The fourth installment!
Christmasasaurus Volume 4
SANTA CLAUS AND HIS ELVES PRESENT:
click on cover to download!
It took a ton of work to get it organized this year... more so than any year prior.
Dingle has been very busy, so I didn't have my usual extra help to get people to contribute.
A Beautiful Lotus asked a bunch of people though and is using his net-label to release it.
Also, special shout-out to Mike of Kamakaze Kitten, who contributed a lot more than I expected.
Also a shout out to Dylan Sparrow of Giggle The Ozone. who did that fantastic looking art.
All of the hard work all of the artists and myself put into this installment really paid off, and I would consider this the best one so far.
If the current trend of annual compilation quality improvement continues, we should be the best compilation of all time by 2020.
Songs cover mysterious IDM, wacky digigrind, happy folk, dark ambient, lo-fi shoegaze, psych, performance art punk, lo-fi hip-hop/punk, depressing fingerstyle banjo, rave, plunderphonics, musical noise, blown-out grooves, frantic electronic pop, dub, chiptune, and who knows what else.
Just in case there are some of you who have not been following me or my friends since 2005, this compilation started as the brainchild of me and my friend Dingle, of Peppermint Pony.
We wanted to put together a weird collection of Christmas carol covers and a few originals for a "present" to fans of experimental, extreme, cute, or unusual underground, mostly electronic music.
The first year was extremely difficult, even though I did more work this year.
No one really wanted to do Christmas music, and no one really wanted to do it for two random kids they barely knew or had never heard of.
The result was a short compilation that didn't match entirely with our intended goal.
It was also released without permission, and mis-tagged as being "Anti-Christmas."
...the opposite of how we, the organizers, felt.
It's got some good tracks, and I still appreciate the work that went into it from all artists involved, but it just didn't do what was planned.
For posterity, we're going to upload it tomorrow and I'll replace this sentence with a link and the cover art.
The second year things went much better, except for for me.
My computer was being repaired and I was unable to record a new song, forcing me to use my reject track from the previous year.
Lots of chiptune artists, notorious ones at that, joined the fray and the now defunct Candymind Records released it for free download.
Clicking that picture will take you to the download.
(The art was done by Animal Style)
While I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions, I think Hallowed Butchery Of The Son's track is pretty damn supreme, and probably the best song he did for the project before transforming into his current blackened/prog-doom/soundscape/psych-folk powerhouse existence, Hallowed Butchery.
There's a plethora of dancey chiptune arrangements of carols and lesser known Christmas jams from Rudolph films and the like, as well as a bunch of digigrind, some noisy stuff, some IDM/breakcore, and plenty of unclassifiable material.
After this album we took a one year hiatus without saying a word about the compilation to anyone.
It wasn't a "I don't want to do this" thing.
I just wasn't talking to anyone.
Some of you might remember my "AWOL" status and my lack of signing in back in 2007 that lasted for quite some time.
While I can't really comment on what was wrong or what I was doing at the time in a public forum, I can tell you to just understand that problems I'd had for a while had built and taken me to a very unhealthy place. I'm glad I made the decision to disappear rudely instead of do anything far crazier by staying until it passed.
Anyway, last year we came back, strong and mighty, with an outstanding compilation.
It was the most sonically diverse, covering folk, hip-hop, cybergrind, improvised free-form rock ridiculousness, chiptune, gloomy new wave, weirdo organ groove, brooding and glitchy darkwave, breakcore, IDM, and all kinds of other weirdness.
(art was by Ehafh)
That about covers it.
I'll post a link to number one and replace the link to volume 3 with an Archive.org link when we have it posted there.
Oh, some news for those of you wondering about shirts.
I've been turning up nothing but weird, unresponsive emailers in my quest to get shirts printed that should have existed 3 or 4 years ago.
Rest assured, they will be out soon, as I do have art.
I just need to find someone who can respond to an email!
I do not know if I will have them in time for Lansing D:
Pins are also mysterious.
If you're looking for updates on the upcoming albums, read my blog, posted at the top of the page
To summarize what I wrote though if you don't feel like looking, I am recording new songs for the next album at a surprising rate in between compilation tracks, shows, and social life.
I have a pretty lengthy list of things I'm working on songs for on the blogspot entry on the subject with explanations of each thing, but for those that hate reading passionately but still want to know, here is the short list of things coming soon and somewhat soon:
• Nektar Volume 2 [free compilation]
• Best Of Christmas (NOT) Volume 3 [free compilation]
• Cybernetic Underground [free compilation]
• I, Candy [cassette, Flaccid Plastic]
• ACL Donation Compilation [compilation, all proceeds donated to charity to save stray animals!]
• split EP with Zathura
• split EP with Kindergarten Hazing Ritual [download, 35764 records]
• split EP with Dental Work [CD-R, Placenta Recordings]
• Bad Happy [CD, self-release]
I'll be going on a "less work, more play" type break for Christmas (except for the show on the 28th) until the end of the year after I submit my songs for Nektar and Best Of Christmas (NOT), so sorry if I'm even slower than normal with responses than usual.
I uploaded my album to last.fm and myspace for listening as a Christmas present.
If you'd like to support me or get the album for a Christmas gift, I still have plenty of copies for sale at bubblegumoctopus.bigcartel.com, as well as like 30 copies of the split left.
I also have the album on iTunes and Amazon if you prefer that.
Support is nice and helps me pay for future albums, touring, software, equipment and repairs, and merchandise!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!
(I'm excited to play for some of you on the 28th)
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