MR sampler, Images, Artists Page

All of the above have been updated this week.  Check out MR | sampler first – click the link over to your right.  Because who was downloading our semi-official mixtape, now nineteen tracks strong as an introduction to MFR?!  Preposterous.  Stream that instead, and hone in on the albums you’re likely to like.

I have been meaning to change the “Images” page to a blog category for awhile, and just did it.  All the same stuff is there, but it should make me more likely to do more in the future.  I should make us a Photobucket account or something too, move them all there.

Also updated the “Artists” page.  Needed it.

If it’s been awhile, or if you haven’t gotten around to hearing some of the old stuff, really check out MR | sampler, it’s fun.  -h

Streaming and meta-news

Hit the music section and enjoy the new streaming capability for all MFR releases.  These changes will propegate through to our MySpace page over the next week or so.  We’ll also be updating each release with more detailed album credits.

In the back of my mind is still a revitalized “MR|signal” which would be a flash-based audio player that randomly shuffled songs from our entire catalog together.  It’s been on the shelf for six months or so; if anyone has tips about anything new, I’d love to hear about it.

News has been kind of sparse; with the new WordPress-based site design, I’m finding that most of what I want to say is on the [blog], and new releases are pretty obvious without making mention on this little out-of-the-way news page.  It mostly covers website-related news and events relating to the community as a whole (such as adding a new artist to MFR, etc.).  That’s the word on that.

XMAS is out, but I’m holding back on email/MySpace until archive.org gets the low-fi and streaming files squared away.  Merry Christmas, -h

This is How Bad…

…I am about birthdays.  I missed ours.

September 21, 2004, 1:09 PM CST – www.mrfuriousrecords.com launched.  It took our “bestest”* fan to remind me that we’re two years old (and a couple weeks more).

18 releases in 24 months; I’m pretty proud of that.  My personal highlights include The Dimly Lit Room, Creepy Eepy, “Lunch By Yourself,” A Wind I Can Lean Into, and Don’t Let Them Take Us… ALIVE!. 

And there’s much more to come.  My guitars for It’s A Trap are over half done, and sound pretty damn rocking.  Cory and I are working on a folk-song split release.  Someday I’ll have a blues band with E-rock from 5*C.  And Ventura is always on the horizon.

Thanks first for listening, second for reading, and third for sharing our music with your friends.  Thanks for being a part of this expiriment of “what happens when we give our best work, our greatest love, away?!”  Here’s what I want for our birthday; wherever you are, celebrate somehow – with this sentence I give you the go-ahead. 

I’m going to have cookie dough for lunch.  SEE YOU-

-h

*self-proclaimed.  Thanks, Mom.

Hey Indie Kids

New site design!  What do you think?

I’ve been planning this update for a couple months.  Got up this morning and realized I had a huge chunk of day to put towards it, so I did, expecting to get a solid start and move back to the previous design when I was done working.  But it’s gone fast – I’m not finished, but I’m going to leave the new look up and just run with it.

I think the content is organized better (music on the left, body in the middle, navigation on the right) and I really like highlighting our newest album on every page.  It screams “Download this puppy, you really need to hear it!” (to me, at least).

Next post next week; I hope to have h&s’ Summer’s End EP up!

Listening to: jazz, Probot, Kara’s Flowers, Tangelo.  -h

howie&scott, Sally Ride News

Word from Furious Sound studios is that Murder Ballad mastering for the upcoming Lone Prairie Records compilation (featuring Cory and howie!) is going strong and should be done in a week or so.

howie&scott recorded their five sets with various iterations of the Plattsmouth Middle School band last Friday, and will be releasing Summer’s End in October.  The band is in the process of going through the material and selecting cuts for the EP/album.  Early frontrunners include “New Title (berlin),” “Tired Chords,” “Houston,” and “E Morning.”

Cory Kibler is on-board with Sally Ride’s in-progress It’s A Trap, and tracking will begin at an undisclosed location when murder ballads and h&s are finished.

Hopefully, we can do all that before XMAS.  Then Ventura.  Looks like a busy school year for all of us.  Stay tuned – thanks for listening!  -h

howie&scott REUNION – Sept. 1

On Friday, Sept. 1, howie and Scott will reunite for APE’s S.ummer’s E.nd X.travaganza at Doane College in Crete, NE – Cassell Outdoor Theatre, along with Robot, Creep Closer!

Help us write our setlist – leave a comment below!

After years of drug abuse, on-stage meltdowns, terrible comeback albums, sleeping with our band managers, disturbing-the-peace arrests and trashing hotel rooms worldwide, howie and Scott are back together and will be in fine rocking shape.  Don’t miss us.  We’ve missed you!

Bike News

Nate asked me to post this for you guys.  I’m heartbroken, but it sounds like there is hope for more Nate-music.  -h

—-

This message is to thank all the people who have listened to and supported Bike during the past several years since Bike’s inception. The happiest moments I’ve had writing music as Bike came during collaborations with friends, and being able to share my music with whomever wanted to listen. There is however, a time and a place, and this time and place tells me it is time to close out Bike.

