Happy almost-new-years everybody! Time for either the big new year’s clean and hatsumode, or lots of vodka science and quality assurance testing, or hey, why not have both? I’m for it. We could call it Vodka Science Day, throw it in with the rest. Only downside is I’m not sure anyone would notice. I’ve, er, “got friends” who just call that Thursday.

If your music collection needs refreshing, the big Mega-Music New Year’s Download that I talked about before is still going, so go grab that while you can. And all my Bandcamp downloads are still set pay-what-you-like, too.

If you had – or still have – trouble with their official download link, here is a backup that I put up myself, so use that instead.

Whup, gotta gear up, kaiju’s about ready to hatch, and you know what a mess that is! Have fun out there, and try not to die.

That’s supervillain for, “Hey – I like you.”

Okay, so I mentioned the big project? Well, a bunch of bands, including us, SJ Tucker, Heather Dale, and lots more, got together for a truly massive free mega-music ‪download package. Seriously, there are like 39 artists in this thing:

If the download link there doesn’t work for you for some reason – it’s been a bit swamped! – here’s a direct link to the .zip file with all songs:

In addition to the previous, there’s Betsy Tinney, Talis Kimberly, Pandora Celtica, Julia Ecklar, Ginger Doss, Whisky Bards, Tom Smith, us – so many different bands.

GO GET IT. And if you like what you hear, a lot of us are doing specials right now on our own download pages, like us, where everything of ours on Bandcamp is currently pay-what-you-like. That won’t last forever, so GO. NOW.

Click for full-size

And a happy new year to everyone!

eta: Okay, maybe having everybody involved tell all their people at the same time wasn’t the best idea. XD If you’re seeing an XML error, it’s a result of server overload; try again in 15 minutes to an hour. But my Bandcamp downloads are working fine – Bandcamp is more robust. 😀

I have released a slightly updated version of Kaiju Meat. It’s not really a remix as much as it is a couple of technical corrections and undoing a compromise made originally because I didn’t have time to build the automation to do what I actually wanted to do. Now I have.

People who listen mostly on earbuds will hear the most difference, mostly during the bridge. People who listen on laptop speakers, second most, same place. Anna says it sounds better but wasn’t sure why. That’s exactly what I wanted.

This is all prompted by a project. Yep, there’s a reason. Stay tuned, hopefully soon. 😀

Been fiddling with the new pre-amp and ribbon microphone I built. Also with alternate tunings; I’ve found that tuning up a half-step really resonates my zouk; I’ll be doing that on the soundtrack album for Something’s Coming.

Reminder: everything on Bandcamp is still set to pay-what-you-like download. Grab while grabbing is good! Some of you have been and some of you have thrown tip money too, for which I think you muchly. ^_^

I also found that dropping three steps but keeping the high string on E on the zouk results in kind of an E sus 2 opening tuning; it interacts interestingly playing against a mandolin in standard tuning. I made a quick recording of a simple progression – it’s rough, but you get the idea.

That’s recorded on the ribbon microphone and new pre-amp, too if you’re wondering what those sound like. I’ve no idea how to use this mic to best effect yet, but I’m liking the sound so far.

While a song is not a documentary, all of these variations actually happened, the first one repeatedly. In none of those moments some people call “ironic” but actually contains no actual irony, I was at a party this weekend hosted by the Agora featuring the Attoparsec Cocktail Engine, and while it was not capable of making a true kamikaze, it was capable of making one of these terrifying variants.

I labelled the programme card for it, “PAIN.”

Enjoy:

You can’t get a good kamikaze in Vancouver
2013 Crime and the Forces of Evil
or maybe Mary Kaye and the Cosmetics, it’s that kind of song

Should probably be played with banjo or possibly ukelele
Also tuba. BOMP bomp BOMP bomp BOMP bomp BOMP bomp

Chorus:
You can’t get a good kamikaze in Vancouver
It doesn’t matter where you buy your drinks
You can’t get a good kamikaze in Vancouver
Gods know I’ve tried and every one just stinks

Verse 1:
[on beat] Sometimes they’ll swap out the lime for orange
A trick they learned while serving in the Navy
I should be glad at least it is a citrus
But something I could rhyme would be nice maybe

Oh
[chorus]

Verse 2:

The Sheraton Vancouver’s pretty pleasant
Although it’s really really really really really really really really really really far away
The kamikazi served was phosphorescent
That kaiju flavour sticks with you all day

RAR!
[chorus]

Verse 3:
Le Vent du Nord was playing in Coquitlam
     Spoken: Yeah, I’m gonna rhyme something with Coquitlam. Watch me.
Le Festival du Bois’s a panacea
The drinking at the restaurant left my face numb
A kamikazi’s not a margarita!

SALT?!
[chorus]

Verse 4:
Davie during Pride is made of glitter
Commercial is a starker raving zoo
The kami that they served me was so bitter
The other girls around me bit ‘er too

ar ar ar
[chorus]
But still I tryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…

Hello, thousand new visitors over the last couple of days! I hope some of you come back to see this post, too.

You’re here because of PAX and the politics and sexism and misogyny in geek culture, and not my music. That’s cool. Given where most of you are coming from, I’m thinking you’re against the whole sexism and misogynistic exclusion thing. That’s very cool.

