Rain Station's DARK RIDE...Bandcamp

Rain Station's DARK RIDE was the last CD Jay and I finished (although we are working on a new one, have a new Halloween one in the works and we did record a few other tracks here and there since DARK RIDE that were never released).
Back in the Fall of 2000 (Due to my online presence on 13thTrack.com Halloween Radio) I was invited to The Universal Studios Hollywood Eyegore Awards (click here). The Universal Studios Hollywood Eyegore Awards are presented for achievement in the horror and sci-fi genre. So, on Friday, October 13th Jay and I trekked down to LA to be there, interview some folks and get some station IDs for 13thTrack.com.

The winners that night were:
* Joss Whedon
* Casts of Buffy and Angel
* Karen Black
* Gloria Stewart
* "The Undertaker"
I knew I was going to be meeting some people that night (Rob Zombie, Karen Black, Alyson Hannigan, Bill Moseley, Joss Whedon and more) and Jay and I figured it would be cool to record a Halloween CD to hand out to the folks we meet - you know, see if we can land that big record deal or get our music placed in a horror film, on TV...something. Rob Zombie had recently launched his Zombie A-Go-Go Record label (now inactive) and since I've always been a fan of HALLOWEEN and rockabilly (gothabilly) I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to push out another CD in 2000 (we had released "Stonedozer" earlier that year). So Jay and I put this together quick style and did what we set out to do. Once we got back to the Bay Area from the "gig" we decided that the CD was pretty good so we mastered the disc with George Horn (Chief Mastering Engineer) at Fantasy Records (click here) in Berkeley, CA.


It still amazes me that we recorded this entire CD in probably two or three weeks. The disc got some great reviews as well...and although I know I've blogged this far too many times, here goes again (the reviews):

Underground DJ from Haunted Attraction Magazine
Now it is time to run away and join the carnival. "Step right up and see the amazing, the unbelievable, the available for your attraction CD, DARK RIDE by Rain Station." A journey through a veritable midway of new music written for old pretzel rides. The use of sound effects is limited only to those that help create the feel of the piece. The styles of music range widely from Heavy Metal beats through old time Rock and Roll to the almost cutesy Trick Or Treatin'. This nostalgically fun selection, took me back to my early days as a young zombie, heading out on Halloween with the lust for candy in my heart. The CD would be great for line entertainment or a party, with a little bit for every taste and some of the beats are infectious.

Larry McKenzie HalloweenMagazine.com
DARK RIDE by Rain Station is one of the most unique Halloween music CDs I have ever heard. DARK RIDE has 13 music tracks. Each track is a good mixture for Halloween. A bit mysterious and dark, yet very fun. The DARK RIDE CD would be great for an adult Halloween party. If you are a Halloween enthusiast and are looking for more Halloween music for your collection, you should visit http://www.NobodyRecords.com/ and listen to the MP3 samples from the DARK RIDE CD. I am happy to have this CD as part of my Halloween music collection. I sincerely recommend visiting Nobody Records and listen to a track or two.

Underground Entertainment
(This) offering is more of a Halloween party CD, especially suited to be played in queue lines or on the midways of Scream Parks. It contains thirteen tracks of rock/alternative style music with Halloween themes. You'll find titles such as "Monster Hunter", "Haunted Man", "Black Lagoon", "Trick or Treatin'", and "Broom Hopping". This one is fun and is a CD that should be added to the collection of anyone interested in assembling a music anthology of Halloween related material.

Chaotic Order
Curious mix of Porno for Pyros and White Collar Crime with a penchant for Halloween. Best use would be on the soundtrack for the upcoming Scooby Doo movie.

Happy Halloween Magazine
Looking for a Halloween CD with an edge, this is the one to get. Available from Nobody Records, Rain Station's Dark Ride packs a gritty, heavy metal sound that conjures an auditory image of purgatory. While this is not normally the type of music I listen to, for Halloween...it works! The raspy vocals lend a dark, almost visceral feel to the accompanying music. Contains 13, new, original hits...

OK...enough of the plugs - listen for yourself!


Jay is really into making Flash animations (he's quite clever that guy) and he made some "videos" for some of the tracks on DARK RIDE.

CANDY TRICK OR TREATIN' THINGS

DAY OF THE DEAD TOMB OF DOOM

HAUNTED MAN DARK RIDE

DARK RIDE is one of my all time favorite projects. Perhaps it is because we didn't over analize it, we had a timeline and had to bang it out. Perhaps it was because we got to be completely goofy. Perhaps it was the thrill of getting to give copies of our CD to folks like Rob Zombie and Karen Black. Perhaps it was the Halloween theme.
The road trip to Universal Studios with Jay is a very fond memory for me. It felt like we were on tour. Now I need to get of my tuckis and get that next Halloween CD goin'. I need to add to my collection!

