Two Hour Challenge – Small Glowing Pig

Something Foul is Afoot

A few days ago we released Duck House Season 3, oddly enough before we released Seasons 1 and 2. Well, today we make right what was once wrong. Behold, Seasons 1 and 2!

Each album includes a handful of One, Two, Three and Unspecified Hour Challenges. There were some clear breaks in writing philosophy and time that aided in making the cutoffs for each Season. Nothing on here is new, except for the mix of Resistance, which reduces the reverb and brings the vocals out a bit to hopefully allow Steve’s melodies to shine a little more. Enjoy!

01 – Free Max-B [download]

02 – Bones are Radioactive [download]

03 – (Fun is) What We’re Made of [download]

04 – Tibet [download]

05 – Parcel Octopus [download]

01 – Blizzard [download]

02 – Universe 25 [download]

03 – Resistance [download]

04 – Silke Kruger [download]

Until next time…
-Mike

A House Filled with Ducks

In a move that would appeal to maniacs like George Lucas, Duck House makes their label debut by release their first album which is their third album. Also, they call them seasons.

A couple years (2012, holy cow!) ago Steve and I embarked on a journey of challenge songwriting. Each song would be written and recorded in one hour, we proclaimed. We failed on our very first attempt. Not ones to shy away from a challenge, but also not ones to succeed at them, we decided to move the goalposts. We released a few two hour challenge songs, most of which we also failed at. To three hours we went, failing all the while. At some point, we realized we shouldn’t call them challenges any more, and that a new name was in order. This would be our Desert Sessions. This would be our Duck House.

That leads us to today. For the past eight months or so we’ve been recording what would become the third “season” of Duck House. We’ve even documented some of the process. Now you can listen to the final tracks all at once on this very blog update! Enjoy!

01 – Customer Support [download]

02 – Everynight City [download]

03 – Kindness [download] (bonus link on the event that inspired this song)

04 – Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head / I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Help! (Medley) [download]

05 – Itsdeeep [download]

Maybe we go back and release seasons one and two at some point…

-Mike

From the Vault: Lost Challenges

It’s not a challenge if there were never any failures. Besides CRAXYBRAIN, a few other one or two hour challenges have fallen to the wayside and were left unfinished for a variety of reasons.

The first is one written by Jim and I while messing around on my son’s guitar. Sort of a bossa nova, but the rhythm and strumming is a little wonky because both Jim and I played during different sections. In the end, we were out of time, didn’t have lyrics done, and weren’t totally happy with the progress so far, so we let it slip.

The second track is one that I wrote just after Blonski finished Blizzard last winter. I wanted to get back to recording live drums in the style of Vacation, but didn’t want to go through the trouble of setting up my full set. I resorted to using my son’s toy drum set. The results were predictable. Still, I like some of the guitar writing and Blonski’s bass and keys are solid as always.

I still have to get around to mixing down the initial unfinished WPOP tracks, but after that my vault cleanup should be nearly complete. Looks like my house is almost ready for Windows 10 clean installs!

-Mike

From the Vault: CRAXYBRAIN

A month or two back, Steve and I attempted a one hour challenge. That in itself wouldn’t be much of a surprise, except that this time we nearly kept it to 60 minutes. That’s probably the reason this track never got finished…

There’s a few other interesting tidbits about CRAXYBRAIN, though. Most of which you can find out by watching the documentary of us writing and recording it. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice a tired basset hound throughout!

The documentary concept is one we’d definitely like to revisit in the future, and, if nothing else, we got a sweet video intro tune out of it!

-Mike

49654654: Silke Kruger

Silke Kruger is a person or place or business in Germany. It has ties to this webpage, and seems to have something to do with fashion. It is also the name of the latest Two Hour Challenge song. Enjoy!

Two Hour Challenge – Silke Kruger

-Mike

Resistance is futile…

I’m really pushing it by calling this one a Two Hour Challenge. I mostly just don’t know what else to call it.

This latest release started as an acoustic faux-bossa sequence of chords and mediocre finger picking. I wanted to avoid having it sound too samey with some of the other stuff we’ve recorded, so I stepped only barely outside the comfort zone:

Programmed drums using sampled beats (not unlike some of The Name‘s stuff)
Finger picking instead of strumming (mostly)
Weird effect laden chorus that includes reversed guitar

Then Blonski completed it with some inspired out-of-the-box thinking of his own.

