Last night, we settled on a name for the new and third RUSTMONSTER album; it will be called THE TREACHERY OF DANTE’S FORGIVENESS.
We are in the midst of scoring the music to go under the spoken word parts of the album. Last night we roughed together the scratch tracks that will go under Act I.
In listening to the readings, I was pleased. They sound better than I remember. If you are not familiar with the other 2 RUSTMONSTER albums, they feature a running story that occurs in three acts, spread out through the album.
RUSTMONSTER’s second album, Flight of the Filthy Vicar, featured the first half of a story that will resolve on Treachery of Dante’s Forgiveness.
You can buy RUSTMONSTER’s albums right here, right now.
Last Voyage of the Black Betty
$10.00 (free shipping)
The story of Captain Stark and his nemesis, Captain Henry Ramos.
The Flight of the Filthy Vicar
$10.00 (free shipping)
The memoirs of a condemned pirate, rotting in his cell, awaiting his time to hang.
Last night, I was working on one of the new Acid Holiday songs: YELLING SONG. Scott wrote the lyrics and emailed them to me along with some reference tracks that he liked and wanted me to emulate.
It’s funny, but I’m having some trouble with this song. It seems on the surface that it should be easy to score, but this is not the case. I tried a funky bridge, smack-dab in the middle of a heavy metal bed, and didn’t like it (although I might steal the bridge and use it somewhere else). At the height of my frustration, my midi controller keyboard broke down. I don’t know what happened; it just gave up the ghost and stopped working. Thoroughly frustrated, I had to shut everything off and go to bed.
On a better note, RUSTMONSTER rehearsal happens tonight. There are 2 items on deck: Rick’s song, and the backtracks for the spoken word parts of the album. Either way, I expect to have a blast.
After some digging, I finally resurrected a lost teleplay I wrote a couple of years ago. This script was supposed to be a RUSTMONSTER project, an outer space pirate odyssey. But it looks as though the band might be heading in a different direction after our 3rd album, which is coming soon. I’m cool with the band’s direction; it will be a blast anyway it goes.
The problem is, I still want to produce this script. I’m thinking about wrangling together a few actors and putting down the VOs then scoring it myself. It feels a little bit like the art rock, filk classic, War of the Worlds.
If I decide to do it, It will be a pretty big endeavor. It will probably span 2, or maybe even 3 albums. One reason I want to do it: I love collaboration. I think it would be a kick to work with some actors in producing it. I have a lot of talented friends that I’m sure would help out. Or maybe RUSTMONSTER might kick in if I show them the script. It needs a bit of revision before I would allow anyone to read it.
The other thing to consider is: I have two side projects on the table right now. I’m working with Scott Brough on a comedy heavy metal album, and I’m still planning on getting a Halloween themed album out this year. I can’t open another project and expect to close all three in a timely manner.
This week’s movie was written and directed by Larry Nybo, drummer for RUSTMONSTER. It is a hilarious film about a pair of alien documentarians who visit earth to catalog and report on Earth’s technology and achievements.
At last week’s rehearsal, we did a couple of things: 1, we worked on Rick Nef’s new song, It Can’t Be a Mutiny if you’re Dead; 2, we began to score the background music for the spoken word parts of the album.
I have to say, I love Rick’s new song. It’s the first song Rick has written outright and brought to the table. Rick, of course, brings a ton to the creative process with his brilliant sax chops, but its nice to work on something that he has written. His song has kind of a tango feel to it, which is really fun.
As for scoring the music behind the spoken word parts of the album, I am always afraid of this process. I feel like we are going to bomb out. Then, as we begin fiddling around with different riffs, it comes together. I end up saying to myself, oh, yea, I forgot, we CAN write music.
Scoring to the spoken word parts of the albums has a different flavor of pleasure. Nobody in the band can claim writer ship of these grooves because they are so collaborative. Someone will lay a melody or a riff on the rest of us and we will all just jump in and see what happens. In the end, I feel that these grooves are, in some ways, the strongest parts of the album.
I’m excited about the third album. We have redoubled our efforts and hope to have it finished pretty soon.
Today I thought I would write about what inspired RUSTMONSTER. First off, the RUSTMONSTER band lineup, Craig, Rick, Larry, Rob, Mike, Aaron, and Nate, have worked together in music and film projects for going on 25 years now. We are all lifelong friends. Ages ago, when most members of the band were in a funk outfit called Funktoast, we talked about doing some pirate themed music. We thought it would be fun to dress up and do sort of an apocalyptic pirate thing.
A very short scene in an obscure Rutgar Hauer film called THE BLOOD OF HEROS inspired this discussion. This film came out in 1989. It starred Rutger Hauer and Delroy Lindo as part of an apocalyptic sports team that travels from city to city playing a death sport that involves shooting goals with a goat skull while beating the ever-living tar out of each other. It really is a great film. I would recommend it. It feels like Hoosiers meets Mad Max.
