Stinging Rain

Slideshow video for "The Dream"

2011-03-02T09:22:00.002-05:00

The video is comprised of images which I consider to be "dreamlike" in one way or another. The dove image is from the Holy Spirit window in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. I've been there twice and can't wait to go back again. After I saw the window, I couldn't listen to the line "A dove born from the sky / bathed in Love's Pure Light" without recalling my pilgrimages there, especially with light pouring in from the nearby glass windows.

I hope this video is enjoyable to viewers. I feel that it is highly imperfect, a feeling which perhaps is manifested in all attempts to recall images which one has seen in a dream.

CD Baby Gets a Facelift

2009-07-22T21:08:00.004-04:00

CD Baby has a new and improved look; I like it. There are now "Artist Pages", so all our stuff is available here, whereas before it was on the seller-centric all page which is still available.

The CD Baby page is a little more up-to-date, but it has retained its homey cuteness, sporting a bubbly seventies font on the lowercase logo and a scribbled arrow pointing to the login link. If anything, the site has been simplified for customers and artists alike. To me, it's great to see the kind of concern for ease of use, up-keep and style which all serve to maintain viability for a company I've come to greatly admire and appreciate.

Merry Christmas! Some news....

2008-12-22T10:27:00.004-05:00

I meant to post this earlier, but I discounted the prices on all three MP3-CDs for the holiday season. So if you need a last minute gift, consider some Stinging Rain MP3s. (Of course, you can get us on iTunes also, but not discounted....)

We continue to keep friend of the band, David Bailey, in our prayers. David survived brain cancer surgery again, and is recovering. Keep up with the news about David here.

Lastly, I signed the band up for a page on amaze.fm & put a few tunes out there, so maybe we'll get some new fans.

Merry Christmas & Happy 2009 from the band!

Stinging Rain Wins Third Place with The Dream

2008-04-22T10:55:00.008-04:00

Thanks to everyone who helped us win third place in the Top Ten Holy Spirit Songs contest sponsored by the Top Catholic Songs website. We received 11 votes altogether, and I counted 9 from the 25 people whom I emailed. That means we received 2 votes from new fans! So welcome and thanks for your vote. Here are the full results:

Basically I just submitted two links to the song, CD Baby and iTunes, then I wrote the following short reminiscence of when Nathan first brought the song to the band.

Dove born from the sky — I hope someday I can see You.

I remember the first rehearsal of this song. I was on the phone in the room adjacent to the practice area when it was introduced and guys start playing it. Jon was laying out a sparse beat with his snares off and Nate was playing slide on his acoustic. I knew what kind of bass line I would play, a very simple one to complement the understated beat.

Nate began singing dreamily, "Spirit, exalt yourself...." I knew at that moment that this song would become a favorite. His wife, Julie, played the violin on the recording. She also joined in with Nate, Brett and I in the whistling of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" at the end. Dave [Brown] might have been whistling, too — it was a long time ago.

Writing that short paragraph was illuminating to me since I barely remember details of working out any other tune. I guess it was just one of those illuminated memories, a definitive moment of sorts in my musical consciousness. That may sound deep, but it really feels natural and did so at the time. Like coming up out of the water and seeing the world glitter with the breath of wind and the light of sun.

Give it up, Moondog!

2008-04-15T20:54:00.009-04:00

Rock and roll historians and those who live in the Cleveland area are well-schooled in the event known as the Moondog Coronation Ball. A celebration on March 21 every year commemorates Cleveland DJ and rock promoter Allan Freed's famous overbooked 1952 fiasco. Here's an excerpt from the Fifties-Web piece:

What was novel was the idea of people going to a big municipal hall to dance. The Globetrotters played there, not musicians you'd heard on the radio. Today the idea of a Rock concert being held in a huge facility is commonplace.

But this is where the dream and the reality collided. Even after the hall was full to capacity, those crowds were pushing and shoving. Doors crashed open, glass exploded. Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams was on stage when the first fight broke out. And still they poured into the Arena, just to be a part of it. Dancing, moving wildly, the crowd became more and more unruly.

Even the big glittery sign proudly announcing "Moondoggers" came tumbling down.

That's when the Fire Marshals came and shut it all down. Nobody else got to play, not the Dominoes, Tiny Grimes, or the Rockin' Highlanders. Not Danny Cobb or Varietta Dillard. This hugely famous concert and only one song was played.

