Volume 1 of the Please Don’t Hang Out In Front Of The House musical compilation is here!  Yay!  This first volume features all the songs written as a direct response to the artistic challenge I issued one month ago.  All you have to do to get it is click the Vol. 1 download button in the upper right of this page.  While you’re waiting for it to download, I have four things to tell you. 1)  The absolute hero of the past few days has been a young man from Portland named Matt Gauck.  He is the artist who drew the totally excellent cover art for Volume 1 that you see above.  He also stayed up absurdly late two nights ago crafting the layout for the liner notes.  When you unzip the download folder, you will find the audio files, along with Matt’s cover art and the liner notes.  Even if you don’t read the liner notes, I urge you to open them up and see his zine-influenced layout style.  It’s just awesome.  You should probably read them anyways, since there’s some great explanations from the musicians about their songs and their respective hasty recording processes.  And then you should go to Matt’s website and check out the rest of his art.  Thanks, Matt, for making this comp look so damn good!2) I recommend that you listen to this comp on shuffle.3) Have you ever been to an improv comedy show?  A really good one?  It’s a great time.  Sometimes, it’s funnier than a quality pre-written sketch comedy show.  Even though the jokes are generally better in the sketch comedy show, the improv format benefits from the audience’s understanding of context.  A joke is funnier when, in the back of your head, you marvel, “She just made that up!”  A month ago, none of these songs existed in the form that you hear them on this comp.  In fact, most of these songs were written and recorded within two weeks.  (Full disclosure: I’m the only one who took a full month to get his song done.)  Two weeks might sound like a reasonable amount of time to write and record a song, but remember that they only had a couple weeks from the day they heard about the challenge.  So these musicians made time to write and record these songs during a two week period for which they undoubtedly had plenty of other plans.  I guess what I’m saying is that this comp is like a really good improv comedy show.  It is enjoyable and worthwhile, and if you keep in mind how quickly these musicians produced this content, you will quite possibly enjoy it even more.  4) The last item is a request: if you enjoy the comp, or if you have been enjoying the blog, please share it with someone who doesn’t know about it.  Just send the link to your cool nephew or mention it to your co-worker who talks about music sometimes.  We worked hard on this comp, and we want it to be heard by anyone who might be interested.And with that, I sign off for weekend because it’s time to for me to take a little break.  Stories and photos will return on Monday, and Volume 2 of the comp (featuring pre-released songs about house shows) will drop soon after.  Thanks so much for your interest and your support.  You have made the stressful days and the late nights worthwhile.  - Aaron

Volume 1 of the Please Don’t Hang Out In Front Of The House musical compilation is here!  Yay!  This first volume features all the songs written as a direct response to the artistic challenge I issued one month ago.  All you have to do to get it is click the Vol. 1 download button in the upper right of this page. 

While you’re waiting for it to download, I have four things to tell you.

1)  The absolute hero of the past few days has been a young man from Portland named Matt Gauck.  He is the artist who drew the totally excellent cover art for Volume 1 that you see above.  He also stayed up absurdly late two nights ago crafting the layout for the liner notes.  When you unzip the download folder, you will find the audio files, along with Matt’s cover art and the liner notes.  Even if you don’t read the liner notes, I urge you to open them up and see his zine-influenced layout style.  It’s just awesome.  You should probably read them anyways, since there’s some great explanations from the musicians about their songs and their respective hasty recording processes.  And then you should go to Matt’s website and check out the rest of his art.  Thanks, Matt, for making this comp look so damn good!

2) I recommend that you listen to this comp on shuffle.

3) Have you ever been to an improv comedy show?  A really good one?  It’s a great time.  Sometimes, it’s funnier than a quality pre-written sketch comedy show.  Even though the jokes are generally better in the sketch comedy show, the improv format benefits from the audience’s understanding of context.  A joke is funnier when, in the back of your head, you marvel, “She just made that up!” 

A month ago, none of these songs existed in the form that you hear them on this comp.  In fact, most of these songs were written and recorded within two weeks.  (Full disclosure: I’m the only one who took a full month to get his song done.)  Two weeks might sound like a reasonable amount of time to write and record a song, but remember that they only had a couple weeks from the day they heard about the challenge.  So these musicians made time to write and record these songs during a two week period for which they undoubtedly had plenty of other plans.  I guess what I’m saying is that this comp is like a really good improv comedy show.  It is enjoyable and worthwhile, and if you keep in mind how quickly these musicians produced this content, you will quite possibly enjoy it even more. 

4) The last item is a request: if you enjoy the comp, or if you have been enjoying the blog, please share it with someone who doesn’t know about it.  Just send the link to your cool nephew or mention it to your co-worker who talks about music sometimes.  We worked hard on this comp, and we want it to be heard by anyone who might be interested.

And with that, I sign off for weekend because it’s time to for me to take a little break.  Stories and photos will return on Monday, and Volume 2 of the comp (featuring pre-released songs about house shows) will drop soon after. 

Thanks so much for your interest and your support.  You have made the stressful days and the late nights worthwhile. 

- Aaron