Author: h

Closing in on our 100th post…

The Lone Wolf sessions at Nick’s house yesterday and today have taught me a few things. It’s good to have a mini-“vacation” even if you never leave town. I’m not as good at playing my own damn songs (and other folks’) as I often imagine I am. Despite that, I’m a pretty good cat in the studio, able to analyze my own work well (not objectively, and often not as someone else would, but with an ear towards some kind of standard).

For close [blog] followers, I apologize that this post is late; I know how I feel when I go to read my favorite blog, and there’s nothing new.

I will be listening to the tracks I laid over the next few weeks, and deciding what to release, what to put here on the MFR [blog], what to try and re-do, and what to cut. “Open Columns” and “America Votes 2032” from nickel will show up, along with “Talk Me Down.” “Hymn…”, re-christened “The Picture Song,” is in at this point. A couple new tunes I haven’t really talked about will probably make it too. The only non-Lincoln band cover that sounds good is my Foo Fighters track (I’m really sad about another one not working… I may try it again, if I can’t do it I’ll tell you what it is so you can go listen to the record anyway). That one (Foos), and any other covers that I might potentially re-work, I would probably release as a limited number of downloads; after X amount of hits (100?) I would delete the file and it would no longer be legally available from me or MFR.

JT, I hate to tell you, but “Mable” just isn’t any fun to play without Scottie. It doesn’t click.

After a long weekend of playing songs in Nick’s spare bedroom, Bo Ling and bowling, Shadow, driving, college hoops, and a pot of my Italian soup, this lone wolf is home and for bed. See you-

-h

A little more than to weeks ago, just as I finished mastering Bike’s new A Wind I Can Lean Into, my main ProTools interface broke (this is a box that we plug microphones, instruments, and speakers in to – the midpoint between a guitar and the computer). After two weeks at the repair shop, I called to check up on it, and they told me they can’t fix it. I’ve got another shop to try, but it will still take a while, and in the meantime I’ve been writing a bit but unable to do any studio work.

But! I discovered a simple, old tape recorder in the church basement and started to get ideas. I borrowed an old tube power supply for my nice mic. I plugged it all together yesterday… and got lo-fi, tube-driven, beautiful roughness.

Also! Nick asked me to dog- and house-sit for several days next weekend while he’s travelling for work. Meaning a quiet, empty house – nobody walking around upstairs, no one for me to worry if they can hear me playing songs through the walls.

Result! is that I’m planning to record Tonight The Lone Wolf Rides Alone next weekend. I’ve been thinking about it for maybe a year, but just didn’t find the opportunity until now. It’s to be a solo-acoustic album of echoes songs and covers. Sort of like what you might hear me play, if you came over to my house and we were just hanging out after dinner or something. I have a tracklist in my head…

BUT IF YOU HAVE REQUESTS; ECHOES SONGS, OR COVERS YOU KNOW I KNOW, POST A COMMENT AND LET ME KNOW!!!111 I’ll add them to the list of songs, and they could make the record OR maybe be posted just here to the MFR [blog], OR if they’re really bad but you love that song anyway, I could just email it to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111111111

It takes a long time for my projects to coalesce, from the time the first song is written for any given recording, to the actual release. In this case, I think “FedEx Overnight Conversions” was written in college, meaning perhaps spring 2003 (at least, not earlier – it could be later). The most recent, “Assassination Love Mission,” was finished last summer, 2005. The other three are from the winter 2004-05, after launching MFR, releasing nickel the autumn before, and moving to Minnesota.

To compare, Sally Ride was almost four years from “A Come-On” to the release of Don’t Let Them Take Us ALIVE!.

The Ska Rat songs are shorter and quirkier than nickel‘s, on purpose. Looking back, all of them deal with the places where the world and its big ideas crash with my life. Recording-wise, there’s the addition of organ sounds (which mostly replace guitar leads), and a general increase in production quality and my performances in the studio; Be A Ska Rat is my first project that might tentatively be described as “tight” in the strict sense.

“I Don’t Even Know How Right This Sounds” – If you downloaded the live version from Furious Instance, you know this song is about aesthetic insecurity and quantum physics (there’s the crash). The art-process-part comes first, then the bridge adds the “observer effect” – collapsing probability waves into single actualized moments through acts of will. This song picks up from “Open Columns” – the off-beat chord rhythms, western-ish bridge – even the key of D-major.

“Corrupting The Youth” – Like Socrates (who is now 2-for-2 on Ska Rat songs/name-checks) with the youth of Athens, traversing the city and talking about what is seen is a great education. I’d do it from the bus, instead of on foot though. “It’s every man for himself” is an observation; is it also a criticism, or a proscription? The bass didn’t come through very well, but I love the crazy keyboard-mashes.

