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Free Preview of the new Booze Monkey album online!

It's been a long time since I've posted. Things have been busy and generally crappy for a long time now. Ultimately I ran out of things to post that weren't just negative and annoying to read (and write). Thus the long silence.

On a brighter note I've been working on the new Booze Monkey record. It has been a long time coming, but it is finally on the way.

We've selected a release date for the album:
Tuesday 8 April 2008
We are planning album release parties for Saturday 5 April 2008 and/or Saturday 12 April 2008. We'll be performing live at TBD venue(s) for those parties with a full band. I've already obtained commitments from some amazing musicians and I'm courting some others of equally outstanding skills. Yay!

For those who are familiar with Booze Monkey's live shows and the previous three albums (four if you count the RLR! bootleg) this album is a bit of a departure. Basically this album represents all of my musical detours over the years thrown into a blender (with a healthy bit of Booze) and set to puree.

But feel free to see/hear for yourself!

As of early this morning a FREE EIGHT-SONG PREVIEW OF THE NEW BOOZE MONKEY ALBUM, 4TH ST. IS AVAILABLE ONLINE!

That's right! Eight of a planned ten songs are available for free download at the 4th St. subsite at SanityCheck.net The site also includes lyrics, quasi-liner-notes, and more information than most people will ever want.

If'n you're interested, simply visit SanityCheck.net and navigate your way to the 4th St. subsite.

I hope you find ya dig it.

Theives, musicians, serial killers...

While Babble-on was offline earlier this year my pal nlinus started a new podcast called the kNOw Show. His third installment was The Simian Show and paid homage to my podcast The Simian Syndicate. He also uses (to my eternal delight) the Booze Monkey tune "Taylor Boogie" from "Good Luck Mr. Gorsky" as his show's theme song.

I dig the kNOw Show! I find it highly entertaining. I was inspired, flattered and amused by The Simian Show. As Babble-on was offline at the time, nlinus also mentioned the forum in his show. The Babble-on vibe was evident, methinks, throughout the episode. This makes sense as nlinus is a part of the Babble-on community - he is part of that vibe.

As I stated I was also inspired by his show. I decided to pursue this inspiration in the studio this past weekend. The result is a downtempo tune I've entitled "Theives, musicians, serial killers..." and I'm giving away for anyone who might be interested.

I've created a page at SanityCheck.net for the song and I've linked to it from the Simian Syndicate podcast page.

Thanks nlinus!

• Theives, musicians, serial killers... at the Simian Syndicate Site
• The Theives, musicians, serial killers... web page at SanityCheck.net

If you are interested, check it out at the links below. It's free, it's weird, it is best for those who drive around listening to XM's "Chill" station (Christina!).

Little to tell, really.

As I was lathering the Jordanaires at O-dark-thirty this morning it dawned on me that I should probably post an update despite the absence of interesting news.

Two main issues have consumed my time and attention lately aside from the usual burdens of day to day subsistence. These issues are the status of the SanityCheck.net Babble-on forums and the upgrade of my studio.

I originally slated myself two weeks for my studio upgrade with the un-verbalized hope that I would actually finish it in a single week. Five weeks later I finally made some progress this past weekend. My studio is set up to be fairly modular with my main goals being the ability to accomplish any task by myself (it is difficult to multi-track acoustic drums, for example, while engineering the recording but my studio is set up to accomodate just that) and to simply facilitate inspiration to fruition. That is I try to make my studio a comfortable creative environment, so that I can hop onto the back of an idea and ride it all the way to the corral. This means an arsenal of diverse instruments within easy reach with a means of recording those instruments simultaneously close at hand. Much of my gear was upgraded during the winter, but I hadn't upgraded my main studio PC in quite some time. In fact I waited until pretty much the last possible minute for that task. Finally, once I started bottle-necking my main studio computer at the processor I knew it was time.

I elected to upgrade my Sony Vaio to the newest model and to swap out my audio interface for a new model with more inputs and outputs. I had decided to add a ninth microphone to my drum kit, thus requiring one input more than I had. After several weeks of working through the nightmare of Windows based software migration I ultimately decided to revert to my original audio interface while awaiting some rather serious advancements in the drivers for my newly purchased hardware. Big damned sigh. But I finally managed to get everything working smoothly this past weekend (sans the new audio interface).

On the other front, last week, my web host encountered a bunch of different issues and SanityCheck.net was down for three full days. I had no email, nothing. I was lying dead on the side of the information super highway(s). Upon its return, I lost my mySQL database for Babble-on. Finally I was forced to face the fact that I needed to upgrade the (much modified) phpBB code for the forums. I have been working on this and I hope to have a far more secure version of Babble-on back online by the end of next week. Fingers crossed.

