Just so the fan base doesn't think that me spending most of my time in Ohio means I'm resting on my laurels, I'm here to tell you that I'm not.
I am of course speaking about my rock and roll laurels, mind you.
Today I called up a local sandwhich shop that has live music and made my first swipe at becoming their latest act. Got the name of the manager, when he's available, and what I need to do to put my name into the hat.
So that's pretty much step one in the process. I'll make another call tomorrow to talk to "the man" and see where it goes from there.
Here's a link to the particular store I'm hoping to play
I will def keep the blog posted if there are any updates.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Stop all the Poppin'!!!
This past Sunday, which I guess was the 26th of April, Bill and I got together for some rock and roll fun. Seems that we are both seriously missing the good ol' days of recording one song per month, so we thought we would give it a try.
With the obligatory dorking around with the kids taken care of early, we headed into the studio. (For the sake of full disclosure, I should point out that it was actually pretty fun playing in the back yard with Bill's kids. They are all very cool kids, and with the new back yard in place, there's all kinds of room for scooter rides and wheelies).
We fell into "jam" mode, and ran through a few oldies before coming up with the idea of recording "King Of The Road". I think we were both feeling sort of uninspired, or maybe we just forgot how many songs we knew. Bill dragged out a very old copy of "High Tides and Hot Sh!ts", which at one time stood as the sum of all stickmen knowledge. Now it just makes for an interesting trip down memory lane.
We ran through KOTR a few times, and it was sounding good. I think we were getting to a point where we were ready to record. Then lunacy struck! I forget who started it, but we basically started playing a game of lyric swap. Bill would play the music for a song, such as Nothing Special, and I would sing the lyrics to Spontaneous Human Combustion, but using a new melody. Bill switched to piano, and I picked up a guitar, and we must have done that for about two hours. It was a lot of fun, and had us doing a lot of laughing.
Naturally, I'm telling this story out of order. I totally forgot the part where we re-recorded the guitar solo for "Friend That I Once Knew". I don't know what went wrong the first time we recorded it using Coca-Cola, but it was all out of pitch. So I re-did it using the Les Paul. While Bill voiced his disappointment over Coca-cola not making an appearance on the album, I believe that sadness was trumped by the fact that we now had a serviceable recording of the solo. Nice.
Bill of course switched into "can we try it" mode (as usual) and produced a stunning piece of musical comedy using only a guitar. I don't know exactly what the methodology is for producing this effect, but he basically played the same solo I had recorded, but down two frets. This created a very "Hotel California" style solo which has us both doubled over from laughter. Good stuff Bill! I would have been up for recording it, but I think it just sounded SO off the wall that we didn't bother. It did sound cool though. Don't get me wrong.
We made a trip to Carl's (Natch) with full Fischer Family in tow. Not quite a Black and Blue first, but the fact that we all stayed there together for the entire meal was indeed a first. Good stuff too. Will and Erika are absolute riots, and I had them saying "I want to rock!!!" all day long. Very inspiring! The fact that they are already comfortable behind instruments (though not terribly proficient) certainly bodes well for the oft-imagined "MNI Mark II". Children, the future is yours.
But today was REALLY supposed to be all about mixing. Though we got distracted with play time and recording and jamming, we did spend a bunch of time listening to and commenting on the current batch of mixes. Overall, the reviews are positive, but with constructive criticisms and ideas along the way. You know, a little more volume here, bring up the drums there, drop out the tambourine here, etc. The overall conclusion is that we're both quite happy with where things are going, though it's just not going fast enough ;) With my aggressive travel schedule and Bills family committments, it's hard to find time to really sit down and just crank out a few songs. But it will happen!!!
To spice up this post, I do have a few photos to show.
First up is the popper stopper we purchased a couple of months ago. The impetus for this was a botched vocal track for "On The Road" which was rendered useless by a couple really loud pops on the "Purchase Price of happiness" line. We had the choice of the standard "panty hose" style stopper, or this metal one. Having worked with the former previously, I can tell you first hand that they usually smell pretty awful. I guess the saliva of the singer tends to gather in there, and it doesn't come out. So after a few weeks of use, it smells like month old bad breath. Nasty. Thanks, but no thanks. While the metal one cost a few more bucks, I figure that will add to its longevity, and also prevent said malodorous eminations.
And here's the man himself, Bill Fischer, standing next to his boom-stack.
