Backyard Naturalists

Neil Losin and Nathan Dappen commissioned me to do some soundtrack music for a short video for Backyard Naturalists, an organization that encourages kids to go outside and learn about nature.  The video is here:

http://vimeo.com/42520204

As with pretty much everything Neil and Nate do, it looks fantastic!

Baby Makin' Music

And now, for no good reason at all, about a minute and a half of babymaking music.  Not that a minute and a half is long enough, but you can loop it or something, I don't know.

Springtime

By request, here's my song about the wonders of nature.

For friends

Here's a song I've been playing around with for a while. It's basically just about friends, and how sometimes we don't sufficiently appreciate how much they contribute to our lives.

State Of The Union, 2027

It's only a matter of time!

Son of Strelka, Son of God Chapter 8 Instrumental

Here's the instrumental track for chapter 8 of Son of Strelka, Son of God, entitled "Restoration". Found sound by Jon Bernstein.

Video for Son of Strelka, Son of God Chapter 5 - The Fall

Here's the video of Chapter 5, entitled "The Fall". The art was done by Matthew Rainwater, scratching and sound effects by EBA. Other music and story by me, assembled via hacked-up bits of Obama's autobiography. As always you can download the full album at sonofstrelka.com for free. Enjoy!

Son of Strelka, Son of God Chapter 7 Instrumental

Here's an instrumental track of the Buddha chapter of Son of Strelka, Son of God. I also have some really cool news - there's a draft of the video for chapter 5 almost done! It's a series of pictures by artist Matthew Rainwater, and they're pretty damn cool if I do say so.

Rough Sketch - The Tank

The next sample-mangling project I'm working on is going to be based on astronaut memoirs, or at least that's the plan. What I'm presenting here is not part of that - it's just a fun little thing that's actually completely intact from the source material. I will chop it up and use it in the final product, but that process is only just beginning. It comes from a book called Almost Astronauts, which basically chronicles how badly female pilots got shafted by NASA in the early days. It's a great book, but it's also somewhat infuriating to hear how such amazing, completely qualified women were completely shut out of the early days of space exploration.

Anyway, this passage describes the isolation tank tests. For some odd reason it's written in the second person, which is actually pretty great for my purposes. I haven't really mangled the source material at all, I just threw it over a spacey organ track I had sitting around because I wanted to see how it sounded.

Rough Take - Oh, You Captain Of Industry!

Here's a rough take of a song I just finished writing. There are still some rough edges lyrically and it's a rough draft musically, but I think all the bits are more or less there. It wasn't really intended to be a political song, but I guess it kinda comes off that way. Ah well.

Son of Strelka, Son of God Chapter 6 Instrumental

Here's the instrumental for chapter 6. Fun anecdote: the primary percussion here is a darbuka slowed down, and at the end of each eight bars there's a loud "tick-boom-boom". That tick was a happy accident, and is actually my wedding ring hitting the rim.

Son of Strelka, Son of God Chapter 5 Instrumental

Here's chapter 5, which was done with the help of awesome Atlanta DJ EBA.

Son of Strelka, Son of God Chapter 4 Instrumental

Here's chapter four. I want to give a shout out to my dear, departed cat Cheese for being the voice of the monster in this one. He liked to walk around the house yelling at the top of his lungs for no clear reason, and one afternoon I caught him on tape. Slowed down, his caterwauling sounds like some giant, horrible beast.

He was pretty much the best cat in history, and we miss him every day.

Son of Strelka, Son of God Chapter 3 Instrumental

Instrumental for Son of Strelka Chapter 3. I need to give a shout out to Thomas Anderson for just up and giving me a banjo for nor real reason other than the fact that he had a spare. The banjo features heavily in this chapter and chapter 9, and in my mind serves as a sort of tonal leitmotif that surrounds Stanley's interactions with his parents.

Son of Strelka, Son of God Chapter 2 Instrumental

I've been meaning to get back to posting these for a while, my apologies for the slow progress.

