Studio News: ORC Is in the Studio

ORC has returned!

Gargoyle, a member of ORC, just couldn't wait until January 1 to start the new ORC album. He is seen here just an hour ago in Metal XOR Studio working on a song called "Silver Sphere."

Stay tuned for more updates on this latest recording endeavor.

Just For Fun #5

HAPPY NEW YEAR

From all of us at Metal XOR Studio

This Day in Studio History

It was December 31, 2002, when the Mune Mud album Underwater Problem Factory 10th Anniversary Collection was released.

Underwater Problem Factory was the second album in the "10th Anniversary Collection" series. The series remastered original Mune Mud albums, including unreleased tracks and demo versions of songs on the album as bonus tracks, and re-released the album on CD. The series wrapped up this year with Sleep State F 10th Anniversary Collection.

Album of the Week #19: Pryme Material

Project name: Mune Mud
Album name: Pryme Material
Release date: September 7, 1993
Release format: cassette
Studio name: Circle IX Studio

Tracks:
1. Reality Found Me
2. Four Concepts
3. Clouds Set Free
4. An Urban Theory
5. The Only One
6. Up A Lonely Road
7. Etesian Wind (Ethereal Mix)
8. Turn It Up
9. I Still Know You
10. To My Owl
11. Wait A While
12. SID II
13. Aqua Celeste
14. You Noticed Me
15. Mental Instru
16. I'm Sick
17. UFO

This was the follow-up to 1992's Mune Mud album titled Underwater Problem Factory. The music on Underwater Problem Factory was really diverting from the easy-listening pop sound that the previous Mune Mud album Olympus had introduced. So it was during this Pryme Material "era" that the music was split into two projects, the original pop music was left as Mune Mud but the weirder heavy music using many effects was now labeled NueroMorgue.

So with the heavier music filtered out, Mune Mud's sophomoric effort was able to take shape as a more mature album than the previous two. The story-telling continued in songs such as "Reality Found Me" and "UFO". A few of the songs revisited earlier versions. A few of the songs were heavily nature-influenced (including "To My Owl", "Aqua Celeste", etc). And now the influence of Jason's favorite band, R.E.M., was starting to come through in some of the guitar work and arrangements.

The album title came from a game that Jason grew up with, Dungeons & Dragons. There was a drawing in one of the books that showed all the known planes of existence. The one we live is called the Prime Material plane. Although other-worldly sounding at times, the album is based in our world so he chose that plane as the title but changed the spelling of "Prime" to "Pryme".

For the album cover Jason went back to his Commodore 64, the same one used to create the Mune Mud debut album cover a few years earlier. It showed a 4th-dimensional hyper-cube of the Mune Mud symbol.

The Studio was now called Circle IX Studio, a more serious name than the previous Quintessential Disco-Quest Tapes & Discs. The name change came about when the Studio received a large equipment upgrade now providing the ability to sequence songs and offering a much larger sound library with its new sound module and use of MIDI.

A lyric booklet was created for this album. It was a bit more elaborate that the one for Underwater Problem Factory. This one had a table of contents, an introduction by Jason, and an equipment list.

It would be three more years before the next studio album was released from Mune Mud, but this album held up well and still provides an easy listen to the ears.

In 2003, the Pryme Material 10th Anniversary Collection was released.


Next week's Album of the Week: Devaulted by Mune Mud from 1994.

This Day in Studio History

It was December 29, 2001, when the Mune Mud album Olympus 10th Anniversary Collection was released.

Olympus was the first album in the "10th Anniversary Collection" series. The series remastered original Mune Mud albums, including unreleased tracks and demo versions of songs on the album as bonus tracks, and re-released the album on CD. The series wrapped up this year with Sleep State F 10th Anniversary Collection.

Article: Chimera

The 1997 Mune Mud album Sleep State F came with an information-packed companion 3.5" floppy disk called "Chimera".

The Main Menu on the disk (shown below) listed six options.