Why do I bring this up? Well, there are definitely no rock and roll fans trampling each other to buy a Face of Stephen CD on eBay for $49.98, posted by a seller going by the name of Moondog. This has been up for months now. I emailed him, but he hasn't responded. I don't blame him; I made quite a bit of fun of his stupid auction in the email. And I'm really good at that, as many of you know.

Of course, all you "Raindoggers" know that if you want the tunes from Face of Stephen you can download them here for a fifth of the price of Mr. Lunar Canine's eBay listing. in this way you can also stop promoting the destruction of our planet with all that nasty plastic which they need to use to make a CD and still rock with some choice tuneage, Kimosabe.

So give it up, Moonie... Stingin' Rain is in da house, dog!

A Stinging Rain Reissue Promo Poster

2008-04-15T10:42:00.008-04:00

I know I just said we weren't promoting the band anymore, but over the last few weeks I've produced a magazine-sized promo poster for some spurious marketing opportunities which might arise. It doesn't look half bad, if I may say so myself.

Here's what the text says:

In the summer of 1993, the indie rock foursome Stinging Rain ascended into a vacant third floor and recorded their masterpiece, Face of Stephen.

Shortly afterward they disbanded, and their rhythmic brand of hopeful, melodic rock seemed consigned to the twilight of silent memory.

Now — after being out of print for 15 years — their full catalog of original studio tracks is available again via digital download. Visit:

cdbaby.com/all/stingingrain

Not too "over the top", but still attention-getting, I hope. At the bottom of the page I included the phrase "Clear Tears of Light", a line from Grey Shapes, the first song on our first album, then across from it "One Eternal Flame", from Nothing Ever Changes, the last song on our last album. The large text bordering the picture is, of course, from a middle song on our middle album, On Eagle's Wings from the dream, but I didn't really plan that one as much. "Come with me, take this hand, we'll travel far across the sea and land" has always been one of my favorite lines from the pen and the mind of Nathan Depew.

Click on the picture, look at the large photo and tell me I don't look like Harry Potter with the messy hair and the glasses.

Full Catalog on iTunes

2008-04-15T09:37:00.006-04:00

I posted them "backwards".

First Face of Stephen was out there on the internet's top download service, then the dream and finally Shadows of Reality is available on iTunes. I suppose in retrospect I could have submitted everything in the chronological order of the albums' release dates. But I wanted Face of Stephen out there in the worst way, and I figured that if I keeled over from a heart attack after the first one at least our favorite would be available.

The singular reason for getting our tunes out there is universal availability. We're obviously no longer gigging, touring or attempting to promote the band. But from time to time someone will call Nate requesting CDs. Well, CDs are about plumb run out, as they might say in certain regions, and the internet has become the never-ending storage place for the long-forgotten. We can now direct those several requestors to iTunes if they subscribe, or CD Baby, which I feel is a superior service.

Another Windfall Bonanza

2008-04-03T11:48:00.007-04:00

Boy, oh boy... the hits just keep on coming, baby. April 2, 2008 marked the milestone of getting all 3 albums online. Shadows was posted early that morning and I did some work on the descriptions for the Stinging Rain group page. Then I sent out an email to about 130 folks who, as I put it, "who might care to learn that Stinging Rain's full catalog is now available for digital download via MP3."

Then yesterday I unearthed a treasure which had been sitting in a file cabinet for 14 years and through 5 moves. I had known there were a few old show posters somewhere along with Stinging Rain newsletters, mailers, etc. from "back in the day." But I had no idea how many. I found 2 manila folders stuffed inside a hanging folder for an alternative country rock band for which I used to run sound — the Blackwells* — in the mid-90s. This is way cool! There are clipped reviews, calendars with pay-dates, song lists from gigs (I'd clean forgotten that we used to cover "Nothing Is Alone" by Toad the Wet Sprocket) and notes I'd made which range from the enlightening to the humorous. For example, a note I'd scribbled on the back of a postcard states bluntly "Sent a tape to this a__hole".

In fact, the importance of this discovery could rival the sending of the aforementioned Brown Suitcase emails. I say this with great trembling, naturally.

But check it out. Here's a blurb written circa 1987 for the GCC Collegian by none other than Bill Deasy.

