hussie/bandcamp commentary additions

fixes #161, #162

16 files changed, 132 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/album/alternia.yaml b/album/alternia.yaml
index d8580c1..2eb3fbe 100644
--- a/album/alternia.yaml
+++ b/album/alternia.yaml
@@ -52,6 +52,12 @@ Commentary: |-
     <hr>
     <blockquote><i>Raised from infancy by the mysterious but melodious Rhythm Monks, Toby set out at the age of 10 in pursuit of a single goal: to be the master of all the beats. After years of travelling, he has clearly achieved this goal. None dare challenge him to a battle of rap; humiliating defeat would be the only possible outcome. He is the champion. Today, always in search of a challenge, he has moved on to musically depicting cyborg tits.<br><br>He's pretty cool.</i></blockquote>
     <i>-minibiography written by Linnet, and is presumed to be 100% accurate</i>
+
+    <i>Andrew Hussie:</i>
+    Yes, this is a solo album, meant to put music to the troll universe which has been taking shape recently. I believe you will find this album shall only further crystallize the atmosphere of this arc. It will do this because we say it will.
+
+    But there is some trivia here! Before I started act 5, Toby talked to me about working on an album like this, couched in the assumption that the troll story would never be examined in the detail it is presently, and that this album would only serve as a tonal exploration of a purely hypothetical adventure supplied by the imagination. Turns out he assumed incorrectly! Which only made the project that much more timely and apropos. In fact, the planet Alternia was named after the album, and not the other way around!
+
     <i>Quasar Nebula:</i>
     Track art for [[album:alternia]] and [[album:alterniabound]] is from the <a href="https://alterniaart.tumblr.com/">Alternia/Bound</a> track art anthology projects! Original track artworks, which were largely (though not entirely) crops of panels from the webcomic, have been left in the commentary for each track.
 Wallpaper Artists:
diff --git a/album/alterniabound.yaml b/album/alterniabound.yaml
index 1288636..c0a43a3 100644
--- a/album/alterniabound.yaml
+++ b/album/alterniabound.yaml
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@ Commentary: |-
     Once you pop, the games don't stop.
     Oh, and the games.
     WILL THEY EVER?
+
+    Special vague thanks to [[artist:lexxy|Alexandra "Lexxy" Douglass]]
+
     <i>Quasar Nebula:</i>
     Track art for [[album:alternia]] and [[album:alterniabound]] is from the <a href="https://alterniaart.tumblr.com/">Alternia/Bound</a> track art anthology projects! Original track artworks, which were largely (though not entirely) crops of panels from the webcomic, have been left in the commentary for each track.
 Banner Artists:
diff --git a/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml b/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml
index af5e581..00cc60e 100644
--- a/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml
+++ b/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a.yaml
@@ -44,6 +44,34 @@ Additional Files:
 - Title: Outdated Credits and Lyrics
   Files:
   - CREDITS_A.pdf
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Homestuck:</i>
+    What Pumpkin Music proudly presents coloUrs and mayhem: Universe A, the first of [[album:coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-b|TWO albums]] to feature many incredibly fine musicians who haven't had a chance in the limelight until now.
+
+    Please don't lick your screen.
+
+    <i>Andrew Hussie:</i>
+    <b>The Next Album: A Contest</b>
+
+    The MSPA music team has made exactly 20 great albums since the beginning of Homestuck. For the next album, I thought it would be fun to open the music submissions up to everybody.
+
+    There seems to be a large number of musicians in the readership outside the music team, who often work on their own HS fan music or remixes. I’ve had quite a number of people express interest in submitting music to HS over the years, but to keep the team from ballooning out of control, I’ve had to draw the recruitment line somewhere. This strikes me as a nice opportunity to give a lot of other creative people a chance to contribute music. The music team was originally assembled just before HS began with the idea that I wanted MSPA stories to largely build and develop through contribution from the readership, and I think this album idea is very much in the spirit of that original premise.
