There’s a whole lot of stuff that gets made that never sees the light of day… Brainstorm sessions, scratch ideas, the results of experimenting with new gear etc… I’ve decided to post all of these during the making of “The Return of the Wetlands”. What parts of these, if any, will see the light of day I have no idea.
tots_scrtchdsk_20071125:
[FLASH https://www.outside-the-skin.com/tots/audio/TROTWL_blog_audio/tots_20071125.mp3 w=200 h=40]
Monthly Archives: November 2007
In the making: t.o.t.s. “TROTWâ€. Post 6
Finally got a chance to do the news letter day before yesterday. Ultimately, to cover all the sites I usually post on, it took about 3 hours from start to finish. This time also includes getting screen captures from the new t.o.t.s. Second Life endeavor and getting new merch coded into our online store. Yesterday I knocked out a review for DarkSonus and spent the rest of the evening troubleshooting the equipment we’ll be using for Qualia performances.
Started looking into new lighting gear for t.o.t.s. today and submitted an application for NXNW.
t.o.t.s. NEWS: Second Life, New Merch, New Blog and more!
Lots of new stuff going on in t.o.t.s.land!
The “Return of the Wetlands” blog:
OK. So we’ve been working on the new THINGS OUTSIDE THE SKIN “The Return of the Wetlands” CD for about a year now and today it occurred to me to keep a running journal documenting the remaining parts of the process as there is still a long way to go. I’m going to include EVERYTHING. Days we’ve recorded, what we’ve recorded, equipment we’ve bought, promo decisions, etc etc etc. For all the bands on our list, I thought that since this is our 3rd full length CD people might be interested in comparing their own experiences against ours… good and bad. We’ll also get a chance to look back and see how amazingly inefficient we’ve been at some things. This is a not a “bragging” blog or a “what we do is correct” deal. I am going to post all of my decisions bad and good. I’ll keep this going through the first tour promoting the release. We’ll be updating things as often as possible and to give some perspective we’ll probably throw in occasional normal work day shit and outside projects we’re involved in. The blog has been active for a week so check it out!
The blog is available in three locations:
On our website: www.outside-the-skin.com
On MySpace: www.myspace.com/tots
and on the music community website DarkSonus: http://www.darksonus.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1539
You don’t need to be a member on either Myspace or DarkSonus to read the blog!
“t.o.t.s. go Clone Crazy” or “How I Stopped Living and Became THINGS OUTSIDE THE SKIN”:
We’ve designed and released our evil virtual doppelgangers into “Second Life”. The doors to “t.o.t.s.land” in the virtual community “Second Life” (www.secondlife.com) are officially open!
Buy new t.o.t.s. shirts for your virtual characters, watch videos, listen to music, join the official Second Life t.o.t.s. fan club… you can EVEN BECOME you’re favorite t.o.t.s. member! Not sure what the hell “Second LIfe” is? Check it out here: www.secondlife.com. Escape from your crappy normal existence in exchange for polygons and t.o.t.s.! Second Life is a FREE application.
Second Life links:
t.o.t.s.land:
secondlife://Krasnoyarsk/249/116/71
Also in Second Life:
The Dark Art Swamp! A virtual art gallery in Second Life showcasing photos, drawings and video art created by t.o.t.s. bass player, Blight Productions!
The Link:
secondlife://Krasnoyarsk/250/136/73
New article by Chvad SB and Martin Atkins up on Suicide Girls!
So Martin Atkins approached me a while back asking me if I’d be interested in writing an article for his weekly Suicide Girls column about what bands can expect when playing shows in NYC. Being the ever opinionated jerk that I am and always looking new and effective ways to insert my foot into my mouth, I of course jumped at the opportunity! Well… here are the results! LINK: http://suicidegirls.com/news/music/22540 .
New t.o.t.s. merch available in the t.o.t.s.SHOP!
A brand new and remarkably swanky “Cow Tippin’ sticker SET is now available at the t.o.t.s. online store! You get the epic question to life the universe and everything… AND THE ANSWER! Featuring awesome new drawings from Blight! There is NO better way to blow five bucks people! NONE! Did I mention they’re big? Oh yeah, big stickers rule.
The link:
www.outside-the-skin.com/tots/totsSHOP
On a final note, we’d like to welcome Lars Casteen into the t.o.t.s. tribe! Lars, the brainchild madman behind the amazing WTII band “The Qualia”, will be creating massive amounts of guitar noise for t.o.t.s.’ live shows in ’08! You’ll also being hearing him on the new CD as well so show some love for Lars and check out “The Qualia”! If you don’t love it you’re just stupid. www.thequalia.com
Rock on!
Chvad SB
In the making: t.o.t.s. “TROTWâ€. Post 5
Finished up the SMP remix today. I wound up recording new guitars, drums and synths for the track. Instruments used: Alesis Ion, CS6x, GURU, Sonar (ver. 4) and the Eastwood Delta 6.
In the making: t.o.t.s. “TROTWâ€. Post 4
Got most of the way through the remix of “Metropolis” for SMP today. Still a few things to tweak but I hope to have it finished by tomorrow afternoon. I’ve been working on it for the past 12 hours and I’m kinda burnt right now so I’m letting the rest sit for tonight.
It looks like one of our already completed tracks from “The Return of the Wetlands” called “When the Ghosts Have Died” will be used in a new Burlesque documentary. Nothing has been set it stone yet but I got confirmation today that the producers are interested in using the track. More on that as it happens. “When the Ghosts Have Died” got a sneak release on a DJ only compilation earlier this year as well.
I also confirmed today that t.o.t.s. will be submitting material to another compilation, this time “Negative Impact Vol.3”. though I’m not sure what music will be submitted to this yet.
While working on the last t.o.t.s. CD “You Knew It All Along” I wound up releasing almost every track on the CD through a compilation prior to the CD’s actual release. I think that was mainly due to the fucking thing taking far to long to complete resulting in me struggling to keep some kind of exposure for the band so we didn’t drift away from everyone’s consciousness. I’m definately not PLANNING on a similar scenario for the release we’re currently working on though with 2 compilations already released and a 3rd on the way it would seem that we’re headed down the same path. We’ll see.