For nearly a year the subscribers to OBCT’s “Survived By” have gotten a track by track release delivered to them but now the final product is nearly at hand. With a handful of drum mixes still heading off to producer Nic Heidt’s studio the final renders of the 16+ track release will be OBCT’s next since 2009’s TOTAL CONTROL. Tracks are all available for free download on our bandcamp page:
The first video from “Survived By” for the song Reeling has the boy of The Obese running for their very lives at the hands of Reverend Revolution and his dastardly thugs.
I want to kick off my blog with a tip of the hat to my home state. OBCT is one of the most sonically teasing and pulsating bands to grow out of Minnesota. Check out the video for Rampage When You Die. I miss you guys!!
T-shirt Tuesdays Vol.2 Week#23:
GIVE UP?
Whether PLAYER2 or CPU
The answer is “never”T-shirt Tuesdays Vol.2 Week#23:
GIVE UP?
MONOCROME
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FULL COLOR
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Sometimes inspiration just strikes you and has you doing things you might not otherwise do. I was heading up to the studio to work on mixing down tracks for one of our latest works when the progression for “Thieve On” struck me, so I abandoned whatever i was doing and started up this ambitious title. I could hear this epic exchange of harmony and rhythm explode in my head as the ideas come together but the main line was so simple and easy going, I wasn’t sure if i was going to be able to pull it off… Rather than lash myself to the guitar or bass I did my best to remove my expectations and began to compose the lines all together in fruity loops with a simple piano bass structure to be expanded upon by us all later. It came together perfectly and I was over joyed at the cohesion of the two bass/lead layers but as always a skeleton sequence in fruity loops had to expand into hand played riffs. It took us several practice sessions and a few recording sessions but after we’d put the work in we had the proper riffs in the palm of our hands, all that was left was to execute. These newer songs are a lot more complicated than some of the stuff in our past and with session times coming fewer and far between the guys really had to concentrate to get lines just right, and after a couple tough sessions we had nailed it down. We all (not Mikey, he just drums) sing for this one in a bitter sweet four-part harmony with ~ thieve on, thieve on, what more could you take from me ~ Dave: Low-1, Booty: Mid-1, Geoff, Mid-2 and Aeryn High-1 and actually on the last time through Geoff sings a High-2 over everything else, so it’s a five-part harmony, not too bad for 4 guys with killer metal screams…
As for the concept behind this song; I had been reading some online friends of mine debate the various ill’s of the wall street bailout and subsequent ‘comeback’ of all these major banks that were begging to be saved , too big to fail, etc., now raking in billions in profit while people like you and me foot the bill. Listening to people get worked up into a lather over the issue, pro and con got me wondering as to when hustling the public at large wasn’t a part of the American dream? Get as much as you can, while you can, and fuck the ethical implications… guilt is only for those who get caught. Either you can do it, or someone can do it to you. All the way back to when natives were slaughtered in the name of manifestdestiny, or blacks enslaved as free labor that built this country into a world power, or the impairialist tactics we employ around the globe to insulate our interests. It’s always been about coming up with justification for taking something from someone else, be it for religious rational, economic reasons, or just to quash an undesired culture, it’s only called ‘theft’ if there is somebody left over to identify the ‘thieves’. We’re all too good at white-washing history and keeping a clean conscious above all else. With the only way to keep the good times rolling (at least across the headlines and front pages) is to keep it up, “Thieve On, thieve on.” It’s a protest and a rallying cry all in one, a heartfelt apology in one hand and a rapier between the shoulder blades in the other. A protest song for a new generation of would-be thieves too ignorant of their own crimes to ever feel the real weight of the guilt we all share in.
“Thieve On” by, OBCT
Thieve On, Thieve On
What more could you take from me
Thieve On, Thieve On
I hardly need anything
that is if you’re pressing me (down)
You worked, you prayed, you paid you way
now you turn and stand and spout cliches about
how to live and die right
then it repeats again
every generation
you can start by undressing me
with your machines
you can use this money
protec these thieves
I guess we didn’t need anything
they thought up
every generation has it’s thing
they bring down on us.
I was doing something else, screwing around with guitar tones and pulling together some undoubtedly stupid, far-flug idea. I was also boy-sitting (I take care of a friends boys in my spare time) and Joshua was up with me in the studio, content enough bashing away on the drums and toying with the many knobs and buttons on my guitar processor. Out of nowhere I changed gears and played the now main riff for “Obamanation”, Joshua’s ear perked up and he shouted “OOOh hey that sounds cool, I really like that one.” as he aped me, sliding his hand up and down an air guitar, sneering at me knowingly.
