S-chick

Tue - April 20, 2010

Reinvention out today

Reinvention is out today, debuting at number 134 on itunes.... thanks to everyone for sharing the love.

Posted at 04:16 PM

Thu - April 1, 2010

Cover me

Every Superchick record, about two thirds of the way through, I will make a big posterboard calender. Everything still to be done gets a post-it and I will attempt to fit 90 days of post-its into 30 post-it spaces. It's time management Tetris, you are praying for a straight four but you get the wrong L and your bricks are stacking up into inelegant towers. One badly placed T and you're done. Or if you are coasting downhill on a skateboard and you hit a rock, suddenly you are falling downhill and your whole world becomes getting that next foot under you so it's not your face that hits the pavement.

Right when it feels like that, I get the call that I have pushed to the back of my head by sheer denial. I know what the question is:

"What do you want to do for the cover?"

My heart sinks. I did not have space for a giant post-it that says "think of great cover concept". There are no days allocated for this. This is our upside down L, our undoing.

Back before ipods, before the Jurassic 5 era, I signed a big record deal and promptly lost control of the record and its packaging. The designer was breathtakingly exotically hot, and I stunned a roomful of people by not only disliking the cover, but proceeding to so enumerate the things I wanted changed that I made the designer cry. Men rushed to comfort her and I was vilified and made to stand in a corner. I resolved not to let that happen again. As a designer, I know I am the kind of client designers fear, since I am obviously a control freak and am not easily mollified by designer jibber jabber or being fantastically exotically hot. It is a measure of how much I care about details that I made the hottest girl I had talked to in real life cry. Now that I look back, I do feel bad that I made anyone cry. It was a harbinger of things to come: my insensitivity has made many a girl I was working with cry... except for Tricia, who once made me cry.

So for the next record deal I insisted on having control over the imaging as well as the music. I found the guy who had done my favorite album cover and hired him. I loved his work, I was thrilled to be working with him. I went to his place to see the ideas, and I was as Brian Gocher would say: "whelmed." He had laid out the photos we sent him, albeit with some nice typography. I kept talking about his other cover I loved and finally he said, "Well they had this concept which was to make it look like an old book, so I did that. You don't have a concept." And that was the truth of it - he was simply working with what we had given him. He's a very talented designer, but it wasn't his job to come up with the fantastic concept. If I wanted one I was going to have to come up with it.

For me, it's not enough to just have a cool looking cover. I feel like a lot of album art seems oddly unrelated to the music. DVD covers do a great job of letting you know what you are holding. You can tell the difference between 28 Days and 28 Days Later. I want the cover to communicate, to jangle, to add a layer of meaning to the music. It's as much a personal expression as the music is. It is the curse of being a designer. Marketing people usually want different things in a cover: they want it to be very bright and have "shelf pop." Nowadays, they want it to pop when it is shrunk to the size of a postage stamp on itunes. I deeply miss the vinyl era, although it was before my time. The 4 panel foldout of Paul's Boutique is an expansive joy. It is immersive - you can get lost studying the details.

So needless to say, when they ask me what I want to do for the cover, my heart sinks because I want the idea to be really good. Better than my greatest idea ever and better than the best album cover I've ever seen. That good. Isn't that what we all strive for? To make the best art the world has ever seen ever? Sadly I always fall short, but I sure go down fighting. It is a panicky feeling to have a hard deadline, high expectations and no idea what you are going to do. It is easy to bleat from the back seat about where we are going. It is a different thing to be driving a bus full of people with no idea where to go.

For the Karaoke Superstars record, it was Steve Ford who saw, in my design for our indie cover, what would become our icon. I had wanted to spray paint the icon on a piece of brushed metal but the designer shot me down. I settled for a metallic silver ink instead. I've heard rumors of people getting it as a tattoo. Obviously they have taken up the meaning: let your voice be heard, do not be silenced. I sure hope it isn't some guy who really really likes Tricia. Or megaphones. It was our first record and we truly deep down believed that if you wake up to your potential, you can save the world entire. We were singular optimists and hyperbolists and the cover reflects it accordingly.

