What an April – and we’re only half way through it.

On April 10, Wovoka Dub (from Badlands) was featured on “Around the World in 20+ Dubs”, a special that aired on the WLUW program, Echo Beach, in Chicago, IL.  The show can be downloaded from here: Part 1 and Part 2 (Wovoka Dub appears on Part 2).

On the same night we made Wovoka Dub a free download from our website and 3^rd party profiles.  You can also download it here.

What we did not expect was for Badlands itself to become available that same day from Amazon (MP3).  If you’re interested in downloading the album, just go here.  It’s all of $6.99 (and that’s for 19 tracks).

Since then, we have updated this profile by adding 7 Badlands tracks to the MySpace Player and all tracks to our ReverbNation Tune Widget that also appears on this profile and our website.

And now we wait for the album to become available on iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, et al.  We hope you all enjoy Badlands as much as we enjoyed creating it.

Todd and I have already started work, preparing for Halloween at High Noon 4 (2009) – both recording material as The Divine Sham as well as overseeing and producing the entire release as High Noon Records.  A busy 2009, for sure.  And it doesn’t end there.  In addition to a special 2010 Halloween at High Noon release, already in the planning stages, the Divine Sham will have a surprise announcement of their own in the near future for 2010.

Stay tuned…

I am happy to announce that Badlands is complete and was just shipped off for distribution.  What does this mean to you?  Well, it’s just another phase of the waiting game at this point, really.  We distribute online through iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Rhapsody, eMusic and several others; and all of them have varied turn around times for availability – but all claim that Badlands will be available in just over a month, possibly less.  We will announce when Badlands is available from each retailer via an email to our mailing list.  If you would like to be added to that list, you can sign up through our Reverb Nation Tune Widget that appears on this profile, or you can be added here under "Join the Mailing List".

And the good news doesn’t end there.  Echo Beach, a weekly radio program on WLUW in Chicago, IL, will be broadcasting its third annual “Around the World in 20+ Dubs” show on April 10, 2009.  The show features dub tracks from artists in 20+ different countries around the world.  One of our tracks from Badlands, Wovoka Dub, will represent the U.S. on the show.  If you are unable to catch the show live, a podcast will be available as well (we can provide the link to that after the broadcast).

And if that wasn’t enough…  Since Wovoka Dub will be featured on “Around the World in 20+ Dubs” prior to the release of Badlands, we have decided to thank our listeners for their patience by making Wovoka Dub available as a free download beginning the night of the show.  A little freebie to get you through.

Oh, and we have an official track listing for Badlands:

Side A

1.        Badlands Overture
2.        Roll Along Lonesome Drifter
3.        This Is the Law
4.        High Noon
5.        The Gulch
6.        Double Down
7.        Blazed
8.        Dusk ‘til Daylight (Part 1)

Side B

9.        Tierra Mala
10.        Queen of the Rodeo
11.        Range Ryder
12.        Hang ‘em High
13.        Wovoka Dub
14.        Dusk ‘til Daylight (Part 2)
15.        Red River Trail
16.        Atomic Highway
17.        Harrowin’ Journey
18.        Black-Eyed Susan
19.        To Be Continued…

And no, this is not double CD (although it sure looks like it could have been), and no, the release is not on vinyl (but we’d like to look into that).  Badlands is just set up with what we feel are two distinct parts.  Simple as that.

Stay tuned for more updates.

It’s that time again, and I bring good news.  As of this past weekend, the musical element of Badlands is complete.  Our only regret at this point is that Todd and I get to listen to it daily while you have to wait a while longer.  Because of this, we have decided to make one of the tracks from the album (and possibly one or two other b-sides) available for free download from our website and 3^rd party profiles (like this one).  The track will be available in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes open.

We have now moved on to the artwork/packaging phase of Badlands.

We’ve had many emails in the last month asking about the sound of the album and the direction we’ve taken on this release.  I have no intentions of giving anything away, though, as we hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  I have mentioned in prior entries that we are still on our Western Dub expedition, but Badlands is in no way a repeat of Devil’s Rope.  But I wanted to give you something, so I thought I could offer a slightly more obscure take on the release.

Badlands, the title, came first.  It was actually discussed during the making of Devil’s Rope as a possible follow up release.  We both loved it from the start.  When the time came to start recording material for Badlands, everything we created was done so with the album title in mind.

