Everything is written from the perspective of our band The Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad, a costume rock band that makes fans of Ween, Guns n' Roses, Frank Zappa, & KISSvery happy.
We did it. With just months to go before the Boneslinky! release on October 8th, we decided to jump on the Kickstarter band-wagon.
If you're unfamiliar with Kickstarter, it's this cool site where artist-types connect with fans to raise money for cool projects. It's worked tremendously well for friends of ours like Baltimore filmmaker Chris LaMartina.
If you're even vaguely considering purchasing Boneslinky! this is a great way to do it. Not only do you help us complete the final phases of production, but we decided to offer some kick ass bonus items as our "thank you" for helping us before you've heard the final product.
At the lowest level of donation you recieve the full version of Boneslinky! and a full length bonus CD featuring all of the demos of songs included on the final album. At the highest or "pimp-status" level, you'll get a trip to Disney World to see The Flute Squad play in Orlando. In-between donation levels include private shows and even an opportunity for Father Ryan to produce your album!
Before the album art has been finished, a track listing has been created, and even before the pre-mastered version has been sent out to beta-testers (again contact me if you're interested) The Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad has locked down a location and date for the Boneslinky! album release party.
The party will happen at (a place we our pretty much calling our home these days) The Windup Space on October 8th 2010! Semi-confirmed acts include: ------------------------- The Rock n' Roll Freakshow: A staple of our best shows. These guys perform a series of stunts involving fire-breathing, hanging heavy objects from testicles, and eating broken glass.
Bobby E. Lee & The Sympathizers: An insane hillbilly rock troupe that is sort of Flute Squad meets Wild Bonerz meets a crazy shit talking southern Baptist preacher.
The Go Pills: A quirky pop band side-project of our friend and Baltimore film maven Skizz Cyzyk! ---------------------------- Perhaps most exciting of all is that will be an official Baltimore Beer Week event, featuring specials on The Raven Lager all night.
This just came down the pipeline, so I hate to say it, but more details are to come. If you plan on coming or have an ideas, or even if you are a band that REALLY wants to play at this thing the best way to hit us up is to leave us a comment or hit us up on our Facebook!
One of my favorite scenes in the documentary Dig! is when Dandy Warhol's frontman Courtney Taylor is laying down vocal tracks for the Dandy's soon-to-be hit "Bohemian Like You." He wasn't doing anything particularly annoying in that scene, just singing his vocal lines, but somehow came off as a total douche and it's hilarious because he's oblivious.
In many ways this scene encompasses the golden rule of recording: Everybody looks like a fucking tool when recording vocal tracks.
It's a fact of life, and just knowing this sad truth can make you 100 times more effective in the studio. Unless you're Pavarotti, singing the way you do live just isn't enough in the studio. Recording several different overdubs and harmonies helps, but even THAT isn't enough. Alot of times we'll record for hours and hours testing different voices with different mics until we find a sound that we like. But here's the tricky part: the vocals that sound good in the mix, usually sound like shit when they're being recorded.
Case in point: I call it the Axl Rose-meets-Chicken Lady-meets-Diane Rehm (or Axl Rehm®) voice. In addition to about six other go-to voices, singing in the Axl Rehm® is part of my vocal duty for each song that I am featured on on the upcoming album. This means, going into the studio to record my vocal takes is not as simple as going in and singing the way I do live. That is definitely part of it. But an even bigger part is where Ryan (our producer) yells at me to "Sing it in your screamy voice!", "Sing it your Axl voice!!" "Sing it in your Dire Straits voice!!!" I cry deeply, then follow suit.
The process is harsh on the ears:
But the results are worth it:
Notice how little of that shit is actually in there! It's added in toward the end for dramatic effect. The track sounds more "barbershop quartet" than "Appetite for Destruction" but I guess we would have never figured that out if we all just clammed up in the studio. It really is worth it to experiment with different vocal sounds. Go balls deep and act like a total spazz when the mic is on and the spacebar has been pressed. SHAME IS FOR THE WEAK!
By the way, Ryan told me that I'm letting his mixing secrets out into the world by releasing just the vocal tracks. I guess that's somewhat valuable to studio nerds. I'd be really impressed if someone took that track and made something with it.
Ok, two more videos from Super Art Fight VI and then we'll move on. This has been a fun way to introduce some of the songs that are being recording in the studio for the next album, Boneslinky! So far I'm really siked about all of the new material.
Bitchmade!
"Bitchmade!" is sort of like the flip side of "Big Fist." It started as an old man's first person lament against the modern-ness of today's male. I get in these crazy moods some days and record demos that sound like this:
In the video, you'll see that we're launching kazoos out into the crowd. This gimmick spawned from our children's band The Hilltop Hightops, and has ended up being a staple of our Flute Squad "office parties." Mike "Cap'n Mediocrity" Bennett, confessed to me later in the night that he had accidentally nailed someone right in the face with a kazoo. So, yeah, if you come to a show HEADS UP.
TRAM
"TRAM" is one of a few genre-bending tracks on the new album. It's decidedly non-rock in an album full of pretty hard rock tunes. What's missing from the live version is this sweet Coldplay-meets-MIDI piano track. TRAM is definitely a NEW new-tune, meaning we haven't played it out for too long. We're still working out some of the kinks.
Alot of people have already asked me what the fuck this song is about. I think it's a bit self-explanatory. It deals with our obsession of Disney, Epcot, Dire Straits, and the phenomenon where wild amusement meets order.
Just wanted to share some videos from Super Art Fight VI with you guys , I'll be revealing a few other videos on this blog this week. I'm taking this opportunity to explain some of the songs that will be available on the next album, Boneslinky! in a few months.
"Show Us Your Boobs (Buy Me A Beer)" is a song that's been around for a while. It's probably the one song that was worked out exclusively in and around the live setting. Rather than our typical cheap idea demo-->play it live--->record it for real method, this song was actually written during the process of playing shows. Like most of our songs, it is one that started out as a joke about the ultimate crowd participation. After repeated attempts at coercing the audience to either:
a.) Showing us boobs
or
b.) Buying us beer
we have ACTUALY seen like, I dunno, 3 boobs and have received the equivalent of a round of beers. In fact, most of this boob-flashing, and beer-giving happens after the show is over. Many people, ACTUAL WOMEN, have told me they love the song, but feel a bit weird about actually showing their tits in a bar filled with 30 people. The lack of beer is just laziness or cheapness I suppose.
The Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad is a costume band from Baltimore, Maryland. Suitable for fans of Ween, Guns n' Roses, Frank Zappa, and Kiss.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 12:18AM 
