NEWS

I guess I forgot to update this site when Free Thinkers Are Dangerous came out, so I guess I'll do that now as well as fill you in on the other shit we've been doing lately. So first thing's first, FREE THINKERS IS FINALLY OUT. I am immensely proud of it (weird) and it sounds ten million times better than anything else we've ever done. GO LISTEN TO IT.  In other news, we played Reggie's music joint in Chicago on November 17th at 10am for the bears pre game show. Aside from dodging tornadoes, it was a great day. Go check out the pictures on the "LIVE" page.

And finally, we recently decided to record 2 shitty basement quality songs to release as a free download to all you hip people out there. We re-recorded the live favorite Lemonaid and Razorblade Factory as well as a new number called Hipsters are Too Mainstream yesterday afternoon. We mixed it, and released it on the same day. Go download it. NOW.

-Chris

NEW ALBUM OUT ON HALLOWEEN!!!

We've already released our debut full length Let's Break Their Arms as well as it's follow up Let's Break Their Legs [E.P.] this year, but we wanted to squeeze another one in just for good measure. Our second full length album Free Thinkers Are Dangerous will be out Halloween 2013! (October 31). We will begin recording in a couple weeks.

In other news, we've played a couple shows since we've updated this site last, and have another one planned for August 3rd at Swing State in Lake Villa, Illinois. You should come out and see us (and the other bands, of course) if you're in the area and drink some coffee.

FREE THINKERS ARE DANGEROUS!

Let's Break Their Legs is Out Now!

Here's about 3 days worth of recording and mixing. It's a cool little bundle of songs. BUY IT.

LET'S BREAK THEIR LEGS EP! OUT APRIL 22

The minimally anticipated, half assed follow up to Let's Break Their Arms will be released via Bandcamp on the 22nd of this month! It touches on subjects such as Logan's step-mom plotting my murder, insanity, a Lemonaid and Razorblade factory, Jodi Arias, and more! you don't want to miss this. Maybe you do, I don't know.

LET'S BREAK THEIR ARMS IS FINALLY OUT!

Yes, it's really true. After years of plotting, planning, demoing, and crying, Let's Break Their Arms has actually been released for all the world to hear. 15 songs about such topics as oppression, murder, insanity, and being locked in Logan's basement.

We finally did it. ENJOY (or don't).

NEWS!

I don't want to screw around so here's the deal. Our last post (regarding the recording of Let's Break Their Arms), is no longer valid because starting on New Year's day (whooptie doo), we began RE-recording Let's Break Their Arms in studio quality WITH vocals! I (Chris) wasn't sure if I was up to singing this crazy stuff, but it's turning out to not suck as bad as I thought it would! (it still sucks though)..

We plan on getting this thing up for sale on Valentine's Day (February 14th), the most un-punk day of the year! We're distributing it on our own with no help from a label for dirt cheap ($3 USD for a digital download and $5 for a physical copy) just to get it out there. We would give it away for free, but we'd like to make a few bucks for all the effort and put it towards some microphones and recording equipment so we don't have to worry about borrowing it like we did for this album. 

If you'd like to keep up with us (we don't update this page too often), you can give us a "Like" on our facebook page where we post news & updates quite often.

http://www.facebook.com/AMammothTask


And also to get the ball rolling for Let's Break Their Arms, we decided to release one of our favorites off of the album. The swingy, weird, Overnight Headaches.  On Valentine's Day, arms will be broken! (but hopefully not ours - we need them to play. But seriously, don't break anyone's arms). Let's do this.

-Chris

The Recording of "Let's Break Their Arms" (DEMOS)

The day I went to Logan Huber’s Antioch, Illinois home to record our debut album  (EDIT: the album was RE recorded in January of 2013), I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Things like “is it going to sound better than the scratch recordings?” “are we going to fail miserably?” were all things going through my head at the time. I was greeted at the corner of the street where the house was situated, and we went into the house. I briefly said hello to his dad, and we went into the basement. All of his parts (drums & guitars) with the exception of a few guitar licks were already recorded so there was plenty of time to jam before I recording the bass parts.