There’s one thing I most want shared from all of this, and it’s not the recent PAX posts. It’s another post I wrote a few weeks ago. It’s called gatekeeping and recourse, and it’s about a tactic guys – and mostly only guys – can use against sexist exclusion in gaming and fandom.

The details are in the post, but it’s an old Civil Rights Movement tactic. It’s minimal and simple, and doesn’t start trouble; it’s about short-circuiting a feedback loop that supports exclusion, and it’s a small thing which is nonetheless known to be effective. It’s not new, and I didn’t invent it; Stetson Kennedy did, or, at least, I got it from him.

I want it out there because it’s a tangible action people can take. Please, particularly if you’re a guy in gaming, but regardless – go read about it, if you haven’t, and forward it to your supportive guy friends.

Here’s the raw link:

https://crimeandtheforcesofevil.com/blog/2013/08/gatekeeping/

Thanks.

And if you decide to stick around, we put out a new song in August, for Jaegercon, the Pacific Rim fan convention. It’s new, and a free download. It was inspired by Pacific Rim, but it’s fun for kaiju flick fans in general; you just have to know that Jaegers (“Hunters”) are kaiju-fighting mecha. Give it a listen, won’t you?

…or at least is the most explosively out-of-nowhere-to-epic fandom I’ve ever seen.

Honestly. This must be what Star Wars must’ve been like. Jaegercon, organised out of nowhere, online, in about two weeks. Real-life gatherings in dozens of cities; Manila got together first, I think, at least on K-Day, thanks to calendar advantages; we had 23 or so Saturday night in Seattle; San Francisco led the pack with 40-something? Vancouver and Toronto had big groups too.

Hundreds if not thousands of people checked in on Tumblr; 500ish have signed the roll call post that went out a couple of hours ago, but you have to both see it and specifically sign it, which will leave out many. There were cosplay events (awards get announced Monday – Mako Mori and fem!Tendo were both particularly popular), videos, gift exchanges, essays (particularly focusing on Mako Mori, who, as a lead character woman of colour, people have been desperately thirsting for, particularly in this Summer Of No Women In Movies), fanart, analysis (my favourites being of the use of politeness levels in the Japanese dialogue), music (not just me)…

…and honestly, I can’t get over the reaction to Kaiju Meat, the song I did for the con. Nearly 600 people have played this thing, it has dozens of notes and reblogs, people have been donating money for this free download, and two people I don’t even know also brought it to the party, posting about it separately, themselves.

I don’t even know how that happened. To borrow a Texas phrase, I am whomperjawed by that.

(If you missed the link, it’s here. It’s a different sound for me, but I really think I hit my T-Rex-in-F-14s goal. Thanks again to tereshkova2001 and Kathryn Tewson for volunteer chorus vocals, and Flatbear for making badges for everybody to print. 😀 )

Then, while all this was happening, the Russians, Sasha and Aleksis, dropped by – or, rather, their actors. As did the Triplets, and three crowd actors who were there for a lot of the Shatterdome scenes in Hong Kong. Then the screenwriter, Travis Beacham, showed up. And the editor of the art book, Elaine Morethansky, and the movie’s producer, then finally the director, Guillermo del Toro. All in interviews, answering questions from the Jaegercon crowd.

There’s already a Fanlore page about it. It has links to the interviews, and to some of the alt-universe threads which have started up.

But, yeah – this has been an amazing out-of-nowhere experience. Tumblr, Pacific Rim fandom; I’m not entirely sure what you’re doing, but please, please keep doing it; you are doing it right.

Well, this is exciting – Kaiju Meat seems to be going over very well:

Total Plays

I am surprised! And excited! And a little confused about what to do now, if anything! So since 60% of online music plays are on YouTube, I made a mostly-static-image YouTube video for it, since that’s easy to do. If you’re one of those people who makes YouTube playlists and such, here y’go:

Props again to tereshkova2001 on Tumblr and Kathryn Tewson on Facebook for their chorus vocals. And to Flatbear on Tumblr for making Jaegercon badges!

Today is the big day, and del Toro showed up this morning. I AM NOT EVEN JOKING GUILLERMO DEL TORO SHOWED UP TO JAEGERCON THIS MORNING. Briefly, but still.

Jaegercon is awesome.

This new song, Kaiju Meat, comes out of an extremely strong positive reaction to Pacific Rim, merged with the Cascadian Mecha Militia and its Dance Dance Revolution Team; it was made for the Jaegercon online convention this weekend.

In an alternate universe, the Cascadian Mecha Militia largely stood down in favour of the more powerful Jaegers – but when Seattle’s Jaeger fell, the not-decommissioned Mecha Militia Dance Dance Revolution Demonstration Team (a Seafair favourite!) stepped in and finished the job. This is their victory song.

Most importantly: special thanks to tereshkova2001 from Tumblr, and Kathryn Tewson from Facebook, who answered the call for volunteers in the chorus.

This is a FREE download. This recording is Creative Commons 3.0 Attribute/Noncommercial/ShareAlike; derivative uses ARE allowed. The song itself is (C) 2013 me, but that’s a separate thing.

I believe I have the final mix for my Jaegercon song, “Kaiju Meat.”

I’m not going to upload it now – it’s currently Thursday evening, very late – I’m going to wait, listen with fresh ears Friday morning, and see if I want to tweak it a little more.

But it is a good mix. 😀

Please stand by.