+
+    <b>The challenge</b>
+
+    If you want to submit music, the idea is simple. Pick a character from Homestuck, and make a song for that character. It can be any character, particularly those in identifiable categories, like the eight human kids, the trolls, ancestors, agents, exiles, Midnight Crew, Felt. If you want to pick a character not in one of those groups, that’s fine too. Keep in mind there’s a decent chance that if your song is picked, it could be reallocated to a different character, since it’s expected we’ll get a lot of submission overlap, and it’s not going to be “The Album of 50 Karkat Songs!” So picking a character for your song is just a starting point for you, and we’ll sort it all out during the selection process.
+
+    You can submit up to three songs. No more than that, or they will not be considered! They can be for three different characters, or the same character, whatever you want. You can do remixes, etc. of other HS songs, but we’ll have to run it by the original artist, and they’ll have some stake in the song’s sales.
+
+    I am hoping to include as much artist diversity as possible in the final list. Ideally, one artist per song. So while you may submit up to 3, if one of your songs is picked, it’ll likely be only one. If you have a lot of music you’re dying to send, hopefully the 3 song max will mitigate any agonizing decisions over which to send.
+
+    <b>The Prize</b>
+
+    If your song is picked, it will be included with the album! That’s pretty much the extent of the prize. You’ll get a cut of the album sales, in proportion with how many songs you have in the album to the total number of songs.
+
+    Also, if this contributes any motivation for you, I’m going to try to make a point of using at least one song from this album in a future animation.
+
+    I think that should be all the info you need to get started. Everybody is already super psyched to hear what you come up with. Happy music makin!
 ---
 Section: Side 1
 ---
diff --git a/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-b.yaml b/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-b.yaml
index 041bfe4..932265b 100644
--- a/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-b.yaml
+++ b/album/coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-b.yaml
@@ -36,6 +36,11 @@ Additional Files:
 - Title: Lyrics & Trivia
   Files:
   - LYRICS_ETC_B.txt
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Homestuck:</i>
+    What Pumpkin Music proudly presents coloUrs and mayhem: Universe B, the second of [[album:coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a|TWO albums]] to feature many incredibly fine musicians who haven't had a chance in the limelight until now.
+
+    You can lick your screen now.
 ---
 Section: Side 1
 ---
diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-1.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-1.yaml
index 4a2cee5..5d42416 100644
--- a/album/homestuck-vol-1.yaml
+++ b/album/homestuck-vol-1.yaml
@@ -15,6 +15,13 @@ Wallpaper File Extension: png
 Wallpaper Artists:
 - Homestuck
 - Niklink (edits for wiki)
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Andrew Hussie:</i>
+    Homestuck songs are finally available for download!
+
+    You can buy the songs through Bandcamp. I batted around a lot of ideas for downloading music, and ultimately decided selling them was the best way to go. This way we get to support the artists who did this excellent work, and generously volunteered their time to help me out with the story. As much as I like dispatching free entertainment for everybody, when it comes to stuff that I didn't make, I'd rather give artists the chance to profit from their work than casting it into the wind it for free!
+
+    But the songs are priced pretty reasonably, especially if you get the whole album. More songs will be added to it as the story goes. But really, the Homestuck music is the tip of the iceberg with respect to this larger, somewhat mysterious MSPA music project. There will be some more cool developments in the coming weeks and months, so keep an eye out!
 ---
 Section: Main album
 ---
diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml
index 05ecd78..c5b38f4 100644
--- a/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml
+++ b/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml
@@ -27,6 +27,23 @@ Additional Files:
   Files:
   - vol5.jpg
 Commentary: |-
+    <i>Andrew Hussie:</i>
+    Homestuck Vol. 5 is here. To call it a mega-album is an understatement. IT HAS 71 SONGS.
+
+    And before I get carried away talking about it, we're releasing this under a new VERY SERIOUS AND LEGIT RECORD LABEL, which is called What Pumpkin. I thought this would be a much tidier container for all these crazy music projects we're cranking out. Oh and there will be more.
