By Alex Rosetti albatrosssoup Bandcamp albatrosssoup SoundCloud rosettimusic Tumblr YouTube YouTube albatrosssoup Twitter.
Cover art by Homestuck.
Released 2/4/2010.
Duration: 2:39.

Listen on Bandcamp or YouTube.

Download sheet music files.
Read artist commentary.

Flashes & games that feature Moonshine:

• Of Bloodthurst and Bratwurst

Print or download sheet music files:

• Sheet music by Gamehunter

  • Moonshine - Gamehunter.pdf (789.6 kB)
• Sheet music by Kraethi

  • Moonshine - Kraethi.pdf (140 kB)

Artist commentary:

Alex Rosetti: (Tumblr, excerpt)

Fake bands, man. I so wish we had done more with this concept. Since the very beginning of Homestuck, Andrew had this idea that the kids would have fake bands they were into, and we would make MySpace band pages with a few of their songs on them as a fun supplement to the comic, in the same spirit as dave strider’s blog or SBaHJ. (both of which I would link to if tumblr wasn’t bugging out right now and preventing me from doing so)

The first one was the Midnight Crew, and Andrew made the cover art before anything else happened, if I recall correctly. That project hung around for a while until the Midnight Crew Intermission, when Andrew decided to expand the “fake band” idea and release our MC as a full album on bandcamp, along with the Homestuck Volumes. Incidentally, I believe Squarewave and Sawtooth were originally going to be a fake band as well, and Dave even had a poster of them on his wall. Reeeaaally wish we did that one, but oh well. At least we got Anbroids.

In light of the fact that the Midnight Crew were going to have a real album and that I had just rejoined the team, I was eager to contribute to it. The first song I made for it was Moonshine, which strangely enough to some I’m sure, I still consider one of my better Homestuck tunes, if only technically. Yeah, the instruments I used were atrocious, but I think it would be a fun piece if it were actually played by people. I had a good idea of its form and I was really able to get into the style of music I perceived the Midnight Crew would play.

The instrumentation was based off the instruments each character played, with Slick on piano, Droog on sax, Boxcars on bass, and the last one I changed from Deuce’s oboe to clarinet, which is seen much more in jazz. Not that jazz oboe doesn’t exist! Still, it seems very like CD to play jazz on such an instrument. The song itself is more dissonant than most Homestuck music, having a lot of clashing harmonies and tritones which I love but can understand a lot of Homestuckers probably don’t, at least not in this context. The name “Moonshine” came out of how drunk the music sounds, especially in the middle where it picks up a bit and is more obviously in 6/8. But yeah, it uses its motivic material well and is consistent with itself, much more than I can say about many tracks in Genesis Frog for instance, which I’ll admit I got much too carried away with.

(Continued in Hollow Suit)