Category: News

Earlier this week both Cory and I had conversations with Jeremy Buckley of The Daily Nebraskan. Read the full article here (or the plain text here).

“The economics of working with the old system were stressful and overwhelming, and it was starting to make music not fun,” said Howard, the label’s curator. “We figured why not just offer the music for download on the Internet and cut out the money end, so that’s what we did.”

…Music files can be downloaded in either MP3 format or listened to online in a streaming format with a Flash media player. Of the label’s 21 releases, 12 have been downloaded more than 1,000 times through the archive, with Shacker’s “The Dimly Lit Room” garnering the most so far with more than 3,600 grabs…

Congratulations, Cory and Lara, whose marriage we celebrate today. I’m very happy I get to play the music at the ceremony, and that it includes some Elliott Smith.

5*C played our last show for the forseeable future Thursday night in Lawrence at the Replay Lounge. Thank you, friends who came out in person and in spirit. This is a very real ending; yet it is not final. Does that parse? I don’t have words for this. I will miss Joel and the regular opportunitty to perform. There will be a pilot light for this band burning in me, ready to leap into flame when the possibility presents itself.

MFR will release Katherine Lindhart’s “The Humble Antiphon,” a collection of nine art songs by Clara Schumann and Claude Debussy from her two Masters’ recitals, as soon as possible this week. Robot, Creep Closer!’s 4-song farewell EP will follow it by precisely four weeks, and then the 2007 version of XMAS in another four.

I am very excited for Katy’s project; I’ve been listening to it this weekend not for the technical bits of the end of the mastering process, but for simple pleasure. It’s a very different sound for MFR, but I strongly feel that it belongs here and I’ll be honored to bring it to you. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have. -h

It’s been an exciting couple of weeks at MFR, and our fall/winter is looking busy.  I’ll outline the new music we’re working on.

Katy Lindhart – Untitled.  Katy is a friend of mine and up-and-coming opera singer.  She burned me a disc of my favorite material from her recitals over the past two years, and we’re going to release nine art songs; three by Clara Schumann and six by Debussy.  Art songs occupy sonic territory that’s entirely new to MFR, and I can’t wait to bring you Katy’s work for its’ own sake, and also because this kind of music has been such a part of my life since moving to Kansas City.  I’m going to master the songs and have it out ASAP.

The Combine – Untitled EP.  I’m mastering Nick and Lane’s hip-hop project, and we’re also in fruitful talks about putting out an EP on MFR that combines a couple exclusive tracks with a few songs from their record.  Again, new sounds and new friends; this is what MFR is supposed to be!

Robot, Creep Closer! – Untitled EP.  The crew has recorded a four-track goodbye that we anticipate will be released on MFR.

Mr. Furious Records – XMAS and Sally M/S Ride – You Have To Wear the Boots.  I hope to have year three of XMAS out immediately after Thanksgiving and Boots at New Year’s.  I’ve been talking with Scott Morris, who’s cruising the Carribean playing jazz on a boat, about how to involve him in XMAS once again.

My priority in 2008 will finally be Ventura, my record of colorful acoustic pop and the mainstay of my current live sets, along with constant effort on Five Star Crush. -howie

Permalink via the Lincoln Journal-Star

By ALEX HAUETER / Lincoln Journal Star

Friday, May 04, 2007 – 02:54:41 am CDT

A career in music is hard, and getting started can be expensive, so Cory Kibler is in it to just enjoy himself. In fact, he has no problem just giving away the fruits of his labor.

Although the recording industry and established artists have objected to the spread of music online, the Internet has been a valuable tool for up-and-coming musicians to share their work. Kibler and his friend, producer C. Howie Howard, who works with local bands Skink, Robot, Creep Closer! and the Killigans, have taken that to another level.

The two friends started Mr. Furious Records in September 2004. In the label’s short history, it has released 19 albums.

Without pressing a single CD.

Mr. Furious Records takes advantage of the Creative Commons Public License to release its artists’ work for free online. The label was born out of a need for artists to be able to get their music out there without losing money.

“We felt it would make music a lot more fun if we took the monetary aspect out of it,” Kibler said.

Kibler, the frontman of Robot, Creep Closer!, used to play around Southeast Nebraska in a band called Shacker, but said it was frustrating to spend money on studio time and CDs that people weren’t interested in.

Howard has faced the same problem.

“The economics of selling music on CDs got stressful,” he said. Bands will often pay for 1,000 CDs but sell only 200 or 300 and barely manage to break even.

Something had to give, and the idea for the low-overhead Mr. Furious was born.

Howard runs the label from his home in Kansas City, Mo., pays about $160 per year for Web hosting and uses recording and mixing equipment he already owns for his for-profit work with artists.

Starting a Web label is something anyone could do, he said.

“Somebody could do it for a couple hundred bucks with a four-track machine,” he said.

Despite the label’s low cost and the free exchange of music it allows, Kibler stressed that the contributing musicians — mostly friends from the Midwest and his old home in California — all take it seriously.

“We want the recordings to be studio quality and the songs to be totally legit,” he said.

Howard added that the downloads are all variable bit rate mp3 files, which makes them of equal or better quality than music purchased from sites like iTunes.

Kibler’s new CD, “The Silent Woods,” will be Mr. Furious’ 20th release, and he’s celebrating Wednesday with a release party at Duffy’s Tavern. To keep with the spirit of Mr. Furious, he’ll be giving away copies of the CD, which consists of nine original folk songs he’s written over the past three years and recorded this winter.

For Robot, Creep Closer! fans, the release party will offer a look at Kibler’s mellower side. In his solo work, he attempts to tell stories that his listeners will relate to rather than being highly personal.

“The solo songs are so much more mellow, and not just because it’s acoustic guitar and vocals,” he said. “In Robot, Creep Closer! we’re all about being ridiculous. We try to put on a show so that people will be into us even if they don’t like all our songs.”

Reach Alex Haueter at 473-7254 or at ahaueter@journalstar.com .

Mr. Furious Records and Lone Prairie Records will partner to release Cory Kibler’s new album The Silent Woods online May 9th.  Cory’s release show is at Duffy’s in Lincoln, NE that night with Gene Hogan and Dan Jenkins.

Lone Prairie has recently posted a six-song EP by Last Leg (Jeff Iwanski of Honey Stump), and is exploring further possibilities for online releases.

“We’re interested in reaching the most people possible with Cory’s record.  The partnership between MFR and LPR is a great step along that path.  This is our third point of contact, after Robot, Creep Closer!’s EP and album and the Killers in the Nebraska Territory comp, and I don’t expect it will be the last.

“In the mid- to long-term, we also expect an increase in web traffic to our sites.  Releasing music freely under Creative Commons license is obviously a viable artistic model; I believe it also has the potential to be a viable business model for bands and collectives, who can give their music away and survive on shows, t-shirts, and added-value releases such as DVDs.” -howie

After The Silent Woods, MFR’s next scheduled release is Sally M/S Ride’s You Have To Wear the Boots, an album of cowboy songs in one act by Cory and howie.

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

…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.