[U-D-R] Ringtones

A few months back I was trying to put together a udr-mobile app, but I couldn't quite get what I was looking for on a budget.  I made some ringtones to go along with my mobile aspirations at that time.  I was finally able to test those ringtones on a fancy real life iPhone 4 and they actually sound pretty good.

So here's the first of some December freebies:

Download link - [U-D-R] Ringtone pack

Enjoy,
-Anthony

State of Oppression (Dec 2011)

The state of [U-D-R]:

2011 has been an interesting year.  I spent the majority of it in Korea with my last year in the US army.  In a few days I'll be a full civilian again.  I fired up a new version of the [U-D-R] website and released some new, previously unreleased and updated material.  I had some great aspirations to have a new album fully underway by now and to have some live shows set up.  The shows are too far off, though the next album from [U-D-R] is going to be further in the future than I'd anticipated.  There will be a little more of the revamped "classic" material now and again in the meantime.

I'm planning to have something put together as a freebie by Christmas.  Which will probably have a few select tracks from Cantonment, further remixed most likely.  I'll keep in touch with the progress of that.

I started a second artistic project, although non musical.  'Altbears'  They're a collection of ever expanding teddy bears with weapons of some kind.  The selection is limited at the moment, though it grows as the muse strikes me.

In addition, I started writing some (very) short stories set in the universe I created over the past 20 years.  That universe is a backdrop for a paper and pencil RPG I created in the mid 90s.  I've dabbled in the mechanics now and again over the years, but I always was more interested in the world I'd created.

Lastly.  Now that I'm back in Seattle, I'm going to try to land a DJ gig somewhere.  I have set up a facebook page for my DJ alter ego with a mix I did.  I had hoped to have more up by now, except things have been going slow.

I have some splash pages for my studio/label and future business.  Though they remain window dressing for now.

Perhaps I'm trying to do too much at once... though, it's not a sense of being overwhelmed by my different project so much as a need to get away from them for a while.  With periods of focusing on one or all of them for a while as well.  September - December has been away time, with October (2010) - July being crazy creativity time.

I'm going to say this up front.  I've always been a tech guy more than an artist / musician.  So I'm more comfortable running a sound board than I am on stage.  This is one of the hurdles of my musical aspirations.


I've also been aware of a feeling that I haven't been able to get over.  Having been a former DJ, Live Sound Tech and having worked at clubs.  I always felt like I was inside looking out.  After I left Tucson, for the most part, things reversed.  I remember being at a club in Germany, sitting there drinking and watching people dance.  I felt a fairly profound sense of loss.  I wasn't a DJ, I didn't know the DJ, I didn't work at the club and if not for my job with the USAREUR Band & Chorus, I would have been completely out of the entertainment / service industry.

It made me realize though, what a fan is.  I remember in high school, thinking how cool it would be to meet my favorite musicians.  Someone once asked me, "Would the world be a better place if Trent Reznor was President?"  I thought about it for a minute and responded, "Probably not, he's just a person like you or I and wouldn't do a better job than any of us."  From that point on, I more or less felt that people are all the same, famous or otherwise.

So back to the concept of the "fan."  I know people who travel around the US to see their favorite bands several times.  There are those who go out to clubs when they can't afford it, just to support the scene and their favorite DJs.  Others buy merchandise and music online.  "Fans" are the lifeblood of music and clubs. They are considerably more important than the artists, DJ and venue owners in a way.  A musician for instance, needs hundreds if not thousands of "fans" to support themselves.

So, I've begun to completely ramble.  To the "fans" out there, you rock!  I live in a weird la-la land of half musician, half fan.  So I'm equally awkward when dealing with other musicians as well as what fans I may have.   Thanks for understanding ; )

Someday I can bury myself behind a mixer and make a living off of it and I won't have to deal with people anymore.  A guy can dream, can't he?  I leave an open invitation to smack me if I ever ignore the bands I'm mixing for.  I hate it when I see sound guys who act like they're working at 7-11 and just don't give a shit.


As 2011 draws to a close, along with this blog post, I wish everyone a happy holiday season and a rockin' new year.  I'll be around the internet when I'm able.

