The Smush Newsletter Contact: oskillator@hotmail.com Home: http://www.mindspring.com/~pfister_/smush/ Table of Contents: 1. Album Redesign (line 18) 2. New Singles (line 31) 3. New Album in the Works (line 54) 4. A Day in the Life (line 75) 5. Touring? (line 96) 5. Outro (line 111) ALBUM REDESIGN -------------- We've finally finshed creating ang getting mp3.com approval for the new cover art for all our available CDs: High Up In The Ground, Missing Dog Head, Earth-Moving Machinery, and Fear The Downbeat. Each one looks awesome, if I say so myself, and I do. We've also reordered the songs to have the proper impact that we had intended before... it's a good thing that mp3.com allows us to do this, because we were neophytes attempting to put on our best performance in the black art of song ordering -- it's a skill that can't be taught; it can only be learned through experience. NEW SINGLES ----------- Fan: The main theme is one of the finest riffs ever laid out on a xylophone. ZDP: This sounds like a traditional trance tune, but DJs watch out!! If you play this out out on the dance floor, Smush does not take responsibility for your public lynching! Bingo Was His Name-O: We've worked very hard on this one, trying to do justice to Handel's original... we studied so hard that Rubbahead became Handel's Messiah! But his voice wasn't up to singing the lead, so he had to give tips to Rubbahead. It's unfortunate that we were on such a tight deadline for our next album, because Lemonhead was having a really bad flareup of his Tourette's syndrome. We eventually gave up on recording a "clean" version. The: I dedicate all frequencies above 1000hz in this song to the Aurora Borealis. Mex: Rubbahead once again proves he is the master of the synth bass riff. Production hugely inspired by the great Bootsy Collins. NEW ALBUM IN THE WORKS ---------------------- Our new album is in the works! We're doing the final mixdown and working on procuring appropriate cover art, though it looks as if we're going to have to do it ourselves, just like we've done for the last four. It's funny... RubbaHead is a Graphics Design major, but I always end up doing the cover art. I guess it's all that "getting good grades" so that he'll "have something to fall back on", as if our Smush won't be able to support him when our trust fund runs out! But the album is turning out beautifully. It will be, without a doubt, our best album yet -- we've finally worked up the courage to put out an album with a song name on it that's more than three letters. We've put out singles with more than three-letter names before, but they were usually created for non-smush use or in collaboration with another artist. It would've been pretentious to attempt this on our first four albums, but we think by this time that we've paid our dues. A DAY IN THE LIFE ----------------- Here's a typical conversation me and Rubbahead in between polishing our songs in the studio, changed to protect the innocent, for dramatic purposes, and formatted to fit your screen: RubbaHead: Damn, I'm hungry. LemonHead: Check out this Smush Newsletter I'm working on! RubbaHead: ... That's just random bullshit! LemonHead: Well maybe you should eat your random bullshit! RubbaHead: Uh, why would I want to do that? LemonHead: Because damn, you're hungry! RubbaHead: Uh, no, I have a bag of cookies right here. LemonHead: Well, maybe you should eat your bag of cookies! RubbaHead: I am eating my cookies! LemonHead: Maybe you should eat them then! RubbaHead: I am. And I already said I was. LemonHead: Well, then maybe you shouldn't eat them! RubbaHead: You should put this in the newsletter. It'll fit right in with the rest of the bullshit. TOURING? -------- Me and Rubbahead are contemplating taking the band out on tour... the only problem is that our music is very heavy on production and very light on performance! We're looking into sequencers and softsynths, but nothing seems just right for us... it'd have to provide maximum tweakability in the minimum space -- our hard drives aren't that large, and a lot is taken up by samples! We're thinking of writing our own... Lemonhead bought a devkit for the Game Boy Advance from lik-sang.com, and it would be awesome to use the GBA as an instrument on tour! If any Smush fan out there has some serious softsynth tips, let us know! OUTRO ----- Well, that's it for our first smush newsletter! Smush has been together for two years now, and it's been a blast! That was our first attempt to share the inner workings with you!