New Album and Website On Their Way (Honestly)

I'd like to make an official announcement to confirm rumors and speculation:

A new full-length album, entitled Universica, is currently being recorded and will be released within the next few months.

The launch of a re-designed website will accompany the release of this album.

I know it's been a while, but once Universica is released, things will start picking up again with regular updates and additional content. Until then, hold tight! Thanks to everyone who has continued to support my music despite an apparent lack of activity on my part. Hopefully the new album will live up to your expectations and offer a few new surprises in the process.

If you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again...

Wow. This website is ridiculously out-of-date. I am still alive, believe it or not, but I've been busy this summer traveling and finding a job. Not at the same time, but in that order.

I'm in the process of re-designing this website to make it more visually appealing and easier to navigate. I can't make any promises about when it'll be done, but I CAN say that when it's done, it should kick a larger amount of ass than it does right now. Which, incidentally, isn't that much to begin with, but I'm working on it.

Extemporaneity

My friend used to hold jam sessions in a gutted, empty house his parents had bought. They were planning to remodel it and move there, but it sat empty for a long time. We'd haul our instruments over there and basically improvise, creating strange little songs. Occasionally, we'd freestyle rap during all this, and this song is based on one of these freestyling sessions.

Chaos and Collapse

If there's one phrase that describes Psychoacoustic Circus, it's "jarring and disorienting contrast." After the last slow and atmospheric song, I felt the need to take it up a few billion notches. This one's a face melter.

Head in the Clouds

The newest piece of the Psychoacoustic Circus is a song from my film The Juicehead Galaxy Lounge. It appears right after the robot is transported to the actual Lounge, when he's hearing the radio transmissions for the first time.

Haven't you deserved the opportunity to escape reality?

Zither

A new installment of Psychoacoustic Circus is up. This one is called "Zither" and is my first all-keyboard song. It's an older one, pre-Dreamer's Paradox, and was mostly just an experiment to see how well I could play the keyboards. I'm not a very good piano player (you can tell - the timing is way off in the intro) but the song has a kinda cool, quasi-oriental feel to it.

I've got a huge collection of similar songs piled up on my hard drive that will eventually make their way into Psychoacoustic Circus. I've said it before, but they're not the greatest songs in the world. If all my music was a circus, these songs would go into the sideshow right next to the bearded lady and tattooed man.

Psychoacoustic Circus

If you go over to the music section, you may notice something strange called Psychoacoustic Circus. This is a new side project that will consist of episodic experiments in instrumental composition and audio design. This is a mouthful, but it's basically just a repository for all the strange little songs I've made that aren't on one of my albums.

It will be made up of songs, or pieces of songs, that I've created for various purposes - they may be soundtracks for my films, experimental pieces, alternate versions of songs from my albums, improvised performances, or anything in between. They won't be earth-shattering compositions, and they won't be as quality as the stuff you'll find of either of my albums - they're basically just experiments. Many of them weren't even created to be stand-alone songs, and some of them weren't even meant to be heard by anyone other than myself.

Anyway, enough of this disclaimer. Basically, if you don't like them, don't say I didn't warn you.

But hey, you just might like 'em in a weird sort of way. Like the way people like street performers - they're entertaining, but you're not gonna pay to watch them.

Umlaut Ampersand

Today's Bizarrity consists of obscure typography.

2006 has been a long year.

Visual Song Structures

Today's Bizarrities are pictures of music. Or musical pictures.

These are some diagrams of song structures created for The Dreamer's Paradox that were never used. Looking back, they really don't make a lot of sense, but they're cool to look at. Kind of like Jackie Chan movies.

I'm about halfway through finishing a very short and very odd video. Words really fail to describe it, so instead of looking like an idiot all I'll say about it is that it's stop motion, it's synchronized music, and it should be up on this site in a couple weeks.

My friend Adam Hudson has contributed a short but sweet article to the Words section called Wish List. I implore you to view it and laugh, and I remind you that guest articles are always welcome. Kind of like Jackie Chan movies.

