Volume 5

Posts 101-125
Thursday, November 29, 2007
to
Monday, December 24, 2007
T H U R SD A Y , N O V E M B E R 2 9 , 2 0 0 7

Studio News: New Website

In October of 1994, Harry, Jason, and Darrin investigated a local urban legend.
While they were there an old man drove up and told them to leave because too
many people had been there causing trouble. Tempers flared and the old man and
Jason almost came to fisticuffs. This became known as the Albino Boy incident.

And now, thirteen years later, Metal XOR Studio is proud to present the Official
Albino Boy website. While there you can watch the video that Jason shot of the
incident, various audio files, the story of what happened in the following days and
weeks after the incident, and much more! It is the most comprehensive Albino Boy
incident website on the Internet.

Please visit the new site and show your support.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 7:53 AM 2 comments
Labels: Studio News
F R I D AY , N O V E M BE R 3 0 , 2 0 0 7

Studio News: ORC Photo Session

ORC was in the studio last night... the photo studio!

ORC met at Attic Works Studio last night for the first photo shoot for their new
album due out early next year. Donning masks, various outfits, and their
instruments of choice, many pictures were taken over the course of the hour and a
half session.

There were two cameras going, the main camera taking the pictures and then a
second camera taking "behind-the-scene" shots. The above two pictures are from
the secondary camera. The main pictures are at Attic Works Studio being
processed. The band has not announced what these pictures will be used for, but
they will definitely have a web presence.

Near the end of the session Jason was asked how Metal XOR Studio is prepping for
the recording of the new ORC album. He replied:

"Hopefully this weekend the Studio will be stripped of all cables and connections. I
have a new wiring schematic drawn up and will rebuild the Studio from scratch. I
won't be using half the equipment that's there for this new album, so I'm clearing it
out and streamlining the recording process. I've settled on which computers to use
and how to hook everything up. Now I just need the time to do it. This will be the
fifth incarnation of the Studio, it's called MXOR-E. And things are going very well
for the January 1 deadline. That's the day we start recording. The excitement is
building!"

Keep checking here for further ORC updates.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:53 AM 2 comments
Labels: Studio News
SA T U R D A Y , D E C E M B E R 1 , 2 0 0 7

State of the Studio #4: December '07

Christmas and New Years are near. December is the time of year when things
really get busy for most people. And it's the same with the Studio this year.

A lot of the Studio activity this month will be in preparation for the recording of
the new ORC album. Recording is scheduled to begin on January 1 and wrap up on
February 29. The biggest hurdle at this point is rebuilding the Studio. But the plan
has been drawn up and now I'm just waiting for an opportune time to rip
everything out to start from scratch.

The first photo shoot for ORC took place a few nights ago. When post-production
on those pictures is finished they will be made available, in some form, to the
public. Also ORC related is the ORC blog. Until January 1 most ORC related news
will still be posted on this Studio blog site. But when the recording starts, the ORC
blog will be used to provide information as to the progress of the new album.

This blog will have a new feature added soon. . . a slide show that displays all the
album covers that have been shown in the Album of the Week feature. Look for
the slide show very soon.

There are two new websites in the Metal XOR Studio domain now, the Traveling
Deengelburys and Albino Boy, but there are no plans for any new sites in the near
future due to the upcoming ORC project taking up most of the Studio's time.

And look forward to at least one new Article feature which will document the
employees at Metal XOR Studio.

See you in a month. . .

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:10 AM 0 comments

Labels: State of the Studio
SU N D A Y , D E C E M B E R 2 , 2 0 0 7

Album of the Week #15: Parabolic Dish Festival Vol 1

Project name: Isthmus

Album name: Parabolic Dish Festival Volume 1
Release date: July 21, 1998
Release format: cassette
Studio name: Metal XOR Studio

Tracks:
1. Snowflake in a Desert
2. I Wonder
3. I Cannot Tell A Lie
4. Flathead Midget
5. African Pygmies
6. ID Band
7. Lost in Detroit (Free II)
8. We Need Toner
9. Greasy Mystic
10. I Need A Drink
11. You've Given Me Air
12. It's Not Me You're Talking To
13. Wicked Game (Chime Can Mix)
14. The Wrong Spryte
15. Outter Gossamer Ring

This album came from a jam session that Harry, Jason, and Jimmy had on Friday,
May 22, 1998 in Jimmy's room which at the time was still called Exit 23 Studio.
This was unofficially known as "Isthmus Jam 4".

