The Return

Yes indeed! After nigh-on a year, the Pinkos return to mess up your earspace with another attempt at creating an entire album of music in one single 24-hour period, for the Crapart Album-a-Day project, as well as for our own enjoyment.

Slightly changed line-up this time around: last year's Messy and myself remain, but our dear man Brian is unable to join us (for the moment at least). However, the ranks have been swelled by the addition of DJ Dano/Kick Acid (don't know which moniker he's going for this time) and Lord Oddy of Knockyshire.

Having started at around 13:30, we're about 3 and a quarter hours in so far. Morale isn't great at the moment, to be honest - hangovers (story of our life) and lack of any actual physical instruments are getting us down. However, we're doing what we can with some records, VSTs and our imagination. Three tunes basically rolling, but incomplete...

Latest pics:

Diarmo in bed

Fionn in bed

Dano bringing the noise

Me, unimpressed with my hangover

POST THE SECOND: THE RETURN CONTINUES, UNABATED!!!
The Pinkos, despite a rocky start, are continuing to push and shove the envelope in a very rude and unmannerly fashion, now we have FOUR tunes completed (nearly). Well, one finished, one well under way and two ... probably the best I can say is "prospectively under way". The time you say? Well, it's pushing 6. That's the bad news, we're a little behind schedule. The good news is that we're about to get a shot in the arm as the Oddiest of Knockies is away home to fetch us a guitar and perhaps some other unnamed treats. Good TIMES!

This is what we've been doing to keep up our morale...

(It's Dano bumming a teddy in case you can't tell)

POST THE THIRD: THE RETURN CONTINUES, MASTURBATED!!!.
Album in a day my hole, more like lay about all day eating food, playing Wii, dry humping a teddy and occasionally faffing about on the computer.
Morale has reached an all time low, with me at least. Tugboat remains optimistic, but he is a fool.
I made the cover out of lego and peddled some sub par tunes.
I dont think we are even going to drink.THIS HAS BEEN A WASTE OF MY TIME.
Other than that, things are going smoothly,I like the songs we have made.
They sound like ringtones.
-KickAcid

POST THE FOURTH: THE RETURN KEEPS ON RETURNING (JUST ABOUT)
20:46 - My my, 7 and a bit hours go by quickly. Ignore Dano, he's only a wee sulker. Anyway, Fionn's just this minute landed with the much-needed equipment - thank fucking Christ. We're about 7 tunes up now. Not all of them gold yet, but developable (not a word, says spellchecker), certainly.
- Tugboat

The "studio"

POST THE FIFTH: THE RETURN KEEPS ON TRUCKING (TRUCK HARDER)
So all them poofs are in the other room, strumming away on their wee guitars.
Pace has picked up. Its good to hear a guitar after all this plinky plonky nonce-sense all day. I think we might even mash some live drums in there too from yours truly.
Its actually begining to sound rather nice. Tugboats daddy gave us weird circular bacon for dinner.
I have to go home at 12 though.
-KickAcid

POST THE SIXTH: DIMINISHING RETURNS
23:54 - Dear dear. Diarmo's ill, Dano's on his way home, and Fionn and me, well, I guess you could say our hearts aren't really in it. Possible album title, if it ever gets done: Damp Squib. :(

Ridicu-pics:

Flying the colours

Diarmaid is sick. He is also being ridden sideways by the teddy bear.

HALFWAY POINT!!! Posting at you in the 7th Way:
Messy here to inform and titillate, despite being sick as an old larch ... So it's just about 1.45, and we've made some reasonable headway. Some 9 tunes have been crafted to greater or lesser degrees, totalling roughly 17 minutes yet to be confirmed, we have some mixing and editing to do before they're at their final length ...) and we still have almost 12 hours left! This does not count sleeping time and the time me and Fionn will have to pretend to be asleep but keep a vigilant clenching of our buttocks lest the Boat try and dock therein ere he goes off to the land of nod... Anyway, it's a somewhat similar mix to last year, but there's a different overall taste coming off this one. Here's to the album dropping in just under 12 hours, promptly and without delay...

Our stalwart recording studio, bereft of musicians


Our stalwart musicians, shirking their work as ever (maybe Fionn's doing some programming of tunes, I dunno ...

Some stalwart Legomen, watching a forcible bumming ...

My stalwart throat, full of disease ....

I NEED A TOWEL
03:49 - Bollocks. Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to throw it in folks. My heart is not only not in it, it's nowhere fucking near it. This project and my heart have been hanging out in different area codes most of the day, only occasionally meeting up for a brief, slightly awkward chat. I dunno. It started badly, I perked up a bit after a while, until about 7 o'clock - but then it levelled out to an even keel of sub-par sloppiness and has remained there since.

I like the beverageware. It's Xcellent.

Some of the ideas we've got going are interesting enough and all, but we're going about it the wrong way entirely. So, for your information...

Notes on how NOT to approach an Album-a-Day (or any music project for that matter):
1. By getting ridiculously drunk the night before and having a whomper of a hangover and/or just being knackered for the day of action.
2. By neglecting to make arrangements for any/all of the equipment you're expecting to use.
3. By spending more time sitting around/playing computer games/watching TV than actually making (or even thinking about) any music.
4. By working separately when you're in a group of people. We might as well have just tried doing 4 individual albums, the way we were working apart from each other and the way the tunes have turned out. Two/four heads are better than one.
5. By trying to do big, long looping things that repeat over and over*. The thing is, I've gotten used to doing long, repeating tracks with my forays into techno and other electronic music production (made all the more obvious here by the overwhelming presence of four-to-the-floor beats). For that, you definitely need more than a day for each track so you can perfect all the small little bits. More spontaneous, one-off ideas probably work better in the context of an Album-a-Day. I know they did last time around.

*I could be proven wrong on that one, but I don't think it works as well as doing short, one-off random bits and pieces.

Oh well. Better luck next time :(

- Tugboat