Kansas Citians know I’ve been talking about cowboy songs for a long time now, but the rest of you may not.

“Cowboy songs” are what I’m calling Sally M/S Ride’s next record, You Have To Wear the Boots.  Boots is a collection of more-or-less-folkish songs about a variety of characters in the town of Dodge, in the old West.  I wrote the first ones, “Set You Ablaze” and “Ballad of the Ends of Our Ropes” about four years ago.  Save for a couple rough sketches, the rest have been written in the past year, beginning last June when I was mainly writing It’s A Trap and intensifying after we finished Trap.

Several of the songs you may already know; besides “…Ablaze” from Lone Prairie Records’ murder ballads compilation, “David S. Addington and Your Democracy” (re-titled “Have We Forgot the Code of the West?”), “A Come-On,” Cory’s “Easy Kill,” and a cover of the Killers’ “Jenny Was A Friend of Mine” will be part of Boots.

Sally M/S Ride records have “rules” – self-imposed restrictions on the recording process to give the record a certain sound.  The rule this time is that we have to record the basic guitar and vocal tracks live, with no editing allowed.  We’ll also be recording the basic tracks to 4-track tape, and putting everything into ProTools later.

As I’ve been practicing the songs, I think that Boots represents some of my strongest writing up to this point.  I’ve gotten deep into writing little stories, and though Dodge and its citizens are fictional there is a lot of me in them.  The opener, “Storm & Stake,” is adapted from a true story about my grandma literally holding her family’s tent down in a Wyoming thunderstorm.  The whole story of Gramp’s activism is close to me.  As I wrote the struggle between the Teacher and the Barman, I looked back and saw I’d put some things in their story that came from my own.

I’m going to start setting up the recording today, and maybe get a song or two down.  We’ll see.

Oh yeah – like all Sally M/S Ride records, the title comes from a popular 80’s movie.  Do you know what it is?  (Do you know what movies “Don’t Let Them Take Us Alive” and “It’s A Trap” come from?  Those may be trickier, since the lines are so generic.)  -h

1. Storm & Stake

2. Easy Kill

3. Iron Horse

4. A Cracked Piece of Sky

5. August Wind

6. Into the Fire

7. Jenny Was A Friend of Mine

8. Have We Forgot the Code of the West?

9. Johnny Got His Gun

10. It Was You, Kid

11. A Come-On

12. Goddamn

13. Set You Ablaze

14. Harvest Moon

15. Ballad of the Ends of Our Ropes

16. Pushing Over the Continental Divide

Cory translated the Russian blog that linked to The Silent Woods:

Style: [indi]-[folk], acoustic [indi]- fate. Extremely unoriginal [indi]- fate and [indi]-[folk] under the acoustic guitar with inconsistent high man (sometimes [duetnym]) [vokalom]. It is recorded in the bedroom in Cory, is on top somewhere superimposed synthesizer and all this only is processed on the computer (obviously it is, as a minimum, passed through [garmonayzer]). This simple and unassuming domestic record, is not more. Minus is mark for the [sintezatornuyu] inaccuracy. 3/5

They seem pretty bummed about it, but still gave the record 3 of 5 stars!

I wonder if the “high man” is the harmony-singer (me) or the higher-pitched notes-singer (Cory).  Because the “inconsistency” could be my f’d up harmonies or Cory’s live vocals.  I wonder what “garmonayzer” is.

Cory and I continue to be super-happy about the album.

5*C plays tomorrow night at RecordBar with Flee the Seen and Kill Hannah, which is pretty cool.  It’s early/all-ages; we play at 5 PM sharp, and the show will be over by 8:30.  Still light out then.

I’ve been expirimenting with new accessories for my stage look, including the “casual ascot,” the “bandit tie,” the “theater scarf,” and the “faux-scot.”  High hopes.

I read www.pitchforkmedia.com every day, but listening to the Forkcast this morning for a couple hours I am dismayed at the blandness of the playlist’s eclecticism.  Paradox?  It all seems to indie-predictable, including the pop-dance stuff and the Lil Wayne fetish.  I’d like to hear more metal, more lo-fi, more pop *songs,* and more roots/folk/world stuff.  New songs from Okkervil River and Au were really good.  LCD Soundsystem is always solid.