This, like the ORC album Purging the Great Abyss, could have an entire book
written about it. It was the comeback album for Isthmus following the disaster of
their 1996 album New Mexico Igloo. And the story of this album goes a little
something like this. . .

Jimmy and Jason set up the equipment the previous night. Nikki was there too and
the three of them recorded a few songs during the sound check. The next morning
Isthmus met at Exit 23 Studio. For most of the day Jimmy played drums, Harry
played guitar, and Jason played bass. But that was switched up a couple of times.
They recorded for at least five hours, filling six 45-minute cassettes using Jason's
4-track recorder. They also recorded the session with a standard cassette recorder
set in the middle of the room. And they had two camcorders that recorded the
session. So this was the most documented recording session to date.

In all, 55 songs were recorded that day. And Jason got right to work cleaning the
songs up and adding post-production tracks of additional instruments and sound
effects. Right away they knew they had too much material for one album, so it
was decided to do Metal XOR Studio's first 2-album release. The first album was
released in July, which was a very fast turnaround from the recording date, and
the second album was released in 1999. A promotional poster was created for this
album on July 2, 1998.

And knowing it was a 2-album set, the two album covers were designed to fit
together to make one complete picture. The whole cyclical theme was continued
with the subtitle of the album being "Solstice to Equinox" and volume 2's subtitle
being "Equinox to Solstice". To further the seasonal theme, Volume 1 side A was
labeled 'summer' and side B was labeled 'winter', Volume 2 side A was labeled
'autumn' and side B was labeled 'spring'.

There were a few variations of the album. The first three copies were for the band
members and were designated 'alpha' and had a Greek alpha symbol on the inside
of the tape jacket. These copies had a bonus track called "Cornbread". The rest of
the first run was then labeled as 'beta' tapes and had a Greek beta symbol on the
inside of the tape jacket. Later, a second run of the tapes were released when the
first run ran out. The difference in the two runs is that the original tapes released
had dark tape cases and the second run had light cases.

This album came out just before the advent of home CD-recording, so it was the
last album to be released on cassette. But there are plans to re-release both
volumes on CD. An all-encompassing Special Edition has also been mentioned
containing every song recorded that day (in their album versions and raw unedited
versions) along with interviews each band member made about each song on the
album and much more! But that has yet to be completed.

Next May marks the 10-year anniversary of Isthmus' crowning achievement. We'll
see if there is any hubbub to be had.

Update:
On May 22, 2008, the 3-CD Parabolic Dish Festival 10th Anniversary Edition was
released. Now the rumors have started of an Ultimate Edition to be released in
the future. Is there really that much more material to be released?
Next week's Album of the Week: Parabolic Dish Festival Volume 2 by Isthmus from
1999.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 2:47 AM 0 comments
Labels: Album of the Week
M O N D AY , D E CE M BE R 3 , 2 0 0 7

Blog News: New Slide Show Feature

As you may or may not have noticed, there is a new feature on the blog. In the
upper-right corner of the page is the new slide show.

The slide show cycles through all of the album covers that have been shown on this
blog in the Album of the Week feature. As new albums are discussed, their covers
will also be added to the slide show.

The slide show provides a small amount of user-control. When you hover over the
slide show a control bar appears that lets you pause on the current cover, select
the left arrow to return to the previous cover, or select the right arrow to advance
to the next one. And if you click on one of the covers it will take you to the Flickr
account where you can look at the covers in more detail.

