Volume 3

Posts 51-75
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
to
Thursday, November 1, 2007
T U E SD A Y , O C T O B E R 9 , 2 0 0 7

Collector's Corner #13

What is better than a parabolic dish festival? A parabolic dish festival with an odor!

This publicity poster for Isthmus' newest album, Parabolic Dish Festival, was
created on July 2, 1998. It was printed on an inkjet printer and spray painted with
green spray paint. This is the only color print in existance, the copies were all
black and white.

On the black and white prints the background looked like a negative of the night
sky (which represents the inspiration for the title of the album). These were
passed out a couple of weeks before the album was released.

Today this original poster and a few of the copies are displayed in the Promotional
Poster Wing of the Metal XOR Studio Museum.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 11:16 AM 0 comments

Labels: Collector's Corner
W E D N E SD A Y , O C T O B E R 1 0 , 2 0 0 7

Project Spotlight #7: What is Binary Pipedream?

Although most of the music that has come out of Metal XOR Studio has been a solo
effort, sometimes a guest musician will stop by to lend their talents to a project.
In the early days of the Studio it happened more than it does now. So years ago it
was decided to collect some songs that other people had helped record and put
together an EP.

The project was called Binary Pipedream. The name can be broken down into two
parts: binary refers to two people working on each song and pipedream refers to
the idea that some day one of these musicians could be famous.

Only one album has been released so far and that was the self-titled Binary
Pipedream album released in 1994.

There was no fancy logo created for the project. In fact, the album had a very
limited release, so most people do not know of it. But one day there may be
another Binary Pipedream album.

Next week: What is ORC?

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:41 AM 0 comments

Labels: Project Spotlight
T H U R SD A Y , O C T O B E R 1 1 , 2 0 0 7

Lyric Booklet #1: Underwater Problem Factory

This is a new feature that will discuss the often rare and overlooked lyric
booklets that have accompanied various Metal XOR Studio albums throughout
the years.

The first album to include lyrics was Mune Mud's 1992 album Underwater Problem
Factory. The booklet was ten pages long. It was typed on a Brother word processor
and printed out. There was no cover and the booklet started on page 1 with the
first song, "One Last Time."

For each song the lyrics were typed out. Also included was a list of any samples or
sound effects used in the song. A couple of songs included a 'background' section
that gave some background or trivia on the song.

The booklet ended with a 'credits' section.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:45 AM 0 comments

Labels: Lyric Booklet
F RI D AY , O CT O BE R 1 2 , 2 0 0 7

Article: Blog Categories

This article explains the different featured categories found on this blog site. A
link to each category can be found at the bottom of the navigation bar on the right
side of this page.

A Look Back
These look at one-time events that have happened in the Studio's history.

Album of the Week

This feature focuses on different albums that have been released by the Studio.
This is a weekly feature that gets posted every Sunday.

Article
These are articles on various topics having to do with the Studio in some regards.

Blog News
This is where you will find news about this blog website.

Collector's Corner
These are items that are currently housed in the Metal XOR Studio Museum. They
are collectible items that range from posters to objects that inspired songs to
pieces of Studio history. You might find anything featured in this section!

Interviews
The first three installments were to make available past interviews conducted with
the Studio. It will also be where you will find future interviews.

Just for Fun

These items are just for a quick laugh.

Listen Online
Occasionally a song will be posted that you can listen to online or download to
your computer. This will announce when a new song has been posted.
Lyric Booklet
There have been a few albums released that had an accompanying lyric booklet.
Each installment of this feature will focus on one of those lyric booklets.

Project Spotlight
This feature is posted each Wednesday. Each week a different Studio project is
highlighted. The posts include origins of the project name, members of the
project, albums that the project has released, and various facts regarding the
project.

State of the Studio

These are posted on the first of every month and are an update on what has been
happening in the Studio and future plans.

Studio News
If there is any news to report coming from the Studio, this is where you will find it.

This Day in Studio History

There are certain big dates in the Studio history, such as album releases or new
versions of the Studio being built. This section will highlight those historic dates.

Update: Since the original post there have been a few new blog categories added.

