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.

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!

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

Diabolique: Get Your Spook On

Diabolique Magazine

Heather Drain and Diabolique Magazine were kind enough to include Rain Station Dark Ride in their list of must own Halloween CDs. Check out, Music To Get Your Spook On. You can listen to the Dark Ride CD or watch the Halloween Animations at JackOLantern.ORG ~ So glad to be included (we’re number two on the list), Mark and I love this time of year. Rain Station = Halloween!!!!

Science!!!

Mark came over to work on some of the tracks we started back in 2009. Instead of doing much of that, we started a whole new Halloween song. It’s October, we can’t help it. We have to make Halloween music.

Science!!! Animated Halloween Music by Rain Station

Rain Station on Band Camp

Mark took the time to load the Rain Station catalog including our earliest home 4 track recordings to BandCamp.com, many of which I no longer had. Too many of my old CD-R discs died over the years, so it’s nifty to hear these ancient relics. Thanks Mark for digging out the master archives of these tunes and bringing them back to life!

Listen Hear! Rain Station on BandCamp