New 50B Jams, Vinyl, and a Project Update

Last weekend I cut a new practice tape with Fifty Bears in a Fight, and the results are up on our myspace, including new songs and better versions of old ones.  We’re still looking for a singer/howler/yeller/wailer.

I spent an hour yesterday at Half-Price Books, burning time between work and play, and picked up all this outstanding vinyl for $10:

• Prince, Purple Rain
• Chicago, Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago at Carnegie Hall (Sides V-VIII)
• Led Zeppelin, III
• Pretenders, Pretenders
• Pat Benatar, Crimes of Passion (“Hit Me With Your Best Shot”)
• Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA
• Neil Young, Harvest and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
• Billy Joel, The Stranger

Jill, Tim and I watched a documentary on U2’s The Joshua Tree that was pretty great.  It was cool to hear Daniel Lanios talking about how different songs were recorded, tracks they didn’t use, etc.  Flood is a giant music nerd (= awesome) and it’s still my pie-in-the-sky dream to have him produce a record of mine.  I think the doc came out a couple years ago, though the album reissue is just a couple months old.  It left me wanting more, and wanting to get the record out and listen to it, which is probably the point.  I was amazed to see footage from the Zoo TV tour of the band playing these passionate, heart-on-sleeve, rural-America inspired tunes; I didn’t know they were still playing a lot of that stuff on the Zoo tour.
Projects:

The Sleepover – I finished mastering the first EP for Cory’s new band this week.  We’re going to put one track on Furious Instance, and the rest will be available via the band.

The Combine – Nick tells me they’re about done writing the new tracks that we’re going to bundle with a few from their album for a MFR EP release.  Super-looking-forward to that.

Pat Bradley – I’m listening to and tweaking a second master version, anticipating a MFR release in a few weeks.

There is Something and not nothing – I’ve finished all bass, keys, and guitars for Sally Ride’s fourth.  (It’s fourth in my mind even though it will probably come out before Boots.)  So when I get my voice back I’ll start singing, and Matt will come play drums soon.  I gave him a disc with three songs on it that had rough vocals and drum loops, and I think he was pretty surprised even though he’s heard the demos.

Howie comp – I think I’ve got a tracklist nailed down, I haven’t decided on a title, and I’ve been too sick to even think about recording an acoustic “Major & Minor.”

MFR – Once Pat Bradley is out, I’m going to spend some time working on new images for the site and possibly a whole new WordPress theme.  -h