Note: If after reading
this FAQ you still have questions, please email
us. We'll do what we can to help you out.
General information
1. Who are
The Catherine Wheel?
 |
|
The Catherine Wheel in 1998.
|
If you were a fan of British
indie music in the early 1990s, you might remember a 1991-92 radio
hit called "Black Metallic." The Catherine Wheel, a
band from Great Yarmouth, England, followed up this three-chord
offering with other singles in the 1990s, including
"Crank" (from Chrome) "Waydown" and
"Judy Staring at the Sun" (from Happy Days) and
"Delicious" (from Adam and Eve). Known initially
for powerfully embodying the "shoegazer" sound, CW quickly
moved away from that sound and became known for experimenting
with each new album. Their 2000 album, Wishville, was worlds different from their early work, and despite its qualities, it failed to connect on the same level. In 2001, the band took a hiatus, which now appears permanent.
During their active years,
the band toured and recorded with such diverse acts as Slowdive,
Blur, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Charlatans
UK, Belly, The House of Love, Tim Friese-Greene,
INXS, Jeff Buckley, Live, Buffalo Tom, Geneva and Tracy Bonham.
In addition to releasing five studio albums, an album of b-sides and nearly two dozen singles,
the band covered songs by Sebadoh, Mission of Burma, Scott Walker,
Pink Floyd and many others.
CW band members included Rob
Dickinson (vocals and guitar), Brian Futter (guitar and vocals),
Neil Sims (percussion and vocals), Dave Hawes (bass 1990-99),
Ben Ellis (bass and vocals 2000-01), and Peter Whitaker (touring
keyboardist). Merck Mercuriadis, then of Sanctuary Management Group, took a very active role as the band's manager and promoter.
If you're interested in the further adventures of the band members,
check out Rob Dickinson's Myspace page as well as 50ft
Monster (Brian and Neil's new band).
2. What is
the Catherine Wheel Cover Compilation [CWCC]?
The Catherine Wheel Cover Compilation
is a multi-disc album of Catherine Wheel cover songs submitted
by fans of the band. Originally conceived as a professionally-produced
multi-CD set, it is now being released as an mp3 compilation on
the Web.
The project was started in
August 2000, shortly after the band's North American tour in support
of Wishville. Four members of Texture,
the Catherine Wheel email list, have been involved from the beginning:
Jeff Elbel (El Segundo, CA), Heather Parsons (Tucson,
AZ), Marsh Portmann (San Jose, CA), and Aaron Tapscott
(Bellingham, WA). Mike Garcia (Portland, OR) joined as
webmaster later in the year, and Dan Loeffelbein (Stockton,
CA) was selected to do the cover art in a Spring 2001 contest.
The idea of a CW cover album
had been batted around intermittently for years before Aaron decided
he was going to start it up again, and this time see it to its
conclusion. After he proposed the idea to Texture, Marsh emailed
Heather, asking why the two of them couldn't pool their resources
(Heather had the web space and Marsh the business experience),
while in a separate email to Heather, Jeff mentioned that he wouldn't
mind producing a cover album if it came to fruition. Marsh contacted
Aaron, and the CWCC was essentially born.
We wanted to do this thing
right, with real mastering, real CD manufacturing, professionally
printed artwork, and so on. So we started looking at various companies
that could do these things for a good price while still meeting
our standards. Song submissions came in while we were crunching
numbers and doing research.
The project was a huge success
on the musical end. We ended up gathering over 60 songs from bands
all over the world. Unfortunately, this level of success increased
the proposed cost of producing the compilation. Factor in the
economic downturn of the last couple years, and you
can probably figure out why the CDs were never pressed. We simply
couldn't come up with the money required. The initial cost was
substantial (literally thousands of dollars) and involved some
serious risk, since it was hard to know how many people were going
to be interested in the compilation. Finally in 2003, after a series of disappointments
and a loss of momentum, the compilation got a fresh burst of energy
as it was converted to a more feasible web-based project. The
operation of the CWCC was turned over exclusively to Mike, who
launched the website with mp3s at the end of 2003.
3. What is the current
status of the CWCC?
After many
bumps in the road, we're glad to say that the CWCC is active! All of the submissions (five discs' worth) are currently
available on the site, and they will be here for a long time.
We're also accepting submissions for "bonus tracks," which will be promoted on the site and could eventually lead to a sixth disc.
If you've completed a track
and you'd like it to be part of the CWCC, email it (as a 192 kbps
mp3 file) to mail@cwcovercomp.com.
If you need to send it by snail mail, email us for instructions.
4. Is the CWCC endorsed
by the Catherine Wheel?
No. There is a huge difference
between being endorsed by the band and having permission from
the band's management to put the compilation album together. Before
launching the CWCC, we obtained permission from Catherine Wheel
manager Merck Mercuriadis. There are several reasons we needed
Merck's permission to pursue the project. First, the band's songs
are copyrighted material. Second, being a Catherine Wheel cover
album, it's going to have the band's name associated with it.
Finally, it's a courtesy.
There are a few conditions
to our agreement with Merck:
- We're using our own
artwork (no copyrighted band photos, etc.) and design.
- We're not using the
"spiked wheel" CW logo, which is copyrighted, in any
of our artwork. Merck is fiercely protective of the logo.
- Cover versions can't
include samples of original CW recordings.
- Although we are permitted
to distribute the covers freely, we can't license them or make
a profit off of them. Each recording remains the property of
the band that wrote it. The lyrics and music, of course, remain
the property of the Catherine Wheel.
- Any CW song can be
covered, but songs not written by them (such as their version
of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here") are not eligible
for the CWCC, because we don't have permission from the other
bands.
The CW band members are aware
of the project, as it has been announced on the band's official
site, various message boards and the Texture email list. Some have expressed appreciation for various tracks, which we take as a great sign of success.
5. Why and how did you
decide to call the album Too Much Is Not Enough?
Since the idea for the compilation
sprang from Texture, we decided it was only appropriate we turn
the naming of the album over to the members of that list. Over
the course of two weeks in September of 2000, Texturites contributed
39 possible titles, and in two rounds of voting, narrowed it down
to Too Much Is Not Enough. The phrase is a lyric from "Fripp,"
from the 1993 CW album Chrome. Admittedly, however, the project is still much more commonly called the CWCC.
6. Was the CWCC only open
to members of Texture, the CW mailing list?
Absolutely not. The project
has always been open to anyone and everyone interested in contributing.
Submitting songs
7. I want to cover a song
for the compilation. Which song should I do?
Whichever one you like! Browse
the pages for each of the discs on this site, and listen to the
mp3s. If anything inspires you, or you notice that a particular
song hasn't been covered yet, go for it. As you'll see, some songs
have been covered more than once.
If you're trying to figure
out the words to a song, visit this
lyrics page. If you can't quite figure out how to play the
music, check out our guitar tabs page
to see if we have tabs for your song.
8. What kind of exposure
would I get by contributing to the CWCC?
Well, we get lots of visitors.
Some of them are in bands, and some of them are in management
and promotion. If we put your song online, there's always a chance
they could stumble across your song and decide that they want
to hear more from you. You could also link to the mp3 from your
site.
9. Have bands needed to
sign a release form, or any sort of waiver, for participating
in the CWCC?
Because this is a fairly small
non-profit project, no. We're not causing any huge ripples in
the music industry, so the legal folks don't really care. As stated
before, we have the band's permission to do this. And, although
both Jeff
and Aaron
work for record labels, we're not directly involved with any.
10. Is there any other
legal stuff I should keep in mind?
The best advice we could give
you is to use your own common sense. You can certainly record
any song you like on your own free time, but make sure you've
got all of your legal bases covered before distributing it to
the general public. As mentioned above, we have permission for
this project, so if your song ends up here (and it's a genuine
cover, with no additional lyrics, material from other bands or
samples), you're covered.
11. Why are so many CWCC
songs from Ferment and Chrome?
The easy answer is that more
people decided to cover these songs. Only five songs from the
first two albums weren't picked. Most of the people participating
have been fans of the band for a long time, so there's a good
chance that they picked the songs most familiar to them, the ones
they've heard literally hundreds of times. Newer songs haven't
been around long enough to attain that level of familiarity. It
could also be that, in some ways, the older songs are slightly
less complex and therefore easier to play or sing. Although there's
plenty of tricky guitar and vocal work going on in early songs,
most people would probably agree that "Here Comes the Fat
Controller" has more stuff to figure out than a song such
as "Flower to Hide."
Another answer: for
the early CWCC discs, we picked songs that, in our opinion, produced
the best results. These songs tended to be the more upbeat, less
complicated ones, which are found in abundance on the first few
albums. You'll also find many b-sides from the early 90s on the
first couple CWCC discs.
Downloading songs and artwork
12. Why are the mp3 files
so big?
Despite our limited budget,
we're still sticklers for quality. So the mp3s are encoded at
a rate of 192 kilobites per second, which is about as high quality
as you can get for an mp3 before quality ceases to become a factor.
Most mp3s floating around the internet are around 128 kbps. Files
that are compressed at this rate are missing some of the lower-
and higher-frequency sounds. This usually doesn't matter much,
since those frequencies are rarely used and won't be missed by
the casual listener. But we care about those little details, and
we feel more comfortable overdoing file quality than underdoing
it. The only time we'd issue a low-quality mp3 is when we don't
have anything of higher quality in our archives (this is the case
with a couple of CWCC tracks).
If you're on a slow connection,
and our high bitrates are making life difficult for you, we apologize.
Have a cup of tea while you're waiting. Read a book.
Go outside and breathe the fresh air. It's good for you.
13. Why do some songs sound
louder than others?
The songs were recorded by
different bands using different equipment in different studio
situations. That's going to cause variations in the volume level.
It also means that some songs will be mixed differently —
meaning that vocals or individual instruments will stand out on
some songs more than others. Usually albums are mastered before
release to even out some of these differences. We don't have the
resources to do that. Hopefully it's not too much of a problem
for you. Keep your volume control handy if it is.
14. What if I want the
songs, but would rather not download them, or would prefer uncompressed
(non-mp3) versions?
If this is the case, see if
you can start a movement. Get some other people to ask for CWCC
discs and to commit to paying for them. If the demand is high
enough and we're assured that we're not going to go into debt,
we'll produce and distribute 'em for you.
15. How do I burn mp3s
to a CD?
Most computers with a CD burner
have software included with them. It's usually pretty easy to
use. If you don't have software, we suggest Exact
Audio Copy, which works with a lot of CD-RW drives out there.
Otherwise, take your pick from the various burners available at
stores or at download.com.
Once you get the songs picked
out and ready to burn, we suggest using Disc-At-Once (DAO) mode
if your software supports it. This eliminates the two-second gap
between tracks. Burn your discs at a slightly slower speed than
your drive's maximum in order to minimize the potential for errors.
Some more practical advice:
Use 74-minute CD-Rs. They're less likely to have errors.
Data CD-Rs work as well as music CD-Rs for the vast majority of
CD players out there — you just can't burn music onto data
CD-Rs with standalone CD burners. Don't buy generic or
off-brand CD-Rs; use Memorex or TDK or Sony. Believe us, it matters.
Cheap discs will end up costing you more, because you'll be throwing
many of them in the trash after they fail. Cheap CD-Rs are also
more likely to have problems when you try to fast-forward through
them or skip tracks. This is really one of those situations in
which you get what you pay for.
16. What are the legal
issues surrounding downloads from this site?
Merck has given us permission
to cover and distribute songs freely, but be sure to respect copyright
laws. Once you've downloaded the songs, you're free to share them
with others, put them on your mp3 player, etc. No DRM here. Bands that have submitted their work to this site
are fully aware that it will be distributed.
As mentioned earlier, "hotlinking"
directly to mp3s on this site is not permitted. If you want to
download an mp3, you have to do it through this website, not because
we're control freaks, but because we're trying to preserve our
bandwidth.
If you want to use any of
the artwork, please email
us for permission.
17. Why aren't there any
notes or song titles on the cover art?
When we were counting on having
a couple professionally-printed discs with pre-determined track
listings, we had a bunch of text all worked out and ready to print.
Now the CWCC continues to grow, and because of the mp3-based nature
of the compilation, people may choose to burn any songs to their
discs in any order. So it'd be a wasted effort to put stuff on
the cover. If you're interested in putting together a professional-looking
cover for yourself, email
us and we'll send you the original high-quality cover art.
Then you can mess around with it in Photoshop to your heart's
content.
Website-related questions
18. I'm having problems
seeing parts of the site. What could be causing this?
Could it be that you're using
an old browser? If so, upgrade!
If you see a bug in the site
that's not browser related, please let
us know! And by the way, as we note elsewhere, be sure to
double check your downloaded songs on your media player before
burning them to a CD. Sometimes downloads cut off or get corrupted
for no good reason.
19. How did you put this
site together?
Well, here's the list. The
songs are encoded into 192 kbps mp3s using Exact
Audio Copy. The site is constructed and uploaded using Dreamweaver and, in some cases, raw HTML. Site graphics are done in Photoshop using Dan's original cover art as a basis. Text
files are encoded using Acrobat.
Most of the band photos slated
for use on the site were taken by Coli, Mike Garcia and Heather Parsons. The fonts used in
the site graphics (Pricedown and Zero Twos) were created by Ray
Larabie. Everything else is in the public domain unless stated
otherwise on the site. Background wallpaper is courtesy of squidfingers.
Although Mike is the webmaster,
much of the content (especially in this FAQ) has been contributed
by the other CWCC staff members. And as mentioned, Dan Loeffelbein
created the original cover art.
Last but not least: this site
has been hosted dependably for years on a Linux server by DreamHost.
Rock on.
|
