Weird Tales Playlist

I recently set up a recording studio so I could get back into recording some of my songs. I started out with a crazy project called Groon Radio just to loosen up and get into the swing of things. Now that I’ve got that out of my system, I am now working on a new project.

I have been reading the old Weird Tales Magazines from the 1920s, and I thought it would be a fun experiment to use the common tropes found in weird literature. Haunted houses, ghosts, unknown creatures, space aliens, flying saucers, men from Mars, strange sea creatures, mysterious voyages, voodoo, magic, witchcraft, mental anguish of war, end of the world scenarios, hospitals, aging, the loss of love, the difficulty of marriages gone wrong.

I also wanted to create a character and an atmosphere for each song. Voices influenced by Boris Karloff, Mel Blanc, Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Sid & Marty Krofft, Dr. Seuss, Sponge Bob, and Bowie. Each song is a different place, with a different feel. The only thing binding them together is the weird trip it takes you on.

I totally geeked out making the Weird Tales videos, that I’d like to call, Tales Too Terrible To Tell. I used Cartoon Animator 4 to bone and animate the characters to make them move or sing. I used Toonly to make the flat 2D animated bits. Wondershare Filmora is my video editor that has all the shiny elements and bling. I generate A.I. images and then fix them up in Photoshop for many of the characters and backgrounds in these videos.

I Love Driving My Car

This years data concludes that carbon emissions are at an all time high. This year marks the fourth highest increase ever recorded. Here’s a stupid video about it all.

Nursey

Nursey is now on Spotify

I have found a new addiction, and it’s playing around with A.I. technology. I buy tokens, and I have to spend 30 tokens every time I generate an image. I have to write my description, and the A.I. makes the art. I get four different images each time, hoping at least one is what you are hoping for.

Every time I write a new description, and wait for my four pieces of artwork, I get a huge thrill from the ups and lows. It can take about a minute or so for the artificial intelligence to make the art, and then it downloads to your computer. It’s a short wait, but it builds so much anticipation waiting to see what you get. It’s a total dopamine rush. When I describe what I want really well, I get what I ask for, and the results are spectacular. When I am too vague, I have just spent money on a bum batch of art that I can’t use. The bad results make me want to have another go by refining my terms.

Writing the query is like searching on Google, but instead, you’re searching your imagination. If you have ever had to speak in such a literal fashion to get what you want from a stubborn 10 year old, you are ready to make A.I. art. You have to go into details and be very descriptive, so it’s a fun challenge to try and figure out how to communicate with the machine, and collaborate to make wonderfully disturbing images.

Since I love all things slightly unsettling, artificial intelligence tweaks my brain each time it wraps a third leg, or merges arms into the chair a character is sitting in, I like how it hurts my brain. I want to make sense of it all, but it doesn’t always make sense. It looks all normal at first, but then you notice that it’s not right. Something is wrong, and it’s not from this universe at all.

Land of the Home

Land of the home. Free of the brave. Music by Jay E Moores

Land of the Home. Free of the Brave. Music and Animation by Jay E Moores. Now on Spotify!

When I was a kid I asked my grandfather why he walked with a limp. He told me a story about how he got injured in World War II. During the Battle of the Bulge he said a mortar went off and it blew his head and chest apart. As he lay there dying, he overheard the medics say, “This one is far too gone to save, let’s move on.” And he had to scream, “I am alive!” to be rescued. He said all he could think about was getting home to my grandmother. He promised her that he would come home to marry her, and he kept that promise. They rebuilt his skull with a metal plate that would forever set off airport security. They would repair all of his chest wounds and heal his body, although forever riddled with scars where the crippling shrapnel had pierced the flesh and blood of his able and lithe 20 year old body. I was to be born twenty years later in 1964. Long enough for the man to heal, raise a couple daughters who then married, so that in turn I was born. I owe my very existence to the fact that my grandfather had the tenacity to get home after that injury. My grandfather walked with a limp, and I knew why. He was afraid the fighting would get to us if he didn’t go to war. He didn’t want to see war in our backyard, and he felt it was coming, especially if he didn’t do anything about it. He went so the crosshairs of the battle would be on him because he did not want to wait until the enemy was taking aim at one of us. In the land of the home. Free of the brave.

Land of the home. Free of the brave.

The army characters in the video above were generated using the AI feature in Buildbox Classic, touched up in Photoshop, bone animated using Cartoon Animator, and the final video was edited using Wondershare Filmora. Animated GIF eagle logo was made using Inkscape, Photoshop, and Adobe Image Ready. Music was recorded using Garageband. Nerd out!

Hooligan Heart

Here is a song by Miss Hazel. Her lovely voice sings backing vocals on many of my songs. She also played a lot of keyboard tracks, and bass tracks. Here she is singing and playing ukulele. She told me that this song was inspired from the books, How To Train Your Dragon. I made the creepy animated doll video. Your welcome.

I Am Alive ~ YouTube

I am slow but surely getting my crazy animated videos up for my songs. As I complete each one I post it on YouTube into a playlist. Listen to my new album, I Am Alive, and watch my strange animated videos. Thank you!

Far Away From Home

I have been a camp counselor in the arts and crafts room since 1984. That’s about 3 generations, so now I teach the kids of my kids from the 80’s. They all look like their moms! It’s a bit surreal.

Because I love all things summer camp, I write a lot of campfire songs while I am there. Go Gray! Sorry, I lose my head when I start to think about camp.

This song is about all the insecurities that flood my brain before each summer. Being a camp counselor is a really hard job, but you usually end up meeting the best friends of your entire life, so it’s worth it. The balance between extreme difficult conditions and amazing people to suffer along side, really creates a bond that is like none other. Spend 8 weeks without a break in the woods of Maine with a bunch of strangers, and you will see that at the end of the 8 weeks, you will be strangers no more. It gets ugly, and it gets beautiful. The mix can be overwhelming. I love it.

I would like to thank Wiggly Loaf and Camp Wiggly for the animation in this video. Check out the Wiggly Loaf mobile games at: WigglyLoaf.com

This is a song from my new album, I Am Alive, and I beg you to check it out while I still am. Thanks in advance. Jay~

Barely Alive

I tend to be a perfectionist. Usually a promise from me is as good as done. When things fall apart, and failure is unavoidable, I tend to stress out. I don’t like to brand myself with failure. I want to reach my goal and accomplish the things I set out to achieve.

This song is about those times when my word meant nothing. When I did not do as I said, for whatever reason. When things went wrong. In troubled times such as this, all I have is the chance to react properly to the mistake. When I step up to fix it, to erase the error, all I can hope is that people believe I am trying with all I have, to do what is right. To do as I promised.

I put so much pressure on myself, but it’s because I care. You have no idea what I put myself through. Maybe this song will help explain. Peace out, much love. Jay ~

Broom Hopping Video Game

Broom Hopping

 

Hey we are very happy to share our latest Halloween Video Game for iOS and Android called: Broom Hopping! This game was inspired by the Rain Station song of the same name from the CD, Dark Ride. Help the kitty hop hop hop from broom stick to broom stick as the witches fly past. It’s fun. Download for free! Check out more Rain Station Halloween music, animation, and games at: JackOLantern.ORG ~ Happy Halloween!

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/broom-hopping/id1481612131

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jemoores.broomhop