Posts Tagged ‘Album’

Upcoming Projects — Solo Album, Markovs, and Dr. Horrible Covers

Monday, September 26th, 2011

First, I’ve finally resumed work on my new album. It’s tentatively titled From the Big Sky to the Rainy One, and I will probably finish it by the spring of 2011. I’ve narrowed down the song list to about ten, and I know a few more will pop up as I work on the others. It looks like it’s going to be more folk-influenced than inside, and I think this time the political songs will be kept to a minimum. That’s the same thing I said about the last album, though.

I’m also working on a new album from the Markovs, which is going to be straight-ahead punk rock (as opposed to the pop-punk of the Suckers). This record is a bit further along in development than the solo album… I have about five tracks laid town and nearly all of the songs are written, though not yet finalized. I’m looking to finish this one before the end of the year, if at all possible.

Finally, as kind of a fun thing, I’m working on a full-album cover of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. I’m going to employ my friends for the different parts, and if I can find enough singers I won’t even be providing vocals at all. It’s harder than it sounds to cast the three main parts (Dr. Horrible, Penny, and Captain Hammer) because apparently I don’t know any altos or tenors. I might need to ‘go public’ with it and find some singers on Reddit, for example. Despite the complications, one nice thing about this will be that I can create karaoke tracks by removing.the vocals. I’m working on this in parallel to the albums mentioned above.

It’s a lot on my plate, so I’m sure things will slip. As I get closer to finishing each project I’ll start nailing down official release dates.

Fifth Christmas Album

Saturday, October 16th, 2010

I’ve started ‘pre-production’ on my fifth Christmas album, which is as of yet untitled. Every year since 2006, I’ve recorded a Christmas album as a gift for my mom. She’s really into Christmas, and I suppose I am, too. My parents’ house is ridiculously decorated the weekend after Thanksgiving, and it looks wonderful every year. Carrie gets a little sad because she says I disappear for the last few months of the year to work on the album. Actually, I’ve been getting better at getting these records recorded — two years ago I finished it on Christmas Eve, and last year I was done in time to FedEx it to my parents before Christmas. These albums are fun to make but slightly detrimental to my discography because they’re almost entirely covers, and usually more than half are encumbered by copyrights that prevent me from sharing them without worrying about paying royalties.

Right now I’ve got two tracks arranged, a cover of “Chiron Beta Prime” by Jonathan Coulton and a cover of “Merry Christmas, Here’s to Many More” by Relient K. I’ve chosen most of the songs that will be on this record. I’m in no dangers of running out of tracks. Even after four albums, I’ve got a pool of about 100 songs that should last me for at least the next seven albums (at fourteen tracks a pop). And I never said I wouldn’t record new versions of songs.

Christmas always starts way early for me because of these albums. I even start listening to Christmas music (for inspiration) before Christmas merchandise appears on store shelves, if you can believe it. I’ll probably post one or two tracks as Christmas approaches. Obviously I’ll select them from the carols or other public-domain works I cover. There’s also one original song on each album, so I’m sure I’ll post that one, too.

In the meantime, enjoy the lull in Christmas ads, which would have started appearing on TV, if not for the fact that it’s an election year. On second thought, I guess the political ads might not be an improvement.