Detailed CD Notes
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The StrangeCloud Story Without John it was
going to be difficult to perform the songs we had worked up in a live setting. We'd
have to work up new arrangements as a duo or find a new bass player in addition to a
drummer. About this time we discovered mp3.com and some of the other fledgling indie
mp3 sites. So we finished off recording two songs, "Burn This House" and "StrangeCloud Theme," and loaded them up to
mp3.com. Somewhat surprisingly, the initial reaction to the songs was very positive
and they did well on the mp3.com charts. At that time there were only about 4,000
total artists on mp3.com (it eventually grew to about 300,000) and the site was still in
it's infancy. MP3.com has just started a new program called D.A.M. CDs, where
artists could have CDs of their music made on demand. Artists were free to change
the songs on the CDs at any time. It was a great and new way for indie artists to
have CDs of their music made without having to fork out thousands of dollars to get the
standard minimum of 1,000 replicated CDs. Of course, the quality of the D.A.M. CDs
was low being that they were made from mp3 files rather than uncompressed wav files.
They were CDRs with simple black lettering, being shipped in white sleeves.
Very simple, but also very cheap. So Tom and Fred worked up a couple more songs, and
in October, 1998 released an EP called "Blueprint." Songs
included on the CD were "StrangeCloud Theme,"
"Burn This House," "Can't Believe it's You," "These Old Bones," and a remastered version of
"Burn This House." They actually
sold about 20 copies. Foundation Meanwhile, Tom and Fred continued to write new songs and work on recording. In February, 1999 Fred was contacted by Jeff Anderson, who was interested in talking about the Pink Floyd tribute band (bass player), and just jamming. Jeff played bass and guitar and sang. So while the StrangeCloud recording continued, Fred and Jeff started jamming on some Pink Floyd songs and found that they also had a mutual love for The Beatles and the music of that era. The two really clicked musically and decided to pursue the Floyd project. Next, they needed to find a guitarist and drummer. Lots of calls were taken and some auditions held. Nothing seemed to come together. Most of the guitarists had never heard of Syd Barrett and were only vaguely familiar with the Floyd catalog, other than "The Wall" and "Dark Side." The drummers were .... well, no Nick Masons among them. While the search continued, StrangeCloud was nearly finished with recording 5 new songs for a second EP. The last one to be recorded was "Ladies With Lonesome Faces." Tom and Fred had finished all the instrument parts, the lead vocal and a harmony vocal. It sounded good, but not complete. So we asked Jeff to sing a harmony on the song, and we (Fred and Tom) were both blown away by Jeff's ability to immediately harmonize in a way that made the song sound so much fuller. Jeff then added a harmony on "To Take You Home." In March, 1999 StrangeCloud released the second EP, called Foundation. The disc contained "Before The Night Is Through," "Sea Life" (an experimental piece of electronica), "To Take You Home," "Ladies With Lonesome Faces," and "Night Stalker." Formation Acousticity Fred and Jeff had some long discussions about where they were going at that point. The search for a guitarist and drummer for the Floyd tribute band was leading nowhere. Tom wasn't going to be able to play much live with StrangeCloud. Since Fred and Jeff both had strong desires to get back in the live scene, and since it was becoming a nightmare to find a decent drummer, they decided that they would perform as an acoustic duo. Of course that would severely limit the venues in which they were likely to get gigs, but it also had the benefit of making it a lot easier to coordinate rehearsals, recordings for the next CD, and the logisitics of getting to and setting up for gigs. Since they would be doing mostly acoustic sets (Jeff would play bass on some songs), they decided that the next CD should really be recorded with the ability to recreate those songs in a live setting with just a duo. The live performances would not have to be exactly like the studio recordings, but we couldn't very well write and record complicated prog rock songs and try play them live as an acoustic duo. So we set out writing songs that would have an acoustic folk/alt country type feel. Jeff had never written a country song before. Fred asked Jeff, after a rehearsal one day, to write a country song and bring it the next week. Jeff turned up with what became "20 Years." That song eventually became a huge hit on several internet sites, including spending about 5 months at #1 on the Alt Country charts at mp3.com, and became a live favorite that was performed at nearly every gig. In a first effort at writing country, Jeff had created a hit! Over the course of the summer of 1999 Fred and Jeff continued to record new songs. For the most part, the songs consisted of 2 or guitar parts, bass, soft percussion, vocals. A couple songs had some minor keyboard parts. Easily recreatable in a live setting by a duo. By the end of the summer the recording was done, and Fred set out to book gigs. Acousticity was mastered and finally released in early October, 1999. The CD contained the songs "Open Hand," "For A While," 20 Years," " Before The Night Is Through (the remake)," "Change of Scenery," "Don't Start Now," "I Can't Take It," " Can't Believe It's You II," " Sanity," "Voyeur By Day," " These Old Bones (country remake)." Live Shows It was about this time that Fred formed the Minnesota Music Coalition and the Minnesota Acoustic Showcase. Through the internet, and by networking locally, Fred had made the acquaintance of many local musicians who did acoustic gigs. Fred brought them together under the banner of the Minnesota Acoustic Showcase and began booking shows around town. Borders Books and Dunn Bros were perfect venues. Most of the showcases went at least 4 hours and some as much as 8 hours of constant music. It was good for the musicians because they got exposure and were able to play places they might otherwise not have been able to play, and they got