At least 85% of my socializing is done through Babble-on. Right now, I'm suffering serious "board withdrawls".

So, my nose is to the grindstone, and progress is being made, but there is currently little to show for it. In the meantime, if you haven't done so, check out South Mountain Magic! At least check out the 45 minutes worth of free downloads!

Grin.

South Mountain Magic Released!

The audio CD version of the original score for South Mountain Magic is finally available!

South Mountain Magic (SMM) is a motion picture written, directed, edited and helmed by Dave Dull for Maryland's Antietam Cable. It is based upon a book - of the same name - by Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren, originally published in 1882. The movie version of SMM aired on Antietam Cable throughout September and October 2005.

The DVD version of the movie has been available for purchase for $24.95 directly from Antietam Cable since January 2006.

As of today the Audio CD version of the soundtrack recording is available for $9.99 from both CDBaby.com and the newly rebuilt SanityCheck.net Online Store. We are offering both the audio CD and a DVD/CD combo pack (for a reduced price) at SanityCheck.net.

It is always difficult to describe music with words; music is a language unto itself. Further that, I am quite inept at describing music with words. With that caveate in mind I've taken to describing the SMM soundtrack as a quasi-orchestral motion-picture score comprised of Appalachian instruments and Native American instruments as well as traditional orchestral instruments. I'd go on babblin' about it here, but that would be redundant because I've created a web page for the CD at SanityCheck.net.

Over the years I've created a great deal of diverse music. I am very proud of this recording and I've been surprised and quite pleased to discover that far more people than I ever would have expected enjoy this CD. However I do not want people to purchase this CD only to find that it isn't what they were expecting. Consequently I've made more than half of the music on this CD available for free download at SanityCheck.net!

This album took me a very long time to create - well over a year. This recording is the primary reason that I do not have an entry in my personal discography for 2005. I have never created any piece of music with more instruments, tracks or a comparable arrangement. It took a great deal of time, but I tweaked absolutely everything about it until I was completely satisfied with it. In short, I'm proud of this record and for those who are interested in my musical endeavors, I hope you enjoy the music.

As is not uncommon, I want to thank Christina for working extensively with me to prepare the distribution, business and web site(s) for this release! I couldn't do it without her. Special thanks as well to Dave Dull, without whom this recording would not exist.

Scramblin'

I've been scramblin' lately. I apologize for the lack of entries here at P2G.

South Mountain Magic should become available (finally) before the end of this month. Consequently Christina and I are busy trying to get portions of the SanityCheck.net website filled with content. Yeah, I know, a novel concept.

Also I've been working to finish up a recording from 2004. Haha, actually it isn't quite as bad as it sounds... it is a live recording from an annual event that a buddy of mine throws. The event took place on 18 September 2004. In August of 2005 my pal, Slide (the event's sire), returned the rough tracks to me with his edits notated (a hell of a lot of work on his part) so that I could piece it all together before the annual event that was scheduled for the following September. Well as all of you loyal readers know, Katrina hit at the end of August and I spent the next 3-4 months working non-stop on behalf of the relief effort and the holiday season cleaning up the remnants of the relief effort. I missed the 2005 Blues Jam, and those who did attend didn't have the recording from 2004. Sad but unavoidable.

I've been working on the recording and I sent the first draft to Slide yesterday. Yay! I think the record is both side-splittingly-funny and filled with some great music. That said, the event is invitation only (and it is a highly desirable invite!) and getting to hear the disc usually requires offering Slide some exceedingly kinky sexual favors (dependent upon his interests at the time).

Over the past few weeks I concluded that my studio computer system was ready for an upgrade. As I mentioned previously, I had amassed quite a bit of new software (upgrades) that I hadn't been able to install because of the SMM project's near-complete status. After installing it all, I've concluded that my studio system was bottle-necking at the processor. So I've ordered a new system and even upgraded my audio hardware. As a result, the next couple of weeks will be spent converting.

The summary here is that South Mountain Magic is on the way. Christina and I are working feverishly to get the SanityCheck.net online store back online before the release and I'm upgrading my studio system in the interim while finishing up some fun outstanding projects.

We're busy, but I hope to spend April working on new Booze Monkey recordings.

I'm psyched for that.

'Bout damned time...

South Mountain Magic finally shipped off to the manufacturer on Friday afternoon 24 February 2006!

Sheesh!

It should have made its way to the manufacturer no later than the 10th of February, but I ran into some graphics related snags. But it has finally happened. This thing took me well over a year to complete... and now I'm done with it. Whew!

I'll post here once it has finally become available.

Here is a link to a previous post that explains things a bit more, for anyone who might somehow be interested.

Yay!

... now wasn't that nice

Today is my first day back at the day-gig after 10 full days in the studio. Yay!