Also noteworthy of this session is the fact that Bill had prepared a timeline of the past year, documenting in an executive summary form the work we accomplished through 2008 and into 2009. Good stuff, band historian! You go!!!!
I think our next meeting will really focus on listening to the next round of mixes, and seeing how they sound in different listening situations. We've targeted two different cars, and iPod, and the monitor speakers in Bills den. Er, I mean his recording studios. My main goal for the next couple of weeks is to work on normalizing the volumes across all the songs, and ironing out the last couple technical tweaks. If I had to estimate, I would say we are more than fifty percent done with mixdown chores.
Safe.
With the obligatory dorking around with the kids taken care of early, we headed into the studio. (For the sake of full disclosure, I should point out that it was actually pretty fun playing in the back yard with Bill's kids. They are all very cool kids, and with the new back yard in place, there's all kinds of room for scooter rides and wheelies).
We fell into "jam" mode, and ran through a few oldies before coming up with the idea of recording "King Of The Road". I think we were both feeling sort of uninspired, or maybe we just forgot how many songs we knew. Bill dragged out a very old copy of "High Tides and Hot Sh!ts", which at one time stood as the sum of all stickmen knowledge. Now it just makes for an interesting trip down memory lane.
We ran through KOTR a few times, and it was sounding good. I think we were getting to a point where we were ready to record. Then lunacy struck! I forget who started it, but we basically started playing a game of lyric swap. Bill would play the music for a song, such as Nothing Special, and I would sing the lyrics to Spontaneous Human Combustion, but using a new melody. Bill switched to piano, and I picked up a guitar, and we must have done that for about two hours. It was a lot of fun, and had us doing a lot of laughing.
Naturally, I'm telling this story out of order. I totally forgot the part where we re-recorded the guitar solo for "Friend That I Once Knew". I don't know what went wrong the first time we recorded it using Coca-Cola, but it was all out of pitch. So I re-did it using the Les Paul. While Bill voiced his disappointment over Coca-cola not making an appearance on the album, I believe that sadness was trumped by the fact that we now had a serviceable recording of the solo. Nice.
Bill of course switched into "can we try it" mode (as usual) and produced a stunning piece of musical comedy using only a guitar. I don't know exactly what the methodology is for producing this effect, but he basically played the same solo I had recorded, but down two frets. This created a very "Hotel California" style solo which has us both doubled over from laughter. Good stuff Bill! I would have been up for recording it, but I think it just sounded SO off the wall that we didn't bother. It did sound cool though. Don't get me wrong.
We made a trip to Carl's (Natch) with full Fischer Family in tow. Not quite a Black and Blue first, but the fact that we all stayed there together for the entire meal was indeed a first. Good stuff too. Will and Erika are absolute riots, and I had them saying "I want to rock!!!" all day long. Very inspiring! The fact that they are already comfortable behind instruments (though not terribly proficient) certainly bodes well for the oft-imagined "MNI Mark II". Children, the future is yours.
But today was REALLY supposed to be all about mixing. Though we got distracted with play time and recording and jamming, we did spend a bunch of time listening to and commenting on the current batch of mixes. Overall, the reviews are positive, but with constructive criticisms and ideas along the way. You know, a little more volume here, bring up the drums there, drop out the tambourine here, etc. The overall conclusion is that we're both quite happy with where things are going, though it's just not going fast enough ;) With my aggressive travel schedule and Bills family committments, it's hard to find time to really sit down and just crank out a few songs. But it will happen!!!
To spice up this post, I do have a few photos to show.
First up is the popper stopper we purchased a couple of months ago. The impetus for this was a botched vocal track for "On The Road" which was rendered useless by a couple really loud pops on the "Purchase Price of happiness" line. We had the choice of the standard "panty hose" style stopper, or this metal one. Having worked with the former previously, I can tell you first hand that they usually smell pretty awful. I guess the saliva of the singer tends to gather in there, and it doesn't come out. So after a few weeks of use, it smells like month old bad breath. Nasty. Thanks, but no thanks. While the metal one cost a few more bucks, I figure that will add to its longevity, and also prevent said malodorous eminations.
And here's the man himself, Bill Fischer, standing next to his boom-stack.
Also noteworthy of this session is the fact that Bill had prepared a timeline of the past year, documenting in an executive summary form the work we accomplished through 2008 and into 2009. Good stuff, band historian! You go!!!!
