Amidst all the book promotion, I got the opportunity to talk about Make-Believe Machines as well recently. I was interviewed on 106.3 FM in Des Moines, where I got to talk about various musical projects, and the homeless youth book, as well as play a few songs off Moral Calculus.

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Justin Norman interviewed on 106.3 FM by Daniel Bosman.

As part of our new “Make-Believe Machines Cares About Community” program, we have decided to exploit homeless youth in order to draw attention to our incredibly awesome band. But in reality, we really are giving away free albums if you support the homeless youth shelters. Anyone who purchases the book, “From a Growing Community, Iowa’s Homeless Youth” this week and uses “Terrorhawk” for their middle name when ordering will receive a copy of our album, Moral Calculus absolutely free. “Ravenhammer” is also acceptable.

www.SowSomethingMeaningful.com

For those of you who haven’t already read the copious amounts of posts about the book here, it’s a compilation of stories from homeless kids all around the state of Iowa, where Justin and Rob grew up. The book also includes artwork and photography by Make-Believe Machines cover artist Wesley Norman and, of course, myself. $10 from the purchase of each book goes to shelters to prevent more tragedies from occurring.

P.S. “Beakwound” is also acceptable.

Photograph by Blake Brown.

Amidst my work on the homeless youth book, I’ve also found time to write and perform with Make-Believe Machines, the orchestral group I formed with Rob Ogden in summer of 2007. We had been scheduled for a few months to make an appearance on the Scented Vinyl show with Daniel Bosman, but we hadn’t planned on performing until just recently, when I met local violinist Becca Smith. She bowed her strings. I plucked my bass. Rob strummed his guitar. And then we all took the electronica train to Rowdytown. Population: three badder-than-ass classical composers and one crow. Things blew up. Stuff happened. Rowdy stuff. The kind of stuff captured by Mr. Daniel Bosman on his radio show, which you can listen to below.

Photographs by Wesley Norman.

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Interview and “Damp Triangulum” live by Make-Believe Machines.

Hello again, friends!

As we begin writing our second album, tentatively titled Crow Apocalypse 2: The Loins of Hell we have simultaneously started a freaking media blitz. Do you hear this? It’s going to be @*$%ing insane. This Monday we will perform a live interview with Daniel Bosman at Mars Cafe and press the play button on our CD and look awesome as we stare at the spinning disc and nod with a smug look plastered across our faces to indicate, “Yes, that is us you’re hearing.” 7pm. Mars Cafe. Des Moines, IA.

Second, riding the wave of intense arrogance that this has brought on we will send this link to you about an article published in a local juice-enthusiast magazine. The writer apparently believes we gorge ourselves on mangos in our free time. He is right. We do this. Read the full article here.

Third, we have created a @$*%ing Twitter page. Now that we are becoming intensely famous we know that you will all want to know what we are doing at every moment of the day. Just look at this example of our status messages:

“Hunting mechanical grouse with wooden forks.”

Who wouldn’t want to read something like that every day? Subscribe your asses now.

Also, Justin completed bass/vocals/strings work on the new Longbottom Leaf album and Rob is finishing up a novel. Damn we’re awesome. We’re going to ride this wave of glory all the way until reality tears off our smirking faces! More on that stuff is soon to come!

Article by Joe Lawler. Click to enlarge.

The reporters at Rock Iowa recently posted an article about Moral Calculus on their Iowa music blog. Unique to this article is the free giveaway of “Thin Glass Islands on a Clouded Sea”, which is the most vocal-intensive track on the album. Head over to the post, have a listen, and let them know what you think. The CD is now available locally in Des Moines through Mars Cafe for $10, and everywhere else, through our Web site.

The 57-minute orchestral epic from Rob Ogden and myself – Moral Calculus – is now available to purchase on CD for $12 (shipping included). The CD contains the same music as the digital download, but in higher quality with accompanying artwork and lyrics. We plan to start shipping orders on Tuesday, January 20th. You can grab a copy at the Make-Believe Machines store, or download the album for $4.

Being the benevolent lords of music that we are, we’ve decided to give away one (1) entire MP3 from our just-released debut album, Moral Calculus. Simply click the download link beside “The Five Chieftains” in our Facebook playlist to gorge yourself on a feast of stringed instruments. And lest you’ve forgotten, the full album is a mere $4, available from our Web site.

Keeping Watch O’er the Bushel of Glowing Orbs

The only track from Moral Calculus that Rob and I haven’t posted here is called “A Skeleton Grafts a Childe”, which is the percussive sequel to “A Childe Grafts a Bone”. As a way of getting you off the couch and on to another site, we’re making this available to listen to at our ReverbNation site. We hope your bones are chilled.

Photograph by Wesley Norman.

After over a year’s worth of work, Rob Ogden and I have finally given birth to a new album filled with bombastic yet tender orchestral delights! This beast — entitled “Moral Calculus” — contains eleven luscious tracks of orchestral mayhem, and is the first full-length album either of us have released in five years.

The album clocks in at 57 minutes and features a variety of styles including symphonic, percussion, solo, ambient, and vocally driven pieces. You can listen to much of it in high quality by heading over to makebelievemachines.com.

The digital download will cost you a mere $4, which any economist will tell you is (absolutely) meaningless, so to speak.

Along with nearly an hour’s worth of music, each full album purchase will also include a 7-page PDF booklet containing artwork and lyrics.

Full Track Listing:
1. Punctured Placenta and Post-Birth Peril (7:19)
2. Fallen Shackles of a Weathered Jouster (5:58)
3. The Five Chieftains (4:15)
4. A Childe Grafts a Bone (1:14)
5. The Tragedy of the Sprite, Dragonfly, and Crow (8:18)
6. And Sleep Took Their Cudgeled Bodies (5:59)
7. Spiders Savor a Succulent Fleshfeast (4:43)
8. From Grove to Thicket, Hasten Thee – O’er Root and Under Tree! (7:49)
9. A Skeleton Grafts a Childe (3:07)
10. Thin Glass Islands on a Clouded Sea (3:14)
11. What the Wind Whispered to the Wheat (4:57)

Moral Calculus album cover art by Wesley Norman

Quotes and lyrics from yesterday’s Make-Believe Machines song:

“Fallen Shackles of a Weathered Jouster”

“You’ll notice about 80% of all the hits that have ever been out in the marketplace — they follow a traditional song pattern, which is verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, and out.”

“We are like Pavlov’s dog as listeners.”

“And every time you hear a song, look at Billboard and say ‘Oh, that’s so-and-so and they’re chart number 32.’”

“You know how you write better songs? By listening to other people’s hits.”

“What happens when you get in your car in the morning and you turn on the radio and there’s a new song on there and it’s got a 37-second long intro? You change the station, don’t you? You think it’s an instrumental song! What the hell station am I tuned in to here?”

Shackled to a dead horse, long over-beaten 
He jousted in the dense fog of the walking comatose 
His lance did splinter, now wrought with repairs 
But the blunted end has proved more useful

Freedom sparked at dawn’s edge