Nowhere Band News

Holy crap, it’s true. The Derailleur Bond EP is done, and available for download over at the Derailleur site. Listen, learn, and love, my friends.

In case you haven’t heard me babble about this before, this EP is our attempt to write theme songs for Bond movies– some are replacements for the original theme (I mean, do you even remember what the official theme to Octopussy was?) and others are themes for Bond movies that haven’t been made, but should.

And if you like this one, there’s more on the way. Our man Jay is hard at work mixing our second full-length album, tentatively called The Dirtiest Dudes in Rock ‘N’ Roll. 

And oh yeah, that comic that gets done around here…. on schedule, and looking good for a posting on Sunday night or Monday morning.

So, this week Jon learns a harsh lesson that’s surprisingly common, I’m told. I’ve never actually played Guitar Hero or Rock Band (I’d like to, it just never works out), but I’ve had enough guitar-playing friends complain about getting waxed by children that it seems to be a universal right of passage.

Couple of other items:  my old band Red Hay, which provided a bunch of source material for Nowhere Band, got a nice writeup on Tried to Rock, a wonderfully kick-ass site about bands that don’t go anywhere (you can see why the site appeals to me). Go over and check the whole site out, it’s good, good stuff.

And, hopping away from comics and music, Rebecca and I have once again sat down and tried to decide whether another beloved movie stands the test of time. The latest contender? Say Anything. 

Last night, I took a camera with me to the Derailleur practice/recording session, and took a bunch of pictures. Even in the unlikely event that you’re not a Derailleur fan, it might be worth taking a gander to see a bunch of Nowhere Band source material…

So, I can’t remember what the official theme song was to Octopussy, but I think we can all agree that it didn’t rock hard enough.  If it did, I’d remember it, right? Fortunately, Derailleur’s on the case.  As part of our Bond Themes project, we’ve recorded a new Octopussy theme; a rough mix of it can be heard here.

And, although this is a Derailleur song through and through, this is also more or less what I picture The Awesome Boys as sounding like, except without the backing vocals.

The MPR Nowhere Band profile ran earlier today.  My mind’s still sort of blown.  I guess I’ve arrived (and I guess I talk really fast– and Jesus, is my accent really that thick?). I loved hearing the story; when the Derailleur drumbeat kicked off, I just about started levitating… I love it that it closes with a very new (and very, very weird/sloppy) Derailleur track about Octopussy.

The other guy interviewed is Bill Tuomala, who runs the excellent Exiled on Main Street (both ‘zine and blog).  If you have time to spend online, his place is a good spot to spend it.

(my only regret with the story is that none of the clips from when Chris came to the Derailleur practice space and interviewed the rest of Derailleur made it into the final cut; but time limits are time limits)

Oh, and the next comic’ll be up by Wednesday.

Here’s a link to an easy way to check out the first-draft mix of Derailleur’s newest song. As I say on the linked page, this is part of our in-production concept EP of theme songs for James Bond movies that haven’t happened yet (or, in a couple of cases, that did happen, but were given the wrong theme songs).

The song fucking rocks the house, and I highly recommend you go check it out.

Also, Nowhere #16 is way ahead of schedule and should be forthcoming within a couple of days.

I sat down yesterday to goof around with Garage Band, and kept having trouble getting my mike input set up properly.  A bit more poking around, and actually reading what was on the screen in front of me, brought me to the realization that the mike I’d plugged in didn’t matter a whit, that Garage Band was just taking its input from my laptop’s built-in mike, and that it had been doing so for the past couple of months every time I’d sat down to record something and spent hours fussing with the goddamned mike.

I was pissed, but also sort of excited— I’d been fairly happy with that last round of recordings, and if that’d been done unwittingly using some cheesy built-in mike, just imagine what sort of magic I could make with a real mike plugged into the input! Read more

Right.  So, here we are, talking about music and about a webcomic about music.  What better way to start it off than some music?  If you’re inclined, here’s an iTunes-formatted version of me, using my home instruments and Garage Band to assault Bowie’s “Modern Love.“  So at least you know where I’m coming from.

I’m not sure how often it’ll happen, but right now the plan is to post links to songs here from time to time, as they become available.  It’s even possible that some Awesome Boys songs may crss over.  “Girls are Greasy” will see the light of day!