released April 1, 2023

LOCATIONS:
Most of the album was recorded at Water Damaged Studio in Abilene, Texas
Except part of tracks 1, 6 and 12, and the entireties of 15 and 27, recorded at Majestic Coffee Shop in Abilene, Texas
Except part of track 17, recorded at Mezamiz Coffee House in Abilene, Texas
Except the piano on track 18, recorded at Elmwood Antique Centre in Abilene, Texas
Except the drums on track 19, recorded at Guitar Center in Killeen, Texas
Except the end of track 19, recorded outside of The Record Guys in Abilene, Texas
Except track 26, recorded and mixed at Justin T. Walker Studio in Abilene, Texas
Except the VAs' parts and Alle's clarinet parts, recorded at their respective studios in Idaho, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Washington state, and Canada
Mixed and edited at Water Damaged Studio in Abilene, Texas

EQUIPMENT:
The Charles Michael Narcissistic Delusion would like to lend their warmest gratitude to 1st Note Instruments, Bailando, beyerdynamic, Boss, Buffet Crampon, Del Monte, EastRock, Fender, Five Below, Hewlett-Packard, HyperGear, Knabe Pianos, Mihey, MouKey, Musicube, Nektar, NUXEFX, PreSonus, RadioShack, S101, Snapple, Victrola...
...as well as the legendary software of Audacity, Acoustica Mixcraft 9, Bitwig Studio 8, IK Multimedia, MuseScore 3, Discord, Avid's Pro Tools, and Apple's GarageBand...
...as well as the amazing microphones of Audio Technica, Blue, Bluebird, Rode, Samsung, and Tonor...
...as well as the drawing tablet of Wacom, and the animation software of OpenToonz.

PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Track 26 produced by Justin T. Walker.
All other songs produced by Charles Michael.
The entire album was edited by Charles Michael.

COMPOSITION CREDITS:
Track 3 was composed by Charles Michael and Lena Irwindale.
Track 4 is a cover of the They Might Be Giants song, composed by John Flansburgh and John Linnell.
Track 7 was composed by Charles Michael and Sara Alexander.
Track 10 is a cover of the Mamas and the Papas song, composed by John Phillips.
Track 12 is a cover of the Mothers Of Invention song, composed by Frank Zappa.
Track 13 is a cover of a song from the Hair musical, composed by James Rado and Galt MacDermot.
Track 20 is a cover of the Beatles song, composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Track 25 is a cover of the Who song, composed by Pete Townshend.
All other songs were composed by Charles Michael.

The album art was drawn by Charles Michael on February 13 and 22, 2022.

Recording commenced on January 19, 2021. To see more thorough production dates, look at the PERSONNEL list below.
"I Think I'm Satisfied" was completed on August 3, 2021.
"Susan Sings Something Stupid" was completed on December 2, 2021.
"The Scenic Route (Live at Majestic Coffee Shop, Abilene, Texas, 2021)" was recorded on December 12, 2021.
"The Sun Is Still Shining (Live at Majestic Coffee Shop, Abilene, Texas, 2021)" was completed on December 20, 2021.
"Epic Eddy" was completed on January 9, 2022.
"Talking And Walking" was completed on January 17, 2022.
"Great Dane (Live at Majestic Coffee Shop, Abilene, Texas, 2022)" was recorded on January 30, 2022.
"The Ultimate Sound Collage (Soundscape Of Hell)" was completed on February 27, 2022.
"One Two Three Eloise" was completed on March 1, 2022.
"Who Needs The Peace Corps" was completed on April 19, 2022.
"Painted On Sandals" was completed on April 19, 2022.
"The Yak Has Something To Say, Part 1" was completed on May 22, 2022.
"A Really Really Romantic Song For Getting Into Girls' Pants" was completed on July 1, 2022.
"Melting Crayons With Lots Of Milk" was completed on July 3, 2022.
"Welcome To The Friendly Confines" was completed on August 2, 2022.
"My Generation" was completed on August 9, 2022.
"Meet The Elements" was completed on August 15, 2022.
"Monday Monday" was completed on August 17, 2022.
"Unfinished Song" was completed on August 25, 2022.
"Coyotes" was completed on September 7, 2022.
"Your Mother Should Know" was completed on October 7, 2022.
"Where Do I Go?" was completed on November 16, 2022.
"Giraffes Have Very Long Necks" was completed on November 18, 2022.
"Archetypal Royal Hall Music / Baaween" was completed on December 3, 2022.
"New Vermont / Cold Sad You" was completed on January 3, 2023.
"Mountainous Brewery" was completed on February 28, 2023.
"Modern Trapeze Artistry" was completed on March 24, 2023.
This album was released on April 1, 2023.

Liner notes by Charles Michael.




NOTES 'N' STUFF

WELCOME TO THE FRIENDLY CONFINES
Alle Holcomb = voice of Sheila and Patty
Cepheid Thidwick = voice
Charles Michael = synthesizer, Flingus noises, drums, synth bass, electric guitar, ring modulated piano, vocals
Sam Wolfe = mixing on the live introduction
Terri Knight = voice
Part of the lyrics date all the way back to January 17, 2021.
Cepheid Thidwick's Safe Harbor disclaimer was sampled from an interview that she conducted with me as the subject on November 1, 2021, which was broadcast live on KXCJ-LP 105.7 FM in Cave Junction, Oregon, via phone communication.
Terri Knight's introduction was actually her first ever introduction of my live act. It was taken from my 5th concert, which occurred at Majestic Coffee Shop in Abilene, Texas, on December 12, 2021. Sam Wolfe, the landlord who owns Majestic Coffee Shop and also owns the building which houses Justin T. Walker's studio immediately upstairs from said coffee shop, mixes all those open mic night performances.
I wrote the Flingus monologue on January 22, 2022. It was a silly parody of overly commercialized media that is otherwise disconnected from companies. (And now, a word from our sponsor...) I had Alle say the words out loud on January 24, 2022.
I recorded the Flingus noises on February 3, 2022, as I was taking a break from animating and also filming a video about my record collection. It's two combined recordings, one involved me sucking air between the gap in my front teeth and making an inverted "th" sound, and the other involved me hissing like a cat to make what sounds like an Enderman being engulfed in radio static.
The Flingus, to explain it in more detail, is a fuzzy creature hailing from the planet Ingus that looks like a Koosh ball, but it also has 6 eyes, 3 human baby sized arms, a variable number of ears, and a big Q-bert like snout that emits those noises. It is totally harmless, and will even squeak if you pat its little head. Its ship is shaped like the Big City Slider Station. They're not out to kill us, and they have an intelligence no higher than the average house dog. It eats toenail clippings, and its excrement is chemically similar to what we know as glow-in-the-dark paint.
On July 20, 2022, I came up with the main riff for this song: A-C-B-Ab-E-FFFFF-GGGGG - and the chord structure for the main parts of the song: Am E F G. That night, I recorded the synthesizer part that went under the Flingus monologue, and I also recorded the drums. The synth bass was recorded at midnight on July 21, 2022. Later into the evening of July 21, I recorded the rhythm guitar parts. Immediately after that, I started recording my vocals. Basically, everything which required me to sing in unison with myself (one part is in my falsetto range, the other is in my normal range) was recorded on July 21, 2022. On July 22, 2022, I recorded the vocals for the middle eight.
Also on July 22, I recorded the lead guitar for the first part of the song. This wasn't the guitar solos that take up the latter half of the song yet. On July 23, I recorded the synths for the first part of the song after the Flingus part, and the piano for the whole song. I used a ring modulator effect on the piano, which I've never done before. That little part at the end that sounds like a xylophone is actually the ring modulated piano.
On August 2, 2022, I recorded the lead guitar and synth solos on the second part of the song. This is possibly the first time I've ever done the surf guitar thing in a solo (it happens at 4:34). Also on August 2, I had Alle record the little exchange as Patty and Sheila that happens in the middle of the song. Then she lost that recording and she re-recorded it and I received her recording much later that night. Nevertheless, I completed the song.

ARCHETYPAL ROYAL HALL MUSIC
Charles Michael = synthesized harpsichord
Alle Holcomb = Bb clarinet
This song was based on a melody that I came up with in summer 2019, while I was at dad's house. I fleshed it out later, and on January 29, 2021, I recorded the synthesized harpsichord part on Acoustica Mixcraft 9, and on February 19, 2021, I transcribed the clarinet part on MuseScore 3. On April 26, 2021, Alle recorded the clarinet part, which was recorded during the same session we recorded all her clarinet parts for the OKAY, AWESOME! album.

BAAWEEN
Alle Holcomb = talking as Sara
Charles Michael = talking, electric guitar, GarageBand arrangement, vocals
David Lee = talking as Jakob
Hanna Larson = talking
Jennica Taylor = talking as Rachel
Yennybelles = talking as Eloise
Part of the lyrics date as far back as January 19, 2021.
On January 26, 2022, I got the concept (or general idea) of doing this song over a mini sound collage of people talking and having conversations with each other. It's like "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye, or "Rainy Day Women 12 and 35" by Bob Dylan.
Hanna's conversation with me was recorded at Water Damaged Studio on January 29, 2022, and is hard-panned to the right channel. It is an excerpt of a 3 hour long recording of a Discord voice call, of which the first hour was dedicated to recording some lines for some future projects (including a bowling video game), and the rest of it was just us playing Identity V together while I recorded everything the entire time. It was so fun.
I started actively taking these conversations into account on February 3, 2022, when I did a little mixing on Hanna and I's earlier conversation, but also I began writing Sara and Jakob's conversation (yes, it was scripted - most things on this album were scripted).
Alle Holcomb recorded her parts as Sara in that conversation on February 24, 2022.
On March 24, 2022, I recorded a demo of this song with a backing track on GarageBand, and I recorded my vocal for that demo later that night. I actually went back to this very demo, removed the instrumentation, and only kept the vocals. These vocal takes are used in the final mix. However, the demo was recorded in G major, whereas the final mix is in F# major, so you're hearing the vocals 5% slower than they were originally recorded.
On March 28, 2022, David Lee recorded his parts as Jakob in his conversation with Sara.
On March 29, 2022, I edited Alle and David's lines as Sara and Jakob into a conversation, which I then hard-panned to the left channel.
On April 20, 2022, I had Jennica record a part where I prompted her, in character as Rachel, to act like she was on a call with BO BURNHAM, of all people. Then I hard-panned it to the right channel, on top of my recording with Hanna.
On May 20, 2022, not having much else to do that day, I re-recorded the instrumentation to this song, starting with the GarageBand drums and bass, and then adding the electric guitar tracks from there. I took inspiration from Pinkerton-era Weezer, especially the songs "Tired Of Sex" and "Across The Sea". I also decided to add heavy distortion to everything, to make the song sound BIG.
Also on May 20, 2022, I asked Yennybelles to improvise a monologue, in character as Eloise (see track 21), as she pretends she's on a Zoom call with a client that the listener can't hear. She recorded this on July 5, 2022, and I hard-panned it to the left channel.
On December 3, 2022, I had a meeting with my friend Genny Sherard, who recorded a monologue as Barb, which I hard-panned to the right channel.
"Archetypal Royal Hall Music / Baaween" was mixed and completed on December 3, 2022.

MODERN TRAPEZE ARTISTRY
Charles Michael = drum arrangement, electric guitar, Mixcraft arrangement, acoustic guitar, slide whistle, singing bowl, accordion, GarageBand arrangement, vocals
Jennica Taylor = voice of Lena
The backing track for the extended guitar solo after 4:35 was made on GarageBand on September 6, 2021, and was recycled for inclusion in this piece. This piece that I made on GarageBand contains some interpolations of "Monday Monday" by The Mamas And The Papas.
On November 17, 2021, I wrote the lyrics to this song on a piece of yellow cardstock. The lyrics are meant to allegorize climate change, overpopulation, and COVID-19, as the three rings in a circus. I realize that Schoolhouse Rock allegorized the three branches of the American government as the three rings in a circus several decades prior, but I don't see why I shouldn't.
Nothing had been recorded until shortly later on February 3, 2022, when I started adding the drums, beat by beat, kick-snare-kick-snare, one at a time. It was a painstakingly long and arduous process. But on July 8, 2022, I finished arranging the kick and snare drums.
On July 9, 2022, I recorded the guitar solo during the parts after 4:35. It was recorded at 50% the speed that you hear it in the song, so it's as if Alvin and the Chipmunks themselves recorded this guitar solo. I don't how often anyone else does that with their guitar solos, though it has certainly been done before. I also added a very subtle echo to my guitar solo.
On July 25, 2022, I recorded a short demo of the melody of this song, and on July 29, I recorded the first part of my vocals, as a way for myself to remember how the song is structured. On August 7, I recorded the acoustic guitar over those vocals.
On August 25, 2022, I started recording some of the lead electric guitar parts, which are purposely atonal and sound dissonant against the parts in D major. This continued through August 28, and then I gave up lmao.
On August 29, 2022, I recorded the marching band drums that appear at 0:23. That was on the same session that I recorded the drums for one part of "Lu's Song" on COLDEST WINTER.
On October 10, 2022, I had Jennica record her two lines as Lena that appear in this song. That was on the same session that we recorded her part in the cover of the Everly Brothers' "Crying In The Rain" on COLDEST WINTER. Do you see how much production overlap happens when I make these songs?
On November 24, 2022, I recorded the bass parts on Mixcraft 9, using the MODO BASS VST plugin from IK Multimedia. I use this bass plugin several times throughout the album, and you'll be hearing it more often in the next coming few albums too.
On March 1, 2023, I got a slide whistle on Amazon, and on March 2, I recorded all the slide whistles going up and down that you hear in the un-musical parts of this song. I also recorded a clean electric guitar part that appears at 0:17.
On March 5, 2023, I got a toy accordion on Amazon, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to use it here. So I recorded the accordion that you hear in this song that day.
On March 10, 2023, I pulled out my old singing bowl (I've used it before, especially on THE VIOLET ALBUM) and recorded myself ringing and rubbing it using the wooden end of the mallet (as opposed to tbe soft, leather end - giving it a harsher, squeakier tone).
On March 24, 2023, I got to recording the very brief electric guitar part at 1:41 which is a short interpolation of the riff from "Tightrope" by Stevie Ray Vaughan. I shoved it through various filters and effects and it makes for a funny joke if you get it. I also recorded an interpolation of "Up In The Air", a song by the Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus (it's a fairly easily melody to learn instantaneously, so I did!), sped up what I had recorded by 2x, and put that in this song. That starts at around 4:00.
Once I got those minor details placed in and mixed in, the song was completed.

MEET THE ELEMENTS
Charles Michael = synthesizer, drums, acoustic guitar, bass, electric guitar, tambourine, vocals
This song was a staple of my childhood, and the original version by They Might Be Giants appeared in many car playlists that my mom had assembled in the 2009-2011 timeframe. This song was the main catalyst for my latest and greatest special interest when I was in 2nd grade: the periodic table. Thanks to this song (and Tom Lehrer's other song about the elements) igniting my love for science, I found myself amazing all of my teachers and therapists by routinely reciting all 118 of the elements by memory (this was back when 112-118 were ununbium-ununoctium). Then one of my high school teachers made me hate chemistry and then I got back into chemistry on my own interest. I covered this song as sort of a tribute, and a thank-you.
The synthesizer part and some of the vocals were recorded on August 9, 2022. The rest of the vocals were recorded at 1 in the morning on August 10, 2022. Shortly after, I recorded the drums, tambourine and acoustic guitar. Shortly after all that, I also added a fast tremolo effect on the synth and my vocals. (I got the idea to do this specific tremolo sound when I heard TMBG themselves do it on the Here Come The ABCs album, specifically the titular track and "Pictures Of Pandas Painting". That's besides the point. Why are you reading this?)
On the bright morning of August 15, 2022, I recorded the bass and electric guitar parts, thus completing the song.

GIRAFFES HAVE VERY LONG NECKS
Charles Michael = Mixcraft arrangement, acoustic guitar
Genny Sherard = voice of Barb
The Virtual Fire of October 2022 lasted from October 16 to October 25, 2022, during which time I did write a few songs, just to keep from getting bored. This is one of them.
On November 4, 2022, I recorded the basic tracks on Mixcraft: drums, bass, and electric piano. I used two VST plugins from IK Multimedia: MODO DRUM and MODO BASS. I also started recording my demo vocals that I'd have Genny use as a reference when we got to recording this song.
On November 9, 2022, I finished writing the song and recording the demo (I also recorded the acoustic guitar too), then I transcribed the vocal part to sheet music, and sent it off to Genny.
I met Genny Sherard as I started production on what will eventually be a documentary on RoarTheRapper's Maddie EP which came out in 2021, and Genny had a voice in (so did Alle, funny enough). Genny was a mutual friend of Alle and I, and on October 14, 2022, after I interviewed her for that documentary, we talked about other things and I brought up my own work with Alle. Genny told me she works with people who are passionate about their work for free. I jumped on the opportunity and started giving her voice work. This is the first song we did together.
Barb is a new face in my Universe; she's a former news reporter in her mid-30s who quit and now lives off unemployment and food stamps like everyone else on 93rd Street - and she's a nervous wreck and is paranoid, nearly to the point of agoraphobia. She is bound to go crazy and join the CPA.
Nine days later, on November 18, 2022, Genny recorded her vocals for this song, and what you hear is the first and only take. It may be messy, but I think it adds personality to Barb being a nervous wreck. I mixed it shortly thereafter, and completed the song.

COYOTES
Alle Holcomb = Wikipedia article reading
Artemis = barks, howls
Charles Michael = drum arrangement, keyboards, bass, electric guitar, synthesizer, vocals
Sam Wolfe = mixing on the live screams
On January 15, 2021, I transcribed the first few paragraphs of the Wikipedia article for "Coyote", and also jotted down some general lyrical ideas for this song. On September 28, 2021, I gave Alle the Wikipedia transcription, and she read it out loud. (The article had since been edited, and I cut Alle's recording down to match how the article was edited.)
On April 17, 2022, I performed my 8th live performance. It happened at Majestic Coffee Shop in Abilene, Texas, and I made several mistakes and my guitar kept unplugging and I started singing like shit, and so after one of the songs, I just told a stupid joke and then screamed into the microphone. For some reason, the audience loved it. I sampled the big "OOOWWWW!" that came out of my mouth that night, which appears several times in this song.
Artemis's barks were recorded on June 11, June 15, and August 4, 2022.
On September 5, 2022, I made the 808 drum pattern and I recorded the Wurlitzer keyboard parts, to form the basis of the song, and I layered on Alle's voice, Artemis's barks, and my live screams. I also recorded the bass and electric guitar tracks on this day.
On September 7, 2022, I recorded my vocals and the synthesizer parts, thus completing the song.

SUSAN SINGS SOMETHING STUPID
Alle Holcomb = voice of Sara
Charles Michael = GarageBand arrangement, tin can, unplugged electric guitar
Jennica Taylor = voice of Susan
On the early morning (as in midnight) of November 24, 2021, Sara and I wrote a very silly country-ish song together, and I made the backing track very quickly on my sister's iPad on GarageBand, overdubbing the tin can and my demo vocals shortly after, at Water Damaged Studio. Susan is Sara's cousin, and she wasn't offended by the lyrics. She took to it very humorously.
Jennica recorded her vocals as Susan on November 30, 2021, and that same day, as I removed my demo vocals, I overdubbed the unplugged electric guitar, to get more of a twangy vibe to it. Then, Alle recorded her voice as Sara on December 2, 2021, and the song was completed on December 2, 2021.

THE ULTIMATE SOUND COLLAGE (SOUNDSCAPE OF HELL)
Alle Holcomb = voice of Beatrice, voice of Sara, sped up voice of Sara, voice of Fitness
Charles Michael = blips, warped and broken records, sample arrangement, burps, arcade machines, finger cymbals, rubber chicken, rubber pig, tambourine, claves, voice, sped up voice
Hanna Larson = voice
ItsDaDoc = sped up voice
Jennica Taylor = sped up voice
Marcus Plenty = sped up voice
stripedpolkadots = voice of the Michaelian Alert System
I think this will probably be the last avant garde experimental sound collage that I'll do in awhile, since I really want to make more room for my melodies on these albums, unless I do some more stuff. Whatever happens will happen.
The oldest recording I used in this collage was a recording made on June 17, 2019, at my dad's house. I recorded myself turning two Arcade 1Up machines on at once. Here it is played in reverse.
Another old recording I used in this was a recording made on June 27, 2019, in which I play finger cymbals. Here you can hear it for a brief time only.
Hanna's parts were recorded on June 5 and June 10, 2021, and stripedpolkadots's lines were recorded on July 13, 2021. Alle recorded her "can I speak to the manager please" line as Fitness (who will reveal herself in PLANET GANG, coming much, much later) on August 26, 2021. That little "hell yeah" is also Alle, and that was recorded on October 7, 2021.
On January 7, 2022, I recorded myself at Burlington using the hand air dryer after washing my hands, which appears near the end of this collage, right before the Michaelian Alert System.
On February 3, 2022, I really got started with this sound collage. I started with some picks from my slowly-growing Warped And Broken Records collection, which I have been collecting since August of 2020, but suddenly threw away in May of 2022. I don't have the willpower to list each and every record that I used here, especially considering I did my best to make them sound unrecognizable. During the part of the session where I was really messing with the records, I got to one of the children's records and I was pulling it back and it just started sounding like it was repeating the word "hell". (It's from a song called "Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here", released on Robin Hood Records with no artist credits.) I thought that was perfect, I could make a soundscape of hell. So I kept going. In the end, I used like 6 or 7 records, including "Monday Monday" by The Mamas And The Papas. I also started scouring some archival recordings I made. Then, on the same day, I recorded myself squeezing a rubber pig toy, as well as a rubber chicken and a tambourine.
Some of the "blips" and loud noises were recorded on February 10, 2022, and were applied to the track on February 11, 2022. Some are reversed, some are not. I also added some digital reverb to the Michaelian Alert System part on February 11.
Sara's little line, "am I in hell?" was recorded on February 24, 2022, one day before my 20th birthday. I recorded one of the burps on February 25, which was my 20th birthday. Also on my 20th birthday, I applied some echo to some parts of the recordings of the rubber pig and rubber chicken.
On February 26, 2022, I got a voice disguiser in an Amazon package, and on February 27, 2022, I started using it. As is the case with some other parts of this collage, some of the recordings are presented forwards, and some are presented reversed. Also on February 27, I also recycled the talking tracks from "Talking And Walking", which are presented sped up, reversed and echoed, and applied stereo panning and reverb effects to, which is why everyone involved with that is credited here. Also also on February 27, I got some claves, which I recorded and used in the collage.
After listening to it all the way through a couple of times, on February 27, 2022, I declared this composition complete.

MELTING CRAYONS WITH LOTS OF MILK
Alex Holland = voice of Angel
Charles Michael = sample arrangement, electric guitar, bass, drums, vocals
The dialogue between me and Angel that you hear at the end of this song was recorded on September 28, 2021, and it was edited on September 29, 2021.
On January 10, 2022, I started recording the basic tracks for the song (i.e. sample arrangement and guitar) and I also started recording my vocals (all the vocals heard before 1:41). On June 30, 2022, I finished recording most of the backing track, with a new guitar track and a bass track, and I finished recording the rest of my vocals.
On July 3, 2022, I overdubbed another drum track, thus completing the song.
This song contains samples of:
1. Detroit Emeralds - You're Getting A Little Too Smart [1973]

MONDAY MONDAY
Alle Holcomb = voice of Hazel
Charles Michael = GarageBand arrangement, electric guitar, woodblock, tambourine, vocals
This is a cover of a song originally recorded by The Mamas And The Papas, originally released in 1966.
I had Alle record her line, "for what?" on August 26, 2021. I recorded my line, "Hazel, I'm sorry" on August 27, 2021.
On August 17, 2022, I recorded the GarageBand backing track for this piece, as well as my lead vocals, the woodblock and tambourine, the electric guitar (I love the tremolo so much, and I'm so happy to put it on this song), and finally the backing vocals. The backing vocals are interesting because what I did was I slowed the entire track down by 20% and sung it like that, so when I sped it back up by 25% it sounds interesting. I did this effect on THE VIOLET ALBUM too. The song was completed on August 17, 2022, about 13 minutes before midnight.
Look, you need to watch the Wrecking Crew documentary [2015]. It's so good.

THE SUN IS STILL SHINING (LIVE AT MAJESTIC COFFEE SHOP, ABILENE, TEXAS, 2021)
Alle Holcomb = voice of Sara
Charles Michael = backing track, plastic bottle, harmonica, tambourine, ibuprofen pill bottle, broken records, shaker, tin can, microphone tapping, toy keyboard, vocals
Sam Wolfe = live mixing
The backing track was made at Water Damaged Studio from October 8 to October 28, 2021. Alle Holcomb recorded her voice as Sara on October 14, 2021.
This song was the opener of my 6th concert. It was an open mic performance which happened at Majestic Coffee Shop in Abilene, Texas, which was recorded on December 19, 2021. Here, it was an avant garde presentation in which I acted completely ridiculous with all my demented percussion instruments in front of a microphone. This was the 1st song (well, piece) that I played, and I played 4 that night. Funny thing is, when the piece was over and everyone clapped, Terri Knight, who hosts these events at the coffee shop, asked me if I know Frank Zappa. I started laughing my ass off, because I was so happy that someone else in Abilene knows who Frank Zappa is (seriously, nobody buys the Zappa records at the Record Guys, they're just sitting there), and anyways I had prepared to end that specific set with "Mr. Green Genes", a Zappa composition. So, through my laughter, I just said yes and that I'd dedicate the last song to her, which I did.
Anyways, this piece is about the eventual Heat Death of the Universe. Ever watched Knowing? It's like that.
One downside to my live recording setup is that everything was being recorded in mono with one Blue Yeti microphone, and the original backing track I made employed a lot of interesting stereo effects, the main thing to point out being that the samples rapidly switch from the left channel to the right channel, which was gone in my live recordings. Plus, if you've got ears like a hawk, you can possibly hear a part where the live recording glitches out for a fraction of a second. I think that's when my version of Audacity sort of freaked out because my computer is a Hewlett Packard dinosaur from 2019 running Windows 10. I had to edit this very precisely to get it right, and on December 20, 2021, just a day after the concert, I edited this.
What you're hearing on this album is the "Frankenstein's monster version", with the original October 2021 backing track being overlayed on top of my live performance from December 19, 2021. It yielded a surpisingly interesting result.
This song contains samples of:
1. Theme song from The Little Miss Show [1983]
2. The Beatles - Rain [1966]
3. Lenstar Extras - Return To Dollar Land (Scrapped) [2016]
4. Fisher-Price - Tingalayo (West Indies) [2003]

WHO NEEDS THE PEACE CORPS?
Alle Holcomb = Bb clarinet
Charles Michael = GarageBand arrangement, tambourine, electric guitar
At Water Damaged Studio, I made the GarageBand backing track on the night of October 29, 2021, basing it around the 1984 overdubbed version of the original song, and the tambourine and electric guitar solo at the end was overdubbed on the same night. I transcribed the clarinet part from the main vocal melody on October 30, 2021.
This recording sat in dormancy until April 19, 2022, when Alle recorded the clarinet part, thus completing the song. This is a recurring theme across this album: songs being recorded in two different years in time. It fucks with your ears, your brain, your sense of linear time, and the continuity of the entire thing.

WHERE DO I GO?
Charles Michael = Mixcraft arrangement, vocals
I made the backing track on Acoustica Mixcraft 9 on November 16, 2022. I recorded the vocals a few hours later, all in one take, and mixed it, then completed the song, all on the same day. This was a fun way for me to experiment with singing in my chest voice and pronouncing the vowels longer than the consonants - y'know, like a classical singer would. Is that belting?

PAINTED ON SANDALS
Alle Holcomb = Bb clarinet, voice of Sara
Charles Michael = GarageBand arrangement
I started writing this instrumental piece on November 1, 2021, which is the day I wrote a little clarinet part that I wanted Alle to record. I also wrote Sara's monologue that day, and on November 2, 2021, I recorded the backing track at Water Damaged Studios on GarageBand through my sister's iPad. On November 4, 2021, Alle recited and recorded her monologue. I also presented the sheet music to her on that day, and she told me it was too hard because I used a lot of 32nd notes and it also went outside of her range on the clarinet, so on January 10, 2022, I re-wrote the clarinet part to be a bit easier in those respects. There are still some 32nd notes left in, but not as many.
This, like "Who Needs The Peace Corps", sat in dormancy until April 19, 2022, when Alle recorded the clarinet part.

GREAT DANE (LIVE AT MAJESTIC COFFEE SHOP, ABILENE, TEXAS, 2022)
Charles Michael = backing track, acoustic guitar, vocals
Sam Wolfe = live mixing
This track has previously appeared on MICHAELMANIA: THE PISSED OF CHARLES MICHAEL, as a live performance at Mezamiz Coffee House in Abilene, Texas, recorded on July 23, 2021.
This live performance is culled from my 8th concert, which happened at Majestic Coffee Shop in Abilene, Texas, on January 30, 2022. This was the 2nd song I played, and I played 3 that night.
Unlike the original version that has been previously released, this is a jazzy almost krautrock rendition. I whipped up the backing track very quickly on GarageBand, and that was fully rendered and completed on December 29, 2021. I wrote the new lyrics, including a monologue (yes, the monologue was scripted) on December 29, 2021, as well.
In this version, I also quote a phrase from a previous track of mine, "Absolute Zerp", which has previously appeared as track 73 of THE VIOLET ALBUM.
This version also showcases me singing in my chest voice!

TALKING AND WALKING
Alle Holcomb = voice of Sara
Charles Michael = footsteps, blips, voice
HesitantSuccubus = voice of DJ Smalltitties 69
ItsDaDoc = voice
Jennica Taylor = voice
Marcus Plenty = voice
This is a piece which contains several people talking at once, punctuated by the sound of my footsteps, hence the name, "Talking And Walking". It's sort of a continuation of the Talking Voices Chamber Of Chaos And Dissonance (TVCOCAD) that you see in the ONE film. So, I invited my friends to just talk about various subjects that I provided to them, for 120 seconds, and then I layered their individual recordings on top of my footsteps.
Jules, aka HesitantSuccubus, recorded her lines as DJ Smalltitties 69 at the end of this piece on September 20, 2021. That little ear-rapey "ah" that you hear right before it was recorded on December 4, 2021.
On January 9, 2022, a few hours before Justin T. Walker picked me up to go to his studio, I recorded my footsteps at Water Damaged Studio, and shortly afterwards I edited them all together. I was sort of inspired by the foot stomping near the end of "If 6 Was 9" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and so I actually recorded my foosteps 4 times, and I hard-panned the individual footstep tracks to the left and right channels, 2 tracks each. The footsteps are in stereo, while the talking voices are in mono.
When I got back home from Justin T. Walker's studio on January 9, 2022, I recorded my talking part. I just talked about my day, writing my main points down and sort of elaborating on them in my own words.
On January 13, 2022, I got on a meeting with Jennica Taylor, and she recorded her talking part, which I told her to talk about the color red. She improvised it.
On January 14, 2022, I got on a meeting with Marcus Plenty, and he recorded his talking part, which I told him to talk about pencils. He improvised it.
On January 16, 2022, ItsDaDoc independently recorded himself reading an FBI Artifact Of The Month article.
On January 17, 2022, I got on a meeting with Alle Holcomb, and she recorded her talking part as Sara, which was a scripted piece about her cat Quincy. I then lowered the levels of all the voices, and the track was completed.

I THINK I'M SATISFIED
Charles Michael = acoustic guitar, bass, drums, tambourine, Bluetooth speaker, electric guitar, vocals
The studio parts (everything before 1:38) were recorded at Water Damaged Studio from June 7 to June 8, 2021. The guitar solo (everything after 1:38) was recorded live at Mezamiz Coffee House in Abilene, Texas, on July 23, 2021, using the original backing track recorded on June 7-8. This was the 18th song I performed that evening. This song was edited on August 3, 2021, juxtaposing the studio stuff with the later live recording.

NEW VERMONT
Alle Holcomb = voice of Andrew
Charles Michael = Mixcraft arrangement, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, bass, blips
This is a remake of a song on The Orange Album called "I Want To Move To Vermont". I have hereby improved on it and made it tremendous amounts better. If I could, I'd redo all my 2019 stuff, it's almost nothing compared to what I'm doing now.
Alle Holcomb recorded her voice as Andrew in the "Fozzy-Ozzy-Ozzy's" skit that occurs halfway through this song on September 28, 2021, and I recorded my voice after our meeting. I edited our voice clips together on September 29, 2021, and set that aside for later use.
On June 11, 2022, I recorded the blip at the very end of this segment, that separates the guitar solo from "Cold Sad You".
On the night of June 24, 2022, I recorded the drums for the guitar solo part, and on June 26, 2022, I recorded the bass and electric guitar parts. This is everything after the "Fozzy-Ozzy-Ozzy's" skit.
On January 3, 2023, I recorded the backing track to the main part of the song on Mixcraft - the drums, bass, and synth, that is. It was actually a slog to get through. So I stepped away from it, and came back later. I did take some time to completely re-write all of the lyrics again.
Soon, I tracked the electric guitar and acoustic guitar. After finishing up the lyrics, I recorded the vocals.

COLD SAD YOU
Charles Michael = piano, electric guitar, drums, synthesizer, chipmunk vocals and regular vocals
This is a lyrical reskin of a song on The Orange Album called "Your Life Is A Lie Too", and this song is played a lot slower than that one, too. In fact, I dreamed up this song in December 2019 back when I was sleeping on my carpet floor, as an offshoot of "Your Life Is A Lie Too". I only wrote the chorus then.
I first got to writing the lyrics and recording a demo of this "new" song on February 23, 2022. With the new vocal melody that this song has, it's very similar to Weezer's "I Need Some Of That".
The piano and vocals were recorded at Elmwood Antique Centre in Abilene, Texas. I started doing impromptu concerts there on a real antique wooden piano on May 3, 2022. But this was recorded on my 4th impromptu concert there (my 12th concert overall) on July 6, 2022. Later that day, when I came home, I recorded my vocals (and yes, even the chipmunk vocals).
One thing I should mention is that you're hearing the piano and vocals a half-step higher and 5% faster than they were originally recorded. This song is in C# major, but I played it at the antique store in C major.
On July 9, 2022, at 9:30 PM, I recorded two takes of the electric guitar part in this song, one for the left channel and the other for the right channel. I stood very close to my amplifier so I could get every ounce of feedback.
In the midnight hour of July 16, 2022, I recorded the drums on this track, and also a synthesizer solo in the middle of this song.
There is no bass track on this song.
Immediately after recording the drums and synth tracks on July 16, 2022, I mixed this track through my PreSonus studio monitors. On July 26, 2022, I mixed this track again.
On August 2, 2022, I had Alle record her line as Andrew which closes this track.
"New Vermont / Cold Sad You" was completed on January 3, 2023.

MOUNTAINOUS BREWERY
Charles Michael = Mixcraft arrangement, drums and drum arrangement, vocals
Hanna Larson = voice
Terri Knight = voice
The drums are sampled from something I recorded at a Guitar Center in Killeen, Texas, on January 5, 2018. Those same drum samples appear on "Don't Shoot Me" from THE VIOLET ALBUM, and "Have Shimmer" from HOLD THE PHONE.
On June 5, 2021, I recorded Hanna's lines. This was the same session that produced Hanna's lines on "No Matter What I Do" on the Okay, Awesome! album. Some other Hanna lines were recorded the next year, on January 29, June 6, and June 17, 2022.
On June 23, 2022, I recorded Terri Knight's monologue at the end about being a DJ in relation to pineapples not having sleeves. This was outside of The Record Guys at around 2 in the afternoon, and she came in and took an entire crate of soundtracks and mix compilations. She is a radio DJ, she does work on 101.7 FM, The Raider (where they play whatever) and it was nice to see her again. The reason why I had her do that was that I thought it would be nice to include her in one of my narcissistic and delusional projects, after she hosted all those open mic nights at Majestic Coffee Shop that I've went to and performed at.
On August 17, 2022, I had Hanna read off some lines that appear in this song - these parts ("One million!" "Ten, one hundred, one thousand!" etc) are quotes from the They Might Be Giants song "Zeroes", from the Here Come The 123s album. It was fun listening to Hanna emulate the interjections from the original song, and it is even more hilarious when placed outside of its original context.
On August 20, 2022, I got to sequencing the 2018 drums and placing all of Hanna's dialogue where it belongs in the song.
I fleshed out the lyrics a bit throughout February 2023, and on February 28, I got to recording the rest of the instrumental, which I quickly whipped on Mixcraft. Here, I experimented with three different bass sounds - an electric bass, an acoustic (upright) bass, and a synth square wave bass. I also decided to record another drum track, so you're hearing 2 different drums at the same time. There's a part near the end where the instrumental fades out into a wet, watery, reverby mess and then it fades back up - I generated that on February 28, 2023, too. Then I got started on recording the vocals. And that was very quick. I just mixed it quickly and got it finished. It's as shrimple as that.

YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW
Charles Michael = GarageBand arrangement, electric guitar, tambourine, vocals
Hanna Larson = voice
The exchange involving "Hanna, I'm sorry" / "for what?" was recorded on January 18, 2022.
On October 7, 2022, I recorded the basic tracks of this Beatles cover on GarageBand, then the vocals, then the tambourine and electric guitar. The song was completed rather quickly because it is a cover. So was track 25.

ONE TWO THREE ELOISE
Charles Michael = GarageBand arrangement, tambourine, vocals
Yennybelles = voice of Eloise
I wrote the words to this song on September 12, 2021. The backing track and demonstration vocals for Eloise's parts were recorded at Water Damaged Studio on October 25, 2021. I recorded my vocals at midnight on October 30, 2021, and I decided to overdub the tambourine that night as well.
I had trouble finding a voice for the titular Eloise. Most people were disgusted at the lyrics I wrote (I wouldn't blame them, but I wrote them to be silly and stupid - it's a silly song, like "The Bad Touch" by the Bloodhound Gang) and it took me several months until I found Yennybelles. (You might know her as the voice of the Philippine National Railways.) On February 25, 2022 (my 20th birthday), I took the song to her and she found it to be dope! She asked me what the deadline was, and I told her that if she could get it by the end of March then that would be fantastic, and then she said that was such a long way away, so she said to give her until Monday, and I said that was perfect. Hey Yennybelles, here's a testimonial for you that you can use if you want: you are very talented, and you always get your files in efficiently and quickly, and you're very supportive. You're a well meaning person and I'm very happy to work with you.
On March 1, 2022, Yennybelles recorded and submitted her lines. After a bit of mixing, the track was complete.
Eloise is also a new face in my Universe. She's the one with orange hair and the lavender sweater winking at you on the cover art of this album. She's a hands-on sex therapist who often engages in sexual relationships with her patients. This is a very very fictionalized account of one of them.

THE YAK HAS SOMETHING TO SAY, PART 1
Alle Holcomb = voice of Sara
Charles Michael = GarageBand arrangement, sample arrangement, virtual theremin, electric guitar, voice
The dialogue with Sara at the end ("can I have a marshmallow?") was recorded on September 28, 2021, and edited on September 29, 2021.
In early January of 2022, I got a big collection of sound effects records at the Record Guys, that were part of The International Sound Effects Library, released in 1983 by Chesterpress Records. My plan was to record all of these records to my computer so that I could use the sound effects myself in many of my projects (of which I have, including MAKING WAVES). On May 21, 2022, I decided to use a sample of record A3, side B, track 15 - "Sea lion bull growls", as the basis for this track. I also added digital reverb to the sample.
Later that night, I recorded the GarageBand arrangement (drums, bass and organ). This is the same E-F#-D-E chord progression that was employed on the last part of "Absolute Zerp", track 73 of THE VIOLET ALBUM. I also recorded multiple theremin parts that night. I messed around with a few webapps on my phone and that was the theremin part.
On May 22, 2022, I recorded the electric guitar part by detuning the low E string, and thus the track was completed.

UNFINISHED SONG
Alle Holcomb = voice of Andrew
Charles Michael = blips, piano, acoustic guitar, synth bass, drums, electric guitar, vocals
I wrote part of this song and performed it in its then actually unfinished state during my 3rd concert, at Mezamiz Coffee House in Abilene, Texas, on July 23, 2021.
On July 24, 2021, just a day after the concert, I wrote the other verses of the song, and recorded the piano part which appears in this final track.
On February 1, 2022, Alle said what she said as Andrew at the end of the song - it's actually a blooper from a recording session for Andrew and Beatrice's lines in my upcoming bowling video game CHARLES MICHAEL'S NARCISSISTIC BOWLING DELUSION. I decided to stick it onto the end of this song to link it because of the "really really" part that leads into the actual song with "really really" in its title.
The blips at the very beginning of this song were recorded on February 10, 2022.
On July 1, 2022, I recorded the vocals and acoustic guitar.
On July 3, 2022, I recorded the drums, which have been processed with a nice heavy layer of reverb.
On August 25, 2022, I recorded the electric guitar and synth bass, thus completing the song.

A REALLY REALLY ROMANTIC SONG FOR GETTING INTO GIRLS' PANTS
Charles Michael = drums, electric guitar, bass, toy keyboard, tambourine, snaps, synthesized strings, vocals
This song was originally abandoned on February 18, 2019. The guitar, toy keyboard and synthesized strings are the only remaining remnants of the 2019 arrangement. The vocal track was re-recorded with my slightly re-written lyrics at Water Damaged Studio on January 21, 2021. The bass and tambourine tracks were re-recorded, and the track was reworked on June 3, 2021. I added some subtle digital reverb to the vocals on May 21, 2022.
On July 1, 2022, I recorded the drums and completed the song.
The title that has been applied to this song was actually taken from Uncyclopedia's satirical Beatles titles. Other names of hits I stole from Uncyclopedia's fantasy Beatles discography include "Saltland", "Saltland Comes Again!", "Go To The Other Side (And Suffer)", and a song which is actually going to appear on the next album called "Unhealthy Obsession".

MY GENERATION
Charles Michael = drums, bass, electric guitar, vocals
This entire cover of a song originally performed by The Who was recorded on August 9, 2022. In order of recording, I recorded the drums, bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, backing vocals, and lead vocals.

EPIC EDDY
Charles Michael = drums, piano, bass, electric guitar, tambourine, rubber pig, synthesized trumpet, rubber chicken, vibraslap, vocals
Justin T. Walker = mixing, production
I originally recorded a demo of this song at Water Damaged Studio on January 21, 2021, with completely different lyrics. I took a rewrite to this song on December 22, 2021, where I recorded another demo at Water Damaged Studio.
On January 9, 2022, I presented the song to Justin T. Walker, and we recorded the song in its entirety at his studio. In order of recording, we recorded the drums, piano, bass, electric guitar and tambourine. The rubber pig, rubber chicken and vibra-slap were all in one track, and that's sort of the counterpoint of the track. I think the toys add a darkly comedic element to this storytelling song. I recorded my vocals in 3 takes. The single layered vocals (everything until 1:12) were take 2, and the double tracked vocals (everything after 1:28) were takes 1 and 3, hard panned to the left and right channels. Then we recorded the synthesized trumpet, and we completed the song. The entire session was 3 hours, and I'm glad that I had a concrete idea of what I wanted in this song.
One thing I want to mention is that the intro is actually a take on the intro to a song called "In The Frame" by Nik Freitas - the snares going like BUMba-ba-ba-ba-ba-da-DAT at the beginning of the song. That's an aspect that has carried over with every version of "Epic Eddy", starting with the original demo of January 21, 2021 - a year later, it's come full circle.

THE SCENIC ROUTE (LIVE AT MAJESTIC COFFEE SHOP, ABILENE, TEXAS, 2021)
Charles Michael = acoustic guitar, vocals
Sam Wolfe = live mixing
I wrote this song in my bed at, like, 3 AM on October 28, 2021, and I recorded the first demo on my phone as soon as I got out of the bath and got dressed (around 3:30 AM).
This specific recording is culled from my 5th live performance. It happened at Majestic Coffee Shop in Abilene, Texas, and it was recorded on December 12, 2021. This was the 2nd song I played, and I played 4 that night. That night was actually my first there.