Keep watching here for more Blog News as new features are added to the site.

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

Labels: Blog News
T U E SD A Y , D E C E M B E R 4 , 2 0 0 7

Blog News: Album Cover Collection

The Studio now has two Flickr accounts. The first account is the album cover
collection that appears in the slide show in the upper right corner of this page.
The second account contains all the other pictures that have been used in this
blog. There is a new link to the Flickr Album Cover collection in the Studio Links
section in the right sidebar of this page.

I am in the process of replacing all pictures in this blog with links to the new
Flicker collections. That will allow the user to click on any picture and get an
enlarged version of it. The current system of uploading pictures to the blog doesn't
always allow enlargement of the picture by clicking on it, and I can't figure out
why that is. So I'm changing how the pictures are posted. This change may take a
few days to complete.

Keep watching here for more Blog News as new features are added to the site.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 9:04 PM 0 comments

Labels: Blog News
W E D N E SD A Y , D E C E M B E R 5 , 2 0 0 7

Project Spotlight #15: What is Parvo?

It was the year 2000. The future had arrived. Technology, the field of medicine,
and food preparation had come so far in humanity's lifetime. So why not advance
music?

Parvo was another solo project by Jason. The "gimmick" behind Parvo was the fact
that it was the first Metal XOR project to use only a computer to make its music.
Using a program called CakeWalk, two songs were started but never progressed
beyond the demo stage. Maybe the world wasn't ready for Parvo. Or maybe Parvo
wasn't ready for the world.

A publicity poster for the new project was created on May 17, 2000, but not many
people saw it. The whole project was soon abandoned and nothing has been done
with it since.

Next week: What is Young Herbage?

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:46 AM 0 comments
Labels: Project Spotlight
T H U R SD A Y , D E C E M B E R 6 , 2 0 0 7

Blog News: Embedded PDF Files

Metal XOR Studio is proud to announce another new feature to this blog:
embedded .PDF files. What is an embedded .PDF file? Here is an example.

For this I am using a website called Scribd. It hosts documents and provides the
coding needed to embed your documents in a web page.

Now when you read a lyric booklet post or read about some other document, you
can browse the actual document without leaving the page. If it is too small for you
to read, you can right-click on "Download as PDF" at the bottom of the Scribd box
and have it open a new page as a full-screen .PDF document for you to read.

To see some real-life examples, head over to the Lyric Booklet category. All of
the lyric booklets have now been embedded. I will also be going back and
embedding any other .PDF's where needed.

Keep watching here for more Blog News as new features are added to the site.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:45 AM 0 comments
Labels: Blog News
F R I D AY , D E CE M BE R 7 , 2 0 0 7

Article: Studio Employees

Many fictitious people have worked for the Studio over the years. Below is a roster
of people and what their positions are.

James Oglethorpe
Mr. Oglethorpe works for the Metal XOR Press division of the company. He is
responsible for all of the printed projects that come out of the Studio including
posters, lyric booklets, and more. His biggest achievement was in 1996 when he
was credited as being the editor of the Mune Mud book titled Olympus: Mountain
or Molehill? He also wrote a page called "About the Author" explaining Stanislaw
Mishra's mysterious involvement with the Studio that appeared in the back of that
same book. He recently set up the Scribd account that provides embedded
documents in posts.

Sir Richard Ruthonestu

He is the orchestra conductor that the Studio hires when an orchestral part needs
to be recorded. He comes from Oil City, Pennsylvania, and takes his conducting
seriously. He was credited as the orchestra conductor on the 1999 ORC album
Purging the Great Abyss. He is always on standby for the Studio if it should ever
need his services.

Alumdar "101" Windwalk

He is the Studio photographer and keeper of the photo archive. He recently helped
create some blog projects in association with Flickr and link it all together. He is
the newest employee of the Studio.

The NueroMorgue Band

Most of the NueroMorgue album was recorded by one person, but for the live
performances there were four additional members:
Agnus Dei - lead guitar
Venus Psyche - rhythm guitar
Python XYZ - bass guitar
El Cid minor - drummer
Stanislaw Mishra
No one is really sure who this person is.

