"It's dark every night..."
It's not exactly profound is it? I mean - no shit, Sherlock! But, I never heard anyone else say it, much less sing it, so....I pretty much wrote a song around it.
I'm going to try to keep this brief.
This is basically a dramatic love song about, as I sing, "Tempting fate with a good time," & then shit gets out of hand with the person you're having the good time with.
Shit happens.
You got into an argument - Lord knows (or, at this point, cares) why. You wake up the next day hung over, alone, and feeling like the horse's ass you rode in on. And, of course, you're looking for the very person you were in a bitch match with some hours before to make you feel safe and secure, because she (or he) is, "the only thing that makes it alright."
That's rich, isn't it?
I intertwined some lyrics about my semi-religious upbringing in there ("Orphan bastard child of God, Born of a rumor and a fraud"). I think I did that to sort of deepen the song with references to being indoctrinated with some idea of "God" & morality, & coming to the realization that these things don't necessarily make anyone righteous. In fact, they can have the opposite effect, really. I think that's why I tied up that first verse with my favorite line in the song: "The one who doesn't judge deserves all the love." Tell THAT to a religious nut!
What does that have to do with the song? Well, it beats the hell out of me, but...maybe, since it's a love song, I sort-of threw the love of family into the mix, which sort of intertwines with the religious themes, just like the love of that special one who "makes it alright" gets intertwined with too much booze! My life-long morbid fear of & fascination with death probably makes a cameo appearance as well. (I'm not gonna talk about that - but those of you who know me know all too well what I mean).
We all come from somewhere, and that leads us to where we are....
Anyway, enough of that shit.
I have a couple of random notes about the second verse that are kind-of funny. First, I sing "Gone, but not forgiven", because I saw that on a list of strange gravestone epitaphs in an almanac when I was a little kid, and it popped into my head when Lase and I were writing the song. Which leads me to the second line, "Alternative to living", which I think I once saw in a magazine ad for time shares or some shit - "THE PERFECT ALTERNATIVE TO LIVING!" I thought that was hilarious. (It's too bad that I can't find it).
As for writing the song, like most of them, it came quickly. I had that little lyric idea, and the beat with the sort-of "half-note-triplet" feel, & Lase & I took it from there. Lase really brought it to another level, yet again, when he pulled that bridge part out of his ass. I love that part.
Recording the vocals for this song (much like "Sister Vicodin") was kind of a BITCH. It's such a personal song, and one that requires a plaintive vocal, which can't be forced, or it's going to sound hokey as fuck. So, I did my best (which, admittedly, was a long shot at best) to evoke some of my favorite singers, like Mark Lanegan, & Lou Reed, & Nick Cave, to get the job done. while still keeping it my own enough to not sound like some cheap imitator. I think it came out the way I envisioned it. Lase's guitar textures are fantastic (which is the reason why I wanted to record it in the first place), and Mike Maenza, once again, really stepped up with fantastic drumming on here - taking a little idea of mine, and making it explosive. I applaud them.
That's enough.
One more song to go, next week.
Thanks for reading; thanks for listening.
Marty E.
"We're all messed up but nowhere to go..."
LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #6 - Midnight Crisis - "Lost & Found"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #5 - Midnight Crisis - "Sister Vicodin"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #4 - Midnight Crisis - "(Get Home) Dangerous"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #3 - Midnight Crisis - "Kiss My Apocalipps"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"
Stream/Download "Make It Alright" on BandCamp
Download "Make It Alright" on CDBaby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)
Download "Make It Alright" on Apple iTunes
Download "Make It Alright" on Amazon
"Make It Alright" on Spotify
Showing posts with label the dirty pearls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the dirty pearls. Show all posts
Sunday, December 10, 2017
Sunday, December 3, 2017
SONGS: #6 - Midnight Crisis - "Lost & Found"
This is another song (like "(Get Home) Dangerous") in which the lion's share of the lyrics in the first two verses were written a long time ago - in this case, probably 15 years back! The strange but cool thing about that is that they're still extremely relevant to me, after that long - in spite of (and maybe because of) the fact that the meaning of them has changed, or at least the implications of them have become more substantial. Time can do that kind of thing.
