Album: 'Midnight Crew: Drawing Dead' Date: February 4 2010 Date Added: November 15, 2019 URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/album/homestuck-vol-1-4-with-midnight-crew-drawing-dead - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQBK41qzhR4 - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL83FE65DF950D7072 Cover Artists: - Homestuck Default Track Cover Artists: - Homestuck Wallpaper Artists: - Homestuck - Niklink (edits for wiki) Wallpaper Style: 'opacity: 0.9;' Wallpaper File Extension: png Art Tags: - Jack Noir - DD - CD - HB Color: '#dd0000' Groups: - group:official Additional Files: - Title: Album Cover Wallpaper (shared separately) Files: - mcwpp_1280x1024.jpg - mcwpp_1440x900.jpg - mcwpp_1920x1080.jpg Commentary: |- Andrew Hussie: FAKE BANDS (they are not real)
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 [[artist:cindy-dominguez|Cindy]] for configuring all the tedious Bandcamp stuff. A final note: when I said it was unforshadowed, I guess that wasn't entirely true. Michael Guy Bowman: 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. --- Track: Three in the Morning Artists: - Clark Powell Art Tags: - Snowman Duration: '2:49' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/three-in-the-morning-3 - https://youtu.be/zSg6talwzbU Sheet Music Files: - Title: Sheet music by EuniverseCat Files: - 'Three in the Morning - EuniverseCat.pdf' - Title: Sheet music by Geekthras Files: - 'Three in the Morning - Geekthras A.pdf' - 'Three in the Morning - Geekthras B.pdf' - Title: Sheet music by Nocturne Files: - 'Three in the Morning - Nocturne.pdf' - Title: Sheet music by kurama101 (piano score) Files: - 'Three in the Morning - kurama101 (piano score).pdf' MIDI Project Files: - Title: MIDI by Unknown Files: - 'Three in the Morning - Unknown.mid' --- Track: Blue Noir Artists: - David Ko Art Tags: - DD Duration: 0:55 URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/blue-noir-2 - https://youtu.be/YvMyo3opDOY Referenced Tracks: - track:vagabounce --- Track: Dead Shuffle Artists: - Mark J. Hadley Art Tags: - Felt Manor Duration: '2:17' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/dead-shuffle-2 - https://youtu.be/jTIQhTdy4ZU Commentary: |- Mark J. Hadley: The first MC-related thing I wrote, and retroactively became the MC theme song. This was actually a remake of a midi I made years ago intended for part of an RPG a friend was making, until the RPG was cancelled. It's mostly the same, except that I went back and made it more jazzy (added saxophone and a swing rhythm). The original title of it was "Seriousness". --- Track: Hearts Flush Artists: - Mark J. Hadley Art Tags: - CD - The Felt - Felt Manor Duration: '2:12' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/hearts-flush-2 - https://youtu.be/nb7PoT9w6Tc Commentary: |- Mark J. Hadley: My favorite of the MC ones I wrote. I've always wanted to write a bass solo, and this gave me the opportunity. There's not much else to add, other than I had a blast writing it. --- Track: Knives and Ivory Artists: - Kevin Regamey Art Tags: - Jack Noir - Felt Manor Duration: '1:10' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/knives-and-ivory-2 - https://youtu.be/D1C7y1u2K5M --- Track: Liquid Negrocity Artists: - Toby Fox Art Tags: - Jack Noir - DD - CD - HB Duration: '2:10' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/liquid-negrocity-2 - https://youtu.be/r8sBtl3WYZo Sheet Music Files: - Title: Sheet music by Gamehunter Files: - 'Liquid Negrocity - Gamehunter.pdf' - Title: Sheet music by Nocturne Files: - 'Liquid Negrocity - Nocturne.pdf' MIDI Project Files: - Title: MIDI by Toby Fox (original composer) Files: - 'Liquid Negrocity - Toby Fox.mid' - Title: MIDI by Miff Files: - 'Liquid Negrocity - Miff.mid' - Title: MIDI by MrCheeze Files: - 'Liquid Negrocity - MrCheeze.mid' --- Track: Hollow Suit Artists: - Alex Rosetti Art Tags: - The Felt - Felt Manor Duration: '2:24' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/hollow-suit-2 - https://youtu.be/k7El193pVkM Commentary: |- Alex Rosetti: Hollow Suit was my other song on that album and it was a little more popular than Moonshine, though I can't say either even came close to being hits. Like Moonshine it still has a soft spot in my heart. It's not as compositionally impressive in my opinion, but it was the first in a long line of quirky tracks I have made for Homestuck. The vibraphone and electric organ were