“FedEx Overnight Conversions” – What if I woke up one morning a conservative, Pentecostal, fundamentalist Christian? And then ran into a nice, progressive, granola girl, on whom I wished I could make a good impression? I’d write this song about it. FedEx implies suddenness; this conversion is like receiving an unexpected package. The other four songs use a “rock organ” keyboard tone, but this features a rotary sound (think Steppenwolf – though here it’s buried in the mix).

“Asassination Love Mission” – Sometimes there are inner struggles so severe they’re like warfare. There are things about body chemicals (from our evolved human nature? our brains? ingested?) that I try to put to death in myself for a cause of higher love. The “Come on and show me…” parts in the two verses are lifted, melody and words, from the Clash’s “Clash City Rockers.” I don’t understand why it fit, but it just did; when I was writing the melody, I came to that part and just sang it, very intuitive. The riffy ending-part with drums sort of point the way toward a future echoes thing, Poor devil.

“J. Cougar Mellensong” – Between JC and Tom Petty, this song probably should have been written years ago. But it wasn’t, so I tuned it down (to sing in the higher octave) and wrote it faster. I tried to make it under two minutes, but the guitar-ring took it over the line, and I liked the organ fuzz at the end. It’s kind of weird structurally in that is has a couple verses and a couple bridges, but no real “chorus”. This song is very fun to play, but gets out of control easily and sounds bad. Maybe if you’ve heard the Ska Rat one, if I play it live it will strike your memory and you won’t mind so much.

Every day between Christmas and New Year’s Day, Cory Alan and Mr. Furious are posting to the MFR [blog], publishing year-end thoughts and posts that slipped out of the regular rotation. Mr. Furious Records – Giving You Music.

nickel was recorded at home in Nebraska in the spring of 04, during my last (non-)semester at Doane. Writing a long philosophy thesis in the morning and rocking at night, day in and day out, hammering out a new sound for myself. It’s well-known by now that echoes has been primarily a one-man band up to now, and into the forseeable future, so everything you hear is me; drums, guitars (usually 2), bass (synthesized from the guitar via GK pickup and one-string octave effect), and vocals (except for the women on “America Votes 2032”).

“The Spoken Word As Catalyst” – This riff is what I hope is quintessential echoes; snappy, catchy, but nothing you’ve heard before. Cory was around the day I wrote it, and liked it, so I asked him to write a verse. His verse came back twice as long as mine, but the words matched the story and had to be included; the result is the call and response second verse.

“SOS” – The first echoes song ever written. I never felt it fit into howie&scott’s sets, but loved the song. At the time, it was the voice of a different artist; the first clue that h&s was something (and something good), but wasn’t everything I wanted to play. Note the quotes in the guitar solo: “Anchors Aweigh!” (the Navy hymn) and “In the Navy!” (Village People). The ultra-punk parts are my favorite.

“Open Columns” – When I learned how love is mediated in our bodies chemically, it really affected me, in a positive way – I became less dependent on feelings, and more committed to my own decisions in love. I was also reading The Power of One at the time, so the boxing theme and “First your head and then your heart” come from that incredible novel. This song was written in the middle of the nickel sessions, and I felt like it couldn’t wait; I stopped in the middle of recording guitar tracks to go back and demo this song, then re-record everything so it would fit. “I Don’t Even Know How Right This Sounds” from Be A Ska Rat builds on a couple themes first presented in “Open Columns” – the off-beat guitar hits the characterize the end of the song, and the very light cow-punk, western-sounding flavor.

“God Bless The Strokes” – Over Christmas break ’02 I put together the 4 chords and chiming lead line of this song, and couldn’t stop playing them, over and over. Scottie and I had bought ProTools and the core of FuriousSound a month earlier at Thanksgiving, and I was still figuring it all out. I recorded an early version of this song as a test, drum loop, guitars (which I didn’t bother to tune) and vocals. Turned out I liked the solo so much, it made its way into the final track, which required tuning the actual guitar tracks to the solo (torturous). Incedentally, the chords (G#, C#, F#, B in the key of E) match Weezer’s “Only In Dreams,” giving it that major-but-not-resolving-often sound.

“It’s Alright (to be a punk-rocker)” – I feel like Dave Grohl around the time of the first Foo Fighters record when I play this song. The first verse is from being in Ghana, and the second from being home for awhile and fighting the inevitable letdown. I spent forever getting the kick drum on the breakdown right.

“America Votes 2032” – Liberal loser falls for conservative hottie who, against all appearances and odds, ends up becoming the first woman elected President (after dumping his pessimistic ass years before). He calls the White House, wondering if they can patch things up. The primary bridge voice is Elenor Roosevelt; Hilary Clinton is in the left channel, and the then-governor of Tennessee’s wife in the right. This song includes an actual riff, which was pretty unheard-of with howie&scott, and does not feature heavily on nickel. This EP is still primarily chord-driven, but future projects (especially Poor devil) will mix it up more.

