Warming Up

Another day, another Bedroom Concert. This time I'm playing a mash-up of "All Gummed Up Inside" and "All Warmed Up Inside" from the excellent cartoon, Adventure Time by request from Billy the human. Check it:


Speaking of warming up, in less than a week I'm relocating Mudlust HQ down to Los Angeles, CA. I expect my pale white skin will soon be replaced by pink lobster skin and my teenage freckles will come back. Pretty stoked.

Korean Presidents

Onward with the Kickstarter rewards! Today I'm posting two more Mudlust Bedroom Concerts. The first is a reward for Matt in the form of 2NE1's "내가 제일 잘 나가 (I Am The Best)". To all Korean speakers, I'm sorry. The other is a reward for Ben, "Peaches" by the Presidents of the United States of America, one of the most formative bands of my childhood. It was the end of the day and things were getting tired and hairy which may explain the spoken word passage and the part where I go into the corner like it's the end of The Blair Witch Project. Only three more Bedroom Concerts to go before we pack up and move Mudlust central down to LA. Enjoy!


"Peaches" is after the jump along with my final rankings of James Bond movies and theme songs. Fuck you, Quantum of Solace, what a letdown.

D'Angelo and Carly Simon in a bedroom.

Well it's time to roll out a couple of the public rewards for the First Issues/Care album Kickstarter. Here, by request, is me performing D'Angelo's "One Mo'Gin" in my soon-to-be-former bedroom.


 
Hit the jump for a different video of me performing Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better". ALSO my continuing ranking of James Bond movies and theme songs as I watch/hear them. Only Quantum of Solace to go!

Slabtown! Bond Bond Bond!

Today I go to the IPRC and hopefully complete the inserts for the CDs. Then they can be mailed out and completed and I won't have to think about them no more. Plus tonight The Robinson Age is playing our only show with the lineup of me, Jeff and Kyle at Slabtown. After this is behind me I can do the covers I promised folks and gear up to relocate Mudlust HQ to Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, my travels through James Bond in film continue. In retrospect Dr. No rises in my estimation after watching the fine but off-brand Never Say Never Again and remembering how iconic Sean Connery really is in the role. Octopussy is easily the most ridiculous Bond so far, putting 007 in a clown costume and a gorilla costume and having him swing through the air on vines while giving a Tarzan yell. I still have little love for fan-favorites Thunderball and You Only Live Twice but A View to a Kill, despite having Grace Jones and Christopher Walken as villains sits below them thanks to being boring, Roger Moore being 57 years old and a scene where James Bond is hanging from a zeppelin by a rope and he hits his groin on a building's radio antenna. Meanwhile, Timothy Dalton's sour-faced saddo take on Bond earns The Living Daylights a demerit, but he is the right age and the action sequence that ends with a cargo plane crashing into an Afghan mountain is really stunning.

1. Goldfinger (Connery)
2. From Russia with Love (Connery)
3. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Lazenby)
4. The Spy Who Loved Me (Moore)
5. Dr. No (Connery)
6. For Your Eyes Only (Moore)
7. Live and Let Die (Moore)
8. The Living Daylights (Dalton)
9. Never Say Never Again (Connery) 
10. Diamonds are Forever (Connery)
11. Octopussy (Moore)
12. Thunderball (Connery)
13. You Only Live Twice (Connery)
14. A View to a Kill (Moore)
15. The Man with the Golden Gun (Moore)
16. Moonraker (Moore)

And my my revised list of the best Bond theme songs. "Moonraker" switches places with "Diamonds Are Forever" because it's more fun to sing "Where aaaare yoooouu?" than "Forever and ever and ever!!" "The Living Daylights" by a-ha and Duran Duran's classic "A View to a Kill" dance into the fire on their way towards the top and Lani Hall's "Never Say Never Again" sinks to the bottom. Only Madonna's "Die Another Day" can surpass it's awfulness.

