful images; ashen, grey-suited hedge-fund managers fleeing AIG and Lehman Brothers like so many rats from a sinking ship; Red-faced right-wingers shouting “socialist!” in the faces of those who dared question the virtues of unbridled free-market capitalism; And of course, the sparkling, shiny bail-out greenbacks supposed to make it all just go away.

With such a rainbow-palette to draw from, Fetal Films (Photo of Chris Fulton to left by Jeff Crawford) (Chris Fulton and Josh Linton) and Robot Cousin Soundworks (Jordan Roherty) thought: “hey, why not set this hot mess to music?” And so a rock opera was borne…

“Bail-out! A Recessionary Rock Opera” – a unique musical film project in the history of NB indy film…

Fetal Films’ past work – the Silver Wave Best NB Comedy Award-winning films “Gamers’ Manifesto” and “Manic Chiropractic” – were films of modest ambition; few sets, a small crew, no pricey film-stock – films about slackers produced by slackers. So, to help them pull off the garish spectacle that is the modern musical, Fulton (Writer/Director/Co-producer), Linton (Lead Actor/Co-producer) and Roherty (Composer/Co-producer) are calling on some of the usual suspects to lend them a hand. From Moncton, Danny Thebeau on Camera, from Fredericton, Jen Chiasson rocking the Editing Suite, with other frequent collaborators having their numbers called soon. In addition to the familiar, Fulton and Linton will be rounding out the group with song and dance professionals, including a much-needed choreographer to harness and channel Linton’s raw, natural rhythm into a mainstream dance-style.

The Fetal Film folks are trying (Josh Linton to right) to bring something unique to the NB indy film scene, but will need support from the NB film community at large – we hope to feed off of your enthusiasm to push us through the process and hold us accountable to you, the NB film fans.

Regular updates will be posted on the e-news feed. Will be holding auditions in the months to come, so look for alerts in the e-news and on Facebook.

Anyone interested in dropping a line of encouragement, or for more info, you can reach Chris and Josh of Fetal Films at: recessionrockopera@gmail.com

Thanks!
Chris, on behalf of Josh and Jordan.

Winning films “Gamers’ Manifesto” and “Manic Chiropractic” - were films of modest ambition; few sets, a small crew, no pricey film-stock – films about slackers produced by slackers.  So, to help them pull off the garish spectacle that is the modern musical, Fulton (Writer/Director/Co-producer), Linton (Lead Actor/Co-producer) and Roherty (Composer/Co-producer) are calling on some of the usual suspects to lend them a hand.  From Moncton, Danny Thebeau on Camera, from Fredericton, Jen Chiasson rocking the Editing Suite, with other frequent collaborators having their numbers called soon.  In addition to the familiar, Fulton and Linton will be rounding out the group with song and dance professionals, including a much-needed choreographer to harness and channel Linton’s raw, natural rhythm into a mainstream dance-style.

The Fetal Film folks are trying to bring something unique to the NB indie film scene, but will need support from the NB film community at large – we hope to feed off of your enthusiasm to push us through the process and hold us accountable to you, the NB film fans.

Regular updates will be posted on the e-news feed.  Will be holding auditions in the months to come, so look for alerts in the e-news and on Facebook.

Anyone interested in dropping a line of encouragement, or for more info, you can reach Chris and Josh of Fetal Films at: recessionrockopera@gmail.com.

The Ladybug Challenge

My fianceé was doing a fake trailer for a fake game, and needed some upbeat 8-bit tunes. This is what happened. Short and happy, because that’s all it needed to be.

Curtis and Tara ad #2

That is all.

This is weird. I’m on IMDB.com Does anyone know anything about this, or how it works? I’ve got a few things to add to it.

In other news, here’s another track.

Tumble Together

Today vs Tomorrow: Animated by Curtis Carey. Music by me, Jordan Roherty.

This is our official submission into the LG Short Film Festival.

A while ago, there was a project going on with a section of the Something Awful forums. It was called “Project Endlife” and it was supposed to be a mockumentary (not the funny kind) about what supposedly happened during the years between Half Life and Half Life 2. Also, it was all going to be done using Garry’s Mod. I had offered to do music, and got this one done as kind of a demo for the project leader.

Then, one day, I went to the website, and it wouldn’t let me in. It wouldn’t let anyone in. The topic on the forums disappeared… everything was gone. I eventually found the leader and questioned him about the whole thing, and he just said that he realized he was going to be WAY too busy for this sort of thing, and didn’t believe most of us could’ve ended up pulling all of this off, or something. Bleh.