The Dreamer's Paradox CD Art

Today's Bizarrity is doughnut shaped.

This is the art that will appear on the CD itself, assuming I'm able to find a printer that will print directly onto a CD. I tried printing up some of those sticker labels, but the effect is less than professional. For those of you who have requested to purchase CDs, I'll get them to you as soon as I can get them printed.

If you'll look over to your left, you might notice I added a new section to the site - Words. This is where I'll post free-standing written works by myself and my friends, starting with one by Matt Hirakawa. Hopefully some of you will find this interesting, and I've enabled comments on the posts there so you can give feedback to me and the authors of those articles. Guest pieces are welcome - If I like it, I'll post it.

Lightbulb Gondola

Today's Bizarrity is buoyant.

This is the art for the back cover of The Dreamer's Paradox. On the actual CD case, there will be a black bar on one side with the track names, but its not very exciting as a standalone picture. Within the next week or so I should be getting a bunch of finished CD's back from the printer - the dad of the kid I teach guitar lessons to works for a printer, so that'll speed things along. They should be pretty high quality when they're finished (wink wink, nudge nudge)!

My next project is a documentary about the dorms and college life - me and my roommates have been filming for months. Now begins the task of wading through all the footage of drunken idiots, trying to find useable clips, and working them into a coherent film. This will take forever.

I'll post the artwork for the disc itself in a few days, so hold on to your egg-beaters.

THE DREAMER'S PARADOX

DOWNLOAD

Well, after about 30 re-designs, a half-dozen failed ideas, a few brilliant ones, and lot's of wasted work, I've finally finished The Dreamer's Paradox.

You can download it for free off this site in accordance with the Creative Commons License I've released it under. I'm dying to know what you think about this album, so leave me comments or send me e-mails at jt@subjectruin.net

The Dreamer's Paradox Album Cover

Today's Bizarrity blurs the line between fact and fiction.

This is the official album cover for The Dreamer's Paradox. I'm still working on some other album art for the back cover and the disc itself, so I'll post those when I'm done. The album itself is very, very close to being released - I should be able to get it up on the internet within a week and a half.

In the mean time, you can gaze upon this artwork and "dream" about what the music will be like. Pun definately intended.

Circles and Squares

Today's Bizarrity is circumferentially challenged.

This comic is a guest piece by my friend Matt Hirakawa, one of the three founding members of the Backrow boys. It portrays the chilling phycological drama gripping the lives of geometric shapes. You will laugh. You will cry. You will give your computer monitor a standing ovation.

Work on The Dreamer's Paradox is wrapping up. As some of you may or may not have heard, the album will no longer feature vocals. I am ungood at singing. However, for those of you hoping there would be a little singing on this album, you're in luck. My friend Blanca will be singing some vocals on one track. Not words, just some backing melodies. Combine this with a few spine ripping electric guitars, you got yourself a record.

So, until next time.

The Juicehead Galaxy Lounge

Today's Bizarrity needs your help.

I have posted here for your viewing (dis)pleasure an animated short film. It is arguably my finest finished film to date, but it holds a very bitter-sweet place in my mind. Overall, I'm proud of it, but I've seen it so many damn times and agonized so much about its percieved flaws that I'd just as soon DELETE IT FROM MY MEMORY.

Nevertheless, here it is in it's entirety. Feel free to leave me comments or send me e-mails about it or show up at my front door in a ski mask with an AK-47.

Bert Schmuckle's Survivor Audition Tape

Today's Bizarrity cannot swim, dance, or trash talk.

This is a short film I made in high school with my former English teacher. It was originally made for a variety show at Los Gatos High and shown as the show opener. The film underwent many changes during the course of its production, and the final version you see now is a streamlined version cut down from about 15 or 20 minutes to its current running length of about 10 minutes.

In other news, my good friend and fellow musician Adam Hudson has just released his first album under the pseudonym SalmonRaptor. Described as being "instrumental ambient groove," the album has excellent atmosphere and can perhaps be further described as... chill. Listen to Chronic Underestimation and leave a review for him.

