Best Friend Forever Login

2011 was kinda bananas. I think the original plan was to kick ass and make a lot of progress on this dusty old music career of mine but that hasn’t really happened so much.

People have been asking me about my record and I really appreciate that you guys are looking forward to it despite all the radio silence from me. Honestly I’m still struggling with it, getting the songs how I want them while not going all Chinese Democracy. It’s a tough balance.

But it’s moving forward now and I’m optimistic I’ll be able to wrap it up soon. Thanks for your patience and support. Have a sweet 2012.

Hey everybody. I accidentally did a show a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty informal. A nice person came all the way from Hungary to see it which was a little nerve-wracking. It went fine though, thank you for coming (if you did).

I’ve been just plain working on my album. Growing a beard. Trying to drink sensibly. Also:  playing some video games here and there. Arkham City comes out next week. I might be too busy to play it, how sad is that. Seriously how sad for me are you right now tell me.

I keep thinking of writing about recording the album because they say you should keep your ‘online presence’ going but that’s so fucking boring. Does anyone really want to read that? “I’ve been re-recording all the basslines.” Oh kick ass, Brad. “I’m enjoying playing bass more.” Awesome, awesome! I’d rather talk about my awesome dog Rufus:

Just look at that fuckin’ guy. What a dude.

But I’m getting restless, which I think is a nice sign. I really want the album to be done so I can move on. I have all these fantasies about how creative I’m going to be when this is over and I’m not working on the same batch of songs anymore. How I shouldn’t wait so long between albums anymore. That all my fussing is really only mildly improving the songs. I should be more spontaneous! I should be more like Prince!

But I also want to obsess over every part of it forever until the end of time. I know that my restlessness will overcome my perfectionism soon though and that, my friends, is how babies are born.

[My new nephew Crue (as in Motley).]

You don’t get asked to be made an uncle, someone just makes you one.

September demo: Feel Free! Plastic Surgery! [5 MB]

It’ll be track #4 on Guess Who’s a Mess.

Tomorrow I’m going to be putting all the demo instrumentals and vocals online on that page so anyone can mess with them before I’m done. Stay tuned, etc.

July demo: Waste of TV [5 MB]

This is track #7 on the little album I’ve been slowly putting demos up for. Also as a bonus experiment, there’s an album page and a tentative title for it now: Guess Who’s a Mess.

I’m not sure what else to do with that page, anyone have any ideas?

The obvious one everyone suggests to me is funding/donations or pre-orders. I’m iffy on that. Mostly I don’t want to owe anyone anything creatively (aka I may flake out). And the money I’d get isn’t going to make or break the production so it feels pointless.

So what’s left? Attention and collaboration/contributions?

Here’s what my next CD will look like:

The entire design is in ANSI art by Fredrik Olsson.

A while back I asked for some backing vocals to put on the title track of my next album. The mix is just about done and here are the folks whose vocals got included:

SexyJosh, Eric Peterson, Badcactus, Jeff Fal, Jonathan Coulton, Katherine Glover, Anti-M and Justin Bacon.

I’ll be trying to track you down soon for your real name and/or address for the liner notes and album shipping but if you happen to see this, please drop me a line. Thanks to everyone for participating!

Crunch time. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Mixing the album. Did a mixing meeting with Rob and am back on track with the album. Actually excited about getting it out, which is strange for me. It’s really taking an embarrassing amount of time. You would think this would result in exponential improvements and new material and awesomeness and you would be wrong. Just a lot of coordination and logistic delays.

I’ve been reading a lot about the album being dead and all I can think is: THANK GOD. I’m not sure I ever want to do this again. But what to do instead?

Getting ready for Harvard + the show in Cambridge. Looks like there’ll be a Metafilter meet before and during (and after?) the show on the 12th. I think I’ve got my show pretty much down, new Firewire card = improved stability, blah nerd blah.

The big thing lately has been packing all my gear to get down there. Do you know what a custom guitar flight case costs? I will tell you: around $500. That’s five HUNDRED dollars. It would be cheaper for me to fly to Boston, buy a $250 guitar and throw it in the garbage on my way home. I honestly haven’t ruled that out but for now I’ve ordered an SKB Freedom case which apparently “smells” (read the reviews) but works good.

If my guitar is shattered on the way there, I’ll buy a cheap one for the shows and give it to a homeless person before I leave.

Getting the website ready for the new album. I’ve been re-jiggering all my store stuff for the new album and beyond and that should go live in the next week I hope. Due to lack of sales I’ve decided to drop the OGG format and limit it to MP3 and FLAC. Simpler for everyone. OGG fans can always get the FLAC and convert it as it’s lossless after all. I want to support open formats but I’d rather it not feel like a waste of time, energy and resources.

The double CD ccMixter Brad Sucks remix compilation is finally out! Links: CD 1, CD 2.

ccMixter is a website where artists can upload source files under Creative Commons licenses so that other artists can remix them free of legal worries. Their community has been very kind to me.

Like everything I seem to do, this compilation took way too long to put together but it has somehow struggled its way into daylight.

Thanks of course to all the talented remixers, Magnatune, ccMixter, Victor Stone in particular for his help and Katie Sekelsky for the awesome album art.

This isn’t the first remix album for I Don’t Know What I’m Doing, but it’ll be the last I work on. Other I Don’t Know What I’m Doing remix albums that I know of:

• I Don’t Know What I’m Doing Remixed
• I Don’t Know What I’m Doing Either (MC Jack in the Box vs. Brad Sucks)

I know there are a few other full-album remix projects out there in various states of completion so let me know if I’m missing anything.