+
+    The idea I had for volume five was to gather up a lot of music that had been accumulating, and stuff it all into this monster album. Like, WAY more songs than would ever be sensible to put in an album and still call it an album. The result is something so audacious, it just might be COMPLETELY MINDBLOWINGLY INCREDIBLE. You be the judge. I already know your verdict though.
+
+    Additionally the concept was to make a huge soundtrack that touches on the magnitude of the story that has been swelling steadily for more than a year. The soundtrack is meant to evoke all the things taking place that we perhaps aren't seeing in this universe, or that could happen, but that the linear focus of the narrative simply can't contain. You're invited to imagine the bigger story the album is telling.
+
+    Bear in mind this album is not merely a giant song dump. I feel like I arranged this mix pretty carefully. And on top of that, <b>it is a seamless album.</b> There are transitions between songs built into the songs, so it all runs together as a cohesive whole. It's all equalized and mastered very well. <b>There is nearly three solid hours of music to listen to.</b> And it is less than fifteen dollars.
+
+    Now it seems like I can never release one of these things without thanking my knuckles to a bloody pulp as I rain blows of merciless gratitude on everyone around me, and for good reason. Lots of people worked their asses off on this thing. It always seems like such a simple idea. Hey lets make an album! All this music is right here it'll take like two seconds to ram it out. Wrong stupid! So here I am assuming the flying crane position of indebtedness while I meditate on the fact that I'm about to snap the spines of fifty helpless thank ninjas in cold blooded succession.
+
+    Thanks to [[artist:cindy-dominguez|Cindy]] who worked forever on the new website and uploaded a million giant high quality songs which take forever to upload as it turns out and also hounding everyone for their files and stuff. Thanks to [[group:clark-powell|Clark Powell]] for doing great mastering/equalizing work on all the songs, and thanks to [[group:toby-fox|Toby Fox]] for doing <i>additionally great</i> work of a similar nature. Thanks to all the musicians for lighting a fire under their bone bulges to get high quality files to us and of course not being able to help themselves from making all these killer upgrades to the music itself in the process. And thanks to [[artist:lexxy|Lexxy]] for the ultraslick cover art!
+
+    I am never going to stop listening to this thing. Never. They'll have to send the cadaver dogs into my fucking unibomber shack cause I ain't coming out, and the fire ants will be wondering how they're gonna eat the rotting pulp in my skull with these headphones blocking my earholes like that.
+
     <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
     This Volume is a little bit of an oddity in that it's hyper-long and is consisted overwhelmingly of tracks that have not appeared in the comic whatsoever, so you might not be quite so initially motivated to purchase it as you would for one of the soundtracks proper, however, I assure you, there is some really great material on there. The album hits the tip of the creative iceberg that has been the MSPA music project (which I guess is now formally What Pumpkin records) and shows only a fraction of the endless piles upon piles of "other" music that exists on the not-so-secret music forums.
 
diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-6.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-6.yaml
index 7873965..88dbf61 100644
--- a/album/homestuck-vol-6.yaml
+++ b/album/homestuck-vol-6.yaml
@@ -33,6 +33,11 @@ Additional Files:
 - Title: What Pumpkin Site Banner
   Files:
   - vol6_wp_banner.jpg
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Andrew Hussie:</i>
+    This is pretty easily my favorite album so far. It's such a great mix of silly songs and kickass songs and all the wonderful moments where those two types of songs intersect. Sometimes those moments even span <i>entire songs</i>. Please enjoy this.
+
+    Awesome job by the guys as usual. Nice mastering work by [[artist:solatrus|Jeremy]], author of the first and last songs.
 ---
 Track: Frost
 Directory: frost-vol6
diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-7.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-7.yaml
index e2afe7e..ef51a94 100644
--- a/album/homestuck-vol-7.yaml
+++ b/album/homestuck-vol-7.yaml
@@ -32,6 +32,9 @@ Additional Files:
   Files:
   - banner.jpg
   - bg.jpg
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Andrew Hussie:</i>
+    Volume 7 is pretty self explanatory. Contains many songs from the story, plus a bunch of other great new ones. I say this every time, but this is now the best HS volume. AND IT KEEPS BEING TRUE EVERY TIME I SAY IT.