incredibly fun to use, and the whole thing ended up having an Elfman/Kirkhope vibe to it. Now, I don't have synesthesia, but for some reason whenever I think about this song, I think "green". Just some useless trivia for you. Looking back on Drawing Dead as a whole, do I think it was a good album? No, not really. It was good for us at the time, but it was so all over the place, almost completely devoid of mastering, many of the songs used inferior samples, and most of us just weren't as experienced with composing back then. Mostly it was a case of having no centralized idea of what the style of music should be, and the clashes that followed. I don't mean that to knock any of us in any way. It was an important step for all of us as musicians and we have been constantly improving since then. I still look back fondly at it, since it was my first ever album release, after all. --- Track: Ante Matter Artists: - Mark J. Hadley Art Tags: - The Felt Duration: '2:33' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/ante-matter-2 - https://youtu.be/2uYFtCSxoPk Commentary: |- Mark J. Hadley: It's hard to find things to say about this one. I wanted to make a slower song, compared to the other ones I did for Drawing Dead. I'm still technically new at writing jazz, so it was nice getting to practice it a bit more. Overall though, I think I liked the title best on this one; I enjoy a good pun. --- Track: The Ballad of Jack Noir Directory: the-ballad-of-jack-noir Artists: - Toby Fox Art Tags: - Jack Noir - Felt Manor Duration: '1:48' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/the-ballad-of-jack-noir-2 - https://youtu.be/EAlt8IgOgPQ Referenced Tracks: - track:the-ballad-of-jack-noir-original MIDI Project Files: - Title: MIDI by Unknown Files: - 'The Ballad of Jack Noir - Unknown.mid' --- Track: Lunar Eclipse Artists: - Michael Guy Bowman - Fenris Art Tags: - CD - The Felt - Felt Manor Duration: '2:59' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/lunar-eclipse-2 - https://youtu.be/06SVUSwu8Xk Commentary: |- Michael Guy Bowman: 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. --- Track: Hauntjam Artists: - Andrew Huo - Michael Guy Bowman Art Tags: - DD - The Felt - Felt Manor - 'cw: blood' Duration: '2:16' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/hauntjam-2 - https://youtu.be/K9s0vr15Gvw Referenced Tracks: - track:haunt Commentary: |- Andrew Huo: Hauntjam and Hauntjelly are interesting things. They were actually made based on a short fruity loop that The Big Man Andrew did, called haunt.wav or haunt.mp3 or something like that. A jam on his theme, logically, would therefore be called "hauntjam," with the opportunity for naming puns including "hauntjelly." His theme appears mostly unchanged as the bassline for the first part of the pieces. At this point in terms of instrumentation, we were still mostly striving for faithfulness to the canon Midnight Crew "band," as can be seen in the Extras page wherein the MC fill 'em with midnight (bottom), so Hauntjam employs trombone, string bass, piano, clarinet, and sax (I forget which because I've lost the file and am not a band person, but I think it was alto). From there on, it was fairly straightforward to write a haunting refrain and then solos for each instrument. I will admit I got a little writerblock'd for the second part, which was sort of a brief modulation to the dominant, so it sounds a little strange. But it still has its own little charm, with the almost annoying trill put in for a spooky ghost-like effect. In Hauntjam, Bowman did some good stuff with bringing out moving parts in the first refrain. In Hauntjelly, Xerxes emphasizes the spookiness by changing instruments for more electric organ. Michael Guy Bowman: I also went ahead a dropped some good synths and fairly convincing drum part on Andrew Huo's "Hauntjam". --- Track: Carbon Nadsat / Cuestick Genius Artists: - Robert J! Lake Art Tags: - DD Duration: '2:56' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/carbon-nadsat-cuestick-genius-2 - https://youtu.be/g5jyNbOePJ8 --- Track: Ace of Trump Artists: - Hilary Troiano Art Tags: - The Felt Duration: '6:29' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/ace-of-trump-2 - https://youtu.be/Leb48RHyrWs Commentary: |- Hilary Troiano: Someone sent me a PM asking for some commentary about my two MSPA songs, so [[media:misc/hilary-troiano-commentary.mp3|here it is]]. (source) --- Track: Moonshine