Spring Has Sprung?/"E For Everyone" Now Available On Pre-Order! Issue #142

What a great weekend it was in the Northwest! This past weekend Seattle residents were reminded why we all live here despite the need to pump Vitamin D in the water supply. Working on that I am. The mountains were out, hardly a cloud in the sky, and the unusually horrible weekend traffic was a constant reminder that everyone was taking advantage of the sun while we could get it. I myself also took advantage speeding around the city from Edmonds to Golden Gardens to West Seattle to Carkeek Park. The gas man was happy and I like to think he enjoyed the glass of lemonade he had on his Texas estate the next morning courtesy of me.



I also house sat my good neighbor friends dog "Suki" last week so that was fun to get Logi some company other my boring ass around the house. She's a Shiba Inu so she's basically the complete opposite energy level of Logan and when they're together they look like Disney's "The Fox And The Hound". Also, they're in love. Love not without drama and passion mind you as you can see from the video below. Its like WWIII every time they're together. Craziness I say. Also, the path of my dog's destruction was furthered by him demolishing a Lemon Meringue pie I had set on the floor backseat of my car after leaving him for 4 minutes. Never before. It's time for an intervention...






Jim and I got a very nice response last week to our debut of "On And On", the first offering from the 3/9 release of the new KK album, E FOR EVERYONE. It's always a strange thing to put new work out there that you've been keeping quiet for some time but always super fun and breathes new life into it. I've heard the songs hundreds of times between writing and recording the album but I always need to remind myself no one else has. It's cool to be able to finally share something and even cooler when you see others get excited. Makes me feel very lucky to do what I do! This week we put the album up for Pre-order at www.kirbykracklemusic.com for those who want to be the first to receive the album. Yesterday I was thinking how different the whole process was compared to when I used to sell cassettes...maybe I should try that again? Throwback night!

Below is an excerpt from the posting up today at the KK website. Every week starting this week until the day of the release we'll be sharing the titles of the songs and the subject matter for the fanboys and fangirls to get ramped up about and excited for. Read on! Also, pictures below are outtakes from the KK photo shoot in November...method acting for beginners?




VAULT 101

We're obsessed with the game FALLOUT 3. It's obsessed with us. How do we know? Well it seemed for days, and weeks, and months in a row whenever we had down time after traveling to conventions and writing/recording it called to us like the ring of Sauron. Most of the time it made us turn the lights down low, the volume up high, and open a Victory Brewing Company "Storm King Stout" to devour while blasting mutants with our mighty shotgun. Yep, that game tastes like that beer till the day we die. Anyone relate? It was a no-brainer that we needed to write a song professing our love for the hours of enjoyment the game has given us and we did just that. In fact, it was the first song written of the new batch and we love it. The chorus speaks of "In a world gone mad I gotta believe, I gotta believe it's getting better" relating to the experience of leaving the safety of Vault 101 in the game, and also relating to how we choose to deal with stress in this life. Hope and belief reign above all in the human spirit and for a game and song whose lyrics have Raiders, an atom bomb, and a hard working Pip-Boy scattered throughout, we find it's no exception.

"Vault 101! Vault 101! I've seen the lights, I've seen the lights of Megaton"...


ON AND ON

Our song about and from the perspective of an overworked, overly committed Wolverine. (See last week's post for description).


SECRET IDENTITY

Ok, hands raised for who DOESN'T want to be a super hero?! Yeah we thought so, and guy in the back with the hand up put it down cause the Old Spice ain't working. Now that that's done, SECRET IDENTITY is a weezer-esque light-hearted but heavy in spirit declaration from a guy who's more than any of us working for the weekend. Why? Well, when he's done buying tile at Target and after tucking his kids into bed he's a vigilante jumping rooftops and trying not to die in the process. Inspired by The Incredibles, Millar's "Kick Ass", and our own overwhelming urge to roam the streets delivering the KK brand of justice; SECRET IDENTITY hopes to speak to the inner crime fighter in all of us. Worth getting shot and the embarrassment of having your friends bail you out in a bright yellow costume? TOTALLY.

"Secret Identity, and nobody knows but me...patrolling the city streets...my ears to the ground..."



