• A rejected Boggard song.
• A live track from the Merry Wives of Windsor.

Oh, probably ought to give you one of these:

They’re not always going to be for mature audiences, but this one is.

Show Notes:

The Angryfolk Show Theme — written by Stu Venable. Recorded by Stu Venable and his digestive tract.
In Her Majesty’s Navy — witten by Stu Venable. Recorded by Stu Venable.
Windsor’s Cider — based on Johnny Jump Up, lyrics by Kimi Hughes, Judi Domroy, Heather Greene and Bill Roper. Performed live by the Merry Wives of Windsor at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana, California, March 17th, 2006.

Special thanks to Steven Schwadron and Heather Greene for their appearances.

Links Mentioned:

The Orange County Celtic Festival: www.occelticfestival.com

GenCon: www.gencon.com

The Auld Dubliner: www.aulddubliner.com

The Poxy Boggards: www.poxyboggards.com

The Merry Wives of Windsor: www.mwow.net

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions about the Angryfolk Show, please share them.

I have absolutely no idea how long it’s going to take me to get the first show in the can. I’m guessing at least three weeks, maybe longer, as I’m only working on it when the studio is empty. Certainly, the first show will take the longest, and from it I’ll gage how much time each show will take to produce and thus how frequently the show will happen.

I’ve heard rumors that they’re going to sneak a few previously unheard songs on to the CD.

I estimate they’ll be finished with tracking by the middle of November.

This is going to be a great CD. There are rockin tunes. There are sad tunes. There’s beautiful music, and kick-ass music.
I’m told tomorrow is the day of sopranos.

I’ll see if I can convince them to let me put up a sample rough mix of something once stuff starts sounding more complete.

• Obviously music will be a big part of it.
• We’ll probably have “live” in-studio performances by various band members.
• We’ve got a couple budding home recordists, so maybe we’ll feature some of their outside efforts.

Here’s the big question: What do YOU want to hear? If you’ve got suggestions, please leave them here. Or, if you’re shy, you can email me at contact at angryfolk dot com.

Sunday night, I begin the preproduction for the even more mysterious Project III.

Firstly, I’ve started recording the scratch tracks for the Merry Wives of Windsor’s third CD. They’ll start recording in earnest this Saturday, September 23rd.
Secondly, I’m working on a new “club” version of Control Z’s “Untitled One.” It’s been retitled “Control-Z Theme” and will feature a vocal chorus by Heather.

Here’s a picure of the control room. The conrol room’s been functional for a few months now.

This is the recording “booth” (I call it the tracking room). It’s built on a 12ftx8ft footprint. It was constructed with staggered wall studs and double layers of drywall, making it pretty close to soundproof. It’s heavily insulated, sports very quiet air conditioning and acoustic tiles to limit sound reflections
Upcoming projects.

So, enough babbling about studio construction. It’s time to create music. As Marty DiBergi would say, “But hey, enough of my yackin’ — let’s boogie.”

]]> http://www.angryfolk.com/?feed=rss2&p=46 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=43 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=43#comments Thu, 31 Aug 2006 14:57:40 +0000 contact@angryfolk.com (Stu Venable, Jr.) http://s102070753.onlinehome.us/angryfolk/?p=43 That’s pretty much all that’s left to get the studio operational. The Merry Wives of Windsor are furiously rehearsing, as they’re first in.
]]> http://www.angryfolk.com/?feed=rss2&p=43 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=42 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=42#comments Mon, 21 Aug 2006 22:10:48 +0000 contact@angryfolk.com (Stu Venable, Jr.) http://s102070753.onlinehome.us/angryfolk/?p=42 After a full weekend (two 10-hour days) of building, the Angryfolk Studio is finally taking shape. We have a floor, a roof and four walls. This coming weekend, we’ll finish drywalling, frame the booth door and start on the air conditioning silencer.

Thanks to the following for contributing their sweat to this project: Chriss Lorusso, Wes Wright, Greg “Stork” Wilson, Jon Enge, Johnny Breen, Steven Schwadron.

It’s possible the studio could be up and running by the end of this coming weekend.

]]> http://www.angryfolk.com/?feed=rss2&p=42 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=39 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=39#comments Tue, 08 Aug 2006 14:37:05 +0000 contact@angryfolk.com (Stu Venable, Jr.) http://s102070753.onlinehome.us/angryfolk/?p=39 I’ve been pondering more on the subject of folk music. What the definition is, and what it should be.

Folk music isn’t the guy in the coffee house with his guitar and self-important lyrics. It’s the lullaby a mother sings to her child.



Folk music isn’t a bunch of guys on a stage playing at the local fair. It’s the Christmas carols a family sings after an all-too-large feast.

Folk music isn’t the ponderous mp3s you download from iTunes. It’s the drinking song a bunch of drunks break out with when the bartender announces last call.

Folk music is the music people make for their own enjoyment. Folk music isn’t passive listening, it’s participatory, interactive, a communal creative effort. It’s about enjoyment. It’s about music for music’s sake.