I decided to pursue this new riff, and banged out a quick beat and began to workshop it. It was the only time i can remember the boy taking such an interest in something i was doing in my studio, as normally he’d come up to retrieve me when i wasn’t spending enough time playing with him, but there he sat, tweaking my guitar tones, looking up at me, watching me record this new riff - almost six years old.
It came together very quickly as fire spread to the other ideas I was cobbling together and before I knew it, i was sitting there pen in hand writing out the lyrics to our newest song.
Studio work has been going pretty smooth as of late, we’ve been hitting a groove in our sessions and getting a lot done, this one came together really well and was one of the larger projects we’ve ever done, well over 200 channels bounced down to 17 mixdowns that we send off to our producer Nic Heidt. That’s a hell of a lot of sound, but it all comes together to create one swirling mass.
Everyone is on this one bringing their own brand of craftmenship to this monster. I wrote a specific parts with each member of the band in mind and everyone gets their pocket in which to violently hash their vocal cords. Dave did his first singing (not screaming) back up’s for us on this one (the middle harmony on the ‘wish or pray’, ‘day to day’ lines in the verses (listen hard). Be sure to listen for all the special subliminal goodies we’ve sprinkled in for you, play the song backwards for an inspirational and touching message from satan himself.
We sent off a ton of mixdowns to our producer, see if you can hear all these elements when listening to the song…
1.) Kick Drum: We isolate the kick drum, so that we may placate all the drum geeks out there who only listen for brutal doubles on the kicks… all. the. time. plus it makes it easier to eq the bastard and get it to thump.
2.) Snare/Toms: We’ve just started tracking our drums and hardware separate so our producer can work his magic.
3.) Cymbals: Having the cymbals hard panned left and right and two mics for ride and hats respectively really creates a wide space and the best depth for our drums.
4.) E-Drums: OBCT’s beats have beats in em so when the beat stops there’s still a beat going. We program a shit ton of drums, typically Geoff does half and Booty does half and we split em up accordingly.
5.) Samples: This is Booty’s thunderdome, this channel could have everything from vocal samples to entire betaeight subtracks that we started writting from. Most songs have at least 5 to 6 sample takes, we hack em up and make em funky from there.
6.) Synthesizers: Geoff step sequences most of our riffs and creates a ton of different outputs with various sounds and effects applied. From bass lines to piano parts, synth leads and pads, it’s all in here.
7.) Aeryn’s Synthesizers: Aeryn usually drops about 5 or 6 takes and we prune them and shift sounds through out the tracks. He gives us his trademark sound and then we get him to do some more far out shit and then we mix it all together.
8.) Bass Guitar: All of Geoffs’ hand played bass lines get dropped here, a lot of low end to be found in this channel.
9.) Lead Bass Guitar: Geoff also enjoys crafting a second counterpoint bass lines with a bit of crunch or distortion, we pull em apart to get the most bang for the buck in post production.
10.) Geoff’s Guitars: Geoff records a lot of the rhythm guitars, the chunky stuff he’s been tossing out for a decade now. Our guitars are almost always doubles and hard panned left and right to create the bookends for our entire sound.
11.) Dave’s Guitars: Dave’s lead guitars are mixed down into a single file for mixing, all of his leads, tapping lines and chord structures get pulled together and compressed for a tight sound.
12.) Intro/Outro Samples: I almost always forget something, or have to have an overflow for into and outro samples so that we don’t torture our producer by making him pick through the 9,000 sounds we created to get it right, mixing is a bitch at times.
13.) Geoff’s Vocals: Geoff’s leads and backup’s all are compiled here. Geoff does a ton of harmonizing and records multiple takes for each line, this channel is huge by the time we go to output, any given song can have 50-100 vocal takes.
14.) Booty’s Vocals: Boot has levels for both lead and backup vocals, we tend to mix booy a little more straight forward, single takes to capture his energy and intricacies he drops on each take.
15.) Aeryn’s Vocals: We cover our ears when Aeryn steps up to the mic to record his vocals, we pull the input levels and let him hash his shit out.
16.) Dave’s Vocals: Dave’s got a variety of metal tinged voices as well as a nice complimentary singing voice we’ll be employing more as time goes on.
17.) Drum Extras: Sometimes we’ll add an extra snare or cymbal hit here and there, maybe a punch in for a tom fill if something isn’t sounding quite right.
The newest track for “Survived By” is called Reeling. I wrote this one in my head one day as I was sitting atop my throne contemplating my next great movement. Tapping my toes and hands and blathering out a bass line that sounded like something off of a scratched up George Clinton record. It seems some of my best stuff rattles around in my head for a while before I am able to get it to slink out into a step sequencer or a bass or guitar line.
When I went to start the demo I sat in front of Fruity Loops with a beer in hand and smoke in the air and blathered to myself the note structure and transposed as best I could the funky, walkie, bass line and we we’re off on a new one. The boys always bring a fury to a new track, and with something as dancey and upbeat as this it was knocked out after a single session.
Mikey and I had a meeting of the minds one day before practice, I imparted my simplistic view of the beat and he took it and ran with it, adding fills, stops and cymbal work that blew me away! He has a wonderful way of taking a simple idea and adding all his years worth of drum theory to it and make it sound fresh and original with every passing measure.
Aeryn took his typical thirty-five seconds with his eyes rolled into the back of his head with the loop playing and he had it all figured out, lead and all. We recorded his keys a few times, and on the final one I ran him through our guitar effects pedal and worked the wah for him as he banged out a particularly brutal take and we had him set in stone.
Dave was finally ready to step up into his new role as lead guitar player and he and I run special sessions for him so he can take the time to write and retain his leads. After a single session he’d written some fantastic counterpoints that really bolstered the other elements and with a couple hour session we had them.
Booty has a new rig as well, a sample station with glitches, pads, vocal samples, bass drops, you name it, he crammed it on his rig. He gave a really nice one-off performance, and rather than splice and edit it I let it flow. Boot did his backups and I had some fun working with Gsnap to pitch correct his voice, which turned out to sound positively evil as a result. Boot’s voice has a tendency to waiver a little on notes, so when it’s corrected you can hear the modulation but it doesn’t seem to do much other than make him sound robotic and totally evil as hell. Boot and I have a few different ideas for delivery on the backups, and rather than try and change anything I did, I simply split our backups left and right, he did his thing, i did mine and in the end they play off each other really well.
We also did a 4 part vocal for the final line, where each singer repeats the scream in order; Geoff, Boot, Aeryn, Dave moving back and forth from left to right which is pointing to things to come, as each member will have more opportunity for vocals in these new songs.
The final stop is at our producer Nic Heidts’ studio, where he works his magic getting everything to sit in the proper space. He gets so much more out of our sound because he understands how to get signals to stop fighting each other and get our sound closer to the mainstream. He did a killer job on fixing up some of the rough edges with some great effects on the drums. Nic goes out of his way to make sure that everything has it’s place and if it doesn’t he has no trouble telling us to jettison some shit and it works.
All in all this is one of those songs that jumps up and surprises you as a song writer, you’re not expecting much out of a goofy little idea but then it ends up being one of the best things I’ve written this year. I hope you enjoy it, thanks for listening.
-Geoff
LISTEN HERE: http://obct.bandcamp.com/track/reeling
LYRICS FOR “REELING”
By, Geoffrey Makousky
Whatever vessel from slum crime to old castles
it’s a mother fucking repetitious battle ain’t it?
We witness history repeat itself violently
subverted rebels, in every walk of life we got em
it’s a mother fucking curious travesty
that this could continue to happen to me…
Reeling from inhaling slowly
god showed him a way to categorize his pain
you fold it, throw it away
creeping through his days to a young grave
god showed him a way to escape his pain
and wouldn’t you know he took it.
The harp’s playing we got miracles like everyday now
heartbreaking reality is a sober come down
I can’t answer you without my head clear
I’ve got sinking sensations drowning my inner child
with ancient fear.
Fall with me out of the earths gravity
Follow me infinitely.
The OBCT “Survived By” Subscription :: $5.00
Over the years we’ve put out several albums DIY; paid a boat loaf of money to press it, worked our asses off selling them locally at shows, and tried our damndest to move them via the internet via services like cdBaby. It’s a whole process, a cumbersome, labor intensive process that more often than not seemed like fools errand (as we’d celebrate breaking even). The main thing that bugged me about this process was how long it took between releases to get a whole record pulled together. It was made even more frustrating because day-to-day we’d come up with these great one off songs that would go nowhere because they either didn’t fit with the record or became too stale to us when release time rolls around and we’d forget about em. People like to be engaged by a band, new songs, videos, shows, on a monthly of not weekly basis and when you can’t pull off that sort of work flow you loose your momentum.
I got really tired of constantly ramping up these records, taking the year, two years to put something together only to find that we needed to rebuild our brand with every release. The down time was hurting us, even with local shows, solid records to sell and a decent online presence it wasn’t enough to gain major ground if you want to keep everything DIY and within the bands control (and not go crawling to a label to pay someone to do what we can do ourselves). Yes, we now have a back catalog with some really impressive work on it but until we can capitalize on the moment they will just collect dust as yesterdays news. When people get into your new stuff, they become interested in the older work and we have a lot to offer a new fan of OBCT, a shit ton.
So I ditched the old format and took OBCT in a different direction for our new record. Our end-user buys a $5 dollar subscription and each song is released as it’s ready and delivered to our subscribers fresh and with next to no waiting time from completion to publishing. In the end the first 300 get a handmade disc, some other cool extra’s and we move on to the next release! It’s great for us as the artist as we don’t have to wait to share our work, and great for the listener as they get the freshest look at our songs, and more importantly, the message.
We now also do a podcast show posted to (obct.tumblr.com) from our studio on a bi-weekly basis to preview our latest work, talk some news, politics and topics of the day and just shoot the shit. This just gives our listeners another way to connect with us and we can share what is important to us to all the people out there who enjoy what we do. Eventually we want to build a online community for our subscribers with a ton of extras and bonuses for joining, exclusive podcasts, listener prizes and a whole bunch of perks for being on the inside with OBCT.
Interested in the subscription? Check it out!
How to get started:
Step One: Go to obct.bandcamp.com and click on “Survived By”
Step Two: Purchase the album for the one time $5.00 charge
Step Tree: Wait for the confirmation e-mail
Step Four: Respond to our email so we can get you the hook up
Step Five: Sit back as all the new OBCT songs, podcasts and videos come to you!
First 300 get a special edition CD delivered right to their door and VIP admission to the wrap party!
OBCT, we don’t want to be one of those annoying bands always bugging random mainstream consumers to listen to us, but god damn it, I’m sick and tired of not being heard beyond our little local scene. Things have gotten real good for us and it’s time to put away the bashful, put-upon, struggling artist pants and put on the like-it-or-leave-it, go-fuck-yourself, salesman pants. I figure 1 out of 5 ‘music fans’ would give us a chance, and many of those find our sound to be divergent from what they typically enjoy but they come to like it. Our music isn’t made for a specific genre, or a specific listener in mind and it shows with the lackluster response we get from a lot of ‘mainstream music listeners’ who aren’t all the open to new concepts (to them) in music. Every time I share my music with someone they are either blown away because they’ve never heard anything like it OR they chide us for not being a ‘genre’ band, not theirs anyway. For every “Holy shit, that is outrageous!” I’ve heard three, “Yeah? Cool. huh? It’s not my style, yup, not my thing, fuck off dude.” …and it’s pushed me into a corner over the years, knowing how for the most part you are going to be received by the general pubic. I’m shaking that off and starting over as if I’m dropping into the project fresh, without a decades worth of bullshit dripping behind me.
I’m pulling together promotions for our new record, and it would seem a good way to get exposure is to hit the internet chirping away about the project endlessly. From site to site we chirp, chirp chirp away and people see the art, click the links, hear the music, buy the music, love the music, live happily ever after. It’s a simple formula but hard to do for a band of jaded 20 somethings (and a few 30+er’s) who have seen more than our fair share of braggadocious internet grandstanding, and the last thing we want to do is be a bunch of annoying blabber mouths about how great we are. The music does speak for itself but you’ve gotta trick people into giving you a chance… You have all the tools at your fingertips, everyone does, so it’s time to shake off the jaded cynicism on the ‘00’s and embrace the flippant, inattentive ways of the ugggh… the 10’s, the teens? i don’t know, naming these decades sucks.
Our band is ready for your ears, our new record is a perfect representation of our craft and it’s time to take off the ball gag and replace it with a bull horn.
You can hear it all here: obct.bandcamp.com
The first track from =2obct. Joshua, Alahn’s and Geoff’s music project, consisting of crazy thumping low end beats with video game samples and sequences and a kid blowing his lungs out. We put together a track today for Joshy’s Birthday called “I Gotta Do This!”, with samples from MetriodII and the midi sequence from Dr. Wily’s Castle in Mega Man 2. I belive the lyrics go something like this: “Let’s do this, I gotta do this, oh yeah, let’s just do this. Oh Boyeah, oh oh, yeah, I Gotta Do This!!!”