Interview with Anne Fiero on WKCR

As part of the Son of Strelka thing, I was lucky enough to be interviewed by some really great people. Here's one of my favorites: an interview with Anne Fiero at WKCR in New York. Unfortunately my cell phone cut out a few times, but I still think it's a really neat discussion. I'm reposting it here with Anne's permission. Thanks, Anne!

Creation Instrumental

I've been meaning to start posting the instrumental tracks from Son of Strelka, Son of God for a while, and I've finally pulled my thumb out and started to do it. Here's chapter one. It was recorded in my living room using pots and pans and a drum set.

More Internet Art for Son of Strelka, Son of God

Here's another bit of concept art from SA Forums user Everdraed, which is hilariously creepy.

Internet art for Son of Strelka, Son of God

A couple of cool internet people have done various bits of art inspired by Son of Strelka, Son of God. Here's an alternate album cover, done by Something Awful goon smoMashup.

It Always Happens

While we're on the subject of verbal cut-and-pastery, here's one of my favorites of my older attempts. This is a beat poem about a man whose weird kinks keep wrecking his relationships. It's assembled from bits and pieces of an old vocabulary-building record from (if I recall correctly) the 70's. I can't for the life of me remember where I jacked the drums from, which is a shame because they're great.

Son of Strelka, Son of God - Audio odyssey narrated by Barack Obama, full album zip file

Hey everybody. Here is the full album of Son of Strelka, Son of God as a direct download, and here's a torrent.

There are also a couple of Youtubes of animation in progress here:

Chapter 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Any38uNUelM

Chapter 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PfrDjk0wP4

Chapter 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6EmSnLIew4

Thanks to everybody who helped make this thing a thing, and to all the goons and friends who are spreading it around the internet! Enjoy, and feel free to share it far and wide!

Details:

The cover art is by Ainsley Seago, who also did the animatic (and eventually will do the animation) for chapter 1. I fudged it around a bit in photoshop, so blame the layout on me. The second chapter animation is being done by Adam Bozarth, who you can hear on the hilarious Left Handed Radio podcast. Most of the sounds you hear are either me or Obama, but there were also some key found sound contributions from Teresa Iglesias and Earwicker, as well as the frenetic skritching of the fabulous EBA, whose Shapeless Mass podcast is something you should absolutely check out. I also owe a shout-out to Matt Brandley, Ainsley Seago, and Teresa Iglesias for extensive comments on early drafts.

I’m now trying to find people to animate or at least illustrate the various chapters of the story. Chapters 1, 2, and 5 are already done, but there are at least six more to go. The rough drafts of the first two chapters have been shown at the Alamo Drafthouse’s open screen night, and have been very popular even in their unfinished state – I even won second place last time and got a free movie ticket (I now owe Bozarth half of a movie ticket). If anyone out there is interested in animating (or just illustrating) a chapter, let me know at dan.l.warren@gmail.com. You never know, you may also earn half of a movie ticket!

Chapter 1: Creation

Our hero’s name is Stanley, but he doesn't really show up until Chapter 3. Stanley’s father is the first proto-man, who fell as a fruit from the first tree. He found the world an empty and desolate place, so he climbed to the top of the tree and began creating animals and plants and whatnot just by speaking their names. He gets really excited about the process, and accidentally creates a monkey in thin air, which promptly plummets to his death. He realizes that he needs to be a little more thoughtful about this process, and finishes by creating many of the beautiful things in the world. Then he disappears.

Chapter 2: The Golden Age (with found sound by Teresa Iglesias)

This chapter tells of the rise of civilization. At the start there are only uncivilized tribes in the forest, but they begin to desire something more out of life. They move indoors and become increasingly sophisticated. Eventually they build cities and roads, and they become isolated by their own success.

