Shameless self promotion again...

For those who are new to the blog, I am, above all else, a musician. I listen to a lot of music, which is why I keep doing this website, but most of my time is spent writing and recording my own stuff.

That being said, I've just released my first official full-length under the name The HATE Noise. Previously, I'd been in a band called Coma Nova that played around Kalamazoo/West Michigan a lot, but we split, and I did my own thing. This particular album was mostly recorded on cassette 4-track with me playing everything, and I guess was influenced by Guided By Voices, 60's surf music and The Cure, since that's what I was listening to. I tried to keep a strong 'old-timey' vibe...dunno....regardless, I think some of you that read this blog would dig it.

Here it is, in pay-what-you-like downloadable format on my Bandcamp page.

If you dig my stuff, I've got like 5 albums-worth of stuff available for free on WFMU's Free Music Archive.

...that's my plug...we're working on a rap/hip hop project, so I'll plug that in a couple months here....

New Coma Nova stuff...

Most of ya have probably seen posts here about my band, Coma Nova. After quite a few lineup changes and fucking around, we've finally put out our second full-length. It's called 'Insect Sounds,' and you can buy it from our bandcamp page, or come see us live and get it cheaper.

Also, this past week was WIDR Week, and we put together another 12 hours of live, on-air music from our favorite local bands. Check the WIDR website for more info on that...podcasts should be up soon. However, the Coma Nova set will be available on our bandcamp page very soon, as well as some other goodies...

Coma Nova - Insect Sounds, 2012

Tracklist:

1. Crashing Cars

2. Cat Stevens

3. Surprise, then Disappointment

4. Bandana

5. Psychic Rolling Papers

6. Dust Boogie

7. Henry and Ribsy

8. Sensinovas

9. Pigger

Yeah, only 9 tracks, but it's still longer than the first one. Also, track 5 is a crazy surf-metal jam, if you're into that sorta thing...

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Self promotion...round 2

Okay, so I just dug this CD out of the dirtpile and figured I would throw it up here. It's one of the (in my opinion) best recordings I've ever played on. Too bad we never found a bassist and disintegrated after about 3 months of playing. The group was called Apres Cote...which I think means 'before coast' in French, but it sounds kinda like Apricot if you say it, which was our intent. This is a 5-song EP, partly done live to 2-track reel tape and partly done in Pro-Tools. Quality stuff, I reckon. We even pretended it was 1973 to all our friends to suit our 'retro' vibe. It probably wasn't much fun for anybody but us.

Apres Cote - 1810 Charles EP

Tracklist:

1. (F)Untitled
2. Crispin Glover
3. The Gray Man in Trouble
4. Bono Fell Off the Edge
5. Pastor of Muppets

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Shameless self promotion...The HATE Noise on Pleonasm!

Occasionally, I put up some of my own music for download here. This time, it actually overlaps with previous program on WIDR (Obscuro!--where this site's name comes from)...sort of. A lot of the oddball shit I gathered for that program came from THIS website. This dude does an 'incorrect music' program on WFMU in Jersey and looks for all types of homemade stuff to post on his site/play on his show. I was actually turned onto this site by a fellow WIDR DJ (J-Unit from the Deuce Project, I do believe) and thought it would probably be a good outlet for some of my recording endeavors. I sent Mr. Cummings a 2-disc set of my recordings under the guise of The HATE Noise, and he wrote back, wondering if we could do two compilations--one of sociopathic rap jams (which I had plenty of) and one of musical crank calls (there was only one of these on the original disc.)

So, we put up the rap stuff.

...then I took my damn sweet time organizing a few crank-call sessions. Here are the results. Apparently, they're so funny that we get to do another round (or two, or three!)

Both these posts have full-length album downloads, and apparently they're getting around because one of our rap tunes turned up in some beer-brewing guy's podcast, and like 3200 people have listened to the shit. Crazy.

Shameless self-promotion...again!

Since I just finished compiling a 2-disc collection of the 'best of' my musical project, The HATE Noise, I figured I'd put the download link up here. This is basically a dump for all my ideas that I can't work into a full-band setting, or that are simply too weird. On average, I write about 3-4 songs a week, and only maybe one of those will go on to be played in a full-band setting. The others get recorded (usually) quickly on whatever instruments/equipment are lying around.

These two discs were culled from recordings beginning in 2003 and ending last week (that's about 8-10 80 minute CDR's-worth of material.) This is the result of doing this shit for years but only recently deciding that anybody should hear it.

You can download it HERE from Megaupload. Here's how I'm charging for the album:

Download the album first, but listen to it all the way through. Decided if it's worth any money to you (and if so, how much.) Send said amount to my PayPal account at eli.f.kroes@wmich.edu. You have to also have a PayPal account to do this. Otherwise, just e-mail me and we'll figure something out. I won't turn down money. If instead, you find yourself feeling like you wasted 3 hours, don't pay me for the album and delete it from your computer. No point in listening to it again if it's not worth money, right? That's that.