I think our next meeting will really focus on listening to the next round of mixes, and seeing how they sound in different listening situations. We've targeted two different cars, and iPod, and the monitor speakers in Bills den. Er, I mean his recording studios. My main goal for the next couple of weeks is to work on normalizing the volumes across all the songs, and ironing out the last couple technical tweaks. If I had to estimate, I would say we are more than fifty percent done with mixdown chores.
Safe.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The ‘Splosion Continues
Tonight turned out to be a very productive night for me as far as mixing goes. I did another round of mixes of almost every song on the album. I’ve been using an iterative methodology for song development, and it has served me well so far. Here’s the basic strategy:
1. Put together a mix of the song, to the best of my abilities
2. Load it onto the iPod
3. Listen to it a bunch of times, taking notes along the way about things that I think could be improved upon.
4. Go back into cubase and make the changes that my notes suggest
5. goto 2
I find that listening to the songs on the iPod, outside of the context of the mixing “studio” gives me a lot of insight that I don’t often get while “in the zone”. Turns out that sitting in front of the computer for a few hours at a time tends to dull your senses somehow. Having the songs on an iPod lets me listen to the songs anywhere, and also I can hear them up against other artists songs.
For me, I think the most fun part about this process is finding and fixing the technical glitches. I should probably call them performance glitches, seeing as how the technology actually had no part of it. For example, one of the things I fixed today were a couple of flubbed drum fills on Girl # 134. Throughout the song, there are about 10 drum fills. Three of them were pretty clumsy. Not terrible, just not as smooth as the others. A trick I recently discovered involves transplanting “working” parts over to the “damaged” parts. Works like a charm, but sometimes the grafts don’t fit quite perfectly, so I need to do a little stretching or reorganizing. I’ve gotten good enough at it that I can do it pretty quickly, and it also sounds very convincing. I also did a little lyrical fixing in The Friend That I once Knew. One of the common problems I find in our songs is that the vocal performances won’t match perfectly. On a lot of the songs, Bill and/or I lay down multiple takes. On “Friend”, I have two takes that play simultaneously. I find that the difference in performances makes for an interesting sound. However, there were a few lines that I just sang a little differently. I have created a technique to cut up the individual sounds and words so that I can line them all up visually, allowing the performance to be changed to sync up perfectly. It’s kind of weird, and something that just wouldn’t be possible using the type of equipment that we used when recording our first album. It’s wild.
Anyhow, there was a laundry list of little technical fixes that I got done, including tightening up the very final deedles on “Rockville”. The thing I like about the fixes is that they are very subtle. It’s not like there’s a glaring patch over the recorded work. In fact, if I did my job right, you’d never even notice it was done.
The punch line to all of this is that I think I have finished all of the technical fixes for the entire album. Of course, I’ll need to go through another iteration of listening, but I’m feeling confident that I’ve captured them all. I’ll leave room for a couple sneaky ones that may have slipped through the cracks, but it’s really come a long way.
In other news, I listened to the entire “album” in one sitting today. In fact, I was sitting out by the pool and tore through the whole album. Mixing issues aside, I think it’s a really solid album. There isn’t a song on there that I’m not proud of.
Oh, I also broke down and swapped out my vocals for Bills on “Let Me Be Your Guitar Playah”. Tough pill to swallow, to be sure, as that song is shaping up to be one of my favorite songs on the album, if not THE favorite song. Still, it sounds really good with Bill’s vocal, so it’s not like it’s a total loss. Hah!!
I’ve got another trip planned soon, and I will use my travel time to listen to the songs and write another todo list for my next iteration.
1. Put together a mix of the song, to the best of my abilities
2. Load it onto the iPod
3. Listen to it a bunch of times, taking notes along the way about things that I think could be improved upon.
4. Go back into cubase and make the changes that my notes suggest
5. goto 2
I find that listening to the songs on the iPod, outside of the context of the mixing “studio” gives me a lot of insight that I don’t often get while “in the zone”. Turns out that sitting in front of the computer for a few hours at a time tends to dull your senses somehow. Having the songs on an iPod lets me listen to the songs anywhere, and also I can hear them up against other artists songs.
