An abandoned/failed idea
I guess I'm not good with puppets
First off…
I really dropped the ball on writing these newsletters. I’m going to make an effort to get back into my intended plan of writing something for all of my releases, in chronological order. I need to finish up Right Handed Straw and I will do that, but I figured I’d post something just to say hello.
I’ve been busy with music and then not so busy with music. I obsessively worked on an album for a pretty long time and I kinda drove myself into the ground at the final stretch. It’s done, it’s in very capable hands for mixing and mastering, and it has found a home at an ideal location for me. I’m really excited for people to hear it. I put a lot into this one and I got to work with a lot of great artists too.
Welcome to any and all new subscribers. It seems like every time Buck posts something, I end up with new subscribers. With that in mind, here is a little Buck 65 related oddity.
A failed “Billy” promo video
Looking at the dates on some of the files, it was October of 2020 that I attempted to make this video. On May 1, 2020 I released a record that was originally titled “Tommy and Richie present “Billy.” Over time, I think it’s essentially just become “Billy.” Streaming services wouldn’t let me upload the album with Tommy and Richie in the title and not as listed artists. It was a huge pain in the ass to get it uploaded and I eventually just caved and simplified it to Billy.
Why all the fuss and why was it even called “Tommy and Richie present ‘Billy’”? Hard to believe now, but Buck was essentially retired and was hesitant to put anything out with the Buck 65 name on it. No hesitation in making the record with me, but we agreed to release it in this mysterious fashion. For months, it never said Buck 65 on it, but people figured it out pretty fast and were excited about his return. Amazingly, he flipped that hesitation upside down and has been so prolific in the years since.
Things feel a bit different now, but those were deep pandemic days and we were operating at a pretty small scale. The album originally came out on no label, just my bandcamp. It eventually ended up with a cassette and cd release on my Grey Carpet Records imprint and it got a super deluxe vinyl pressing through Handsmade.
After the album had been out for a bit and we were anticipating the vinyl pressing (which had a bunch of pandemic era setbacks), I had this idea to make a promo video for the album and have “Billy” be a puppet. For some reason, I liked the idea of the puppet not being super realistic or human. Something to detach it from some already established imagery. I ended up making a puppet out of cardboard and felt. I also made some versions out of clay. I can’t find it now and I may have thrown it away, but there was a head with the brains blown out for the “Solid Gold” scene. I found the hand and gun (below). I was going to try to do a 3D rotation of the headshot.
In the end, the puppet really didn’t move well. I was not skilled at puppetry, nor was I committed enough to get better at it. I made my first attempts at green screening too, which didn’t work out that great. In the end, it was a fun attempt, but the end result wasn’t anything usable. It’s possibly not even worth sharing here, but it’s kinda funny.
Unfortunately, some clips are missing and that’s why you see some empty placeholder boxes randomly floating through. It’s a super rough idea, like 10% of what I originally hoped to make, but sometimes you just swing and miss.
Here are some outtakes, including a piss scene. I definitely made myself laugh attempting that part.
The newsletter will continue, hopefully more to come soon.
In case you missed it, I released the instrumentals to the ShrapKnel “Nobody Planning To Leave” album. 3 variants with cover photography by Alexander Richter. The Green vinyl is almost completely gone. Grab a copy here.
Hell yea. That was ambitious. Thanks for sharing.