miscellaneous bowman commentary additions

12 files changed, 155 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/album/archive.yaml b/album/archive.yaml
index 65780fdc..a55f566f 100644
--- a/album/archive.yaml
+++ b/album/archive.yaml
@@ -54,6 +54,10 @@ Duration: '1:24'
 URLs:
 - https://bowman.bandcamp.com/track/emerys-theme
 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqCIGInFoA8
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 10/15/2017)
+
+    [[artist:emery-ferguson|Emery Ferguson]] (who did track art for [[Another Countdown]]) was working on a podcast that never came to fruition and commissioned those. I've got some music in his current thing called ["The Museum of Natural Mystery"](https://pomemag.wpengine.com/category/pomecast/)
 ---
 Track: Just Destroy It
 Duration: '1:30'
diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-2.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-2.yaml
index 77e0879c..7ec04230 100644
--- a/album/homestuck-vol-2.yaml
+++ b/album/homestuck-vol-2.yaml
@@ -159,10 +159,20 @@ MIDI Project Files:
   - 'Explore - Goatmon.mid'
 Commentary: |-
     <i>Buzinkai:</i>
-    I tried towill write something a little more thought provoking this time without too much drummage in the background. It came out smoothly, and I do think it's quite the haunting melody. I was unaware that Andrew wanted me to finish the original loop, and someone else remixed a longer ending for it, doing quite a fantastic job.
+
+    I tried towill write something a little more thought provoking this time without too much drummage in the background. It came out smoothly, and I do think it's quite the haunting melody. I was unaware that [[artist:andrew-hussie|Andrew]] wanted me to finish the original loop, and someone else remixed a longer ending for it, doing quite a fantastic job.
 
     <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
+
     "Explore" was one of Buzinkai's distinctive snippets that I arranged - the melodies she writes are always strong, and the only appropriate scale to work on with that kind of material is grand.
+
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 7/23/2017)
+
+    A hot take on Explore? I mostly remember technical stuff about it, like that was the last time I used FL slayer before I decided it sounds dumb.
+
+    I think putting together all these collab tracks really early on helped build the culture of the forum. There was this sense that what [[artist:andrew-hussie|Andrew]] was attempting to do was to build a studio of musicians whose work would cross pollinate. There were guys like [[artist:malcolm-brown|Malcolm]] and [[artist:mark-j-hadley|Mark]] and [[artist:seth-peelle|Seth]] and [[artist:bill-bolin|Bill]] whose work was ready to go on its own. So I worked with them less and was more interested in people like [[artist:nick-smalley|Nick]] or [[artist:buzinkai|George]] whose work was less arranged. And I wanted to work with musicians who could bring their own playing to the work so I leaned on [[artist:fenris|Fenris]] and [[artist:joseph-aylsworth|Joe Aylsworth]].
+
+    I don't think I knew just how "all in one" digital production was until I saw how quickly someone like Mark Hadley would turn out new hs music. It was competitive quickly. I guess my father being deeply anti-electronic music was a big influence. I wanted to work with musicians to qualify some reality to the work. To me it's very sexy to imagine the power of the ensemble. Composition might just be putting the right musicians in the room. So I practiced a lot more collaboration early on.
 ---
 Track: Guardian
 Bandcamp Track ID: 2586232115
diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-4.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-4.yaml
index 6840c205..d20481fd 100644
--- a/album/homestuck-vol-4.yaml
+++ b/album/homestuck-vol-4.yaml
@@ -257,13 +257,27 @@ MIDI Project Files:
   - 'Sburban Jungle - MrCheeze.mid'
 Commentary: |-
     <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
+
     "Sburban Jungle" finally comes into its own with its full reveal after being on the shelf for months. That we didn't delay the thing further amazes me considering the scale of the story, although I'm still indebted to [[artist:andrew-hussie|Andrew]] for making the animated sequence which the song accompanied especially iconic. Who doesn't love the picture of Rose making her incredibly stylized jump to catch the bottle during the piano break?
