mrfuriousrecords.com – Dharmic *DUBS* out now!!

Month: August 2010

  • Site construction update

    Hey, all – it’s one thing after another with building the new mrfuriousrecords.com, but I’m making progress, and learning a ton.  Every thing I want to do, I find out there’s three other things I have to do *first.*

    But it’s (mostly) working at this point, so as soon as the theme looks decent enough, and I can import all the current content, I think we’ll go ahead and go live.

    Musically, we’re continuing to slowly mix and record vocals for Exploder Mode, and I heard this week from Greg (White Air); he’s working on a new release, and we may well collaborate with him on that again.

    -h

    h

  • MR|Review – Jed Whedon, "History of Forgotten Things"

    Whedon’s quirky, warm indie-pop is recommended if you like the Shins, Imogen Heap, or The Postal Service, though Jed’s album is more theatrical (in a good way!) and diverse than any of those groups.  (Stream 3 tunes here, including the incredible “Tricks On Me,” which drew me in to the record.)

    Whedon.jpg Must-hear!
    Recommended
    Good
    Fans only
    Skip this
    Owww! My ears!

    UPDATE 19-Aug: As I listen to the record at least once a day, the word that comes to me is “compelling.”  It’s got hooks, yeah, but it’s got something more that keeps pulling me back.  Beautiful.

    Vocal melodies and performances, and production, are “History…”‘s strengths.  I hang on this album’s words in a way I only rarely do, and the lyrics are supported by a strongly identifiable melodic voice and instrumental sounds and arrangements that give each song its own vibe.  Whedon covers a lot of territory, too, from the spacey “Ancestors” to the soft alt-country vibe of “Tricks…”.  Each tune has a sprinkle of wonderful little sonic details; even different sections of songs are jumping out to me after repeat listens (like the bridge in “To Be Money”).

    A couple songs feature drum fade-ins that highlight the GarageBand-ness of the whole project and forgo the opportunity to make higher-impact entrances, but you may well find that endearing instead of how it mildly disappoints a structure-nerd like me.  For future tours and/or recordings, a live drummer (hi!) could add another dimension of rhythmic and dynamic variation to Jed’s tunes.  The drum programming is good overall, and there are some nice touches, so I assume Jed got what he wanted out of whatever tool he used; I just would have made some slightly different choices in that department.

    “History…” bears its relationship to the rest of the Whedonverse – “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog” and “Commentary! the Musical,” “Dollhouse,” Felicia Day (who shows up on violin here), Maurissa Tancharoen, and brother Joss – lightly.  Previous encounters with this network of artists may add to your appreciation of the album, but are not at all prerequisite. -h

    MR|Review directs readers’ limited attention among works via ratings, and within works via prose, focusing on works where our opinion diverges from critical or popular consensus, or we have significant insight that compliments or challenges readers’ aesthetic experience.
    h

  • Finest Worksong

    I finally listened to the “Document” LP I picked up over a month ago, not realizing that one of my favorite R.E.M. songs is called “Finest Worksong” and is on that album. Bit by chiming bit, I am becoming an actual R.E.M. fan.

    Some bits & pieces:

    – Had a great session yesterday doing a full mixing pass on “You Have To Wear The Boots.” Cleaned up the big concerns from the most recent mix, and made several small but good changes to the overall sound – cleaner drums, clearer vocals – that I like. I’m ready for Tim’s flute and Tara’s voice (as The Knight).

    – Unofficially, it sounds like the cast of Khan! The Musical will be coming over in a couple weeks to complete the official soundtrack/original cast recording. Very cool.

    – If you saw the new site up for a few minutes earlier tonight, I was testing the functionality of using facebook accounts to log in to the new site. (A feature that may be more important to the Exploder Mode site I’m planning than MFR, but we’ll see.) With CA’s help, it was successful.

    h