Equipment File
This is the feature that replaced the weekly Wendesday feature Musician Profile.
There are a finite number of musicians who have worked with the Studio, so when
the blog ran out of musicians to highlight it switched to the equipment that has
been used. Each week described a different piece of equipment.

Musician Profile
This is the feature that replaced the weekly Wednesday feature Project Spotlight.
There are a finite number of projects that have worked with the Studio, so when
the blog ran out of projects to highlight it switched to individual musicians who
have worked with the Studio.
ORC Update
This was a weekly feature on Mondays to track the progress of the new ORC album.
It lasted for eight weeks, then was put on hold when the album was put on hold. It
will resume when recording resumes.

Studio Chapter
This is the feature that replaced the weekly Monday feature ORC Update. Each
week another 'era' of the Studio's history is explained. The feature began by
documenting the Studio from the early 90's before it even had a name. It
continued to the present-day incarnation of the Studio.

Video File
This is similar to the Listen Online feature but it highlights a video instead of
audio. There are not many posts in this category yet, but as time goes on more
video will be made available from the Studio.

These are the current categories that this blog site offers, but there will be more
coming in the future. If enough new ones are created there will be another Blog
Category Article written to update the readers.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:43 AM 0 comments

Labels: Article
SA T U R D A Y , O C T O B E R 1 3 , 2 0 0 7

Collector's Corner #14

What is the best thing to use to write Mune Mud lyrics? A Mune Mud pencil!

The picture is not very clear, but the pencils say "Jason Watson is Mune Mud."

These were a gift to the Studio soon after Olympus was released in 1991. It was a
pack of twelve pencils. Although a few have been used throughout the years,
seven remain wrapped in plastic and on display in the Unused Pencil Wing of the
Metal XOR Studio Museum.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 9:18 AM 2 comments
Labels: Collector's Corner
SU N D A Y , O C T O B E R 1 4 , 2 0 0 7

Album of the Week #8: Purging the Great Abyss

Project name: ORC

Album name: Purging the Great Abyss
Release date: March 2, 1999
Release format: CD
Studio name: Metal XOR Studio

Tracks:
1. Magician's Companion
2. U-505
3. Element of Earth
4. Better Left Unsaid
5. Satellites
6. Flying Cloud Drive
7. Copekata
8. Element of Air 2
9. Vandetta (Constant Build)
10. In There
11. Mother Nature
12. Happy Little Squirrel
13. Placid
14. Ttub
15. Meaning of Number
16. Element of Water (Neptune's Mix)
17. Dawn's Tomorrow
18. Transducer Man
19. Herueux
20. Wooded Harbor
21. Animosity 3
22. Intercostal Communication
23. Sunny Ways
24. Element of Fire

Some things only happen once in lifetime. Some albums are timeless masterpieces
that will never lose their unique identities. It is important to recognize such
achievements for what they are. And Purging the Great Abyss is arguably the most
important release in Metal XOR's history in terms of its cutting edge experiments
and dabbling in the avant garde. Books could be written about this album. This
short synopsis will not even scratch the surface on what this album is. But for a
few of the more important details, read on.

It took over five years to create this album, from the first recording to the release
of the CD. It started when Jimmy visited Jason in the Studio while Jason was
recording the song "Pedestal Song" in 1994. Jason revised the lyrics a bit, handed
Jimmy a mic, and they both recorded vocals for the song. For a while that is how
ORC songs were recorded. After a while Jimmy started helping with the lyrics.
Then he started recording various music parts. Soon it was a collaborative effort
that resulted in some very experimental sounds and melodies.

The name of the album came out of Jimmy's mouth at McDonald's one day when
Jason and Jimmy were out gallivanting around. Jimmy wrote the title on a napkin
and that napkin now resides in the Metal XOR Studio Museum.

This was Metal XOR's first album released on CD. And it had the widest
distribution. There were two variations of the album. The first ten that were
printed were labeled "Autographed Gold Limited Edition" on the front cover. These
came in a slightly gold-colored jewel case, the print on the CD label was in gold,
and the CD label was autographed by Jason and Jimmy. The second run (twenty
more copies) was the standard edition in the traditional black-spined jewel case,
the print on the CD label was black, and there were no autographs.