Mark Harvey

Stonedozer - Dr. Dre has it, do you?

Since I don't have a "good" version of "The Living Room Sessions" that I can put up on Bandcamp (yet) I figured I'd fast forward chronologically and talk a little about "Stonedozer". As I mentioned during my "Fancy Fancy" post Jay had moved to New York and Brian Peet and I were recording together. With Brian's help I upgraded my studio set up to an E-MU Darwin (a digital 8-track) and a PC that allowed me to use virtual MIDI tracks which expanded the possibilities of over 8 tracks. I recorded mopehead tracks and my first Pumpkinland hauntscape during that time.
In 1999 Jay returned with his wife to the Bay Area. I had recently become a stay-at-home Dad and since Jay moved nearby we decided it was time to start a new Rain Station project. My folks would watch my daughter at least once a week (sometimes more) and Jay would come over to record. With the new gear it was evident that we were going to end up with a pretty good recording. In some cases I recorded after hours - drum programming, bass, guitar and keyboard tracks. In the case of "It Doesn't Show" Jay laid down a guitar track and I recorded instruments around it. Jay and I also talked a lot about keyboard sounds and many of the keyboard tracks were done when we were together. I wrote lyrics for some of the songs and others Jay would come over and write lyrics to. Vocally we'd record once songs got closer to being completed. On some of the tracks we brought in other vocalists - his wife, my sister and a friend of mine named Idia Huntley who worked with me at the good guys. We also brought in Jay's friend Joe to play the guitar solo for "City Girl". We mixed the project down and scheduled a date to master it.
We mastered "Stonedozer" at Fantasy Studios with George Horn. George mastered The Screaming Paisleys "EXIT" LP so it had been some time since I had seen him. His ears are incredible and mastering with him is a joy. What was nice was that he kept asking about my equipment and process. He was amazed that we had done the whole project on a digital 8-track. We talked mics and such and he was generally impressed. It made me feel like the years of recording college (and recording) had paid off. We sent the master of for replication and waited.
On 4/20/2000 Rain Station released "Stonedozer". We sent out tons of press kits to radio (college, mainstream and alternative), websites (for review) and to print publications. The CD was received well and gained some airplay, but failed to conquer the world as we had intended it to.
A couple months later I heard a story from Jay about his brother and our CD. Jay's brother worked for a high end pro audio company in Indianapolis. During the Up In Smoke Tour (formerly called the Chronic 2000 Tour) Jay's brother was working on the stereo system on Dr. Dre's tour bus. To "test" the system his brother dropped "Stonedozer" into the CD player. As Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Warren G, Ice Cube, Nate Dogg, Eminem, Xzibit and more (possibly) listened on, his brother continued to tweak the system. Dr. Dre asked him, "Who is this" and his brother answered, "My brother's band, Rain Station". Dr. Dre said he wanted the CD and said, "If this is your brother you can get another copy of it". So, on June 30th, 2000 Rain Station's "Stonedozer" became a part of the CD collection on Dr. Dre's tour bus.
Here's a chance to listen to the disc in its entirety via Bandcamp.

Jay likes to listen to the CD starting at track #3. "Rise" and "Stonedozer" are a bit of an abrupt way to start a CD so perhaps heed Jay's advice, start at track 3 and then come back for tracks 1 and 2.

I hope you enjoy the disc...as Charlie Harrelson from EvO:R says..."I have always been a big fan of Rain Station and their lo-fi recording roots but the recording of Stonedozer has elevated them to near major label sound quality"......"This is the BEST Rain Station CD to date"...

Mark Harvey

The Screaming Paisleys on bandcamp

Well...after a little blog silence I've decided to get with the program again and get something written here. I do plan on writing the account of my 40th birthday weekend (mainly for my own historical record...I'm getting old, ya know), but tonight I decided to announce the digital availability of The Screaming Paisleys "EXIT" LP (found here). It is available to listen to as well as to download. It is a fairly good quality rip, not the best...

For those who have not read the account of the band, keep reading...