Gargoyle
We're not sure who or what this is either.

There are many, many more employees that have pooled their talents into making
the Studio what it is today, the list is too long for this blog post. But the Studio
extends a gracious THANK YOU to all who have made the Studio a success and
next Monday there will be a plastic spineless yucca plant on each and every desk.

[A group picture was scheduled but Alumdar contracted some strange itchy spots
and was too ill to take the picture. He has fully recovered and regrets any
inconvenience it may have caused.]

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:31 AM 0 comments

Labels: Article
SA T U R D A Y , D E C E M B E R 8 , 2 0 0 7

Collector's Corner #21

This was an early version of the Traveling Deengelburys logo.

This design was drawn by Jason, aka Doubletree Deengelbury, the rhythm
guitarist. There are a few elements of this design that made it into the final
design:

The circle that the chicken is standing on ended up being the world in the
final design. But in this design there is a small sign that says "world-
touring", so that could have been what inspired the change of the circle to
the globe.
The banners that say Traveling Deengelburys were kept in the final design.
The singing chicken was changed to an eagle spreading its wings in the final
design.

Things that did not make it to the final design:

The sword. This probably came from the fact that many of the band often
played Dungeons & Dragons after school and on weekends.
 The 8 and 9 that appear between the two banners. This stood for the year,
1989.
The storm clouds and lightning bolts.
The background birds behind the singing chicken.

So this picture shows one of the evolutionary steps the Traveling Deengelbury logo
took on its journey to final form. This now resides in the Traveling Deengelbury
Wing of the Metal XOR Studio Museum next to the empty vaults reserved for
cryogenically frozen band members.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 7:08 AM 0 comments
Labels: Collector's Corner
SU N D A Y , D E C E M B E R 9 , 2 0 0 7

Album of the Week #16: Parabolic Dish Festival Vol 2

Project name: Isthmus

Album name: Parabolic Dish Festival Volume 2
Release date: March 23, 1999
Release format: cassette
Studio name: Metal XOR Studio

Tracks:
1. Oogabooga Snack Bar
2. Seventh Guest
3. Big Red Book
4. Taught By A Midget
5. Lazy Community
6. Crawl That Mountain
7. Ephemeral Mercury
8. Probably
9. Broken Symbol Song
10. Permeate
11. The Journey
12. Low Expectations
13. Sunshine of Your Love
14. A World of Trust
15. Outter Gossamer Ring

This album came from a jam session that Harry, Jason, and Jimmy had on Friday,
May 22, 1998 in Jimmy's room which at the time was still called Exit 23 Studio.
This was unofficially known as "Isthmus Jam 4".

As soon as the half-day jam session was over, it was realized this was going to be a
2-album set. After PDF Volume 1 was released to great success, it was doubtful
that a second album could contain such great songs as the first. But it did. Both
albums have a number of great songs on it.

Whereas PDF Volume 1 contained the Isthmus tradition of "Wicked Game", this
album had another cover, "Sunshine of Your Love". Harry taught it to Jimmy and
Jason that day, that's why this version sounds a little rough.

This album also had the same last track as PDF Volume 1, "Outter Gossamer Ring"
(the misspelling of 'outter' was realized after PDF Volume 1 was released but was
kept the same for this album). It was a good track to end an album with.

Next week's Album of the Week: Love Songs by Nikki and Jason from 2001.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 7:47 AM 0 comments
Labels: Album of the Week
M O N D AY , D E CE M BE R 1 0 , 2 0 0 7

This Day in Studio History

It was December 10, 1996, when Harry, Jason, and Jimmy got together in a church
and recorded a jam session as the group Isthmus. This session became the third
Isthmus album, New Mexico Igloo.

