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Released 2/4/2010.
Duration: ~46:02.

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1. (2:49) Three in the Morning by Clark Powell
2. (0:55) Blue Noir by David Ko
3. (2:17) Dead Shuffle by Mark J. Hadley
4. (2:12) Hearts Flush by Mark J. Hadley
5. (1:10) Knives and Ivory by Kevin Regamey
6. (2:10) Liquid Negrocity by Toby Fox
7. (2:24) Hollow Suit by Alex Rosetti
8. (2:33) Ante Matter by Mark J. Hadley
9. (1:48) The Ballad of Jack Noir by Toby Fox
10. (2:59) Lunar Eclipse by Michael Guy Bowman and Fenris
11. (2:16) Hauntjam by Andrew Huo and Michael Guy Bowman
12. (2:56) Carbon Nadsat/Cuestick Genius by Robert J! Lake
13. (6:29) Ace of Trump by Hilary Troiano
14. (2:39) Moonshine by Alex Rosetti
15. (1:33) Tall, Dark and Loathsome by Clark Powell
16. (2:16) Joker's Wild by Mark J. Hadley
17. (2:00) Livin' It Up by Gabriel Nezovic
18. (2:02) Hauntjelly by Andrew Huo and Ian Taylor
19. (2:34) Nightlife (Extended) by Bill Bolin

Added to wiki 11/15/2019.

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Artist commentary:

Andrew Hussie: (MSPA news post, excerpt) captured 2/7/2010

FAKE BANDS (they are not real)

I am here today to blindside you with a completely unanticipated, unforeshadowed album by the Midnight Crew.

Only two songs in this album have appeared in Homestuck pages: Three in the Morning, and Nightlife (both are extended versions in the album). The rest are new, never before heard, and all of them (including the first two I mentioned) were made specifically for this album.

I had this idea to start making "fake bands" based on various characters from MSPA some time ago, back when the music project was starting up and I soon realized I'd have way more music on my hands than I could possibly use in the story. MC was the first such band, which guys in the music community started working on stuff for last summer. The whole thing got sidetracked for a while, but we decided to finish it over the course of the intermission for obvious reasons. It turned into a 19 song monster album, and I think all the songs came out fantastic, and really match the group's motif quite well.

The idea behind the fake bands was to put a spin on a certain genre, in a way that seemed in keeping with the characters and what sort of music they'd make. In MC's case the genre is something we've been referring to as "dark jazz".

I'd like to keep putting out more albums by more bands, with more interesting spins on musical styles to help develop characters and their universe. There certainly seems to be enough talent to keep it coming. I really wouldn't mind flooding you guys with awesome original music, even if I can't manage to work most of it into animated pages. Which obviously I can't. But projects like these albums are the next best thing.

In addition to some familiar names like Hadley and Bowman, there are a lot of great new artists represented in this album, who haven't yet authored something appearing in HS. But the newer folks made some of my favorite stuff there. I recommend you give the whole thing a thorough listen. Thanks to everyone for working on this, and as always, thanks to Cindy for configuring all the tedious Bandcamp stuff.

And just to remind you, the artists make most of the money you pay for it. At $5.25 for 19 songs, we're talking a pretty serious bargain.

A final note: when I said it was unforshadowed, I guess that wasn't entirely true.

Homestuck: (Bandcamp credits blurb) captured 2/6/2010

Clark "Plazmataz" Powell
David Ko
Mark Hadley
Kevin Regamey
Toby "Radiation" Fox
Alexander Rosetti
Michael Guy Bowman
Fenris
Andrew Huo
Robert J! Lake
Hilary "Pie" Troiano
Gabe Nezovic
Ian Taylor
Bill Bolin

Homestuck: (whatpumpkin.com side blurb) captured 6/15/2010

The first "fake band" album. Composed and performed by the Midnight Crew. Or it would have been if they were real.

Michael Guy Bowman:

The Midnight Crew album was the first of our really high-concept releases with the fake bands, especially since we attempted to invent some kind of goth-jazz genre out of thin air, despite the team's minimal understanding of goth music or jazz.

Michael Guy Bowman: (Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music, adapted to text) 7/20/2024

This was, I think, right at the cusp of Bandcamp being a known platform, and for a minute when we started releasing these albums, they were, like, routinely the best sellers on there. At the same time that the Alabama Shakes were on there, like, breaking out as a band, it's like - "Wow! Look at this big indie band that's doing numbers using Bandcamp - this obscure platform!" We were routinely outselling (laugh) the Alabama Shakes. We were super stoked to just expand on that, with, uh, non-animation, non-interactive element contributions.

And, the first big thing that we did with that was the Midnight Crew album, where we took the Midnight Crew characters and said, well, they're actually a band, and this is their album, containing video-game-style jazz music on it. [...]

This was one of Andrew's initial ideas, which was like, there were going to be many many bands within the comic. He wanted to do something like, Gorillaz, but, different sets of characters. So, the Midnight Crew would be a band. And the Felt would be a band, and they made orchestral stuff for that - I wasn't a participant on that one, I was a little busy. And, I think we drifted away from the band concept... there were proposed bands that were never done, there was the two robot rappers who cameod but never really were expanded on, there was an interest in doing, sort of like, a robot hip-hop album, which would have been fun, had those characters gone anywhere... There was also the idea that, of course, each of the kids were going to have their signature instrument, you know, the piano, the violin, the beat maker, and the bass. The culmination of that would have been music that features those four instruments, as if it's like, well, here's the demo the band was making. This is what the four beta kids were doing in their spare time. I would have loved that one to see the light of day, I think that would have tied the comic together.