A long time ago I put out a call for album art for the new record and got a lot of great submissions in the forum thread. A few complications arose that I hadn’t realized — mainly that for printing I need a super high-res version. Plus a cover isn’t enough for a CD, you also need the back, the inside and the disc face, etc, etc. I’d love to put the submitted covers in a gallery so people can use them as the cover art if they want.

Here are some of my favorites:

(credits: Douchegordijn, Ash, Forsten, onemorechris — thanks to everyone who submitted!)

I also had a difficult time deciding what really fit with the album. I take that kind of stuff maybe too seriously and felt lost. When I was whining about my lack of direction a friend reminded me that the best way to find a focus is to go personal, find something meaningful to me. Without an anchor in reality I just float around.

ANSI art was a big part of my life during my isolated nerdy teenage years. That time was largely defined by dropping out of high school, hanging out on BBS’s, having no friends, playing video games, rarely going outside and antidepressants. The songs on Out of It are all about those sorts of feelings, so I felt a strong connection. I’m not sure it’s one many people will pick up on at first glance, but it’s important to me that it’s there.

And now I’m gonna go play some video games. Life is so different now!

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.

Thanks to everyone who submitted vocals for Out of It. We got 54 entries and that’s pretty awesome. Quite a weird sensation to hear so many people singing my song.

Now comes trying to mix the track, woo woo! While I’ll only be using a handful of the vocals on the record (I think) I’ll definitely put together some other mixes with more/all of the vocals.

Just a reminder: you have until this Sunday November 11th to get your vocals in for Out of It. Details here.

So far there are 22 vocal recordings on ccMixter which is a decent haul. I was hoping there would be so many it would crash the Internet so here’s hoping business picks up this week!

I was warned my Out of It backup vocals deadline was too short and either that’s true or not many people want to participate. Regardless, you’ve now got until November 11th instead. Read the original request and get the song MP3 here.

I’ve also clarified that I need a recording of your vocals alone (not mixed with the original track) in order to mix you in. Thanks!

Hey hey. I need some background vocals for the title track of my next album (Out of It). I kinda want it to have a singalong vibe. Instead of just going to some of my singing buddies I thought it’d be fun to try opening it up to anyone out there.

So here’s the unfinished song with rough vocals:

Out of It [3MB MP3] (lyrics)

How to play along at home:

1. Record yourself singing along with this song as best you can. It doesn’t have to be the greatest quality, but try to keep clipping/distortion & mic pops to a minimum. Note: I need a recording of only your singing to be able to mix you in.

2. Upload your audio files to ccMixter.org under an Attribution Creative Commons license (which gives anyone permission to use your vocals as long as they give you credit). Please tag the file with “outofit”. Update: ccMixter has a submit form specifically for this. If you’re logged in, go here.

Deadline: Monday, October 15th Sunday, November 11th.

What’s in it for you: If I use your vocals I’ll credit you in the liner notes for the song and ship you out a free copy of the record when it’s done. Woo!

Thank you! (You can see the submissions so far here.)

Update: fieryprophet has mixed all the vocals as of October 16th, check it out [5mb mp3].