This has been the only album from Metal XOR with the "Parental Advisory" label on
it. There are not many objectionable words but there are enough to warrant the
warning label. And this was also the only album in Metal XOR's history that was
sold. They sold for $5 each and that was to cover the cost of CD labels and of
having someone else burn the CD's. This was early in the CD-burning-at-home days
and there were actually slight costs involved.

There was a nice lyric book also released with the album. It had one page
dedicated to each song containing the lyrics to each song. In the back of the book
was a section about the history of the album. That was followed by a complete list
of ORC songs recorded. And the book ended with the 1999 Metal XOR Musik
Catalogue.

A more detailed history and behind-the-scenes will be told some day either online
or in a paper publication. The complete story needs to be recorded before it is
forgotten in the mists of time.

This has been ORC's only studio release to date. There are a few bootleg sessions
recorded but they have not been officially released. There have been several ideas
for new ORC releases including an album of remixes from PGA, an album of
outtakes and demos, or even an album of brand new music. But nothing has been
decided for sure yet.

One thing is for certain... we have not heard the last from ORC!

Next week's Album of the Week: The Vintage Years Volume 1 by Harry and Jason
from 2001.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 1:32 AM 0 comments
Labels: Album of the Week
SU N D A Y , O C T O B E R 1 4 , 2 0 0 7

Blog News: New Logo

Something new has been added to the site. . . the first official Metal XOR Studio
logo.

The logo has also been added to the Metal XOR Studio Information Source website.
And it will appear on all official Metal XOR releases from this day forth.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 2:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Blog News
M O N D AY , O CT O BE R 1 5 , 2 0 0 7

Studio News: Blog Publication Deal

Metal XOR has just purchased the rights to release a new publication in early 2008.

Metal XOR Press will release a book containing a re-print of the daily posts from
this blog site. It will be a print version of this site that could outlive this electronic
counterpart. It will cover entries from the very first post on August 23 to the final
post of the year on December 31.

If this project succeeds there may be a 2008 edition to reprint posts done
throughout next year.

So watch for the new book in early 2008.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:40 AM 0 comments

Labels: Studio News
T U E SD A Y , O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 0 7

Lyric Booklet #2: Pryme Material

The second album to include lyrics was Mune Mud's 1993 album Pryme Material.
The booklet was twenty-one pages long. It was typed on a word processor and
printed out.

The booklet started with a table of contents, a two-page introduction, and an

equipment list. The introduction gave a brief history of the album and what it took
to record. And of course the equipment list was just a list of all equipment used to
record the album.

Each song had the lyrics typed out. Also included was the date each song was
recorded, the length of the song, and a brief note or trivia fact regarding the song.

There were only a few copies of the booklet handed out so this is a somewhat rare
piece of Studio history.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:43 AM 0 comments

Labels: Lyric Booklet
W E D N E SD A Y , O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 0 7

Project Spotlight #8: What is ORC?

ORC was born in 1994 when Jason was recording “Pedestal Song” and Jimmy
stopped by the Studio for a visit. Jason reworked the lyrics, threw Jimmy a mic,
and they both recorded the vocals. After that session Jimmy was given vocals to
sing on other songs. Eventually Jimmy was contributing his own lyrics and
recording his own instrument parts.

It was a couple years later when they actually named their project. The name
came from a computer game they had both played called Warcraft. It had humans
versus orcs. A project called Human sounded silly so they went with ORC.
Originally the name was written O.R.C. but they could not decide on what it would
stand for so they dropped the periods and left it ORC.

Their first album took over five years to record. They finally finished Purging the
Great Abyss and released it on March 2, 1999. It was the first album released on
CD from the Studio.

ORC music can best be described as experimental. It is rarely just drums, guitar,
and vocals. They have used a violin, a wrench, backwards recordings, and various
other instruments and sounds. And recording methods are just as experimental.
They have used a 4-track cassette recorder, a computer, a separate sequencer,
and various other hardware to compose their music.

Even though they have only released one album to date there is a lot of unused
material in the ORC vault. Various releases have been considered but nothing
finalized. There will definitely be more ORC material released in the future.

In fact, the next album released by the Studio could very well be a new ORC
album. Metal XOR Studio is in negotiations with Attic Works Studio to do a joint
recording effort involving Jason and Jimmy recording new material from the two
different studios. This project is still in its early planning stages, so stay tuned to
this blog for further developments in this project.
Next week: Who are Harry and Jason?

