Showing posts with label watchmen studio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label watchmen studio. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

free full album download: GREGG YETI & THE BEST LIGHTS - THE HARVEST BRASS ECHO (2011 KR021)


Click right here for your free full album download: GREGG YETI & THE BEST LIGHTS - THE HARVEST BRASS ECHO (2011 KR021)
The Harvest Brass Echo is the 2nd full length by Gregg Yeti & The Best Lights, and acts as a closet cleaner. The recording of these songs were all started sometime between 2001 and 2007 and never finished in that time. In 2009 & 2010 I forced myself to get them done to help clean out the closets. This explains the randomness of it all…

"Christmas Quarantine" actually started out musically as a song the Flashing Astonishers batted around, but never finished or recorded, back in 1995. "In The Dim Light Of Glowglobes" (the name a Dune reference) was mostly recorded at Watchmen Studio in 2001 as a Flashing Astonishers demo that never came to fruition. "Quality Of Armor" appeared on the "Sing For Your Meat" Guided By Voices Tribute compilation, which you should own. I like the two instrumentals "Wit Of Snails" and "A The Is Me"; they are pretty, like a field of poppies under golden late-afternoon clouds, misty after a midday drizzle. Or something.

"Ura" dates back to my first starts as a home computer recordist in 2003 or so... In 2010 when I was putting the nails in the coffins of all these old songs, I needed a real human drummer to make it real, and Doug White said he spoke to Alex Kerns of Lemuria and he was gonna drive up from where he was staying in New Jersey just to record my stupid songs. I guess he used to like FA back in the day or something, I dunno. Sweet. He played on "Little Scar" and "Ura". Nice guy. All pro. Very glad to have him on board for a minute!

"(Someone Will Be Looking) Out For You" went under the name "The Volleyball Song" for years as it collected dust in my hard drive recording backups, not because I like volleyball but because I wrote the music while playing guitar and watching some weird people play volleyball at a party. “Grey” was written by Rebekah Meek & her band Eberhardt in Durham, NC. They played the Wilmington Exchange Festival in Wilmington NC in 2008 and this song kicked our asses when we saw them play it live.

Then there's the guest vocalists!!! I love bringing female vocals into the mix, and this album features two great ones. Jehn Cerron , who sang on "Little Scar" and contributed the lyrics, does beautiful music out of Florida with her home recording set-up. She’s done plenty of online collaborations featured on her Myspace page & initially caught my ears with her project Eyelight when she played live at WEFest. We recorded this song via email, sending tracks back and forth.

Andrea Lee Higgins sang and wrote lyrics for "Red Curtain Sunlight." She & I misfired a band together for a few months in 2005 called The Star Off Machine (named after the FA album, which was named after the Dr Suess Sneetches reference), and this song is one of the very few things that came out of it alive. She has spent time in CNY, NC, NJ & NYC since then, and has plenty of good songs all over the web. We got an ep recorded, and all the covers done for it too, then it caved. I didn't want to waste all the time put into the packaging, so I just released it under my name and with a few different songs, which is why I have put out an album with FA and a solo ep under the name The Star Off Machine. It is a typical confusion of my life. The ubiquitous Bob Kane played drums on "Red Curtain Sunlight", which at one point was a Flashing Astonishers song also. FA recorded it in 2002 and it sounded like a GBV ripoff of sorts, and I took it back and used Kane's recorded drum tracks, kept mostly the same arrangement, and made it sound like a Cure ripoff, with stoned girly vocals. One day maybe you'll hear the lost FA recording, and maybe I'll post the lost ep by The Star Off Machine one of these days. Why not?

This album has been released and distributed by hand in the paper bag format on cd, with stickers, hand-stamps, and paper inserts. They look neat. So far 1000 have been made, and probably more will be made.

