Hey, Out of It is now in the iTunes Music Store! (thanks Jesse)

Why it's $9.90 instead of $9.99 is a mystery to me, but whatever.

Also I noticed this censored auto-complete hilarity when I searched for it:

Oh Apple.

Album release has gone well, thanks everyone! Decent sales, lots of positive feedback. Still lots of work to do, which I am working on doing.

I rewrote the guts of the music submissions/you section and added all the new album tracks and source in there. Still haven't added all the items I was sent from the new album release, but that'll come soon.

Some stuff I need to blogs:

• There's a Fake It remix contest coming up at Remix Fight.
• The Fake It cliche video thing has sailed past another deadline. Still trying to figure out how to drum up more submissions.
• I nominate this fellow as “happiest to receive my CDs”:

Yes!

Okay I haven't figured out much of a bandwidth solution so let's just party. All the source for Out of It is now on ccMixter here. Also there are acappellas on ccMixter separate from the source if you only want those. Here are the source files direct from me. I pray to the lord my server will survive this:

• Dropping out of School [33mb]
• Certain Death [24mb]
• Fake It [20mb]
• Bad Sign [31mb]
• There's Something Wrong [24mb]
• Gasoline [27mb]
• Total Breakdown [14mb]
• Understood by Your Dad [18mb]
• Out of It [22mb]
• You're not Going Anywhere [22mb]

You should upload anything you make to ccMixter and I'll list it on the song pages and like… you'll be part of song HISTORY!

My new album Out of It is (FINALLY) out! Please listen to it! Please spread it around! Please like it! (And perhaps please purchase it!):

It's got ten songs, you can pay what you want, it's available in CD, MP3 & FLAC. There's no stupid DRM and it's Creative Commons licensed. CD purchases get instant downloads and the full audio multi-track source will be available in the next day.

Some thoughts:

A lot's changed since I started putting music on the Internet way back in 2001. Artist-endorsed free downloads were shocking. Flexible pricing was still an untested novelty. It was rare to find source files from artists and sharing music wasn't encouraged by new artists.

Recently I was asked if I'd do anything different this time around. Would I still give the music away for free? Would I still give away my source files? Would I still be easygoing about copyright? Surely I could pull back now and try to cash in.

And I honestly couldn't imagine why I'd do things different. The only reason I, a dude who made an album by himself in a country basement, has had any sort of success is because people took it upon themselves to share my music with their friends. They remixed it, they used it in their videos, they played it on their podcasts, they included it in software and games and it took on a life of its own.

To sabotage that would be a huge, retarded mistake. Instead I'll be grateful if Out of It worms around the world in even close to the same freaky way I Don't Know What I'm Doing did and continues to.

Anyway, this is a long way of saying I love you Internets. Thanks for all your support and I hope you like Out of It. I'm going to bed, good night!

Welp, I had a good time at the CD release party last night. Thanks to everyone who showed up and anyone who jumped on stage at the end there during the crowd-participation part of “Out of It”.

Besides the talented Dave Norris and the Harvey Cartel who played, musicians in attendance were Jesse Dangerously, Claude from The Peptides, TheHipCola, Meredith Luce and MC Frontalot was on a phone in IM capacity.

Various Songfighters and REAPER users came out of the woodwork, which was awesome.

Out of It goes on sale for everybody out there tomorrow night at midnight (EST). Woooooooo.

I don't normally “web log” my feelings but I'm actually pretty nervous about this whole CD release. I was all “beh whatever dudes we'll see how it goes, just another day on the grind you know dog” until a couple hours ago when I became like "!!!! HOLY LORD". It feels like my future "as an artist" sort of hinges on it but then I feel that way about everything.

Honestly, I think the neurotic anxiety has been getting to me for a couple weeks but I've had tasks to keep me busy. Two weeks ago I was sleeping away peacefully and then I guess I tore at my forehead with my retarded talons. As you can see from the picture up there I managed to put a two inch scratch in my dome. That ain't relaxed behavior.

The CD release party is tomorrow night. It's sort of a drag though, you folks who read my blog and have been with me for a long time are not generally in my town so you won't be there. So that part breaks my heart kinda because I love you guys okay now the vodka's talking catch you later.

First batches of pre-ordered Out of It CDs are away! Release is just around the corner! Some people said they don't hate it! I'm nervous as can be!

Thankfully I've got a lot of mail processing to do, website and source to get ready as well as rehearsing for the CD release party this Friday, so that's keeping me a bit distracted.

I had it in my head that I'd write a bit more about the process of getting to this point but there just hasn't been any time. So maybe you can use your imagination?

Had to get one last week-long sickness out of my system before the album release. Ahhh much better.

The pre-orders are all ready to go and will be in the mail this week! Thanks to everyone who's ordered one, it slightly counter-balances the release dread I feel.

Also: everything seems to be happening according to schedule. Crazy!

The CD Release Party for Out of It is booked and officially on September 5^th at Cafe Dekcuf in the city of Ottawa. Times and bands are still TBD, though I am practically guaranteed to be there and drinking heavily. But you are super invited and hey, you could pick up a copy of the CD three days before the release date! What a coincidence that is! This will also likely be the last show as a regular old three piece rock band. It's been super fun, but I can't resist putting a computer in the live show and electronifying things and making us prone to tech problems. Anyway, I hope to see you there.

Well, that was a huge amount of stress about audio junk 99% of humans will never notice or care about. What a world.

The master for Out of It is as done as I can make it be and will be heading into manufacturing tomorrow. After this all I can do is regret. Party time!

Finished up all the Out of It mixes yesterday, moving on to mastering now. Actually I wouldn't say “finished” I'd say more “gave up and decided to move on with my life”. Here's hoping that's close enough.

