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S.o.G. News Welcome to the Shades of Gray Occasional, which is a news publication just like a Daily or a Weekly, except that we make no commitment as to how frequently we will add content...so your best bet is to check back sporadically. The point of this page is to keep our customers and any other interested parties up to date on our current projects, events, ideas, and basically anything else we feel might be of interest. We hope you enjoy your visit. Sincerely, Mgmt.
Contents: 5/20/07 - Anybody Want to Go to Bonnaroo with us? 5/15/07 - S.o.G. to Deploy Crew and Worland Warriors Bus to Tennessee for Bonnaroo Documentary. 4/24/07 - S.o.G. Makes Video for New Charity for the Arts 4/18/07 - Album Review - Patchwork Quilt by Storytyme 4/10/07 - Concert Preview - Dr. Dog at Larimer Lounge 3/22/07 - Call For Submissions: Dead Air Soundtrack 3/20/07 - Student Discounts on Studio Time, Just In Time To Finish Final Projects 3/18/07 - S.o.G. 2007 Ski Video Concept and Title Announced 3/12/07 - Worland Warriors Site goes live (www.worlandwarriors.net). Check out the Store for Copies of All of Our DVDs. 2/05/07 - S.o.G. Provides Promo Video for one of the World's Best Adventure Photographers 1/27/07 - S.o.G. Aspen Premiere Worland Warriors III at 07 X-Games 1/17/07 - S.o.G.'s World Premiere of Worland Warriors III: Enter the Worland 30 tickets from Selling Out The Boulder Theater!!! 12/20/06 - Press Release for Worland Warriors III Premeire and Zion I, The Grouch, Pep Love, Storytyme show. 11/10/06 - Screening of S.o.G.'s Worland Warriors II and T.G.R.'s Anomaly 10/16/07 - Digital Artists: We Will Print Your Portfolio at Full Quality. Art Show? Art Fair? Need Prints to Sell? We've Got the Tools. We've Got the Know How! 10/16/07 - Custom Prints Available. Got A Digital Image That Would Look Good in a Frame? We Print High Res Images From Your Digital Files. 10/16/07 - Get Yer Red Hot Prints Here! S.o.G. Has Professional Prints of Original Photographs of The Nation's Best Skiers. 10/14/06 - S.o.G. and Hope Lives! Breast Cancer Support Center Team Up to Help Save Lives, Breasts. 9/19/06 - Worland Warriors III:Enter The Worland, Trailer Viewable on Freeskier Website.
WWW.WORLANDWARRIORS.NET Goes Live! Check the new site in all its glory. Click here
Shades of Gray Productions up in that X-Games like you n'er know. Aspen Premiere at Lava Saturday 1/27/07 @ 9PM Who: Worland Warriors III: Enter the Worland with live music by special guests, DJ Naga G and DJ Dummy View Photo: Ben Wiltsie Grinding C-Box (photo by Anthony Chavez) View Photo: Batman vs. 1/2 Mannequin (photo by Anthony Chavez) Movie Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic world full of mind controlling ninjas, only the relentless Worland Warriors continue to study and develop the sacred art of steezed-out skiing. This 3rd release by Shades of Gray Productions documents the unprecedented accomplishments of some of the world’s best skiers on some of the world’s most impressive back-country, urban, and resort terrain. Featuring:
Shades of Gray Productions Presents: Worland Warriors III: Enter the Worland Premiere Party and Concert Who: Zion I, The Grouch, Pep Love View Press Release (word-small file) View Press Release (PDF-large file) View Promo Poster (11x17 color) View Promo Handbill (4.25x5.5 color) View Promo Handbill (4.25x5.5 b&w) View WWIII DVD Cover with Blakely Camp (artwork by Anthony Chavez) View Photo: Ben Wiltsie Grinding C-Box (photo by Anthony Chavez) View Photo: Batman vs. 1/2 Mannequin (photo by Anthony Chavez) Movie Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic world full of mind controlling ninjas, only the relentless Worland Warriors continue to study and develop the sacred art of steezed-out skiing. This 3rd release by Shades of Gray Productions documents the unprecedented accomplishments of some of the world’s best skiers on some of the world’s most impressive back-country, urban, and resort terrain. Featuring:
SOG & Teton Gravity Research The killer folks at Mountain Rentals Inc. decided to include us in their screening of this year's video from Teton Gravity Research, Anomaly. Worland Warriors II played first, followed by our trailer for III, and then the feature films. Many thanks to Mountain Rentals Inc. and TGR! for their support. Also, big thanks to Scott at the RialtoTheater and Casey from Wired for turning us on to this event.  First Shoot of the Year We showed up at Keystone and were quite impressed by the array of rails and boxes, neatly arranged into two clean lines. The first shoot of the year was a success and featured the esteemed members of our Worland Clan: Adam Delorme, Chas Waters, Ben Wiltsie, Mike Clarke and Matt Walker. Photos and video to be posted soon. Hope Lives Gala & Video Shades of Gray Productions finished the promotional video for Hope Lives, a non-profit complementary care facility for breast cancer survivors in Larimer County. The video was screened at the Hope Lives annual fundraising gala and was very well received by all those in attendance. Shades of Gray dispatched both a photography and videography crew to capture images from the evening. Hope Lives Promotional Video Hello World So Shades of Gray is finishing up our first batch of projects and we figured it was about time to take down the Worland III "Coming Soon" Placeholder and get something online that was somewhat legitimate. So, here you go... the Shades of Gray Productions BETA site. Check back for breaking news and wait in anticipation of the glorious launch of shadesofgray.tv version 2.0. Worland Warriors III Trailer on Freeskier.com The good men and women over at Freeskier Magazine have put our trailer for Worland Warriors III: Enter the Worland on freeskier.com, on FStv and into rotation on the Freeskier Podcast. Go check it out at freeskier.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: It was only a matter of time before Shades of Gray Productions brought the Worland Warriors series to a penultimate climax. Theatrical Trailer
WWW.WORLANDWARRIORS.NET Goes Live! Check the new site in all its glory. Click here Storytyme’s studio sound is all growds up Album Review by Dustin Huth Storytyme have always been known for giving intense, down and dirty live performances that leave audiences struggling to breathe properly, unable to feel their extremities and looking for boxes of Kleenex, dirty towels or anything else that they could potentially use to clean up the aftermath of the furious, venue-wide, simultaneous rockgasm. And with the release of their new album, Patchwork Quilt, the band has finally been able to capture the passionate energy of their shows and package it in one portable and easy-to-use compact disc. To anyone who has listened to the band’s previous studio recordings: this is not one of those albums. Until now, the band has had all the difficulty negotiating the transition from live show to studio sound that is to be expected from a group trying to make it happen more or less on their own. Under the close magnifying glass of repeated listening, and without the venue speakers blaring or the visceral showmanship tearing across the stage, some of Storytyme’s earlier albums have made the band seem less like the fresh squeezed lemonade of their live shows and more like the watered-down Crystal Light sold on the corners of cul de sacs by neighborhood kids for 10 cents a glass. Well, honey, them lemonade stand days is all over now. With Patchwork Quilt, the band rips open its shirt exposing a patch of manly chest hair and screams, Look at it! Look at my man hair! Recorded at Boulder’s Immersive Studios, engineered in part by the band’s drummer, Tony Lewis, and mastered by Dominick Maita of Airshow Mastering (also a Boulder-based outfit), Patchwork Quilt conveys Storytyme’s solid and complex rock and roll the way it was always meant to be conveyed: tightly and cleanly with nit-picky attention paid to every last layer of sound. In addition to sounding good in general, the increased production quality exposes singer, Pete Lewis’ voice for what it really is: pretty damn brilliant. And it’s not the straightforward, pitch-perfect kind of brilliant either. It’s the eccentric, schizophrenic kind of brilliant, that cycles through an average of 4.2 identity crises any time it holds a note for more than a second. With its ability to gracefully transition during the course of a single syllable, from guttural, to smooth to momentary vibrato, and sometimes to other, as of yet unnamed vocal techniques, Patchwork Quilt establishes Pete Lewis’ voice as a truly unique contribution to music. With songs like, “Walking Upstream,” and “Moonshine,” Storytyme also demonstrate a new level of lyrical maturity, while still embracing the clean, feel-good, storytelling that has always characterized their work. “Moonshine,” at points, even toes the line of darkness as it descends from its happy place into a secondary verse and chorus, “Don’t be scared of the rabbit hanging from the roof/ There is life, there is death all around you,” followed shortly by the maniacal screaming of one of Pete’s voice’s crazier personalities, “It’s just a rabbit hanging from the roof. Then, at the end of the album, on the very last track of the album, Storytyme proves their ability to write a completely different type of song. For a moment, all the rock and roll theatrics and personas are put away, and the band steps forward with a relaxed, mellow, and easy-rolling song called, “Good Look Around.” The sincerity and simplicity with which this song is delivered provides contrast and adds dimension to the album, while at the same time bringing it to a satisfying conclusion. Storytyme will be celebrating the release of Patchwork Quilt by headlining a show at The Boulder Theater on April 14th, 2007. The show will be opened by Meese and Born in the Flood.
Dr. Dog story Call it like you see it. See it how it is. Dog is Dog spelled forwards. By Dustin Huth In a time when sarcasm trumps sincerity in most situations and clichéd emo lyrics no longer get carded at the door when trying to pass for true-to-life human sentiment, Dr. Dog is part of a recent trend in which musicians and lyricists hold fast to the lost virtues of genuineness and sincerity. Dr. Dog’s lead guitarist, vocalist, and co-writer, Scott McMicken is the kind of guy who, if you ask him a question in an interview that he hasn’t thought about before, or that he doesn’t know the answer to off the top of his head, he won’t dismiss it, and he won’t make up a quick bullshit answer that sounds good enough to get by either. Instead, he’ll say something like, “Let me think…I mean my initial response would be…” and then he will proceed to take you along with him as he explores how he actually feels about the question you’ve raised. It is that kind of openness and genuine desire to understand his own thoughts that has helped his band to write such insightful and honest songs. In fact, one of the recurring themes in Dr. Dog’s music is that of the nature of honesty itself. One example of this occurs in a song from their album, Tooth Brush, called, “I Can’t Fly.” This song features a chorus that questions, “Oh why do they do it? Oh why do the lie? Oh and why do I keep asking myself and wondering why? When I know that they thought it was true.” One of the driving forces behind Dr. Dog’s ability to write such intellectually honest songs is their willingness to examine an issue from all sides and see it for exactly what is. Musically, this means creating from the perspective of the listener. “We always consider ourselves first and foremost, listeners of Dr. Dog, rather than the makers of it,” said, McMicken, “That’s what it always comes down to…have you succeeded in creating in yourself a happy Dr. Dog listener?” This sense of balance extends further into the band’s philosophy on writing meaningful lyrics as well. “I just think that part of the craft of making appealing music is to try to say as much as you can, and help yourself out with your own ideas, help yourself understand where you’re coming from and use the song to sort out the confusion that often occurs in life, as well as create something that has absolutely nothing to do with you, that allows a person to listen to it and sort of find a place for themselves within it,” Explains, McMicken. Perhaps the task in which Dr. Dog’s ability to take things for what they are becomes most evident is in the actual recording of the music. Their first two albums, Easy Beat and Tooth Brush, both released in 2005, are extremely densely layered considering the fact that were recorded on a mere 8-tracks. “I’ve never really look at any piece of recording equipment as necessarily limiting,” says McMicken. “If I have a four-track in front of me, I’m not going to approach it like I want to record Bohemian Rhapsody or something…you take it for what it is and you realize within this context, certain things are impossible, so I won’t even consider them, thereby removing any limitations.” And once that reality of what is impossible is accepted, all the possibilities become evident. “All you’re doing is basically defining for yourself what’s reasonable to achieve on this certain equipment,” says McMicken, “and then you can just have as much fun as you would in a giant studio recording Bohemian Rhapsody, because you open up a whole new context for yourself and all the nuances start to come alive, and you find all these bazillion little tiny decisions you can make even with one microphone and three tracks.” In the recording of their newest album, We All Belong, behind which they are currently touring, Dr. Dog had fewer impossibilities to accept. The band’s steady ascent in popularity has landed them in a situation where they were able to use a 24-track recorder and 2” tape. “Now we have this much bigger—physically bigger equipment and bigger kit and it’s no longer like looking through a pinhole at a picture,” explains, McMicken. “we sort of opened it up to more of a scope of the sounds that we came up with and so, we just took it as that, and we put in a lot of energy in trying to make it be the best that it could be for us.” But for a band that was used to doing so much with so little, the upgrade presented a completely different set of difficulties. “Everything kind of sounded too good,” says, McMicken. “It sounded too good in the way that good can be kind of cold or unrealistic. You know, like the drums sounded all shimmery and sort of toneless in a way that I liken with a lot of more modern recordings. Sort of an unrealistic representation of what these instruments actually sound like…so, we sort of had to fight against this equipment a little bit.” And it was a fight that the band eventually won, because We All Belong definitely achieves the same authenticity of sound as its predecessors, but with a little more clarity “I feel like We All Belong is a very similar record in a way to the others that we’ve done, it’s just a little more colored in. You know Easy Beat is just like this sketch, this black and white sketch or something, and We All Belong is just a little more colored in,” said McMicken. Dr. Dog is playing this Tuesday, March 20th at the Larimer Lounge on Larimer at 28th St. in Denver, where they will inevitably see the venue for exactly what it is, accept its impossibilities, and play it perfectly as a result.
Worland Warriors III: Enter the Worland In a post-apocalyptic world full of mind controlling ninjas, only the relentless Worland Warriors continue to study and develop the sacred art of steezed-out skiing. This 3rd release by Shades of Gray Productions documents the unprecedented accomplishments of some of the world’s best skiers on some of the world’s most impressive back-country, urban, and resort terrain. Featuring: Shades of Gray Productions Presents: Worland Warriors III: Enter the Worland Premier Party and Concert Who: Zion I, The Grouch, Pep Love View Promo Poster
Hope Lives Promotional Video & Event Photography Shades of Gray Productions finished the promotional video for Hope Lives, a non-profit complementary care facility for breast cancer survivors in Larimer County. The video was screened at the Hope Lives! annual fundraising gala and was very well received by all those in attendance. Shades of Gray dispatched both a photography and videography crew to capture images from the evening. If you are interested in learning more about Hope Lives! and the good work that they do, please visit their website at www.hopelives.org Hope Lives! Promotional Video Hope Lives! Gala Photo Samples -1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8-
Worland Warriors III :
It was only a matter of time before Shades of Gray Productions brought the Worland Warriors series to a penultimate climax. Theatrical Trailer
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