Last One Picked was tough. I had whole weeks go by with no ideas. Then I had one of those nights where my brain would not shut off. Ideas came and went in a hallucinatory daze. It became bluish light outside, the birds, stirring. It became full blown hangover sunshine bright and as I was lying there listening to people getting into their cars to go to work, it popped into my head: A yearbook. The theme of the record was "the geek shall inherit the earth" and it was our lovingly penned missive of hope to the outcast, the downtrodden,the invisible. Not only did it dovetail neatly with our High School as metaphor for life theme, it gave me a direction for the photography. I'd been at constant war with the marketing people about making the band shiny and pretty so this was an excuse to do goofy "drama club" photography. I insisted everyone contribute a photo from their yearbook to make the point that we all had an awkward phase. The really wicked looking tattoo artists were once the guys who drew dragons on their trapper keepers. I wanted to emboss and gild the cover like a real yearbook but that costs money. I scattered polaroids I had taken of the recording process through the booklet including one where Tricia was singing into a mic. In order to see her face, I pulled the pop screen down which started a grassy knoll internet debate about whether we had "faked" the photos. There is some photoshop trickery in the booklet but it is because during the proper photo shoot with Melinda DiMauro, Tricia was found to be allergic to the lipstick they put on her, resulting in a bee stung look. If you'd been sucking on a hive of bees while poking them with a stick that had angry wasps glued to it. (note: due to an allergy to alcohol I have no idea what a hangover is actually like.)

Like the record itself, the cover for Regeneration was a remix of our earlier stuff. I've always loved graffiti's 'no rules' ethos and like hip hop and punk, in its purest form, it has something to say. Designer Ben Frank was on the same page and it's largely his vision that shaped the design. I realize now that I failed to credit the original artist who drew the superchick graffiti logo. I've never met him in person, but corresponded only via email resulting in this lovely lovely bit of custom typework. I'll have to send him one of my two remaining promotional skateboards we made with his artwork. Graffiti fonts give me hives, so I recruited KJ-52 into doing the tags that run through the booklet. I had just purchased a digital SLR before our european tour so many of those shots made it into the booklet. I thought it was good at the time but looking at them now, I realize I was mostly excited about Europe and a new camera.

In an earlier post, I detailed some of pain we went through to get to this cover for Beauty from Pain. There were over 50 comps made before we circled back to our original idea, which Ben Frank laid out beautifully. We were personally battered and bruised by life and we'd lost some of that shiny optimism bands have before they get ground down by the system. The broken megaphone seemed like an apt metaphor for where we were; tore up plenty, but she'll fly. I had recently purchased a holga with a polaroid back and shot the inside photography with it. It was then left on a bus and lost. We still were subjected to an outside shoot, during which Brandon could be heard muttering from the back "this is stupid, does anyone else think this is stupid?"

Later when Columbia/Sony released their version of this record, they did their own cover, which I had very little input over. I kept lobbying for a different concept until they yelled at me. Then I shut up. When Columbia/Sony tells you to shut up, you say "how high?" On the plus side, Frank Ockenfels 3 was hired to shoot us and it was one of my life highlights to work with someone that good. I blogged about that here:

http://homepage.mac.com/maxwax11/iblog/C1399468893/E20060425025821/index.html
http://homepage.mac.com/maxwax11/iblog/C1399468893/E20060426020330/index.html
and here
http://homepage.mac.com/maxwax11/iblog/C1399468893/E20060427133952/index.html

it was the last time we would use an outside photographer and the last of the big budget shoots. The end of an era.

When Sony shut down my cover concept, I used it for our next record; Rock What You Got and it fit perfectly. We were mixing all the musical colors we loved, rock black and disco gold, white stripes on chrome bling. I lovingly photographed the disparate elements in my basement and then voltroned them into a machine I wish I could build in real life. Photoshop fixed the fact that the original 4x12 cabinet is hot pink. Dave is quick to point out that the speakers are not representative of the celestions that go into a marshall 4x12. When we later had Superchick logos laser cut for the 4x12 cabinets in the music video, Dave eyeballed my vector file till it looked correct to him. When they arrived they were found to be within a millimeter of the actual marshall logos we were imitating. Dave knows his guitar equipment. Once for aesthetic reasons I used photoshop to flip a picture of him so the guitar pointed in the opposite direction. After he threw up in his mouth a little he made me change it back. It offended him somewhere in his guitarness. I believe he would rather pose naked riding a wooden pony, surrounded by angry bees.