Egg-nog and Jaeger-bombs,
-Anthony

Face the Beat vol 2 and more

I'm putting the finishing touches on Cease Fire (version 6) for Side-Line Magazine's 'Face the Beat vol 2.'  The deadline for submissions is tomorrow, so instead of being a month ahead, I'm a month behind.  Which rings true for a lot of my musical and or audio work at the moment.

I've been back in Seattle a little over a month now and I've been trying to unwind from the army and learn to live like a civilian again.  I've gotten a bit lazy on my vacation so far.  Though, I'm off to school in January, so that should be interesting.

I had hoped to have more (if not all) of the 'Force of Man' interludes done by now.  The 3rd one is mostly complete still and waiting on me to finish it up.  It seems that it won't do it by itself.

Perhaps I'll get a little motivation from working on Cease Fire.  Which turned out to be almost more difficult that writing a new song altogether.  Many of the original files are incompatible or missing.  Using bits of newer incarnation and trying to recapture the clean feeling of the original, while adding a contemporary touch has been a challenge.

Two for the future, last call for the past.
-Anthony

Apple Computer and my life. Thoughts after Steve Jobs' death.

How Apple computers shaped my three main creative outlets in life.

Imperium - a paper and pencil RPG 1992 - 1996 (I still tweak it now an again and write stories based on the universe I created for it)
Graphic Design / Digital Art 1993 - Present
[U-D-R] my never ending musical project 1996 - Present

*note: I'm sure I was an Apple fan boy back in the early to mid 90's.  I still love them, but I've moved towards a much more, "Use what works best for you" attitude for the most part.  So this is just my story, not me proselytizing at anyone ; )

1980s - Apple ][+ and ][e
Many great games educational or otherwise.  Who can forget Oregon Trail at school, on an Apple ][ series?  In a grade/grammar school computer lab, no less?!  To my younger friends, I'm gonna go sit on my porch now.  To my older friends, sorry, didn't mean to make you feel even older.

1990-1993 - Apple ][e and Mac LCII
I wrote the original computerized drafts of my never quite finished paper and pencil role-playing game, via Appleworks.
I learned a little bit about basic digital recording and editing on the LCII.  Never leave your teenage children unattended with a microphone and a recording program, FYI for you parents out there.
I animated a series of adventures about a character called "Halo" in hypercard.  As well as doing all the artwork for my RPG, pixel by pixel.
I got my first… and last, Mac Virus in 1993.  Thanks to the "Barney Blaster" screensaver for After Dark™

1994 - Quadra 630
I made maps for Bungie's 'Marathon' games and put together artwork for custom map packs & scenarios.
I brought my RPG to it's more or less complete rule set.
Somewhere around here I started futzing around on mac BBS's and discovered 'MODs.'  Which lead to me working with music a few years later.
I learned to type (incorrectly) on this computer, thanks to AOL chat rooms.  This is also where I got my first *real* girlfriend, go me!

1996 - Quadra 630 upgraded to 16 MB RAM
I started working on remixes and some rudimentary original songs with a program called Meditor.  Which was a MOD editor that was not limited to the 1MB sample sizes.  Though it used a proprietary MMF file format.
I also started making some pretty fancy digital art with Bryce 3D.  Sadly, I lost my of my 3D art skills through lack of use when I started writing music *all the freekin' time.*

1996-1997 - PowerComputing Power | 120
I got my first mac clone.  Which due to some heat-sink defects got me a free upgrade to a PowerWave 604 | 120.
I did more remixes and original songs on this computer and tried to burn my first CD.  Which failed due to the fact that I'd been working with 22Khz audio files.  My first lesson in Red Book Audio.
Switching from Meditor to Logic Audio 1.0.  I wrote the first [U-D-R] album.  Along with learning that 72dpi, doesn't look good on a printed album cover.  My first lesson in professional graphic design.  I also discovered how big 300dpi PSD files and uncompressed Red Book Audio files were, yipes!

1998-1999 - Umax SuperMac S900 w/ G3 300MHz processor upgrade.
Essentially this computer was the ultimate in clone awesomeness short of multi-core processors.
I wrote Core, End of Entropy and Exile on the Umax clone.
I had pretty well figured out the basics of how to write, mix and master music around this time.  As well as learning a lot more about graphic design.
I taught myself HTML 3.2 & 4 and started dabbling in web design on this computer.

