Some Random News-bits August 23, 2010
Posted by A. WarRock in : Uncategorized , 2comments
First off, CONGRATULATIONS to my friends over at the Star Wars Uncut project for winning a Creative Arts Emmy this weekend. You guys don’t know this, but I’ve been working on a song with them to be featured in the film. If you want to, you can take look at their Emmy reel and hear a snippet of the rough cut that me and Ruckus have been working on. Hopefully the song will be available soon-ish (see? And I bet you guys were wondering why I never had done a Star Wars themed song).
In other news, check out the Earth-2 podcast. Their Bigger on the Inside podcast, episode 45, features my Dr. Who song!
The tshirt contest is done, and the winners have been selected. But otherwise, check back tomorrow when the tshirts officially go on sale.
TrackLog 60 – This Is My Life August 20, 2010
Posted by A. WarRock in : Tracklog , 1 comment so far
Download the track (link)
I really wanted to make a regular hip hop song. So I made this song. I made it in like 2 hours total, from writing to finish. I’m not bragging, I am merely stating fact.
Have you noticed that I’ve fixed the volume problem on my sound files? They used to be a bit softer than regular mp3s. Well, I got a program that fixes that now. Hooray!
And isn’t that kid adorable? I mean, seriously folks. Adam WarRock is for the children.
Beat used: Atmosphere “My Songs” (produced by Ant)
[The Tracklog is a free, never-ending mixtape of rough song ideas, mixtape verses, and unmastered b-sides.]
Next Week! Lotsa stuff comin! August 20, 2010
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Hey dudes and dudettes. Check back next week, when we have tshirts going on sale, and the West Coast Avengers Mixtape going live. Maybe some other surprises as well.
And that Adam WarRock album, final mixes are in. We’re tweaking, and then it’s off to get mastered and then printed up. Can you feel it? September 23, The War For Infinity is going to invade your ear spaces.
(Image from Marvel Comics Atlas #3, by Jeff Parker and Gabriel Hardman, which if you aren’t reading, then you’re an idiot)
TrackLog 59 – 5 Fists of Science August 17, 2010
Posted by A. WarRock in : Tracklog , 4comments
Download the track (link)
You know, it’s just a song wherein I rap as if possessed by the ghosts of Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain. Just another Tuesday here at Adam WarRock HQ. If you haven’t bothered to read Matt Fraction and Steven Sanders’ Five Fists Of Science
Also, don’t forget that we’re running a tshirt giveaway this week. Read the rules here, and also maybe you should buy my debut commercial single, “Ira Glass”? MMMM?
Beat used: Jay Electronica “Exhibit C” (produced by Just Blaze)
[The Tracklog is a free, never-ending mixtape of rough song ideas, mixtape verses, and unmastered b-sides.]
Adam WarRock T-shirt Contest! August 16, 2010
Posted by A. WarRock in : Uncategorized , 4commentsThe Adam WarRock tshirts are here! And will be going on sale next week on August 24, 2010 (next Tuesday). So for this week, we will be giving away a free tshirt of each design to two lucky people!
See the full-size designs here. All shirts are high-quality screen printed shirts on Gildan and American Apparel tshirts. Also included in the prize package for each winner is your very own Beerstache, the world’s official beer bottle mustache:
The good folks at Beerstache.com have given us some beerstaches to give away, so we’re including them in the prize package with the Adam WarRock tshirts. Of course, if you are under 21, they are strictly sodastaches.
CONTEST:
To enter the contest, simply send an email to adamwarrockmixtape(at)gmail.com with “TSHIRT CONTEST” in the subject line, and include your best two-line diss rhyme against me in the body of the email. Two winners will be picked from an illustrious panel of judges (me and Jen Vaughn, designer of the shirts), and receive a tshirt and beerstache shipped completely free of charge right to your door.
Deadline for the contest is August 20, 2010 (that’s this Friday). So enter, and give me your best diss rhymes, jerks. And good luck.
Publicity for Ira Glass – What a Week! August 13, 2010
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What a week it’s been. Thanks to everyone who’s spread the word about “Ira Glass.” If you haven’t gotten your own copy of it, what are you waiting for?:
And for those who missed it, check out the press coverage of “Ira Glass” that’s gone up in the past week:
- PRI.org feature on the single (link)
- Above the Law article on Adam WarRock (link)
- Topless Robot exclusive song, “NES Hard” (link) (song download link)
- Geekosystem interview (link)
- Angry Asian Man blog feature (link)
- Boom Boom Chik feature on the single (link)
- YouIndie.com feature on the single (link)
- Osmosis Online feature on the single (link)
If I forgot your site or publication and you’ve covered “Ira Glass,” please leave me a comment or send me an email at adamwarrockmixtape(at)gmail.com.
Thanks for all the support, everyone! Check back next week for t-shirts, and don’t forget, West Coast Avengers Mixtape on August 25!
“Ira Glass” is now available for a buck August 5, 2010
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Purchase for Only $1.00! Just click Download Above!
Also available on:
iTunes
Amazon
Instrumental version
(We prefer you buy it from the widget above – click download – as Bandcamp.com takes the lowest cut)
In a lot of ways, “Ira Glass” was the first time I ever believed that I could do all of this. Up to that point, it all seemed like just a goof, something I did on top of the other stuff I was doing online. It was the first time my music stood for something more than just being a fun thing. It was the first time I tried to really say something. Within a week, I’d gotten thousands of hits to the site, had the CEO of PRI blogging about it, and had the attention of a much bigger audience. I can only hope I’ve done it justice up to this point.