For many of the songs Jason was on guitar, Harry on bass/keyboards, and Jimmy
on drums. But they also had a fourth player, Tim, who took over on drums after a
while. Jason, Harry, and Tim took turns on vocals. The album was released on
December 17 of that year.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 6:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: This Day in History
T U E SD A Y , D E C E M B E R 1 1 , 2 0 0 7

Lyric Booklet #6: Purging the Great Abyss

The sixth album to include lyrics was ORC's 1999 album Purging the Great Abyss.
This was the longest lyric booklet released at over thirty pages long.

Each song had the lyrics typed out using its own font. And behind the lyrics was a
different watermark for each song. This really made each song unique.

The booklet ended with an extensive history of the making of the album, the 1997
Musik Catalog, and a complete list of songs recorded by ORC during this period.

The booklet was released at the same time as the album. There were twelve
handed out. There were three versions released: one had a blue cover, one had a
green cover, and the other version had no cover at all. The cover was the only
difference, the rest of the booklets were the same.

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

Labels: Lyric Booklet
T U E SD A Y , D E C E M B E R 1 1 , 2 0 0 7

Studio News: ORC Is Ready

There is a new post on the official ORC blog this morning regarding the new album.

Click here to head on over and read it. . .

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 11:07 AM 0 comments

Labels: Studio News
W E D N E SD A Y , D E C E M B E R 1 2 , 2 0 0 7

Project Spotlight #16: What is Young Herbage?

Young Herbage was a project created by Jason and Harry for a radio contest in
March of 1993. There was a local radio personality named JC that was disliked by
the morning show Jason and Harry listened to. The show had a song-writing
contest and whoever recorded the best song bashing JC would get to perform their
song live at an upcoming event the morning show was hosting.

Jason and Harry decided to enter the contest. The song they recorded was called
"JC's Suckin' Eggs". Jason recorded the basic music tracks of drums, bass, and
rhythm guitar. Then Harry went to the Studio and they both recorded the vocals
they both wrote. Jason took the 4-track recorder to Harry's house to record Harry's
guitar solo. Then Jason ended the song with many samples from the morning show.

They quickly came up with the name of the project and created an album cover.
The only copy of the album cover that was made was given to the radio station ,
but below is a scan of the sheet used to make the cover.

The tape was taken to the radio station. The show played it on the air and
commented that it did sound like Jason and Harry were on some herbage. Thus
Young Herbage ended and as quickly as it had been created.

The song appeared on the 1994 compilation EP titled Binary Pipedream.

Next week: Who are Darrin and Jason?
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:54 AM 3 comments
Labels: Project Spotlight
F R I D AY , D E CE M BE R 1 4 , 2 0 0 7

This Day in Studio History

It was December 14, 1993, when NueroMorgue's debut album, Devis Tortura, was
released.

This has been the only full-length NueroMorgue released to date. Many people
liked the album and have since asked for another. So far it has been 14 years, we'll
see how much longer it is before the next NueroMorgue album is released.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 6:01 AM 0 comments
Labels: This Day in History
SA T U R D A Y , D E C E M B E R 1 5 , 2 0 0 7

Article: Album Chronology

This is a complete chronological list of all albums and their release dates.

The Two-Tones Heimlich Maneuver [December 5, 1989]