Anyway, here’s Transpire (demo). Although it doesn’t sound ANYTHING like it, it was inspired by Track 2 of the Half Life 2 soundtrack. For anyone who doesn’t have the soundtrack, but has played HL2, the track in question starts around the time where you jump through the first batch of trains, the first time you start being shot at by the Combine.

You know the one.

Finally.

Intro (A Thousand Times Yes)

Locked my Keys in my Car

Ceiling Fan

In Defense of Kittens

Lost in my Own Backyard

Troubadours in Heat

Conjugated Within an Inch of my Life

Prom Dress for Sale

Sally Johansen’s Cerebral Jamboree

Click to download (after it takes you to the song’s own ‘page’), no descriptions, although I might add some later. I figure  I’ll hash it out right here, right now.

This whole album was a gift to a friend. Ben, to be more specific. We’ve been friends since high school, and I started making music with him using MTV’s Music Generator, back in 2000 (I had the PC version that allowed the creation of .wav files, Ben had the PS1 version, that obviously didn’t. So much transcribing…). Before that, any music I thought up was quickly forgotten, but not before it was crudely plunked out on my old Yamaha keyboard. Man, that sampled piano sounded so tinny.

Anyway, Ben’s an incredible artist and has his own webcomic, ZomBen (alternate link here). He also illustrates Gibson Twist’s graphic novel, “Our Time in Eden“. Speaking of Gibson, he has a fantastically, amazing comic titled “Pictures of You” that I cannot recommend highly enough. Anyone reading this right now should just stop and go there. Come back and tell me what you think. Be warned, it’s been going for quite a few years now, so there’s a LOT to catch up on, but it’s very much worth it.

As a side note, I’d be remiss to not mention Pulp Stiktion, the short-lived, unfinished, but very enjoyable toy-comic Ben and I used to work on. Man, those indeed were the days.

Back to the album, a long time ago, when I figured out what was what in making my own 8-bit sounds, I showed some of them to Ben. He enjoyed it enough to request an entire album of new 8-bit tracks. Couple years later, I finally did it. Now, it’s not a very long album, but who really needs more than 28 minutes of Nintendo/Atari/Commodore 64-inspired music? I certainly don’t, but the good people over at 8-bit collective might.

As I mentioned before, I totally and completely ran out of ideas halfway through. That sucked. A lot. There are quite a few aborted pieces of songs still shoved away somewhere, and I cringe when I hear even a few seconds of them. Hey, those scenes are deleted for a reason! There was one that was going to sound like some sort of beach-esque song, another that was drums for the first 90 seconds (no one needs that). All of the others are pretty much all in the “that melodic hook sucks” category. And that’s all this album turned out to be, to me at least… a collection of melodic hooks, structured in the pop song format, but without any words.

Glad I finally  finished it.

Anything before Windows XP should probably just stop existing right now. I’m serious. You. Yeah, you over there with the CB radio and the Philly’s hat. What are ya runnin’ there, 98? How about you just stop, sound good? At the very least don’t call your ISP and expect a quick and easy phone call.

I gotta say, I don’t know how we did it back then. I don’t know how we were able to have any sort of technological breakthrough that required any access to the internet in the least.

Oh, right… that’s how.

Did you know that, unless I’m mistaken, in Windows 2000, it’s almost easier to set up slow-as-mole-as-is dial up than it is to set up a basic broadband connection?

What’s even better is that we (the ISP I work for) actually don’t have correct documentation to help the few customers left who are still torturing themselves and us with their hopeless cries for help.

That was my last call I took this evening. Left me with a buzzing in my head. So I think a little music is in order, even though I just posted some. Here’s some more.

Speak of the Devil – Level 1 (click for description-o!)

The words “not finished yet” show up a lot in my regular, day-to-day language. As in, coming from me.

Midnight (demo) is a perfect example. The main part of this track is totally done. But what the hell do I do about these very “temp-y” drums? They don’t sound right in the least, but I’ve experimented with a bunch of other things, and these are the closest I’ve come to something sounding somewhat decent.

Whatever, I’ll think of something. In the meantime, the siren and the sense of urgency, I’m happy to report, arrived completely intact. Yes, for once, the exact sound I heard in my mental space made it to the sonic page in front of me, and for that, I am grateful.