 ---
 Section: Main album
 ---
diff --git a/album/medium.yaml b/album/medium.yaml
index ea63c78..d38d499 100644
--- a/album/medium.yaml
+++ b/album/medium.yaml
@@ -31,6 +31,9 @@ Additional Files:
 - Title: Bandcamp Background
   Files:
   - bg.jpg
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Andrew Hussie:</i>
+    This one's very cool. Clark has a great ambient sound, and his idea for the album was to musically express the Medium's planets, through both their elements and themes. I think he nailed it. Cover art was tag-teamed by me and Cindy (the lady who touches all your WP shirts).
 ---
 Track: Light
 Directory: light-medium
diff --git a/album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead.yaml b/album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead.yaml
index 9f9ce3f..d5b5293 100644
--- a/album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead.yaml
+++ b/album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead.yaml
@@ -29,6 +29,22 @@ Additional Files:
   - mcwpp_1440x900.jpg
   - mcwpp_1920x1080.jpg
 Commentary: |-
+    <i>Andrew Hussie:</i>
+    <b>FAKE BANDS (they are not real)</b><br>
+    I am here today to blindside you with a completely unanticipated, unforeshadowed album by the Midnight Crew.
+
+    Only two songs in this album have appeared in Homestuck pages: [[flash:1267|Three in the Morning]], and [[flash:833|Nightlife]] (both are extended versions in the album). The rest are new, never before heard, and all of them (including the first two I mentioned) were made specifically for this album.
+
+    I had this idea to start making "fake bands" based on various characters from MSPA some time ago, back when the music project was starting up and I soon realized I'd have way more music on my hands than I could possibly use in the story. MC was the first such band, which guys in the music community started working on stuff for last summer. The whole thing got sidetracked for a while, but we decided to finish it over the course of the intermission for obvious reasons. It turned into a 19 song monster album, and I think all the songs came out fantastic, and really match the group's motif quite well.
+
+    The idea behind the fake bands was to put a spin on a certain genre, in a way that seemed in keeping with the characters and what sort of music they'd make. In MC's case the genre is something we've been referring to as "dark jazz".
+
+    I'd like to keep putting out more albums by more bands, with more interesting spins on musical styles to help develop characters and their universe. There certainly seems to be enough talent to keep it coming. I really wouldn't mind flooding you guys with awesome original music, even if I can't manage to work most of it into animated pages. Which obviously I can't. But projects like these albums are the next best thing.
+
+    In addition to some familiar names like Hadley and Bowman, there are a lot of great new artists represented in this album, who haven't yet authored something appearing in HS. But the newer folks made some of my favorite stuff there. I recommend you give the whole thing a thorough listen. Thanks to everyone for working on this, and as always, thanks to Cindy for configuring all the tedious Bandcamp stuff.
+
+    A final note: when I said it was unforshadowed, I guess that <a href="https://homestuck.com/story/353">wasn't entirely true</a>.
+
     <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
     The Midnight Crew album was the first of our really high-concept releases with the fake bands, especially since we attempted to invent some kind of goth-jazz genre out of thin air, despite the team's minimal understanding of goth music or jazz.
 ---
diff --git a/album/prospit-and-derse.yaml b/album/prospit-and-derse.yaml
index 8a68c81..c977b83 100644
--- a/album/prospit-and-derse.yaml
+++ b/album/prospit-and-derse.yaml
@@ -22,6 +22,15 @@ Art Tags:
 - Derse
 Commentary: |-
     <i>Solatrus:</i>
+    <i>The twins of Skaia, locked in combat's hold<br>
+    One a shadow of fate, one a heart of gold.
+
+    Watch as we see the children who dream,<br>
+    Of worlds so unlike anything we've seen.