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 8:42 AM 0 comments

Labels: Project Spotlight
W E D N E SD A Y , O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 0 7

Blog News: Slow It Down

I have been thinking long and hard about this. And I've been putting off the
decision. But I have decided that this will not be a daily blog any longer.

The original intent of this blog (as stated in the Welcome Statement on August 23)
was to post at least once a week. Right away I created two weekly features, so
that was two days a week. Then I wanted a weekly update and to start sharing
information from the Studio's past. So out of the gate I was posting every single
day. And almost two months later I'm still posting every single day.

Am I getting sick of the blog? Am I running out of material to post? No and no. I'm
more excited about the blog today than I was two months ago! And I don't think I'll
ever run out of material! Is it taking too much of my time to maintain a daily
schedule? Nope. The entire blog only takes a couple hours a week. Time isn't the
issue.

Then why the change? After doing some research into blogging and looking at the
traffic to my blog, I have come to the conclusion that I don't want to post too
much too fast. As the blog stands right now, if someone doesn't visit the site for 3-
4 weeks, they would have 28-30 posts to catch up on and no one is going to spend
that much time reading about this Studio. So I am going to downshift. This will be
extremely hard for me to do. I am now accustomed to making a daily post. In fact,
the blog schedule I maintain has a post scheduled every day through mid-
November already. So I will just have to stretch the schedule out.

So what will the new post schedule look like? I will keep the Sunday Album of the
Week and Wednesday Project Spotlight. Other than those two regular features, I
will try to limit the additional posts to 1-2 a week. That will give 3-4 posts a week.
Of course if something comes up that NEEDS to be posted I will do that. There will
probably be weeks that have 5-6 posts.

So as of today I will attempt to slow down. If after a few weeks I don't like the
snail's pace I will crank it back up. So I will lean back, prop up my feet, and take
tomorrow off!

See you on Friday!

UPDATE - Oops! I can't postpone tomorrow's scheduled post. So I'll take Friday off.
See? This isn't going to be easy!

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 11:28 AM 0 comments

Labels: Blog News
T H U R SD A Y , O C T O B E R 1 8 , 2 0 0 7

This Day in Studio History

It was October 18, 1994, when NueroMud's debut album, ... Libra 971, was
released.

This was the first of two NueroMud albums to be released. The music style was
somewhere between Mune Mud music and NueroMorgue. It had a limited release so
not many people even know it exists.

And today it turns thirteen years old!

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:42 AM 0 comments
Labels: This Day in History
SA T U R D A Y , O C T O B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 7

Collector's Corner #15

Jason and Jimmy were hard at work on their new ORC album. They were out
shopping on Saturday, January 11, 1997, and went to McDonald's to eat. While they
ate the discussion turned to the name of their album. They had been thinking
about this for quite some time. And then Jimmy mentioned "purging the great
abyss." It had a nice ring to it! They had found their album title!

So they wouldn't forget it, Jason had Jimmy write it down on a napkin. They took
the napkin home with them. Thus the album was named.

Today the napkin resides in the Northwest Wing of the Metal XOR Studio Museum.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 6:58 AM 0 comments
Labels: Collector's Corner
SU N D A Y , O C T O B E R 2 1 , 2 0 0 7

Album of the Week #9: The Vintage Years Vol 1

Project name: Harry and Jason

Album name: The Vintage Years Volume 1
Release date: May 23, 2001
Release format: CD
Studio name: Metal XOR Studio

Tracks:
1. The Redenbacher Medley
2. The Orvies
3. Danger to the Corns
4. Ode to Corns
5. The Beautiful Corns 1
6. The Beautiful Corns 2
7. The Beautiful Corns 3
8. How Beautiful Are Redenbachers
9. Feet Cream
10. The Song
11. The Redenbacher Song
12. The Belly Button Song
13. Hair
14. The Toilet Song
15. The Computer Song
16. The Radio Song
17. The Native Song
18. The Song of Rock and Roll
19. The Baby Song 1
20. The Baby Song 2
21. The Lottery Song

In the mid to late 1980's Harry and Jason recorded themselves singing many songs.
They would turn on an easy-listening radio station that played instrumental music
and make up lyrics as they were recording. They filled many tapes with this kind of
recording.