X-Selsior One Way [unreleased]
Mune Mud Mune Mud [unreleased]
Mune Mud Olympus [November 12, 1991]
Mune Mud Underwater Problem Factory [summer 1992]
Mune Mud Pryme Material [September 7, 1993]
NueroMorgue Devis Tortura [December 14, 1993]
NueroMorgue E. Phantasmata [April 5, 1994]
Mune Mud Mune Mud re-release [August 2, 1994]
Mune Mud Devaulted [August 2, 1994]
Binary Pipedream Binary Pipedream [September 6, 1994]
NueroMud ...Libra 971 [October 18, 1994]
NueroMud Nine Days Wonder [November 1995]
Isthmus Electric Field Donut [July 9, 1996]
Mune Mud Monograph [July 16, 1996]
Mune Mud Equation of Time [August 13, 1996]
Isthmus Lambskin Temple [November 19, 1996]
Isthmus New Mexico Igloo [December 17, 1996]
Isthmus Ideas [May 6, 1997]
Mune Mud Sleep State F [September 23, 1997]
Isthmus Parabolic Dish Festival Vol 1 [July 21, 1998]
ORC Purging the Great Abyss [March 2, 1999]
Isthmus Parabolic Dish Festival Vol 2 [March 23, 1999]
Nikki and Jason Love Songs [May 19, 2001]
Harry and Jason The Vintage Years Vol 1 [May 23, 2001]
Mune Mud The Search for Metropolis [November 6, 2001]
Mune Mud Olympus (10th Anniversary Edition) [December 29, 2001]
Mune Mud UPF (10th Anniversary Edition) [December 31, 2002]
Mune Mud Pryme Material (10th Anniversary Edition) [2003]
Mune Mud Singles Collection [2004]
Mune Mud Hobson's Choice [November 23, 2004]
Mune Mud Hobson's Second Choice [2005]
Mune Mud Equation of Time (10th Anniversary Edition) [2006]
Mune Mud Sleep State F (10th Anniversary Edition) [2007]
Paige Watson My First Album [August 14, 2007]
Updates:
Mune Mud Precursory 33 [April 8, 2008]
Isthmus Parabolic Dish Festival 10th Anniversary [May 22, 2008]

It is an unwritten rule that the Studio tries to release at least one album every
year. It has been able to do this since 1991 with the exception of one year,
2000. That was the year Jason got married and that is the excuse he used for
not having the time for a new album.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 9:41 AM 0 comments

Labels: Article
SU N D A Y , D E C E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 0 7

Album of the Week #17: Love Songs

Project name: Nikki and Jason

Album name: Love Songs
Release date: May 19, 2001
Release format: CD
Studio name: Metal XOR Studio

Tracks:
1. Any Man of Mine
2. A Love Song
3. Loving You
4. Fallen Star Wish
5. Nothing But Us
6. Nothing Better for Me

Jason had been recording music for years. Nikki had been singing for years. So
when they started dating (and eventually got married) it was natural that they
would record some songs together.

The first song on the album was recorded at Six Flags. It is Nikki singing Shania
Twain's "Any Man of Mine". The next two tracks were songs they recorded together,
Jason made the music while Nikki wrote and sang the lyrics. The fourth track was
recorded for Nikki by Jason. This was the song that had new lyrics written by Nikki
and Jason and sung at church by Nikki. The fifth track was a slow instrumental
Jason had recorded that seemed to fit on this album. The last song on the album
was another song written by Jason for Nikki, this one for her birthday.

They have collaborated on a few others songs since this album was released. They
have plans on recording a lot more music together in the future.

Next week's Album of the Week: Underwater Problem Factory by Mune Mud from
1992.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 3:42 PM 0 comments
Labels: Album of the Week
M O N D AY , D E CE M BE R 1 7 , 2 0 0 7

This Day in Studio History

It was December 17, 1996, when Isthmus' third album, New Mexico Igloo, was
released.

This was their official Christmas album. It was not warmly received and was almost
dropped from their catalog and forgotten. But for now it is still counted as one of
their releases.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:47 AM 0 comments
Labels: This Day in History
W E D N E SD A Y , D E C E M B E R 1 9 , 2 0 0 7

Project Spotlight #17: Who are Darrin and Jason?

Harry and Jason began their musical career by recording themselves singing ad-
libbed lyrics to instrumental music playing on a radio. Darrin and Jason's musical
career went through a similar phase.

Darrin had been a friend of the Studio for many years. He and Jason wrote their
first song, "Fatty Fatty 2x4", in grade school. Darrin provided the lyrics and Jason
played the piano part.