+
+    Now, listen to the sound that has been rehearsed.<br>
+    The sound of dreams... of Prospit and Derse.</i>
+    <hr>
     <b>Propsit & Derse 1 Year Anniversary Commentary</b>
     It’s really insane that it’s been one year since this album came out. And what’s even more remarkable is how much I’ve improved as a musician since then. But let’s turn the clock back and I’ll tell you the story of how it all started.
     This whole thing is going to be done in the order of how I created the album, which was Derse and then Prospit, but not precisely in that order.
diff --git a/album/squiddles.yaml b/album/squiddles.yaml
index d361763..881f53c 100644
--- a/album/squiddles.yaml
+++ b/album/squiddles.yaml
@@ -29,6 +29,20 @@ Additional Files:
 - Title: What Pumpkin Site Banner
   Files:
   - squiddles_banner.jpg
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Andrew Hussie:</i>
+    <b>THIS IS INCREDIBLY SILLY</b><br>
+    Hey guys, guess what the next album is all about! No, your guess is wrong. It is a Squiddles album. Surprise!
+
+    Here is an important thing to note before all else. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD9DO7P2vbU">This album comes with a full-length animation!</a>
+
+    A lot of the same people who have contributed to MSPA animations lately worked on that animation. In fact, they did 100% of it! Conceptualized it and storyboarded it and drew all the assets, all under the supervision of a very skilled Flash animator named [[artist:paige-turner|Paige Turner]].
+
+    This album began percolating many months ago, and as with much of what this music fellowship works on, it snowballed in quantity and silliness and awesomeness over an extended period of time. It began with [[artist:alex-rosetti|Alex Rosetti's]] great [[track:squiddles|single track]], a snippet of which found its way into the big [[flash:1940|[S] Descend]] mashup.
+
+    The idea we formed around that song was to make an album that would serve as the soundtrack for a fictional cartoon show for kids, full of ridiculous happy tunes with strong themes of friendship and chock full of squeaky noises and aquatic gurglings. Seems to me like they pulled it off. It's very easy to picture this as a real show now!
+
+    Most of what you hear and see is musician/artist-conceptualized. I didn't have much of a hand in it other than the original idea. The guiding principle for working on Squiddles stuff is, any idea someone has for it automatically becomes Squiddles canon. So really anything going on here, candy corn shrimp, skipper Plumbthroat's connivings, underwater unicorns, all that came together through the collaboration of these artists while I sat quietly and boggled vacantly at their shenanigans. These guys are a bunch of nuts. But they are your nuts, and now their work is yours as well.
 ---
 Section: Main album
 ---
diff --git a/album/strife.yaml b/album/strife.yaml
index 794bcb9..c55ca82 100644
--- a/album/strife.yaml
+++ b/album/strife.yaml
@@ -18,6 +18,11 @@ Art Tags:
 - Dave's bro
 - Jack Noir
 Track Art File Extension: png
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Andrew Hussie:</i>
+    This is a solo album by Tensei. I was really impressed with his stuff, so a while ago asked him to put together an album. We talked about it and thought it would be cool to make a bunch of battle music for hypothetical STRIFE pages. I think two words that adequately describe how it came out are holy shit. His rock sound is sick, incredibly polished and well produced. You'll hear more from him for sure. (And in fact, you just did! He made the [[track:trollian-standoff|Mexican Standoff tune]] in the [[flash:3520|new Flash page]].)
+
+    Speaking of sick, check the cover art by Tauhid. The dude can draw. If I ever stopped doing Homestuck, the whole enterprise could be kept aloft by the prepsterous amount of talent which appears to orbit me.
