Fear Of A Red Planet

I neglected to include this in the previous blog post because I wasn’t sure if it was happening or not, but after seeing a tweet from @RelapseRecords I checked the iTunes store and sure enough you can buy the deluxe version of Mose Giganticus’ Gift Horse. What’s included in the deluxe version, you ask? It includes the entire demo version of the album that I recorded at Red Planet before the signing to Relapse, plus the Japanese bonus track and a digital booklet. The entire package is $11.99 for all 15 tracks. If you’ve already purchased the standard version of Gift Horse, you can purchase each bonus track individually for $0.99 each. The track list is:

01. Last Resort
02. The Left Path
03. Demon Tusk
04. Days Of Yore
05. The Great Deceiver
06. White Horse
07. The Seventh Seal
08. Aftermath (Japanese Bonus Track)
09. Last Resort (Demo)
10. The Left Path (Demo)
11. Days Of Yore (Demo)
12. Demon Tusk (Demo)
13. The Great Deceiver (Demo)
14. White Horse (Demo)
15. The Seventh Seal (Demo)

Gift Horse is available in North America today on CD/Digital via Relapse Records! Check out below for a full list of stores and to search a store near you head to wheresthemetal.com. Additionally, you can listen to the full album now thanks to Alternative Press at altpress.com

National Chains
FYE

Online Retailers
Amazon.com
Bestbuy.com
Criminalatl.com
Deepdiscount.com
Fye.com
Gohastings.com
Homersmusic.com
Ltcds.com
Newburycomics.com
Relapse.com
Tower.com
Vvinyl.com

Regional Chains
Bull Moose
Dimple
Down in the Valley
Electric Fetus
Gallery of Sound
Grey Whale
Hastings
Homers
Independent Records
Newbury Comics
Plan 9
Rasputins
Record Town
School Kids
Streetlight Records
The Exclusive Co.
Value Music
Zia Records

Indies
Amoeba
Angelos
Boo Boos
Cactus
Cd City
Cheapo Discs
Criminal Records
Crossroads
Dearborn
Disc and Dat
Ear X Tacy
Earshot
Easy Street
Eides
Fingerprints
Grimeys
Heavy Metal Shop
House of Guitars
J&R Electric
Jackpot
Jack’s Music Shoppe
Kim’s
Looney Tunes
Lou’s
Lunchbox Records
Mad Rhino
Magnolia Thunderpussy
Melody Record Shop
Millenium
Monster Records
Music Box
Off the Record
Painted Smiles
Park Ave
Permanent Records
Poco Hi-Fi
Pure Pop
Repo
Resurrection
Rolling Stone
Salzers
Second Ave Records
Shake it
Silver Platters
Slackers
Sonic Boom
The Disc Exchange
The Sound Garden
Twist and Shout
Vintage Vinyl (St.Louis)
Vintage Vinyl (NJ)
Von’s Record Shop
Waterloo

Digital
Amazon.com
I-Tunes
Napster
Rhapsody
Thinkindie.com
Shockhound.com

Starting on May 1st, Mose Giganticus will play a couple one off shows that will kick of our May tour. Some shows are still being worked out, I think. Here is a mostly complete tour schedule:

May 1 Ithaca, NY  @The Haunt (as part of Big Day In Fest)

May 8 Philadelphia, PA @Danger Danger Gallery

May 9 ZRadio Performance

May 11 Richmond, VA @The Camel

May 12 Roanoke, VA @The Bazaar

May 13 Greenville, NC @Tipsy

May 14 Wilmington, NC @Soapbox Laudrolounge (as part of Rad Fest)

May 16 Charlotte, NC @The Milestone

May 17 Knoxville, TN @The Pilot Light

May 21 Columbus, OH @Legion of Doom

May 23 Cleveland, OH @Weapons of Mass Creation Fest

May 27 Baltimore, MD @The Hexagon

The past two Fridays, Decibel Magazine’s Deciblog posted teasers about a mysterious signing from Relapse Records entitled “Guess Who Relapse Records Signed (parts 1 & 2).” The first post included only two cryptic images from the upcoming release, while the second post included two more images and a complete mp3 for their readers to download. Most everyone who read these posts was stumped as to who the band could be. A lot of the comments are very funny. I encourage you to read through both postings.

Well today I am happy to report that Relapse has finally announced that the band is none other than Mose Giganticus. The album, entitled Gift Horse, will be released on July 20th and is available for pre-order right now at relapse.com, so head on over there and check it out. Also, check out the newly revamped Mose Giganticus Myspace Page.

Here are some excerpts from the press release and images from the Deciblog posts:

Relapse Records is proud to announce the signing of Philadelphia, PA’s MOSE GIGANTICUS.