I love this image, it is my favorite cover I've done but sadly no one else seems to like it. I keep trailing after people mumbling, 'but don't you see? the boombox is for the B-Boys, the turntable and mixer represent hip hop and the marshall 4x12 cabinet is straight up rock, that's what this record is... don't you get it? it's like a mix of everything we love... don't you get it? I believe you have my stapler....

and that brings us to Reinvention.

We couldn't settle on a name for the Reinvention record. I had been calling it "re live", which was a play on our song We Live, but also "to live life as if you are getting to live it over again". Our management thought that people might think of it as a live album so we kept brainstorming. From my notes, here's a selection:

re live, resurrection, superchick the return, refill, reborn, renew, remade, rebuilt, reconstructed, reanimated, reactivated, revolution, recharged, reinforced, reloaded, refreshed, revelation, transformed, alive.

and at the end of that long list was the enigmatic: party in a box. sometimes I'm not sure what my brain is thinking when I make notes. On a forum board, one humorous poster suggested "rocked what we had".

Out of that came several cover concepts, here's what I had jotted down:

1. Transformed: superchick logo silhouette redone as giant manga robot - lettering to feel like goverment document. people to scale.

2. Reloaded - superchick robot logo spray painted on a battered old sign. Reminiscent of District 9

3. Alive! - in the style of a marvel comic book cover - hand coming from the grave - looks like zombie but continues theme of reliving life. Typography consistent with horror comics.

4. Reanimated - also in the comic book style - melissa crawling out of the grave or playing flying V guitar in a grave - tombstone is boombox or 4x12 guitar cabinet.

5. Reborn - naked woman curled up like a fetus - symbolic of being born again - may have cables coming out of her a la the matrix.

6. Superchick - resurrection - rip off of summer glau picture from terminator tv series - partially built or destroyed cyborg Tricia, symbolizing a remade human, referencing the remade songs.

7. Robot DJ - polaroid photo of the max dj robot, spinning wax. Homemade robot composed of things max has lying around his workshop. Symbolic of max as a robot lacking human qualities.

Most of these ideas were dismissed as either "too creepy" by my wife or impractical in the time frame we had. I mocked up a couple of the ideas and settled on a cover. I described that process in the earlier blog. At some point I will post the other mockups, but this post is already a small novella in length. In fact this post originally was part of the previous one but I had to break it up lest it become the Brothers Karamazov of blogs.

If you got this far, thanks for reading.

Reinvention drops April 20th. (EDIT: thanks for pointing out my error michelle, it comes out in 3 weeks, basically a month before lost ends.)

Posted at 01:22 AM

Wed - March 17, 2010

legos are the best toy ever.

When we wrote the song Alive, I asked fellow thumpmonk Gocher to do a frankenstein inspired intro piece. He did such a good job that when I played it for my management, they asked if we were going to have to negotiate the rights to the sample. I wish I could have seen Gocher doing the voices, since he had to practice the accent that was indicative of that time period. Much to my further amusement, Youtube user kyu88cne has re-enacted the entire scene in lego. I love when a little creativity gets passed around and comes back as something different, especially if it's done in legos.

You can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_6S6bll_PQ

rock on kyu88cne! keep being creative.

I keep saying this:
Everything is changing in media, I have seen the future and it is all of you making things in your basements and bedrooms. It is your voice that will change this world. Do not be muzzled by your doubts or your circumstances, but rise up and let your shouts be heard.

bonus points for use of lego.

Posted at 11:33 PM

Mon - March 8, 2010

Abandon in place

We hit our deadline, so I had to stop reinventing and hand over this record for Reid to mix. DaVinci said "you never finish art, it is only abandoned" and in my case, I'm never finished, I just hit a deadline and I try to get my children as dressed and ready as possible for the big wide world before I shove them out the door. Sadly sometimes the weaker ones get a quick comb through the hair and a t-shirt before they are shoved out so we can spend more time on the stronger siblings, hoping that the best songs will carry the whole family. When I decide to take a song from its embryonic demo state, usually just one verse and chorus in rough form all the way to its mixed and mastered term, it's because I have developed a vision for how I hope it will turn out. It never turns out as well as I can hear it my head, but hopefully it turns out ok. The ones that I agonize over are the ones that fall short of that dream. When the deadline hits, it's like what NASA did with the moon mission: abandon in place. The project is left on the moon, frozen forever in that state. You wonder if the song was ever any good, but more hauntingly, you wonder if you were just one small change away from it all coming together...