Every day between Christmas and New Year’s Day, Cory Alan and Mr. Furious are posting to the MFR [blog], publishing year-end thoughts and posts that slipped out of the regular rotation. Mr. Furious Records – Giving You Music.

RECORDS OF THE YEAR

10. JV All*Stars, Boys Forget Your Girls Forget Your Boys
9. The Decembrists, Picaresque
8. Halloween, Alaska, Too Tall To Hide
7. Death Cab For Cutie, Plans
6. Vicious Vicious, Don’t Look So Surprised
5. Bright Eyes, I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning
4. The Return, Danger Danger Silent Stranger
3. Common, Be
2. Mike Doughty, Haughty Melodic
1. Spoon, Gimme Fiction

RUNNERS-UP

11. Bloc Party, Silent Alarm
12. Coheed and Cambria, Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness
13. Erin McKeown, We Will Become Like Birds
14. Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine
15. Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth
16. Nada Surf, The Weight Is A Gift
17. Kid Dakota, The West Is The Future
18. Stars, Set Yourself On Fire
19. tapes ‘n tapes, The Loon
20. Kanye West, Late Registration

2005 RECORDS WE’LL BE BUYING IN 2006 AFTER READING OTHER LISTS

Arcade Fire, Funeral
Firey Furnaces, EP
Beck, Guero
Keith Fullerton Whitman, Multiples
MIA, Arular
Konono No. 1, Congotronics
Wolf Parade, Apologies to the Queen Mary
Ladytron, The Witching Hour
Sleater-Kinney, The Woods
The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema

MR FURIOUS FAVORITES

Sally Ride, Don’t Let Them Take Us ALIVE! (Cory)
Beach-Puppy, Creepy Eepy and Bike, How Is That Possible (tie) (howie)

Every day between Christmas and New Year’s Day, Cory Alan and Mr. Furious are posting to the MFR [blog], publishing year-end thoughts and post that slipped out of the regular rotation. Mr. Furious Records – Giving You Music.

For the sake of a shared definition; ironic statements are statements which communicate a message opposite of the plain meaning of the words used. For example, Cory tells me that he believes “My Humps” is the best song of 2005; I say “Cory! You are 100% right! ‘My Humps’ is an unparalleled work of aesthetic genius!” The effective use of irony requires a shared cultural context and set of understandings between parties (i.e., BEP sucks Elephunk and after); without it, the listener is likely to miss the messages’ ironic subtext, and recieve the opposite message which is found in the plain meaning of the words. Cory feels validated, instead of contradicted.

Irony is often used when talking about meaningful, important subjects; war, love, and right/wrong (or good/bad, if you’re of a different ethical bent). There are situations where statements are made about these things using irony, which raises the question; is a message-sender morally responsible for listeners who take ironic statements at face value?

On the howie&scott record signs.comets, we have a song called “Midnights & Tape Delays” that is about more than high school football:

Rocking back to think about our celebration, I see you
And what it means to occupy another nation
Saddle up our horses
We’re throwing down with everything we’re worth
It’s all about the pitch and roll, and up the field
Toe the line
Texans raised on turf war aren’t about to yield behind schools
Or ocean’s divide
And I can’t help but feel sincerely misaligned
Since I found the heaven and the hell
The devil and the angel
The night and day within your eyes
In your eyes
Midnights and tape delays
Crawled into you too late
Three in the morning and leaving at 8:00
Stuck in the snow today
Looked from the road – away
Echo effects in the cold instead

Lines four and seven-eight are the dangerous ones. On the surface, a listener might easily hear a message of encouragement, of “stay-the-course!”, of toughness on the gridiron and in battle half a world away. But the song is intended to send up those positions, revealing their tribalist roots and illustrating that strategies learned in Texas football are not an effective basis for international relations. It’s a subtle irony, not easily caught.

If a listener hears “Midnights & Tape Delays” and is encouraged to become or stay a war-of-choice-starting, torture-explaining, jingoistic advocator of unjust violence*, then I would feel like I’d done something wrong; an early indicator of moral responsibility. Can we find a means by which to explain how I am culpable for unintended consequences of my statements?

Jody thinks that message-senders are obligated to make their ironic expressions clearly ironic. She talks about a shared responsibility; for the senders to make their statements broad enough to be seen, and the listeners to be reasonably attuned to the cultural context of the art and artist, alert for irony. It seems like a solid approach to me, and I worry a bit that “Midnights & Tape Delays” may not satisfy its requirements. It probably does if you know me personally; it may not be OK if you don’t.