 ---
 Section: Main album
 ---
diff --git a/album/symphony-impossible-to-play.yaml b/album/symphony-impossible-to-play.yaml
index e6fe71d..2cf71d1 100644
--- a/album/symphony-impossible-to-play.yaml
+++ b/album/symphony-impossible-to-play.yaml
@@ -61,6 +61,8 @@ Referenced Tracks:
 ---
 Track: II - Sarabande
 Directory: sarabande-symphony
+Contributors:
+- Erik Scheele (piano)
 Duration: '2:36'
 URLs:
 - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/ii-sarabande-2
diff --git a/album/the-felt.yaml b/album/the-felt.yaml
index 455deef..b9c925b 100644
--- a/album/the-felt.yaml
+++ b/album/the-felt.yaml
@@ -22,6 +22,13 @@ Additional Files:
   Files:
   - bg.jpg
 Wallpaper Style: 'opacity: 0.5;'
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Andrew Hussie:</i>
+    In the same vein as the [[album:midnight-crew-drawing-dead|Midnight Crew fake band album]], but where MC was a dark jazz band, the Felt is an orchestral group. The idea I proposed earlier in the year was an orchestral sound with "temporal effects." Notes, melodies, rhythms played backwards, forwards, rewinding and such, as if the music itself was subject to their powers of time distortion. The sound also took on some electronic, sort of ambient qualities as it developed. You could refer to the genre as "temporelechestral." If you wanted to say a mouthful.
+
+    Nice job to [[group:clark-powell|Clark Powell]] for mastering this whole thing, as well as including a few of her own great songs in the list too. The whole thing strikes me as a very tight bit of production.
+
+    Sick cover art by hypertalented and prolific HS fan artist, [[artist:molly-gur|SkepticArcher]].
 ---
 Track: Jade Dragon
 Artists:
diff --git a/static-page/changelog.yaml b/static-page/changelog.yaml
index 02a0cbe..a35a3cd 100644
--- a/static-page/changelog.yaml
+++ b/static-page/changelog.yaml
@@ -38,11 +38,13 @@ Content: |-
         - added [[album:early-access]]!
         - added [[album:aspect-clock]]!
     <h3>other additions</h3>
+    - added commentary from [[artist:andrew-hussie]] and old Bandcamp pages to several albums: [[album:homestuck-vol-1]], [[album:midnight-crew-drawing-dead]], [[album:homestuck-vol-5]], [[album:alternia]], [[album:squiddles]], [[album:the-felt]], [[album:homestuck-vol-6]], [[album:strife]], [[album:medium]], [[album:homestuck-vol-7]], [[album:prospit-and-derse]], [[album:coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-a]], and [[album:coloUrs-and-mayhem-universe-b]]
     - added commentary by [[artist:michael-guy-bowman|Bowman]] to much of his older music: [[track:sburban-jungle-brief-mix]], [[track:harlequin-rock-version]], [[track:explore]], [[track:ohgodwhat-remix]], [[track:chorale-for-jaspers]], [[track:pony-chorale]], [[album:midnight-crew-drawing-dead]], [[track:lunar-eclipse]], [[track:hauntjam]], [[track:sburban-jungle]], [[album:homestuck-vol-5]], [[track:happy-cat-song]], [[track:hardchorale]], [[track:how-do-i-live-bunny-back-in-the-box-version]], [[track:greenhouse]], [[track:tangled-waltz]], [[track:squiddle-samba]], [[track:mister-bowman-tells-you-about-the-squiddles]], [[track:i-dont-want-to-miss-a-thing]], and [[album:mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido]]
     <h3>data changes</h3>
     - [[track:smackdown]], [[track:slamdown]], [[track:contra]], [[track:mayorlovania]], and [[track:sburban-resolution]] moved out of [[album:more-homestuck-fandom]] (now in [[album:cool-and-new-homestuck]] and [[album:early-access]])
     <h3>data fixes</h3>
     - various fixes to [[track:three-in-the-morning-4-13-hours-late-remix]] and [[track:three-in-the-morning-ngames-bowmix]]
+    - fixed [[track:sarabande-symphony]] not listing [[artist:erik-scheele]] as a contributor
     <h2 id="05-mar-2023" class="major-release"><a href="#05-mar-2023">[[date:05 March 2023]] - Track Doctor</a></h2>
     <h3>site changes</h3>
     - new sheet music & MIDI/project file sections on track pages