The HATE Noise - 'Beaten to Death During Interrogation: An 'Okay Of' The HATE Noise 2003-2010'

Disc 1

1. Wolvez Introduction
2. Funeral Girl (Original Version)
3. The Middle Part
4. Coma Nova
5. Hello, My Old Heart
6. The Sticks
7. Sea of Pain
8. Western-Style Gun
9. Brown Eyed Girl
10. Hard Landing
11. Nearly Incest (New Version)
12. The Pink Slip
13. Hardly a Moment
14. Fireflies
15. Tylenol
16. Jetpack Guys
17. Otherworld Singin'
18. We Do All the Style
19. Soy Cansado (Remix)
20. Cars and Spaceships
21. Accident
22. Black Socks

Disc 2
1. Hurting the Pancreas
2. User is Okay
3. Alarm System
4. Peace is Rest
5. She's a Smoker (New Version)
6. Wildlife Preserve
7. Political Song for George Forman to Sing
8. When Did You Know?
9. The Phone Song
10. The Rumor Lives Strong
11. Syrup
12. Apricot Guys
13. Lint Trap
14. Copyright Infringement
15. Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun
16. Trapeze Artist Sendoff
17. Pirate Sails in the Funset
18. Freelance Son and Dads
19. Hair Farmer
20. Dropout Boogie
21. Shut Your Fucking Mouth
22. Thinkin' About You, Girl

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Even MORE downloads...

More of my own shit...this one's pretty old. Jim Jones Catering Service was probably the 3rd or 4th 'real' band I was ever involved in. I wrote most of the music and lyrics for our tunes, and it was a chaotic blend of Nirvana-ish rock, math-rock time signatures, and free-jazz saxophone...all with catchy choruses and 3-part dude vocals. I dunno, that's how it was described to me more than once, anyhow. I'm not sure if everybody wants me using full names, but the lineup (for this record) was as follows:

Kellen - Drums
Matt - Saxophone/Vocals
Me - Guitar/Vocals
Kyle - Guitar/Vocals
Chris - Bass
Tom - Keyboards/Vocals

although our bassist from conception until about 2 months before this album was a dude named Boe. Not to get into too much detail, but we played for about 3-4 years, cutting 2 EPs and 1 full length album all ourselves before deciding to do a 'studio' LP with Mark Larmee at Broadside Productions. Probably the best-sounding recordings I've ever played on.

The music (save saxophone and keyboards) was recorded live, mostly in 2-3 takes (sometimes less). If I remember correctly, we tracked to tape (1/2"???) and then Mark mixed and mastered the whole thing in Pro-Tools.

The catch? We broke up about a week before the masters came back to us, and never did a damn thing with this record. Oh well.

Jim Jones Catering Service (aka JJCS) - 'Catch and Release Music'

Tracklist:

1. The Crabtree Tango
2. The Twin Towers Fell Over Because Some Kids Can't Respect Their Parents
3. Otra Vez, Motherfucker
4. On the Deathbed with Dutch Schultz
5. Bitch Needs a Tomato
6. The Yelping of a Wounded Dog Wouldn't Change Your Mind
7. Mushroom Farm
8. Fourteen Million
9. God Made Hands for Praying, Not for Flashing Gang Symbols
10. Message to the Native Americans: Finder's Keeper's
11. Premarital Sects
12. Size Zero in Nothing (The Crocodile Smile)
13. Ladies + Beer
14. Space Shuttle
15. This One Goes Out to __________

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Mo' tunes, HATE Noise Disc 5

In continuing with the unveiling of all the countless hours of home recordings I have, here is my most recent collection of 'solo' tunes. Usually, when between projects, I'll just throw down whatever ideas I have, but this time I was specifically going for a 'finished' product.

The music was recorded on a Fostex 8-track reel-to-reel machine with one SM-57, one SM-58 and one mic that was apparently too shitty to even have a brand name on it. Vocal overdubs and mixing done in Pro-Tools.

Description: The 5th disc under the guise of 'The HATE Noise.' I was going to do a little more with these recordings, but formed a group instead (taking our name from the song 'Coma Nova').

Personnel: Me, mostly, on all the instruments, although Matt Motzell plays saxophone on track 5 and there are various people's voices in the sound clips throughout.

Tracklist:

1. Sea of Pain
2. Smokin' Boulders
3. Apricot Guys
4. Political Song for George Forman to Sing
5. Coma Nova
6. Desert Song
7. Bummed Out on Mersh
8. User is Okay
9. Hair Farmer
10. Accident
11. Brown Eyed Girl

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There are 6 discs in the HATE Noise series, total...this being the 5th, but also the most recent recordings (the 6th is various odds and ends)...I'll be posting them all (probably, maybe) out of order, because they vary in quality.

As promised...here's the Orange Taylor

These are the demos for the second Orange Taylor LP. I played guitar, vocalized, and did a lot of the beat-production work in this group. The first 'real' incarnation of this group featured the four fellas in the photo above, but by this time we'd worked in a keyboardist/electronic specialist, who then became our bassist, and in consequence these recordings were reworked several times until nobody wanted to even hear the songs again. Now, however, they sound pretty goddamned cool.

Description: Orange Taylor's Untitled Second LP...more or less a weed-crazy, psychedelicized rap-rock odyssey.

Members: alternately, Papa Squat (aka Daddy Nothing, Father Zilch), The Professor, MC Sharks in the Swimming Pool, MC Hangover, Fives, Misselaineous, North Star, and our next door neighbor Sean

Tracklist:

1. Another Level
2. Papa's Got a Brand New Bag (And There's a Body in it)
3. Death Brings Certain Tax Deductions
4. Scamming the Entire Village
5. Aliens
6. Cigarettes and Change
7. Sad Camping (Studio Version)
8. NUMB3RS
9. Hills Like White Elephants (Except it's Really About Abortion)
10. Ugly Ass Panther Lookin' Motherfuckers
11. What a Beggar am I
12. Lumberjacks
13. Drunk Off Chicken
14. ...In a Cell (unfinished)
15. Dreamy
16. Mama Said Knock You L33T
17. Black on White (unfinished)
18. Pour Some Out
19. Freestyle (featuring Anonymous)

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Enjoy (or try)