My favorite find has got to be the gig calendars. The hardest thing for me to remember is when things happened. Now I can meticulously put the pieces of the "what happened puzzle" together and possibly turn the collage into some type of historical account.

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* - There are/were at least three groups named the Blackwells, but I'm talking about the Pittsburgh-based Blackwells. Their lead singer, Marc Nelson, is in another band now and you can hear one of their old songs, "Ashtray", if you visit their myspace page.

The Dream is now available on iTunes

2008-04-01T23:57:00.007-04:00

Click the image to go to iTunes page for the dream. I am sure that at some point this will get old and I will no longer be impressed by seeing our tunes available for download. And without promotion it's not like anything will be "flying off the shelves."

Of course, those quote marks show the beauty of it. There are no shelves, dude. There's no big decision about whether to add anything to inventory or give a no-name band a break. There's just a bunch of servers and surfers. And inventory will never, ever run out or get stale. That means that hey, given enough time and a modicum of interest we might yet sell a million downloads. Who knows?

And thanks again to Derek Sivers for making CD Baby, his dream, a reality. Thou art the man.

Man.

All Lyrics Posted

2008-04-01T23:41:00.009-04:00

You can see them all here at Leo's Lyrics. I've noticed that these lyrics sites steal from, borrow from or contribute to each other, so soon the lyrics to all Stinging Rain's recorded tunes will be all over cyberspace in various collections.

I'm not sure where this great action photo was shot. Maybe Graffiti? Whoever snapped it had developed it backwards so Nate looked like a lefty. We liked the shot, but we didn't want to have it redeveloped. Needless to say, I corrected it with two or three mouse clicks. Computers make short work of things that used to be big problems.

We can't live with or without Bono

2008-03-31T17:03:00.007-04:00

If I'm a sucker for anything besides rock and roll, it's got to be deprecatory comedy writing. And I agree with most if not all of this piece even though I remain a hardcode fan of pre-Achtung U2 and Bono, who is probably one of the nicest multi-millionaires out there, albeit not the sharpest crayon in the box. Excerpt:

The wordless, wailing refrain of "With or Without You" still sends shivers down your spine, but Bono is lucky he's such a nice guy and he's even luckier that he makes such an enigmatic frontman because he's one of the sloppiest, wackiest lyricists in the game. Because the tunes are so indebted to that most cliché-ridden of genres (the blues), because his range is truly impressive, and because nobody can mic impassioned, British Isle hollering quite like Eno (just ask David Bowie), Bono gets away with a lot that a lesser man would not. The tropes are inoffensive, since even Dylan rhymes "fire" and "desire," and the clichés are forgivable, since rain and tears are pretty similar, I guess (though he does sing about rain an awful lot for a record that's named after a desert), but two decades on, can someone finally acknowledge how dumb these similes are? The guy clearly never met a mixed metaphor he didn't like: How exactly can "stinging rain" drive nails into "souls on a tree of pain," and since when do bullets "rape the night," even figuratively? Every now and then, though, Bono drops a gem: Has romantic anxiety ever been captured more accurately and succinctly than in the refrain, "I can't live with or without you"?

As for his politics, Bono is often accused of being sanctimonious, but on Joshua Tree he actually sounds detached. There's the blossoming of Bono's liberal outrage in "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Mothers of the Disappeared," which were inspired by a trip to South America but which are so mired in hammy imagery and Jim Morrison-posturing ("So how does it feel to see the sky ripped open?/To see the rain through a gaping wound/Pelting the women and children/Who run into the arms of America?") that he completely misses the polemical power of addressing actual pain in actual countries with actual people. It's not a criticism you can level at, say, "Sunday Bloody Sunday."

Still, there's something charming, even refreshing, about the way Bono's lyrics try so hard. It's difficult to remember, but there was a time when Europeans didn't hate America (de Toqueville! The Statue of Liberty!), and aside from the sorta-enraged "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Mothers of the Disappeared," Bono sounds legitimately in awe of our nation's people and topography; depending on where you look, it sure can feel like "God's country." Beautiful sights will bring out the cornball in most anyone, and Bono's earnestness is perfectly supported by Eno's extraordinary production work; rarely has a work of art been so majestic and yet so stupid.

The truth is that Newlin is right about the opening song of the album, "Where the streets have no name" being an awesome feat of rock producing and possibly one of the greatest songs of all time. I mean, the first time I heard it I was blown away, and I suppose at that moment became unconsciously ready to forgive Bono and crew of every cliché and overwrought political commentary on the rest of the album.

