Digital Channels Coming Online

Hey people. I thought I'd give an update on where we're at with having the CD available through digital channels like Amazon, iTunes, et al. The last I heard from our digital distributor they are in the process of posting the CD online. Currently, it's available at the following locations:

@Cornerstone Church (In Boulder, CO)
http://www.digstation.com
http://www.cdbaby.com

Hopefully, it will be available through the other locations soon.

Show Aired on Corner Cafe

On July 4th the show featuring the Least of These project aired on KLTT AM radio 670. We're about half-way through initial lot of 1000 CDs. So, if you haven't had a chance to buy one, please do. Also, they're good Christmas gifts for friends and fam. Bless the one's you know as well as the ones you don't!

Corner Cafe Update

Gabe, Jaron, and I finished the radio show this afternoon and we had a great time. We talked about the Least of These project and played a live version of Jesus Come Back. Rachel (the host) will also play a few songs off of the CD.

In the previous post I said that the show was going to air on Saturday the 3oth. We found out today that it's actually going to air on July 4th at 3:00 pm.

Mercy House Offering and Radio Show

We gave our first gift to Mercy House today at church. I believe it was the first offering from the CD sales. Thanks everyone for buying CDs! It's been a huge blessing to see God working through our body to bless the least of these. Check out Mercy House's web site for more info on their organization.

Also, this week Gabe, Jaron, and I will be on the Corner Cafe radio show talking about the Least of These worship project with Rachel Mains. It will be on AM radio station 670 KLTT. Tune in at 3:00 pm this coming Saturday (May 30th) if you get a chance.

El Video - The Lord's Prayer

Here it is - as promised. Be careful not to "rock out" too much. This video has a tendancy to induce revalry and good ol' fashioned hooliganism (Jesus style).

Rock Video - Coming to 'Puter Near You!

This Sunday at church we showed the uber-sweet music video for "The Lord's Prayer" from the Cornerstone Worship CD. We'll be uploading it to YouTube for your perpetual viewing pleasure. Just loop it and play it for your close family - and heck, even your extended family...especially your mom. Stacy Dee is rockin with the youth band, and it's KRAY-Z! The video features a freaky robot dance by the staff at Cornerstone as well few other big-name cameos. As soon as we get it uploaded I'll post the link. Until then...get into your "oh, how He loves us-ness".

The Eagle Has Landed!

The shipment of CDs arrived on Friday (5/8). They'll be available at church this Sunday morning (Mother's Day). Buy one for mom! :)

Getting Close!

Hey people...we're getting close! I'm excited to say that the CDs shipped today, so we should be getting them sometime around this Friday (5/8). I think there's still some set up to do at the church to sell them, but we'll try to work through that soon. The initial batch of CDs is going to be 1000. It's worth noting that the CD will be available to purchase online within a couple of weeks.

Vocalist Pics

Here are a few pics from a recording session a few weeks ago.

Jacob, Mackenzie, Haley, and Hannah

Isaac and Oscar: I think they dig the head phones!

Who's the guy rubbing his beard on the microphone shield?

Carmen, Janan, and Shannon

Rick is a singin' tambourine-shakin' machine!

Matt and Carmen

CD Complete - Next Step: Shipping

OK people...it's been a long and arduous road, but I wanted to let you know that the CD is complete! We finished the mastering and artwork today. The next step is to send the master and artwork to the CD production company (Disk Makers). They'll send us some proofs, and after we sign off on them, we'll get a box of 1000 CDs in about 4 weeks - I'm expecting to get the CDs sometime around the 3rd week of May. We're almost there, people! :)

And They Sang!

Last night I spent a bit in the studio with the singers. We had Lauren, Jan, Janan, Rick, Matt, and Chad in the studio working on background vocals. It only took 30 minutes for them to learn biblical Hebrew - impressive! Every one of you guys missed your calling as ancient Semitic language professors. Unfortunately, we didn't have a camera, so you have to just imagine this group slaving away all night in a hot room under highly sensitive microphones. Tonight another group of background vocalists will go into the studio to hopefully finish of the congregational sound. I'm taking the day off from my day job to spend a full day in the studio tomorrow. I'm going to try my hands at some gitfiddle, and I'll redo some vocals on Beautiful Jesus if we have time.

Bez...poor Bez. He's sicky-poo. But he's still making this happen. I'll pray for him tomorrow if he's still hackin'. If you read this, lift him up...we're coming down to the wire, and he's the glue - and the glue can't be sicky-poo. Know what I'm sayin? Mastering is scheduled for April 6 (less than two weeks away), so we have a hard stop that morning. The plan is to have all recording mixing, and CD artwork done by that date. Please pray for perseverance, divine inspiration, and push-it-over-the-goal-line-ness.

