Since the band is taking on new people all at once, I thought I’d post a general message to my bandmates, with any luck covering everything they want to know in a mildly entertaining fashion.

Let’s see where we are right now: “Sellafield”—which was the final song for the previous project—was released the first week in January. Hock and I are finishing up “College Street” which needs vocal, possibly new effects and final mix. I’ve recorded vocals (because Marty told me to “sing the hell out of it”) but if they don’t work he may do them—or he may tag one of the new Monkeys.

George currently sort of in-between home studio spaces, having discombobulated his home studio and not quite yet being to the point of combobulating it again. (Something you new Monkeys will have to get used to: we make our own vocabulary.) In short, Liquid can still make noise, but probably not as much noise as he’ll be able to make in the future. Likewise, Buzz is a part-time Monkey ’cause he’s found himself in a real-life band and is also still in thrall to his new Harley. At some point we’ll all be up to full speed and the planets will align perfectly and we will rule the world by making beautiful noise all together and at full volume. In the meantime, do what you can whenever you can; encouragement and suggestions are always appreciated even if a particular song isn’t one you’re actively involved with.

Undead Monkey is a collaborative band. The idea was for me to have a band name under which I could make “real” music with lyrics and vocals (which most of my Gymshoes music doesn’t have). However, I’m not comfortable being the only one “writing” songs in Undead Monkey which is one of the reasons I’ve gathered this brilliant (or at the very least creative and twisted) group together. Another reason is that you all can sing and I don’t fancy hearing the sound of my own voice all that often (those of you who have on occasion been subjected to my scratch vocals are probably giving a hearty “Amen!”)

I encourage you to upload any unfinished songs you have to the Undead server and post blog entries about them on the Undead Blog. Since the name of the person posting in the blog isn’t shown on the main page for the Undead Blog, check your name in the categories when you post a new project, so we’ll know who started the project! It’s also nice if you sign your posts.

Discussion and collaboration on the songs happens on the blog in the comments to song threads. Files aren’t linked; we just post the file name, and maybe the directory. Each song has its own directory, though there are also other directories such as FX, ooo-ahh, and Misc where assorted files are stored. FX is self-explanatory. “Oooo-Ahhh” was my Christmas present to Marty, (though all of you may want to dip into it), and Misc is where we’re dropping orphan tracks.

The Ongoing Projects page also has a running list of songs, fragments, and orphan tracks. You can edit the page to post your project name there as well.

Songs are released as they’re finished. The previous batch of songs had a project (aka “album”) name. I suppose after we’ve gotten a few more songs in the works that we’ll pull an album name out of the air and tag the next batch of songs as well. When finished the songs are tagged with credits, license, etc and uploaded to archive.org where they can be downloaded or streamed. Full credits are posted there. (And I do mean “full”: check out the credits for the Christmas message.) Full liner notes (in addition to credits) are posted on the Undead website.

About licensing: we use what I call the “don’t screw with the music” CC license. It requires attribution, allows no derivitives (that includes putting it to video), and the songs can only be used non-commercially. In short, downloading, listening and file sharing is OK, but nothing else is allowed without permission from the Monkey. Archive.org allows us to tag every song or project with the appropriate license.

Browse the Undead Blog. If you have any questions just ask. All of us collab well together and get on well together. Let’s make good music and have a good time!

I’m looking forward to hearing what we come up with in 2007!

Gym

Buzzingstrings is going to join us as a part-time Monkey. ‘Tis a far better thing that the Monkey be buzzed at least part of the time than none of the time.   You’re always welcome here with the Undead, Buzz!

Gymshoes

We have an new Monkey: Liquidnoise! Welcome to the Undead.

Gymshoes

We’ve now got a sticker and tee with our new Undead artwork. Check it out at the CafePress Undead Monkey shop!

Have a good weekend!

Gymshoes

“The Sellafield Bakery” has finally been released! This is the final song for the Life and Death project. The songs can be downloaded here. (A new browser window will open.) You can read the full liner notes for this song—as well as the others in this collection—and add comments on the project page on this site, or add the comments on the archive.org download page.

For the past few days I’ve been working on reorganizing the site—in addition to implementing the new theme and header. (Thanks Marty!) Everything is still here! I’ve just consolidated things to make the site easier to navigate, less cluttered and better organized. Whereas before we had liner notes on both the Download page and on individual song pages, now we have all the liner notes for each project on a single page—and links on the Download page instead of reams of redundant text. The Download page was too long…and would have become unmanageable with many more songs added. Likewise, the sidebar was OK with only 4 or 5 songs listed, but what about when we’ve released a dozen—or two dozen? The reorg gives us room to grow. The Download page is now compact and concise, with everything you want hear/read listed and linked by project.

What about individual songs? Well, songs we’re working on will still be listed on the Ongoing Projects page and in the Undead blog. Any songs we release that aren’t yet assigned to some named project will get their own temporary page until we slot them into an album/project.

Look around the site, familiarize yourself with the new layout. We’ve got one more song on the Life And Death project that will be released this week. Look for new songs we’ll be working on to be posted here soon, too!

Gymshoes