For me, I think the most fun part about this process is finding and fixing the technical glitches. I should probably call them performance glitches, seeing as how the technology actually had no part of it. For example, one of the things I fixed today were a couple of flubbed drum fills on Girl # 134. Throughout the song, there are about 10 drum fills. Three of them were pretty clumsy. Not terrible, just not as smooth as the others. A trick I recently discovered involves transplanting “working” parts over to the “damaged” parts. Works like a charm, but sometimes the grafts don’t fit quite perfectly, so I need to do a little stretching or reorganizing. I’ve gotten good enough at it that I can do it pretty quickly, and it also sounds very convincing. I also did a little lyrical fixing in The Friend That I once Knew. One of the common problems I find in our songs is that the vocal performances won’t match perfectly. On a lot of the songs, Bill and/or I lay down multiple takes. On “Friend”, I have two takes that play simultaneously. I find that the difference in performances makes for an interesting sound. However, there were a few lines that I just sang a little differently. I have created a technique to cut up the individual sounds and words so that I can line them all up visually, allowing the performance to be changed to sync up perfectly. It’s kind of weird, and something that just wouldn’t be possible using the type of equipment that we used when recording our first album. It’s wild.
Anyhow, there was a laundry list of little technical fixes that I got done, including tightening up the very final deedles on “Rockville”. The thing I like about the fixes is that they are very subtle. It’s not like there’s a glaring patch over the recorded work. In fact, if I did my job right, you’d never even notice it was done.
The punch line to all of this is that I think I have finished all of the technical fixes for the entire album. Of course, I’ll need to go through another iteration of listening, but I’m feeling confident that I’ve captured them all. I’ll leave room for a couple sneaky ones that may have slipped through the cracks, but it’s really come a long way.
In other news, I listened to the entire “album” in one sitting today. In fact, I was sitting out by the pool and tore through the whole album. Mixing issues aside, I think it’s a really solid album. There isn’t a song on there that I’m not proud of.
Oh, I also broke down and swapped out my vocals for Bills on “Let Me Be Your Guitar Playah”. Tough pill to swallow, to be sure, as that song is shaping up to be one of my favorite songs on the album, if not THE favorite song. Still, it sounds really good with Bill’s vocal, so it’s not like it’s a total loss. Hah!!
I’ve got another trip planned soon, and I will use my travel time to listen to the songs and write another todo list for my next iteration.
Monday, March 30, 2009
First Mix Of The Entire Album
Today I finished up preliminary mixes of every song on the album. A couple are just about done, other still have a long way to go. But still, it's a pretty big day.
The total running time, assuming we include all 13 songs, is 45:10. Not bad. Might even be a little high. I'm under the impression that most albums average 40 minutes. So we're doing good. Means there's room to cut if there turns out to be a stinker. But so far, I'm liking every song on the album.
Here's the final rundown of songs that we're mixing:
April
Girl #134
Above You
Big Tin Truck
Rockville
On The Road
Second Time Around
Armageddon Is Here
Bordered In Black
The Friend That I Once Knew
Bitter Break Up Song
Come My Way
Let Me Be Your Guitar Player
And let's take another look at this list, this time with notes about who sings lead.
BF - April
MM - Girl #134
BOTH - Above You
MM - Big Tin Truck
MM - Rockville
MM - On The Road
BOTH - Second Time Around
MM - Armageddon Is Here
BF - Bordered In Black
MM - The Friend That I Once Knew
?? Bitter Break Up Song
BF - Come My Way
BF - Let Me Be Your Guitar Player
That's 2 songs where we both sing lead, 4 songs where BF sings lead, 6 songs where MM sings lead, and one unknown. Bill has made subtle complaints about his being mixed out of the lead on Rockville, which could always change. I'm not married to a mix of ANY song, though I gotta say, I would consider some serious horse trading to be allowed the lead on Guitar Player. Not only do I love the song, but I am a fan of my performance. Yeah, I know, that sounds pretty lame, but the thing about the song is that the melody gives me a chance to sing in a wider range than I usually write for myself. so fun! I suppose I should count my blessings that Bill let me hijack 'Truck, as it's one of my favorite songs he's ever written.
Bill was originally talking about dropping "Above You" from the lineup. As of right now, I'm on the fence about it. I think it's a good song, but the recording leaves something to be desired. I dunno, it just sort of seems... wonky. I don't know how to describe it. First, my bongo playing totally sucks. It's all over the place, and is not very consistent. Second, my tambourine playing totally sucks. It's all over the place, and is not very consistent. See a pattern?? Vocally and guitar-ally, it's good, but that is sort of lost in the out of sync bongos/tambourine. I think it's a fun song, and it was cool to do the historical re-creation of the original recording, but it kind of smacks of amature hour when placed in the context of the other songs we've recorded. No disrespect intended to the author or performers on the song. This was simply a very early outing in our recording experience, and our lack of it sort of shows.