One more film will be posted here in about a week, so hold onto some kind of handle or restraining device.

Ace's Wild

Today's Bizarrity is a motion pitcher.

Ace's Wild is a film I made with the Backrow Boys when we were in high school. It was a school project and a small hit in our community - we won first prize at a local film festival, but that was about as far as it went. We filmed the entire thing in one weekend without a complete script and edited it in about a week, but I think it turned out okay.

I'll be uploading two more movies in the next two weeks, so keep your proverbial seatbelts fastened.

We got an A on that project, by the way.

Crossing The Threshold

Today's Bizarity is musical.

Hello again, world. It's been a while, but you obviously haven't missed me. This here is an instrumental version of a song from my upcomming album, The Dreamer's Paradox. Keep in mind the final version that will appear on the album will feature vocals and perhaps a few other changes, such as a different title.

In the almost two months since I've posted, things have been happening. I have around eight and a half songs finished for The Dreamer's Paradox, none of which have vocals... yet. I'll get around to that. This puts the official time at around 62 minutes, which is plenty for a full length album, but I'm still chugging away at it in order to deliver a dizzying amount of music to all of you for a price lower than you'll find in any store. You know, because I'm a nice guy.

Me and the Backrow Boys attempted to film a television show, to little avail - we'd spent months preparing three scripts for three episodes, only to have summer arrive and begin to fly past us way, way too fast. Our projects are too ambitious for our own good. We'll probably end up downgrading from a three-episode TV show pilot to a five or ten minute short film. More on this as things develop.

I've spent some time underwater in a different country, pondered the division between art and science and got paid for it, got arrested, and fallen in love. So yes, things are definately happening, but they're still as absurd and confusing and frustrating and awesome as they've ever been.

Sweatshops

Today's Bizarrity is a video I made for school.

It is an absurd, quasi-informational video about sweatshops. Be warned.

Dot Comic

Today's Bizarrity takes the form of an action-packed story that will keep you on the edge of your proverbial seat! HOLY CRAP!

Anyway, I have not updated for a while because I've been so bloody busy working on The Dreamer's Paradox and studying for finals. I may be alive, but barely.

The Forgetting Cap

Today's Bizarrity is long overdue.

It's been a while, but I've been incredibly busy working on my new album, The Dreamer's Paradox. So far I have about 35 minutes of finished instrumental music and I have five or six weeks to write and record another 30 minutes or so. Needless to say, this doesn't leave much time for drawing and other shenanigans.

Some awesome German dude wrote a review of Anomalous Material and called me a "master of the drawing guild" which is pretty righteous. You can take a look at the review here.

I've been getting a lot of site traffic and more positive reviews from Jamendo recently. If you're feeling up to the challenge, you can even write a review of Anomalous Material on that site and help me increase my traffic even more. Joy!

Satellite Collage

Today's Bizarrity can only be seen from geosynchronous orbit.

This is a picture made from cutting up and altering satellite images, which is sort of a continuation of the Mystery Image. The oh-so-mysterious image from a few days ago is actually a false-color satellite image of the Yukon Delta in northern Alaska, where the Yukon River dumps into the Bering Sea. The only person to correctly guess this was my dear old father, who guessed a river delta. Heres to you, daddy-o.

Mystery Image

Today's Bizarrity is a mystery.

I will give a high five to anyone who can guess what this image is. Maybe I will give them more than a high five depending on who the person is. Like maybe I'll give them a high TEN. Or a Porche.

Dollar Tacos

Today's Bizarrity got kicked out of Mexico.

I have returned, and now I play the role of a boring uncle at a family reunion by showing you pictures from my vacation.

Hiatus

I'm taking a small break from updating these Bizarrities for several reasons.

1) It's Spring Break. I have more fun things to be doing.
2) Nobody even looks at these damn things.

This is not a very impressive list of reasons, I know, but I can count the amount of people who will see this on two hands. 80% of these people are ones I know in real life (non-internet life), so this means that there are about 2 or 3 people a day who somehow stumble onto this monstrosity. Anywho, I'll continue updating after the break. Cheers.