Track Listing:
1. Ura (7:53)
2. Little Scar (3:43)
3. (Someone Will Be Looking) Out For You (1:42)
4. Christmas Quarantine (3:38)
5. Red Curtain Sunlight (3:15)
6. Wit Of Snails (2:04)
7. In The Dim Light Of Glowglobes (5:29)
8. Grey (4:29)
9. Quality Of Armor (2:50)
10. A The Is Me (2:35)
11. Half Is Me (5:53)

Obtain your summer soundtrack of happiness here: FREE full album download: GREGG YETI & THE BEST LIGHTS - THE HARVEST BRASS ECHO (2011 KR021)

Paypal donations can be made to greggyeti@yahoo.com - any and all help is always needed!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

free e.p. download: THE STAR OFF MACHINE - Red Curtain Sunlight e.p. - 2006 KR024

This is NOT the similar release by The Gregg Yeti with (almost) the same cover!!! Long story, read on! This is a never been released session available for the first time ever!

free e.p. download: THE STAR OFF MACHINE - Red Curtain Sunlight e.p. - 2006 KR024 - click right here!!!

This little recording appeared within the era of 4 eps by The Gregg Yeti (compiled in the ep collection Wonderbuckets (The 4 eps 2004-2007). If Wonderbuckets included The Star Off Machine project, GoGoSushi and Leper Pony, it would've been "The 7 eps" 2004-2007"!!! It was a busy period...)

After "The Ender's Mind" ep came out in 2005 I met up with Andrea Lee Higgins at one of Ashley Cox's open mic nights here in Syracuse. Soon we two were trying to get a few songs together, and we played Cox's open mic once, and recorded this ep in my apartment and at Watchmen Studios. Andrea liked the name, which came from Dr Seuss via the 2nd album by The Flashing Astonishers; we couldn't agree on anything better at the time. We spent hours spray-painting the covers with star stencils and glitter, and she drew what became the hand stamp that adorns each one. Mostly due to our shared Taurus stubbornness mixed with severe levels of late night intoxication, we split up the duo just before we could release this ep, and start playing any shows. I'll take the blame, I was a drunken mess. Not helping was that a truly horrible California band came out right then with the same band name. I didn't want to waste the work we put into the covers so later that year I made my own ep with my name stamped on it, and it debuted that song "Laughter Be Your Slave" that everyone seems to like. You can hear that version on Wonderbuckets.

Track listing:
1. Red Curtain Sunlight
2. Release
3. My Narcotic Sara
4. Half On The Way

"Red Curtain Sunlight" with Andrea's lead vocal was remixed and appeared on Gregg Yeti's 2011 album "The Harvest Brass Echo". Bob Kane (of Flashing Astonishers/Mandate of Heaven/Monkey Knife Fight/Electric Chick Magnets/Everyone & Your Mom's Band) plays drums. His performance was lifted directly from one of the pre-breakup Flashing Astonishers sessions; the music for this song was basically a reworking of an unreleased Astonishers song I wrote the music for. It took a song that previously sounded kinda like GBV and turning it into a 80's Cure kinda thing.

This version of Andrea Lee's song "Release" has never been released, though she did re-record the song for one of her own releases, and then released it. "My Narcotic Sara" was remixed and redone with Jessica Rudy on background vocals for the subsequent Gregg Yeti version of the Star Off Machine ep. "Half On The Way" was remixed and appeared on "Heart Palpitations Of The Rich & Famous" album in 2008, with Jessica Rudy taking over the lead vocals this time.

Andrea is now making music in Brooklyn now after living in North Carolina after this ep was recorded. Gregg Yeti is stuck in Syracuse until he dies.