Artwork, Bass, and More!

This week Bez has been really busy. I think the studio has been his home away from home. He finished tracking bass with Steve (great job Steve!). Also, last night, Steve (bass), Gil (keys), Chris (percussion), and I recorded a live version of Adonai Ro-i (Psalm 23). We left pretty late, so I'm dragging at work today.

Bez let us hear some of the other songs in progress - Holy, Father, Let Joy Arise, Beautiful Jesus, and The Lord's Prayer. The album is really taking shape, and the team has done some really beautiful stuff. I really feel like God is blessing the work we've put into this!

Next week Bez is bringing in the vocalists to do a lot of vocal work. The April 6th deadline is fast approaching when we'll be in the mastering studio putting on the final touches.

On the artwork front - Luke Flowers is starting the concept this week for the front cover, and he has some neat ideas. I should get a preview of the artwork this weekend, and I'm looking forward to that. We're still tracking to have the final product towards the end of May.

Here's a picture of Chris warming up to the djembe for Let Joy Arise. Remember Chris - ONE, two, three, AND! :)~

Bass Man-n-Lady Pics

Here's an update from Bez on the bass sessions (pictured below). Also, we're blessed to have Luke Flowers (http://www.lukeflowers.com) do the artwork for the CD. He's done other CDs like Enter the Worship Circle and Ellary - cool stuff!

"The pianist didn't make it so we decide to do some improve piano with sweet pea - liz's chuwwawwa. Steve laid down a killer bass performance on Wide World and Alpha Omega."

Sick 'em Sweet Pea!

Strange and wonderful people doing strange and wonderful things...

Awww...

Bass On Deck!

Here's a quick email update from Bez (aka Mikhael)...

"so the plan is to track bass guitar to get a nice foundation for all the overdub instruments i'll be scheduling out other musicians as soon as i get a bass tracking date from steve. M"

Steve is the venerable bass player you see on the worship team pretty much every Sunday. He just got married, so we were Steveless for a while. But now he's back. Steve, can we get any honeymoon pics?

Acoustic Week Bliss

This week we made some good progress tracking acoustic guitar. Gabe and I worked on a few songs, but there's some work to do in this area. I have a few pictures below of the acoustic sessions.

Here's the Gabinator gettin' gritty with the gitfiddle.














Here's a picture of me (Damian) "walking in the light."




And one more picture...this one's a bit odd. When I was recording I was so tired that I lost the ear bud for the ear monitors. Guess where it was? Well...in my ear, of course (if I only had a nickle). We thought this was pretty funny, so Bez took a snapshot for posterity. Sorry about this...the faint of heart may want to look away.

Bez Shaved and...

Well, Bez shaved. I would've begged him not too, but he told me after the fact. Don't fear - I'm still saying true to my end of bargain, though. Last night we were in the studio and I saw it first hand - clean shaven Bez. Why, Bez, why? We were tracking acoustic guitar last night for Alpha Omega and Beautiful Jesus. We started working on Adonia Ro-i, but both of us were tired and we called it quits for the night. Unfortunately, I drank a bunch of coffee and couldn't go to sleep once I got home (sorry Carmen). So this week, Bez is tracking acoustic guitar and I think he's going to try and get the bass recorded as well.

In other news - I made some calls today to the mastering company as well as the company that will actually make the CDs. Based on what we're looking at so far, hopefully we'll receive the CDs the 2nd or 3rd week of May. We're planning for the music to be available online as well through sites like iTunes and CD Baby. This may affect the day we were planning on doing the Corner Cafe radio show, but I'm waiting to hear back on that. Ideally, we would do the show after the CDs are available.

We'll have more pictures to post soon - we took some freaky ones last night that I can't wait to share. :)

An Ode to Harry-ness

Dear reader...the purpose of this post is to inform you of a recent "decision." Bez (aka Mikhael) informed me this last Sunday at church that we are growing beards until the project is complete. So I'm in; Bez is in...any other takers?

Also, I (Damian) am going into the studio tonight to record some guitar tracks. Bez painstakingly completed the drum edits last week, and now it's time to layer on the instruments.

Kickin' Da Beat!

Boom, chick! Boom, chick! That's what I'm talking about. Bez tracked drums Mon., Tues., and Wed.. this week. We had three different drummers contribute - Jason Levy, Bob Abott, and John Fitch. I have to hand it to these guys...they worked hard to complete the drum tracking for 11 songs over the course of 3 days. Bez had to stay late and clean up all the sweat and blood. That's what I call sacrifice.