The [A] option opened a screen that listed facts about the album. The facts were:
1. Total running time is 56 minutes and 33 seconds
2. Guest musician: Bill W on "Molybdenum"
3. Metal XOR Catalog Number: MXOR-17 (Lyric code MM06-09)
4. Contains 19 tracks (15 new, 4 remakes)
5. Earliest song recorded on May 13, 1996 "Sleeping with the Fishes"
6. Latest song recorded on September 4, 1997 "Before (Again)"
7. Shortest song is "Overfed" at 1:49
8. Longest song is "Etesian Wind (Denny's Mix)" at 4:00
9. There are 8 instrumentals on the album
10. Official release date was Tuesday, September 23, 1997
11. Songs were recorded at three different locations for the album
12. Only song with non-Studio sample is "Biobot". The background clanging noise throughout the song came from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the Wonkamobile).
13. This album was originally to be called Equation of Time Part II because most of the songs were outtakes from Equation of Time.
14. The second album title that was dropped was Equitation of Python.
15. The alternate album cover image was a cross-section of the brain
16. A video for "Molybdenum" was produced before the album was released.
17. "Prospecting Saturn" was recorded to be on a celestial album.

The [B] option listed lyrics to all the songs on the album

The [C] option listed lyrics to outtake songs that did not appear on the album ("Atlantis", "Crystal", "Little Germany", "Market Connection", "One Second", "Sepia", "The End Den", "You Took Me Down", and "Winter Song")

The [D] option was a FAQ about the disk and the album

The [E] option contained contact information

The [X] option exited the program and returned to DOS


Buried within the lyrics directory was a hidden file that contained a message from the Studio:

Also hidden on the disk was a picture labeled "Metal XOR". Could this actually be a tie-in to the upcoming project from ORC?...

Project Spotlight #18: Early Keyboards

In the year 1986, Harry and Jason went to Brad's house a few times for Pheonix jam sessions. Harry would take his Korg DW-8000 synthesizer but Jason had no instrument to take (he only played piano at this point). So he received his birthday present early that fall, a portable Yamaha keyboard, so he could participate in the jams.

In addition to Pheonix, he also recorded his own solo music at home with the keyboard. He hooked a microphone to his stereo and put it next to the keyboard's speaker and recorded four tapes of songs this way.

The first tape he finished was a collection of Christmas songs called Merry Christmas to Me. He finished this first because he gave a couple copies out as Christmas gifts to various family members that year.

He also finished his first tape of non-Christmas songs before November of 1986. It was called The Deuce (named because it was tape number two). A few of the early songs on the tape were covers he enjoyed playing out of his piano books, but the rest were songs he wrote himself.

In 1987 he finished his third tape called Diversity au Troi, part of this title coming from the French class he took during the 1986-7 school year. These songs were a little more complicated. He even experimented with some layering by recording the first "track" on the left channel of the tape and then recording a second "track" on the right channel. He also experimented with multitrack recording be recording to one tape, then recording himself playing a second keyboard part while playing the first tape back on another tape deck.

It was some time in 1987 that he finished his fourth and last keyboard tape. It was titled Quadraphonic and contained more examples of experimental recording techniques.

It was in March of 1987 that he also recorded a tape called Songs to Enjoy. These were cover songs from his piano books including "Moon River", "Alley Cat", "Somewhere, My Love", and eight more.

In early 1988 Jason borrowed an electric guitar from a friend. Then he concentrated on guitar which led to the formation of the band The Two-Tones in early 1988. Thus the early period of keyboards came to an end.

Just For Fun #4

MERRY CHRISTMAS

From all of us at Metal XOR Studio

This Day in Studio History

This is a Studio History two-fer. . .

The first took place on December 25, 1997. This was a videotaped ORC jam session with Jason on electric guitar, drum machine, and keyboard and Jimmy on bass guitar. They played nine songs consisting of five ORC songs, "Contact" by Mune Mud, "A Dreamworld" by NueroMud, and two R.E.M. covers ("Man on the Moon" and "Radio Free Europe").

The second took place 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. You can here one of the songs here.

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.

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.

In 2002, the Underwater Problem Factory 10th Anniversary Collection was released.