1999 - 333MHz Grape iMac.
My first real Mac since the Quadra 630 and it's 33Mhz 68040 processor.
I ended up using this one mostly for games, word processing and internet.  Lacking PCI card slots, it wasn't doing anything for my music.

2002 - 1GHz DP Power Mac (Quicksilver).
The Umax clone was my musical baby through the rest of that era's [U-D-R] songs and we started all the 'encode' side project tracks on that computer.  Everything was moved over to the new Power Mac that year and the Umax clone (and the 604) lived on as a fileserver (and extra Starcraft box) for several years.  Those two clones were based on the 8500/9500 Power Macs, so I could mix and match parts to keep them alive.

This is also when I started using OS X and became a computer retard.  Under OS 9 and earlier systems, I was pretty well a "power user" as we called it back in the day and could fix about anything wrong with a 90's Mac.  Since then, I've had 1 (yes, just one) Kernel Panic and a couple of freezes (with thousands upon thousands of constantly operating computing hours).  My brain lost the ability to troubleshoot something that never broke.

2004 - PowerBook G4
My first laptop went with me to Iraq and hosted the creation of a few [U-D-R] songs. Also, the original video for 'Song for the Dead' was edited on that computer.  It got too hot and maybe a little sand in it, but it still limps along and was featured at my wedding as one of those digital picture frames.
It went along to Iraq again in 2008, NTC in 2009 and JRTC in 2010.  Later on it was mainly for word processing, web surfing/chat and a portable DVD player (with a whopping 15.2 inch screen).

2006 - MacPro 2.66GHz Dual 2 Core Tower
After the old quicksilver Power Mac finally choked half to death on WoW and Logic 7.  I upgraded to my current desktop.  My music found it's way in from time to time… in between gaming sessions.  It was plagued by a series of flawed ATI X1900 512MB video cards that overheated to the point of discoloring the metal on the back of the PCI-E/AGP slots.  Eventually, I got a revision 2 version of the card and all was well (and fully covered by warranty, even 2 years later).

2010 - MacBook Pro (Summer 2010)
Apple finally made a laptop with as much gusto as my behemoth desktop.  Crunching as much digital audio, instruments and effects as I could throw at it and not explode.  I had my new desktop and laptop rolled into one.  About a year later, Apple released a laptop line that was twice as fast (which hadn't happened in the previous 4+ years), but we won't talk about that.
The new laptop played host to the resurgence on my music, graphic/web design, writing and let me feel like I had a real computer to take with me to Korea.
It should more than adequately serve me for my schooling with the addition of ProTools 9.

I was (am) looking forward to picking up an iPhone 5 when I got back to the states.  Which would make pretty much everything (expensive) I own made by Apple, Mackie or Sony. I'm totally ok with that ; )

So, as one can see, I'm looking at a good 25 years or so with an Apple product of one sort or another allowing me to express me need for art with the precision of a computer.  I might have gotten into PCs at some point had there been no Apples in the house every summer (Go Mom! / teachers), but I'm not sure I would have started writing music or doing as much digital art as soon as I did.  Very rarely has any Mac ever truly hindered my creative process, they have for the most part been nearly transparent.  Except for those times when I swear they would psychically (No BS, I could feel it) tell me they were about to crash (back in my OS 7-9 days), allowing me to save my work.  I think some of us spent as much time writing music as we did laughing hysterically at Logic's audio dump after a crash, usually with the aid of alcohol.

So, Steve, thank you for making a computer / OS that clicked with my brain and creative process.  I'll miss your antics, psychotic episodes, totalitarian rants, ingenuity, vision and…  I forgive you for trying to do in 1984 and 1993 what you succeeded with in 1998 and beyond (except for the Key Lime iBook and Flower Power iMac).

I still question why iChat is tied to AIM and I'm guessing it has to do with a lot of alcohol, bad bets and eWorld.

~Cheers~

P.S. Now that I've written this list.  I'm going to have to dig out one of my OS 9 or earlier compatible Macs and recover some of my old music (.MMF - not SMAF), art (Hypercard) and photos (.KDC).

September is here...

I've been behind on the next interlude "Force of Reason."  I'm still working on it and so far I think it's the best yet.  It'll probably be the last of the classical and or organic sounding interludes as the future album will be progressing into the industrial revolution and the world wars after this.