As far as politics goes, Bono has never been far left like a lot of recording artists. His criticisms of America have always been couched in terms of the United States not living up to her own high standards and don't bear much resemblance to the patchouli-drenched boomers marching around Berkeley every full moon chanting "America is evil and must be destroyed!" At least from the criticisms I've heard, he's probably slightly to Bruce Springsteen's right. He even met with Bush, a meeting from which a slightly awkward photo exists. Let's just say it was not an "Elvis-meets-Nixon" moment.

Later on I guess I was less ready to forgive U2 for Achtung Baby which I never got, though I tried with all my might. I know that I'm in the minority among U2 fans for this opinion. I guess lines like "Well you lied to me 'cause I asked you to / Baby, can we still be friends?" made me want to hear about bullets, fighter planes, $100 bills and third world people living in mud huts again.

News, Digital Update & Other Coolness

2008-03-30T21:20:00.005-04:00

I forgot to mention it, but I ended up figuring out how to burn an exact duplicate of Shadows of Reality with CDA tracks and everything, so I was able to send that in without sacrificing my final copy. It's being processed currently. The Dream is in the queue at iTunes and although it's not available yet, I expect it to be available there any day.

Here's a shot of the boys in action at Bethany. Circa 19??

My Face of Stephen google searches are starting to turn up more relevant stuff, e.g., we're on the PayPlay site now. I did a few promotional forum posts and they're starting to show up too, so good. So we're slowly pushing down some of the static in the searches. I also added the CD Baby pages to technorati so I can track links. When I finally get all 25 titles -- MWA-HA-HA -- available via iTunes I'm going to do a big "spam" email to a whole pile of fans and aquaintances, just to get the word out.

And here's a last but not least a bit of coolness supremo: I set up a page on Purevolume.com! It's kind of a respectable version of myspace for bands, indie mostly. I put a non-downloadable sample MP3 from each CD and a bunch of photos on there as well. We'll see what happens. So far I'm only out of pocket on this for a net of $140.00 and way too many hours, but I'm having fun.

The Dream now available from CD Baby

2008-03-26T20:45:00.001-04:00

Click here, or use the link in the right side bar to purchase the MP3 version of The Dream.

I'm doing a lot more development on the Wiki and I added a bunch of new lyrics. All lyrics from The Dream are up now and linked on the page for our 1991 EP. Do people call short CDs "EPs" anymore?

Here's a photo from the brown suitcase: Nate recording an acoustic track at Alphastar.

Well, this shot was probably from "The Dream Sessions", but who knows. It's a little irritating that I don't know the dates to a lot of these shots. It's very intriguing to me how much I forget. I remember all the inside jokes, though, which isn't surprising since I originated most of them and was the inspiration and subject matter for the rest.

The Dream isn't available on iTunes or the other big services yet, I expect it should be within a week. That's about how long it took last time for Face of Stephen.

The "Suitcase" Photos

2008-03-25T15:08:00.010-04:00

All right! Brett just sent me 31 scanned images of the photos which all ended up in one of the famous Brown Suitcases circa 1993. The collection consists of concert footage, shots of recording sessions, posed shots and photos of "life on the road".

Wow, I have hair in these photos. That's really nostalgic.

I'll be pasting these up from time to time; here's a great one to start off with. An "action shot" during the "Face of Stephen" sessions on the 3rd Floor in 1993. I call it the Famous Ladder Picture.

That's me on the left, Nathan's in the background on the right. He's got his mouth on the mike and he's playing an acoustic, so my guess is that we're doing a rehearsal of either Quiet Celebration or Minstrel's Song.

Latest Update and Dilemma

2008-03-24T09:36:00.008-04:00

My latest dilemma in the drama of digital distribution for Stinging Rain is that I possess only one copy of the Shadows of Reality CD, and I need to send a non-returnable copy in to CD Baby. I sort of feel attached to it; this is the end product of my first studio recording experience. Nate doesn't know where any extra copies are currently. But on the other hand, I'd really like to see this up on CD Baby, especially since The Dream should be available soon. (Keep checking our "all" page.)

In the end, I'll probably just "cast my bread upon the waters" and send it in. I know there are other extant copies of it in this world, possibly ones in even better shape. Once we have all 26 recordings available* I'll feel more like telling the world "Hey! We're online!" So my "sacrifice" will be worth it.