ROLL OVER

Started and mapped out to the surrounding passengers dismay on a the tarmac leaving Fan Expo in Toronto last year, ROLL OVER is the sister song to last year's "Marvelous Girls". First we gotta back up a bit...
A few years ago, there was a period of about six months where many of the big rap hits on the charts had something to do with a nursery rhyme as the hook in the chorus (A la Jay-Z's "Hardknock Life"). During this time of public domain inspired catchy hookery, Kyle swore up and down that someone soon would do a song using the childrens song "Roll Over" and instead of the lyric being "10 in the bed and the little one said "Roll Over! Roll Over!"...", it would be "10 in the bed and the Asian one said..." or "10 in the bed and they white girl said...", and etc. The play on the famous nursery rhyme seemed an obvious declaration of a rap artist's always important to describe sexual-prowess and he was shocked when no one snatched the idea up that seemed to hang so freely in the ether. Fast forward to last summer 2009 when we started writing E4E and the idea came up again only this time we instead of "white girls/asian girls" we were inspired to write about "Fraggle girls/Thudercat girls/Amazon girls". Also, no pressure was felt of convincing others of our sexual prowess, mostly cause we're horrible. Not impressive. Basically, the Cuckoo girls gave us six-thumbs down.
The song layered with 808's and Dr. Dre-esque production hopes to leave you with the feeling that you've just spent the night with 10 cartoon girls at the bar at the end of the world. The song also marks the first time we've ever had a rap artist spit 12-bars on tape for us before. We turned to GMK THE GREAT our boy L.A. who was kind enough to take time out of his schedule and let us fly him up to lay down one of the sickest odes to cartoon girls we've ever heard. Yes, we've memorized the rap. No, you don't want to hear us do it...

"Final call came, there were shots all around with the Gummi Bear juice and the Getafix potion...feeling all right we broke into the night, Dagger had an in on transportation..."



Finally, today KK made a very special announcement that MARVEL COMICS Editor-In-Chief and main man Joe Quesada will be performing with us as a special guest on a few songs at Emerald City Comic Con on March 14th. Joe and KK became friends after visiting the Marvel offices when we released the first album in January 2009. We briefly talked about performing together during our 2nd trip to NYC promoting the album and thankfully it will happen in a few weeks to form a nerd-rock Voltron of the highest order! I'm pumped and if you told me 2 years ago that we'd be rocking with the man in charge of the books we love I'd of said you were high. Strangely, I remember meeting him when I was 11 at a comic shop signing downtown that my dad took me to. It was the first one I had ever attended and I was so nervous to meet an actual artist of the comics I'd spend my entire allowance on. Life is crazy.


See you next week for another song available for listening from E FOR EVERYONE!


Noiche Noiche Noice,

KS

KIRBY KRACKLE Single Debut. Issue #141

This is a good week I'll tell you what! On Tuesday KIRBY KRACKLE debuted our new album cover, but most importantly our new single, "On And On". It's about a week in the life of Marvel Comic's WOLVERINE, and how his week is packed with some crazy adventure everyday until he can relax on Saturday and Sunday. You might a call it a "Working For The Weekend" for the nerd set. For those that don't read comics, the in-joke is that since he is such a hot franchise character and money maker, he is in so many Marvel books that if you lined them up in real time he'd be in 4 places at once. Still, Jim and I love that part of nerd culture and wanted to make a song professing our infatuation. Not about Hugh Jackman though, that's another song on another album...


The song is a riff I had accidentally came up with at a practice for my short lived band COLLIDER last year, and wanted to save it since I knew the band was dissolving. No sense wasting a good thing I felt, and a few months later developed it with Jim in the writing sessions for the soon to be released KK sophomore offering, E FOR EVERYONE. It sounds kinda manic to me in a good way in the verses, and then blooms into Rock-Pop goodness come the chorus. At least, that's what I tried to do and was really pushed in the harmony department by our producer Don Gunn. This record will be the most harmonies I've put down on a set of songs to date, and I'm really encouraged due to the fact I know that our bass player Scott can sing em' strong and true when the live shows come around. Hear the "claw sounds" in right before the first chorus? That was made by taking a set of kitchen knives and "slicing" them together over and over, as well as "tinging" them together. Take about 20 good recordings of each, layer them on top of each other, and then you have Wolvie claw sounds...I love it! You can listen to "On And On" via the player below...






