Daily OpusEverything I write is freely rebloggable. Just keep the source and tell people about my books :D [Until I decide otherwise, my pronouns are Ze/Hir/Hirself. As in "Ze went to the shops to get hir medication hirself". Thank you for the respect.]
What’s that? Two of our favorite groups of peop- I mean…bots? Wait. Two of our favorite creative groups have announced that they’re working together! Check out the info below, and check out the rest HERE! If you haven’t checked out Steam World Dig (Image & Form’s last title), now would be a great time ;) Also, check out that BRAND NEW taste of Steam Powered Giraffe music above!
Yes, the rumors have been true: Steam Powered Giraffe is working on the soundtrack for Image & Form’s anticipated multi-platform space strategy adventure SteamWorld Heist, due in spring 2015. The quirky San Diego-based band (that just so happens to feature humans parading as antique singing automatons) will not only make all the songs and in-game music forSteamWorld Heist, but will also be featured in the game as a troupe that Captain Piper and her crew encounter in bars while recruiting fighters. Image & Form CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson is happy: “A SteamWorld game about steam-powered robots featuring real-world steam-powered robots. It’s perfect!”
According to Jennifer’s Beret, the Spine once owned many hats. It is rumored that behind closed doors, these hats fought over who got to wear him because he made them all look good. Now, only Fedora remains.
(So is that the right idea?)
[AN: Yes it is]
(#00652 - A287)
There used to be a Hall of Hats, just like there is a Hall of Faces in Walter Manor. It isn’t there, any more. It got re-absorbed owing to it’s emptiness. Why?
Well, for that story, one must understand a few things. For example: Walter Manor is one of the few places on the Mundane Plain that is riddled with Kazooland magic. The house, since it has been continuously loved for generations, is alive.
Things can be imbued with life. All it takes is enough love. Or, in a pinch, enough Belief.
Before they took him away for his military overhaul, The Spine had loved each and every one of his hats. He would play them elaborate sonatas on the violin. And he had a roster so that no hat would feel neglected.
That all changed because of Vietnam.
They took him away in the 50’s. And he didn’t come back until the 70’s.
And during those twenty years… well… things got ugly.
“He hasn’t come, today,” murmured the Beret. “It’s my turn and he hasn’t come today.”
“It was my turn, yesterday,” said the Trilby. “He didn’t come then, either.”
“Maybe we should look for him,” said the Tam o’Shanter.
“Maybe he decided he doesn’t like us,” worried the Toque.
“Nonsense,” insisted the Boater. “He loves all of us. He must have… got caught up in something.”
"You only say that because you’re the oldest,” said a young and cocky Fedora. “If it were up to strength, some of you old dusters would be shredded.”
“I’ll take you on,” challenged a Top Hat. “I’ll take you all on!”
Many of the cloth hats were the first to fall. Torn asunder by others’ brooches, pins, and hard edges. It was when some hit on the idea of using weapons that things went mad.
No holds barred. Survival of the vicious. The youngest amongst them had the most to fight for.
It was the most brutal war that had ever been fought inside of one room.
*
Power on. Systems green. The Spine opened his eyes and saw his friends. His family.
“Welcome back, th’ Spine,” cheered Rabbit.
The Spine was never happier to see his[1] face. Or the beaming grin of The Jon. The man in the lab coat was not the Peter Walter he remembered. “Mister Walter, I presume?”
The young man nodded. “That’s right. Another Peter Walter. You’re good to go. Need anything?”
The Spine reached up to touch his head. Bare. The helmet he’d perched up there must have run off. Or rusted. Kind of a mercy. He didn’t really like helmets. “One of my hats, if you please, Mister Walter.”
“…uh…” said one of the Walter Workers. “There’s only… one… hat. In The Spine’s room.”
Odd. Something must have happened to them. “That hat will do, thank you ma’am.”
It was a black Fedora. Which matched his black clothes. Stylish and simple… although it had a slight nick on its outer edge.
We’re probably just going to wear giant solid color foam three dimensional shapes on stage. I’ll be a green pyramid, Hatchworth will be an orange sphere, and Rabbit will be a blue dodecahedron.
People will question our aesthetic choices…and we will simply flip them the bird under our giant solid color foam three dimensional shape costumes.
Art prompt?
Here’s my quick MS Paint interpretation. Someone else’s turn now :P
On the plus side, the makeup was working. On the minus side, everyone was giving him the stink-eye because he’d decided to test it during an extended costume party all over Paris.
The Spine considered it a point of merit that he had to buy a cheap mask on a stick just to ward off hostility.
One of the Peters would yell at him later for getting paint in his seams, but… it felt so good to walk among them and pretend, just for a moment, that he wasn’t a piece of heavy equipment and he could go where he wanted and do what he liked. Just like them.
He found himself fetched up by an old Cabaret, where musicians jammed in the street side. The war was over. There was no reason to keep the party indoors.
He picked up a bass guitar and joined in. The existing guitarist, a bulky fellow in mostly white, nodded coyly and challenged him to sing along.
He had a really high voice for someone that big.
“Look around - there’s another mask behind you,” sang the big fellow.
“Flash of mauve / Splash of puce,” the Spine challenged
“Fool and king / Ghoul and goose,” answered the French giant.
“Green and black / Queen and priest…”
“Trace of rouge / Face of beast…”
“Faces! Take your turn, take a ride…”
“On the merry-go-round / in an inhuman race!”
“Ah, Honeybee,” teased a vision in crinoline and lace. Rabbit. She had a fine fake moustache on a stick and no other attempt to blend in. “Ya know that one ain’t g-g-gonna fly outside’a the Masques.” She turned and grinned at him. “Hey, Th’ Spine. I see ya finally met Frankie.”
“Francoeur,” corrected the giant.
Rabbit blew him a kiss. “I c-c-can only g-get away with callin’ him Honeybee…”
“Wait,” The Spine boggled. “We all thought you hallucinated him.”
This is the original version of “I am Not Alone”. Some of you might own the “old” version of Steam Powered Giraffe’s Album One, and you might know how Erin “Upgrade” sang this song on the album… I wrote the song for Upgrade. She gave me one line of lyric that she wanted me to incorporate when I was creating the song, and I used it.
Believe it or not, Michael Reed and I recorded the entire song without Rabbit or The Jon. I played rhythm guitar, piano and sang the lead vocals. Mike did bass and drums. Mike then added harmonies and he had me add more harmonies on top of those. We then had Upgrade sing along to my vocal track and recorded her. My lead vocals were removed and that was that. When we kicked her out of the group, we re-did Album One, taking out all of her harmonies and putting in whatever “follow-along tracks” we had recorded for her to sing along to if any existed. We were actually going to keep I Am Not Alone in and just use the “original” recording that didn’t yet have Upgrade’s voice on it… That didn’t happen obviously…and we went with “Ice Cream Parade” instead.
So here it is. The original “I am Not Alone” before we replaced my lead vocals with Erin’s “Upgrades”. No one outside of the band has ever heard this before. Enjoy. Also, you’ll have to excuse the weird cutoffs on some parts…as it was a placeholder track.
P.S. - Just imagine The Spine and Michael Reed doing a duet together :3 Ahaha!
But then. I felt. The spines hand.
Gone. Completely. I’ve just. Lost it.
<3 thank you for this David. :) It’s beautiful!
This needs to be on a future album. It’s too sweet and beautiful to leave moulder in the archives.