With many of those tapes reaching 15 and 20 years old, it was time to transfer
them to a computer so the songs would last forever. So the massive transfer
project was started in 2001. The first two tapes that Harry and Jason recorded this
way (circa 1985) were compiled onto one CD and released as The Vintage Years
Volume 1 in 2001.

Tracks 1-14 were recorded one day at Jason's house and tracks 15-21 were
recorded another day at Harry's house. Those 21 tracks were the very first songs
Harry and Jason recorded in this manner. In fact the first few songs don't even
have music, it was Harry and Jason being silly and singing a cappella. It was after
those first few songs that they decided to turn on the radio to find some
background music to sing to, thus creating music history.

The plan was to release further volumes of The Vintage Years as the tapes were
transferred to computer but the second album has not been compiled yet. One day
t he collection will continue for there is enough material for at least six or seven
volumes, possibly more. There has even been talk of a box set that contains ALL of
their early songs recorded in this manner.

So only the future knows what is in store for the future of this project.

Next week's Album of the Week: Electric Field Donut by Isthmus from 1996.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 9:51 PM 2 comments
Labels: Album of the Week
T U E SD A Y , O C T O B E R 2 3 , 2 0 0 7

Article: Mune Mud Singles

It is a little-know fact that with each Mune Mud album there were two singles
released, usually one faster tempo song and one slower one. The first single from
each album was released four weeks after the album was released and the second
single was released eight weeks after the album release date.

The singles were released on cassette until 2001 when The Search for Metropolis
CD came out, then they were released on CD. Each single release contained the
single and two additional tracks, one which represented the b-side as old vinyl
singles had and the other was the instrumental version of the single. The b-side
track was usually an unreleased track from the album, a demo, or alternate take
of a track on the album.

All of the singles and their b-sides were compiled in 2004 and had a very limited
released on CD as The Singles Collection.

Here is the list of singles and their release dates.

From Olympus
Etesian Wind - released December 10, 1991

Etesian Wind (album version)

Etesian Wind (original speed)
Etesian Wind (instrumental)

Waterfall - released January 7, 1992

Waterfall (album version)

Mystical Dream
Waterfall (instrumental)

From Underwater Problem Factory

Gridlock - released fall of 1992
 Gridlock (album version)
EnVenum Above (original version)
Gridlock (instrumental)

Believe Me - released fall of 1992

Believe Me (album version)

Garden of Hesperides
Believe Me (instrumental)

From Pryme Material

Reality Found Me - released October 5, 1993

Reality Found Me (album version)

Ominous (remake)
Reality Found Me (instrumental)

Clouds Set Free - released November 2, 1993

Clouds Set Free (album version)

Up A Lonely Road (original demo)
Clouds Set Free (instrumental)

From Equation of Time

Summer Song - released September 10, 1996

Summer Song (album version)

Winter Song
Summer Song (instrumental)

One Night (v2.0) - released October 8, 1996

One Night (v2.0) (album version)

One Night (v1.0)
One Night (v2.0) (instrumental)
From Sleep State F
Ginkgo Biloba - released October 21, 1997

Ginkgo Biloba (album version)

Little Germany
Ginkgo Biloba (instrumental)

Reflection - released November 18, 1997

Reflection (album version)

One Second
Reflection (instrumental)

From The Search for Metropolis

From Cousin B - released December 4, 2001

From Cousin B (album version)

Camilla
From Cousin B (instrumental)

Ocean Body - released January 1, 2002

Ocean Body (album version)

Ocean Body (demo)
Ocean Body (instrumental)

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 6:42 PM 0 comments

Labels: Article
W E D N E SD A Y , O C T O B E R 2 4 , 2 0 0 7

Project Spotlight #9: Who are Harry and Jason?

Harry and Jason are cousins. Their long music careers began with piano lessons
when they were young. But when they were in their early teens they began a new
kind of music. They would turn the radio on to an easy-listening station and record
themselves making up their own lyrics on-the-fly as the songs played.

Well over a hundred songs on well over a dozen tapes were recorded over the next
few years. There were two compilations of songs created, The Best of Harry and
Jason and The Best of Harry and Jason II. This all took place long before the Studio
came into existence.

