収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

The times on the webstreaming site are a little confusing, so: we are being livestreamed 2pm Cascadian/Pacific on Sunday, barring the usual things-running-lateness. And! There are several other shows and events also being livestreamed both today and tomorrow, so drop in for any and all of those, too!

Also Bone Walker is now live on iTunes and CD Baby! We are officially in general release. Yay!

That of course includes Amazon, so if you preordered from there, you should be getting things. And if you wouldn’t mind dropping a review, we’d love that, ’cause they really do help. You don’t have to have bought it there to review it there.

Of course, Bandcamp is where you can stream the whole album uncut (and also where we get the largest share of the purchase price, yay? economics?) and that’s also the best place to get the physical disc.

Yay! We’re official!

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
Bandcamp (full album streaming) | Videos | iTunes | Amazon | CD Baby

holy hell, check out what’s up to number 80 on the weekly Alternative chart on Bandcamp.

Yeah, that’s right. Bone Walker.

I know it’s not a huge pond but it is the pond we are in and it is a chart we are on and with a nontrival number, and we’re still in pre-orders mode. \o/

Talking of, if you prefer AmazonMP3 to Bandcamp for some reason, Bone Walker is up for pre-orders on Amazon now, too.

i’m just like “what?” at number 80. we entered the weekly chart yesterday at 129. today we’re number 80. at least as I type this. I guess I need a @wilw flail gif or something now because that’s what it feels like. :D

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
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So Bone Walker is genuinely ready to go in download form. We’re holding the full release (iTunes, CD Baby, all that) until the book is ready too, closer to the CD release show at Conflikt.

HOWEVER! We realised over the weekend that since we are ready, it’s unfair to keep it back from the Kickstarter backers who have been waiting so long. And since the easiest way to get that sorted was to hand it out through Bandcamp, we’re gone ahead and made the Bandcamp edition LIVE.

Final Wraparound Cover

Yep, THE BANDCAMP VERSION OF BONE WALKER IS COMPLETE AND DOWNLOADABLE NOW. You can also still pre-order CDs, and one of you who pre-order the physical CD will get the little bonus we mentioned before. If you pre-ordered the CD already, you should have mail and download codes in your inboxes.

We aren’t ramping this monster up through the roof yet – the big event will be the book and album at the same time, and all that, and there’ll be the show and it will be awesome, like y’do. But the Kickstarter people have been incredibly patient, and sitting on it another couple of weeks just seemed rude.

It would be really nice if you post a review or comments if you let us know. That would be really excellent of you.

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
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The test master CD for Bone Walker should arrive today from Mark Yoshida, our mastering engineer in Memphis.

The musicianship on this is amazing.

–Mark Yoshida, on the phone, last night

I’ve never worked with Mark before but he works for much bigger fish than us in Memphis, a music capital, so he knows from what, and apparently, this is what. eeeeeee so excited

eta: It got here. THE PLAYTESTING HAS COMMENCED!

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
Bandcamp (full album streaming) | Videos | iTunes | Amazon | CD Baby

I’ve been talking a lot about Bone Walker as a soundtrack album for the Free Court of Seattle fantasy novel series, because, well, it is.

But I think that creates a misleading impression. People have been after me for a long time to do an instrumental and/or a trad album. This is also that album.

Leaving out the readings, and the tie-in factor, and this is a 10-track album of mostly traditional music. The arrangements aren’t real traditional, maybe – or, as one might say, “that’s all well and good, but it’s not very Irish, is it?” – but it’s still pretty heavily trad.

And that’s mostly just a long way of saying, “You don’t have to read the novels to like the album.” It’ll all make sense without that – well, okay, maybe the readings will be a little bit context-free. But the rest?

This was envisioned as a quick project, something that would take about six months and be a fun Kickstarter reward. But it grew way beyond that. Sure, part of the reason it took so long is because of unpleasant surprises like eye surgeries. But it also took longer because we put so much into it. We pushed ourselves hard. We brought in guests like Alexander James Adams and Sunnie Larsen and Sarah Kellington and Ellen Eades and Leannan Sidhe and Klopfenpop. We invented new process technologies and went way the hell over budget, something I’m not in the least sorry about.