Lyrics vaguely about terrorism?
Smooth, relaxed vocal that lays just behind the beat
Lyrically repetitive but harmonically interesting chorus
Trumpet/melodica solo
Awesome picture of a guy in a red scarf

Two Hour Challenge – Resistance

Bonus side effect of mixing this track: I realized that I’ve been mixing down in mono for the last few songs! Hooray, now Universe 25 sounds better too!

Until next time,
-Mike

We shouldn't call these Two Hour Challenges any more…

I’ve been dishonest. Well, actually, I’ve generally fessed up to my inability to complete a challenge in a set number of hours with each blog post announcing a release. It’s the cover art that has been dishonest. “Two Hour Challenge,” it proclaims stubbornly, refusing to acknowledge my greater-than-120-minute writing and recording sequence.

But I’m the one that makes the cover art. The blame must, therefore, reside with me. I figured it was time to talk to Steven.

After a discussion that may or may not have occurred while licking people into a pile of bombs, we both agreed we should re-release all of the challenge tracks as an EP or even LP at some point. Calling them “One Hour Challenge” or “Two Hour Challenge” seems a little silly at this point. As we’ve done so many times before, we’ll look to the Desert Sessions for inspiration and try to come up with something.

This time, the release is “Universe 25,” a song that started as an acoustic idea and then went to Blonski for some lead guitar. We worked on the lyrics, each writing a verse and a version of the chorus, and then I tracked the vocals. For inspiration, we researched the eponymous Universe 25 and placed the narrator as a mouse in the experiment.

Two Hour Challenge – Universe 25

A few more tracks and we’ll look to compile under a new name that probably won’t be GrllBrsh. There are a few more on the burner with Jim on vocals, though schedules seem to align about as frequently as the planets.

When they do, you’ll know!
-Mike

Three Hour Challenge! – Blizzard

In my unending efforts at one-upmanship I took today’s “snow day” to write some music in my new music room, taking 3 hours to put a song together that I’m fairly happy with! First, check out the digs:

It’s kind of a mess, but it’s my mess! and it’s a work in progress. It’s nice to have all the music stuff in one place, and a semi permanent setup for recording.

For this song I decided to keep things simple, both musically and recording-wise. As its been quite some time since I have recorded something on my own I didn’t want to get discouraged, knowing the only thing I am still up to snuff on is probably the bass playing. Mixing, guitar playing, and singing in key were the bigger challenges, which is actually why it took 3 hrs instead of one or two. At some point I had to settle, but even the settling allowed for some interesting choices.

Additionally, I was able to send Mike a working copy of the song and with minimal direction, he layered on some awesome shimmery guitar work and a reeeally cool synth part… seriously, it makes the end of the song, I just like the sound so much.

So without further ado here it is, appropriately entitled “Blizzard” (it actually didn’t snow all that much in the end, but hey, a day off is a day off!)

Two Hour Challenge – Blizzard

Mike and I hope to do more of these collabo’s thru the interwebs in the future… it sure was fun!

-Blonski

Dios mio! Another challenge!

It seems that Small Glowing Pig has been relegated to only producing music that is part of a failed writing challenge. Cause for celebration, for sure! What better way to celebrate, than with a tribute to cheap two-octave Yamaha keyboards and Dio. (Fun is) What We’re Made of

The new rock and roll band remains nameless, but not showless. We’ll be playing a Jack and Jill for a buddy of ours in a few weeks. The plan is to tape it.

-Mike

Writing and recording music inspired by very high places in other countries and the people who live there

Despite prolonged blog silence, things are happening in the world of Small Glowing Pig! First, a new challenge is completed. I played the ukulele and programmed drums, while Steve played the acoustic guitar and programmed the bass. Be both “sang.” Was it written and recorded strictly in two hours? You be the judge! Also, no, it wasn’t. Also, read this for information on the inspiration.

Two Hour Challenge – Tibet

Next, a new band has been formed and has begun working towards a live performance or two by the end of the summer. No name yet, but we’re looking to cover a pretty eclectic mix that so far includes Stevie Wonder, Beck, Steely Dan, Cake, and Men at Work.

Hopefully we’ll have some practice recordings in the next few weeks and a name to go with them. Until then, enjoy the challenge rok!

-Mike