Anyhow, that's where we stand as of today.
The total running time, assuming we include all 13 songs, is 45:10. Not bad. Might even be a little high. I'm under the impression that most albums average 40 minutes. So we're doing good. Means there's room to cut if there turns out to be a stinker. But so far, I'm liking every song on the album.
Here's the final rundown of songs that we're mixing:
April
Girl #134
Above You
Big Tin Truck
Rockville
On The Road
Second Time Around
Armageddon Is Here
Bordered In Black
The Friend That I Once Knew
Bitter Break Up Song
Come My Way
Let Me Be Your Guitar Player
And let's take another look at this list, this time with notes about who sings lead.
BF - April
MM - Girl #134
BOTH - Above You
MM - Big Tin Truck
MM - Rockville
MM - On The Road
BOTH - Second Time Around
MM - Armageddon Is Here
BF - Bordered In Black
MM - The Friend That I Once Knew
?? Bitter Break Up Song
BF - Come My Way
BF - Let Me Be Your Guitar Player
That's 2 songs where we both sing lead, 4 songs where BF sings lead, 6 songs where MM sings lead, and one unknown. Bill has made subtle complaints about his being mixed out of the lead on Rockville, which could always change. I'm not married to a mix of ANY song, though I gotta say, I would consider some serious horse trading to be allowed the lead on Guitar Player. Not only do I love the song, but I am a fan of my performance. Yeah, I know, that sounds pretty lame, but the thing about the song is that the melody gives me a chance to sing in a wider range than I usually write for myself. so fun! I suppose I should count my blessings that Bill let me hijack 'Truck, as it's one of my favorite songs he's ever written.
Bill was originally talking about dropping "Above You" from the lineup. As of right now, I'm on the fence about it. I think it's a good song, but the recording leaves something to be desired. I dunno, it just sort of seems... wonky. I don't know how to describe it. First, my bongo playing totally sucks. It's all over the place, and is not very consistent. Second, my tambourine playing totally sucks. It's all over the place, and is not very consistent. See a pattern?? Vocally and guitar-ally, it's good, but that is sort of lost in the out of sync bongos/tambourine. I think it's a fun song, and it was cool to do the historical re-creation of the original recording, but it kind of smacks of amature hour when placed in the context of the other songs we've recorded. No disrespect intended to the author or performers on the song. This was simply a very early outing in our recording experience, and our lack of it sort of shows.
Anyhow, that's where we stand as of today.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Review
I was digging through some old emails today, and found this. I should have posted it a while ago, but here it is:
Matt Munson and Bill Fischer were rock-and-roll stablemates from Southern California quartet My New Invention, a band whose existence roughly coincided with the Clinton Administration and caused slightly less controversy and heartache – a shortcoming mostly due to the band's confined geographical range.
But during their spare time offstage, Matt and Bill enjoyed switching to acoustic guitars and hamming it up with wide-ranging songs, duets, and gimcrack instrumental blasts performed for friends, lovers, and folks just passing through. Over time these just-for-fun sessions evolved into a jokey "splinter band" that came to be called Black & Blue.
Now by some folks reckoning, that moniker is a bit mysterious, and Bill says he can't really remember how or when they chose it, but it might have been inspired by the execrable 1975 Rolling Stones album Black and Blue. Or, it could have been that shiner Matt received in a 1993 wherehouse brawl during his days as a shipping foreman. And then again, maybe it referred to the colors of those matching Fender Squier electric guitars the two axe-men played during the band's earliest days.
Whatever the original meaning, Black & Blue has come to represent an attitude, a devil-may-care indifference to the glancing blows and haymakers thrown around by fate, and a determination to suck in your gut and keep on singing those magical old songs – and some just written – anything so long as it's a fair piece of alright, that's got a good riff with a spring in its step, and a bittersweet harmony – like their new single, "Second Time Around." Yep, those are songs that sneak up on your troubles and club them like baby seals – with occasionally disarming honesty and and a good beat. That's Black & Blue, to a "T."