These two pix of Gregg and Andrea are from 2005 and were taken by Elizabeth Case Carter.

free e.p. download: THE STAR OFF MACHINE - Red Curtain Sunlight e.p. - 2006 KR024 - click right here!!! Spread the word! Share this with your friends! And, as always, Koala Syndicate mp3 downloads are all encoded at 320 kbps for the best quality! Be sure to check out all the other releases! Cheers!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

free full album download: The Flashing Astonishers – Everything Is Gonna Stop (1998 KR002)


click right here for the free full album download: The Flashing Astonishers – Everything Is Gonna Stop (1998 KR002)

This is the debut album by The Flashing Astonishers. We were so excited, we were going to take over the world. Ha. The sound created drew from the popular flavors of the day, from Pixies & Nirvana punk to Pavement-ish indie with shades of the heavier shoegazer bands thrown in. Influences were worn like a denim jacket covered with patches. It is the most start-to-finish "album" of sorts by the band, as there was only one line-up during the recording sessions, unlike the later two albums with their rotating door of friends joining in...

Track listing:
1. Broken Stained Glass
2. Lipbomb
3. Alien
4. La De Dey
5. King Of Cans
6. Anillo
7. I Come Up, I Go Down
8. I'm Not One

The Flashing Astonishers line up for "Everything Is Gonna Stop" was songwriters Dan Musclow and Gregg Yeti plus the super solid rhythm section Jay Fabbri and Bob Kane. It was recorded and mixed by Doug White at Watchmen Studio, and was mastered by Dave St. Onge. World famous comic artist David Woodson did the graphic design. Jody Kidney drew the yellow and green panel, she used to do tons of drawings like that in her old zines. (Jody's now singing with Dexter Romweber And The New Romans in North Carolina and growing things with cats and drinking like a champ). The cover girl is Jody's younger sister, Jennifer Lee Kidney, who sadly took her own life that year; we put her on the cover as a tribute. We all miss you Jaylee! Emily Martian contributed the ducky back cover photo, and I remember taking the abstract photo when I used to work at the local tex-mex place Alto Cinco... a new pan came in to steam the burrito shells, and after the first night of use it got covered with carbon from the fire. Looked neat.

1000 cds were professionally pressed. Used copies are cheap on Amazon Dot Com, so go get one if ya haven't already. Here's a video for the song "Alien" aka "How The Aliens Built The Pyramids" from a VHS camcorder live show taped just before the album came out.





click right here for the free full album download: The Flashing Astonishers – Everything Is Gonna Stop (1998 KR002)

Saturday, May 14, 2011

free full album download: THE FLASHING ASTONISHERS - THE STAR OFF MACHINE (1999 KR007)

click here for the free full album download: THE FLASHING ASTONISHERS - THE STAR OFF MACHINE (1999 KR007)

This is the 2nd album by The Flashing Astonishers from 1999, released on cd-r to around 1000-2000 people. The Star Off Machine was recorded over a few year period, in bedrooms, bathrooms, and studios. The indie rock gems are plentiful. It features some of the strongest 3 minute pop songs by the band, ("Period Exclamatory," "Stop Right Here," and "The Back Nine" while rest of the package shows the band doing spacey Verve-like 10 minute songs ("Angelfish"), instrumentals ("No News" and "The Villainous Priests of Manchester") and noisy four track bedroom recordings ("If Irritation Persists" and "Only Gone"). These two four-track songs appeared on a very early Clairecords comp cd back in 1998 (fern009).

Track Listing:
1. Stop Right Here
2. The Back Nine
3. Needle Exchange
4. If Irritation Persists
5. Ladles
6. Windbreaker
7. Cats Can See Ghosts
8. Period Exclamatory
9. Less Than Shadow
10. No News
11. Bean
12. For Now
13. Only Gone
14. Angelfish
15. The Villainous Priests Of Manchester

Some of the songs were recorded on ADAT at Doug White's Watchmen Studio, a few were recorded on a $20 used Tascam 4-track cassette recorder, and others were recorded on some old reel-to-reel 1" tape machine we really didn't know how to use....