I wrote a lot of the first two verses not too long after 9/11, when we were dealing with the aftermath & getting our "sea legs" back in the city. That's where the the term "New York Post [or post] apocalypse" comes from. For one thing, it really DID feel like the end of the world (and surely life hasn't been the same since)...and also, it was the dawn of the celebutard-focused reality tv "tabloid culture" that infiltrated the popular consciousness around that time & that we're still quite in the midst of today. So, there's a double entendre there, if you like.
Anyway, those initial lyrics floated around in my head for a long time, until I eventually started writing my own shit in order to see what might happen. Again, I figured, if something is STILL on my mind that I wrote in 2001, or whenever, then, maybe I have something at least marginally worthwhile, here.
With that said, what do they MEAN, now? Well...a lot of the New York City that I fell in love with is gone now. I'm not going to turn this into a soapbox sermon about hyper-gentrification, but, let's face it, it's affected a lot of us. It's turned Downtown, NYC, which was once a place full of beautiful, creative, & poor people, into a stomping ground for ugly, rich half-wits. With that said, I still love it here, and when I take a look around, despite what has been lost, I still see a lot of cool people and cool shit happening here. It's all just fewer and further between.
So, I guess when I consider everything, I'd say that the song is about keeping your head straight, your spirit up, and your resilience intact in a world that seems to be perpetually crumbling into a pile of shit, and believing in yourself despite overwhelming evidence that doing so might define insanity.
You know...all of that shit!
So, with all of that in mind, I rewrote the lyric to inform the song of all the time between the initial lyric idea, and the time when I made something of it, as it were....
...and then I heard this riff, that must have been inspired by the likes of Girls Against Boys, the Wildhearts, and New Model Army (whose socially conscious, rebellious themes might have also provided counsel)...and pretty much wrote the skeleton of the song based on that. I had that "get on down-down-down-down-down" sort of hook on my mind for awhile, and found that it fit over that riff quite nicely.
Besides pulling the chorus part out of my ass, that's about it.
I made a little demo out of it, and was really on the fence about how I felt about it. I knew that it was coming from a sincere place with me, but...sincerity doesn't always translate. Did it sound hokey? Did it sound like the real deal? Did it ROCK, for Christ's sake?
Fast-forward to when Lase recorded the song for real, and added his explosive guitar magic on top of it, and....the answer, at least for my ears, was a resounding yes. One thing that particularly took me aback was how much Mike Maenza's drum-pummeling really whipped the song into submission. Not bad for something I came up with on the fly from an old-ass idea on a hung-over afternoon in my room, on an acoustic bass!
That's the if, and, & butt-end of it. Thanks for reading, thanks for listening....there are two songs left on the album. Stay tuned for entries on each.
Marty E.
"Flesh and blood, concrete & steel
To dust we all shall fall..."
LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #5 - Midnight Crisis - "Sister Vicodin"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #4 - Midnight Crisis - "(Get Home) Dangerous"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #3 - Midnight Crisis - "Kiss My Apocalipps"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"
Stream/Download "Lost & Found" on BandCamp
Download "Lost & Found" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)
Download "Lost & Found" on Apple iTunes
Download "Lost & Found" on Amazon
"Lost & Found" on Spotify
I wrote a lot of the first two verses not too long after 9/11, when we were dealing with the aftermath & getting our "sea legs" back in the city. That's where the the term "New York Post [or post] apocalypse" comes from. For one thing, it really DID feel like the end of the world (and surely life hasn't been the same since)...and also, it was the dawn of the celebutard-focused reality tv "tabloid culture" that infiltrated the popular consciousness around that time & that we're still quite in the midst of today. So, there's a double entendre there, if you like.
Anyway, those initial lyrics floated around in my head for a long time, until I eventually started writing my own shit in order to see what might happen. Again, I figured, if something is STILL on my mind that I wrote in 2001, or whenever, then, maybe I have something at least marginally worthwhile, here.
With that said, what do they MEAN, now? Well...a lot of the New York City that I fell in love with is gone now. I'm not going to turn this into a soapbox sermon about hyper-gentrification, but, let's face it, it's affected a lot of us. It's turned Downtown, NYC, which was once a place full of beautiful, creative, & poor people, into a stomping ground for ugly, rich half-wits. With that said, I still love it here, and when I take a look around, despite what has been lost, I still see a lot of cool people and cool shit happening here. It's all just fewer and further between.
