It has been a busy week so here is another update, this time for a hard rock version of the theme from the Mega Man 3 Snake Man Level! I chose this song because of all the levels in Mega Man 3 (which is by far my favorite Mega Man game) this one was the stage I always beat first whenever I played. In the end I think the song came together quite well and sounds pretty wicked. The track is complete with drums, bass and guitar.

Mega Man 3 Snake Man – Hard Rock Version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsqywghcM_w

Next up will be some more well known songs covers, not such unknowns like Desert Bus!

Suggestions are more than welcome!

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Alright so if you’ve never heard of the Desert Bus for Hope Charity here’s the run down. The comedy sketch group Loading Ready Run (http://www.loadingreadyrun.com) from Vancouver Island (Victoria) get together once a year to play the most boring game ever “Desert Bus” in order to raise money for Child’s Play. Child’s Play is a charity organization that brings toys and games into hospitals for children to play with while there recovering

Desert Bus was a mini game on an unreleased Sega CD Game called Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors. In the game you have to drive a bus in real time from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada. The bus always veers slowly to the right, you can’t go above a maximum speed of 45mph and it takes 8 hours (can’t pause) to get your 1 Point for the drive. Once you’ve made it all the way to Vegas you can decide if you want to drive back to Tucson to get another point. And no, the scenery doesn’t change for your 8 hour stint for the most part. It’s a horrible game that was more of a joke than anything else. Sidenote: If you crash a tow truck takes you all the way back to either Tuscon or Vegas in real time.

Currently the team at http://www.desertbus.org have a total of 13 points and over 110 hours of non stop driving day and night with no crashes. They have raised over $85,000 (even I contributed)! Wanting to go above and beyond with my support I took the honor of tracking a hard rock cover of the Desert Bus Theme from the game. It’s the intro song and the only time you get to hear music, like I said it’s extremely boring.

Desert Bus Theme – Hard Rock Version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9ESzI_NuF0

Now go to http://www.desertbus.org and donate!

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Back at it again. Yay for video game covers, haha. So if everything goes as planned, we’re gonna start doing this weekly. Basically we’re going to be taking songs from our childhood and recording hard rock versions of them with our own arrangements. Right now we’re mostly going to be focusing on video games and tv shows although we have plans to start doing other songs as well. This is something we’re doing just for fun and don’t want to take it seriously. Now that that is out of the way…

Here’s a our take on the Mega Man 3 Stage Select Theme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NucJrfsgKiU

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

While most people are out drinking and having fun on their weekends we’re busy being giant nerds and recording hard rock versions of random things from our childhood. We decided to dive in to the world of the Nintendo this weekend and recorded the Jogging theme from Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. It’s too bad we didn’t have a pink jumpsuit because we could have made a sweet live action video to go along with this theme, haha.

Check out our video for Mike Tyson’s Punch Out Jogging Theme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt_WuMV_PcE

Feel free to suggest more songs we should cover!

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Hey hey! I just finished editing and uploading the last of the videos from our long days at the studio. This video is of the acoustic guitar and vocal tracking sessions. I may go back and make one long video of everything all linked together and post that at some point, but for now at least all the content is finally up and I can cross it off my to do list!

To check out the video go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79XkxBDmo8Q

Also, our photo shoot went great on the weekend and we got some amazing shots that we will be posting once the new website launches.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/

Dear god, after months and months of being in the studio the finish line is finally approaching. We’ve loved every moment of being in the studio and it will just be amazing to be done this mammoth of a project (and we can’t wait to start playing live again!). So it’s been a while since I’ve updated any thing but let me tell you I have been busy as all hell. I’ve been working my ass off to pay for this record so I don’t go into hella debt, it’s been an intense summer. Hitting the studio multiple times a week, working full time and working most weekends DJing or doing web development. I am in need of a vacation.

But hey, your not hear to listen to me bitch! So here’s a new video of the bass tracking sessions at the studio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSFFwnkhT6w

Our bass player for the record (and hopefully forever!!!) Dave Stoten (Owner, Producer and Engineer from Fail Safe Studios) rocked the bass like a master. Kevin Hoskin as always engineered the sessions. In the coming weeks I’ll have another video of the acoustic guitar session and of the vocal tracking sessions, just need more hours in the day to put it all together

Alright, back to work.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Here’s a video from the guitar tracking sessions at Beta Sound. Kevin Hoskin (Our Engineer) and Nathan Kidd from Long Way Down (Our Assistant Engineer) set up the mics and teched the amps for the recording sessions. We recorded the amps so loud that we blew up the Marshall Plexi. I’d say we used a lot of amps, but I think the video speaks for itself.

And without further ado, here’s the video from the guitar sessions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhgtii48V0c

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Last weekend we recorded all the drum tracks for the new album. Kevin (Our Engineer) and Bill George the drummer from Portal spent their Friday night at the studio teching, tuning, and seating the drums for the Saturday recording session. They set up so many microphones on the drums, I swear there was over 24 mics set up… and some weird mics I had never even seen before (what the hell is a ball and biscuit mic!?). Needless to say their hard work paid off and the drums sound sick!

Props to Cal Beaudion (our drummer for the new record) who did an awesome job, he played drums like an animal and hammered through everything in one day, that guys a freaking machine! Also, a special thanks to Bill George for being our Drum Tech, and to Nate from Long Way Down for Assistant Engineering during the recording session. In the next couple days I’ll post some videos of Cal playing drums at the studio so you can get a feel for what the drums will be like on the new record.

Tomorrow I’m headed into the studio to hear all the edited drum tracks. We took a little break from the studio to give Kevin and Bill Kennedy some time to finish up the Order of Chaos and Chunk projects that are also on the go. It has been a good week of rest, was starting to burn out and get a little sick there for a while. Have to stay healthy and steer clear of the swine flu! LOL, hahaha.

Last, here’s a little video for you from the drum session day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJvTzu5jz2o

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

Here’s the second of many quick little videos that we’ll be making at the studio during pre production. The pictures in the video were takin while we were hammering out song arrangements and working out all the tempos for the new tracks. Being at the studio is addictive and every thing is going really really well. I can’t wait til we start tracking drums sometime in the next 2 weeks here! Finally a new album is coming, it’s about freaking time!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuWnTVYqPs8[/youtube]

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

We are officially moved into Kevin and Bills studio inside Beta Sound! Since moving in we have already done intense amounts of pre production and our tunes are sounding incredible. We’ve been filming a lot of the process and I’ll be posting some videos of the Studio Sessions for the duration of our time at the studio. Starting with this one:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExTUQ-pnR8Q[/youtube]

Expect more to come!

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com