I decided to draw a teddy bear...  with a gun... and I put it on a t-shirt.  Have fun with that ; )

You can buy 'Gunbear' shirts here -> [U-D-R] Store

I'm about 5-6 weeks from leaving Korea.  I'm still waiting on paperwork and procrastinating far too much.  Time to start looking for a job to help out with income before I head off to school in January.  I need to get that taken care of as well.


I'll see everyone in Seattle soon!

Crab-walking and claymores,
-Anthony



P.S. The 1996 version of 'The Island of Doctor Moreau' was actually pretty good.  It's got some Einstürzende Neubauten in the soundtrack too.

Force of Will

"Force of Will" is here.  I've been planning to release it for the past few weeks.  Things have been hectic and on top of everything, I moved back to Humphreys from K16.

Only 70 some odd days left, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.  The thought of looking for civilian employment to supplement my Post 9/11 GI Bill is also looming.  Assuming my Army paychecks aren't interrupted...

The 'Force of Man' album has been moving in spurts.  I get a lot of work done now and again, but in general it's moving slower than I'd anticipated.  I'd like to see it released in some form by the end of 2011.  So I'll keep shooting for that.

I didn't work out all the kinks in this version of "Force of Will."  But it's about as much as I'm going to stress over in a pre-release, more or less "demo" version of the song.

Here's the latest from Soundcloud and Youtube.

~Listen or Download the audio~

~Watch the video~

"Force of Will" is focusing on the aspect of civilizations, cultures, religions and their effect on mankind.  They have driven us to create great works of art and architecture.  Unfortunately, they have also driven us to wage war on one another.  So much of what we've built and accomplished throughout history has been razed by those who didn't agree with those who created it.

Hope you like it...

Zynga and ziggurats,

-Anthony (or perhaps Normal)

New album(s)

There's a new album in the works. It's going to be called 'Force of Man' and will be an interesting project for me. The early tracks on the album are going to be rather different from anything I've written before. I'm aiming for a more organic natural sound. So much so, that depending on how it goes, I might actually split the album into two. The first half as something of an experiment and the second half being more typical [U-D-R].

The basic premise is that of the history of humans. From the very beginning of our cultures through what I see us as a species today. Possibly with a bit on where I think we're going. So as one might expect; even mellow, slow paced electronic music wont capture my vision early on. I'm trying out new things, expanding my horizons a bit and working with a more simplistic, organic sound.

It will of course evolve as the album goes on. I would expect to see more electro inspired songs beginning in the renaissance. As we reach the industrial revolution, things will get darker and more mechanical. What lies beyond that will ramp up to what I would consider, my "style."

The album(s) will contain a prelude, three interludes and an epilogue. These five short songs (and videos) will be released once a month leading up to the album's release. In the mean time, I will likely have some other offerings as well.

Without further ado. I present 'Force of Nature' (prelude):

~Listen or Download the audio~

~Watch the video~

This begins as a look at an Earth, unaffected by humans.  Mankind then enters the picture and we see a brief glimpse of what horrors we can inflict upon ourselves.


Enjoy!

Party hats and Palominos,
-Anthony

Site overhaul

Major overhaul to the site today.
I thought I might do a quick rundown of the changes.

Home page -
New view, with extra space for information. Both facebook and twitter, at a glance. Mini bio, album info and quick links to music, video and merchandise.

Each page has a new social media links bar. Below that is a sitemap style menu. With easy access to the various parts of the site, music retailers and additional info.

News page -
Essentially the same as the old one. I understand that some browsers are particularly unamused with me embedding blogger. So I moved the "if you can't read this, click here" link to the top of the page.

Listen and Download page -
This is now split into links and notes for the three most recent albums and EPs. Each link will take you to the corresponding album. Where you can preview or download, depending on the license.

Music Store -
This takes you to the CD Baby store widget. Where you can buy the album through them. There is also a "buy on iTunes" link. This of course is in addition to the links to other stores, at the bottom of all the pages.

Clothing Store -
This section is also essentially unchanged. I lengthened the page so the embedded store itself, does not have scroll bars. The navigation feels slightly easier, to me at least.