As always, I cannot praise CD Baby enough for the yeoman's work they do for small musicians.

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* - Of course, I'm including both versions of music of my world. The count is 25 by the official BMI list.

Easter & the Monk

2008-03-24T08:55:00.007-04:00

I hope everybody had a great Easter. Let me just say the Fry house was hopping like the Easter Bunny; the kids had a blast.

I finally watched Straight No Chaser -- hey, it's only been out for 20 years -- and it gave me a bit of a jones for the old gigging life. It also made me feel really bad for the man who gave us such great jazz performances and at least two standards (Blue Monk and Round Midnight) that he was haunted by a mental illness which would periodically isolate him from those around him, including his son who was terrified by these bouts with his father's "inner demons".

So the upside of being Thelonius Monk was creative genius, the downside was severe derangement. But the overall nature of the movie is upbeat because it features so many concert performances and studio footage in proportion to the talkin'. Loved to watched the man rotating during breaks, groovily delighting in his own creation.

Face now available on iTunes!

2008-03-19T09:04:00.005-04:00

This is way too cool! I am kvelling. To the max.

As Darth Vader said, "You may download at will."

I really have got to hand it to CD Baby because, honestly, they made this whole process incredibly simple. This is what I had to do:

Fill in database fields by entering a bunch of publishing information, song names, album title, etc. I had to look up a few things on BMI's site, otherwise all the info was in my brain or even closer at hand in the liner notes.

Write a short bio of the band and answer some questions about digital distribution.

Read through and sign the digital distribution contract, which as a legal contract is comparatively short and easy to read.

Mail one copy of the CD to their home office out in Oregon.

Submit a scanned image of the album cover artwork.

Pay $55.00 which included $35 to do the listing and $20 for them to create the barcode which is necessary for sales.

The artwork scanning was probably the biggest single chore in terms of effort; I detailed that process back here.

I was reading this blog post yesterday and I realized what a great company Derek Sivers started. An inexpensive distribution deal for anyone with product with little or no barrier to entry into the market. Viva CD Baby!!!

Digital Delivery Report from CD Baby

2008-03-17T09:18:00.011-04:00

The latest update to our CD Baby status page shows that as of Thursday, 3/13, the Face of Stephen tracks have been submitted to 7 digital distribution companies: iTunes, Napster, Verizon, PayPlay, Amie Street, Tradebit and MusicIsHere. The page predicts 2 or 3 weeks before the tracks show up for download from those services.

Of course, anybody can download Face of Stephen from CD Baby right now, but far more people have iTunes or accounts on other services. I'm a Napster guy myself, and I'll probably buy a $0.99 track or two just for the fun of it when the stuff shows up.

In other news, my dad cut the live tracks from our Crawford show onto CD for me the other day. I'm still not sure I'm going to submit the live stuff; I'm thinking I should have used them as "bonus tracks" on FoS, but too late for that now. I listened to the Violin live track at Nate's house over the weekend. It was with the original bass line, which I'd forgotten, along with the dozens of other things which have fallen through the ever-widening memory hole.

But hearing a tune from that gig brought a smile to my face. I remember receiving an off-stage rebuke from the... uh, "powers that be" because over six hundred people showed up—far more than expected—and there was a stage rush at the beginning of the show. That was a little too wild for GCC; we were such rebels.

Sent out "the dream" today

2008-03-13T14:39:00.006-04:00

So once CD Baby does their magic we'll have number 2 ready to download.

I've been listening to the dream a lot lately. I remember being ecstatic about the recording when it came out because the bass was a lot higher in the mix than in Shadows. Earlier today I was admiring the artwork on the top of the disc; I decided to include a scan of it here.

The songs which have been going through my head the most have been The Dream, Quest and Darkness at Twilight. I copied the lyrics to The Dream below.

The Dream
by Nathan Depew

Spirit exalt yourself
Give me the words to live this dream --
This dream called life
These strange things all around
Why do these people sound so scared?
So shaking scared?

I hope someday I can see you
To find if I have really lived
I hope someday you will breathe for me
I get so tired of breathing

I have found emptiness
In almost everything I've seen
(Close your eyes.)
A Dove born from the sky
Bathed in Love's Pure Light
I dream this--it's more than real.