-    ([YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP6916yGx6c))
+
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 7/26/2017)
+
+    wow guys, i mean i know sburban jungle kind of wedged itself into the lore of homestuck but it's cool to hear how much it means to you guys
+
+    it was probably the first "full" song written for the project, [[artist:andrew-hussie|andrew]] told us to do loops at the beginning thinking all the flashes would be loops. [[track:sburban-jungle-brief-mix|the short version]] was written as a loop, but then the loading screen ended. i wrote out a "full" version to give it a tag and andrew loved it so much he decided to sit on it, so the full version was ready to go as early as August 2009 but didn't end up [[flash:1149|in the comic]] until 2010
+
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> ([YouTube description](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP6916yGx6c), excerpt)
+
     The theme song of #Homestuck, first appearing as [[track:sburban-jungle-brief-mix|an excerpt]] on [[flash:137|page 137]] and then later in full on page 1149 ([[flash:1149]]). The full song was originally released by What Pumpkin on [[album:homestuck-vol-4]] on April 13, 2010.
+
     <i>Alice Hu:</i>
+
     Big thank you to Michael Guy Bowman for featuring my art on this new official upload of Sburban Jungle!
+
     If you pay attention to the video, you'll notice it moves!!
+
     <i>Homestuck:</i> (original track art)
+
     <img src="media/misc/sburban-jungle.jpg" width="350" height="350">
 ---
 Track: Three in the Morning (RJ's I Can Barely Sleep In This Casino Remix)
diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml
index 7db85de2..8385cf28 100644
--- a/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml
+++ b/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml
@@ -1094,6 +1094,14 @@ Commentary: |-
     God knows this is the dumbest thing I've ever created (at least for MSPA). But maybe it's also the most awesome thing because of that? In the process of creating this, I ended up learning a lot about the recording process, but let me tell you, if I ever EVER have to perform this song again, I am officially dropping the key signature a few steps - this song stretched my range pretty dangerously and it shows. Fun fact: did you know [[artist:diane-warren|Dianne Warren]] also wrote [[track:i-dont-want-to-miss-a-thing-aerosmith|"Don't Wanna Miss a Thing"]] from Armageddon? She has like the best career ever, writing the cheesiest, most epic love songs ever for some of the most ridiculous action movies of all time.
 
     I actually put a lot of work into it, retaking the vocals and guitar parts entirely before extending the song an extra verse. Nick's drunken air guitar solo remains intact, of course.
+
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 7/29/2017)
+
+    I put that recording on the forum and knew it was a little bit of a risk, because [[artist:andrew-hussie|Andrew]] didn't want to use tracks with vocals. But, I knew if anything would be the exception, this would probably be it.
+
+    Also, [[artist:joseph-aylsworth|Joseph]], who recorded the guitar on [[track:harlequin-rock-version|harlequin]], was missing, and when I solicited an awesome guitar solo, Nick responded out of the blue… And was the only response… So I used that
+
+    I don't think anyone's ever seen from Joseph again
 ---
 Track: Dupliblaze COMAGMA
 Artists:
diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-6.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-6.yaml
index 3619f3cd..959de814 100644
--- a/album/homestuck-vol-6.yaml
+++ b/album/homestuck-vol-6.yaml
@@ -364,9 +364,33 @@ Lyrics: |-
     Yeah, yeah, yeah
 Commentary: |-
     <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
+
     Yeah yeah yeah, uh, there's not too much to say about this one other than I once again did an over-the-top summer movie song and now I'm starting to turn into some weird irony-laden crooner. If I keep this thing up, I'll end like Bryan Ferry, slowly mutating from a bizarre parody of a lounge lizard into the real deal. When you guys find me in Vegas playing to some bar full of people scratching their heads or playing at some rich guy's wedding, please dose me with some smelling salts so that I can figure out where I am and what the hell is going on.
 
     Anyway, recording "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" is something that proved especially difficult, as I ended up cobbling the thing together whilst briefly staying at my parents' house (oh, those deadlines!) which wouldn't make things so hard except that they went ahead and painted the place and changed all the floors to wood paneling just before I arrived. What this means is that the rooms I recorded in were live as hell and it took a lot of work to hide the extra noise whilst being unable to pad the freshly-painted walls with anything that could possibly dampen the sound. Enjoy the results!
+
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 8/4/2017)
+
+    I do not like this recording at all and was high on paint fumes when I recorded it.