- Chuck Bacon, New Beat Monthly, January 2009
Matt Munson and Bill Fischer were rock-and-roll stablemates from Southern California quartet My New Invention, a band whose existence roughly coincided with the Clinton Administration and caused slightly less controversy and heartache – a shortcoming mostly due to the band's confined geographical range.
But during their spare time offstage, Matt and Bill enjoyed switching to acoustic guitars and hamming it up with wide-ranging songs, duets, and gimcrack instrumental blasts performed for friends, lovers, and folks just passing through. Over time these just-for-fun sessions evolved into a jokey "splinter band" that came to be called Black & Blue.
Now by some folks reckoning, that moniker is a bit mysterious, and Bill says he can't really remember how or when they chose it, but it might have been inspired by the execrable 1975 Rolling Stones album Black and Blue. Or, it could have been that shiner Matt received in a 1993 wherehouse brawl during his days as a shipping foreman. And then again, maybe it referred to the colors of those matching Fender Squier electric guitars the two axe-men played during the band's earliest days.
Whatever the original meaning, Black & Blue has come to represent an attitude, a devil-may-care indifference to the glancing blows and haymakers thrown around by fate, and a determination to suck in your gut and keep on singing those magical old songs – and some just written – anything so long as it's a fair piece of alright, that's got a good riff with a spring in its step, and a bittersweet harmony – like their new single, "Second Time Around." Yep, those are songs that sneak up on your troubles and club them like baby seals – with occasionally disarming honesty and and a good beat. That's Black & Blue, to a "T."
- Chuck Bacon, New Beat Monthly, January 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Drinks Are On My Lyrics
On the off chance we end up recording this song sometime in the near future, I thought it a prudent move to decipher the lyrics from the video I recently posted on youtube, and on this blog. There were a couple lines I couldn't figure out, but I got most of it. Here she be:
smoke filled room, 'dust on the floor.
In come the boys looking to score.
Thirsty as ever knowing what to drink.
The bar may be empty but they don't even think.
(something something something), drunk and creally shot.
(something something something), puts the evening to it's start.
First round goes out to them, put it away quick.
Evening's getting started, the temperature is getting thick.
now. pick it up.
Shine your shoes? A dollar. "Whiskey Neat for six".
second round comes and goes, the smoke is getting thick.
Third and fourth round come and go, The band begins to play.
All your worries and your troubles, they all... go away.
Now the evening is rolling, the fun has just begun.
the bartender is getting rich, pouring another one.
finally the call the goes out, Varner screams aloud...
"Drinks are on me!!" is the call that goes across the crowd.
Smoke filled room, dust on the floor.
Out go the boys, headin' for the door.
Thirsty as ever, knowing what to drink.
The bar may be closing, but they don't even think.
If you can figure out the parts that say "something something something", please post them here and let me know. I have NO idea what I'm saying.
To my knowledge, the lyrics used in this performance were not saved anywhere, though it would not surprise me to learn that Bill has them somewhere.
Writing out the lyrics was actually kind of fun, as it reminded me of a lot of the quirky little bits and pieces to the song. For example, I don't know if anyone realizes that when I say "Dust on the floor", I'm of course referring to saw dust. Not the type of dust that collects in a dark and dingy dwelling. When I wrote the lyrics, I was imagining a western bar, with an electronic bull, and folks standing around wearing those bright red plaid cowboy shirts with the mother-of-pearl snap buttons and big ten gallon hats.
I still can't remember where the "Shine your shoes" line came from, though I find that one interesting. I think my favorite line of the whole song is the part where Varner screams out "Drinks are on me". Something he has never done in my presence, but I think it's a good image, and smacks of something that he would actually do. At least, the Don Varner that inhabits my memories would do. I have no idea if he's actually like that, but then, I really have no idea what Don Varner is actually like. So there you go.
Speaking of Varner, I'm told there is momentum afoot to record this song with him on Drums. I think that would really rock. Bill and I have REALLY REALLY REALLY learned a lot from recording the Black and Blue album, and I'm sure we could parlay some of that knowledge into a really good recording featuring the three of us. Best of all, I wouldn't have to learn the drum line, which actually sounds kind of complicated. There's something Don is doing with the snare that I'm not sure how to do. I think it's some kind of rim-work (yeah, you heard me). Combine that with the very irregular bass drum, and you've got a drum line that would be quite challenging for me.
Still, we'll see what happens. Personally, I'd love to see it come together. I think it would be really awesome to have a studio quality recording of this song in the can. Yeah, I said "in the can". So sue me.
smoke filled room, 'dust on the floor.
In come the boys looking to score.
Thirsty as ever knowing what to drink.
The bar may be empty but they don't even think.
(something something something), drunk and creally shot.
(something something something), puts the evening to it's start.
First round goes out to them, put it away quick.
Evening's getting started, the temperature is getting thick.
now. pick it up.
Shine your shoes? A dollar. "Whiskey Neat for six".
second round comes and goes, the smoke is getting thick.
Third and fourth round come and go, The band begins to play.
All your worries and your troubles, they all... go away.
Now the evening is rolling, the fun has just begun.
the bartender is getting rich, pouring another one.
finally the call the goes out, Varner screams aloud...
"Drinks are on me!!" is the call that goes across the crowd.
Smoke filled room, dust on the floor.
Out go the boys, headin' for the door.
Thirsty as ever, knowing what to drink.
The bar may be closing, but they don't even think.
If you can figure out the parts that say "something something something", please post them here and let me know. I have NO idea what I'm saying.
To my knowledge, the lyrics used in this performance were not saved anywhere, though it would not surprise me to learn that Bill has them somewhere.
Writing out the lyrics was actually kind of fun, as it reminded me of a lot of the quirky little bits and pieces to the song. For example, I don't know if anyone realizes that when I say "Dust on the floor", I'm of course referring to saw dust. Not the type of dust that collects in a dark and dingy dwelling. When I wrote the lyrics, I was imagining a western bar, with an electronic bull, and folks standing around wearing those bright red plaid cowboy shirts with the mother-of-pearl snap buttons and big ten gallon hats.
I still can't remember where the "Shine your shoes" line came from, though I find that one interesting. I think my favorite line of the whole song is the part where Varner screams out "Drinks are on me". Something he has never done in my presence, but I think it's a good image, and smacks of something that he would actually do. At least, the Don Varner that inhabits my memories would do. I have no idea if he's actually like that, but then, I really have no idea what Don Varner is actually like. So there you go.
Speaking of Varner, I'm told there is momentum afoot to record this song with him on Drums. I think that would really rock. Bill and I have REALLY REALLY REALLY learned a lot from recording the Black and Blue album, and I'm sure we could parlay some of that knowledge into a really good recording featuring the three of us. Best of all, I wouldn't have to learn the drum line, which actually sounds kind of complicated. There's something Don is doing with the snare that I'm not sure how to do. I think it's some kind of rim-work (yeah, you heard me). Combine that with the very irregular bass drum, and you've got a drum line that would be quite challenging for me.
Still, we'll see what happens. Personally, I'd love to see it come together. I think it would be really awesome to have a studio quality recording of this song in the can. Yeah, I said "in the can". So sue me.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Black & Blue Make Their UK Debut.
Yes it's true! I was recently in England, and had a chance to spend an evening in London with some new acquantances and old friends. Of course, this gave me an even better chance to trot out my latest monkey tricks, which naturally included a copy of the recently unveiled B&B single, "Second Time Around".
I'll try to set the scene a bit. Better yet, I can post a picture. I was hanging out in London's trendy East side when I whipped it out. The CD, that is. Duh. It was promptly placed into a mac laptop and hooked up to the speaker system.
The crowd/fan reaction was overwhelmingly positive, but then again, I WAS in the same room, so maybe that reaction should be taken with a grain of salt. The entire CD was played, and though nobody was listening closely enough to enjoy the lyrics of any one song, the "sound" of the music was much appreciated. Or so it seemed.
Either way, it was cool to have our music heard on the other side of the pond, and even cooler to have it seeminly appreciated.
I'll try to set the scene a bit. Better yet, I can post a picture. I was hanging out in London's trendy East side when I whipped it out. The CD, that is. Duh. It was promptly placed into a mac laptop and hooked up to the speaker system.
The crowd/fan reaction was overwhelmingly positive, but then again, I WAS in the same room, so maybe that reaction should be taken with a grain of salt. The entire CD was played, and though nobody was listening closely enough to enjoy the lyrics of any one song, the "sound" of the music was much appreciated. Or so it seemed.
Either way, it was cool to have our music heard on the other side of the pond, and even cooler to have it seeminly appreciated.
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