I hope some day I can see you --
To find if I have really lived
I hope someday you will breathe for me.
I get so tired of breathing.

I forget whose idea it was to have a group whistling of "Row, row, row your boat" in the background at the end, but that always brings a smile to my face.

Stinging Rain Enters the 21st Century

2008-03-11T14:27:00.006-04:00

Here we are! At long last, Stinging Rain formally enters the age of digital music! Instant gratification downloading for the two hundred or so people out there who have been jonesing to relive their halcyon days -- rockin' the Grove City Sportsman's Club, rushing the stage at Crawford Auditorium and trekking to the Upstage Lounge. Or maybe you're counted among the more elite group who first saw the band perform at Kelli's birthday party. (That was before they "sold out", you know, and bought professional quality instruments.)

For now, I just have Face of Stephen posted on CD Baby. I hope to get the other two albums posted within the next several weeks.

Search Engine Static

2008-03-11T13:41:00.011-04:00

It's fun to guess how our band experience would have been different if it had somehow miraculously occurred 10 years later in the midst of the Internet Age. But ultimately, all such futuristic speculations are a fantastic waste of time, as proved years ago by the Jetsons.

Furthermore, this is why these goofballs writing books about "robot love" should be ashamed of themselves. Well, among other more obvious reasons.

And we should never forget our oft-repeated maxim, "A second can change time."

As it stands, I've been googling the terms "Stinging Rain" for years, finding meaningful hits here and there, cutting out references to the lyrics to "Bullet the Blue Sky" and the 6th track on Capercaillie's self-titled album. I remember one listing on eBay cracked me up -- someone was trying to push a CD of "the dream" for $150.00. Needless to say that auction ended with no bidders. The Gathering Field page was a fun hit when I found it by including the phrase "Grove City" in quotes. Hitting the page of this compilation, "In the land of Milk & Cookies", brought back some scary memories. A few good ones, too, I'll admit.

Then along comes Misery Signals and their song "The Stinging Rain". If your curious, watch a few seconds of this.

Sorry -- there was really no easy way to break it to you. If you want to read the full lyrics to this screamo anthem, go here. I'll include a pertinent sample:

Gentle were the words that set her free
She became the stinging rain
She became the hurricane
No love lost
Purge you animose
That serpent coiled within my stomach
Temperance fell from her without weight
Gone with the storm
We are not meant to contain the sadness of this world
I whispered in her ear and drew her close....

Yeahhhh.... OK. Truth be told, it actually hurts my voice far more than my ears. This kind of material is also referred to as "Math Rock". But I wouldn't recommend playing this for your preschooler to improve his/her future test scores.

And just in case some Misery Signals fans find their way over here to gripe: the suicide hotline number is 800-784-2433.

Copyright Violation?

2008-03-10T11:55:00.007-04:00

I've been brainstorming for things to put up on the Unofficial Stinging Rain blog. So what do you post on a site for a band which has ~~been defunct~~ not performed nor recorded nor even been heard of from in years?

Inside jokes, of course. And without further ado... what does the attached image from Over the Rhine's site remind you of?

Here's a hint: Whoop!!!

Yes, you guessed it. The famous primitive sketch of the unforgettable and redoubtable POUCHY 5, penned circa 1989 by yours truly.

Stay tuned for more inane and incomprehensible inside jokes.

I have no idea if this video "works" or not...

2008-03-06T14:22:00.004-05:00

One of the band's favorite songs ever. I remember a lot of Talk Talk being played at the plant. I found a cassette of Spirit of Eden in a bargain bin sometime in 1988 or 89. It really took awhile to grow on me -- check out the choral Kyrie in the background, just barely audible.

This is a Youtube piece entitled "Video Mashup of Talk Talk to Ernie Kovacs". This was the only vid of the 6 minute version I could find. Here's a cool "real" video of the 4 minute version featuring Mark Hollis, the man himself.

Found the ol' Wiki site

2008-02-29T13:10:00.004-05:00

One semi-bored night about a year and a half ago, I started a Stinging Rain Wiki, and I just found it again today. Fun stuff. There is a great page on this guy. I also threw the images up on the site for fun.

At some point I'll put some more scans up, if I ever get around to scanning all the great pics that are... well, they're somewhere, let's put it that way.

The Dream

2008-02-29T12:37:00.007-05:00

Nate sent me several copies of the Dream. I received the parcel last night. Thanks, Nate.