+
+    But I am glad it at least made people laugh. I think there wasn't enough of a joke to it other than how stupid and dramatic the original is, so I just imitated the dumb inflection Steve Tyler put on it
+
+    But honestly I should have either just done it for real or done it way worse
+
+    I feel like it ends up weirdly in the middle<br>
+    I guess that's just how Homestuck is
+
+    <center>Everything's WEIRDLY IN THE MIDDLE</center>
+
+    "is it serious"<br>
+    "is it stupid trolling"<br>
+    "it's homestuck"
+
+    I blame my dad for painting while I was staying over at the house
+
+    Did the bedroom really need a new coat of paint then and there? Could it not have waited?
+
+    Guess I just don't know hospitality.
 ---
 Track: MeGaLoVania
 Directory: MeGaLoVania
diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml
index 5401708d..00aba201 100644
--- a/album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml
+++ b/album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml
@@ -374,6 +374,10 @@ Commentary: |-
     This song takes its cues most heavily from ["Regatta de Blanc"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN-nXWHkVpA) by the Police and [[track:life-in-technicolor|"Life in Technicolor"]] by Coldplay - the meditatively simple rock backup is accompanied by a huge chorus of wordless vocals provided by countless overdubs of [[artist:tavia-morra|Tavia]] and myself. These middle voices are bookended by the twinkling bell sounds in the high range and the rumbling drums and guitar in the low range to make for a very full mix that really surprised me with its depth. I threw in some slowed-down bubble sounds (the same samples from [[track:mister-bowman-tells-you-about-the-squiddles|"Mister Bowman Tells You About the Squiddles"]]) to create the ocean ambiance, something I'd really gotten the chance to hear on a scuba dive I'd done over the summer.
 
     This is another example of a song that has the "just right" feeling about its length. I could probably have easily repeated the vocals endlessly as though I was attempting to induce transcendental meditation - it would probably have had the same effect as ["Hey Jude"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_MjCqQoLLA) or any number of other great songs. Owing though to my sense that this album was going to be a long one (my contributions alone come out to more than 20 minutes of music) I decided to capitalize on having achieved the harmony and just let it end when its thought was fully expressed, not unlike the original composition by Mark.
+
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 8/20/2017)
+
+    I was inspired by [[artist:mark-j-hadley|Mark Hadley]] announcing that he had a baby on the way
 ---
 Track: Escape Pod
 Artists:
diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-9.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-9.yaml
index 0ab72882..63338c56 100644
--- a/album/homestuck-vol-9.yaml
+++ b/album/homestuck-vol-9.yaml
@@ -923,10 +923,25 @@ Lyrics: |-
     Bu-bu-bu-bustin' makes me feel good!<br>Bu-bu-bu-bustin'!<br>Bu-bu-bu-bu-bustin'!<br>Bu-bu-bu-bustin' makes me feel good!
 Commentary: |-
     <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
+
     This track was an attempt to try something in the same vain as the soundtrack to Jet Set Radio Future which was recommended to me by friends Erik Scheele and Richard Gung. Composer Hideki Naganuma has created some of the most intricate and engaging pieces of dance music I've ever heard - his signature approach is his construction of entire songs around only a handful of samples (check out "Funky Dealer" for a good example).
+
     Going off of the notion that there aught to be some music dedicated to the 3 years that John, Jade, and Davesprite spend by killing time in Ghostbusters 2 MMORPG, I recorded myself singing the famous exclamation uttered by Ray Parker Jr partway through the legendary 1984 single. What is the deal with that line, really? Apparently chasing ghosts isn't just a public service for Mr. Parker - it gets him off.
+
     The majority of the track is driven by drum and crowd samples with some very funky but intentionally primitive synths on top. I liked the idea of building up to some big climactic house beat, and the climax of the song is sort of an homage to Kalibration and his EDM project Screamcatcher (albeit missing all the cool).
-    The art is by Victoria Grace Elliott.