I holed the hell up. I avoided the news, I drank excessively and somewhat consistently, I blew off one hell of a lot of steam (I nearly wore out my heavy-bag - er, the punching bag, not the Jordanaires)... it was wonderful. I am recharged.

I didn't actually spend the week recording the new record. I spent it prepping. My playing chops were crap when I went in... now they are far less crap. I spent ten days playing a diverse selection of instruments and refining my chops on the usual suspects. I hadn't played drums (my first instrument) much in the last few years, but I played them every day last week! I played my fretless bass and my upright (double-bass), I played my mandolin, mbira, steel drum, xylophone, glockenspiel, Dobro, guitar (electric and acoustic - rare that), concertina, harmonica, keys,  fife (badly), frame drums,  and of course ukulele, as well as other assorted gems.

I also started learning to play the bodhran and the didgeridoo - neither of which are coming too easily. LOL.

I usually don't think twice about picking up any sort of percussion instrument, they usually come somewhat naturally to me. But the Bodhran is a tricky little bastard. First off, for those who aren't familiar with the instrument it is a Celtic frame drum that is played with a "tipper" in a funky little fashion that I'll not try to describe here. By the way it is pronounced Bo (as in Derek) Ron  (as in Jeremy). It is played by holding the stick (tipper) in your hand much like you hold a writing implement. Then you turn your hand inward and play the drum with a stirring-like motion. Weird that. The drum has  a wonderful tone and I do look forward to learning to generate it in a musical fashion. ;-)

I used a didgeridoo sample on the SMM soundtrack. I dig that sound, and I ultimately purchased a nice didge from  Didgeridoostore.com. After working with it every day for over a week I've finally managed to generate the basic drone with some harmonic overtones. But for most of the week there was a sound emanating from my studio that could have alarmed the members of a hippo rescue group.

Most of the software tools I use in the studio were upgraded last year. During the production of the SMM soundtrack (which lasted forbloodyever) I couldn't upgrade those tools. Any serious computer user knows that any upgrade can mess with  things, so I had several expensive packages sitting there in the box just waiting for the final archival of the SMM project. I spent much of this session learning these  tools, and honestly, for me, that was a treat. I adore software synthesizers and samplers and the like. Especially the soft-synths. I pretty much own spot-on replicas of every synthesizer I ever drooled over as a kid!

I also spent more than a little time performing mic tests with some new mic combinations and techniques. Being as I am a bonafide mic-whore, that too was a treat.

So the short version is that I had a great ten days in the studio, thanks for asking, but I don't have much to share at this point. I'm planning to begin recording this coming weekend! I did finish one instrumental entitled Blues for Hitchcock that I'll make available for download when I get around to it. It has a lap steel part in it that is simple but, methinks, fitting.

I also finished up draft versions of my buddy PoundCake's demo session from a couple of weeks back. I'll speak with him soon and be sure to provide links if he decides to make any of those songs freely available. I've also been working on a lengthy live recording for my buddy Slide, from the 3rd annual Wakeman's Grove Invitational Blues Jam from the year before last. It is just a board tape (a very bad but simple way of recording live music) but it boasts some really cool performances from some very fine musicians. Originally we were planning to showcase the original tunes from that recording on a Simian Syndicate podcast, that won't be happening now, but I'll let cha know if we make anything freely available from that recording.

At this moment, I feel far less shitty than usual and I'm finally getting a little traction. The next few months might very well contain some fun, damnit!

Little obsession and new Favorite Band!

Sometime 'round the middle of the Katrilma disasters I became obsessed with the ukulele. I'm not joking! Somehow I'd totally overlooked the ukulele, ignorantly considering it a novelty instrument and a "little guitar". This is quite unusual as I'm generally fond of assorted instruments and have been known to use a variety of odd instruments on record.

I had no idea about the history of the uke or its unique tuning. The ukulele, for those who don't know, is tuned very differently than a guitar. It has four strings and boasts a fourth string (the string closest to the player's head when playing) that is pitched higher than the third string. This creates an instrument whose chord voicings usually sound inverted.

I started my obsession and immediately researched and ordered my first uke. I ordered a tenor Lanikai of which I am very fond. The ukulele has an incredibly clear, round and bell like tone. It is "endearing" in a way that I cannot fully describe. As I was plucking on the thing more or less nonstop, Christina found herself enamoured with the instrument and I purchased "her uke" soon thereafter. It is a concert sized Oscar Schmidt. I tweaked hers extensively, including a somewhat drastic bridge modification and it now has a quick action and a sweet tone. Then a friend from work became interested, bought a concert sized Lanikai (it is gorgeous!) and I've been giving him daily lessons at the day-gig.