The beauty of a remix record is that I get to open that moon base up again. When we did our first remix record, we were able to go back to Hero and make the music fit the message in a way we didn't the first time around. Princes and Frogs became a complete, albeit short, song and many of other songs got sonic facelifts. You get better at doing things and you go back and fix your paper-thin guitars and re-sing your songs. It's a rare joy for someone who lives perpetually wondering if he could have done it better. I think people could tell that just as much passion went into our remix records because it sold as well if not better than our other records.

And here we are again, several records later, reopening up songs and seeing if we can improve them before the timer runs down. Aha! Speeding this song up 5bpm does open up all kinds of new possibilities and makes what was heavy and leaden into something purposeful and epic. Aha! A shift to relative minor gives this song the soul we had always hoped for. They are revelations and joys and we tried new sounds, new clothes and climbed over the fence to see what could be found on the other side. It's a kind of freedom because you are not bound to any expectations of how your band should sound or how cohesive a record should be.

And on the other side of the Superchick fence, we found new things. Matt and Tricia are both breaking out their own sounds and it was fun to see what colors we had that we hadn't used before. My fellow monk Gocher remarked: "this is your nest of spider eggs you are launching into the world," which was an appropriate way to describe what is happening on this record, especially seeing as the ThumpMonks joined superchick on a remix of one of my favorite songs ever from all the way back to the first record. We invented and reinvented, and when we were done there were 3 new songs and 9 remixes and it is by far the most diverse thing we have ever released.

But for it to be done, there had to be a deadline - otherwise I would twiddle the songs forever. We hit the deadline a month behind schedule, which I made up for by working 20 hour days 7 days a week for 3 weeks in a row, an awful way to work. You have no objectivity, no ability to tell why something is not working and you fight demo love and fatigue in the mix and you frustrate your mixer till he threatens to kill you. But it has to be done because you cannot fight City Hall or the EMI release schedule. It agonizes me to 'abandon in place' each song yet again and all the blood, sweat and tears become frozen into digital ones and zeroes like a mosquito from jurassic times locked in amber for future generations to see for all time.

Nonetheless, it is out of my hands now and we wait with crossed fingers and bated breath to see how our kids do on their first day at school.

Posted at 02:45 AM

Wed - January 27, 2010

coming soon

Posted at 10:08 AM

Wed - April 8, 2009

testing the 5dmkII

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6WLudodYv4

click on the HD button if you have a decent internet connection.

Since my RED camera is in Chicago on a shoot, I broke out the 5dmkII for a quick promo video. It's no RED cam, but considering that it took 15 minutes to set up and 15 minutes to shoot, I think it looks pretty good. The 5dmkII really isn't meant to be a video camera, but with some creative workarounds it is possible to get some decent looking stuff. The backlights are just stage lights and the front lights are 2 of the very affordable 4x55 softlights from coollights.biz. I know some of you guys are using work lights from home depot to light and while it does sort of work, if you can swing the extra cash, the cool lights stuff is a much better option at $359 each. You can get them with daylight or tungsten balanced tubes depending on your needs. If that seems freakishly unaffordable, check out how much kinoflos cost. :)

As an alternative to that, pick up a couple of the cool lights softbox bulbs at $79 each and build your own softboxes or umbrellas. All you need is a mogul (lamp) base, some white ripstop nylon or a cheap photo umbrella. It wouldn't be much light to a red camera but for the 5dmkII you could probably get away with it. If you want to mix normal tungsten lights in the background, make sure and get the tungsten balanced bulbs. Another common thing to do is to stick the bulb in a china ball, which is merely one of those white paper chinese lanterns. You can get a lot of this stuff at www.filmtools.com. For nice soft light though, I like at least a 3 foot foot soft box, which is why I double up these lights. Also remember, the farther away you put a softbox, the harder the light source gets since the rays become more and more parallel. Usually I have the softbox just out of frame.

If you're determined to use work lights, there's some info at the coollights site about how to convert them to fluorescents and a kit to add barn doors.