+
+    <!-- The art is by Victoria Grace Elliott. -->
+
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpts, 9/11/2017)
+
+    Busting makes me feel [ahead of the game](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tdyU_gW6WE)
+
+    [[artist:robert-j-lake|RJ]] once called me a Neil Wannabe I think on Twitter<br>
+    [[artist:richard-gung|Richard]] called me "budget Lemon Demon" in college<br>
+    It is the thing that appears on my related artists on Spotify<br>
+    Neil is fantastic though, if this is great minds thinking alike I'm honored
+
+    I think he understands a generation so crystal clearly though in a way I'm still never going to. They'll look at him like Andy Warhol someday. He's the next great voice in pop art after him, certainly. They want to give that honor to Banksy or some other pretentious counterculture figure but I think Neil looks up to kitsch rather than down to it. That makes all the difference, like comparing Dan Harmon to Seth McFarlane. Parody should honor its subject, not condemn it
 ---
 Track: Everything is Something to Somebody
 Artists:
diff --git a/album/hush.yaml b/album/hush.yaml
index 4bd35c52..3a514d1b 100644
--- a/album/hush.yaml
+++ b/album/hush.yaml
@@ -251,6 +251,10 @@ Lyrics: |-
     Filled with anger we did not choose to receive
     Some will fight, some will fall
     How can anybody choose what they believe?
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 10/4/2017)
+
+    I'm glad you guys see the value in the message stuff. I feel like outside of hip hop you don't see a lot of music with a message these days. A lot of very personal work, a lot of good grooves, but not a lot of musicians who feel like putting their worldview out there.
 ---
 Track: Redshifts
 Directory: redshifts-hush
@@ -473,8 +477,23 @@ Lyrics: |-
     Oooh, fall in the HUSH
     Oooh, fall in the HUSH
 Commentary: |-
-    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
-    ([Music video!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD5i7HfQYPc))
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpts, 10/9/2017)
+
+    Still very proud of [the video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD5i7HfQYPc).
+
+    Based on a lot of different visual art. I'd love to spend more time on video art.
+
+    Some of the art I was studying at the time.
+
+    <img src="media/misc/bowman-hush-study.jpg" width="225">
+
+    I think I'm always trying to figure out what level I'm going for<br>
+    Music and otherwise<br>
+    Trying to find a balance between abstract stuff and really literal stuff
+
+    <i>Quasar Nebula:</i> (wiki editor)
+
+    The visual piece Bowman was studying is an untitled work by Ed Moses, most likely from 1975-1977 (cross-referencing the description in his photo with [this print sale page](https://web.archive.org/web/20240427213204/https://www.printed-editions.com/artist/ed-moses/untitled-leslie-sacks-gallery-ifpda-1-27/) for a similar work).
 ---
 Track: Chameleon
 Directory: chameleon-hush
diff --git a/album/ithaca.yaml b/album/ithaca.yaml
index a7432893..06e9f133 100644
--- a/album/ithaca.yaml
+++ b/album/ithaca.yaml
@@ -44,6 +44,20 @@ Lyrics: |-
     Here inside my car I could be the only one
     Somewhere in the sky a satellite on high
     Watches with its lonely eye
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 8/26/2017)
+
+    this song i heard the chorus of in a dream when i was probably like 7 or 8<br>
+    so i wrote around it
+
+    <i>Ucklin:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 8/26/2017)
+
+    wow, that's really neat!<br>
+    Was it just the words in the dream, or a melody with it?
+
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 8/26/2017)
+
+    melody and words i remember, and the idea that it was like a big synthpop song. i think maybe i'd just seen "a goofy movie" so powerline is swimming around in my psyche at that age. in this dream i'm watching this guy sing this song, and then i'm literally being lifted in the air by the singer (being a small kid) and the song is being delivered to me. in the morning he's exhausted from singing his heart out and sleeping in the garage. before we get a chance to talk to him he sneaks away in a golf cart. i interpret this as being a meeting between myself as a child and myself as an adult. like a self-fulfilling thing
 ---
 Track: Ascension
 Directory: ascension-ithaca
@@ -284,6 +298,10 @@ Lyrics: |-
     Familiar signs have gone away
     I'm sure if it was not today
     I'd be there now - I'd find my way
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 9/1/2017)
+
+    i'm surprised riki saw the potential for [[track:noun-astro-kids-pronoun-remix|a club track]] in noun but he has always been very sensitive to the remix as a format. i think that's how i relate to him best, he understands the intrigue of how a concept can be developed in alternative directions. you're sort of remixing the work already as you write it anyway, going through revisions. that's why it takes me a while
 ---
 Track: Ithaca
 Duration: '4:04'
diff --git a/album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead.yaml b/album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead.yaml
index 51d3b8e8..879712db 100644
--- a/album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead.yaml
+++ b/album/midnight-crew-drawing-dead.yaml
@@ -249,6 +249,10 @@ Commentary: |-
     <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
 
     I opted to imitate Weather Report and the sort of spacey, insidious-sounding grooves they put together on Mysterious Traveler to create "Lunar Eclipse". I like the atmospheric nature of the track, plus Fenris' sax solo that I diced up and added a ton of digital reverb to, although Fenris has completely disappeared since recording the solo in 2009.