The Screaming Paisleys started out as Rhythm and Rhyme - a band thrown together for a Battle of the Bands contest at Sequoia High School in Redwood City, CA. Soon after that "gig" we changed our name to The Screaming Paisleys, played for a little while and then broke up. Some where out there is a demo we recorded at a friend's house, but I've not come across it yet.
At that point I began recording on my Tascam 4-track and I called my solo project mopehead. At a party at my buddy Scott Rehlaender's house, Dave Ayer (The Screaming Paisleys' drummer) heard some of the tracks I had recorded and thought it would be cool to get together. We reenlisted Brent Willson (bass) and began practicing, but soon stopped playing together again. I started looking for a bass player to fill Brent's spot.
One night while working at Gelb Music in Redwood City, CA (click here to visit their website) Tony Iuppa saw the flier pinned to the wall and approached me asking if he could "try out" for the band. So Dave, Tony and I began practicing. The Screaming Paisleys were together again.
Once we had a number of tunes ready we decided to record an LP. EXIT was recorded with Bart Thurber at the original House Of Faith (click here to visit website) recording studio (then in Bart's Palo Alto house). Bart was amazing and taught all of us a lot during the process. I had been going to recording college so working with Bart was great to hone my production skills.

EXIT was released in 1988. The Screaming Paisleys played lots of gigs. Our LP charted on many college radio stations nationwide. It was a good run. We ended up breaking up when Dave decided to go on tour with SAMIAM (one of many bands that Dave was playing in). Tony and I would get together and record strange songs on the 4-track, but the band would never get together again. Tony's friend, Shane created a website (click here to visit) for The Screaming Paisleys (a page for stuff that doesn't have a page).

I've now ripped the entire LP so here is a digital version of EXIT. I hope you enjoy the tracks.

Mark Harvey - Acoustic & Electric Guitars/Vocals
Click here if you can't figure out where you're supposed to click to listen to "EXIT".

Scalp Massage - a Screaming Paisleys' FREE MP3

Here's another track from The Screaming Paisleys. This free MP3 is called "Scalp Massage" (download here) (link disabled)and is taken from The Screaming Paisleys' EXIT LP (released in 1988). It has some really nice bass work by Tony Iuppa (bass solo included!), some interesting harmonics flowing from my guitar and Dave Ayer grooves pretty tough on this track. All in all I'd say I get a kick listening to this old LP.

For a Screaming Paisley's history lesson click here.

Mark Harvey
Click here if you can't figure out where you're supposed to click to download the song. (link disabled)

"Morning Dew" by The Screaming Paisleys

Here's another track from my teenage years (1988 to be precise). This is also the track I mentioned in my last entry - the track that made my wife so mad. I guess my only comment would be that you may not want to wake up to this, but I like waking up to this so...I dunno....whatever. Here is a FREE MP3 download of "Morning Dew" (download here) (link disabled) taken from The Screaming Paisleys' EXIT LP. Originally recorded on my 4-track, Morning Dew was rerecorded by the band I was in - The Screaming Paisleys for our EXIT LP. So here's the history lesson for those who missed it the last time:

The Screaming Paisleys started out as Rhythm and Rhyme - a band thrown together for a Battle of the Bands contest at Sequoia High School. Soon after that "gig" we changed our name to The Screaming Paisleys, played for a little while and then broke up. At that point I began recording on my Tascam 4-track and I called my solo project mopehead. At a party at my buddy Scott Rehlaender's house Dave Ayer (The Screaming Paisleys' drummer) heard some of the tracks I had recorded and thought it would be cool to get together. We reenlisted Brent Willson (bass) and began practicing, but soon stopped playing together again. I started looking for a bass player to fill Brent's spot. One night while working at Gelb Music (click here to visit their website) Tony Iuppa saw the flier pinned to the wall and approached me asking if he could "try out" for the band. So Dave, Tony and I began practicing. The Screaming Paisleys were together again.

Once we had a number of tunes ready we decided to record an LP. EXIT was recorded with Bart Thurber at the original House Of Faith (click here to visit website) recording studio (then in Bart's Palo Alto house). Bart was amazing and taught all of us a lot during the process. I had also been going to recording college so working with Bart was great to hone my production skills.

EXIT was released in 1988. The Screaming Paisleys played lots of gigs. Our LP charted on many college radio stations nationwide. It was a good run. We ended up breaking up when Dave decided to go our tour with SAMIAM (one of many bands that Dave was playing in). Tony and I would get together and record strange songs on the 4-track, but the band would never get together again.Tony's friend, Shane created a website (click here to visit) for The Screaming Paisleys (a page for stuff that doesn't have a page).I've now ripped the entire LP onto my computer so I have a digital version of EXIT. If anyone is interested in the digital version, comment...if you'd like for me to post more tracks from EXIT, comment...how about just comment.As usual I plan to add more early Rain Station, mopehead and maybe Screaming Paisleys tracks in the coming months.

Enjoy!