-h

It’s Wednesday, but the middle-of-the-week blogging in the aftermath of The Silent Woods isn’t ideal.  I’ll return to Saturday postings this very weekend.

Tonight 5*C is playing in the finals of 93.3’s Best Local Band contest; winner opens for the very big Red, White, & Boom! show in a few weeks.  Whether we win or not, we’ve made a bunch of friends, so that’s a victory.  The Kill Hannah show on Sunday night will be rad no matter what.

Speaking of The Silent Woods, at least 407 individuals have downloaded a song or more from it!  We love the Internet Archive’s new download-counter, for sure.  And thanks for the link, this-blog-in-Russian!

Listening-wise, I’ve been on a big Elvis Costello kick.  TV on the Radio.

Haven’t been able to start You Have To Wear the Boots rehearsals yet.  I’m super-looking-forward to it, though.  You guys have no idea.  -h

Keeping it short.

If you’re in KC, come see Five Star Crush tonight at Blaney’s in Westport, 9 PM, and stay ’til the end to vote for us to play at Red, White, and Boom this summer.

The new counting process at archive.org has been really encouraging for us; Cory Kibler’s The Silent Woods is at 339 downloads as I write.

With Cory’s record out, my plan is to begin rehearsing for Sally M/S Ride’s You Have To Wear the Boots in my free time.  Because the plan is to record the basic guitar/vocal tracks live  to tape (not digital), it’s going to take some practice.

Last Friday 5*C played in Lindsborg, KS at Bethany College’s Swedestock event.  Because of a cancellation, we were asked to play as long as possible, so in addition to the regular set we dug up re-worked versions of “Strange,” “Ghosts,” “Kalispell,” and other odds and ends.  The bandshell in the park was still painted for last summer’s production of South Pacific.  The kids were mostly hanging out in the shade, eating burgers, which was cool.  Sun in our eyes and hot.  It was fun.

The band that followed us was really good.  They gave me that discovering-a-great-band-at-an-outdoor-festival feeling I haven’t had in a long time.  At the time they were Amsterband, but on Sunday they changed their name to Ha Ha Tonka.  I’ve been listening to their sh*t-kicking indie record, Buckle in the Bible Belt, nonstop since then.  Visit their MySpace page and hear “St. Nick on the Fourth in a Fervor.”

http://www.mylocalbands.com/promos/fobcivic/vote.asp

If we win, we’ll open for Fall Out Boy this Saturday night in KC!  THANKS!

-h

Cory went to New York a while ago, and this happened:

 

 

Who knew?

His record is coming right along; I think we hope to have it out and up in a couple of weeks.  It has the magic.

5*Joel is coming over in a bit here to work on a killer new demo-jam we wrote at practice Thursday night.  ALSO: Duane, our engineer, found the stem-mixes from our Sleepless Nights EP, so Joel and I anticipate re-recording the guitar and key parts only very soon.  This project, with the new Red EP, would build toward a full-length with one more 2-3 song recording session.

IF YOU ARE NEAR LINCOLN, NEBRASKA TONIGHT, THE KILLIGANS ARE RELEASING THEIR NEW CD ONE STEP AHEAD OF HELL AND ROBOT, CREEP CLOSER! OPENS AT KNICKERBOCKERS.  Check out tracks at www.thekilligans.com.  Early (6PM) and late (9PM) shows: Robot! is at the late show.  -h

New Five Star Crush music is up at our myspace:

myspace.com/fivestarcrush

Hear “Ms. Trouble” and “Black Machine” from our new Red EP, which also includes “Transient” and “Aasta (I Miss You).”  This is what has basically occupied the last five weeks of my life; it’s been trying but I can’t imagine being happier with the finished work.  Last night’s gig with Bowling for Soup went.  We have a short break before three big weekends of shows in May.

I played some keys for Cory’s record this morning.  I’m most happy about “Success,” everything else is either subtle or kind of weird and I want Cory to hear it before deciding whether to like or not.  He’s in San Fransisco.