The stance of “critical realism” towards the universe in general, and art in particular, that I have argued in other posts here is reflected in Jody’s thinking. Her position recognizes the impact of art on the rest of the world; both aesthetic statements and attendance are meaningful and significant in relationship to our physical, mental, spiritual, and moral universes. I think it captures the essence of the moral use of irony, without going overborad on dishing out responsibility for consequences an artist couldn’t forsee or control.

*Note; I am not advocating a position of complete pacificim or demonizing every military action in American history (see: Kosovo, Afghanistan) so Republicans don’t freak out!

Every day between Christmas and New Year’s Day, Cory Alan and Mr. Furious are posting to the MFR [blog], publishing year-end thoughts and post that slipped out of the regular rotation. Mr. Furious Records – Giving You Music.

—-
Hear Cory Alan and echoes in concert tonight at the Zoo Bar in Lincoln, NE, 9:30 pm – $5?
—-

Seeing friends, meeting D-Rockets, and hearing The Return are all equally valid reasons for a trip to Lincoln, NE.

The Return are masterful onstage, ripping through their punk-tinged pop songs but stretching out the reggae jams and improvisitory building/releasing between studio cuts. I would dance, I would listen, my jaw would hit the floor, and time didn’t mean a thing.

Danger Danger Silent Stranger is a record you don’t have to trust me on; you can listen to the whole thing at dangerdanger.com. Then you will probably love it. The songs have in common: killer melodies (straight for the jugular), island-level rhythmic push (thanks Mike & everybody), and a clean, punchy mix that shows off The Return’s off-the-charts musicality. They diverge in influence (from reggae to punk, ska, The Police, and Cream) and subject matter (love, war, apartment living, pandas). It is beautiful, and the band wants you to hear it for free – !!!111

Enough Return for me? Of course not – as the band swung back towards sunny CA, they visited Leavenworth KS (a full hour of suburbia from Raytown… grr); Nick and I tripped to the GroundWorks, a youth-oriented “coffeehouse” (read; an empty room with a stage, some XBoxes, and weird fruity energy drinks). About twelve kids were there for the opening band, two high school kids with acoustic guitars doing obscene punk covers – quite charming. Derek was fragging kids left and right in Halo2; I sat down next to him and we talked before The Return hit the stage.

The band played well and included two new songs, one of which was a reggae jam written days earlier on tour in Iowa. The other was really intense technically, with about a thousand different parts, yet it rocked bodies. Seeing The Return a second time made me say to myself, “I better find a different way to be awesome, because I’ll never be that good at guitar / jam like that / write those songs.”

It’s strange how really good bands make me want to simultaneously quit music and make more + better. Frustration and inspiration at once. On the other hand, I saw Psychadelic Furs open for Death Cab for Cutie a couple weeks ago; they were so bad, I couldn’t help but think “I’m already this good!”

Every day between Christmas and New Year’s Day, Cory Alan and Mr. Furious are posting to the MFR [blog], publishing year-end thoughts and items that slipped out of the regular rotation. Mr. Furious Records – Giving You Music.

One holiday tradition at my house is to make pecan tassies. These brilliant bites of pastry are like tiny pecan pies; the nuts, filling, and crust formed in mini-muffin tins. Simple. There is only one tricky bit to making them; shaping the crust.

After the dough is made, it is rolled into balls which are put in the mini-muffin tins and chilled on the back porch (we live in Nebraska). Then, to create the crust shape, you press your thumb into the center of the dough ball, and begin forming the dough to the outside of the tin, making a tiny pie crust. There are two dangers; spreading the dough too thin, and working the dough too much.

The heat of your hands affects the dough, making it hard (impossible, really) to shape. If you work the dough for too long, your tassie-crust quickly becomes thin or gets holes. You can’t patch it up; the dough is already too far gone to work in that way. The tassie-crust-shaping is truly do-or-die. An effective shaper is one who moves both decisively (doesn’t work the dough too much) and sensitively (doesn’t spread it too thin).

Mixing a song is the same for me. I have a tendency to want to over-work the song, tweaking every track’s EQ and reverb, making tiny adjustments to the mastering settings, pushing the technical aspects of the mix until I’ve lost all track of the song’s story. Like the tassie crust, my hands cause temperature-related damage that is not reversible; all you can do is start over.

Obsessive listeners will know this happened with the Fireflies sessions I did with The Shaft. Rob and I recorded together in summer 2002, and I mixed that record over and over and over. The result was thin; not a pleasant pastry. This fall, when I noticed that those mixes were still up on Rob’s MySpace, I took an afternoon off and remixed half (the punk half) of Fireflies. I was decisive (didn’t over-work) and sensitive (didn’t over-cut); the result was a big, warm, energetic sound.

Over time, I’m getting better at knowing when to quit. I think the mixing/mastering work on Be A Ska Rat will show that; you’ll have to let me know if it tastes sweet. Lesson learned, Pecan Tassie. I salute your wisdom and deliciousness.