But it wasn't until the fall of 1988 that Darrin and Jason rekindled the magic. They
would "cruise around town" and sing along with songs on the radio, making up their
own lyrics. It wasn't long before Jason started taking his tape recorder with him
when they cruised. They recorded a few sessions of these singing drives. In January
of 1989, Jason put together a tape called The Best of Darrin and Jason which
included their favorite songs. The tape was never an "official" album release, just
something made for Darrin and Jason to hear. January 29, 1989, was the last time
they recorded a session this way.

Darrin also made appearances with other projects through the years. He was part
of a few Two-Tones recording sessions. He was the saxophone player for the
Traveling Deengelburys. And he recorded a few songs with Mune Mud (providing
lyrics and some drums). One of his songs with Mune Mud appeared on the 1994
Binary Pipedream album.

Next week: What was the early period of keyboards?

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:50 AM 0 comments

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

Collector's Corner #22

Today's Collector's Corner returns to the earliest days of PC computing.

I bought my first PC in 1994. Within a few months I was trying to combine my

hobbies of music and computers, but the computer just couldn't handle much
music. So I created two .BMP files in Paint and used them as the splash screen
instead of the Windows logo when Windows 3.1 loaded. I also had a short sample
of the song play when Windows started.

The first one (above) was for the song "Waterfall" off of the 1991 Mune Mud album
Olympus. The album had been out for a couple years already but it was still being
promoted.

The second one (below) was for the song "Ataxia" off of the 1993 NueroMorgue
album Devis Tortura. That album had come out the previous year so it was still
fresh.
These files were recently discovered in a reorganization of the Studio's hard drives.
They have a date-stamp from 1994, possibly the oldest files on the Studio's
computers.

They have been transferred to the Digital Wing of the Metal XOR Studio Museum.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:51 AM 0 comments
Labels: Collector's Corner
F R I D AY , D E CE M BE R 2 1 , 2 0 0 7

This Day in Studio History

Harry and Jason collaborated with their high school Spanish teacher (Mark S, also a
member of the Traveling Deengelburys) in 1988 to perform some Christmas songs
for the students. The day was Wednesday, December 21, 1988.

Mark strummed an acoustic guitar and sang, Jason played the electric guitar, and
Harry manned the drum machine and synthesizer. They performed five songs that
day. This was a precursor to the Traveling Deengelbury show that took place a few
months later.

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

Labels: This Day in History
SA T U R D A Y , D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 0 7

Musician Profile #1: Jason W

This is a sneak peak of a new feature that will start early next year. It is
called the Musician Profile. It will focus on people that have contributed in
one way or another to the music of Metal XOR Studio. This first entry will
discuss none other than Metal XOR Studio founder and CEO, Jason himself.

Name: Jason W
Projects involved with: all

Jason's music career began at the age of four with piano lessons. He continued
piano lessons into his mid-teens. Then he received a small Yamaha keyboard in the
fall of 1986. With that he filled a few tapes of cover songs and original songs.

Just prior to getting his keyboard, he and his cousin Harry were recording
themselves singing ad-libbed lyrics to instrumental songs off of the radio. This
lasted a couple of years and created more than a dozen tapes of the two singing.

In 1987 Jason also played keyboards for the garage band Pheonix. This eventually
led to him borrowing a friend's electric guitar and becoming the guitarist for the
Two-Tones. He also played guitar in a trio for a school Christmas program in 1988.
This led to the 50's & 60's band The Traveling Deengelburys. Jason played rhythm
guitar for their only show, a fund-raising dance at the high school in March of
1989.

There was a brief period where Jason experimented with layering his keyboard
sounds and adding vocals. This experimentation in 1990, along with a newly
acquired drum machine, led to the earliest Mune Mud recordings.

Even though the solo project Mune Mud is still around today it has spawned other
projects throughout the years that have come and gone. The second project Jason
created was NueroMorgue in 1993. The next was NueroMud in 1994.

In the early 90's he was a member of two other projects: The Spartans (with Harry
and Brad) and The Duke Boys (just Jason and Harry).