More than ten years had passed before the project of transferring all of those
songs into the computer began. Some of the tapes were over fifteen years old and
they were deteriorating. It was during this process that it was decided to start
releasing those old songs on CD. So on May 23, 2001, the first collection was
released as The Vintage Years Volume 1 on May 23, 2001. It consisted of the first
two tapes that Harry and Jason had made. Future volumes were planned but have
not been completed yet.

But this is not the only musical project Harry and Jason have worked on together.
They have also been in bands such as Pheonix, The Two-Tones, Young Herbage,
The Traveling Deengelburys, The Spartans, The Duke Boys, Isthmus, Muffin Loaf,
and others. It is safe to say that the two of them will continue making music for
years to come.

Next week: What is Muffin Loaf?

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:51 AM 0 comments

Labels: Project Spotlight
T H U R SD A Y , O C T O B E R 2 5 , 2 0 0 7

Lyric Booklet #3: Devis Tortura

The third album to include lyrics was NueroMorgue's 1993 album Devis Tortura.
The booklet was titled "Devastation and Minim Opi" and was eighteen pages long.
This was the first lyric booklet to have its own title. It was typed on a word
processor and printed out.

This "lyric booklet" did provide lyrics to all of the songs that were on the album but
you had to work to find them for they were buried within the story or hidden in
secret codes. All the lyrics of the songs were chopped up and rearranged, and this
story was written around that.

The booklet started with the table of contents followed by a forward. Following
that was the 5-part story titled "Devastation" which contained lyrics to ten of the
songs on the album. The other seven songs had their lyrics hidden in seven short
stories at the end of the booklet. After the minim opi was an epilogue. And the
booklet ended with a full-page drawing called "Primordial Water and Lotus".

This booklet was meant to be released with the album but it actually came out on
March 22, 1994, three months after the album was released. The cover credited
the booklet to Gargoyle.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:42 AM 0 comments

Labels: Lyric Booklet
F RI D AY , O CT O BE R 2 6 , 2 0 0 7

Listen Online!

The fourth installment of Listen Online presents three new tracks! These come
from the 2001 album The Vintage Years Volume 1 by Harry and Jason. These tracks
are from 1986 and are some of the very first songs Harry and Jason recorded
together.

Click on the name of the song to listen to it.

"The Beautiful Corns"
"The Redenbacher Song"
"Hair"

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 8:45 PM 0 comments

Labels: Listen Online
SA T U R D A Y , O C T O B E R 2 7 , 2 0 0 7

Collector's Corner #16

Below is an inside look into the record-keeping of the Studio. This page actually
dates back to 1991 when the 4-track recorder was bought for the Studio. After
recording a few songs it became evident that some sort of log was needed to keep
track of what songs were on what tapes. So a Master Log book was created. This is
the first page created for the Studio log.

Let's take a tour of the page, shall we?

The title of the page came from the time frame these songs were recorded.
The "Olympus era" (c1991, named for the album that came out of these
songs) took 2 pages in the log book. Following the "Olympus era" was the
"Underwater Problem Factory era" (c1991-1992) that titled pages 3 and 4 as
"UPF 1" and "UPF 2."
The title is "Olympus 2" even though this was the first page in the logbook.
The pages were titled before the recording dates were added to the page.
So when it came time to title the first few pages they were mixed up and
page 1 became "Olympus 2" and page 2 became "Olympus 1" and the error
was never corrected.
The date of 8/6/95 in the upper right corner indicates when the page was
titled.
 On the upper left side of the page is the word "counter." This was to be the
column where the counter numbers of the recorder were written down for
each song so a song could easily be found on the tape. But this was soon
abandoned as it took too much time.
The letters on the far left of the page indicate which project the song
belongs too. At the time, Mune Mud was the only project so most of the
these songs belong to MM, or Mune Mud.
The yellow highlight next to some songs indicate that an MP3 exists of that
song. The highlighting is out-of-date as most of those songs are now in the
computer.
In the center of the page are the song titles. Some songs don't have titles
but a short descriptor of what the song was.
As previously stated, the recording dates were added later. And those dates
were not written down for most of the earlier recordings so the indicated
time frames are the best guess as to when these songs were recorded.
The next column has "T=" for each song. This became the tempo column. A
T=60 means the tempo was 60 bpm (beats per minutes).
The far right column shows the running time of each song.