Posted at 01:38 PM

Tue - June 24, 2008

Release Day

:::: ROCK WHAT YOU GOT E-CARD ::::
All of my work from the last couple years comes to a focus today. The record is out. You can preview it at the link above.

Posted at 01:11 PM

Mon - June 2, 2008

80s flashback

Thought you guys might like a peek. We love 80s movies. Reese described this as Studio 54 meets Charlie's Angels and I thought that summed up our whole album nicely. I've done so many photo shoots that I'm tired of how similar they all look. If I see another artist in an abandoned building I'm going to scream. The illustration is from my friend Jody Nilsen. I haven't been a designer in years, so I was feeling totally rusty as I tackled the album artwork and all the marketing posters and stickers and whatnot. Fortunately Inpop's new designer Breezy has been around to bring me back up to speed. The last time I was a designer, the scene was all about typography and Raygun and Bikini ruled the day. Also we had to walk to school in 2 feet of snow. Uphill. Both ways.

The album comes out June 24th. I can't believe it's almost here. Also, in theory, my RED camera is almost here.

Posted at 02:32 PM

Mon - May 12, 2008

It ain't over till it's over

One of the added complications of doing a record, is the convergance of everything else that needs to be turned in. Packaging, photography, radio edits, the bio and all matter of promotional whatnot clamors for attention. I remember getting an email once that said "guys at this point the packaging is MORE important than the record." It's not entirely a ridiculous statement if you understand that the people who print the booklets need them ready before the plant that presses the CDs. At the time however it was difficult to turn in all the lyrics because the lyrics hadn't been finished yet. Magazines, advertising, artwork and release schedules all get set in stone months in advance so if you push your records till the last minute like I do, you find yourself beset upon all sides by a small army of requests. As I told Breezy who's the new designer at inpop, our lives are now ruled by deadlines. You don't ask yourself whether you'd like to surf or celebrate mother's day over the weekend, you just find the thing that's most on fire and pee on it. Than you find the thing next most on fire....

Adding to the fun is that I'm handling the photography and the packaging on top of the record, so even though the record is done, I'm still up to my ears. Still I rather like this shot. :)

Ben Frank did the compositing and he's my best kept secret for making a photo pop.

Posted at 07:39 AM

Thu - March 6, 2008

In Utero.

Most of the vocals are done and now we're trying to squeeze in all the random stuff I hear in my head; cellos, french horns, marching band, cheerleaders, kazoo... we won't get it all, but we do what we can. Here we are recording the "gang vocal" at matt's place. All of the girls could really sing and it turned out great. Tricia gave away most of my studio secrets explaining things like : "when max says it's a good start he really means that's it's bad". It's interesting to put that many girls in one room because at one point we definitely had to delay a take for a discussion that involved the word "uterus".

Dave shot this since I was busy doing the actual recording and saying of things like "it's a good start girls".

Posted at 01:45 AM

Thu - February 28, 2008

Melissa again

I'm a fan of movie posters from the 80s, which were mainly the work of Drew Struzan. He did Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Goonies to name a few of our favorites. The promotional stuff for this next record pays homage to that era. My talented friend Jody Nilsen is doing all the artwork and I just wanted to share this test sketch she did of melissa. Pretty sweet huh? The poster is going to be amazing.

On a recording update, vocals are mostly done, now we're trying to get as much on the tracks as we can before tour. We mix in a month.

Posted at 12:53 AM

Tue - February 19, 2008

Vocals

We're cutting vocals in our last crazy month of tracking. Trish is yelling so loud on these songs that she needs to rest her voice in between days, so I am alternating vocals with guitars. The girls sound the best they've ever sounded. This record will rock.

To clarify: The picture is of Melissa, not Tricia. Although today, Melissa is at home with the flu.

Posted at 02:42 AM

Mon - January 7, 2008

Hard at work

Sorry about the frequency of the posting, we have been hard at work getting this new record whipped into shape. Here's a shot of the guys laying down some fat tracks. Actually, it's a shot of the guys playing the video game Rock Band. But we are working really hard on this new record. Promise.

Posted at 11:55 PM

Mon - November 12, 2007

Inked

Melissa is getting some new ink done. It's not a sleeve exactly, but it's going to cover her full arm. I can't show it to you quite yet, but here's a sneak peak. Hopefully her parents don't read this blog. If they do, "Hi Mr. and Mrs. Brock, Melissa has something she wants to tell you....."

