D. Lee Jackson

Words and Music

New Music Collaboration In The Works

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Agony logoA contest has just concluded over in Facebook involving the Bass Guitar player from the San Antonio-based Nü-metal band Agony and myself. The Bass Guitarist, Alan Wehrmann, would toss out a one-liner from Duke Nukem 3D (specifically from E1L1, “Hollywood Holocaust”), and then I would post a riddle to accompany it. The idea was to point people toward what the two of us were cooking up: a secret collaboration between his band and myself on a Nü-metal version of “Stalker,” the music from E1L1 of Duke Nukem 3D. We declared a winner early this morning.

So now, the cat is out of the bag. Agony and myself are cooking up something we hope will be worth listening to, at least if you are a fan of the heavier of the heavy metal genres. It’s going to be very loud, it’s going to be very crunchy, and it’s going to be very growly – very much unlike the original “Stalker.” I’m stoked.

The whole thing started off when I saw Alan post something about music on Doomworld in the “Everything Else” forum. I learned that he was with a band, listened to their music, and issued him and his band a friendly challenge: remake “Stalker” in his band’s style. Agony talked it over, and Alan told me they decided to go for it.

Right now, my role in the new version of the song has been limited to consulting from afar. Soon, however, I hope to attend a rehearsal with my MIDI setup and possibly contribute to the sound. Maybe. They may not need me – only time will tell. Regardless, this is going to be fun, and I hope you will enjoy it, too.

An Audio Silver Lining

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SoundCloud 300x300 CloudmarkFor the first time in quite some while, things have started getting musically busy around here. Since my last entry, I’ve finally started taking advantage of my long-neglected user account over on SoundCloud and have been busy posting some of my albums and other music over there. Three albums are up, although one (Derivations) is missing an Album Commentary track (the free SoundCloud account I have limits how much you can post by total time, and I hit the limit before I could get all of Derivations’ tracks up.).

Here are the links to the albums that are on SoundCloud:

I’ve also posted a couple of single pieces of music, although one of them is technically one track with four pieces of music in it. More on that later. The first single is a piece I did in 2002 for “Duke Nukem Forever,” and it’s called the Lenoman Theme. The piece is an intro to an in-game late-night talk show. If you play it, try playing it on loop a few times. I think you’ll like the results.

The other track isn’t an album or game track at all. Instead, it’s something from my history – 1984, to be precise. Back in that summer, I was a member of a Drum and Bugle Corps out of Houston, Texas called the Nighthawks. During a rehearsal stop at Hixon High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the mallet percussion section (bells (me), xylophone, marimba, vibraphone) recorded our repertoire for that year’s show. We played four pieces: “The Sinfonians” by Clifton Williams, “From Mighty Oaks,” a drum feature called “Classical Drag” by Vincent Paredes, and music from the motion picture “Somewhere in Time.” I wrote the mallet parts for the first piece and co-wrote the mallet parts for the second piece. You’ll also hear a couple of voices on the recording: mine is the first voice you’ll hear (the other is our xylophone player, Steve McDonald, speaking for his own tape recorder).

I invite you to listen to all of the pieces I’ve put online. If I can ever scrape together the money for their “Next Pro” annual subscription, which comes with more storage time, I’ll upload more works. If you want to contribute to that cause, either buy some of my music from my Bandcamp page or make a donation via my Paypal.me page. I would greatly appreciate either one. Thank you!

“Duke Nukem Tank Tracks” Still Selling

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Tank Tracks Album CoverIt’s been almost a month since “Duke Nukem Tank Tracks” was released, and sales have been moderately okay. Granted, the only sales I see at the moment are the ones that come in via Bandcamp. CD Baby has not yet reported any of the sales from Amazon or Apple Music/iTunes, nor from any streaming sites like Spotify, Pandora, or Deezer. I have to wait until at least the end of the first quarter for those figures to start coming in – possibly until the second quarter. It’s frustrating as hell not to know what the sales figures are for your work!

In the meanwhile, here’s some incentive for those of you on Facebook to come by and join my Lee Jackson Audio Community Discussion Group. Once you join, you’ll see a post with a code for a 20% discount off of a copy of “Duke Nukem Tank Tracks” from Bandcamp. This version comes with high-quality digital cover art from renowned webcomic artist Kittyhawk and a seven-page liner note booklet! All of this for 20% off the regular low price of $10 for 15 tracks of new music! Just go to the link at the start of this paragraph, make sure you answer the join-up questions that are presented to you, and you’ll be golden. I look forward to seeing you in the group!

“Duke Nukem Tank Tracks” Album Released!

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Tank Tracks Album CoverThe moment has finally arrived! My third album, “Duke Nukem Tank Tracks,” has been released!

This album was begun in 2018 and worked on (i.e., tweaked to death) until its completion in early 2021. It was inspired by the levels in “Duke Nukem 3D” and its successors, the “Atomic Edition” and the “20th Anniversary World Tour.” To write it, I dug back into the original MIDI music that Bobby Prince and I did for the game, studied the hell out of it, and came up with 15 new tracks using music and audio technology that wasn’t available back in 1996, when the game first came out.

I’m doing a digital-only release this time around. You’ll be able to either purchase the album for download or stream it. It’ll be available at tons of locations, including Amazon, Bandcamp, Spotify, and others. If you want to keep track of the major sites it’s on, visit my HearNow page, bookmark it, and keep checking back as new sites show up. By the way, you’ll be able to hear sneak previews of all 15 tracks on my HearNow page as well – one more reason to visit!

There are a couple of bonuses available if you buy the album from Bandcamp (base price $10). First, you’ll get a high-resolution PNG file of the digital cover art, created by renowned webcomic artist Kittyhawk. Second, you’ll get a seven-page booklet of liner notes, complete with info about each of the 15 tracks. Finally, those liner notes will include info on how to get the “DUKE NUKEM TANK TRACKS” OGG PACK, which will let you play the album’s songs inside the PC version of the “Duke Nukem: 20th Anniversary World Tour” version of the game!

The OGG Pack, which sells separately from the album for $5, is a ZIP file containing OGG format files of all 15 songs from the album, ready to be inserted into the game. It comes complete with a USER.CON file and a READ_ME.TXT file which will help you get things set up. It’s available from the “DUKE NUKEM TANK TRACKS” OGG PACK Store.

Three years is a long time to wait. I hope you’ll agree it was worth it. Download your copies today!

Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour is © 2016 Gearbox, and published and distributed by Gearbox Publishing, LLC.

Duke Nukem, Gearbox, and the Duke Nukem logos are registered trademarks, and Gearbox Publishing is a trademark, of Gearbox Enterprises, LLC.