Some good news I recently found out about...


1. Roger Manning is releasing a solo album (his first true solo album since JF broke up, I believe) in the next couple of weeks.

Woo-freakin-hoo!

But that's not all...!


2. Roger found a box of DATs and other recordings of some demos he and Eric Dover recorded for the second, never-to-be Imperial Drag album. There are 36 tracks! About a dozen of these have been floating around for years, in poor format, but these are getting mastered and released.

Woo-woo-freakin-hoo!!!


Now, here's the tricky part - distribution. I've never heard of it until now, but there's this place called weedshare.com, which is basically a grass-roots-type online distribution channel for artists. The concept is akin, unfortunately, to Amway. Basically, the downloads are free, as are the first 3 listens, then you have to pay to play/burn the tracks after that. However, if you pass them along to other people and they buy, you get a portion of the sale. I think the breakdown is 50% for the artist, 35% for weedshare, and 15% for 'sharer.'

Frankly, I don't really like that idea. But whatever, what happened was that this got around to the Jelly-L Mailing List, and we started debating things like price (the guy doing the mastering suggested $3 a pop for the ID demos, which would come out to over $100!!!), format (many people wanted a CD, not downloads), and other things, and with Bruce Brodeen from Not Lame on the list, it only took a couple of days before it was decided that the tracks would cost $1.50 online, and that Not Lame would be distributing the limited edition, 2-CD set of ID demos at some point in the future.

Gotta love it!

I don't think they are changing the way that Roger's solo album is being released, but the ID demos will be available in both formats. I have no clue what Roger's solo stuff is going to sound like, but ID, for those who haven't heard them, is basically like a cross between JF and 70's-style rock, at times sounding like early Cheap Trick and/or T-Rex (Boy or a Girl in particular). The only album they released was in 1996, which was bad, bad timing for glammy retro-rock. Maybe 5 years later, and this would have made a dent, but not during the grunge years, no way.

The tracks will be released as they are finished, I gather. Here are the first three:

http://www.allweedfiles.com/-weed-Imperial_Drag-She_Cries_All_Night.wma (http://www.allweedfiles.com/-weed-Imperial_Drag-She_Cries_All_Night.wma)

http://www.allweedfiles.com/-weed-Imperial_Drag-Mother_Nature.wma (http://www.allweedfiles.com/-weed-Imperial_Drag-Mother_Nature.wma)

http://www.allweedfiles.com/-weed-Imperial_Drag-Smellin_Like_A_Rose.wma (http://www.allweedfiles.com/-weed-Imperial_Drag-Smellin_Like_A_Rose.wma)


Not only are the songs great, but the sound - compared to the ones floating around - is like night and day. This guy did a great job of mastering.

Enjoy! And spread the good news! http://ironpoet.com/boards/images/smiles/jam.gif

sweet. i still play "Spilt Milk" at least once every three months or so.

Cool news, thanks! Not Lame is such a great company, too.

Good thing you put "(the band)" in the thread title, or you'd have attracted all of those closet jellyfish (the creature) afficionados.

I was anticipating all sorts of colossal jellyfish jokes when I titled the thread.

Cool, thanks!

pretty cool, thanks for passing the info. I often see people saying the go back to "Spilt Milk" am I the only one to like "Belly Button" more than "Spilt Milk"?

FM

I like Spilt Milk more, but that's probably because it's a bit more Queen-influenced and generally a bit more of a rocker.

Also, the production is way better. It's like the difference between Rubber Soul and Sgt. Pepper's - the early one is more straight ahead music, while the latter is much more of a studio creation that has all the bells and whistles.

I like Spilt Milk more, but that's probably because it's a bit more Queen-influenced and generally a bit more of a rocker.

Also, the production is way better. It's like the difference between Rubber Soul and Sgt. Pepper's - the early one is more straight ahead music, while the latter is much more of a studio creation that has all the bells and whistles.

I'd agree with that, although I would compare "Spilt Milk" to Pet Sounds rather than Sgt. Pepper's.

Well, I just referring to it in comparison with an earlier work of the same artist. There's a big difference between RS and SP. But yeah, the same comparison can be made between early Beach Boys and Pet Sounds.

And btw, I found out that a number of these tracks are actually demos of songs from the first ID album, so a few are not completely 'new,' but the rest are.

Here's the track listing:

http://www.arsdivina.com/ImperialDrag/

OK, a little more info...

Here's the CD art for Roger's album:

http://www.arsdivina.com/The_Sun_Always_Shines_On_TV_CD_Art.pdf


One of the songs is listed as Sleep Children, the demo version of which is currently on the Sonic Implants website here:

http://www.sonicimplants.com/MP3/SonicImplantsRogerManningSleepChildren.mp3


I absolutely love this song. It's got an undeniable "She's Leaving Home" (Beatles) quality to it, and it's a simply gorgeous (and lush - Kodos) song. Definitely looking forward to hearing the finished version of this one.

The Roger Manning album is available for download:

http://www.allweedfiles.com/?C=M;O=D


These are free to listen 3 times. I can't wait to get home to d/l this stuff!

I'm bumping this because I finally got to download and listen to these tracks, and they are amazing. Definitely on the light side of power pop, and I'm not sure some would even fit that category, but if you're into harmonies, this is a must-listen. Sandman is Hush Part II.