MOSE GIGANTICUS’ Relapse debut Gift Horse is set for a July 20th North American release date and is the follow-up to the band’s 2008 EP release Commander!. Gift Horse was recorded at Skylight Studios (CIRCA SURVIVE, NONE MORE BLACK, TURMOIL, HOT CROSS) with engineer Vince Ratti and is available for pre-order at this location. The first preview track from Gift Horse, “The Left Path”, was posted via Decibel Magazine’s Deciblog last week along with previews of the album’s artwork. “The Left Path” can also be heard online now via the newly redesigned MOSE GIGANTICUS MySpace page: MySpace.com/MoseGiganticus.

“I’m definitely excited about the release of Gift Horse on Relapse,” says MOSE GIGANTICUS’ Matt Garfield, “The album itself has been two-years in the making and its much heavier than what people have heard from Commander! and Invisible Hand. Relapse is just the optimal place to release it.”

MOSE GIGANTICUS, who tours in a converted shuttle bus that runs on recycled vegetable oil, has announced a run of May tour dates. This run of dates will include stops at a handful of d-i-y festivals including Ithaca, NY’s Big Day In Fest, Wilmington, NC’s Rad Fest, and Cleveland, OH’s Weapons of Mass Creation. A complete listing of tour dates and cities can be found in the tour section with more to be announced soon.

Gift Horse is very close to being completed. Matt did eventually get all of his drums recorded, despite the horrible weather. The following sessions were spent on his vocals, my vocals, and mixing. Singing on this record was pretty difficult for me. Matt wanted my vocals in a high octave which, for most of the songs, was at the very top end of my vocal range. Let’s just say I’m thankful for studio magic. Last I heard, Matt is still working on his vocals, though he is almost finished. Vince has been working on mixes as we’ve been tracking and the mix I heard of the song “Last Resort” sounds pretty amazing. Below are a few pictures from our vocal recording sessions.

Mose Giganticus has been in the studio the past few weeks recording the upcoming full length Gift Horse. Tracking began in early January at Skylight Studios with Vince Ratti. Matt and Vince sequenced and re-amped all of the synth tracks for the record. Next, Matt was supposed to go into Studio 4 and track his drums with Will Yip, but that was postponed because Will was called away by Lauryn Hill at the last minute to play drums for her in Australia. Instead, we used those days to record my rhythm guitar tracks with Vince at Skylight (Jan 16th & 17th).

The following Thursday and Friday I returned to record my lead guitar tracks and Brooks Wilson came in for the weekend to lay down all of his guitar parts. Colin Smith, who played bass on the original recording (and all previous MoseG recordings), was unable to work it into his schedule, so Brooks handled all of the bass guitar duties as well (Jan 21st – 24th).

At some point it was decided that waiting for Will to return from Australia would push the record too far past it’s deadline so drum tracking was to take place this weekend at Skylight. However, the recent snow storm caused Matt and Vince to cancel the session. Drum tracking may begin tomorrow, or next week. What I have heard of the recording so far sounds great. Matt has recorded some of his vocals but I haven’t heard them yet. The pictures below are from the January 16th – 17th & Jan 21st – 24th sessions.

It was almost a year ago that Mose Giganticus came back into Red Planet to record Gift Horse, the full length follow up to 2008′s Commander! EP. Since finishing the record, Mose had been shopping it around to different labels, trying to find someone to release it. It wasn’t long before a certain label (who as of this writing, because of contractual reasons, shall remain nameless) did express great interest in releasing Gift Horse. One of the conditions, however, is that it has to be re-recorded in one of the studios that this label already has a working relationship with. One of the reasons they want it re-done is that this label has a certain sound for all of their releases and this release will be no different. Another reason, we suspect, is that they want to own the recording and master of the record. Of course, they could easily do this by just buying the existing recording from Mose, so it must be a combination of those two reasons, or even others we haven’t considered.

Whatever the case, I can’t say that I’m not disappointed that it needs to be re-done. We spent a lot of time recording and mixing that record and personally, I think it came out pretty damn well. Not only that, but there is a certain value to having my name and the studio’s name on the release. When a record has as wide of a distribution as this one I expect will have, it means a lot of people will hear it and see our name and hopefully it would send more bands our way. It’s practically free advertising. That is now being taken way from me.

I could look at it that way, or I could see an opportunity. I’ve been recording in my own studio for over 5 years now. I’ve been recording my own bands for about 10 years. It’s been about as long since I’ve even stepped foot in a studio other than my own. This will, at the very least, be a chance for me to see how other engineers operate, learn a few new tricks, and just meet and talk with other people who do what I do. It could be a very good learning experience. Also, when we recorded Gift Horse the first time, I only played a couple guitar parts on 3 of the songs. This time around, Mose wants me to play on all the tracks and also provide backing vocals on some songs. So it’s not all bad news. I’m kind of looking forward to going back in and doing it all over again.

Mose Giganticus will begin recording Gift Horse at Studio 4 with Will Yip and Skylight Studios with Vince Ratti this January 2010.

Wed Nov 18
8pm
$5
All Ages
@ Danger Danger Gallery 5013 Baltimore Ave.

Tenderhooks
Mancruel
The Tanks (IA)
Mose Giganticus
Emotron