Dave and I took our Ducatis down to music city tattoo to see Melissa get tatted up and we had a nice chat with one of the owners who was also a Ducati rider.

For those of you who have been asking about the removable tattoo ink I posted about earlier, I have more info, it's called Freedom-2 and should be out in December. It works by encapsulating the ink in tiny plastic balls. Should you want to remove the tattoo, a pass of a laser will break down the balls, letting your body absorb the ink.

Posted at 10:51 PM

Mon - November 5, 2007

Born to be wild

Well the motorcycle bug bit Dave and Melissa who both got their motorcycle licenses recently. Melissa bought a Rebel and Dave was so fascinated by my Ducati Monster that he promptly bought himself one. Dave's actually had his first laydown with almost zero damage to the bike and none to him. Here's a shot of him channeling the Fonz.

For you shooters, this is my same old same old, nikon sb800 into umbrella. You'd think I'd move on to another technique by now...

Posted at 02:01 AM

Mon - June 4, 2007

Rachel's Illustration Final

Well, I've been drawn as a cartoon character, a manga, rendered in legos and made into a bobblehead. Now joining the plethora of max multi-media is this clever image created for Rachel's illustration final. If you look carefully, you'll notice she even got ahold of one of the rare karaoke superstar promotional CDs. I'm really quite impressed with Rachel's art work here, but I can't help wonder why she didn't choose someone more visually appealing than me... like say Brad Pitt or Orlando Bloom or Tricia or Shrek....

thanks rachel. hope you scored well on your final!

Posted at 01:07 AM

Sat - April 14, 2007

Dreams that come true.

Those of you that read this blog know I have several dreams. Not the Martin Luther King kind of dreams, but the more mundane variety... like being drawn as a giant fighting robot. Since I've been drawn as an anime character and seen my own bobblehead, I thought I'd already gotten as much as can be expected for any man.

Until now.

To the person who rendered our We Live music video in legos. I just have to say. You made my year. Let's talk. Hit the feedback button.

Watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whx9hDJQj70

My only disappointment is that I didn't have a wee lego mohawk. But that didn't stop me from grinning like a madman for 3 whole minutes while it played. Bonus: spiderman cameo. Honestly, this is better than the original music video that Columbia spent lots of money on.

Posted at 07:57 PM

Tue - October 17, 2006

Chart action.

Thanks guys, that's the third #1 from this record.

Posted at 01:50 PM

Thu - October 12, 2006

Where's max?

Melissa wanted a t-shirt for the people at shows asking "where's max?". She didn't forget like I'd hoped, so I was in the awkward position of shooting some self portrait action. I can't really imagine who'd want a max t-shirt, but for my friends who read this and haven't seen me in awhile here's a pic from the session. (This is a rare max sighting on my own blog...) Shara took this picture since the old set-the-timer-and-run is tricky (even for those of us who grew up in asian families). I think the caption's being considered for the shirt are: "I saw max", "where's the DJ?" or simply: "who's this max guy anyhow and why should we care?". Apparently there's been people showing up in homemade "where's max" shirts so if you don't feel like making your own shirt, you can now get one already made in a sweatshop by asian children. Well at least one asian anyhow.

I think these are the 2 candidates. If you're wondering how to make the picture look like this, it's a photoshop command called "threshold". It's pretty tricky to dial in the level that gives you the perfect amount of detail, so I usually make several duplicate layers, threshold them at different levels and then use the erase tool to pull the parts of each layer that I don't like out. This typically works best if you shoot intentionally for this purpose thinking about where you want the shadows to define the image.

The answer to the question "where's max" is I'm not on the road cause I'm in the studio writing the next superchick record. Or trying anyways.

Posted at 11:58 PM

Mon - September 18, 2006

Cartoon Network

In which superchick makes a trip to see the toon factory.