Chapter 3: Son Of Strelka

Stanley is born. He is the son of the creator from chapter 1 and a human woman, and his village expected him to be some sort of savior. Instead, he looks freakish. He is covered in yellow hair and has a dog-like face. Not in some cute furry ^_^ anime way, though, he is a disturbing freak of nature. With the exception of his mother, the people of his village despise him. They also despise his mother for giving birth to a freak, so they are both forced to leave. They go their separate ways, and Stanley is left to wander the world alone, a deformed, orphaned child.

Chapter 4: The Decline

As the chapter starts, we see Stanley wandering the land. Months and years pass, and as Stanley grows up the world becomes increasingly violent and nasty. Finally war is declared, and tanks and troops begin marching through the cities of the world. Eventually the gods themselves come to earth and begin marching on all of the world's cities.

Stanley encounters an apocalyptic religious cult made up of children. They recognize him as having some sort of power, and try to get them to join their cause. Stanley demurs, and the children grow angry at him.

Chapter 5: The Fall (with scratchin’ and sound effects by EBA)

As Stanley stands there contemplating the children’s angry faces, the world splits open and blood pours out. A huge winged monster comes out of the crack in the earth and asks Stanley who he is. Stanley answers, and the monster goes off to generally wreak havoc on the landscape with all of the other gods. Shit continues to get real, and we see the oceans rise up and flood the landscape. Buildings fall, fire is everywhere. As part of this we see a truly gigantic turtle stomping skyscrapers to the ground and just generally fucking things up. As a result of all of this, many of the children are killed and others maimed. Dirty, injured refugees are everywhere. Stanley tries to ask the few remaining children what the hell is going on, but he realizes that they don’t really know much more than he does.

Chapter 6: The Turtle

Stanley goes to space to talk to the turtle that supports the world, who was one of the main participants in the destruction of the cities. The turtle is off-duty now, and is just chilling out at home. He’s taken his shell off, and is just sitting around wearing a wifebeater and a hat. He smokes and drinks constantly, and basically looks like someone’s cranky old grandfather. They sit and talk about the destruction of the world, and why the turtle participated. He tells Stanley that he took part in the apocalypse just out of a general love of destruction, and plus he kinda hated America for sending astronauts into his home (space), where all they can do is die and fall back to earth. Stanley realizes that the turtle isn’t going to be able to help him.

Chapter 7: The Buddha

Stanley and the turtle go to meet the Buddha to see if he can restore the world. Buddha is huge, fat, made of bronze, and is stuffed into a suit that is slightly too small for him. He has an office to match. He wears a cross around his neck, oddly enough. His manner is initially something like a used car salesman or overly phony politician, and he tries to make light of the situation. Stanley is not amused, and gets angry. Eventually it becomes clear that Buddha is actually incapable of restoring the world. Stanley is despondent but determined to fix the world somehow.

Chapter 8: Restoration (with found sound by Earwicker)

Stanley remembers his father’s power to create, and starts to wonder whether he has the same ability. He stands in a desolate and empty landscape. Initially he is hesitant to try creating anything for fear that he won’t do it right, but eventually he musters the courage and starts to talk and move slowly. He starts by creating the home he wishes he’d had as a child – a pretty little village by the ocean, surrounded by giant trees, populated by friendly and gentle people. He loves this vision and feels comforted by it.

He then begins to recite the names of the dead in an attempt to bring them back, and is surprised that it works. As soon as people come back into the world, though, the simplicity of his vision gives way to all of the complexities we associate with modern life – cities, cars, businesses, etc. The world becomes hectic and busy, but he is still pleased with what he has created.

Chapter 9: Son Of God

Stanley stands and watches the world he has created, waiting for his father. His father appears, and is much older and more frail than he was when he was last seen. His father is proud of him, and they have a short conversation about where Stanley found his faith. Stanley recalls the monkey from chapter 1, and jokingly says that he couldn’t possibly have screwed it up as badly as his father did. His father laughs and agrees. They talk more about who Stanley is and his role in the world, and spend the day together talking and joking. As Stanley is taking over his father’s godlike role in the world, his father begins to age and fade as his own power disappears. Stanley carries his father to bed, and at this point his father is very decrepit. As his final act, his father brings Stanley’s mother back. As Stanley and his mother laugh and embrace, the father crumbles into dust.