Next Week's Album of the Week: Pryme Material by Mune Mud from 1993.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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]
ORC Thru the Vent [September 23, 2008]
Equinox Dulcet Ethical Travels on a Green Planet [December 8, 2009]
Mune Mud The Zodiac Road [December 14, 2010]
Isthmus Gemini Jay [March 22, 2011]
Mune Mud Beyond the Space King [April 26, 2011]
The Collective Brain The Brain Theatre Vol 1 [August 7, 2012]
The Collective Brain The Brain Theatre Vol 2 [December 17, 2013]

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.

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.

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?

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. . .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.]

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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. . .

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.

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.

Blog News: 100th Post

This is post #100!!!

It is safe to say the surface has been scratched on the amount of information that the Studio wants to share with the world. What began as an idea for a weekly post has exploded into a flow of content much larger and faster than I ever dreamed. Even an attempt to slow down the frequency of the posts failed. So I give up. I will continue to post whenever I feel a post is needed, which is usually daily.

It is interesting to see how much online change there has been for the Studio since the blog began. I have always wanted a way to organize all my Studio information, this is it. I now have this blog site as well as four other websites:

The Metal XOR Studio Information Source
The Traveling Deengelburys website
Albino Boy website
The ORC blog (which will become more active after January 1)

Let's see how much more the Studio grows online in the coming months. See you at 150. . .

Project Spotlight #14: What is X-Selsior?

Records of Jason's solo career were not kept very well from 1987-1991. There is an occasional date on a lyric sheet or some other document, but recordings usually were not dated. So that makes it tough to piece together this part of the Studio's history (before the Studio was a studio).

Harry and Jason had finished with their earliest music career (ad-libbed singing to instrumental music on the radio) by 1988 or so. In fact, their band Pheonix had been put together and they were busy with that. But at home Jason continued the radio singing. But now he was recording the music off the radio, writing lyrics to the songs, and then recording himself singing his lyrics to the music he had recorded off the radio. The solo career was evolving. He called it X-Selsior.

There was only one album released as X-Selsior. It was titled One Way. It was a short album compiling the songs he had recorded this way on his own. It was probably finished in 1988 or 1989. There are no plans to re-issue this album on CD.


Next week: What is Parvo?

This Day in Studio History

It was November 27, 1997, when Jason and Jimmy recorded themselves having an acoustic guitar jam session as the band ORC in Jason's garage. The session was recorded on a microcasette recorder and became known as the Theater of Pain jam session. The significance of that session was that demos for a few of the songs that made it on their 1999 Purging the Great Abyss album were recorded that night. There were many other demos recorded that have not been polished... yet.

That decade went by fast!

Lyric Booklet #5: Equation of Time

The fifth album to include lyrics was Mune Mud's 1996 album Equation of Time. The booklet was titled "A Japanese Lullaby" and was only eight pages long. It was the first lyric booklet created on a computer.

This was the first of what was to be a new series of "mini" lyric booklets (there ended up only two in the series). It measured 4"x5.5". The print was very small so 2-3 songs could fit on each page. There was no table of contents or epilogue to this booklet, just lyrics to every song on the album.

This booklet was released on August 20, 1996, one week after the album was released. After this "mini" booklet was made, the Studio went back to create booklets for older albums, starting with NueroMud's 1994 album ...Libra 971. But the project ended after the second booklet was released.

The title came from an anagram that was printed on the inside of the Equation of Time tape sleeve. The phrase came from an old black & white spy movie Jason watched at work one day. The anagram of 'Japanese Lullaby' was added to the tape sleeve and no one was able to figure it out. Funnier yet, no one realized the answer was right under their nose when the lyric booklet was handed out.

Album of the Week #14: One Way

Project name: X-Selsior
Album name: One Way
Release date: unreleased (recorded in 1988-1989)
Release format: cassette
Studio name: none

Tracks:
1. The Fly in Your Eye
2. Summertime
3. F-14
4. Jungle Fever
5. You Are the Bread of My Bologna Sandwich
6. Any Day Now
7. Trop Tard Pour Au Revoir
8. Time

Records of Jason's solo career were not kept very well from 1987-1991. There is an occasional date on a lyric sheet or some other document, but recordings usually were not dated. So that makes it tough to piece together this part of the Studio's history (before the Studio was a studio).

