Our Story So Far

The songs currently in production for Mustardy (tent.):
"Her Grandfather, The Robert Frost of Korea"
"Bellydancing Superstars"
"Bad Croissant"
"With Drunk Astronauts"
"Mustardy Fanfare"
"Bo Neaubeaux, the Oboe Hobo"

The songs in the pipeline (in contention):
"Kaiser Gorilla"
"Grandpa Grub"
"Detective Ted"
"Keep That Sun in Your Eyes"
"Gourds Last Forever"
"Piltdown Man/Sundog"
"Santa's a Big Fat Creep"
"Happy Slapping"
"Man Made Man-Made Man"

We'll see if we can't knock this album out in 18 months or so.

Mustardy Day Two

Day Two of The Mustardy Sessions began with horrible weather in the forecast. Not a huge problem, unless one of the band members is driving 35 miles to the session. Which, in fact, was exactly the case. But freezing rain (turning to sleet, turning to snow) could not deter Jon from making it to the first full Chuxx session of this new album.

We began by playing Jon the tracks we had laid down on Saturday, and then launched into adding instruments to "Bellydancing Superstars". Jon came up with a guitar line loosely (or maybe not so loosely) based on "Jamie's Crying" that actually works really well with the Eastern groove of the song. Skap added some violin (keyboard) and ukulele (the Chuxx new favorite instrument). I added a real bass (replacing the MIDI bass of the scratch track) and some slightly Emerson-ian organ.

Around time for lunch (Culver's Butterburgers...quite delicious) came the conversation of what to do: do we keep laying down rough tracks for other songs or do we try to finish at least one track. We were a little split on this issue, but came to an agreement that as we moved forward, we would try to finish a song or two for each session we got together. But that wasn't necessary in this first session as we were just getting the project off the ground.

That said, we came pretty close with "Bellydancing Superstars", I think. Other than some backing vocals, I'm not sure what else we need.

After lunch, we were visited by Bill Biggar (hopefully spelled right here) and his two nephews, who happen to be HUGE fans of the new album. Their favorite song? "Che Gusto." Go figure. So they sat in and watched while I laid down a scratch vocal track on "Her Grandfather, The Robert Frost of Korea" and while Jon tried out a lead guitar line during that same song's bridge.

Once that was done, we decided to take advantage of Bill's deep voice and the two kids in attendance by having them record wild lines for a so far unwritten song titled "Grandpa Grub." It's a touching story about the wily old grandpa who comes to babysit, but the parents aren't too wild about it. What with him letting the kids play under the sink and "washing down" their vegetables with tablespoons of bourbon.

At least, that's what the song seems to be about now...in our heads. We'll see what happens when Skap and Steve actually write the music and lyrics.

And So It Begins...

As Jon was not able to join us (what with having to work for money and all that), Steve and Skap and I got together to start laying the groundwork for the new album: so far called Mustardy. With that being the front-runner for new album title, these holiday sessions have been dubbed "The Mustardy Sessions."

So today we worked on "Bad Croissant" (which I had the rough tracks recorded for already), "With Drunk Astronauts" (lyrics by me that were put to music by Skap) and Bellydancing Superstars (about which I've already written).

Since the music for "Bad Croissant" and "Bellydancing Superstars" was more or less done, all we really did was add a scratch vocal to the tracks. It was "With Drunk Astronauts" that we had to build from the ground up, laying down rough keyboard and drum tracks and then some vocals.

We were side-tracked for a half-hour or so when we decided to record a random keyboard part Skap came up. The syncopation of the riff completely eluded us and after 35 minutes of trying to put it accurately into the computer, we gave up and dubbed the riff "Skap's Insanity Music."

There are two other songs pretty much ready to be put on this album that we did not work on today, namely "Her Grandfather, The Robert Frost of Korea" (which I wrote based on a true incident my wife lived through) and something Skap and Steve concocted now called "Mustardy Fanfare."

We may try to lay down some basic tracks for "Kaiser Gorilla" on Saturday or we may just try to finish as much of these songs as we can.

We'll let you know.

How We Write Songs

In a nutshell, here's the genesis of one of the songs we're planning on putting on the next Chuxx. This one's called "Bellydancing Superstars" and it began on March 6th with this email to Steve.

There's a live music venue a few blocks from our house that used to be a movie theater. It's called the El Rey. And when we drove by it last night it had the best marquee ever.

Bellydancing Superstars

In big letters. It was the only thing on the marquee.

And I thought, "Now, THAT'S the name of the new album." And my plan was to go home and grab my camera to shoot a picture of it. But when we drove by it later, they had changed the marquee.

So sad.

Steve's reply that same day: Standby for a drum part for an instrumental called Bellydancing Superstars. Skap also replied that day, with his thought that "Bellydancing Superstars" sounded like a new reality show, one which Emmitt Smith would certainly win.

Two days later, Steve sent the rough drum part along, to which I added bass and doctored a little bit so that it had room for singing in the verses and chorus. So on March 13, I sent Steve the doctored version, which now sorta sounded like a song. (These are the things we can do electronically now that there's the interwebs.)