I was up late one night, and I just had this… feeling. I had this “something is wrong, and there has to be some sort of sound for that” feeling of dread. In actuality, everything was cool, but for that night, during the time I spent awake, at my keyboard, in my underwear, stuff was going down.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

So, in a perfect world, I would’ve been linking to an as-yet-unheard track (well, heard by you, Mr. Harris, but I think you’re the only one so far). However, my uploader here only allows files smaller than 7mb. Now, I’d gladly redo the track and lower the bitrate (set it at 320k/s), but Logic doesn’t want to play nice with me. This is a regular occurrence, which is why, in a matter of a few business days, I will be one with Snow Leopard.

10.6, here I come. The random “I’m not opening until you restart your system” Logic behaviour should be left in the dust. Well, here’s hoping.

I refuse to upgrade to Logic Pro 9. Why? Because I paid full (Academic, $299) price way back when for Logic Express 7… and then, since it was the academic version, I couldn’t just upgrade to Pro, I had to buy Pro straight out. That (again, all I could afford was the Academic version) was $699 (instead of $1299). And when Logic 8 came out, and I was no longer in school, after a few months, I went and got the full, non-academic version of that. $499. Awesome price, taken out of this specific situation… but it’s still $499 on top of what’s already been spent.

Now, I haven’t been keeping score (and please, don’t post and tell me the damage), but I’ve paid a lot for Logic so far. Since getting LP 8 only 4 months after it was released, I have only seen two (2) updates that came out for it. TWO! And then what do they do? As Carlin would put it, they “Sneezed, and all of the numbers in their head went up by 1″.

I’m done buying Logic for a while. I’ll wait for 10. Or perhaps 9.5, if they even get that far.

With all of that ranting aside, I give you the very calming Copacetic at 5 a.m. (click for description, or listen at the bottom of the page).

I hope you’ve all been enjoying the show so far.

Two tracks today, but they’re similar. The first one posted is the second one made. A bit of clipping, but this is before I knew what the hell I was doing. Oh my god, too many ideas ruined by my lack of audio training and knowledge. As always, click for descriptions.

Tourmaline (demo w/piano)

Tourmaline (Mellotron version)

A new day, a new post. A new track (to some of you). I’d love to know how many people are actually reading all of this, but I haven’t yet quite figured out the whole stat-tracking business. Anyway, here you go. One of my favourites.

Sadie (click for description)

Work continues, slowly, on some new stuff. I’m really torn about what I’m doing. The music I make sounds good to me, and I guess that’s all that should matter… or should it? Are we lying to ourselves when we claim we only make music for ourselves? I think so. I’m not Prince, so I don’t have a huge vault with hundreds of songs no one’s ever going to hear. No, I have about 60 that are too embarrassing to post here, and if you’ve heard them, you’d understand.

Back in the day, I remember making them, and thinking “Yes! I love it! Cut, print, ship… to nowhere.” It was like I was pretending I had some sort of record deal. I had release dates for my CDs, album art… the whole thing. And it was FUN! I loved it, my then-musical-cohort Ben loved it, not a care in the world whether or not the tracks sounded like something Eno or Jean Michel Jarré would put out. It was a strange mix. Words would never go with them, but they weren’t written/composed as any normal electronic/dance/house/trance/whatever track. It was as if we were trying to make the instrumental equivalent of early They Might Be Giants songs. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, find “Chess Piece Face” by TMBG. It’s a weird song, and I’ve never gotten into it. But they put it out, they promoted it, they referenced it in another song. Again, not the type of thing you’d ever hear over the airwaves.

Eventually, they matured, grew, whatever you want to call it. They make more complicated songs. Some might say more listenable. I wouldn’t. I love new and old TMBG. Maybe I love it all because I’m a fan, maybe I love it all because it gives me an excuse to make music that might not fit…. anywhere at all. Someday, I might post an old track. I’ll be tough. It’ll give me goosebumps and shivers, but in the bad way. “Ewww… I can’t believe I actually made that and thought it was good once upon a time.”

But music is music, and making rhythmic sounds for the ages pleases me greatly, and I think it always will.

Rock on with your weird self.

I love the internet because I can spend hours watching “To Catch A Predator” clips, but I hate the fact that these guys are using the very same internet to do disgusting things with minors.

Like I said, conflicted.

Shoe Party

This is only old to me and a few others. I feel like I’m airing out a bunch of stuff, to somehow make room for the new stuff that’s not out yet.

Eda (demo version)

And another. This next one is played (badly) by myself a looooong time ago. My friend Ben is telling the story. Smashing Pumpkins nerds will recognize the riff, which is of course stolen directly from their track, ‘Starla’, a b-side from the 1992 “I Am One” single.

Orson

Quick note, Starla was the song that really got me into backwards guitar, and showed me how much I loved it. These two tracks I always thought were totally unrelated until now.