When I spoke to Ruckus about making the original beat, weirdly we both immediately threw out the general idea of Jay-Z beats to each other. I imagined something like “Show Me What You Got,” and he imagined something like “Roc Boys” (that was the beginning of a beautiful working relationship). Originally based on a warm piano-loop focused Pete Rock beat, the new beat had to be something warm, something nostalgic, something that, and I’m quoting from the email as I read it now, “celebrates life,” as much as I knew back then how “insane a request” that was. Ruckus delivered in every way imaginable.
I knew from the moment we agreed to do a single that I wanted Benjamin Birdie to do the cover. His strong lines and great facial art in The Rack were the first things that sprang to mind when I thought about what the single should look like. I knew I wanted Birdie’s version of Ira Glass on the cover. Birdie had the idea to model the text and theme after the This American Life TV show, and he absolutely knocked it out of the park.
“Ira Glass” is the easiest thing for me to point to when people ask me what my music stands for. It’s a funny, cheeky concept, making the name of the popular public radio host into a slangy catchphrase. But it’s a serious, sentimental song about the art of storytelling, and how that art is changing. It’s a metaphor for the process of taking our life experiences, both the triumphant and the painful, and creating art. It’s about striving to do something with your life that’s greater than yourself. It’s about being as classy and intelligent as the man himself (whom I have spoken to via email, and is ever as classy and good spirited as you could imagine).
This is “Ira Glass,” and it’s a song that I am very proud of. I hope you enjoy it.
Ira Glass Week! August 2, 2010
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Only a couple days before the “Ira Glass” single is released on August 5! The single will be available on iTunes and Amazon, as well as the Adam WarRock Bandcamp page.
Also, if you downloaded “Starving Artist” through Bandcamp, I have been sending out an exclusive download track for everyone who has downloaded or purchased the single. If you got “Starving Artist” and have not received the exclusive song, please message me via email or twitter or facebook or something, and I’ll shoot the link over to you. I know some of the emails have bounced back.
Check back on Thursday! It’s a partyyyyyy!
Are You Experienced? July 30, 2010
Posted by A. WarRock in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so far
(art by Matt Digges)
If you are a newcomer to this site, hi. My name’s Adam WarRock. I make rap music about pop cultural/geeky things. I make music often. I have a studio album coming out in September 2010, which is a thematic album loosely based on the story to Marvel’s Infinity Gauntlet saga. I have a couple of singles out too (next single release is August 5, 2010). I have also made songs about Scott Pilgrim. Dr. Who, and Ira Glass, which have received a fair amount of attention online.
Sometimes, I make songs about comic book or geeky things, like these:
I Have Never Watched An Episode of Dr. Who In My Life
Don Glover 4 Spiderman
Girl Comics
Sometimes, I make songs about serious subjects, like these:
My Tea Party
P.B.R.
The Great Recession
Sometimes, I just make straightforward hip hop songs, like these:
No Album
Six Million Dollar Flow
Whether Underground
These songs are all part of this site’s TrackLog, which is a neverending mixtape of rough song ideas and verses that I throw up here every time I finish a song. They are free for you to download. Currently I have released almost sixty free songs on this site, and continue to do so on a weekly basis. I like to think of it as my “audio sketchbook,” if there is such a thing.
I am currently scheduling a tour for this fall/winter. If you are interested in having me perform in a place where you’d be, or want to interview me, commission me to do a song for your blog or podcast or whatever, or just send general fan and/or hate mail, please contact me on the sidebar. I’m very easy to reach online.
I hope you enjoy the music here. Thanks for stopping by.
TrackLog 58 – Top Wobble (Inception Recap) July 26, 2010
Posted by A. WarRock in : Tracklog , 2comments
Download the track (link)
So let me take a moment to explain what the TrackLog is, for the mild haters that have criticized my posting of less-than-perfect music on this website. This is an audio sketchbook. In between the album, singles, booking a tour, getting merch made, and doing general PR for my music, I like to make music. I like to make it free from the stress of having to be perfect, and getting ideas out in song form that don’t really fit in anywhere else in the music I create for sale and distribution. The songs up here are rough, and they are meant to be that way. Rest assured anything that I release for sale will be flawless (as flawless as I can make it), made with care and meticulous tweaking that go far beyond anything you’ll hear posted on this site. If you have a problem, then I am happy to refund your money for the 58+ free songs you’ve gotten so far. Snap!
Now that that’s done, in the true spirit of the TrackLog, I literally wrote and made this song in a total of about two hours and forty five minutes. It is rough as hell, and is a straightforward recap of the movie Inception. If you have not seen this movie, DO NOT listen to this song, as it is spoilery as hell. It worked well for my Scott Pilgrim Recap (which I made in similarly quick and drunk fashion), so I thought I’d put it to work for Christopher Nolan’s epic film.
For the record, I really, really loved Inception. Hope you enjoy this song.
Beat used: Aesop Rock “Catacomb Kids”
[The Tracklog is a free, never-ending mixtape of rough song ideas, mixtape verses, and unmastered b-sides.]