Stanley and his mother discuss his role in the world. Mom thinks that he’s still basically living out the story that his father laid out for him, while Stanley thinks that he now has the ability to determine his own destiny. Finally, Stanley lays his head on his mother’s lap and falls asleep. When he wakes up the next morning, the sun is shining and everything is beautiful.

Obama project chapter 7 - The Buddha

Here's a working draft of chapter 7 of Son of Strelka, Son of God. In this chapter Stanley meets the Buddha and asks him to intervene and restore the world to its pre-apocalypse state. Buddha initially tries to downplay the importance of what's happened, but eventually admits that he would help if he could but is unable to do anything.

Obama Project Chapter 9 - Son Of God

Here's a draft of the last chapter of the Obama project. In this chapter Stanley is reunited with his father and assumes his role as a deity. His father dies, but as his final act returns Stanley's mother to him.

Falling Down - Working Draft

Substance abuse, erectile dysfunction, and recidivism all set to a catchy surfer beat.

Faded Southern Bellhop - First Draft

This is my first stab at recording the second-to-the-last song to be recorded for the new album. The song tells the story of a former hair-metal musician or drag queen (and really what's the difference) whose days of glory have passed him by. He spends his days as a bellhop agonizing over his failures and his fading fame. It's a really upbeat song for all that, though. I'll probably redo the vocals, as I was having a bit of an allergy flareup when I recorded these, but all in all I'm happy with the direction it's going.

Jagadish Chandra Bose - new version

I first wrote this song for a silly contest where the goal was to write a song about a randomly chosen Wikipedia article. The article chosen for the contest was about this guy Jagadish Chandra Bose. He was an Indian scientist and sci-fi author who work in multiple disciplines including biology, physics, and archaeology. Sounds like a neat guy!

Anyway, it won the contest and now I'm re-recording it for the new album. I've basically redone everything from scratch, this time with real drums. It's not quite finished yet, but I feel like it's heading in the right direction.

Sad piano instrumental

This is a rough take of a short piano instrumental I wrote about twenty years ago. Not much to say about it but I think it's purty.

Obama project Chapter 8 - Restoration

Here's a first take on the music for Chapter 8 of the Obama Project. In this chapter, our hero Stanley realizes that he has the same ability to create as his father, and decides to rebuild the post-apocalyptic world and resurrect all the people who were killed when the world ended. However, he finds himself unable to keep the story simple once people are involved.

Some spaghetti western music

This just sort of happened while I was trying to write some music for the seventh chapter of the Obama project. It really didn't fit the story, though, so I decided to nix it. It's kinda neat-sounding, though, so here it is. The intent was to change the melody up a bit more, but I basically abandoned it and moved on to something else before I got around to that.

Obama project chapter 4 - The Decline

I've finally gotten words and music together for Chapter 4 of the Obama project. This chapter begins shortly after Stanley's mother leaves him. He spends a few years wandering the world, and sees that the world is a violent and unhappy place. Then he hears the sound of the horns and drums that mark the coming of the final war, and is confronted by a cult of children that are desperately trying to put the world back on track before it is destroyed. Stanley fails to take any action, though, and at the end is left standing there waiting for the world to end. In Chapter 5 (already posted), it does.

For no particular reason - some 60's sci fi music

I spent a few hours yesterday playing around with Reaper, and I'm pretty well hooked. I think I'm going to slowly migrate away from Sonar for my multi-tracking, which is great. Sonar's nice, but Reaper's more flexible, has all the features I need, and costs literally 1/10 as much. Anyway, enough of the advertisements - in the process of dinking about with Reaper I produced this little snippet of music, which sounds a bit like something that might have shown up in one of the sadder scenes of the old Doctor Who TV show.