By now there were two other major projects he was involved with. He was a
member of Isthmus, along with his cousins Harry and Jimmy. And in the late 90's
he and Jimmy had their own project called ORC.

In 1998 Jason met his future wife, Nikki. They recorded a few songs together and
released an album in 2001 called Love Songs. They also wrote a couple of songs
that Nikki sang at church. They have plans on writing and recording more music in
the future.

In 2003 Jason was the bass player in a group called Muffin Loaf. This was a group
of Jason's co-workers who got together to play a show after work on March 18,
2003.

He is also producing albums for the newest member of the Metal XOR family, Paige
W. Her first album came out in August of this year. She has already recorded a few
sessions for her second album due out next fall.

A few other projects that either didn't get out of the planning stages or had
limited success are X-Selsior, Binary Pipedream, Young Herbage, and Parvo.

Jason is a jack-of-all-instruments, master of none. To varying degrees he has

played the piano, keyboards, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drums,
drum machines, recorder, violin, and attempted vocals. Most of the music in the
last year or so has been created in the computer, so he has experience with
various programs such as CakeWalk, Reason, and Audition.

Overall, Jason has created a lot of music in the last twenty years and plans on
creating much more in the next twenty.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 5:58 AM 0 comments

Labels: Musician Profile
SU N D A Y , D E C E M B E R 2 3 , 2 0 0 7

Album of the Week #18: Underwater Problem Factory

Project name: Mune Mud

Album name: Underwater Problem Factory
Release date: Summer of 1992
Release format: cassette
Studio name: Quintessential Disco-Quest Tapes & Discs

Tracks:
1. One Last Time
2. Time, That's What
3. Gridlock
4. In My Heart
5. I Don't Get It
6. Odyssey VI
7. The Smell of Earthworms
8. 5Fifty
9. My Firmament
10. FF
11. Believe Me
12. Eggs to Eternity
13. Go Disco!
14. Xavier's Goat
15. The Grasshopper Child
16. I'll Go Berserk
17. My Style
18. EnVenum Above
19. Rite of Diaboli

This was the follow-up to the popular 1991 album Olympus. Whereas Olympus was
rather simple and straightforward, this album made heavy use of the new effects
processor the Studio had just bought and encorporated more recording techniques
than were previously used.

And now the Studio had a name: Quintessential Disco-Quest Tapes & Discs. This
was a theme that carried-over from the obsession of the 1970's and disco from the
Two-Tones and other projects. This would be the only release under that Studio
name.

The album cover was designed on a computer by Brad P. Brad also contributed a
little to the music of the time, mostly in the way of drum patterns. The scan below
shows some of the designing that went into the album cover.

The name of the album was a phrase used in a story written by a kid and published
in the "Kid's Corner" section of the newspaper. The full story of how the album was
titled can be read in this August 28, 2007 edition of the Collector's Corner
feature.

The music was a bit harsher on this album than any other to date. It showed the
new direction that the Studio was headed with musical style. It was after this
album that Mune Mud music was divided into a slower, pop style of music and the
heavier industrial sound, the latter becoming the NueroMorgue project. The main
influence at this time was a group called Mr. Bungle.

Inspiration for the songs came from an eclectic list of sources including Salvador
Dali, disco, Mr. Bungle, relationships, even a remake of a song from the unreleased
Mune Mud debut album.

Next Week's Album of the Week: Pryme Material by Mune Mud from 1993.
Posted by - Mune Mud - at 6:37 AM 0 comments
Labels: Album of the Week
M O N D AY , D E CE M BE R 2 4 , 2 0 0 7

Listen Online!

As a Christmas treat from the Studio, here is a classic Christmas song done ORC
style.

On December 25, 2002, Jason and Jimmy stole away from the family Christmas
party to record a short 5-song set of Christmas songs. Jason played the piano and
Jimmy sang. This session has never been released, so sit back and enjoy the debut
of ORC Christmas.

Click here to listen to the song.

Posted by - Mune Mud - at 6:14 AM 0 comments
Labels: Listen Online

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