So, I guess when I consider everything, I'd say that the song is about keeping your head straight, your spirit up, and your resilience intact in a world that seems to be perpetually crumbling into a pile of shit, and believing in yourself despite overwhelming evidence that doing so might define insanity.
You know...all of that shit!
So, with all of that in mind, I rewrote the lyric to inform the song of all the time between the initial lyric idea, and the time when I made something of it, as it were....
...and then I heard this riff, that must have been inspired by the likes of Girls Against Boys, the Wildhearts, and New Model Army (whose socially conscious, rebellious themes might have also provided counsel)...and pretty much wrote the skeleton of the song based on that. I had that "get on down-down-down-down-down" sort of hook on my mind for awhile, and found that it fit over that riff quite nicely.
Besides pulling the chorus part out of my ass, that's about it.
I made a little demo out of it, and was really on the fence about how I felt about it. I knew that it was coming from a sincere place with me, but...sincerity doesn't always translate. Did it sound hokey? Did it sound like the real deal? Did it ROCK, for Christ's sake?
Fast-forward to when Lase recorded the song for real, and added his explosive guitar magic on top of it, and....the answer, at least for my ears, was a resounding yes. One thing that particularly took me aback was how much Mike Maenza's drum-pummeling really whipped the song into submission. Not bad for something I came up with on the fly from an old-ass idea on a hung-over afternoon in my room, on an acoustic bass!
That's the if, and, & butt-end of it. Thanks for reading, thanks for listening....there are two songs left on the album. Stay tuned for entries on each.
Marty E.
"Flesh and blood, concrete & steel
To dust we all shall fall..."
LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #5 - Midnight Crisis - "Sister Vicodin"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #4 - Midnight Crisis - "(Get Home) Dangerous"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #3 - Midnight Crisis - "Kiss My Apocalipps"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"
Stream/Download "Lost & Found" on BandCamp
Download "Lost & Found" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)
Download "Lost & Found" on Apple iTunes
Download "Lost & Found" on Amazon
"Lost & Found" on Spotify
Sunday, November 19, 2017
SONGS: #5 - Midnight Crisis - "Sister Vicodin"
To begin with, in the interest of full disclosure, yeah, I got the idea for this song from the Stones' "Sister Morphine"...and also, for that matter, from the Pillbox song, "Sister Caroline" (what does THAT rhyme with, again?). I simply thought that it might be a cool idea to write something that was making a similar statement, but put in a modern context.
With that said, this concept of juxtaposing (and personifying) the intoxication & escapism that comes from the likes of chemicals & love, in a song, is hardly new or uncommon. Hell, everyone from Roxy Music to Vain to...(I don't know).....the fucking Lemonheads...have all done that successfully.
So, I figured it was worth a try.
But, it wasn't REALLY that well thought out, at first, to be honest. The title "SISTER VICODIN" popped into my head one day when I was washing my hair or some shit. I liked it, but, what was I gonna do with it?
It didn't take long for me to formulate the chorus, in my head....."SIS-TER!! VIC-O-DIN!!!" In my imagination, I heard these chords behind it (which still sound a little bit to me like the KISS song, "Tears Are Falling", turned on its head). I kept turning it over & over in my head, and I've learned that if that happens, there's a distinct possibility that you might have something good.
[I became so distracted by it that, one day, when we were walking around Flushing in search of Soup Dumplings, my girlfriend basically asked me what the hell my problem was. So, I sang her the chorus idea right there on the street! That cleared it up...]
A couple of weeks later, I went to Lase's house to do some writing, armed with this, and another idea or two (we also wrote "(Get Home) Dangerous" that night). It took us a good hour of me singing this guitar idea for the chorus to Lase before we got on the same page with it, but it finally clicked. Lase then started playing this...for lack of better terms, "druggy", "airy" guitar part, that became the basis for the verses. In my typically subtle way, I said something like, "THAT's FUCKING GREAT!" Lase didn't think it worked, for some reason I don't remember. "HOGWASH!!" It was fucking PERFECT, as far as I was concerned! I grabbed a pen & paper & scrawled down the lyrics for the verses right there. "Magic in disguise," indeed!
