Another Album Cover Concept

Not sure how I feel about this one. I like the idea, but I think it might look a bit too busy.

ANYWHOOOO....

Despite Bill's best efforts to turn this into a trip down dreary lane, it's time to spice things up with a little concept album cover work.

Here's the latest...



Mad props to Bill fischer for discovering this photo in the first place. Photo taken by Lara Hartley, whose work can be found all over the world wide interwebs. Great stuff, and she seems to be fascinated with the desert. Mabye because she lives there.

But I digress. This is kind of a first pass at a concept that bill first presented. Consider this the "munson runs with it" version. I added a few little layers (literally and figuratively) which kind of make it look like a tattered picture. Also at varying degrees of opacity are song titles and lines from songs on the album.

Dunno how it plays, but I figured I'd throw it out there for criticisms. Or complements. Compliments? You be the judge.

And yes, that is a blood splatter in the upper right hand corner. Nice touch?? Not sure.

I think the main debate for me is if the album title should be the big words on the page, or the name of the band should be. Maybe I'll try an alternate version.

Update:

Decided to put together the alt concept, just to see how it flows.

The Great Gig in the Sky

Today we're in (supposedly) the worst financial crisis since the twenties. Funny how that sort of once-in-a-lifetime superlative seems to crop up pretty often. Sort of like lunar eclipses and close approaches of Mars.

None of it bothers me as much as the passing of Richard Wright, dead today from cancer at age 65. If you don't like Pink Floyd, you're excused now; I don't really want to talk to you anyway. I swear to God, five minutes before I found out (ten minutes ago), I was hearing a Pink Floyd song in my head as I drove up to my house. The song was "Welcome to the Machine." Why that song at this time? Probably because it was my oldest son's first day of preschool.

You've been in the pipeline filling in time
Provided with toys, and scouting for boys

My guess is that Richard Wright will begin to get more recognition. I can't say that he was some groundbreaking genius or pioneer synthesizer musician, although maybe he was. He wasn't the main songwriter in Pink Floyd, though he did write a bunch of good stuff. What places him in the pantheon for me, though, and occasions a deep sigh and a dark mood with his passing, is his piano playing throughout The Dark Side of the Moon. If it's possible to reach across the anonymous void and attain certain knowledge that you are not alone in the universe, the expressiveness of Richard Wright's playing in the song "Us and Them" gets it done. Like the individual notes are reaching right into your brain and triggering synapses that tap directly into your soul, almost as an extension of the instrument. Wright's playing confirms for you that there is somebody out there. That quality is exceedingly rare in any music.

Sad, too, how he was treated callously by his bandmates from The Wall on.

I was pleasantly surprised when Pink Floyd put the old rancor behind them to reunite for Live 8, and genuinely moved by their performance in a way that could not be explained by the pretty-darn-good musical standard maintained.

Why does it happen that fantastic bands so often fall into fratricidal behavior that leaves bitterness lingering for decades? The Beatles, The Eagles, especially Creedence Clearwater Revival? How could you give up something so good - the ability to tap into that rare elixir - and make that same leap into meaningless solo careers?

To find out, I started my own band. The elixir wasn't as good, but we did the same thing as those others. Various band members who were best friends and (more or less) grew up together now won't speak to each other. I can't say I'm any wiser for it, but at least now I've seen it up close (apart from the "fantastic" aspect).

I think it's like getting a divorce, although I've never done that. I've seen a few up close, though. Not that close.

Labels: Jocks, Nerds, Black and Blue

Almost all the recent posts have been about Black and Blue, a "splinter band" of the "Classic" Stickmen. That's because Black and Blue is actually getting on with making some music! However, to help sort things out a bit between Black and Blue action and truly "classic" posts (i.e. pertaining to vintage activities of the original band), new posts are encouraged to use "labels." Like this one includes the label "Black and Blue." Another post might include the label "Classic." We'll see how it goes.

Honest, I'm Not Trying To Do Your Job.

I'm just pumped! I did a quick search for CD duplication places, and sure enough, what used to be a teeth-pulling-like process has been refined into something far more spectacular. Check out this place, for example:

http://www.oasiscd.com/products/JewelCase.asp

They've got templates for artwork that you download (meaning dimensions and borders and stuff, not actual suggestions of what your artwork should look like), a bunch of options, and for a thousand CDs, it's under 1,500 bucks. Booya.

The whole thing has been pretty standardized, and it looks like there are a number of folks who offer very similar services. I guess it's all just about scheduling at this point.

Bonus: turn time on these deals is under 15 days.

A bit more digging around revealed this company:

http://www.discmakers.com/products/cd400.asp

They're a few hundred bucks cheaper than Oasis, and seem to offer the exact same products and services. Also highly recommended by CDBaby. For 999, we can get the full 1000 CDs in under 20 days. For 75 bucks more, we can get four color inserts printed on both sides. Looks like the turn-key product has four color on the outside of the inserts, black and white on the inside. I say for 75 extra bucks, we go full color all around. just like MNI! NICE!!!!

The good news here is that it looks like a christmas release is very doable, assuming that we get all of our songs finished. If we can wrap up recording by the first week in december, we can make it happen. End of November would be better, though we could always pay a few extra bucks for a five day turn time if need be.

Cover Songs, Licensing Fees, and Time Well Spent

Bill and I LITERALLY had a fireside chat this Sunday where we discussed a number of "to do" items for our upcoming album. A large part of the conversation was dedicated to how we were going to handle the inclusion of "Don't Go Back To Rockville", a song that was not written by us. Because the recording turned out so good, and because we are both such big fans of the song, we agreed that we want it included on the album.

We then strategized about how to do that. Do we just include it, keep our fingers crossed, and hope that R.E.M. doesn't catch wind of the fact that we're using their material? Since we have a history of teetering on the edge of being sued into oblvion, that seemed like a bad approach. So we conspired to actually figure out how to arrange for royalties to be paid and all that.

We actioned the item to Bill, but since I had a few minutes at work to goof around on the extra-webs, I dug up this little gem:

http://www.cleverjoe.com/articles/music_copyright_law.html

Now, while I'm not convinced that the service the author recommends in the beginning of the post is the BEST Place to go, he does go on to discuss how you can contact the record companies directly and set it all up.

The punchline is this: 85 bucks for the song. Maybe a few bucks more since the song comes in at SLIGHTLY over five minutes. So let's say 100 bucks for 1,000 albums sold. TOTALLY doable.

So that's the good news. There is no bad news. You can go about your business.