Album artwork is submitted to the manufacturer, deposit placed on weary credit card. Found out Digipaks take 4-5 weeks instead of 2-3 as I originally thought, though luckily I scheduled out the timeline with a few weeks to spare.

Thanks to everyone who's been pre-ordering, it's nice to know this isn't all for nothing.

Barring act of god, the second Brad Sucks album -- Out of It -- will be released Monday September 8th, 2008. And then I will explode into dust. It's available for pre-ordering now. There's also a preview with clips from the songs you might want to check out. That's all on the Out of It album page.

I'm pretty nervous about this release. Rather than the long production time solidifying my choices and decisions I think it's made me even less secure than usual. I hope people like it -- OR ELSE I'M DOOMED.

A long time ago I put out a call for album art for the new record and got a lot of great submissions in the forum thread. A few complications arose that I hadn't realized -- mainly that for printing I need a super high-res version. Plus a cover isn't enough for a CD, you also need the back, the inside and the disc face, etc, etc. I'd love to put the submitted covers in a gallery so people can use them as the cover art if they want.

Here are some of my favorites:

(credits: Douchegordijn, Ash, Forsten, onemorechris -- thanks to everyone who submitted!)

I also had a difficult time deciding what really fit with the album. I take that kind of stuff maybe too seriously and felt lost. When I was whining about my lack of direction a friend reminded me that the best way to find a focus is to go personal, find something meaningful to me. Without an anchor in reality I just float around.

ANSI art was a big part of my life during my isolated nerdy teenage years. That time was largely defined by dropping out of high school, hanging out on BBS's, having no friends, playing video games, rarely going outside and antidepressants. The songs on Out of It are all about those sorts of feelings, so I felt a strong connection. I'm not sure it's one many people will pick up on at first glance, but it's important to me that it's there.

And now I'm gonna go play some video games. Life is so different now!

Here's what my next CD will look like:

The entire design is in ANSI art by Fredrik Olsson.

A while back I asked for some backing vocals to put on the title track of my next album. The mix is just about done and here are the folks whose vocals got included:

SexyJosh, Eric Peterson, Badcactus, Jeff Fal, Jonathan Coulton, Katherine Glover, Anti-M and Justin Bacon.

I'll be trying to track you down soon for your real name and/or address for the liner notes and album shipping but if you happen to see this, please drop me a line. Thanks to everyone for participating!

Crunch time. Here's what I've been up to:

Mixing the album. Did a mixing meeting with Rob and am back on track with the album. Actually excited about getting it out, which is strange for me. It's really taking an embarrassing amount of time. You would think this would result in exponential improvements and new material and awesomeness and you would be wrong. Just a lot of coordination and logistic delays.

I've been reading a lot about the album being dead and all I can think is: THANK GOD. I'm not sure I ever want to do this again. But what to do instead?

Getting ready for Harvard + the show in Cambridge. Looks like there'll be a Metafilter meet before and during (and after?) the show on the 12th. I think I've got my show pretty much down, new Firewire card = improved stability, blah nerd blah.

The big thing lately has been packing all my gear to get down there. Do you know what a custom guitar flight case costs? I will tell you: around $500. That's five HUNDRED dollars. It would be cheaper for me to fly to Boston, buy a $250 guitar and throw it in the garbage on my way home. I honestly haven't ruled that out but for now I've ordered an SKB Freedom case which apparently "smells" (read the reviews) but works good.

If my guitar is shattered on the way there, I'll buy a cheap one for the shows and give it to a homeless person before I leave.

Getting the website ready for the new album. I've been re-jiggering all my store stuff for the new album and beyond and that should go live in the next week I hope. Due to lack of sales I've decided to drop the OGG format and limit it to MP3 and FLAC. Simpler for everyone. OGG fans can always get the FLAC and convert it as it's lossless after all. I want to support open formats but I'd rather it not feel like a waste of time, energy and resources.

Thanks to everyone who submitted vocals for Out of It. We got 54 entries and that's pretty awesome. Quite a weird sensation to hear so many people singing my song.

Now comes trying to mix the track, woo woo! While I'll only be using a handful of the vocals on the record (I think) I'll definitely put together some other mixes with more/all of the vocals.

Just a reminder: you have until this Sunday November 11th to get your vocals in for Out of It. Details here.

So far there are 22 vocal recordings on ccMixter which is a decent haul. I was hoping there would be so many it would crash the Internet so here's hoping business picks up this week!

I was warned my Out of It backup vocals deadline was too short and either that's true or not many people want to participate. Regardless, you've now got until November 11th instead. Read the original request and get the song MP3 here.

I've also clarified that I need a recording of your vocals alone (not mixed with the original track) in order to mix you in. Thanks!

Hey hey. I need some background vocals for the title track of my next album (Out of It). I kinda want it to have a singalong vibe. Instead of just going to some of my singing buddies I thought it'd be fun to try opening it up to anyone out there.

So here's the unfinished song with rough vocals:

Out of It [3MB MP3] (lyrics)

How to play along at home:

1. Record yourself singing along with this song as best you can. It doesn't have to be the greatest quality, but try to keep clipping/distortion & mic pops to a minimum. Note: I need a recording of only your singing to be able to mix you in.

2. Upload your audio files to ccMixter.org under an Attribution Creative Commons license (which gives anyone permission to use your vocals as long as they give you credit). Please tag the file with "outofit". Update: ccMixter has a submit form specifically for this. If you're logged in, go here.

Deadline: Monday, October 15th Sunday, November 11th.

What's in it for you: If I use your vocals I'll credit you in the liner notes for the song and ship you out a free copy of the record when it's done. Woo!

Thank you! (You can see the submissions so far here.)

Update: fieryprophet has mixed all the vocals as of October 16th, check it out [5mb mp3].