We had the lion's share of it finished, or so we thought, when Lase plugged in his guitar, hit these fucking ARENA-sized chords, and started sort-humming this cool melody....and it made me say something like, "HOLY FUCK!" That became that bridge part, which is my favorite part of the song, and might be my favorite few seconds of the album, for some reason I can't explain. (I kind of ripped off Deep Purple a little bit when I came up with the "Another wasted sunset..." lyric, but...I didn't think that they would mind).
Speaking of lyrics, they're pretty self-explanatory in this song, but my favorite ones are in the second verse, where I'm describing withdrawal symptoms, etc: "Boiling fevers, ice-cold sweats, My sheets are soaking wet, Daydream nightmares, for Christ's sake, DYIN' AWAY THE NIGHT AWAKE!"
I digress...
I've learned a lot from this song. For one thing, it was a really profound example of turning some stupid idea that exists nowhere but between ones ears into something tangible. That alone blows my mind sometimes.
Another thing I learned the HARD way from this song is that, just because you write a song in a lower register, one that fits your range extremely well, and all of that shit....that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be easy to sing. This song (along with "Make It Alright" - more on that one in a couple of weeks) has the most subtleties & vulnerabilities that need to come out in the vocal...which, along with the actual singing itself, has to be exactly right, or it's not worth bothering with. As such, I think I sang this song at least 15 times at Lase's studio before we had enough for him to piece together a good vocal. I wouldn't have known it when we wrote the song originally, but this song was a BITCH for me to record vocals on....but we finally got it, and...well, at least for me, it was worth all of that hard work and frustration. That's the kind of shit that's going to make you that much better during your next go-around...or at least, I hope so!
Enough.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for listening. It means a lot to me.
Three more songs to go...
Marty E.
"My world is spinnin', I don't look back
Earthquakes....heart attacks"
LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #4 - Midnight Crisis - "(Get Home) Dangerous"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #3 - Midnight Crisis - "Kiss My Apocalipps"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"
Stream/Download "Sister Vicodin on BandCamp
Download "Sister Vicodin" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)
Download "Sister Vicodin" on Apple iTunes
Download "Sister Vicodin" on Amazon
"Sister Vicodin" on Spotify
With that said, this concept of juxtaposing (and personifying) the intoxication & escapism that comes from the likes of chemicals & love, in a song, is hardly new or uncommon. Hell, everyone from Roxy Music to Vain to...(I don't know).....the fucking Lemonheads...have all done that successfully.
So, I figured it was worth a try.
But, it wasn't REALLY that well thought out, at first, to be honest. The title "SISTER VICODIN" popped into my head one day when I was washing my hair or some shit. I liked it, but, what was I gonna do with it?
It didn't take long for me to formulate the chorus, in my head....."SIS-TER!! VIC-O-DIN!!!" In my imagination, I heard these chords behind it (which still sound a little bit to me like the KISS song, "Tears Are Falling", turned on its head). I kept turning it over & over in my head, and I've learned that if that happens, there's a distinct possibility that you might have something good.
[I became so distracted by it that, one day, when we were walking around Flushing in search of Soup Dumplings, my girlfriend basically asked me what the hell my problem was. So, I sang her the chorus idea right there on the street! That cleared it up...]
A couple of weeks later, I went to Lase's house to do some writing, armed with this, and another idea or two (we also wrote "(Get Home) Dangerous" that night). It took us a good hour of me singing this guitar idea for the chorus to Lase before we got on the same page with it, but it finally clicked. Lase then started playing this...for lack of better terms, "druggy", "airy" guitar part, that became the basis for the verses. In my typically subtle way, I said something like, "THAT's FUCKING GREAT!" Lase didn't think it worked, for some reason I don't remember. "HOGWASH!!" It was fucking PERFECT, as far as I was concerned! I grabbed a pen & paper & scrawled down the lyrics for the verses right there. "Magic in disguise," indeed!