Anyone who has visited the Badlands (North & South Dakota, Montana) knows what a lasting impression it can have.  It’s inspiring enough that we were able to create an entire album around the concept of it with nothing but memories of that region as well as other ‘Badlands’ of the world.

I did some research and found some very interesting quotes about the Badlands region.  What struck me about them , though, was how each one essentially described this release and what we were trying to convey in the songs that make up the album.  I will leave you with a few of them:

“…humans have viewed…Badlands with a mix of dread and fascination.” – Unknown

“…peaks and valleys of delicately banded colors – colors that shift in the sunshine…and a thousand tints that color charts do not show…seems a part of another world, …Badlands will be an experience not easily forgotten.” – Freeman Tilden

“Fancy yourself on the hottest day in Summer in the hottest spot of such a place without water – without an animal and scarce an insect stir – without a single flower to speak pleasant things to you, and you will have some idea of the utter loneliness of…Badlands.” – Thaddeus Culbertson

“…gave me an indescribable sense of mysterious elsewhere – a distant architecture, ethereal…, an endless supernatural world more spiritual than earth but created out of it.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

Hello again.  February has proven to be one of our busier months, but it seems to be paying off, as Badlands will be completely mixed down by March.  That’s the good news.  The not so good news is that the CD artwork/design is only in its beginning stages.  That is how we generally work out our releases: we prefer to let the finalized tracks sit for a few weeks while we start on the artwork/design.  We then listen with a renewed perspective as we complete the final CD packaging, making small mix adjustments as we hear the need for them.  When that is complete, the CD manufacturing and preparations for online distribution begins.  In the end, with everything going as planned, we expect Badlands to be available near the end of May – early June at the latest.  We feel the music is ideal for the hot Summer weather.

There, a little day in the life of the Divine Sham completing an album.

We will still be offering updates until then as well as images and/or audio downloads of possible album art, demos, etc.  We’ll have to determine what those will be later.  For now I am listing the song titles in alphabetical order just to give our fans something to overanalyze as we always do with our favorite artists.  These titles are copyrighted, but some are working titles and are subject to change:

Atomic Highway

Badlands Overture

Black-Eyed Susan

Blazed

Double Down

Dusk 'til Daylight (Parts 1 & 2)

The Gulch

Hang 'em High

Harrowin' Journey

High Noon

Queen of the Rodeo

Range Ryder

Red River Trail

Roll Along Lonesome Drifter

This Is the Law

Tierra Mala

To Be Continued...

Wovoca Dub

Okay, I guess I waited a little longer than a week, but the good news is that Badlands is progressing nicely.  We are about half way through the mix down process, which puts us slightly ahead of schedule – for the moment, anyway.  Any number of things can cause a setback.  So far; so good, though.  Everything is sounding great, too, and we are excited for Badlands to be completed and available to everyone.

We’ve selected a few more questions to feed the inquiring Sham Heads:

Q.        What are your musical influences, what is Western Dub and how is one the result of the other?

Trent, LA


A.        A three-for-one, huh?  Good questions.  Our influences span over many genres and countless artists, and I could go on for hours; but I’ll try to simplify.  .As it pertains to the Divine Sham and specifically Western Dub, one of our biggest influences would be Jack Dangers/Meat Beat Manifesto/Tino Corp.  This is probably the most evident in our material.  More dub influences come from King Tubby and Lee Perry among others.  The twist would be in our taking it ‘West’.  This comes from our interest in Old Western films and music.  The musical influence is not limited to western, but rather roots/Americana with some of the more notable artists being Sons of the Pioneers, Roy Acuff and Gene Autry.  We’ve also been known to occasionally travel south of the Rio Grande for inspiration as well.

Western Dub is simply the name Todd and I used to describe the music we were creating during the initial recording stages of the then not yet titled, Devil’s Rope.  We really had no direction at the time; the elements simply manifested themselves in the first tracks we recorded: Branded, Big Bang Dub and Bare Bones - broken beats, bass and the Old West.

There are deeper meanings we discussed in regards to Western Dub, but we certainly don’t want to divulge everything.  I think that covers your question, though.