By March 15th (the Ides of March, naturally), the rough music to the song was finished, even though Steve and I had not even been in the same room or on the phone.

On a side note, the lyrics to the song -- the only part that doesn't require elaborate computer programs or emailing at all -- are still not done.

Onward and...er...Onward!

In about 11 days, the Chuxx will reconvene in Kansas City to begin work on our 19th album, which is (so far) unnamed. There is a motion on the floor to call the album Mustardy -- as in...

"We biked through Mustardy to get some real mustard, not that yellow baby shit they sell to American tourists in Dijon."

Thanks to Skap for that brilliant usage of the word in a sentence. We've never had a single-word title, so that makes it an alluring title to us. I'm sorta partial to The Usual Underwear & Bibles or A Planned Moose in Sweden. But Mustardy would be okay with me too.

Our attempt with Album #19 is to finish it by Xmas 2008...or Summer 2008 by the latest. We'll see how we do. I've got about a dozen songs pretty much ready to go for this album already. So, if we stay focused and fairly organized, we should be able to accomplish it.

More updates to come...

Two on Tunes

As of today, Mr. Poorluck Buys Some China is available on iTunes. So now there's like twice as many songs available for that mystery person to download. Perhaps he or she (or "it", if he/she is a robot or a monster), will find another song to enjoy. Or perhaps you will. After all, what's 99 cents in Internet dollars anyway? It's probably less than one percent of your monthly porn budget! It's a bargain!

Thank You, Mystery Person

Someone has finally downloaded a Chuxx song off iTunes. Randomly enough (as I'm sure that's how the song and band were chosen), the song downloaded was "Uncle Wheezer's Pure Oxygen Breathing Apparatus for the Masses."

Whoever you are, person who spent 99 cents on our music, thank you very kindly. If you ever stumble across this blog, please drop us a comment. We might very well write a song about you. A song of thanks. A song of praise. A Hosannah of sorts. In fact, that might be the title of the song, "A Hosannah of Sorts."

Poorluck Has Arrived!

America has waited long enough! Our 37 fans have been more than patient and now that fateful day is finally here! The Chuxx have finally released their 18th album, Mr. Poorluck Buys Some China. You can buy it now at CDBaby.com. Sixteen action-packed songs including: Four songs called "Mr. Poorluck Buys Some China"! One awesome version of a '70s game show theme! Seven different languages! One song about eggs! One song about food poisoning! Two heartfelt tales of love! One song about madness! And one mention of the word "sphincter"!

Is that all you get with the album? Of course not! There's so much more! There's gratuitous use of exclamation points! There's baby's crying! There's singing and music playing! Also, there is a scary hidden track. (No exclamation point necessary.)

Be the first, and therefore coolest, person on your block to own what might be the greatest album ever recorded!!!

This Blog

I think the blog is going very well so far.

Get Yer Ringtones!

You can find three interesting ringtones/alerts for your portable electronic telephone here.

Now on iTunes!

Tell your friends! Alert the media! But most importantly download a song or two!

Waking President Wahid by Bobby and the Chuxx is now available on iTunes!

You could be the first to download a song! You could be the first to add a review explaining the unmitigated joy this album brings you....and exactly how often that joy overwhelms you! Whichever the case: You should be a part of this, don't you think?

Who gave the order to start Bloggin'?

Blogging is for dorks!

Make Blog Go Now!

Well I have never kept a blog, nor do I normally respond to blogs except to post naked pictures of myself.

But here goes..

YOU'RE ALLA BUNCH OF IDIOTS!!! YOUR ARGUEMENTS ARE SO MORONIC THEY FALL OF THEIR OWN DEad weiGHT!!!!

I USED TO THINK YOU WERE SORT OF SMART BUT NOW YOU HAVE LOST ALL CREDITBILITY WITH ME!!!!!

YOU HYPOCRITES!!!!!!

I AWAIT YOUR RESPONSE.

I think that's how a blog goes.

Skap

I'm blogging ... right now

I'm all over it.

Welcome

We may not exactly need this blog, but it might be nice for all of us to be able to make posts on the latest things we're working. We would aim it toward the public rather than toward each other. Is there a public for the Chuxx? Maybe.

Let's try it and see what happens.

For the Next Album

Here's a trio of songs I'm working on right now. All three are about 90% there musically and only 7% lyrically. But they're each good candidates for whatever the next album might be called.

"Bad Croissant" -- A woozy tourist who can't really speak the language fears he might have eaten something bad for him.
"Detective Ted" -- Long discussed by the band, this idea has been threatening to become an actual Chuxx song for more than a decade. It tells the story of a detective who's best known for his tiny head.
"Her Grandfather, The Robert Frost of Korea" -- Based on a true story (told by my wife of international travel and mild discomfort.

Album Update #4

We have officially finished recording POORLUCK. In a dramatic two-day session in the closing days of '06, we recorded the last two "Poorlucks" (mine and Jon's) and added the finishing touches to Skap's "Poorluck." Amazingly, we finished all we set out to do in our limited time. It was very gratifying.

Now, we mix and we design the cover. And then we release it into the world.

It really is the best Chuxx album yet. I know we say that everytime. But this time it's really true.