To Chill, or Not To Chill?

Hello, wonder babies!

A Burning Century rehearsals are an insane place. Loud, classically situated in a basement studio, and full of rock madness. I like it that way, it makes me feel authentic when we're sweating bullets and jerking around like we've all gotten rabies. Sexy rabies, that is.

Rabies make outs are hot.

The main thing I worry about is that we're blasting so hard and so heavy, you can't have a moment of chill contemplation in the middle of the show where you can stop dancing madly and start thinking about all kinds of things, including love and death and your sweet grandma... just don't think about them in that order, or you'll be severely depressed (and maybe a little grossed out?).

 Why, grandma, why ?!?

Anyways, at rehearsal yesterday, we had this moment where we weren't practicing written songs. We were just playing around with different sounds and generally having fun.

All of a sudden, there was this moment where the guitars were going and the drums were pounding, but it was rhythmic and chill. Everything I sang felt like Bjork had invaded my body and was coming out of my mouth.

"Bjork mouth" is a known disease in Iceland.  Look it up.

All in all, I figured out that quiet doesn't always mean introspective, and loud driving rhythms don't always mean the sound should be, well, a scream-fest.

To really understand what I'm talking about, you're just going to have to come to a live show. Bjork mouth, no charge :)

Written by Maggie Smith

Musical Talent Scale: An Idiot's Guide

written by Maggie Smith

TOFU POTATO CRUST PIZZA

Hello again, internet. Allow me to be the first to apologize for my absence from this blog for the past...however long it's been (I'm not used to doing it in the correct order). Alas, I am back! And come bearing tasty ideas.

During my leave, I spent some time expanding my culinary library and, one drunken night, stumbled upon a creation which I feel absolutely MUST be shared with the rest of cyberspace. I call it TOFU POTATO CRUST PIZZA and it's technically a total bastardization of the Italian masterpiece, but hell...so is Totino's, and no one has shut them down yet. Are you interested in trying your hand at this delicious mound of edibles? That's what I thought. Now, without further ado...

TOFU-TOPPED, POTATO-CRUST PIZZA

Ingredients for the sauce:

8 oz can tomato sauce

6 oz can tomato paste

6 tbsp fresh oregano

3 tbsp thyme

2 tbsp olive oil

½ tbsp garlic powder

½ large onion, diced and sautéed in butter

salt, pepper, and sugar to taste

For the sauce, you can either make your own or use your favorite (disgusting) pre-packaged and processed tomato-whatever-they-feel-like-putting-in-it. Just look at the ingredients on the label and make your decision from there. The assembly shouldn't be too much to decipher. In a medium saucepan, Heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the tomatoey things. Stir until well blended and homogeneous. Now add your onions INCLUDING THE BUTTER IN WHICH THEY WERE SAUTEED and the spices. Basically, simmer until it's nice and spreadably thick and not runny. Who wants a soggy potato crust, after all?

For the actual pizza:

3 large russet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (in half-circles)

1 package super-firm tofu, cubed

16 oz mozzarella cheese

8 oz parmesean cheese

½ cup Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs, but you can use regular ones)

garlic powder and salt to taste

You can prepare your tofu in whatever style you prefer, just keep in mind the context of the flavors. My favorite way is to deep-fry the cubes until they're almost crunchy and toss them in a combination of garlic powder and salt. But seriously, it's whatever you want. You don't even have to use tofu. You can put bacon on it for all I care.

Now, here's where it gets finnicky...

Spray down your pizza pan (yes, you need a pan) with your favorite non-stick spray or give it a light rub-down with about a tablespoon of olive oil. Arrange your potato slices in about 2-3 overlapping layers until they cover the bottom of the pan. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees farenheit and place those starchy morsels under heat for about 15-20 minutes preferably on the middle rack, but I'm not friends with your oven and I don't know its habits.

Take the makings of your potato crust out of the oven and admire the smell. DONT WORRY! The potatoes should not be fully cooked yet. Now, we're going to do something very cool. Without allowing your oven to cool down, turn the broil function on HIGH. While you're waiting for the top element to heat up, grab a handful of each kind of cheese and sprinkle them onto the top of the potatoes. Now, do the same with your breadcrumbs. Place this back in the oven (still on the middle rack- this time I mean it!) for about 3-4 minutes or until you see sufficient toasting/browning on top and remove the pizza. Turn your broiler off and put your oven back at 400.

Now we have a sick-nasty (in a good way) potato crust. It's time for the sauce, and you should know how to apply it. Not too thick, not too thin. Add the rest of your cheese and your prepared tofu. Put the whole mess back into the oven until you can see/smell crispily baked potatoey goodness. Give it a minute to cool and then chow down. If you don't like it, you need to diversify your palate.

DISCLAIMER: William Gaylord, A Burning Century, and their affiliates do not condone or encourage the use of cooking equipment and tools under the influence of alcohol and cannot and will not be held responsible for any mistakes, slip-ups, or acts of God that may happen to your stupid, drunken ass.

Contest Info

A Burning Century is hosting a day long, album pre-release event at Tellus: Northwest Georgia Science Museum next weekend and we want to share the day with four lucky fans. Winners will receive free admission to the museum and an advance copy of our debut album, Lucid Dreaming!


The album is synced to the international and critically acclaimed SpacePark360 Planetarium show. Tellus is debuting the show with A Burning Century's music on Saturday, June 4th! Experience theme park thrill rides scattered all across our solar system while listening to A Burning Century!


To be eligible to win all you have to do is "like" or comment on out Ticket Giveaway promo poster, posted on our Facebook page. If you "like" and comment you will be entered twice into the drawing for the museum passes. Your name will only be entered twice, so multiple comments will not be counted.


Come spend Saturday, June 4th with A Burning Century at Tellus: Northwest Georgia Science Museum!


Contest ends Tuesday, May 31st @ 11:59 p.m.


Winners will be announced Wednesday, June 1st!

Surprise! Girls Are Secretly Hideous.

Disaster can strike at any time. For instance, on a typical morning, I crawl out of bed like a swamp thing and and somehow blollop my way into the office. I usually look something like this:

Imagine looking out the window and seeing that right in front of you, breathing onto the glass. Yikes. It's really a miracle I haven't been staked by one of my co-workers and buried in an unholy grave in the parking lot. Somehow, though, I always manage to trudge to the bathroom and put on makeup. I'm still half asleep and the florescent lighting is unforgiving, but I feel better about myself and it's become an important ritual in my day. Without my makeup, I'm an ogre. With my makeup, I look like this:

I call it stoned & sunburned hooker chic. It’s sweeping the nation, s&s h at a store near you, and it’s way better than looking like a zombie. However, one morning, I forgot my makeup. Cue the horror music.

Yes. One morning I slithered into the office bathroom, and rummaged my purse for my makeup bag. Nothing. Panic set in. There was no way I was going an entire day without blush. Much like Quasimodo, I decided to make the bathroom stall my new home and haunt it for an eternity of ugliness.

However, as the minutes passed, I begin to feel the painful longings that other monsters (like Frankenstein) have felt, in the depths of their hideous loneliness. I longed for the companionship of my facebook, and the warmth of the hot coffee on my desk. I could stand it no longer. I must venture into the world, and try to fix my debased condition. Suddenly, I had a brilliant plan. There was another girl in the office, and SHE MIGHT HAVE BLUSH. I bagged my face and ran to her office.

And that's how I ended up with a permanent makeup stash in the office bathroom. The end.

Written by Maggie Smith

Pentatonics

Did you know that in every culture there is a variation of a five note scale called the pentatonic scale? This past week I have been thinking about this and how cool it is that even though there different styles of music across other cultures there is a thread that ties everything together and creates commonality. For the next few weeks, I thought I might attempt to discuss the differed tonalities and structure of music across the seven continents. Don't worry, it is not going to be intense. I will just be giving a nice broad overview of how music differs from place to place and culture to culture. To give us all a common starting point, I will talk about the basic tonal structure of music next post!

Tyler Cook

Get to know the people behind the music.

Peter Banning

The new ABC album had me doing a lot of searching throughout tracking and mixing. I studied up on known industry figures and came across other interesting characters in the process. These people aren't my heroes nor did they inspire me to make a great album, but it was enjoyable to study up on their own accomplishments and hear their stories. 

I'll share a few of my favorites...

1. Hans Zimmer - Composer: 

This guy is a monster composer. Credits include Blackhawk Down, The Dark Knight, the new Pirates of the Caribbean and my favorite, Inception.

Listen to "Time" from Inception at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srrAm9Eiqcw

I'd never worked on an album that was a score, but Zimmer's music provided insight into getting the job done right. 

2. Rick Rubin - Producer: 

He probably produced your favorite record. This Def-Jam Records co-founder uses simplicity in music, but does things to the max. It's rumored that he places vocalists in a Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber if they aren't delivering during recording sessions. 

Learn more about Rick Rubin at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rubin

3. John Feldmann - Producer/Engineer: 

If Rick Rubin didn't work on your favorite record, John Feldmann probably did. The first Feldmann album I bought was Story of the Year's, "Page Avenue". Even though it was released in 2003, it's still one of the best sounding records I can think of. Feldmann's drum sounds, although they are samples, are incredible. They are a testament to his mixing abilities.

Check out Feldmann's credits at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Feldmann

Take the opportunity to learn about the people behind your favorite music. A lot more went into it than just a pretty face singing into a microphone. 

-Peter