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July 2006

Setlist:

1.
Interview - The Jimmy Hats
2.
Top Teams/Newest Members

3.
News and Events
4.
Tune Of The Month (June 06)
5.
Some Things You Should Know About
Copyright

The Jimmy Hats

One of the things that makes MusicianWar such a great
place is the capability of members to form teams, coordinating their
efforts and skills to collaborate via the Internet. The Jimmy Hats have
proven the theory that great minds think alike, and that great
like-thinking minds can achieve great things. During their 2-year history
(over half of which has been spent at the top of the Top Teams list) the
team has earned some of MW's top awards, including back-to-back Team Of
The Year honors and a spot on the MusicianWar Best Of 2005 CD. Despite the
miles of separation and several line-up modifications, The Jimmy Hats have
maintained a standard of excellence that potential opponents would be
ill-advised to ignore.

Plank owner and production wizard for The
Jimmy Hats, CapnZilog gives us some insight on the team's history, writing
and collaboration process, and what makes a great tune.

MW: It was the summer of 04 that the Jimmy Hats
broke out the jams with �For Her Pleasure� with a loss to the Renegades.
This started out as a pretty big group, how did this song come about with
so many musicians?

CapnZ: Most of us were drafted
into it, I think. Nobody contacted me or anything - one day I just noticed
that I was a member of a team that I knew nothing about! This was kind of
the way that Sean put teams together in those days; draft a huge number of
people, and hope that enough people stick around to do something. Team War
was something very fresh and new at that point, so nobody left. I was in
the Renegades too, so that made for a kind of funny experience. Chip and I
eventually took over the management reins because it was clear that the
ship was basically rudderless, LOL

MW: Your 2nd
war with the �7 Stringers� was a close win by a few votes, but much more
punch to the sound, what did you do different to have it sound so punchy
compared to your first war?

It -is- punchy! I'd put that down to
the choice of snare that Chip used, along with the percussive beefiness of
his doubletracked rhythm parts. We weren't really a team writing force
yet; what you hear on "Frenchy" is mostly Chip bailing us out so everyone
would have something to solo over. :D

MW: How long
did it take to put a whole song together and put it up for a
war?

It was very dependent on how "from scratch" we tried to be,
and the number of people involved in the writing process. In order to get
things rolling, our first song leaned on a borrowed arrangement and there
was very little that you could call actual writing there - it was more of
a group jam thing, finished in about 2.5 months. "Frenchy" was a
one-person (Chip) writing project, and took one month longer. We weren't
doing real collective writing until "Liquor", our third track - and from
then on it was from four to six months each.

MW:
All your songs seem to have a sense of humor to them and it soared when
Master Tang came on board for your 3rd and a unanimous win with �Liquor Up
Front� �nice title� The dynamics really changed with the addition of Tang,
who came up with the main parts? And how did you work through this song?

We do try to get the humor in - and with such modest beginnings,
our team's ethic was "If You Can't Be Good, At Least Be Funny"! "Liquor"
was perhaps the most unusual song we've done and the process was so random
that it was either going to be great, or a terrible failure. Honestly, we
had no idea what we had until we were almost done. It was our first
attempt at group writing, and there was a lot of bouncing off each other
with "Hey, Here's a section" and "Here's a section", things like that. The
first section I believe was Chip's, and it set the stage for the whole
Song-as-Comedy-Western vibe. I've heard it said that in songwriting a good
title is all you need, and that was certainly the case
here.
Parts-wise, it's all a jumble - but in a general sense, it's Chip
up front with Zylaxis in the rear (ha!) with Myuzishin in the middle and
Tang and myself goofing over the choruses. And heavy, heavy editing! It's
like a collage.

MW: �Premonitions� is one of my
favorites from the Jimmy Hats.. This showed a lot of maturity in the
concept and arrangement of the song, What was the hardest part of putting
this track together?

"Premonitions" was all about Democracy with a
capital "D". The goal there was to collectively write something with
everybody adding to the stew, no wallflowers allowed - and a real stew,
not a potluck like "Liquor Up Front" was. A side benefit from this
approach was my hope that we could up the sound quality a bit as well,
because incorporating pre-mixed bits really ties your hands at the mix
stage and I wanted to get away from that. "Premonitions" was very much a
"From Scratch" song with Everyone involved in the writing process - and by
the time we were done we were almost dead! Lesson learned there.
;)

MW: What is one of the hardest parts of having
a team together and making music?

Balancing everyone's interests
against the whole. Honestly, making music is only half of it - sacrifice,
dedication and people skills are the other half. If everyone is willing to
be there and forego their personal interests for the greater good,
anything is possible. But when even one person feels otherwise, it can
sink the entire project.

MW: Who has all been in
the �Jimmy Hats�?

Aeoule

CapnZilog
ChipShank67
Iceman32
Lactating
Monkeys
MasterTang
Myuzishin
SheikMagnet
Th3
N3M3515
VanHelsing
WasteOh
zeus
zylaxis

...collect
them all! (hope I haven't left anyone out
there)

MW: "Annabella" is the team's latest
effort, and TOTM June 2006 winner. What were some of the challenges faced
in putting together this tune?

Well, our process for creating music
continues to evolve because what worked for us in the past may not always
be good enough today. This creates change - which can be either an
opportunity to learn new skills or just a PITA, depending on what your
personal goals are. For example, MIDI sequencing - it's something we've
been doing for some time, but formally integrating this into the team
project so that everyone could try their hand at programming was unique to
this song. It was one of those difficult steps, but it helped expand the
team's skill-set and turned Master Tang into a wicked horn programmer,
LOL

MW: Can you give those struggling with a team
some good advice?

Back in the early "Team War" days there was a
Gold Rush to start new teams, and the "Team Up" thread saw a lot of
activity. Today, it's more like a Friendster type of thing where teams
invite people who they've worked well with in the past to join their
projects. The importance of establishing a harmonious and capable lineup
is so key, and the effort of creating a post so large, that it seems
unwise to just post a classified ad and leave things up to Fate. Team Wars
are the single hardest thing you can do on Musician War, for so many
different reasons. Ideally, everyone on a team is well past the "technical
difficulties" stage (blaming your gear doesn't help anyone), and within
the team are personalities capable of filling (at a minimum) the roles of
manager / engineer / songwriter. Beyond that, throw caution to the wind
and have fun!

Top
Teams

• The Jimmy Hats
• The Untouchables
• The Rouges
• Frets of Flame
• Casper Bolte (and Geezer)

Newest
Members

• z3rooo
• piercing eye
• squodgy
• de de manroe
• SpadesNJadis

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News & Events

Contests

2006 Blues
Tournament

Semifinals are upon us! A
great tourney is about to come to a fantastic finish.
Here's the remaining matchups:

h535 vs Phinneus
Phingus

HITMAN vs Vaughn Fats

Keep an eye
out for these wars to post and vote for your favorite
blueser! For all the latest, catch up here.

Tune of the Month (June 2006)

"Annabella"

by
The Jimmy Hats

Some Things You Should Know
About Copyright

In light of recent events involving our MusicianWar
community, your MWNL staff has endeavored to bring you the current,
pertinent and correct information you need in order to protect your
artistic creations. All of the information in this article is taken
from the US Copyright Office website (http://www.copyright.gov/).

Part III - International Copyright Agreements

There is no such thing as an �international
copyright� that will automatically protect an author�s writings
throughout the world. Protection against unauthorized use in a
particular country basically depends on the national laws of that
country. However, most countries offer protection to foreign works
under certain conditions that have been greatly simplified by
international copyright treaties and conventions. There are two
principal international copyright conventions, the Berne Union for the Protection of Literary and
Artistic Property (Berne Convention) and the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC).

The
United States became a member of the Berne Convention on March 1,
1989. It has been a member of the UCC since September 16, 1955.
Generally, the works of an author who is a national or domiciliary
of a country that is a member of these treaties or works first
published in a member country or published within 30 days of first
publication in a Berne Union country may claim protection under the
treaties. There are no formal requirements in the Berne Convention.
Under the UCC, any formality in a national law may be satisfied by
the use of a notice of copyright in the form and position specified
in the UCC. A UCC notice should consist of the symbol � (C in a
circle) accompanied by the year of first publication and the name of
the copyright proprietor (example: � 2006 John Doe). This notice
must be placed in such manner and location as to give reasonable
notice of the claim to copyright. Since the Berne Convention
prohibits formal requirements that affect the �exercise and
enjoyment� of the copyright, the United States changed its law on
March 1, 1989, to make the use of a copyright notice optional. U.S.
law however, still provides certain advantages for use of a
copyright notice; for example, the use of a copyright notice can
defeat a defense of �innocent infringement.�

Even if the work
cannot be brought under an international convention, protection may
be available in other countries by virtue of a bilateral agreement
between the United States and other countries or under specific
provision of a country�s national laws. (See Circular 38a,
International Copyright Relations of the United States.)

An
author who wishes copyright protection for his or her work in a
particular country should first determine the extent of protection
available to works of foreign authors in that country. If possible,
this should be done before the work is published anywhere, because
protection may depend on the facts existing at the time of first
publication.

There are some countries that offer little or no
copyright protection to any foreign works. For current information
on the requirements and protection provided by other countries, it
may be advisable to consult an expert familiar with foreign
copyright laws. The U.S. Copyright Office is not permitted to
recommend agents or attorneys or to give legal advice on foreign
laws.

Well folks...that's gonna about do it for this month!

If you would like to contribute an article on a gear, concert, or
music review, have a question or a comment, gear for sale, or you
just wanna say hi! Send an email to the News Guy ...I can't
guarantee that all submissions will be used...but I can guarantee
that they will ALL be considered.

Until next month...Peace!

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