Videos and Photos -
This is much like the album page. It's now split in two, with a link to a videos page and another to a photo album. I simplified these areas as well. With selected videos and photos. As all the videos are readily available on YouTube and the photos on facebook.

Bio page -
Just a bio. One that never seems to stop being... slightly revised.

Live page -
A new feature to the site. With some notes about [U-D-R]'s past performances and booking information. Which is currently not available.

Contact -
This is a mix of the old links page and contact information. With a special note for promoters, DJ's and the like.

I hope the new site design is agreeable.

Wombats and web-design,
-Anthony

Cantonment on iTunes

[U-D-R] - Cantonment is now available on iTunes as well.

[U-D-R] - Cantonment on iTunes

Look for it on these distributors in the future:

• Rhapsody
• Emusic
• Napster
• Nokia
• Tradebit
• ThumbPlay
• Deezer
• MySpace Music
• MediaNet
• Amazon MP3
• Zune
• Last.fm
• Spotify

Thanks for the support!
-Anthony

[U-D-R] 'Cantonment' worldwide release

[U-D-R] - Cantonment

world-wide release announcement:

Cantonment is available now on CD Baby (click here to buy).  iTunes in the next ±24 hours.  Amazon MP3 and others to follow in the coming weeks.

This album is a collection of previously unreleased and reworked material from 1999-2011.  With moods ranging from harsh industrial and upbeat synthpop to melancholy electro.  It covers a decade of creative exploration.  A true untapped talent of the independent industrial music scene.

Cantonment is only a taste of things to come.  [U-D-R] is back in the studio writing all new material, as well as bringing back a few lost gems of the past.

Be sure to take the time to listen to and download "Cantonized."  The free companion album to Cantonment below.

Cantonized by [U-D-R]

Enjoy!

-Anthony

Post vacation funk

Wait for it... waaaaait for it.

So, mentioned that I've been in a post vacation funk.  It's pretty well gotten worse.  I had a bit of progress on some freebie stuff I want to release before Cantonment.

However, here I am doing anything but working on those freebies.  Though I did manage to at least put them in some semblance of acceptability before my relapse.

I'm trying to work through how I've been feeling.  I think it's got a lot do to with my future fast approaching.  I've been in the Army 8 years.  That's 8 years of a routine.  8 years of paychecks for showing up to work.

I'm a bit aggravated at myself and the Army.  I never really tried to make much of my military "career."  Probably because I always knew it wasn't permanent.  After I reenlisted, I considered going for promotion again.  Though, I was happy.  I was crewing Blackhawk helicopters at Ft. Lewis, living in Seattle and making enough money to pay the bills and enjoy my off time.  So I just went with it.

The flip side of that coin is simply a whole debate on the flaws of the army promotion system.  I've decided to leave it at that.

This leads to my realization that it's all about to end.  On the plus side.  I'm going back to Seattle and I'm going to be with my wife.  I'm also headed into a great uncertainty that kinda scares the hell out of me.

I'm going back to school.  Assuming the Post 9-11 GI Bill doesn't take a sudden turn for the worse.  I've looked at various jobs to fill in, if I don't go straight back to school.  I found that I'm worried in part about going to school, because I have a (psychological) need to maintain my support for my family.  It will be an ugly pay cut.  Granted, I'll be nearly debt free at that point.

I guess that's enough of a ramble about myself.  Maybe all of this unease and tension will make for an awesome album in 2012.  One can but hope.  I don't even want to think about what to do with a hard drive full of partially completed songs.  Songs, that I'd like to finish at some point as well as writing new material.

Mistrust and manual labor,
-Anthony

New logos

Double Eagle Logo w/ Retro Symbol

I put some new shirts up on the store with the double eagle logo on them.  Check them out and don't forget there's a buy 4 get one free sale through May31st.

A few more details on my plotting.  I'm working on another freebie release with some remastered versions of the original Tainted and Last Chance songs.  There will also be another redux of a classic [U-D-R] song to be revealed when it's ready.

I haven't been as diligent as I should be in the studio  lately.  I feel like I'm still unwinding from being back in Korea.  We've had a fairly hectic work schedule and I've found some solace in a semi-vegatative state with the PS3.  No online stuff for me.  So the PSN being all mucked up hasn't caused me to go into any multiplayer withdrawal nerd rages.  I do do some online stuff now and again in MW2, but I quickly grow tired of watching myself get shot in the head over and over and finally being the cause of my teams loss through a tac nuke.