Columbia set up an opportunity for us to play 2 songs on the cartoon network. There's a concert series on Friday, where they feature live music and being a fan, I was amped to be there. They placed us in a garage set (we couldn't have asked for a more appropriate location) and decorated it around us. It was a lot of fun for us and I love sharing airtime with batman, powerpuff girls or the justice league. The studios at turner are amazing and the only way I could capture what we experienced when we walked in there was to make a panorama. With some help from my buddy Tim who ironically works at dreamworks, we've got it up here:

http://www.tollinc.com/max/

It's a little slow to load since it's a big image, but it's worth it. Use your mouse to scroll around and you can see how they have one central area for cameras and audience and then sets surrounding it like petals of a flower. I wish I'd shot up too, since there was a giant lighting grid above us. I managed to catch the director of the show in a cameo, he's the distinguished looking gentleman holding the coffee. It's my first 360 panorama, thanks to steven and tim for helping me work it out. The software I used to stitch it together is called PTGUI and it's very intuitive.

The kids were great, having been primed by the stage manager and here's a little secret; when you see people waving signs in the audience, most of the time, the signs are handed out and created by the studio interns. Ours was no exception and I appreciated the messages someone had taken the trouble to write out: "matt is phat", "dave behave" and the one that made us all blow milk out of our noses when held up by an 8 year old girl: "max, you're my world."

you can see us in action oct 20th at 7 EST on the cartoon network.

Posted at 02:50 PM

Mon - August 7, 2006

Melissa

Melissa was over to do some writing the other day, she's always fun to shoot, she just gets cuter every year.
Got this in my email this morning. It's always nice to get more placements:

Superchick’s “It’s On” will be the featured music over the climatic battle scene in Columbia Picture’s “Zoom” starring Tim Allen. The film opens this Friday, August 11. You can view the trailer at http://imdb.com/title/tt0383060/trailers.

Superchick will also see this same song featured in the upcoming ABC television movie “Relative Chaos”.

Viewers of MTV’s Cheyene, Laguna Hills, The Real World, and Making The Band have seen multiple Superchick songs featured over the last two months.

Finally, look for Superchick’s music in the upcoming release of the Electronic Arts video game NFL Street 3.

UPDATE: thanks everyone for reminding me that the ABC series "Brothers and Sisters" also uses "We Live" a lot.

Posted at 01:01 AM

Thu - July 27, 2006

My first vinyl

Being a DJ and a remixer, you'd think I'd be swimming in my own vinyl, but thanks to digital decks I don't own a single piece with my name on it. Until now. My fellow sonic monk and I cranked this ThumpMonks VS. Superchick club remix out for Columbia/Sony and it's going to clubs all across the country. Vinyl is always exciting to me and now I can cross one more thing off my list of things to do before I die. All that's left is to be in a video with giant fighting robots.

And then maybe we could make action figures...

Brian I got your copy sitting right here.

Posted at 04:54 PM

Tue - July 4, 2006

DCLA 2006

I rejoined the band for a show in DC and while it's not fireworks, I grabbed this shot of Brandon during setup. It looks like Brandon is preparing for his role in the superchick holiday on ice extravaganza. Our boy symz was running lights and he's really got his stuff together these days. Go symz. Happy July 4th everyone.

Posted at 03:44 PM

Tue - May 16, 2006

Belle and the dragon

Melissa and Belle dropped by the other day. Belle got a new haircut which I believe was a bit of a miscommunication, so to make up for Belle's rather streamlined look, Melissa bought her a dress. Sharp eyed viewers will notice that Melissa is sporting a black eye, which is from wacking her guitar into her face while leaping off of Matt's bass cabinet in a show. It's not rock and roll till someone bleeds.

We Live is going for ads at pop radio this week. cross your fingers everyone. The next 2 months decide whether we break through or not, so we're all watching the charts clutching our little hearts in our hands.

UPDATE: more dog advice from amber:
Poor Belle. I just gave my dog a haircut today. I don't take him to the groomer because I'm afraid of "miscommunications" like the one that happened to Belle. If you take a dog to a groomer that is busy, they're likely to go too short because they'll use an electric razor for time's sake. Also, if they use a razor, they don't have to worry about detangling, they just shave it off. It takes longer to scissor a dog, but it looks much nicer. I think the best thing to do is avoid the "chain" groomers, like at PetsMart, or any groomer that seems to take a lot of drop-in clients. Or, just like a hairdresser, go to the same place so they become familiar with you and your dog.

Amber has a well written dog oriented blog that's rather amusing here:
http://spaces.msn.com/ispeakdoglish/

Posted at 12:32 AM