Harry and Jason had finished with their earliest music career (ad-libbed singing to instrumental music on the radio) by 1988 or so. In fact, their band Pheonix had been put together and they were busy with that. But at home Jason continued the radio singing. But now he was recording the music off the radio, writing lyrics to the songs, and then recording himself singing his lyrics to the music he had recorded off the radio. The solo career was evolving.

This was a short album compiling the songs he had recorded this way. It was probably finished in 1988 or 1989. No one has heard this album and possibly never will.

The album title undoubtedly came from a road sign Jason saw somewhere. X-Selsior, with the strange spelling (which he was prone to do in the earlier Studio years), is the name he gave his first solo project. And this was the first time he had compiled songs to make an "album", complete with hand-drawn album cover.

There is only one copy of this album in the world and there are no plans to re-issue it on CD. It is just an embarrassing part of the Studio's early history.


Next week's Album of the Week: Parabolic Dish Festival Volume 1 by Isthmus from 1998.

Listen Online!

The seventh installment of Listen Online features Nikki singing at church.

She and Jason have written a couple of songs in the last few years that she sang at church. This song was called "He Lifts Me Up". It was originally a song Jason had written and recorded for Nikki called "Fallen Star Wish" which appeared on their 2001 EP Love Songs. The music remained the same but they wrote new lyrics for it. Jason videotaped her singing it at church and pulled the audio from the tape for the "live" version of the song.

Click here to listen to the live version of the song.

Collector's Corner #20

Jason and Nikki have written and recorded a few songs together. A few of them were for church. Below is the March 14, 1999, bulletin that lists Nicole Meyer (prior to being married to Mune Mud) as singing the Message in Song.

A hand-written note by Jason says "He Lifts Me Up". That was the song Nikki sang that day at church.

This bulletin remains in the Holy Relic Wing of the Metal XOR Studio Museum.

Just For Fun #3

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

From all of us at Metal XOR Studio

Project Spotlight #13: Who are the Two-Tones?

Harry, Jason, and Brad had been playing together for a while as the band Pheonix. In early 1988, Brad (the drummer) was replaced by Harry's Casio drum machine and Jason borrowed a friend's guitar. What resulted was Harry and Jason having their own jam sessions, often with their friend Jeremy as their singer. They had become the Two-Tones.

Where did the name come from? One possibility is the uniforms Jason and Jeremy had to wear for their 1988 summer job at Dairy Queen. The pants were a dark brown and the shirts were beige. They often made fun of their two-tone brown uniforms so that may be what inspired the name. Another possibility is a two-tone brown van that used to drive around their town. They made fun of it every time they saw it.

The band consisted of Harry on keyboards and drum machine, Jason on guitar, and Jeremy singing. On occasion their friend Darrin or Joe would join them. Their sessions usually consisted of them sitting around a cassette recorder playing their songs only one or two times before recording them. All three took turns at writing lyrics, usually inspired by things or people from high school.

On May 24, 1988, the Two-Tones recorded their most popular song, "Hog". It was inspired by their English teacher. Their frustration with her had been building up all school year so at the end of their junior year they wrote and recorded a song about her. They played it for many of their friends and family. People often said it sounded like the Beastie Boys song "Fight for Your Right (to Party)", which it unintentionally did.

For the next year they recorded many songs together. In June of 1989, Jeremy left for West Point. It was the summer of 1989 that Jason put together the Two-Tones album called Heimlich Maneuver, along with a lyric booklet for the album. It was then officially released on December 5, 1989. Not many people heard that album. Having graduated from high school, a lot of their friends were moving away or getting jobs, the care-free high school days were gone.

In the fall of 1989, Harry and Jason asked their friend Joe to replace Jeremy as the third official member of the Two-Tones. They got together for a few recording sessions over the next several months. Below are some pictures of the "new" Two-Tones.