+
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 8/5/2017)
+
+    I tend to hold on to ideas and use them when they're ready. [[track:forever|Forever]] was an idea I'd been holding on to for about five years. Lunar eclipse I think was 3 or 4 before I arranged it. Lots of my stuff bakes for months or years. Sometimes the first drafts suck but I find myself humming it later. That's how I know.
 ---
 Track: Hauntjam
 Artists:
@@ -273,6 +277,18 @@ Commentary: |-
     <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
 
     I also went ahead a dropped some good synths and fairly convincing drum part on Andrew Huo's "Hauntjam".
+
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpts, 7/28/2017)
+
+    Uhhh the main thing I did was pick the instruments and arrange drums
+
+    But I was really pushy about those drums. I never use FPC, so each drum had its own piano roll in FL studio. Bobby Blaker always said that drums take at least a day to figure out on any of his EDM tracks, and that was back when he was less developed as an artist. So, I'm assuming he probably takes even more time now, if he doesn't just have some presets or something…
+
+    I just remember touching in with ham on that and thinking, "good, I'm not wasting my time." I mean, there are ways to have drums centralized on one master application and then route it to different channels, but in FL studio, it rarely made sense to do it any other way than having separate sampler tracks were sound font tracks, especially since you get to work with pattern blocks anyway.
+
+    I think drums, more than any other instrument, define the genre of the music. Even very minor choices can change the character of a whole song. At the very least there's been only two songs with no drums on them on the billboard number one slot in the last 50 years.
+
+    I still do it by spreading of the parts across different instruments. Just in logic now. [[album:electric-daydreams|Electric daydreams]] is deliberately simple, and a couple of the songs just have a normal exs24 on there with all the drums going to the same channel. I wanted to imitate what I would be able to achieve if I were just a guy taping himself playing in a room.
 ---
 Track: Carbon Nadsat / Cuestick Genius
 Artists:
diff --git a/album/mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido.yaml b/album/mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido.yaml
index 4350e2b0..2f4a4e1c 100644
--- a/album/mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido.yaml
+++ b/album/mobius-trip-and-hadron-kaleido.yaml
@@ -96,6 +96,10 @@ URLs:
 - https://open.spotify.com/track/67bDtuEBFsIRgGKXMkvtxi
 Art Tags:
 - Mobius Trip
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 8/5/2017)
+
+    I tend to hold on to ideas and use them when they're ready. Forever was an idea I'd been holding on to for about five years. [[track:lunar-eclipse|Lunar eclipse]] I think was 3 or 4 before I arranged it. Lots of my stuff bakes for months or years. Sometimes the first drafts suck but I find myself humming it later. That's how I know.
 ---
 Track: Dawn of Man
 Duration: '5:44'
@@ -466,6 +470,10 @@ Lyrics: |-
     And no one knows it better than you
     And no one knows it better than you
     And no one knows it better than you
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 8/11/2017)
+
+    the outpouring of people who told me that song got them through a rough patch was incredible. it definitely makes me think twice about what the effect of my work on an audience will be, esp. compared to the stuff i was working on when i was way younger
 ---
 Track: Pumpkin Tide
 Duration: '3:31'
diff --git a/album/the-wanderers.yaml b/album/the-wanderers.yaml
index 43b0255a..b64b7820 100644
--- a/album/the-wanderers.yaml
+++ b/album/the-wanderers.yaml
@@ -324,6 +324,16 @@ Art Tags:
 - Jack Noir
 Referenced Tracks:
 - track:ruins
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 8/19/2017)
+
+    merger of a lot of different ideas<br>
+    i used to listen to a lot of beats antique<br>
+    also frippertronics<br>
+    the intro is an homage to that technique<br>
+    doing scratches was fun too<br>
+    i like to think the myst soundtrack was an influence on it too<br>
+    really listened to the uru and myst iii soundtracks to death
 ---
 Track: What a Daring Dream
 Artists: