Candy MACABRE
My first album...ANNOUNCEMENT!!
I started playing guitar the summer before my freshman year of high school. I started out by learning parts of Nirvana songs, and then a bit later FULL Ramones songs. By my sophomore year I was in a band, if we’re willing to stretch that term to include the desultory activities of three angsty teens (me, my friend Adam, and our other friend [Justin? Jason? sorry, but I really don’t remember; I have a terrible memory for names] who didn’t play an instrument or sing but was planning to learn) in Adam’s basement for a few months in the mid-90s.
Though, come to think of it, my first band was in third grade—when I got two of my friends (Jason and Kevin) to rehearse songs at recess and lunch. We even performed for the class a few times, and it was around this time that I started wanting to play guitar, but I didn’t really know how to go about learning. The one number I remember this “band” doing was “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” We mostly did songs that were in heavy rotation on the Atlanta-area oldies station of that time (the late 80s), Fox97.
I have on/off periods, but I’ve done music/band stuff most of the time since high school. I was just trying to quantify how much time was off and how much on, and I drew this little chart, which I will share but not explain, at least not here/now:
Even after doing music all this time, I have never properly released anything. I’ve put lots of stuff online. I’ve burned CDs and created loving little homemade packages for them and handed out as many as a dozen. But all of that stuff doesn’t quite feel real.
It feels like time to put out an album—for real! I started recording under the name Indoor Condor and putting songs on Bandcamp some time in 2018. It was just me. I’ve had some friends play with me, but since we’re grown-ups and have lives, they tend to cycle out, and it’s back to just me again. To commemorate the era of the “band” when I was writing and recording with my friend Jessika, I wanted to release an album of what we produced in the year immediately prior to the start of Covid lockdown—to sort of like put that era of the band to bed, and move on to whatever is next.
So the album, for which this post is kinda the announcement, will be out on May 31, and contains most of the stuff written and recoded between June 2019 and June 2020. After finishing a song remotely (Jackpot—last on the album), I went dormant for a while. There’s more to be said about my up and down cycles, but for now suffice it to say that when I came back online, I felt like I wanted to DO something. The something is the album, and the activities surrounding its release. I’ll write some more about how I write and record, but here’s a rundown on the album as consumer product.
Let’s face it: There’s no reason to buy an album—especially one being released a 43-year-old dad as an elaborate (but-cheaper-than-a-sports-car!) mid-life crisis. So the task I’ve set for myself is to make it worth it.
Candy Macabre By the Numbers
14 Tracks
25 Minutes
45 RPMs
200, Hand-numbered edition of
2024, Anno domini
Each copy of the album includes:
A lyrics zine/booklet
An original collage assembled by Ben (suitable for framing, tacking up on your cork board, or magneting to the office fridge!)
A chance to win the Candy Macabre guitar (one lucky album-procurer will dump out the contents of the record sleeve to discover a “golden ticket” entitling the finder to an electric guitar custom-built by Ben featuring the album’s cover art—also a collage by Ben)
A free subscription to the Indoor Condor Substack—featuring music, writing, visual art, etc.
A digital edition of the album (to redeem the download and get the Substack subscription, take a selfie holding the album or zine and email it to indoor.condor@gmail.com—photos may be used for promotional purposes, include your handle if you would like to be tagged!)
So for $30 bucks you’re getting more than another record you’ll never play because streaming is a superior medium in every conceivable way. You’re getting all that other stuff too. Plus, the vinyl itself is blue and that’s cool af.
Wahoo! It’s so exciting!