So yes, that being said.  I suck at video games.  I always have.  I play them for the story and always have them set to easy.  There are a few exceptions to that though.  Ducktales and Strider on the original NES.  I totally rocked those games.  I got FF2 on the SNES down to 15:32 at the start of the fight with Zeromus (later got my whole party to level 70 with Cecil at 71, that was a pain in the butt).  That and Aliens in the arcade.  Megaman continues to be a foul evil stirred up from the abyss of Japan however.

Oh boy, I'm rambling.  Though I guess I did just admit to being a geek, nerd or w/e.

I've got a few other things to work on today while I healthily avoid the vile playstation of doom.  So I'll catch you all later.

Lawn darts and ambulances,
-Anthony

Cantonment release date

I'm setting the Cantonment release for a tentative date of June 7th.  Everything should be in order by then.

This week, I'm planning on having some freebies up.  I'm also exploring possibilities for a digital release party of sorts for Cantonment.  I want to do some free merchandise but I'm not sure I can afford it right now.  We shall see.

I'll let you know when my plotting for this week has concluded.

-Anthony

Cantonment Promo

Cantonment Promo is out!



The Cantonment promo mix track is now available for preview and download.

These are the final mixes for the EP.  If anyone has an comments or suggestions, please let me know.

***

I think I've got a pretty good handle on how I want my music to sound.  I'm still not working with the greatest reference.  With the baseline I got in Seattle and listening to the songs on multiple systems.  I think it sounds about right as it stands now.  A friend of mine (and fellow musician) told me to stop when you're 80% happy with it or you'll never stop tweaking the sound.  Might be good advice.

I have a lot of songs in the works right now for the next album.  I'm still chasing the sound I'm looking for. A lot of the partially completed music I have right now isn't exactly new.  Though I think that might be ok, since I've been procrastinating for the last 7 years.  I do have a few totally new songs I'm working on and I seem to be headed in the same direction as I have been throughout the hiatus.

I'm definitely holding on to some sort of angry synth-pop vibe.  A little too dark for the standards of the genre, but a little too melodic and upbeat for industrial proper.  I guess I'm unique.  Rock on.


You and me and rainbows,
-Anthony

Back in Korea

Fun with the Cannon in Santa Monica

Back in Korea...

Been lying low a little this last week.  I caught a yucky cold over the weekend and it derailed some of my musical plans.  I wanted to get back on top of things full force when I got back here.  But it seems Korea can suck the life out of you a little.

Cantonment is essentially done.  I had been holding off on a commercial release to see if my Tainted (tortured mix) made it on the side-line facebook comp.  Seems they aren't going to announce who made it on the comp until the end of May.  Seems they also have somewhere between 500 and 1000 submissions and 40% are from "professional" bands.  I'm not liking the odds.

So in light of that.  I would like to release Cantonment earlier than June 1st.  However, I'm going to try and get a few external remixes and maybe another internal one done in the next few weeks and add a little more meat to the Album.  It'll still be an EP by definition, but more remixes are good no?

As for mastering.  I've rediscovered through logic's handy little tool "Match EQ" that I do so love to leave some holes in my spectrum I wasn't aware of.  Granted that tool is dangerous.  If you trust it outright, it can make a total disaster of your mix.  But if you get it just right, it can make some excellent fine tuning.  Somewhere around 500-700Hz, I don't like in my head, because it kept boosting that.  At first it sounded a bit um, "cardboardy" to me.  But I've heard it on several different systems now and I do like the way it came out.  Perhaps that's the "warmth" those analog guys are always talking about.

I didn't finish all the mastering on all the tracks while I was in Seattle though.  Time constraints and the occasional hangover didn't lend itself to mastering.  But seeing as I decided to add more to the album, I'll have to make do with what I have over here.  With an added dose of perspective.

For the future...

I was going through a lot of songs I'd partially completed between 2006 and 2010.  I like where a lot of them were going, but they aren't all exactly the sound I was going for.  There are a lot of them.  Enough to make into another album over the next 6 months.   Though I'm trying to decide if I want to continue to backpedal and revamp older and unreleased material or just wipe the slate clean and start fresh.