Artists: - Alex Rosetti Art Tags: - Felt Manor Duration: '2:39' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/moonshine-2 - https://youtu.be/W5p7sEFMYHE Sheet Music Files: - Title: Sheet music by Gamehunter Files: - 'Moonshine - Gamehunter.pdf' - Title: Sheet music by Kraethi Files: - 'Moonshine - Kraethi.pdf' Commentary: |- Alex Rosetti: Fake bands, man. I so wish we had done more with this concept. Since the very beginning of Homestuck, Andrew had this idea that the kids would have fake bands they were into, and we would make MySpace band pages with a few of their songs on them as a fun supplement to the comic, in the same spirit as dave strider's blog or SBaHJ. (both of which I would link to if tumblr wasn't bugging out right now and preventing me from doing so) The first one was the Midnight Crew, and Andrew made the cover art before anything else happened, if I recall correctly. That project hung around for a while until the Midnight Crew Intermission, when Andrew decided to expand the "fake band" idea and release our MC as a full album on bandcamp, along with the Homestuck Volumes. Incidentally, I believe Squarewave and Sawtooth were originally going to be a fake band as well, and Dave even had a poster of them on his wall. Reeeaaally wish we did that one, but oh well. At least we got Anbroids. In light of the fact that the Midnight Crew were going to have a real album and that I had just rejoined the team, I was eager to contribute to it. The first song I made for it was Moonshine, which strangely enough to some I'm sure, I still consider one of my better Homestuck tunes, if only technically. Yeah, the instruments I used were atrocious, but I think it would be a fun piece if it were actually played by people. I had a good idea of its form and I was really able to get into the style of music I perceived the Midnight Crew would play. The instrumentation was based off the instruments each character played, with Slick on piano, Droog on sax, Boxcars on bass, and the last one I changed from Deuce's oboe to clarinet, which is seen much more in jazz. Not that jazz oboe doesn't exist! Still, it seems very like CD to play jazz on such an instrument. The song itself is more dissonant than most Homestuck music, having a lot of clashing harmonies and tritones which I love but can understand a lot of Homestuckers probably don't, at least not in this context. The name "Moonshine" came out of how drunk the music sounds, especially in the middle where it picks up a bit and is more obviously in 6/8. But yeah, it uses its motivic material well and is consistent with itself, much more than I can say about many tracks in Genesis Frog for instance, which I'll admit I got much too carried away with. --- Track: Tall, Dark and Loathsome Artists: - Clark Powell Art Tags: - Jack Noir Duration: '1:33' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/tall-dark-and-loathsome-2 - https://youtu.be/DxsUKjGirKc Sheet Music Files: - Title: Sheet music by Nocturne Files: - 'Tall, Dark and Loathsome - Nocturne.pdf' --- Track: Joker's Wild Artists: - Mark J. Hadley Art Tags: - The Felt Duration: '2:16' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/jokers-wild-2 - https://youtu.be/MDaWJUfxFCM Referenced Tracks: - track:harlequin Commentary: |- Mark J. Hadley: When we were writing music for Drawing Dead, I just HAD to make a jazz remix of Harlequin. The song pretty much wrote itself after that. I think if I was going to change anything about it though, I'd have tried to get a live saxophone; the synth sounds a bit off. But then, any of the songs off of Drawing Dead would probably sound amazing by a live band. --- Track: Livin' It Up Artists: - Gabe Nezovic Art Tags: - The Felt Duration: '2:00' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/livin-it-up-2 - https://youtu.be/HPad4cPmEVI --- Track: Hauntjelly Artists: - Andrew Huo - Ian Taylor Art Tags: - The Felt - Felt Manor - 'cw: blood (abstract)' Duration: '2:02' URLs: - https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/hauntjelly-2 - https://youtu.be/MccD13jZSTU Referenced Tracks: - track:hauntjam Sampled Tracks: - track:hauntjam --- Track: Nightlife (Extended) Directory: nightlife-extended-mc-dd Originally Released As: track:nightlife-extended Artists: - Bill Bolin Duration: '2:34' URLs: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L55OrtyUMko - https://archive.org/details/exile-pinkushion/04%20Nightlife.mp3