Brad Sucks

Rock Band Network

Brad — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:37:49 +0000

Which Brad Sucks songs would you most like to play in Rock Band? We’re trying to figure out priority here.

Update: there are a lot of replies in the Facebook post.

Halloween 2009

Brad — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:59:49 +0000

Halloween went good. I was battling a cold so my energy levels could have been more awesome. But I still managed to put in some solid plague doctor hours:

The children were either terrified by my very presence or thought I was Spy vs. Spy (modern goth edition I guess). One really young boy said “you’re a penguin!” Some yard snaps:

I’m about as sleepy as can be.

Goodbye Horses (cover)

Brad — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:18:43 +0000

Last month “Jack” requested twice (1, 2) that I do a cover of Goodbye Horses, the Q Lazzarus song:

Request from Brad if he’s up to it. Bunch of friends and I think Clerks 2 is an awesome movie! We wanted to know if Brad would do a cover song of Goodbye Horses from Q Lazzarus. You know the creepy silence of the lambs Buffalo Bill song. Take the creepy out and see clerks 2 to understand the humor in it. Everyone at work loves Bradsux and wanted to see if Brad would attempt a cover of it. Such groups that actually sounded better that did a remix were Psyche. Anyhow just small request.

I listened to the original and didn’t like it. Then I noticed it was stuck in my head and I started to like it. Then it seemed familiar and I realized my wife was obsessed with it a couple months ago. So here’s my cover:

Goodbye Horses (cover) [6 MB]

Halloween 2009

Brad — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:06:02 +0000

Hey, what’s everyone doing for Halloween? My plague doctor mask’s coming along OK:

I haven’t decided what university he’ll have gone to so the hoodie is temporary. (Waterloo’s not a respectable plague doctor university anyway.)

Allergic to goats

Brad — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:09:37 +0000

Something I learned last Friday is that I might be allergic to goat milk. I haven’t been tested or anything, but I had some goat cheese and here is what some of my skin looked like on day #2:

(That is a giant welty hive.) The rest of my body looked worse but is probably NSFW.

Then I spent the next five days stoned out of my head on benadryl and prednisone. Yes!

Top secret project progress

Brad — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:12:43 +0000

I’m working on a top secret project. It’s totally top secret. And also a ways off (there is a lot of work to do.) Anyway here’s a leaked photo:

Who knows what I could be up to.

Guess Who’s a Mess update

Brad — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:56:30 +0000

I’ve mentioned here before that I’m working on a poppy concept album called Guess Who’s a Mess. I’m releasing the demos as I go along like I did on my first record, but I’m going a step further and releasing the instrumentals and vocals as well. They’re all on the album page now.

You’re welcome to mess around with them however you want. Please send me a link to anything you do – when I’m done the demos I’ll be looking to see if there’s anything I want to include on the finished record and then I’ll be in touch (so including a working email address would be a bonus.)

Feel Free! Plastic Surgery! (demo)

Brad — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:25:09 +0000

September demo: Feel Free! Plastic Surgery! [5 MB]

It’ll be track #4 on Guess Who’s a Mess.

Tomorrow I’m going to be putting all the demo instrumentals and vocals online on that page so anyone can mess with them before I’m done. Stay tuned, etc.

Nano series review

Brad — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:41:13 +0000

I’m not much of a keyboard player. I started writing music on the computer tapping notes into trackers with the computer keyboard. I also have a shitty right arm that wigs out when I play keyboards. So I’ve wound up trying a variety of different MIDI keyboards and for the most part they sit beside me and I put papers and junk on top of them and then avoid using them because I’m too lazy to clean them off. So I wind up playing basic sequences in with the computer keyboard.

Enter the inexpensive, tiny Korg Nano Series.

I snapped these up when I read about them, thinking they’d come in handy for live performances (I’m not optimistic enough to think I’ll write music away from my office) but when I got them home I realized they solve at least part of my MIDI keyboard problem. Now I keep them on a shelf under my desk and pull them out whenever I need them.

The Kontrol and Pad are great – simple and effective and relatively sturdy. I’ve tried many different drum pads over the years and the nanoPad is actually my favorite, which is surprising for such an inexpensive device. The nanoKey is the most dodgy, but also the one I’ve used the most, so it can’t be that bad. The keys feel exactly like (kind of cheap) laptop keys. It has the same weak/wobbly spring feeling. I’m not looking for sweet action, but it would be awesome if they felt slightly more crisp – something comparable to a child’s plastic keyboard would be fine.

My only other complaint isn’t Korg’s fault (I think) – the nature of these devices is that I want to plug them in as I need them, swapping them out at will. But all the audio software I’ve tried with needs to restart (or at least reset the audio device) each time I plug in or unplug a device. Minor thing I know.

All in all, they’re very useful tools and I’m happy to have ‘em.

Ableton Live controlling Winamp/Milkdrop

Brad — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:17:29 +0000

Been hacking around trying to get some nifty synced visualization stuff going. Best (and cheapest) visualization seems to be Milkdrop in Winamp, so I got it responding to MIDI signals sent from Ableton Live on another machine. Here’s a quick demo:

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I’d like to be able to trigger video clips next, then I’m not sure about combining them all onto one display and swapping between them.