Folk music shoudn’t be professionalized. When you take it away from the people and give it to an elite few, it stops being folk music.

]]> http://www.angryfolk.com/?feed=rss2&p=39 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=37 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=37#comments Fri, 04 Aug 2006 18:00:26 +0000 contact@angryfolk.com (Stu Venable, Jr.) http://s102070753.onlinehome.us/angryfolk/?p=37 Why Angryfolk? What are you angry about?

I’m offended by what happened to folk music. At some point it stopped being folk and started becoming elitistist, pseudo populist propaganda.

Certainly, I’m not bemoaning the existence of protest songs in the folk music genre. The protest song is a very valid component of the body of music that makes up folk. But in many circles, no other form of folk music, besides protest, is considered valid or relevant.

This flies in the face of what folk music really is. Folk music, to quote wikipedia.org, is music by and of the common people. Are the common people communists? The vast majority are not. So why then is a Marxist with a guitar sitting in a coffee shop railing against the World Trade Organization most people’s vision of folk music? What the hell happened?

I don’t know. Maybe it was Vietnam. Maybe it was the Great Depression or the rise of the industrial age. Today, most people who heard a sea shanty wouldn’t even consider it folk music, nor a work chant, drinking song or reel. In fact, players of these other kinds of folk music are now calling their music ‘traditional’ in order to distance themselves from the self-important tripe that pawns itself off as folk.

To paraphrase my pal and band mate, Jerry Wheeler, fat men with beards need to take back folk music. It was Jerry’s proclamation that made me think of angryfolk.com.

Folk music has become something that the folk can’t identify with anymore. What the hell is that? That pisses me off, and it should piss you off too.

My band mates and I, being the Poxy Boggards, have been performing folk music for nearly 15 years, and we’ve met with some moderate success. I think that’s because we’re doing the folk music the folk want to hear. Most of it’s pretty bawdy, with subject matter that’s pretty damned irrelevant.

So we know there’s still a place for folk music in modern life. In the same world where Milli Vanilli wins a Grammy and Jessica Simpson’s shaking it from the top of the record charts, people still respond to a bunch of fat guys with beards playing instruments they’ve never heard of.

Now with a digital studio, the internet and some spare time, I think we can make headway in Jerry’s dream of taking back folk music.

]]> http://www.angryfolk.com/?feed=rss2&p=37 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=32 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=32#comments Thu, 03 Aug 2006 21:43:05 +0000 contact@angryfolk.com (Stu Venable, Jr.) http://s102070753.onlinehome.us/angryfolk/?p=32 I’ve become a big fan of podcasts.

It started with Inside Home Recording. One day I noticed that iTunes had a podcast directory. I was getting ready for a road trip, so I naturally searched for “Home Recording.” And there was IHR. I downloaded all of their episodes (more than 30 now) and listened to them on my road trip and for many days after that. They started out publishing a little irregularly, but now they’re hitting about every other week.

Then I discovered the Project Studio Network which is produced every week. On one of the later episodes of PSN, they had an interview with Leo Laporte. For those unaware, Laporte was a broadcaster, a virtual character on MSNBC’s “The Site,” and co-host on TechTV’s “The Screensavers.” (this is just a smattering of his credits)

Most recently, he took over the computer call-in show on KFI radio (a marked improvement over the previous host)

Tangent: Leo’s predecessor still works in the LA radio market doing the same thing. I won’t name him, but I’ll say this: it’s amazing how many of his listeners called in with problems that just “happen” to be solved by certain products, every show. I mean, seriously, if you are uninitiated enough to have to call a radio computer show, why the hell do you need to install two operating systems on your computer? If some guy wants to install Windows XP and Linux on his computer, wouldn’t you sort of classify him as a “power user” of sorts? And if he knows enough about computers to install Linux, I find it hard to believe he can’t figure out how to have two OS’s live on his hard drive. And it strikes me as odd that there are enough of these guys out there to justify a call on EVERY FRIGGIN’ SHOW. A-hem

Back to Leo. While he was being interviewed on the Project Studio Network, he mentioned his empire of podcasts, all of which can be found at twit.tv. “Twit” stands for “This Week in Tech.” Most of his shows are weekly, so there’s new content nearly every day of the week.

Of course, the first podcasts I listened to were by recording engineers or professional broadcasters. That being said, I fell in love with a new media by hearing the cream of the crop.

I even considered doing my own podcast.

Then I listened to the rest of the crop. Holy cripes. I heard someone say how wonderful podcasting is, because now anyone with a PC can make their own talk show. [sarcasm]Boy, is that a blessing![/sarcasm]

I’ve heard podcasts by people who literally can’t talk — where every other word is “uh.” They press “record” and have no idea what they’re going to say. Why did you press record? How about jotting down a few notes, Mr. Murrow?

As I listened to these amateur podcasts, I was dissuaded from the idea of producing my own podcast. I definitely don’t want to be that lame – seriously. Then I realized: I can’t be that lame. I’ll recognize my lameness and just delete the file.