If I start over, I feel like I want to avoid "corrupting" my sound with past ideas.  But in some cases, I like my past ideas more than my current ones.  There are also a few semi-completed tracks that really move me.  I also want to bring back a totally up to date version of Cease Fire and possibly Licht.

I'm trying to push myself away from over-complexity.  Which has been a constant issue with my music.  I do so love to pack as much as I can into a song until it becomes "busy."  While at the same time, seeming that the key to a good song is only having what you need in it to make it work.  In part that may be my lack of "real" musical talent.  As I'm more of an engineer than an artist.  Then again, all I have to do is listen to a few songs out there to realize, I'm not doing that bad (oh, crap, hello ego).

Ok, ok...   this is enough of a ramble for one news post.

Love and other indoor sports,
-Anthony

Vacation

Heading back to seattle for a few weeks.  I'll be on the road for most of the time.  But the first and last weekend, I'll be at home relaxing and enjoying life.

Heh, seriously.  I'll be taking care of a lot of things while I'm there.  But I should still have time to catch a break.

To do list:
• Spend time with my wife.
• Look at a house or two
• Do taxes and resolve owed taxes from last year (<3 IRS)
• Clean the studio and do some mastering work
• Get access to my Service Credit Union account so I can figure out how much I still owe them
• Enjoy some time around (possibly) Napa Valley, San Francisco, LA and Utah
• See Leæther Strip live in concert, woo!
• Get a new usb midi controller (M-Audio Oxygen 49, I think)
• Discuss the future
• Wish I didn't have to go back to Korea
• Hope Tokyo doesn't get some ucky fallout for my return trip layover there
and a whole lot more...

I'm sure this doesn't even cover half of it, but it's what I've got off the top of my head.  Yes yes, I know a lot of that is totally irrelevant from the perspective of most people who might be reading this.  But I vent and process a little here too.

If you really want to hear me vent.  I might think about linking my rant blog sometime.  For now, it's just for me and whoever finds it accidentally.

Now, I have to go sign out on leave.

Tschueß,
-Anthony

Near future

Remixes, my future (post army) and Cantonment commercial release (soon).

Spent a chunk of last night working on my "homework" for the transition assistance program class I'm in this week. Getting out of the Army is a fabulous thing. But all of a sudden, one realizes, even if you stayed in your military career field, you'd take a pay cut. While I'm ok with taking a pay cut to go from 14-16 hours a day, 60 days a year in the field, 1 year in 2-3 deployed, etc, etc to 10 hours a day M-F. It does pay better to be a civilian in Iraq. Though it's a pain in the ass to get you and your equipment there. I'm so off track already...

Regardless. I'm down to about 6 1/2 months left in Korea. Then a few paychecks on terminal leave and after Dec 1st. I need to already have some kind of Seasonal job lined up, transitioning into part time while I'm in school. Probably back to the retail world for me for the time being. They don't really offer much in the way of my skill sets in part time jobs near Seattle bus routes. So, I'm feeling a tiny bit nervous. But worse come to worst, there's a variety of jobs I'm qualified for and I get a tiny advantage with veteran's preference. Namely government jobs. The closest non upper upper management ones are mostly TSA/DHS guys.

Otherwise, Surveying. Which might even be enjoyable in the PacNW weather. But that's all a moot point as I'll be in school starting in January with a 70% pay cut and 15% more bills.

Wow, so so far off track for the topic of this discussion.

The OTHER thing I was doing last night is the Klutæ - Desert Storm remix. I'm still working the song back together and messing with instruments. It's coming together though. Probably after tonight it'll be time to futz with it a bit. Though I'm going to be busy preparing and packing for my trip to the states. So it might be on hold.

I will have a couple non-consecutive days with my full studio set up during those two weeks. I'll be adding some spit-and-polish to the Cantonment tracks. After that, I'll be pushing a commercial release shortly thereafter. I'm still on the fence about remixes. I might just push those as freebies online later if anyone wants to do a remix. I'm not in the position to pay for them just yet...

So here's the list of upcoming goodies- -
KLUTÆ - Desert Storm [U-D-R] remix.
Frontal Boundary - Mental Illusion [U-D-R] remix (on his commercial release).
[U-D-R] - Cantonment Final Master and Retail availability.