The first thing I noticed about the song "The Dream" was that the strong influence of Talk Talk/Spirit of Eden can be felt not just in the orchestration but in the vocals as well. Nate's note trail echoes reminded me of Mark Hollis's more than ever.

The effect is a little bit accentuated by the fact that the tune is sandwiched between two faster numbers, Like a Child and On Eagle's Wings.

Had fun with the scan. I pretty much re-manufactured it, stripping out the picture then re-adding the border and the lettering.

Didn't mess with the brightness at all.

But back to the music. I've been listening to all the stuff which we had on all the time back at The Plant. I remember picking up a cassette of Spirit of Eden in 1989 -- out of the bargain bin -- and having it just blow me away. Yeah, it went to the bargain bin within a year of it's 1988 release. Needless to say that cassette got a lot of play.

I was reading on the web the other day where Hollis points out that "I believe in you" was a kind of anti-heroin song, and that he never shot up himself, just saw what it did to others. Kind of cool; a lot of people back in the day said they were junkies -- at least that clears up the record.

Still no Dream

2008-02-26T09:43:00.000-05:00

Nate just visited the blog to check it out. He pointed out some other bands we played with, like Live. I had totally forgotten them! I don't think they got too chummy with us, to put it mildly, but hey -- at least they didn't make us carry their instruments! I don't remember any of their songs, however I'm sure if they stumbled onto this site they'd think "Stinging who?"

I searched far and wide and still have not located a copy of The Dream. I may actually have to get a band mate to send me a CD. However during my search I did manage to locate my copy of Happy Hour by Shonen Knife. So I'm happy chillin' to that currently. Konnichiwa, baby.

Artwork: I'm on a roll, call me "Mr. Scanner"

2008-02-26T00:46:00.002-05:00

Got the Shadows cover artwork down.

This is a JPEG of the million-pixel TIFF format that CD Baby likes. Once again, I did very little tweaking. I added darkening in the scanning process and upped the contrast. I also trimmed the top and bottom very slightly and moved the top lettering downward a tad.

This is such a cool photo, taken by Stephanie Gaydos. It was a double-exposure, then she used a special process to get the ultra grainy look.She really did some great photography for us. I googled her name and turned up a studio in San Diego that might be hers. I'm planning on calling to see if it's her place.

Another funny thing about the photo shoot was that the field we were in was replete with burr-laden weeds, so naturally Duane and Jon were throwing the sticky seed-pods at each other, the object being to get them to stick to the other's clothes. They were both laughing in the exposure where they are facing each other. As I recall, everyone had been tossing them at some point.

Shadows of Reality & The Dream

2008-02-25T11:37:00.001-05:00

I'm laughing at myself a little right now because it turns out that I don't possess — or cannot find — a copy of "The Dream". I do have a copy of Shadows still in shrink-wrap. As a recording, it is the least desirable to us, probably because it's our first and can find many faults with it. I will probably submit all the songs from both Shadows and Dream to be available electronically once everything is set with FoS.

Maybe even the live stuff from the 4-song cassette-only release. (Bet y'all forgot about that one....)

Submitted to CD Baby

2008-02-25T11:20:00.002-05:00

I got everything done today for CD Baby digital distribution. I was pleased to find an entire list of our tunes at BMI's site. Perusing that information help me feel confident that I was entering the correct publishing info.

I messed around a little bit with the album cover design. I really just had a scan from my Epson CX6000 to work with, and the background was a little too grey, the design too bright. So I toned down the brightness in the preview function, then I turned up the contrast slightly as well as the saturation. Here's a JPG of the resulting image:

I had been thinking of re-doing the text, but I was worried that it would look too fake. I did eliminate a bunch of little dust-like specks scattered throughout the black. Otherwise I managed to preserve the look and feel of the cover, even though the effect may be a little dull by today's artwork standards. We'll see what the page looks like on CD Baby when it's all loaded.

Unofficial Introduction

2008-02-22T09:56:00.001-05:00

Well, we needed somewhere on the web to call home. This is mainly because I've finally decided to take some time out from my post-band existence to get our music electronically distributed. Soon we'll be available on iTunes, Napster, etc.

I'm going to try also to get some photos in here. I believe I have one that my 2 year old hasn't torn up which I could scan. If not, I'm sure Brett has one hidden somewhere in his beard.