The list of players on this album shows the varied flux of musicians that happened during the years of 1996-2000. It seemed like every show had a new line up, and there was lots of shows. Other than the main original members Dan Musclow and Gregg Yeti, this collection of recordings features Chris Gajewski, Greg Pier, Fred Cousineau, Bob Kane, Joshua Lee Loomis (who sang lead vocals on "Bean"), and Jay Fabbri. Sean Trinkaus and Ryan Zara both contributed song titles, "Angelfish" and "Cats Can See Ghosts".

As with all the free albums available on Koala Syndicate's blog, the mp3's are encoded at 320kbps and taste like creamy mint ice cream on a summer day. Full album artwork is included.

click here for the free full album download: THE FLASHING ASTONISHERS - THE STAR OFF MACHINE (1999 KR007)

Saturday, March 12, 2011

free download: DEEP FRIED RUBBER BANDS 1999 Koala 90 minute mix cassette!


(KR005 1999) Between this 90 minute mixtape & the previous one NICE, the last year of the millennium was spent dubbing tapes on dual cassette boom-boxes and trading them for a few bux or beer at bars... We thought we were all doomed from Y2K anyways...

DEEP FRIED RUBBER BANDS, the 4th Koala mix tape, had 29 bands, and came out first on cassette to a few hundred people, then on cd-r a little bit later to a few hundred more people. Cassette cover art by Elise Flanders (If anyone has the whole cassette cover send me an email greggyeti@yahoo.com). It's pretty much the same eclectic deal as the previous mix tapes - from hissy lo-fi 4-track cassette recordings to glossy studio, metal, emo, indie, punk, whatever... Most from Syracuse and the rest from Buffalo, Rochester & Boston, not to mention the amazing Earwhig Spectre from Merrillville, Indiana.

Bands included: Fledgling Death, The Clams, The Disappointments, Big Boote', The Fiascoes, Karnavali, The Flashing Astonishers, Stellar, The Human, Tropical Attitude, Ookla The Mok, FM Cowboys, The Contortionists, Go Sushi, Julio, Planet Singe, Joe Shmoe, Drunken Orgy Of Destruction, Visionstain, The Druggies, Wallmen, Mearle Throttle, Earwhig Spectre, Dirt Electrica 147, Central Nervous System, Curator, Neutral, Funky Worm, and Spooked Horse.

FREE DOWNLOAD - DEEP FRIED RUBBER BANDS!!!!!

ALSO, BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE "HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS"-----> OLD POSTS FEATURING OTHER FREE KOALA DOWNLOADS!!! CHEERS! GY

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

free download: NICE A Very Nice Koala Compilation - 1999 Koala 90 minute mix cassette!


(KR004 1999) NICE: A Very Nice Koala Compilation - 1999 Koala 90 minute mix cassette! 30 bands & 37 tracks of random fuck-all on our 3rd compilation: punk, phone pranks, recordings of Ryan being a prepubescent goofball, hardcore, electric, emo, metal, home recorded, improv performance art, indie rock... mostly from Syracuse but some stuff is from Long Island, San Francisco & Buffalo and places in between... This is guaranteed to add some NICE pizazz to your mix cassettes of the future. Most all of this is out of print stuff! If 500 of these tapes were made I'd be surprised...

Bands included are: Fuse, This Afternoon, Neutral, The Flashing Astonishers, The Druggies, Sidedoor Johnnies, Joe Schmoe, Mighty Isis, Thee Fiascoes, The Human, Sinker, Lamont Laywell, Dufus, Big Boote', Nade Mickriz, Frank Moore & The Cherotic All-Stars, Soviet, Julio, Wallmen, Karnavali, Ookla The Mok, Bloodbath, Greg Pier, Bob Kane, Joshua Lee Loomis, Cock Robot, Undergang, Ashley Cox, Mearle Throttle, and Dave Kane (sucks).

free download HERE getcha free download HERE!

Be sure to go through the "Historical Documents" -----> and download the many free compilations and releases KOALA SYNDICATE is laying before you.