(above, l-r: Jason, Joe, Harry)

May 22, 1990, was their last recording session. They recorded the first take on a song called "Midnight High" using an old mixer Jason got from work. The song needed more work and even though suggestions were made on how to improve it, the Two-Tones never played again.

By now Jason was busy with his solo music career. He had been recording his own keyboard songs for a while and in June of 1990 he would record what would become one of the earliest Mune Mud songs, "Plutonic". Harry was busy with another band that played at parties and clubs. And Joe gave up the band life and became a radio DJ.

In 2000, a detailed account of the Two-Tones was written. Metal XOR Studio is trying to acquire the rights to that story. When they do it will be updated and published for all to read.


Next week: What is X-Selsior?

This Day in Studio History

Eleven years ago...

It was November 19, 1996, when the second Isthmus album, Lambskin Temple, was released.

Album of the Week #13: Ideas

Project name: Isthmus
Album name: Ideas
Release date: May 6, 1997
Release format: cassette
Studio name: Metal XOR Studio

Tracks:
1. King of Pain
2. ? [drum.guitar]
3. Tim Song
4. Wicked Game [slow version]
5. Lithium
6. Bang a Gong
7. Free [version 1]
8. ? [bass.guitar]
9. ? [bass.guitar fast]
10. Basket Case
11. Your Jacket Is Red
12. Here Comes the Sun
13. Walrus
14. I Wanna Hold Your Hand
15. Love Me Do [w/Lovely Rita ending]
16. We Can Work It Out
17. Dead Phone
18. ? [bass.guitar riff]
19. ? [drums.guitar]
20. ? [drums.bass.guitar]
21. [sequence]
22. Farmer's Anguish [studio version]
23. Rap

Was this really an album? Sort of. This was a collection of unused material from the first Isthmus jam on February 5, 1995, the session that resulted in their first album, Electric Field Donut.

This was more for Jason and Harry's enjoyment. In fact, they are the only two that have copies of the album. Almost half the songs on this album were under one minute long, many of the others were under two minutes. And some of the tracks weren't even named, just listed as "?" followed by the instruments used to create them.

The tape also had some cover songs that were not good enough to be on Electric Field Donut. It also had a few originals that were not included on the first album.


Next week's Album of the Week: One Way by X-Selsior from 1990.

Collector's Corner #19

"Etesian Wind" was a popular song on Mune Mud's 1991 album Olympus. There are more versions of this song than any other song Metal XOR Studio has recorded. Yet the same question came up time after time for years after the song came out: what is Etesian Wind?

Jason's not even sure where the term came from. He had heard it somewhere, liked how it sounded, so used it for the music he had just recorded. Then he started looking for its meaning. This was years before the advent of the Internet, so research was done at libraries and by talking to various people he knew. No matter how hard he searched, he could find no references to Etesian Wind.

Steve, Jason's co-worker, brought a philosophy book to work on Wednesday, August 21, 1996. The name of the book was "An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science." It did not seem of much interest to Jason until Steve turned to page 27. There, in black and white, was the answer that Jason had been searching for for years. A reference to Etesian Wind...

The last paragraph on the page reads:

"...if the Etesian Winds produced the effect, the other rivers which flow in a direction opposite to those winds ought to present the same phenomenon as the Nile, and the more so as they are all smaller streams and have a weaker current. But those rivers, of which there are many both in Syria and Libya, are entirely unlike the Nile in this respect."

It still wasn't real clear, but Jason finally had some idea what the Etesian Winds were. For further reading on Etesian Winds, you can click here for a Google result that will tell you more than you will ever want to know about the subject.

Today these photocopies of that philosophy book are locked away in the Solved Mysteries Wing of the Metal XOR Studio Museum.

Listen Online!

The sixth installment of this feature isn't a song from a band. It's a song that was put together by Jason following a real-life incident that became known as the Albino Boy incident!

Using sound clips from the video tape of the Albino Boy incident, Jason composed a song on November 4, 1994, called "Albino Boy Song". It was an instant success where he worked and among friends and family.

It was more than a year later, on December 18, 1995, when he revisited the song. Using his computer this time he spiced up the original song and created "Albino Boy Song (Dance Mix)". This version was even more popular than the first.