Q.        Are there any other Western Dub bands out there?  Anyone influenced by the Divine Sham?

Mark, KY


A.        What’s the saying, ‘Mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery’, or something like that?  I’d like to think that we have influenced or will influence any number of artists, bands, etc.  That’s not to say we want to see a Western Dub scene, although that would certainly be flattering; but to discover that you’ve influenced or inspired anyone to create in general would be gratifying.  That kind of influence, though, is not the kind that we would probably ever find out about.

We did receive some emails from another artist who was really into the Western Dub sound on Devil’s Rope.  He was a member of an industrial band, and I think he was drawn to some of the influences he heard from early MBM and others.  As for the Western appeal, I really don’t know.  He was from Germany, so maybe the concept was more intriguing from that distance?  He started his own project, Colonel something (it’s been a while), which was supposed to follow a kind of Western Dub feel – probably a little more aggressive, though.  I have no idea if anything came of it.  I may have to look into that for my own curiosity.


Q.        What is the meaning behind the name, Divine Sham?

Daniel, IL


A.        Todd and I have lost count of the names we assumed throughout our time working on music together.  We always said that whatever name we had when we finally got signed would simply stick.  Well, we ended up signing ourselves, but we stuck to the plan, and the Divine Sham is who we became.

Not a great answer, I know, but there isn’t much more to tell.  Todd came up with the name, and I loved the way it sounded.  It had meaning for me the moment I heard it, as I’m sure it does for Todd.  There was never a real discussion about its meaning; I think we just each felt satisfied with our own interpretation.  I think that we will take that stance with the listeners as well.  It can be taken in many ways, and that applies to the music we produce as well.  That, in itself, makes the name ‘The Divine Sham’ work.


That was a great series of questions – you all make this blog business too easy.

I will try to provide an update a little bit sooner next time, but I will tell you this: it’s getting close.  In one of the next couple of entries, I will be providing a proposed track listing.  It won’t be finalized, but you will at least be able to analyze the titles and get an idea of what you have to expect from Badlands.

Never been into the whole blog thing, but several of our fans have suggested/asked that we start for the purpose of keeping them informed and in touch.  So, here goes:
This will be the first of several weekly entries that will cover the progress of the final stages of production of our second album, Badlands.  We will also include some Q&A, responding to questions we’ve received (and any we continue to receive) on our site and/or 3^rd party profiles.  Here are a few questions that will get this whole thing started off:


Q.        Will the Divine Sham have a new release soon?  And will it still follow the Western Dub sound that you created on Devil’s Rope?

Paul, NC


A.        As a matter of fact, Badlands will be available by late Spring/early Summer of this year.  And Western Dub it will be, although it has evolved considerably since Devil’s Rope.  Work on Badlands actually began over two years ago but twice had to be put on hold while our attention was redirected to the Halloween at High Noon releases of 2007 and 2008.  Badlands is in post-production now, and there is every reason to believe that it will be finished before work on the new Halloween compilation begins.  The shelf time has been beneficial, though, as the music is turning out to be our best work to date – and that includes our pre-High Noon Records material.  We are very excited about this one.


Q.        Will you continue to express your political views through your music, as you did on Devil’s Rope?

Eric, CA


A.        Why, Eric, whatever do you mean?  Really, though, while I do see where you’re coming from, anything we put out there is up for the listener’s interpretation – and it seems we all now know what chord Devil’s Rope struck with you.  I do know that as a listener/fan, you sometimes want and look for that inside angle or background on a song or album.  However, I also know through experience that once you find it, disappointment is just as likely to be found as gratification is.  It’s a fine line, for sure.  I will say this much: Badlands is a much more personal album – at least it certainly feels that way to us.  How’s that for remaining noncommittal?


Q.        Any chance there will be vocals on a future Divine Sham release?

Audrey, OH


A.        Not out of the question, although Todd and I both agree that more often than not, lyrics/vocals can get in the way of a song – that, and adding vocals essentially doubles the time it takes us to complete one.  Will we ever do it?  Be careful what you wish for, but yeah, we could eventually go that way.  Until then, we’re holding out for Hope Sandoval or Liz McGrath to grace one of our songs with her voice.


I think that will do it for this entry.  Future entries will provide updates, more details of the release and possibly a free song download from Badlands.  Stay tuned…