Last weekend my hetero life-mate TJ SHERRILL released his second offering since his 2007 "High Horse EP". The show was at Delille Winery in Woodinville and in usual fashion for one of our CD Release parties where we open for each other, TJ and band asked me to warm up the crowd with a 1/2 hour set. I had a great time playing in a glowy outdoor heated tent with tables and the smell of wine flowing throughout the night, and was extremely proud and happy for my friend and his long awaited new album. The sound marks a new direction for TJ in that though it still carries his signature pop hooks, it also is a bit darker and more layered production wise. It should be on iTunes in a few weeks and I'll be sure to let all know so you can take a listen for yourselves...


On Sunday I went to the musical SOUTH PACIFIC and the 5th Ave Theater for the first time. The music was great, the sets were spectacular, and it had been a long long long time since I had been to a musical. The music was so soothing though that I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. Mix 1 part low lights, 2 parts leads with amazing vibratos, and 3 parts soothing violins and you end up with my Kryptonite. Head bobs wha?! Yeah, it was great though and would recommend it to anyone...and their grandma.



This is Buster. He's 2 months old. He's a yellow lab. He also thought the backs of my knees were dog treats. Needle teeth. Ow.


A quick story that I though was worth sharing if only because the randomness of it all keeps me up at night. Over the weekend I went to Palamino, a nice italian joint in downtown Seattle for dinner. The waiter was a nice guy in his late 30's I'm guessing, not overtly friendly but very professional. He never cracked a smile nor was he ever establishing we had a "jokey vibe" or anything like that. This guy was just doing his job and that was fine. So, the part that is worth telling revolves around when I asked him if he'd please take a picture. He said yes and after handing him my camera he asked if we were ready. I said yes, and then he exclamied "Say Cheese!" followed by the flash. "One more", he said, followed by "Say Shit!", then the flash of the camera. No smile, no wink, handed the camera back and he was off. What? "Say Shit?". I don't know what that means but it was amazing randomness that will warm me the rest of the winter months.

Next week over in KK land we're making the new album available for pre-order so I'll make sure to link that info as well. Also, we'll be running down the track list in description mode next week and leading up until the release on March 9th! Be good!


BOOM-SHAKKA-LAKKA,

KS

Exploning All Weekend. Issue #140

Issue #140? How the hell did that happen? I haven't done 140 of anything during my life. Well, maybe sit-ups if you add them up over all the years. Mid 120's for sure. Hmmmm...

So, this past weekend EXPLONE (Patrick Porter, Scott Andrew, Josh Williams, and myself) went into Studio Litho in Seattle for a weekend of recording Rock N' Roll, photo shoots, video making, and eating a disgusting amount of SUN CHIPS "just cause they were there". Mmmmm...French Onion. Smell that? Yeah, that's my breath yo.

The process of the above mentioned activities took place Friday-Saturday from 12pm-12am and what a concentrated amount of work we got done during that time. Logan was a good studio dog all weekend, the Super Bowl was what it was, and watching too many episodes of "Jailhouse Raw" will make you not want to leave your house for the risk of actually doing something to send you to that nightmare...jeebus. We went in with the goal of finishing the final song on the aimed-for-spring-release sophomore album and me laying down additional guitar parts I had concocted since joining the band last fall. That did happen, but the real magic that went down wasn't planned. Even though the new album hadn't yet been completed, part of being a songwriter is thinking ahead and writing new songs for next.


A few weeks ago Patrick brought in a new song called "King Of The Mist" of which I'm a huge fan and after weeks of bugging him to record it this past weekend like an annoying little cousin, no relenting was in sight and I lost that battle. I've been a FAN way longer than I've been in the band and I can't help it when I get overtly excited for what I know are great songs...someday you'll hear it though! That said, weeks after showing us KOTM he also presented us with another new song, "Michigan". How would I describe it? Hmmmm...

Oh, Yeah.


T H I S S O N G IS T H E S H I T.


The end.