And, apparently, “howie-rocks”:

 

 

Thanks, Jill. -h

Cory sent me the below to post this morning early, so I’ll do that and add below.  -h

—-

The new Cory Kibler record, tentatively titled “Due To The Nature Of The Dart Itself,” or possibly “Pass Me That Ruler, I’m Gonna Measure Some Shit,” or maybe even “Some Asshole Pretending To Party,” is without a doubt the best record ever to come out of the Kibler District of Lincoln, NE.

I suppose it’s the only full-lengthish solo record I’ve ever done, so that’s why it’s the best. And the Kibler District is just anywhere where I am, personally, so that’s how that goes.

Basically, it’s got the same ingredients as some of my past jamz: minimal guitar, or simple guitar, anyway; my soft girl-voice swearing from time to time, usually because my mic was buttered improperly; etc. No, but it’s sounding great so far; if I were to describe my songs on this record, I’d say they were to-the-point, catchy, bittersweet, soft, and perfect music for a movie soundtrack. I actually kind of think that last bit is pretty spot-on. “Violently Real Reality,” one of the hit-joints off of the record, would be a bona-fide tearjerker at the end of some Zach Braff movie. Maybe Wes Anderson, if I’m lucky.

Usually, I stick to sounding as much like Neutral Milk Hotel, Elliott Smith and Death Cab as I can without getting sued, but according to Howie, I’m getting better and better at sounding like “me.” Which is nice. It’d be nice to write a song so uniquely your own that people would know it was yours even if they heard someone else perform it. Like, when people hear my other smash-single “Joanna (You Forgot The Time)” covered by Dylan in concert next year, I want them to think, “F*ck! I wish it were REALLY Cory up there! This Bob guy’s a jokester!”

Really though, I’m incredibly excited for this record to reach your ears. I feel like I’ve honed my lyrical abilities better on these songs than with other songs I’ve written, and I feel like there’s a lot of variety and somehow also a lot of cohesiveness. I think it’s a pretty record (“pretty” being a vague modifier, but guess what? I don’t give a dang-dang!). I hope that when people listen to these 9 songs, they desperately want more. Or at least, I hope people don’t barf into their own hands after hearing it!

Love, Cory Alan

—-

Cory actually does need an album title, so think on that if you like.

The record is a natural step forward to my ears; on the surface level, it’s like a mix of Creepy-Eepy and the little guy’s solo songs from Shacker’s The Dimly Lit Room.  But I think it shows cool growth in terms of diversity in the songs’ rhythms and lyrics.  I don’t think Cory can hear how far he’s developed in his own way from that Neutral Milk-thing; I’m mostly thinking of the fingerpicking style on songs like “Easy Kill” and “How We Can Know” (to pick two you might have heard by now on the Lone Prairie murder ballads comp / XMAS).  I haven’t heard anyone compose and play guitar quite like that anywhere.

Time passes very quickly when I put the record on, so I must be getting really into it.  I think we’re going to work on it for a few more weeks; we want to try some keyboard stuff, and I’ll mix/master but that won’t take long.  (Actually, in the mastering stage I’m going to replace Cory’s record with acoustic Avril Lavigne recordings!  He probably won’t notice!)

-h

At five minutes to midnight last night, I found myself in the unlikeliest of situations; onstage with Distance to Empty, rapping “Shoop” to a crowd of high school students at Shawnee Mission West High’s Rock 4 Hope concert.  It was a moment that perfectly completed the act of this week.

It started Monday night as 5*C moved in to Westend studios to record our new EP.  We were there through Thursday, and have finished all the music.  Vocals and mixing remain, hopefully Wednesday-Thursday this week.  We’ll get stuff up on MySpace ASAP.  We’re also playing tomorrow night (Sunday) at RecordBar, that should be a pretty good show.  Come early and eat, too!

Even with that not-quite done, I am back in the mastering saddle with Lincoln NE’s own Skink.  They have a freaky-rocking record up their sleeves, and I’m pretty pumped about that.

Finally, I am hiding in the batcave today, and starting harmonies for Cory’s project will probably happen.

-h