In one scene, the whole town parties after a particularly bloodthirsty match. In a single shot, an apocalyptic band plays some music. The instrumentation is a combination of found percussion, scrapped together instruments, and an accordion player. When I saw the band in the film, I said to myself, someday, I want to do that. The result, roughly 6 years later, was RUSTMONSTER.
I feel I have to say that RUSTMONSTER is much more than my vision. There are 7 fine musicians that make up the band. Every one of them brings his talent and perspective to the band. I am only 1/7th of the creative process. But, from my perspective, this is what inspired RUSTMONSTER into existence.
After a 25-year hiatus, Craig Nybo, of Rustmonster, has gotten together with Scott Brough, lifelong friend, to revisit their high school musical project, Acid Holiday.
Acid Holiday was a heavy metal band that released one album in 1987. Their album, This is the Devil, was duplicated in Craig’s basement and distributed to over 30 (35) eager fans. After receiving a scathing review in the Davis High School newspaper, both Craig and Scott descended into depression and vowed that Acid Holiday–with its accompanying mascot, an iron jawed monster named Sedgwick–would never return. As if to seal the deal, Scott set himself on fire at their solitary performance of This is the Devil for a room of fans.
To the delight of over 30 (35) fans, Acid Holiday is back, and this time, they know how to play instruments.
Scott Brough said: “We knew if we were going to come back, we would have to come back big. So we decided to chum the fan base of over 30 (35) fans with a few Acid Holiday classics. We have rebooted some of the hits like, We Are the Rock, and Life After Proliferation. But don’t worry, we have a new book of songs, including Fecal Explosion, and Death Sandwich, slated for the new album.”
When asked for a comment, Craig Nybo only growled a little and tried to bite the microphone.
No doubt, fans are salivating to hear from Acid Holiday once again, but they will have to wait, because it takes the band at least three weeks to write and record an entire album.
Funny how this digital world works. I have been working with an old friend of mine, Scott Brough, on a new heavy metal project: A second Acid Holiday album, after a 25-year hiatus. Throughout the whole process, we have never had a face-to-face meeting. I have recorded tracks and emailed them to him. He has emailed me lyrics. We have spoke on the phone a couple of times.
Yesterday, out of the blue, Scott showed up at mediaRif unannounced. We rehashed old times. We talked about our philosophies on art, farting, and the cuts of people pants. I got to spend 2 whole hours with him. It was a delight.
I’m excited about the Acid Holiday project. Like all other projects I get involved with, this one is for laughs. I don’t think we’ll have too many sales with song titles like Death Sandwich and Fecal Explosion.
We just got a note from Bilgemunky. One of his fans wrote the following:
I’ve been wondering two things in regards to the brilliant bunch o’ blaggards what call themselves Rust Monster. First: when can we expect to hear the much-anticipated project wherein they collaborated with none other than the great Munky o’ Bilge himself? And second: is there anywhere a pirate might get his hands on an MP3 of their song “Overture?” I’ve been dying to add it to me collection.
-Captain Jack McCool
First off, we write and record music that we like. It is always a compliment, and a bit of a surprise, when somebody actually likes it. To Captain Jack McCool, we say thank you.
Regarding Captain Jack’s second question:
Captain Jack, you asked for it, here it is. You can download our song, Overature, by clicking on this link: pirate music, Rustmonster Overature.
You can actually watch the breakdancing pirate act in the video below.
Now to Captain Jack’s first question:
Bilgemunky’s song, Battlecry of the Preemptive Revengence, is written. It was an instant band favorite. We play the crap out of it and love it. We have officially added it to our live set, but we haven’t played it live yet.
We have recorded a minus track of the song. We haven’t put down horns, solos, or vocal on the song yet. Typically, we don’t like to release singles. We try to make our albums into running commentaries, almost like narrative pieces, pirate tales. We also like to reveal the big surprise by unveiling a completed project.
Unfortunately, our third pirate themed album is taking forever to record. This is due to a busier than usual gigging schedule and the fact that we have been more musically expressive in this album (but don’t worry, we still love songs like Poop Deck).
We have, to date for the 3rd album, recorded minus tracks for 7 songs. We have recorded the spoken word parts of the album. We still need to record 3 songs, put down the backtracking music for the story parts of the album, and lay down horns, vocals, and solos. We have buckled down and gotten to work on it. We want to get the album out as soon as possible.
There is a chance that we might release Battlecry as a single. But it will take some politicking from yours truly with the rest of the band. I will keep you posted.
I swore I wasn’t going to do this, but I can’t help it. I am going to let you take a peek at the new Acid Holiday album. This project represents a reunion between me, Craig Nybo, and my cousin, Scott Brough (professional oil painter, http://www.scottbrough.com).
I have decided to post a little Acid Holiday then and now. You will find below a rock video that was shot nearly 20 years ago. Recently, we rerecorded the song, We Are The Rock. I have posted the new song right after the video–a back-to-back comparison.
I and Scott are excited about the upcoming album. So far it is untitled, but it looks like it will be hilarious. I hope you enjoy the song.