To date there are 28 pages in the Master Log book.

And this first page is not in the Metal XOR Studio Museum. It is in the Master Log
book that is still being used in the Studio today!

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 6:23 AM 0 comments

Labels: Collector's Corner
SU N D A Y , O C T O B E R 2 8 , 2 0 0 7

Album of the Week #10: Electric Field Donut

Project name: Isthmus

Album name: Electric Field Donut
Release date: July 9, 1996
Release format: cassette
Studio name: Metal XOR Studio

Tracks:
1. Safety in Numbers
2. Free
3. Simple G
4. Rain Fusion
5. Farmer's Anguish
6. No Soul
7. Mama Got Caught
8. Jay's Mambo
9. The Long and Winding Road
10. I Saw Her Standing There
11. Nowhere Man
12. Yesterday
13. Help
14. Hey Jude
15. Let It Be
16. Rocky Mountain Way
17. Wicked Game
18. Flipcharts

This album came from a jam session that Harry and Jason had on February 5, 1995
in Jason's basement. The Metal XOR Studio was still under construction so the jam
was done among the construction materials. They filled three 45-minute 4-track
master cassettes and from those tapes this album was created.

It was a few months after the jam that Jason went back to the master tapes and
started adding drums (most of the songs were recorded without drums since it was
just the two of them), additional keyboards, and guitars. Once the songs were
complete they were compiled for an album. Then it was time to name the album
and the project. After a LOT of suggestions for a project name, they settled on
Isthmus. And Harry came up with the album name. He saw a picture of lightning
striking a baseball stadium and he said "Electric Field Donut!"

Most of the jam was them creating their own music and lyrics as they went, it was
all ad-libbed. After their creative steam ran out they got out Jason's book of
Beatles songs and started recording Beatles songs. Side A of the tape is their
originals and side B is their Beatles covers.

This album also started an Isthmus tradition. The song "Wicked Game" has
appeared on every Isthmus album in one form or another. And this was the first
album to feature it.

For most of the album Jason played the guitar and Harry was on keyboard. They
took turns singing. And this jam session was recorded with a video camera. There
have been talks of releasing a video tape from the session but that has not yet
materialized.

Below is the schematic for how the equipment was hooked up for this session.
Next week's Album of the Week: Lambskin Temple by Isthmus from 1996.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 7:40 AM 0 comments
Labels: Album of the Week
M O N D AY , O CT O BE R 2 9 , 2 0 0 7

This Day in Studio History

It was October 29, 1996, when the book "Olympus: Mountain or Molehill?" was
released.

This was the definitive guide to Mune Mud's 1991 Olympus. It told how each song
was recorded, the inspiration behind each song, what was recorded on each track
of the 4-track master, hidden meanings, etc. No Mune Mud library should be
without it.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:49 AM 0 comments
Labels: This Day in History
T U E SD A Y , O C T O B E R 3 0 , 2 0 0 7

Article: Services Used

What makes it possible to share Metal XOR Studio content with the rest of the
world? What services are used to turn the blog from an idea into reality? Let us
take a look at the services used.

Blogger
This is the website you are on now. It allows a user to create a blog, post new
entries, archive old posts, etc. There are many blog sites available. The reason
Blogger was chosen was because it is owned by Google and the Studio already had
a Google account using various other services.

Verizon Online
Verizon is the Internet provider the Studio uses , so through them there was
already web space available for a Metal XOR website. The Metal XOR Studio
Information Source was created to be a place for the Musik Catalog, songs to listen
to, documents to read, etc. Since the blog site offers no storage for files, the
content needed to be stored somewhere else. So the Information Source site
seemed to be the appropriate place.

Mediamax
The storage at the Metal XOR website was very small. In fact, last night the Studio
hit 87% of its storage capacity. And there aren't that many songs and publications
posted yet. There is a LOT more content planned to become available. So this
morning an account was created with Mediamax to store all the music and
publication files the Studio wants to provide to the public. The Information Source
will still be the website the public will use to access the files, but the files
themselves will now be stored away from Verizon.