1. Goldfinger - Shirley Bassey
2.  Nobody Does it Better - Carly Simon
3. The Living Daylights - a-ha
4. A View to a Kill - Duran Duran
5. Live and Let Die - Paul McCartney and Wings
6. Thunderball - Tom Jones
7. From Russia with Love - Matt Monro
8. You Only Live Twice - Nancy Sinatra
9. On Her Majesty's Secret Service - John Barry
10. For Your Eyes Only - Sheena Easton
11. All Time High - Rita Coolidge
12. Moonraker - Shirley Bassey
13. The Man with the Golden Gun - Lulu
14. Diamonds Are Forever - Shirley Bassey
15. Never Say Never Again - Lani Hall

Progress Report, Day 32: Cold House, Warm Puss

Getting closer and closer. We're heating our old, drafty house/studio solely with electric space heaters which means once you get a room cozy you don't want to leave or even open the door. I've been holed up stamping, painting, coding and burning the CDs to get them ready to go out to stores. In the picture above Missy has secreted herself in my coat to try and stay warm while I finish up a stack of One Got Fat copies. Once I finish burning an edition of OGF and First Issues / Care all that will need doing is the formatting and printing of the inserts and the stamping of the CDs themselves (I bought some gold ink which is made to stay on glass and plastic - I hope the fact that the plastic is hot and spinning in a CD player won't cause any disastrous state change to it).

To keep my mind occupied while my hands are busy I've been watching every James Bond film in sequential order. Right now Missy and I are cuddling up to play For Your Eyes Only. So far my list of best Bond films from best to worst in order of personal preference is as follows:

1. Goldfinger (Connery)
2. From Russia with Love (Connery)
3. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Lazenby)
4. The Spy Who Loved Me (Moore)
5. Live and Let Die (Moore)
6. Dr. No (Connery)
7. Diamonds are Forever (Connery)
8. Thunderball (Connery)
9. You Only Live Twice (Connery)
10. The Man with the Golden Gun (Moore)
11. Moonraker (Moore)

And my list of the best Bond theme songs is as follows (not counting the actual James Bond theme and Louis Armstrong's "We Have All the Time in the World" cuz that's kinda it's own thing):

1. Goldfinger - Shirley Bassey
2.  Nobody Does it Better - Carly Simon
3. Live and Let Die - Paul McCartney and Wings
4. Thunderball - Tom Jones
5. From Russia with Love - Matt Monro
6. You Only Live Twice - Nancy Sinatra
7. On Her Majesty's Secret Service - John Barry
8. Diamonds are Forever - Shirley Bassey
9. The Man with the Golden Gun - Lulu (stupidest Bond song but memorable)
10. Moonraker - Shirley Bassey (just as inane/meaningless but less memorable)

Progress Report, Day 15: Monkey Break Two

I dropped the artwork for First Issues/Care off at the printers today. Once that's done and the barcodes are printed up I'm going to start putting the packaging together. The first round of stamps came in the mail but I only have gold and silver ink to test them with. Still, it's exciting to get a stamp of yourself. More and more this is looking like a viable thing.

Plus I've been slowly doling out Kickstarter prizes. The only prizes I'm sleeping on is the YouTube covers of songs, mostly because I'm afraid just recording them on my still camera will look and sound chintzy and stupid. My perfectionism won't let that kind of thing stand so I'm putting it off until all of the album art components come and I can give the songs my full attention.

One Got Fat is also coming along. The recording is 95% done. If I get it completed and mastered I could be pressing two CDs this winter, which is really rad. Here's the first mockup of art for it. Depending on how I feel about the rubber stamping process with FI/C I might make a series of monkey-face stamps for it but we'll see. I like the colors on this so I might make it an insert:

Progress Report, Day 12: Monkey Break

As of today almost everything is ordered. Hopefully all of the supplies are en route to my house and I'll be able to start assembling CDs ASAP. Tonight, though, I'm watching old Universal horror movies and sketching art for One Got Fat, the new album. Here's a taste: