Press the button

Well that’s it, the band have approved the art proofs, paid the balance and committed the production run; Siren is go!
It’s been a bit of a journey and has taken longer than we would have liked, but the finished album should be with us in a few weeks.
To celebrate the Love Commandos spent Friday evening practising some more covers and some old gems and generally making a lot of noise. We’ve also decided that Dave Grohl does an awful lot of shouting in The Pretender. As this also reminds me of Douglas Adams’ Vogon guard that’s probably a good thing.

Tags: art, balance, band, Dave Grohl, Douglas Adams, finished album, friday evening, lot, production, vogon

The artwork has gone off!

Incredulity abounded as Ken finally announced that the CD artwork for “Siren” was finally completed and had gone off to Sound Recording Technology along with the outstanding paperwork. Questions were raised about whether it was rotten or had exploded or both (neither as it turns out). This is the last but one step in the pre-production process. Once we have approved the final art proofs (and paid the outstanding balance) the CD can be sent to the presses. Some time after we will take delivery of a thousand CDs.
It’s taken longer than we would have liked, but given the part-time nature of everyone involved it’s hardly surprising. Changing artwork direction several times didn’t really help, but we’re all happy with the final choices and we’ve preserved some of the original ideas.
Friday’s rehearsal was spent practising the new covers and remembering how to play some of the old ones including Marilyn Manson’s “Fight Song”. A new set list was mentioned as was arranging some gigs.

Tags: artwork, cd artwork, fight song, Incredulity, Ken, Marilyn Manson, proofs, recording, recording technology, Siren, sound, time nature

The Pretender

Just realised that I hadn’t posted anything about the last couple of weeks rehearsals. We’ve actually been quite busy running through material and even starting to learn yet another cover version. This time it’s the turn of the Foo Fighters to be given more of the Love Commandos makeover. After months of suggesting “The Pretender”, Andy finally listened to it again and realised he did like it after all.

After one week playing it over and over it’s starting to take shape, although getting all the parts in the right order and the right length will be a challenge. As will not singing the lyrics of Sesame Street’s “One of these things is not like the others” as the first line of the chorus. Honestly though, it does sound like that’s what he’s singing and if Dave Grohl writes lyrics the same way that our Neil does I bet that’s what it started out as!

Tags: Andy, anything, commandos, couple, cover, Dave Grohl, foo fighters, material, Neil, rehearsals, running, Sesame Street

Boys and their toy s(tories)

One of our more random conversations took place at our last rehearsal – a critique of computer animated feature films. The general concensus seemed to be that we preferred Pixar to Disney or Dreamworks films. Aardman Animations were ranked highly especially Wallace and Gromit. Though we felt that the Final Fantasy film was ahead of its time.

Clearly having children is a good excuse for grown men to watch lots of children’s films (not that we need one of course).

Tags: aardman animations, animated feature films, computer, critique, feature, final fantasy film, place, random conversations, rehearsal, Wallace, Wallace and Gromit

Love Commandos Mastered

Andy, Rob and I went on a trip to deepest darkest Cambridgeshire last Wednesday to visit SRT to get “Siren” mastered. We arrived in time to get breakfast at the local cafe (for local people) though luckily the characters from The League of Gentlemen did not make an appearance.
In true Commando fashion the operation was completed with military precision and, bar some minor disagreements about sirens, everyone is happy. Once the art is finished the CDs will be ready to press.
Consequently most of Friday’s rehearsal was spent listening to and commenting on the mastered recordings, though we did bash out the odd tune.

Tags: Andy, Cambridgeshire, darkest, disagreements, league of gentlemen, love commandos mastering, military precision, odd tune, Rob, Siren, sirens, SRT, trip, Wednesday