Earlier this week, having heard about my uke obsession, my pop picked up an old Silvertone uke at an auction. It is solid mahogany and though it only has three strings on it currently, I suspect it will have a great tone. I can't wait to clean her up!

Overall I have no real point to this post, but earlier this week I discovered my new favorite band in the world - The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain!

Their website is http://www.ukuleleorchestra.com where you can listen to clips, purchase songs, CDs, a T-shirt and/or a DVD and watch a few short film clips. I placed an order earlier this morning and figured I'd share the link.

Just a little longer...

Yippee!

Tomorrow morning I'm returning to the studio to begin working on the next Booze Monkey record, Fourth Street. I'm very stoked... I've been creatively inspired for some time now, but I've just been so damned busy for the past couple of years that I'm spent. Damned spent. The catharsis of the studio looks to me like an oasis shimmering up ahead.

I haven't been able to swing quite the amount of prep-time that I needed, consequently much of my session will be spent regaining chops, tweaking instruments and sorting through way too many pages of music and words, but I'm nearly giddy with anticipation. There is so much creative energy waiting to get out of me that my biggest difficulty will probably be keeping new stuff to a minimum so that I can work on the backlog of existing songs that need to be put on record.

At the day-gig, my fellow employees have been passing around a nasty bug. I've already washed my hands 4 times this morning... gotta avoid that!

They (them, the other guys) are calling for the first snow fall of 2006 in our area. I've been annoyed about the warm (lame assed) winter we've been having again this year, so a snowfall would be a bonus. So long as I don't lose power at the Compound, I don't care if it snows 6 feet!

SMM, Poundy, 4th St. Oh My!

The last two weekends were whirlwinds in the studio. They also ramped me up to... well... here.

After the long running fun of Katrilma, things slowed down on Thanksgiving day 2005. Christina and I spent quite a bit of time catching up on house-holdly chores and repairs and the like. It took quite a while for me to clean up and rewire my studio to a point where I could begin working again. Once an acceptable amount of progress was made in those regards, it was back to work on the South Mountain Magic Audio CD and a couple of other outstanding obligations.

I finished the first draft of the SMM master the weekend before last. This past weekend I had a couple of irons in the proverbial fire. First off I brought my buddy L.B. (whom I often call PoundCake or Poundy) into the studio. I have the honor of producing Poundy's debut CD later this year. He is a friend and a damned fine singer-songwriter so I'm thrilled to be working with him. Poundy is one of the very few people I have in my life who is the same age as I am - just a weird thing. But the interesting thing is that despite having played guitar for some time, he didn't begin performing professionally until Booze Monkey was playing regularly. Consequently I've watched him develop from amateur to pro, a fact that provides an unusual and pleasing perspective on his work.

Poundy joined me in the studio late Friday afternoon after we'd each done our day-gig thing. We performed mic-tests for a few hours and discussed, at length, differing aspects of what is to come during the production of his debut album. On Saturday morning we went into the studio together to record a demo of some of his songs. He will be able to use that demo to acquire more gigs and to generally get excited about what's in store. Also he accumulated more studio experience, which is arguably the most important benefit.

I spent most of Sunday tweaking the SMM soundtrack and creating the final master. I had a little pruning and tweaking to do. I have now completed the CD audio master for SMM. It should go to the manufacturer this week (as soon as I finish the graphic design work). Now I can, finally, archive all of the work related to that project and clear it off of my studio system. I purchased an external drive for just that purpose, as the amount of data related to SMM would require one hell of a lot of dual layer DVDs.

After finishing the SMM audio master I began sorting through Poundy's demo takes. It takes a while to ascertain which takes are the "keepers". Then I mixed them and began working on the mastering stage. I finished one song late Sunday night and should be able to finish the rest of the work tonight. I listened to it again today and I'm pleased with the results. Often a mastering job needs tweaking after a day has past - the ears get tired.

Now things heat up... I have to complete whatever outstanding errands and chores I have this week. As of Saturday morning 11 February 2006 I'm going into the studio for 10 days to begin work on the next Booze Monkey CD, Fourth Street. I'll spend every free moment this week tweaking instruments, changing strings and tuning drums and polishing my chops. Hopefully while I'm in the studio South Mountain Magic will undergo the majority of the manufacturing process.

I am completely stoked about going back into the studio, I really need the catharsis. Time to blow off some steam.

There are two full Booze Monkey albums worth of material that haven't been recorded in-studio (some of the songs have shown up on BMo live albums). I'm feeling so musically creative at the moment, my biggest problem will be restraint with the material (and minimizing new stuff). Tee hee.

I plan (hope) to keep placing entries here regarding the album's progress. For those who find this kind of entry overwhelmingly boring, just note that the category for such posts will be "Music" so you can easily skip over them if you read this site because you like to like my usual vitriol.