So now, doing a podcast is on my list of things to do. It’ll have opinion pieces (because I’m pretty opinionated), arguments, interviews with all my band mates – maybe even have someone jump in the studio to perform a song they’ve just finished (or are working on).

If it turns out to be worth a crap, maybe you’ll hear it.

]]> http://www.angryfolk.com/?feed=rss2&p=32 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=30 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=30#comments Wed, 02 Aug 2006 17:59:41 +0000 contact@angryfolk.com (Stu Venable, Jr.) http://s102070753.onlinehome.us/angryfolk/?p=30 As our recording space was without doors for some time, it was open to all of nature’s vagrants, attempting to squat on our property.

Despite bug bombs and various sprays, one particularly tenacious black widow (laden with eggs, no less) managed to survive.

Last night, while duping a CD, bandmate Tappy notices HUNDREDS of tiny spiders in little micro webs up one side of my control room. Luckily, they were very tiny and many weren’t even very visible. Had they been larger, poor Tappy would have gone into some sort of a fugue state, what with the arachophobia.

So off to the store again to obtain more WMD for the next onslaught.

]]> http://www.angryfolk.com/?feed=rss2&p=30 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=29 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=29#comments Tue, 01 Aug 2006 23:12:48 +0000 contact@angryfolk.com (Stu Venable, Jr.) http://s102070753.onlinehome.us/angryfolk/?p=29 I added a page (you can see it in the menu on the right), detailing some things I’ve learned (or been taught) about recording. It’s a work in progress. It’ll grow as I learn from more mistakes…
]]> http://www.angryfolk.com/?feed=rss2&p=29 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=27 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=27#comments Mon, 31 Jul 2006 18:45:37 +0000 contact@angryfolk.com (Stu Venable, Jr.) http://s102070753.onlinehome.us/angryfolk/?p=27 Yesterday (Sunday, July 30th) I framed out the floor and one wall. I also built a rack for the equipment. Pictures coming soon.
]]> http://www.angryfolk.com/?feed=rss2&p=27 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=22 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=22#comments Mon, 24 Jul 2006 03:16:59 +0000 contact@angryfolk.com (Stu Venable, Jr.) http://s102070753.onlinehome.us/angryfolk/?p=22

We’re a few weeks from beginning construction of the third (and hopefully final) Angryfolk studio. The first Angryfolk Studio consisted of two spare bedrooms in my old house (one the control room and one the isolation room. In this space we recorded the Belles’ “Who’s Your Sire?” the Merry Wives’ “Here’s to the Men,” and the beginnings of the Boggards “Whiskey Business.”

Less than half of that Boggards CD was recorded when I moved to Pasadena. In that Pasadena garage, we build an 8×8x8 box that served as our iso booth. The construction materials for that booth came from the disassembled set from the Renaissance Pleasure Faire. (This is one of the reasons it took 18 months to record “Whiskey Business.”)

]]> http://www.angryfolk.com/?feed=rss2&p=22 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=19 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=19#comments Sat, 22 Jul 2006 16:30:55 +0000 contact@angryfolk.com (Stu Venable, Jr.) http://s102070753.onlinehome.us/angryfolk/?p=19 Project Studio Network — Hosted by Michael Bolan and Allen Wagner, PSN is billed as “News, Talk & Reviews for the Amateur and Professional Recording Musician.” While it covers more advanced topics than “Inside Home Recording,” it also covers more specialized topics. For instance, there is an award-winning surround mixer who does segments about surround. While these are very interesting, they’re not that applicable to the recording musician (of course, if surround continues to insinuate itself into music production, it may become very pertinent. The podcast comes out like clockwork every two weeks. Both of the hosts have been around the business for a while, and they often trade war stories about the music industry.

There’s not as much teaching and recording tips as on IHR, but when there is, it’s a real jewel.

]]> http://www.angryfolk.com/?feed=rss2&p=19 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=13 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=13#comments Thu, 13 Jul 2006 21:46:48 +0000 contact@angryfolk.com (Stu Venable, Jr.) http://s102070753.onlinehome.us/angryfolk_new/?p=13 I stumbled upon this podcast while surfing iTunes for something to listen to on a long road trip. What I found was Inside Home Recording. What with being about home recording, it’s a very well-produced, professional-sound podcast. The guys who host it, Paul Garay and Derek Miller, are very knowledgeable. If you’re remotely interested in recording, I suggest you check it out.
]]> http://www.angryfolk.com/?feed=rss2&p=13 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=1 http://www.angryfolk.com/?p=1#comments Thu, 13 Jul 2006 04:30:13 +0000 contact@angryfolk.com (Stu Venable, Jr.) 1390865351 This is the newest version of angryfolk.com. We’re using the Wordpress CMS, which is easier to update and more powerful than blogger. There will be content, someday.
]]> http://www.angryfolk.com/?feed=rss2&p=1 Stu Venable, Jr.nonadultFolk music and more from the Angryfolk Project Studio