apple

OK, I’m not Criswell (although my grandmother was an actual psychic) But I have a strong sense (hell, a tingling of a spider sense) that in the near future we will see comic book downloads on Apple’s iTunes. I have a strong feeling that DC Comics will be in the initial offering. You heard it here first. I swear, this is just my instinct and I have zero insider knowledge of this. My moving to Cupertino is also completely coincidental. I swear. Paul Levitz, if you have not already made this deal, but now know it to be your destiny, I am way teh jealous of you and that little voice in your head that is chanting ‘big money, big money’.

Oh, btw, the thing that set me off on this is, old DC animation is now available on iTunes, and at first I thought it was the comics. The exciting part for me is that the actual first season of Super Friends… Wendy, Marvin, Wonder Dog, Alex Toth, Ted freaking Knight!!! is now available for you to enjoy. You couldn’t even get those joints illegally (no torrents, no DVDs, no longer on Cartoon Central or even Boomerang, not even VHS… NOTHING!), now it’s all there in beautiful digital glory, Minimus and Maximus Mole and the trees and rocks that walk and steal air conditioners and all the rest of it. Oh, the lost weekend that awaits me.

The Percy Thrills Thrillington masterpiece, Thrillington, is now available in the DRM-free Plus format on iTunes for just 9.99USD. Awesome arrangements, super smooth bass by session legend Herbie ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ Flowers, Easy to listen to. Um, I guess you could always get it from Beware of the Blog or buy the CD, but, honestly I thought it had only ever been available on vinyl or torrent (sounding pretty bad) until now. Here’s some background (of varying accuracy.. I think) on the project.

Fox again dips into the pool of slightly odd to fill space in their schedule, this time dragging Mr. Scott Smallwood (beard, glasses, sitting in the center) along with them. This clip is a tad old, but, hey, it was new to me. For those unfamiliar, Mr. Smallwood is pretty much the central unit in music at Wow Cool, being 1/2 of Evidence and a member of Brown Cuts Neighbors and nickname: Rebel. Check his stuff at the DeptEx shop.

OK. I just spent the month of February taking the RPM Challenge-record an album of at least 10 songs or 35 minutes in 29 days. Easy, right? Except I’m down in Knoxville and the band (Brown Cuts Neighbors, nickname: Rebel, anyone!) is now scattered to the four corners. I was talked into this mad venture by the Rev. Joshua Baker (God Hates Computers, Chased and Smashed, childhood friend) who is in a similar boat up in Maine. We’re both also trying to figure out how new digital audio deals work on our respective underpowered laptops. The very last tune I finished was the one we had worked on together, and probably the most successful - check out Ouroboos (4MB MP3). If this sounds at all like something you want to hear, you can have the whole thing for free (30MB zipped MP3 files and cover in PDF). It’s called R is for Riot and is by nickname: Rebel. There are just 10 songs. It’s 21 minutes. A few songs have words, they concern micronations with solar powered submarines, lab accidents, Ernest O. Lawrence, and tactful ways to tell someone they’re being cheated on. I got done just in the proverbial nick… getting it in the mail 9 minutes before deadline. nickname: Rebel RPM Page | Josh’s Not Square with Zero RPM Page

What I learned

• Get a taller drum throne. I cannot believe how much my legs hurt.
• That old saying, never mix the same day… oh yeah. These actually sound ok a day or 2 later.
• I’m not loosing my mind now that there are just a few days left… that already happened yesterday.
• Always record every take, even the practice warm up one. Some things are hard to nail. Had two perfect solo runs lost to time. All the ones I got down… eh.
• I have recorded none of the songs I wrote or planned in the first week.

Thanks,

Marc Arsenault
http://wowcool.com/engine

I’ll post every few entries on my RPM Blog here as they build up during this long desperate month of recording… Just 17 days left.

Obscure Functions of the RPM Challenge
I pretty quickly realized that this would be where I finally cut my teeth on Logic Studio 8. I know fuck-all about it now, but expect to be an expert in four weeks time. Another thing I’ve discovered is that this was the perfect excuse to finally dig through and try out all those free apps, plug-ins and samples I’d been downloading for months. A kind of constructive procrastination. After all, I am making some sounds! Only a few seconds may make it into the final piece, but the extra spice will add some serious flavor.

That’s why I have all those outputs
Found a good use for all those output channels on my MOTU Ultralite… wishing I had another set of monitor speakers to plug into them. One set to monitor what I’ve played and one set to listen to what I’m doing. All of it through one set just really doesn’t give me the separation I want. Oh, sure, I could go to headphones or play through an amp… but, you know…

Learning all sorts of fun things from Logic. The tuner is super useful. Imagine! plodding on…