During “The Big Cheese” (at least I think it was), my left thumb was pointing up the neck of the bass for what ever reason, so when I slid my hand down to get to the first fret, I split the tip of my thumb open on the “E” tuning machine. It bled quite a bit but nothing was going to stop us from seizing this day that we had waited for for so long. A MAMMOTH TASK doesn’t even describe what we went through to get this far so when the opportunity presented itself to get this album done, we were on it like flies on dog shit. I began to track bass at around 1:00 PM starting with the heavily bass oriented “Overnight Headaches” and then going back to the first track “The Big Cheese” and onward through each song one after the next much like playing a live set. Every now and again I would f*** up so we’d have to track over a part of a song several times until I got it right. But there’s nothing special about that. What was funny that I’ll always remember is Logan saying “hold it, holdd itttt” after I’d hit the last note of a song. I think I stood up from the computer chair I was in probably once the whole time we were tracking bass (Just to put that into perspective – we started at 1:00 PM and didn’t have the first CD completed until after 1:00 AM).



When we played it back, we thought the bass sounded a little boomy, but figured it was just the shitty desktop speakers we were using. We left the “Mom’s Basement Studio” and crashed in the little living room thingy next door while watching something shitty on MTV. Fun fact: I slept on a 3 and a half foot long love seat and Logan slept on an air mattress that wouldn’t hold air. By morning my back and legs didn’t work anymore and Logan’s ass was on the linoleum. Worst nights sleep ever. When we finally staggered to his room, we decided to listen to the recording we created the previous day. When we put the CD into the CD player, we immediately noticed the bass was UNGODFULLY LOUD. OI. Besides that, it was the greatest thing ever. Because it was us. Our first review came from Logan’s brother. As we listened, a slight grin came over his face from the corner of the room where he was seated, and then 2 words that will always stick with me. 2 words that will always apply to this band.



“This Sucks.”


Those 2 words still haven’t left me. I got home that afternoon, played a couple of the songs on the stereo, picked up a bass and played through a few of them, then swore I never wanted to hear any of them again as long as I lived. And now, at the present day, I love the album dearly for all the sentiment it holds. The look on other people’s faces when they listen to it may be one of horror and dismay, but the look on ours is usually a grin as we proudly exclaim:



“It sucks, doesn’t it!”

WHAT'S UP WITH US?

Well, besides trying to find musicians in our area willing to put on skinny jeans play songs about being angry, Logan thinks his ankles are sexy and he just finished an intense 709 page coloring book, and I yelled at some weird middle aged woman today because her kids are evil. What interesting lives us punk rockers live. 

The hunt to find friends is still not working out too well though...

-Chris 

UPDATE

So as some might know, Anything we've ever recorded features Logan playing the guitar and the drums because we've never had a drummer (2 years as a "band" without a drummer seems crazy but as a studio band with a guitar player/drummer it works, right?). Well that might change soon. Logan did a little bit of searching and found a drummer that everyone says is pretty good (and he liked what he heard off the album). We have yet to audition him and hear him play, but we're hoping he's awesome and fits right in.

Keeping our fingers crossed. 

Happy New Year! + An Update

Yes, another year has come and gone in the blink of an eye. Let's hope 2012 doesn't suck as bad as 2011 (I guess I can only speak for myself when I say that).  In other news, I (Chris) have been so fed up with record labels and how they operate, I decided to start my own and sign A Mammoth Task to it. "Ingleside Records" won't screw us over anytime soon.  Yes, self releasing in such crazy times seems crazy, but I (for some reason) feel like it's the right thing to do. Keep an eye out, we're going to pop up when you least expect us. Get ready.


2012. The year of A MAMMOTH TASK  

ALBUM UPDATE

Well, I did end up going over there that weekend and recording the bass parts. What a riot.  That finished up the music parts. Now, vocals. Total approximate time spent recording so far: 14 hours.  In other exciting news, Logan (Guitar) has decided he is going to be doing the lead vocals (I have yet to hear an updated vocal demo from Logan but I'm excited nonetheless).


Here is the current track listing for our debut 15 song epic (well probably not epic to anyone else besides us)...

1. The Big Cheese

2. When The World Made Sense

3. Imprisoned

4. The Choice

5. Labor Day Weekend

6. Infrared

7. Black Eyes

8. Full Of It

9. Make Believe

10. Overnight Headaches

11. The Art Of Fear

12. Burning Embers

13. American Dream

14. Chapter 1

15. Focus


Oh, and you can check out the current rough mixes of Make Believe and The Art Of Fear on the "MUSIC" page.

-Chris

ALBUM NEWS

Today, Logan (Guitar) recorded all the drum parts and most of the guitar parts for the debut album "Let's Break Their Arms".  I will hopefully be recording the bass parts next weekend. More to come.

-Chris

Let's Make This Official...

Let it be known that we are the first to use the name "A Mammoth Task" (it's been extensively researched and no bands by that name have surfaced).

More to come about the band...