And those are the three sites used in this blog. Plans for upcoming downloadable
content include electronic versions of all Metal XOR Studio books and booklets that
have been published, new e-books, entire album downloads, video, and more.
So keep checking this site for announcements regarding new available content.

Update: Since this article was written there are two other services used by this
blog.

Scribd
Scribd is a site that hosts documents. So all of the interviews and lyric booklets are
now stored there. They offer an option to embed documents on your website, so
that's what the blog uses to allow the reader to view the documents in a small
reader within the post.

Flickr
This is a site that hosts pictures. The Studio has two accounts. The first is for the
album covers, and that is linked to the album cover slide show in the sidebar on
the right of the blog. The second account is for the rest of the miscellaneous
pictures that have been shown on the site. There are over a hundred pictures now
on the site and that number increases every week.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 11:30 AM 0 comments

Labels: Article
W E D N E SD A Y , O C T O B E R 3 1 , 2 0 0 7

Project Spotlight #10: What is Muffin Loaf?

What is Muffin Loaf? It was a snack in the vending machine where Jason works.

It is also the name of the band that played one show where Jason works.

The year was 2003. As a training exercise Jason's department was to design and set
up a small performance area that included a sound system, video cameras, and a
lighting rig to simulate a show site. They decided that if they were going through
all the trouble of setting such an elaborate show they may as well make use of it.
So a few of them got together and created a band.

The players were (from left to right in the picture above) Ken on guitar, Harry on
drums, Brad on vocals, and Jason on bass guitar. They were looking for a name for
themselves and someone noticed a "muffin loaf" in the vending machine. The name
had been found!

They had one rehearsal in Harry's basement on Saturday, March 15, 2003. It was
video taped and recorded on cassette and digital recorder. From the digital
recording Harry made a bootleg practice CD called Tasty Jam in the Cellar. Jason
pulled some of the songs from the camcorder and created another bootleg CD
called Sounds from Underground. The play lists on both CD's were slightly
different.

The night of the show was Tuesday, March 18, 2003. They had co-workers stick
around after work to listen. It was recorded to 3/4" video tape and SVHS. The
tapes had a bad audio mix, so the planned "live album" was never made from those
tapes. Almost all of the songs they played were covers, but they did have a couple
of originals thrown in.

In 2004 Jason produced a Muffin Loaf video using pictures from the rehearsal and
show and set it to the band's rehearsal version of "Crazy Train."

Muffin Loaf has not played together since. There are plans to have a reunion jam
some day. Maybe another bootleg will come out of it...

Next week: Who are the Traveling Deengelburys?

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:45 AM 4 comments
Labels: Project Spotlight
W E D N E SD A Y , O C T O B E R 3 1 , 2 0 0 7

Just For Fun #2

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

From all of us at Metal XOR Studio

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 10:50 AM 0 comments
Labels: Just for Fun
T H U R SD A Y , N O V E M B E R 1 , 2 0 0 7

State of the Studio #3: November '07

November, month of the turkey, has arrived. And much too quickly. So what’s
going on in the Studio?

A couple of weeks ago I attempted to change the blog from having daily posts to
only three or four a week, but I haven't seen much success with that. Since that
post there have only been two days that I didn’t post, so I’ll try harder to post less
this month. Haha.

The Studio’s online storage just drastically increased. I only had a small amount of
space for songs and other downloadable content at the Metal XOR Studio
Information Source and that was almost full already. So I recently gained a LOT
more storage at a different site. I am in the process of moving the information
from the Information Source site to the new host site. Although most of the
changes are behind-the-scenes, you will notice some differences in the way the
Information Source site is set up. When that conversion is finished a lot more
content will become available for downloading. Watch for more songs (even entire
albums), publications, and video in the coming weeks and months.

As far as new music, Paige’s second recording session for her new album will
happen soon. And plans regarding a music project from the past are going to be
announced this month. Watch for that!

For the Project Spotlight features in November I will be digging into some older
music. Expect to read about projects from the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s.

And there are other changes planned for the blog as well. So be sure to make time
in your busy weekly schedule to visit the blog to see what’s going on at Metal XOR
Studio.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 11:31 AM 0 comments

Labels: State of the Studio

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