Click here to listen to the original song.
Click here to listen to the dance mix of the song.

A Look Back...

Local legend has it that an albino boy was playing on some railroad tracks and was killed by a train. So now when you park your car on the road that crosses the tracks, your car rolls uphill towards the tracks. They say it's the ghost of Albino Boy pushing your car towards the tracks.

On October 20, 1994, Jason, Harry, and Darrin ventured to investigate this urban legend. With camcorder in hand, they parked the car and sure enough the car rolled towards the tracks. But skeptics Jason and Harry were conducting an experiment to prove the road sloped downwards towards the tracks and that the road sloping downwards away from the tracks was an optical illusion when a car pulled up to them, the back door opened, and a cranky old Irish man stepped out and said to them "The best thing you guys can do is get your [donkey] out of here!" Jason and Harry made their wise guy responses and it soon turned into a heated conversation. Finally the conflict came to a head when it nearly came to fisticuffs between the Irish fellow and Jason. The best part was all of this was on video!

The video was shown to most of their friends and family and was an instant classic. Jason sent the audio of the incident from the video tape to the morning show on a local radio station who had mentioned the Albino Boy urban legend. The station enjoyed the audio so much they played it on air with their commentary. It wasn't long after that Jason recorded the "Albino Boy" song using sound bites taken from the video tape. Below is the advertisement he faxed to the radio station the day before he dropped off the tape of the song.

Unfortunately the song was never played on the radio. More than a year later he recorded another version called "Albino Boy (Dance Mix)" which was more techno/dance than the original song.

To this day the Albino Boy incident is talked about and often re-enacted where Jason and Harry work. The incident and both songs will probably live forever.

Update
Click here to visit the Albino Boy website. It has the entire story and many files to read and listen to. Enjoy!

Project Spotlight #12: What is Pheonix?

Today we travel back in time to Harry and Jason's first band. . . Pheonix. There were a couple of incarnations of the band in the late 1980's, but the core members were Harry, Jason, and Brad. And yes, Pheonix was misspelled (except in the album cover concept art below drawn by Jason).


Pheonix originally began around the year 1986. It consisted of Harry on synthesizer, Mark on guitar, and Brad on drums. They got together a few times and played songs from Genesis, Black Sabbath, Boston, and other popular groups of the time. It wasn't long until Jason had his own keyboard and started jamming with them. The jam sessions were very unorganized, usually with more than one song being played at a time, and not much musical progress was made. Only a few recordings from this time exist.


Then Jim Bob joined them with his bass for a session or two. They created a track list of original titles for their first album but only two of the songs were ever pursued, "Princess" and "Changing Man." So their Wrath of Pheonix album and their 1989 Circus Tour were never fully realized. In fact, by 1988 the band had dissolved and the only members left were Harry, Jason, and Brad. After that they went on to create other musical projects.

Will Pheonix some day rise from the ashes to finally record their Wrath album? Don't hold your breath!


Next week: Who are the Two-Tones?

Collector's Corner #18

What was the stylish new fad for the summer of '89? The Traveling Deengelburys t-shirt!!!

The front of the tee sported the Deengelbury logo: a Traveling Deengelburys banner draped around the world which hid a golden eagle clutching a guitar in its left claw. No one knows what all that means, but it was cool to look at!

The back of the shirt advertised their 1989 Lost in Time World Tour. Inside the circle was printed "The Brothers D" which was the collective nickname for the band. Each band member also had their own Deengelbury nickname. These nicknames were hand-written by each member around the outside of the circle. And buried behind everything is a list of towns on their tour. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, the tour was canceled after the first stop.

There were fifty-three T-shirts printed for the show. They sold for $8 each and sold out! There were also six jerseys made but those went to members of the band and not available to the public. Each shirt also came with its own Certificate of Authenticity signed by Wally Deengelbury.

Today the Studio has one T-shirt and one jersey packed away in protective storage. Who knows what happened to the other shirts? Keep checking e-Bay, you may one day get your chance to own one of these apparel pieces of history!