Mark Harvey - Acoustic & Electric Guitars/Vocals

Click here if you can't figure out where you're supposed to click to download the song.

(link disabled)

October is here...do you have a copy of DARK RIDE?

Beware of shameless self promotion and overt sales techniques/tactics! Each year around Halloween sales pick up here at Nobody Records, 13thTrack.com Halloween Radio and Pumpkinland Studios. One of my favorite releases in the catalog is DARK RIDE.

Back in 2000 (Due to my online presence on 13thTrack.com Halloween Radio) I was invited to The Universal Studios Hollywood Eyegore Awards (click here). The Universal Studios Hollywood Eyegore Awards are presented for achievement in the horror and sci-fi genre. So, on Friday, October 13th my buddy Jay Moores and I trekked down to LA to be there, interview some folks and get some station IDs for 13thTrack.com.

Winners that night were:
* Joss Whedon
* Casts of Buffy and Angel
* Karen Black
* Gloria Stewart
* "The Undertaker"

Since I knew I was going to be meeting with some people (Rob Zombie, Karen Black, Alyson Hannigan, Bill Moseley, Joss Whedon and more) Jay and I figured it would be cool to record a Halloween CD to hand out to the folks we met - you know, see if we can land that big record deal. So Jay and I put this together quick style and did what we set out to do.

Once we got back to the Bay Area from the "gig" we decided that the CD was pretty good so we mastered the disc with George Horn (Chief Mastering Engineer) at Fantasy Records (click here) in Berkeley, CA.

So...

DARK RIDE features 13 New Halloween Hits!

These songs (and more) are all streaming at 13thTrack.com Halloween Radio - click one of the links to hear the song listed:Things - Twilight Sky - Monster Hunter - Haunted Man -Tomb of Doom - Black Lagoon -Trick or Treatin' - This Night - Candy - Broom Hopping -Day of the Dead - October's Bride - Dark Ride

Jay Moores has created SPOOKY FLASH ANIMATIONS for some of the songs on the CD-

CANDY

THINGS

DAY OF THE DEAD

TOMB OF DOOM

HAUNTED MAN

DARK RIDE

DARK RIDE is available NOW! - Order This CD -$15 includes Free US Shipping

DARK RIDE IS GETTING GREAT REVIEWS!
Underground DJ from Haunted Attraction Magazine
Now it is time to run away and join the carnival. "Step right up and see the amazing, the unbelievable, the available for your attraction CD, DARK RIDE by Rain Station." A journey through a veritable midway of new music written for old pretzel rides. The use of sound effects is limited only to those that help create the feel of the piece. The styles of music range widely from Heavy Metal beats through old time Rock and Roll to the almost cutesy Trick Or Treatin'. This nostalgically fun selection, took me back to my early days as a young zombie, heading out on Halloween with the lust for candy in my heart. The CD would be great for line entertainment or a party, with a little bit for every taste and some of the beats are infectious.

Larry McKenzie HalloweenMagazine.com
DARK RIDE by Rain Station is one of the most unique Halloween music CDs I have ever heard. DARK RIDE has 13 music tracks. Each track is a good mixture for Halloween. A bit mysterious and dark, yet very fun. The DARK RIDE CD would be great for an adult Halloween party. If you are a Halloween enthusiast and are looking for more Halloween music for your collection, you should visit http://www.NobodyRecords.com/ and listen to the MP3 samples from the DARK RIDE CD. I am happy to have this CD as part of my Halloween music collection. I sincerely recommend visiting Nobody Records and listen to a track or two.

Underground Entertainment
(This) offering is more of a Halloween party CD, especially suited to be played in queue lines or on the midways of Scream Parks. It contains thirteen tracks of rock/alternative style music with Halloween themes. You'll find titles such as "Monster Hunter", "Haunted Man", "Black Lagoon", "Trick or Treatin'", and "Broom Hopping". This one is fun and is a CD that should be added to the collection of anyone interested in assembling a music anthology of Halloween related material.

Chaotic Order
Curious mix of Porno for Pyros and White Collar Crime with a penchant for Halloween. Best use would be on the soundtrack for the upcoming Scooby Doo movie.

Happy Halloween Magazine
Looking for a Halloween CD with an edge, this is the one to get. Available from Nobody Records, Rain Station's Dark Ride packs a gritty, heavy metal sound that conjures an auditory image of purgatory. While this is not normally the type of music I listen to, for Halloween...it works! The raspy vocals lend a dark, almost visceral feel to the accompanying music. Contains 13, new, original hits...

Be sure and pick up your copy today to support independent HALLOWEEN music!

Thank you,

Mark Harvey