We had the lion's share of it finished, or so we thought, when Lase plugged in his guitar, hit these fucking ARENA-sized chords, and started sort-humming this cool melody....and it made me say something like, "HOLY FUCK!" That became that bridge part, which is my favorite part of the song, and might be my favorite few seconds of the album, for some reason I can't explain. (I kind of ripped off Deep Purple a little bit when I came up with the "Another wasted sunset..." lyric, but...I didn't think that they would mind).
Speaking of lyrics, they're pretty self-explanatory in this song, but my favorite ones are in the second verse, where I'm describing withdrawal symptoms, etc: "Boiling fevers, ice-cold sweats, My sheets are soaking wet, Daydream nightmares, for Christ's sake, DYIN' AWAY THE NIGHT AWAKE!"
I digress...
I've learned a lot from this song. For one thing, it was a really profound example of turning some stupid idea that exists nowhere but between ones ears into something tangible. That alone blows my mind sometimes.
Another thing I learned the HARD way from this song is that, just because you write a song in a lower register, one that fits your range extremely well, and all of that shit....that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be easy to sing. This song (along with "Make It Alright" - more on that one in a couple of weeks) has the most subtleties & vulnerabilities that need to come out in the vocal...which, along with the actual singing itself, has to be exactly right, or it's not worth bothering with. As such, I think I sang this song at least 15 times at Lase's studio before we had enough for him to piece together a good vocal. I wouldn't have known it when we wrote the song originally, but this song was a BITCH for me to record vocals on....but we finally got it, and...well, at least for me, it was worth all of that hard work and frustration. That's the kind of shit that's going to make you that much better during your next go-around...or at least, I hope so!
Enough.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for listening. It means a lot to me.
Three more songs to go...
Marty E.
"My world is spinnin', I don't look back
Earthquakes....heart attacks"
LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #4 - Midnight Crisis - "(Get Home) Dangerous"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #3 - Midnight Crisis - "Kiss My Apocalipps"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"
Stream/Download "Sister Vicodin on BandCamp
Download "Sister Vicodin" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)
Download "Sister Vicodin" on Apple iTunes
Download "Sister Vicodin" on Amazon
"Sister Vicodin" on Spotify
Sunday, November 12, 2017
SONGS: #4 - Midnight Crisis - "(Get Home) Dangerous"
"Sunshine couldn't be so clever, the sidewalk sparkles in the midnight heat..."
I wrote the first two verses of this song about 15-fucking-years ago, when I was living in a bedbug-infested building made of Tinkertoys near the southern border of Hell's Kitchen. I'd been in New York City for a short time, and by all accounts, was struggling in virtually every way possible.
[I mean, when I went out, I'd often bring a little bottle of Jim Beam in my pocket to "modify & fortify" my Friday nights, out in the East Village/Lower East Side, or when I lacked that kind of fore-site, I'd stop by a deli between bar stops & grab a can of Bud to slam on the rockin' stroll onward.]
But, I didn't care! I was becoming what I always wanted to be, or so I thought. I had a band, & I was going out a lot, getting to know cool & beautiful people, playing shows at Don Hill's, The Continental, & CBGB's, and making my way, becoming part of the city I fell head-over-heels in love with. By day, I'd put my hair back into a pony-tail, caffeinate my hangovers away, and work as an "office temp" - which, essentially, allowed me to subsist & get reasonably "refreshed" while, in my mind, looking for my Street of Dreams and, ya know...all of that shit.
Also, I met a lot of "tragic types" along the way, who had their own stories to tell, and liked having someone to tell them to, even amidst the borderline squalor I was living in. That's what verse 2 is all about.
It really was a different world, then....anyway....
Anyway, all these years since I wrote the gist of the first two verses of this song, they always sort-of haunted me in my head, and I knew that I wanted to use them for something, but wasn't sure what, until Lase & I started writing. One night, it dawned on me (no pun intended) when, at bar time, someone typically said to me, "Get home safe!"
"Fuck THAT," I thought, "Get home DANGEROUS!"
I guess the point is, nothing cool or inspiring or interesting ever happened as a result of playing it safe, as far as I know. The frustration & struggling & adversity is worth it, because you do your own thing in your own time, whatever that means to you. I think and hope that I convey that effectively in the third verse and in the choruses.
I don't know what the fuck I have to show for this line of thinking, but...I have this song, in any case.
