Friday, February 01, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
What Happened?
Often the band is asked what happened in 2007. It's not uncommon for a band to take a year or more off in between records. With AoF the amount of musical output and pure deeceness that was pouring out suddenly came to end near the end of 2006. The fans were astonished and disappointed. Some even contemplated burning their music collections aka iPods.
Rumors of all kinds surfaced: The had broke up, Hollow Cheek grew a beard and moved to Sweden, M.Levels left and started his own band, Life Size Animals, they quite to pursue acting careers, etc. The list goes on and on. After spending six months on the road with these cats and seeing them perform zero shows and record no music I knew something was up. When I finally got up enough courage to ask what happened, the tour van screeched to a halt. They looked at each other. Hollow Cheek shook his head yes and M.Levels reached into the glove box. He looked me dead in the eye and handed me a cassette and said, "here you go. this should answer all your questions."
Best I can figure, this is the recording (link below) that single handedly broke the band up and got them back together.
Tom
SocialEngineer
Twice.
Twice.
In the history of the Arsenal, M.L. and I have opened our staging area to outside peeps only twice. Sure, we've recorded material under different guises, such as Urban Shocker and The Company, but as far as the Arsenal of Fools go, it's only happened twice.
The first time featured a friend and a cowbell, and the second time is the focus of this post....
Most bands are nervous to introduce outside influences, as the potential to disrupt the creative process is simply too dangerous. However, on very rare occassions, said outside influence can bring something to the table that's so awesome, so raw, and with such auditory deeceness, that it deserves to be in the original band's catalogue.
Friends, this was that time. I'm proud to call this an AOF original.
For now, we'll call our guest "Fake", but as you'll see, there's something very "real" about this sneeze....
Enjoy: FireMountain
--HC
Achoo! God Bless Us.
Occasionally, when we're mixing a song down, we find that one of the tracks is noticeably better than the others. Be it the recording, or the strumming, or the singing,....some kind of intangible justs makes it (and us) feel "alive". It leaves the other tracks in its dust, and therefore deserves to stand out on its own merit.
Today's track was one of those. It came about in late '06. It was orignally part of a multi-track sneeze, but after we heard it, we decided that it needed to be presented solely.
The volume of the recording is a little low, so be sure to adjust your speakers.
Here it is, in its entirety:
TRACK008
Today's track was one of those. It came about in late '06. It was orignally part of a multi-track sneeze, but after we heard it, we decided that it needed to be presented solely.
The volume of the recording is a little low, so be sure to adjust your speakers.
Here it is, in its entirety:
TRACK008
--HC
Company Time
This tune is a prime example of "long distance collaboration." In the 21st century technology can change the way things are done. This song was written in almost thirty seconds while the song writers were nearly 20 miles apart.
Call it luck
call it fate
call it karma
we call it the HIT MAKER!
enjoy
What Did You Say?
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Pontiac Streator
I think it's about time that we come clean......
(inhale)..........(exhale)........
Long before Arsenal of Fools, there was a string of bands that strung along hits like cotton candy at the county fair. Too Shaves, The Company, The Fabulists, Standpipe Inhalants, Crooked Wire, Pontiac Streator, Gander Mountain, and maybe a few more i can't currently remember. These bands, while separate in their own write (see how I did that?), were very much an integral piece of the Arsenal's arsenal.
While most of them originated along a particularly fertile section of HWY 55, between Springfield and Bloomington, IL, all of them are still close to our hearts.
So, here's to you, Side Project!
--HC
(inhale)..........(exhale)........
Long before Arsenal of Fools, there was a string of bands that strung along hits like cotton candy at the county fair. Too Shaves, The Company, The Fabulists, Standpipe Inhalants, Crooked Wire, Pontiac Streator, Gander Mountain, and maybe a few more i can't currently remember. These bands, while separate in their own write (see how I did that?), were very much an integral piece of the Arsenal's arsenal.
While most of them originated along a particularly fertile section of HWY 55, between Springfield and Bloomington, IL, all of them are still close to our hearts.
So, here's to you, Side Project!
--HC
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