What I'm saying is that is that if I heard this on the radio I would pull over the car and buy it on my iPhone right then. That's how much I believe in this song and after feeling the excitement from the rest of the guys we laid it down this weekend in all it's glory for the new album. A HUGE breath of fresh air for a project that's been in the works for a while and all the hard work the members had been put in before I joined the band. Can't wait for all to hear it and I'm proud to be part of what will be I feel a big leap for the band with this record and fans of guitar rock locally and beyond. Exciting stuff!


Much like the KIRBY KRACKLE recording sessions, a big part of the fun with technology now is including folks on the process. Below you can see how the video shoot went down for the band's song, "St. Yesterday". It's a nice flag ship representation for the rest of the record and after running through the song (not plugged in/singing/but rock moves to full effect) about 12 times we gathered enough footage for director Thor to get something together for promo purposes. It was a blast and also a realization I need to start running again. Damn!


This week KK debuted the Black & White version of our new album cover for E FOR EVERYONE. It was done for us again (like the debut album) by visual badass Jim Mahfood. I love it, and next week at the KK Official site (and here too) we'll show off the final full-color version. We'll also debut the first single from the album and it feels so good to start sharing this stuff! I'm glad cause I'm really bad at secrets, ask anyone who knows me. Wait, that would mean I would have to still have friends around cause of that. Shoot.


Awkward Palm Tree,

KS

Backward Maps And Sweet Finality. Issue #139

First off the new KIRBY KRACKLE album, "E For Everyone" is off to the printers after mastering last week at panicSTUDIOS as of yesterday. We're getting ready for it's release at this years Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle on March 13th and 14th. It's the show KK partner Jim Demonakos runs with his other business partners from The Comic Stop francise and like every year returns better than ever. Big name guests this year include Stan Lee (Creator of Marvel Comics), and Lenord Nimoy (Spock from Star Trek). What better place to release an album with songs from the perspective of vigilantes and about dating Saturday morning Cartoon girls? Yep, my thoughts exactly. Next week I'll be debuting the album cover from "E For Everyone" and start talking about the song's subject matter on our 2nd offering. Woo!





This past weekend I went on a short day trip across the ferry to Vashon Island, a small little island and nice day getaway just outside of West Seattle. Not much town to see but I did get to talk to some really nice little mom and pop shop owners, buy some bees wax candles and sample the local fare. If you get a chance to go make sure you check out "The Hardware Store" eatery in the main downtown area of action. You can't miss it...cause it's only 5 blocks long. Now, I know already that I'm not the best with maps but the "Official" Vashon Island visitor map turned out to be reverse in layout from how it is listed and resulted in me going to the complete other side of the island accidentally and getting kinda lost. I have a witness to this. It was a good kinda lost though, and led us to some really nice beaches and hidden areas that maybe I wouldn't have seen. Bizarrely, the map says it was released in 2007 so you'd think that someone would have noticed by now. Maybe the webs is filled with blog entries just like this saying the same thing and no one is proactive about it. Hmmmm. Northwest passive-aggressiveness will always have a soft spot in my heart...





Gramps had his 86th birthday and to celebrate we went to the Seattle Pie Company yet again for the obligatory meatloaf sammo and pie selection that you can't go wrong with no matter what you choose. Did you fly a fighter plane in WW2? No, I thought not. Happy Birthday to the coolest old guy I know.



I just really really really like this beer logo I found at Central Market. Too pretty to drink. Classic and clean. The end.



This weekend I head into the studio for recording debauchery with EXPLONE as Patrick and the gang put the final touches on the offering from the band in about 4 years. I'm really happy to be a part of this group and be able to put a little musical stamp on the record as it's about 85% done already. We'll be laying down a new song he wrote since I joined the band and I'll be tracking some lead parts throughout the weekend consisting of three 12-hour days. The studio in question where it's all going down is called Studio Litho and is owned by Stone Gossard from Pearl Jam. Guess who's excited about that? Yep, first time recording there and it'll be a blast.


So, expect a review of the weekend and lot's of pictures as by documenting butt will have lots of down time to do just that between everyone recording their parts. Also like I said next will be the unveiling of the new KK album cover. Not to much to complain about these past few weeks! Loving the art being made and the good vibes flowing through many life areas. Good is good...wouldn't you agree?


Bury me smilin'/with G's in my pocket/have a party at my funeral/
let every rapper rock it,


KS