Slight correction
The name of track 11 on the Loud Family CD is actually "Don't Bother Me While I'm Living Forever." I guess they didn't have room to spell the whole title out on the master.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Loud Family CD track listing
Just got the new Loud Family master in the mail today. As I mentioned in the Jan. 2 post, the album was actually "finished" back in September '05, but I thought it was too short and sent Scott & Anton back to the salt mines. Well, it's taken a lot longer than I thought it would, but gosh darn it, I'm glad I made the decision I did. The album is now 44 minutes and 12 tracks long, and the new songs were worth the wait (even if one of them is titled "Don't Bother"!).
Anyway, I have resumed bugging Scott about the artwork (Anton is about to go off on a two-week tour of the Southwest & Northwest), so it's entirely possible that What If It Works? will be ready in March or April. Of course, I've been in this game long enough to know not to make predictions re: dates, so keep your fingers crossed.
Here is the track listing:
Rocks Off
Song About Rocks Off
Pop Song 99
Total Mass Destruction
Flow Thee Water
Remember You
Kind Of In Love
Mavis of Maybelline Towers
I Think I See the Light
What If It Works
Don't Bother
I've Been Craving Lately
My own favorites are "Mavis," which is an utterly classic Scott Miller song, and the Anton-penned "Flow Thee Water." I can't wait for other people to hear them, but I think I'll wait a while before posting any more MP3s. I really think this should be experienced as an album.
Anyway, I have resumed bugging Scott about the artwork (Anton is about to go off on a two-week tour of the Southwest & Northwest), so it's entirely possible that What If It Works? will be ready in March or April. Of course, I've been in this game long enough to know not to make predictions re: dates, so keep your fingers crossed.
Here is the track listing:
Rocks Off
Song About Rocks Off
Pop Song 99
Total Mass Destruction
Flow Thee Water
Remember You
Kind Of In Love
Mavis of Maybelline Towers
I Think I See the Light
What If It Works
Don't Bother
I've Been Craving Lately
My own favorites are "Mavis," which is an utterly classic Scott Miller song, and the Anton-penned "Flow Thee Water." I can't wait for other people to hear them, but I think I'll wait a while before posting any more MP3s. I really think this should be experienced as an album.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
The Trouble With Art
I've started thinking of actually making an album as "the easy part," because where we inevitably seem to run into hurdles is finishing the CD's cover art and liner notes. With rare exceptions, the artists on our label are only musical artists, not graphic designers. Some may have a pretty good idea of what they want, while others find a designer they can work with and brainstorm ideas.
I wish all of the art could be finished at approximately the same time as the recording is mastered, but it never seems to work out that way for us. At this point, both of our forthcoming releases, the Loud Family/Anton's What If It Works? and Don Dixon's The Entire Combustible World in One Small Room, are totally ready to go, but the album packages are still works in progress. The guy who's doing Dixon's graphic design is Chris Eselgroth, who has done CD art for the Squirrel Nut Zippers, the Goo Goo Dolls and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. I have no idea what the end product is going to look like, but based on his portfolio, I can't wait to see it. It's also going to be our first Digipak release.
Joe Becker, who has been a member of both Game Theory and the Loud Family, designed the cover art for What If It Works? It's based upon a Russian movie poster from 1926. I just got a copy of it a couple of days ago, and I'm still deciding how I feel about it. It certainly is eye-catching, though. The rest of the package is going to be done by Keara Fallon, who has worked with Cake and lots of other NorCal artists.
In a few years' time, we probably won't even have to bother with cover art at all; everything will just be distributed online. That will be kind of a drag, though. Even though coordinating the graphic design for our projects is always a challenge, I still love looking at cover art and will be sad if it ever goes away.
I wish all of the art could be finished at approximately the same time as the recording is mastered, but it never seems to work out that way for us. At this point, both of our forthcoming releases, the Loud Family/Anton's What If It Works? and Don Dixon's The Entire Combustible World in One Small Room, are totally ready to go, but the album packages are still works in progress. The guy who's doing Dixon's graphic design is Chris Eselgroth, who has done CD art for the Squirrel Nut Zippers, the Goo Goo Dolls and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. I have no idea what the end product is going to look like, but based on his portfolio, I can't wait to see it. It's also going to be our first Digipak release.
Joe Becker, who has been a member of both Game Theory and the Loud Family, designed the cover art for What If It Works? It's based upon a Russian movie poster from 1926. I just got a copy of it a couple of days ago, and I'm still deciding how I feel about it. It certainly is eye-catching, though. The rest of the package is going to be done by Keara Fallon, who has worked with Cake and lots of other NorCal artists.
In a few years' time, we probably won't even have to bother with cover art at all; everything will just be distributed online. That will be kind of a drag, though. Even though coordinating the graphic design for our projects is always a challenge, I still love looking at cover art and will be sad if it ever goes away.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Loud Family MP3!
I just uploaded the new web site, which is a big relief, since the old one was terribly out of date. Since I update other people's web sites for a living, my own sites sometimes get neglected.
The most popular thing on the new site will undoubtedly be the MP3 of the Loud Family's "Rocks Off" on the Sounds page, since it's the first new music in 5 whole years to be released under the Loud Family band name. Granted, it is a cover (of the Rolling Stones' song) and not an original, but I think it has that unmistakable Scott Miller sound, and I hope it will get people excited about the forthcoming CD, What If It Works? Anton Barbeau does a fab job on this one too -- he and Scott are the new Glimmer Twins!
Here's a tidbit about the album. The master was initially delivered to us way back in September, and I felt it was too short (10 songs/33 minutes), so I "forced" Anton & Scott to come up with two more songs. That took a while, since they've both been traveling lately (Anton now "divides his time" between Sacramento and the UK, and Scott recently did some production work overseas). The "new" WIIW? is due to be mastered later this month, and I hope to have a firm release date shortly. I sort of felt like one of those evil record company overlords Aimee Mann always writes nasty songs about, but at least I never said the words, "I don't hear a single!" Or if I did, 'twas only in jest. "Rocks Off" would make a pretty good single, wouldn't it?
The most popular thing on the new site will undoubtedly be the MP3 of the Loud Family's "Rocks Off" on the Sounds page, since it's the first new music in 5 whole years to be released under the Loud Family band name. Granted, it is a cover (of the Rolling Stones' song) and not an original, but I think it has that unmistakable Scott Miller sound, and I hope it will get people excited about the forthcoming CD, What If It Works? Anton Barbeau does a fab job on this one too -- he and Scott are the new Glimmer Twins!
Here's a tidbit about the album. The master was initially delivered to us way back in September, and I felt it was too short (10 songs/33 minutes), so I "forced" Anton & Scott to come up with two more songs. That took a while, since they've both been traveling lately (Anton now "divides his time" between Sacramento and the UK, and Scott recently did some production work overseas). The "new" WIIW? is due to be mastered later this month, and I hope to have a firm release date shortly. I sort of felt like one of those evil record company overlords Aimee Mann always writes nasty songs about, but at least I never said the words, "I don't hear a single!" Or if I did, 'twas only in jest. "Rocks Off" would make a pretty good single, wouldn't it?