I haven't decided the best route for a retail release, but I might go with a 1 shot iTunes (or multi digital distribution) release. ReverbNation has a pretty good ongoing deal with a monthly fee. But my finances are about to get pretty thin. Once I have access to my UPC or barcode thingy. I can self release the hardcopy CD myself for distribution. I do have a route for doing that, but it'll be up to what I can afford. Currently, there isn't much demand.

That being said, I'm in this for myself and my fans. I'm not planning on living off my music anytime soon, so I don't expect or anticipate a very profitable response from releasing Cantonment. But you never know what the future holds. Time for a serious indie promotion assault methinks.

"It'll cost ya good nuyen or two little puppy dogs.  Har har!"

Cheers,
-Anthony

Experimental music

I just finished up a song I did for my wife's school project. We were on a super short time schedule so I more assembled it with with loops in GarageBand. My first go kinda missed the mark a bit and ended up sounding like a 60's James Bond theme song.

And here I was supposed to be writing about the element of Earth from the Traditional Chinese Medicine point of view.

We worked on it a bit more, but with our time crunch, modified my 007 theme with some slightly different elements. We had also intended to have her sing. She did very well, but I ended up doing a rendition myself to get it out the door with her to class this morning ^_^

I will say though, for being totally raw and with a couple minor flubs. I sung in a style that was about 75% outside my norm. I think I did ok too. So I guess I haven't lost my touch just yet. Though for the year and change I was living in Seattle and working at Ft. Lewis (54 miles one way). I was singing my ass off in the car to everything. So I actually came up some new techniques.

If they're appropriate to industrial I dunno. But should I ever record my rendition of Covenant's "Final Man." You'd all get a giggle. Actually, it sounded really cool... from a singing in the car perspective.

We're also off GO1 after two weeks (aka now we can drink), so cheers!
-Anthonormal B. Funfrock

...yes, I just made just made an obscure reference to "Dr. Funfrock."

[U-D-R] News - back on blogger

Heya

I switched the [U-D-R] news over to my blogger account. While it's a rather wide format and kinda mucks with my website template. It's a lot easier to post and maintain (and I like the way it looks). As well as being able to post when I'm away from my computer.

Cheers,
-Anthony

Cantonment EP

I've decided Cantonment is going to be an EP with 6 tracks, possibly some remixes. Cantonment, being a place where soldiers live. It seems somewhat appropriate to leave it as music I wrote and or reworked while I've been in the army. Though the combination of this EP and a long hiatus has essentially killed the Prometheus (working title) album that was scheduled for 2006-2007 originally. Most of the newer material is from what that album could have been.

I also think holding out for later this year or even early next year while I put together more tracks isn't really fair to those who might want to buy the album. Especially when the music I'm writing now is somewhat different than these revamped tracks from 1999-2005. That being said, there is a lot of unfinished songs from 2006 that might not fade away completely.

I'm looking forward to what the future holds. I'll be heading to school at the Art Institute of Seattle for the Audio Design Tech program. Huzzah for the post 9/11 GI Bill. Though they keep hacking away at the benefits. All in all, it's far better than the Montgomery GI Bill that I joined up for, so I can't complain.

I'm heading back to the states for a few weeks pretty soon. I plan on hooking my trusty macbook pro up to my lobotomized studio that sits idle while I'm off in Korea. Giving the 6 tracks a final once over with some real reference monitors.

Hopefully around May, there will be a Cantonment EP for sale somewhere. I've so far only released promo materials to a handful of people. Though with the ability to record audio from preview only streaming tracks, I'd imagine anyone could get my music for free. The next album is likely to be fairly hush hush until it's about ready.

I think I'm rambling a bit. It's almost midnight here and I'm running on 2 hours of sleep from last night. TGIF for sure. Well, tomorrow is Friday for me. It's nice being 17 hours ahead of the west coast sometimes.

Love and other indoor sports,
-Anthony

Back on blogger.com

Heya,

It's been a crazy 3 weeks. I put a new [U-D-R] site together, redid 4 songs, remastered 13 for a compilation of *old* songs and scattered myself all over various social media and music sites all over the internet.

Back to work.

Look for the new CD "Cantonment" early next year. It'd be a lot sooner, but I'm in Korea w/o most of my studio equipment.