So what I’m saying is: don’t hear “soundtrack album” and think “accessory to something else.” It’s not. It stands on its own. Give the samples a listen, and if you like what you hear, pre-order. Even with the Kickstarter money, we won’t be ahead of this curve on shipment. But I think when people hear it, they’ll know – it was worth it.

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
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We have sent all files to mastering. Bone Walker is with the mastering engineer as of 22:46 14 December 2014. This is also functionally release to manufacturing, because the same group is doing both. In short: we are gold.

\o| eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! |o/

To celebrate going gold, we’re about the post the Big List of Creative Things our fans have sent in. It’ll follow this post in a short bit; it’s taking a little longer than expected because we apparently have a lot of creative fans, which is super-awesome.

While you’re waiting, consider helping us pay the mastering engineer and printing bill with a pre-order. The minions in particular would appreciate it. You know how excited they get. I can’t blame them. After all, so do I.

Big Post of Creative Fan Arts coming in a few! Check back soon. :D

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
Bandcamp (full album streaming) | Videos | iTunes | Amazon | CD Baby

whelp, I've slipped to 2:30am bedtimes again. I was just here... last week? About a week and a half ago. And didn't manage to push back it properly.

On the plus side, I got shit done. Two new vocal tracks (harmony chorus), another one fixed up a bit, some mixing challenges - well, one in particular - solved. Second release candidate for "Something's Coming," a kinda-sorta release candidate for "Song for a Free Court/Anarchy Now."

but really that's blog fodder.

I am just not real good at diurnalism. OH, THE IRONY!

Eventually when making an album you start mocking it up in players so you can carry it around and play it on random devices and at random people, just to get reactions.

We actually got to that point two weeks ago (less readings and bonus tracks, of course). Here’s a screencap, in iTunes.

It always feels good to get here. Exciting. Particularly when you start playing somebody a really long track, they listen all the way through, get to the next one since it doesn’t autostop, then instead of stopping they keep listening, think they’ve got the idea, reach up to start taking off the headphones…

…and stop halfway up, because oh wait, they don’t. And they keep listening.

I can’t wait for January to get here. :D

PS: LA LA LA LA LA LA LA

PPS: I have like two keyboards that can play idk six or eight different pianos from samples not including electrics and also a real actual piano but I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever recorded actual piano playing.

PPPS: spoiler alert: I am not a very good piano player.

PPPPS: …but I am a pretty good editor. XD

PPPPPS: a clew!

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
Bandcamp (full album streaming) | Videos | iTunes | Amazon | CD Baby

I listened to the mostly-completed Bone Walker today, seeing what’s left to be done, and the answer is honestly not all that much. We’re still waiting for the readings, I’ve got one (1) more flute track to put down, there’s a special surprise still outstanding, but… yeah. It’s about time for final vocals, and then we’ll be done.

So I’m looking for people who will post reviews (50-100 words or more, about the length of an Amazon customer review) if they receive an advance review copy. DO YOU WANT AN ARC? That could be you!

You don’t have to review music regularly to jump in here, and you most certainly don’t have to promise what kind of review (positive, negative, etc) – just give it some actual words and thought. And it has to be posted publicly online somewhere. PODCASTS TOTALLY COUNT. So does print, I guess, if you have that sort of thing. Fanzines? CAN DO SPORT. I just want a copy. :D

Interested, or have a pointer? Here’s the contact form. Let me know. Thanks!

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
Bandcamp (full album streaming) | Videos | iTunes | Amazon | CD Baby

Bass has joined mandolin and Irish Bouzouki at the post. Three instruments down. Only two tracks have any instruments left to record here at Supervillain Studios, mostly drums. If all goes as planned, we’ll move onto vocals and final mixes next week.

Drums haven’t reached the post yet, but are getting there. Lukey’s boat has drums, but… they aren’t entirely sorted. I think I need to simplify this drum track a bit:

 
I like them as a separate thing, but they aren’t quite settling properly into this mix. But where they’re simpler, they settle in just fine. Spent a lot of the evening working on getting them closer, though. We’ll see.

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
Bandcamp (full album streaming) | Videos | iTunes | Amazon | CD Baby