Admittedly, my audience is small. I have garnered no accolades. There is no six record contract in the works. My music has never been about viability or commercial success. I simply wanted to create music for music’s sake. In that light, I believe I’ve been successful.

What do we talk about, when we talk about success? I hope that you listeners have been able to form some connection to my songs. This can be challenging when 80% of my music is instrumental; so I praise your patience. When I talk about success (brace yourself for clichés), I talk about creating a bond with the listener. Do you remember your low points in life when music seemed to save you? I hope you, the reader, have experienced this at least once in your life. Music is innate in us. The earliest people sang melodies to celebrate spirituality, love, and to re-tell their lives. In my own way, Bike has been about telling a story, albeit through clicks and pops and strums. The above is how I define success. I hope you understand.

I digress. I feel this farewell is narrowly avoiding becoming a long-winded diatribe on the ethics of music. I just want to once again thank the loyal listeners out there, and the people who have supported bike and the cause. YOU are a special breed.

I do plan to keep the bike myspace page up occasionally posting songs here and there, but nothing comprehensive. So I wave my hand in the air as I wheel Bike into the sunset. Envision F-16s leaving red, white, and blue sky trails as the music is queued and all fades to black. Thank you again and be golden my friends!

-Nathan Driver / Bike

May News: Axeface, Iris Ave, Ventura

NEW MUSIC – Check out Church Photo Directory starring: Benjamin Axeface’s first EP ever, We Have Uh-Oh.  Cory Alan, James, and Annie (and howie) are super-proud of their debut work.  ALSO PEEP – “Disagree” from Iris Avenue on Furious Instance (to your left & pink).  This track was played live at the KDNE “Core FM” radio studios, transmitted across the “inter-net,” captured and mastered by howie and is now available.

With our April/May blitz of Axeface, Robot Creep Closer!, and echoes’ …Lone Wolf complete, we are back in creating-mode.  R,CC! is talking studio time with various Lincoln engineers/producers and at least one local record label.  echoes and Cory are putting finishing touches on the Ventura songs, and will begin recording drums and percussion very very soon at an undisclosed location (and you can preview tiny album artwork in the top-right corner of this page!).  It is rumored that howie is planning 12 Ventura shows in the 12 months following the album’s release.  Bike is mysterious, but probably recording 10,000 new songs for you to hear.

There you have it.  Enjoy the new music and SUMMER’S COMING; SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND STRANGERS!  LOVE!  -Mr. Furious

Pieces of News

Robot, Creep Closer!’s new EP Why Aren’t People’s Heads Exploding? was released yesterday – download four songs of slurred, riffy bar-metal from Lincoln’s leading purveyors of anthropomorphized computers today!

mrfuriousrecords.com has been through a slight technical/aesthetic upgrade this morning relating to the navigation links to your right in the sidebar, and the background “album covers” image.  The changes are aimed at make the site a bit cleaner – enjoy.

After four attempts at sending a message through the email list yesterday and today, FuriousMail seems mysteriously down.  Hopefully no one misses R,CC!’s EP or their show Saturday night at Duffy’s for Scenefest because of the problem.  Our analysts will continue working on it.

One last bit, Cory Alan and I have been listening to a nearly-finished disc of Ventura demos, and the tracklist is below.  I am itching to start tracking percussion, as soon as I decide what location I can use.  We’re about 99.4% sure this is what the album will be:

1. Large’s Garden State
2. Coast & Plains
3. While I Was Moving About Flyover Country
4. You Do What You Want
5. Car Chase
6. Lee’s Summit
7. Were In Love
8. Market Stress
9. I Want To Know
10. Make Our Sound
11. E. Harbor Blvd.
—-
Speed Lab (Furious Instance exclusive)

I’ll be playing “Make Our Sound” for the first time at St. Peter’s on Sunday with Stillsinging, if you’re in the neighborhood.  -h

 

Tonight the Lone Wolf Rides

Hello.  It’s been awhile!

We have released echoes’ Tonight the Lone Wolf Rides Alone, 10 solo acoustic tracks of howie’s covering his 2 EPs, new songs, and covers from the JV All*stars, Blacklight Sunshine (aka More Than Yesterday), Shacker, and the Foo Fighters (“A320” is limited to 50 copies because of licensing, so download yours asap!).

An out-take from the Lone Wolf sessions is new on Furious Instance; # 9 “Coast & Plains” from the upcoming Ventura album with Cory.  Also pick up # 8, which never made the front page – Cory telling a crazy story, accidentally caught on tape during the November 05 Benjamin Axeface sessions.

As if that weren’t enough…  we’ll be back in two weeks with the debut from Robot, Creep Closer!  And two weeks after that, the long-awaited Church Photo Directory Starring: Benjamin Axeface EP!!!111 Check the [blog] every week for continued cobwebs & musical musings!  We had a great time in California!  See you-

-Mr. Furious

(h)