Here's a little 411 on the drama that played out during drum tracking. It took at least 4 hours on Monday night to set up, tune, and mic the drum kit. Bob splatted the snare (goovy speak for broken). The toms wouldn't in stay in tune. Then more sadness. Bez was missing 12 patch cables. Called Gitfiddle Center - no dice. The Guitfiddle Center owner saved the day by selling from his personal stashes. Spiritual warfare in technicolor!

We’ll, this is a little gift from Bez (aka Mikhael) – it’s the world through his eyes. It’s the Bez-eye-view! Thanks Bez, I feel so much closer to you now. [sniff sniff]










Bez is pictured below with a hearty thumbs up, as he’s holding the chutzpa (holy guts). These are the patch cables I was talking about. See the pure joy in his face? That’s non-verbals for “The Lord Provides!”










Then there’s Boballoo, the drummer who loves Jesus (not that the other drummers don’t). I don’t think anyone calls him that – just me. But I like it, so I’m going with it (sorry Bob). See the intensity in his face as he wrestles with the snare drum. It’s like the ultimate fighting championship (I don’t recommend this). This epic battle is biblical in proportion - it’s like Jacob wrestling with Almighty God. In the end, Boballoo got the better of his nemesis, and he went on to lay down some sweet drum tracks. Hey Boballoo, how’s the hip?










We gotta-a-lotta love hear people. Below we have the same kit, but different drummers. In the following picture, Jason is receiving wookie-love from the Gabinator. Don’t ask me, but I’m hearing non-verbals from Jason along the lines of, “Dude, um…this is a little close, huh?”













John is pictured on the below doing the full on red-eye. I’ve always thought to myself that people look possessed when they have red-eye. This time I’m just going to assume John is possessed – but by the Holy Spirit. If you get a magnifying glass you’ll see it – it’s cool and spooky all at the same time. Holy Spirit come!

The Camera of Bez!

Hey everyone...a quick heads up. Bez (aka Mikhael), got a li'l camera (pictured right), so we'll be seeing some more pictures of the artists in the studio in the near future. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm waiting on baited breath!

Quick Recording Status

Here's a quick status on recording from Bez (pictured left). Bez says, "I'll be tracking drums this tuesday and wednesday for all the songs on the album. After that, I'll edit the drums, after that we'll have the musicians come in and layer overdubs."

In this picture, Bez is whackin' on the 'puter and picking food out of his teeth with his tongue all at the same time. Now that's talent!

Below is a picture of the Great Brandini...he's singing some background vocals in the isolation booth. Hey Brandini...don't be isolatin'!

Scheduling Musicians

This week Bez is scheduling drummers to start recording the instrumentation. Mastering is scheduled to begin the first or second week of April. I'm really psyched to see these songs develop as we add in the instrumentation. We'll try to get some studio pics in subsequent posts.

A Little History

Back in the fall of 2008 Gene Binder (the senior pastor of Cornerstone) gave a sermon on "The Least of These," and there followed an outpouring from the congregation in the form of ideas and projects to help the people described in Matthew 25.

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' - verse 40

One of those projects was envisioned by the worship team, and became "The Least of These" worship project. The idea was to make a CD with original worship music (written and performed by Cornerstone artists) and sell as many as we could to support ministries for the poor in Israel as well as the sex trafficing of children in Asia. During the 2008 Christmas Eve services, Gene asked for a love offering to support the worship project and we received more than enough to cover the production costs of the CD. It reminds me of one of Israel's first worship projects where they were instructed to build the tabernacle and the people responded with overwhelming support. Have a read of Exodus 35:4-29...there's some pretty cool parallels here.

After we received the funding from the church Mikhael Binder (the producer) assembled the artists, and the writers started contributing songs in the form of "scratch tracks." Scratch tracks are basically simple recordings with a minimal set of instrumentation and vocals to capture the jist of the song. This started in Jan. '09. Within a month we had 17 scratch tracks recorded at the Epicenter Studios in Longmont, Colorado. From here forward I'll call Mikhael "Bez", because he's like Bezalel described in the book of Exodus.

"Then Moses said to the Israelites, 'See, the LORD has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic craftsmanship."

By early Feb. '09, Bez had assembled a list of 11 songs that would become the track listing for the first CD. Here's the list as it stands today.

1. You Are
2. Faith
3. The Lord's Prayer
4. Beautiful Jesus
5. Jesus Come Back
6. Holy Father
7. Wide World
8. Let Joy Arise
9. Pslam 23
10. Alpha Omega
11. Our God

Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to keep everyone up to date on the status of "The Least of These" worship project of Cornerstone Church in Boulder, Colorado. We'll try to keep this relatively frequent with weekly updates. :)