Santa Claus Lives Alone

This is a song I made for a Christmas compilation a few years ago that never actually materialized. The peeps from Left Handed Radio asked if I had a Christmas song laying around, so I went ahead and dug this one up and dusted it off. It's, uh, a little dark...

The Smoker

This one's missing a guitar solo, but it's close enough to show to people now. It's a song about becoming famous for something utterly trivial - in this case, holding the world's record for smoking the most cigarettes at once. Underlying it is the idea that the ephemerality of fame makes it a sort of unsatisfying way of gaining immortality, but it also touches on the idea that it's the struggle, rather than the goal, that matters. The fact that the battle can't be won doesn't diminish the nobility of fighting it, and all that.

Stanley Meets The Turtle

Here's a new chapter in the Obama project. The project as a whole is now called "Son of Strelka, Son of God", for what it's worth. In this chapter our hero tries to intervene with a giant turtle god to restore the earth after the apocalypse, which the turtle actually participated in. The turtle isn't particularly helpful, to say the least, and just takes the opportunity to bitch about the space program.

The Golden Age

This is Chapter 2 of the Obama project. It tells the story of the rise of civilization, from pastoral simplicity to crowded cities.

The first part of the song is built around field recordings of birds that Teresa and I made in New Zealand and Australia.

Son of Strelka

This is chapter 3 of the Obama project, entitled Son of Strelka. A previous version was posted as Birth of Anubis, but I decided (a) to change the title and (b) to refocus the end of the chapter so that it concentrated more on his parting with his mother.

The story is fairly simple: our narrator is born fully-formed, but with the head of a dog. His family and village had counted on his birth to help them out of their troubles somehow, but instead they are freaked out by his general dog-headedness. His mother is forced to leave him to wander the world alone for reasons that are somewhat obscure.

The name Strelka comes from history. Strelka was a dog, one of the first two animals to return from space alive (Laika died in transit). When she was brought back she was bred with another dog in order to determine whether there were permanent side effects due to the radiation she received in space. One of the pups from that mating was then given to the Kennedy family, and when he grew up he sired puppies with one of their other dogs. JFK apparently called these puppies "pupniks".

The suggestion from the title is not that the narrator's mother is the actual Strelka - she's human, for one thing. It's just that the whole radioactive space dog connection makes that the perfect name for his mom, so I decided to go with it. In fact, I'm renaming the entire project either "Son of Strelka, Son of God", or maybe just "Son of Strelka". Haven't decided yet.

Barackalypse Now

Following on my last post about the beginning of the world, I now also have some music for the apocalypse chapter of the Obama project. In this chapter our hero is witness to the end of the world, and is left wondering what the point of it all was.

The music is a collaboration with EBA, who I've mentioned before. EBA is a really excellent turntablist from the Atlanta area, and he and I have wanted to do something together for a while. This one worked out really well - I threw in some noises and played drums, he threw in a lot more noises and some crazy-ass scratching, and the end result sounds like The Dust Brothers destroying the world. That's exactly how it should be. There's going to be some tweaking on this before it's finally done, but what we've got already is too weird not to share.

By the way, EBA has a podcast at shapelessmass.com, which you should totally check out.

Creation

I finally got some music done for the first chapter of that weird-as-shit Obama project I'm working on. Even better, Ainsley Seago agreed to do the art for this chapter, and judging by the concept sketches below it's going to freakin' RULE.

This chapter tells the story of the very first man, who was born as a fruit of the only tree then in existence. He finds himself in an empty, barren world, and so he climbs to the top of the tree and summons the rest of the world into existence just by speaking the names of the things he wants to create. He gets a little over-eager, though, and accidentally creates a monkey in midair which promptly plunges to its death. Embarrassed by this, he resolves to do a better job and creates many of the positive things in the world before he disappears.

Click on the second picture to see the whole thing.

Remember Me

File this one under "rednexistentialism".

It's Unfair

Here's another one that's in prep for the new solo album. This is a song about a young lady whose mental problems and religious guilt compound each other to make her life hell.