paid! It was great for fans because they got a small taste of many different acts and styles of music. In addition to StrangeCloud, some of the other performers were Glenn LePine of the Flammable Mammals, Bruce Cook, Per Jensen of MagellanMusic, American Gypsy, Big Sky, Bug Candy, Tim Feeney, Mike Merz, Tom McDonald, and LeNor Barry. Shortly after the live gigs for the Showcase started, Fred organized a compilation site on mp3.com where CDs were offered with songs from the various artists. All the earnings from the CDs, payment for streams and downloads (mp3.com was paying handsomely at the time), and earnings from showcases were then donated to the Minnesota Children's Home Society. A wonderful cause, and fortunately we were able to give them a few nice donations. MCR Ho Ho Ho A New Member Million Dollar Bash Psychedelectric Orange The structure and style of the songs on Formation and especially on Acousticity had allowed StrangeCloud to perform as a duo or trio in a live setting and get a sound very close to the recordings. But the new songs being written were calling out for a full band arrangement. They were more upbeat and needed full drum patterns, keyboards, more electric guitar. So it was decided that Fred and Jeff would take their time recording the songs, doing most all the parts themselves and perhaps bringing in a guest here and there on a few songs. Once the songs were recorded the idea was to expand the band by bringing in more people for the live shows that would start up again once the new CD was released. During the summer of 2001, 3 new songs were recorded. It was obvious that it was going to take a long time to complete the CD. Acousticity had been written, recorded, mixed, mastered, the artwork completed, and the CD released all in about 4 months time. In working on Psychedelectric Orange it had taken 3 months just to complete 3 songs. So in August, 2001 the guys decided to release a new EP. MCR had just set up an online deal with CDStreet and StrangeCloud wanted to be a part of it. So they released the EP Citrus, which contained new songs "You Are Not Alone," "Illusions End," and "Landscape." Also included was "Ho Ho Ho." On November 1, 2001 the promotional CD Some Live Stuff was released. It contained full length live versions of 4 songs, plus clips from live versions of 22 other songs. On November 19, 2001 a compilation CD called Thanksgiving Collection was released on mp3.com. The CD contained 20 hit tunes, new releases, previews of unreleased tunes, and some live recordings. On December 10, 2001 the Instrumentals & A Cappella Treasures CD was released, containing several special mixes of songs from Psychedelectric Orange, and a few old favorites. All mixes were either purely instrumental or vocals only. In January, 2002 another compilation disc was released on mp3.com called In My Heart. The disc was only available for a week or so. The songlist was changed somewhat and the CD renamed Songs From The Heart. In March, 2002 the compilation CD StrangeCloud was released. The CD contained preview versions of new songs, some live songs and clips and some of the top hits from earlier releases. All the while when these various promo and compilation discs were being released, StrangeCloud was hard at work recording new songs. It was a slow process as we were trying out many things. We had played most of the songs live several times and had worked out the basic arrangements, but in the studio we had the opportunity to layer guitars and keyboards and vocals without the constraint of worrying about whether we could reproduce it live as just a duo. The plan was to add 3 new musicians for the live performances. In June of 2002 we recorded a version of The Beatles song "Things We Said Today" for a tribute CD to be put out by Canadian label Bullseye Records. We were so happy with the result that we decided it would also make a nice addition to our own CD. And since we decided to do one cover tune on the CD, why not another? During our live shows we regularly played about an hour of original tunes and an hour of cover tunes. We almost always did a Beatles tune (different ones almost every gig) and almost always did a Pink Floyd song (quite a few different ones). One of the staples of the Floyd catalog that we did was "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun." There are several Floyd versions of the song, but as a duo we had to come up with our own version for gigs. We came up with a pretty good rendition with both Jeff and Fred on guitar. Jeff played a rhythm part on a fairly "dry" but warm guitar mixed directly in the center. Fred ran his acoustic through several effects and spread it out in a wide stereo spectrum and picked the main guitar part while singing the lead. Jeff also sang a harmony on the chorus. In recording, we wanted to keep that same feel we had developed live, but also wanted to add a lot more in terms of instrumentation, sound effects, and vocals. Fred did the drums, 3 or 4 electric guitar parts, 3 or 4 acoustic guitar parts, several keyboards and sound effects, the lead vocal and a backing vocal. Jeff then added an extremely cool bass, percussion, an acoustic guitar, and several harmony and backing vocals. Loads of fun! By the end of January, 2003 the recording had been completed. The last song to be recorded was "Hello!" By this point we had found 2 guys to join in for the planned live performances: a keyboardist and a guitar player. Both sing as well. The guitar player, Shannon Grady, shows up on "Hello!" doing the "hoedown guitar solo" right after the bridge. Just as the recording was coming to a conclusion and plans for the live shows were starting to be put together, Fred was offered a job in Oklahoma that he couldn't refuse. As much as he was looking forward to the release of the new CD and a return to playing live, the move was the best thing for his family. In late April, 2003 Fred moved to Oklahoma and decided to let the recordings sit for a while before doing the final mixing and mastering. In the fall of 2003 and early 2004 the final mixes were completed, mastering was accomplished, CD artwork prepared, and on May 4, 2004 Psychedelectric Orange was released. Future |
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