Lase and I wrote this song on a very productive night (we wrote "Sister Vicodin" that night too - more on that next week). I came in with most of the lyrics & a rhythmic idea that became part of the main riff (dadada....duh-daaaaaaaaah)....we had a drink & worked on it for about an hour, and....shit, we came up with those cool "question and answer" vocal lines in the choruses. We made a demo recording of it right away, a little bit of which remains on the final recording.
When we were recording the vocals, I took a couple of opportunities to do some Monster Magnet-style screams on here. That was a lot of fun.
Lase is particularly stoked on this track, and I believe it's his favorite track on the album. As for me, it's too difficult for me to pick & I don't feel like I've got to choose!
Until next week......Thanks for reading/listening!
- Marty E.
"You haven't done it all
But you've done your part...."
LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #3 - Midnight Crisis - "Kiss My Apocalipps"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"
Stream/Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on BandCamp
Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)
Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on Apple iTunes
Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on Amazon
"(Get Home) Dangerous" on Spotify
I wrote the first two verses of this song about 15-fucking-years ago, when I was living in a bedbug-infested building made of Tinkertoys near the southern border of Hell's Kitchen. I'd been in New York City for a short time, and by all accounts, was struggling in virtually every way possible.
[I mean, when I went out, I'd often bring a little bottle of Jim Beam in my pocket to "modify & fortify" my Friday nights, out in the East Village/Lower East Side, or when I lacked that kind of fore-site, I'd stop by a deli between bar stops & grab a can of Bud to slam on the rockin' stroll onward.]
But, I didn't care! I was becoming what I always wanted to be, or so I thought. I had a band, & I was going out a lot, getting to know cool & beautiful people, playing shows at Don Hill's, The Continental, & CBGB's, and making my way, becoming part of the city I fell head-over-heels in love with. By day, I'd put my hair back into a pony-tail, caffeinate my hangovers away, and work as an "office temp" - which, essentially, allowed me to subsist & get reasonably "refreshed" while, in my mind, looking for my Street of Dreams and, ya know...all of that shit.
Also, I met a lot of "tragic types" along the way, who had their own stories to tell, and liked having someone to tell them to, even amidst the borderline squalor I was living in. That's what verse 2 is all about.
It really was a different world, then....anyway....
Anyway, all these years since I wrote the gist of the first two verses of this song, they always sort-of haunted me in my head, and I knew that I wanted to use them for something, but wasn't sure what, until Lase & I started writing. One night, it dawned on me (no pun intended) when, at bar time, someone typically said to me, "Get home safe!"
"Fuck THAT," I thought, "Get home DANGEROUS!"
I guess the point is, nothing cool or inspiring or interesting ever happened as a result of playing it safe, as far as I know. The frustration & struggling & adversity is worth it, because you do your own thing in your own time, whatever that means to you. I think and hope that I convey that effectively in the third verse and in the choruses.
I don't know what the fuck I have to show for this line of thinking, but...I have this song, in any case.
Lase and I wrote this song on a very productive night (we wrote "Sister Vicodin" that night too - more on that next week). I came in with most of the lyrics & a rhythmic idea that became part of the main riff (dadada....duh-daaaaaaaaah)....we had a drink & worked on it for about an hour, and....shit, we came up with those cool "question and answer" vocal lines in the choruses. We made a demo recording of it right away, a little bit of which remains on the final recording.
When we were recording the vocals, I took a couple of opportunities to do some Monster Magnet-style screams on here. That was a lot of fun.
Lase is particularly stoked on this track, and I believe it's his favorite track on the album. As for me, it's too difficult for me to pick & I don't feel like I've got to choose!
Until next week......Thanks for reading/listening!
- Marty E.
"You haven't done it all
But you've done your part...."
LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #3 - Midnight Crisis - "Kiss My Apocalipps"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"
Stream/Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on BandCamp
Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)
Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on Apple iTunes
Download "(Get Home) Dangerous" on Amazon
"(Get Home) Dangerous" on Spotify
Sunday, November 5, 2017
SONGS: #3 - Midnight Crisis - "Kiss My Apocalipps"
At our album release party, last month, I introduced this song by saying, "I had a dream I was David Johansen as an anchor man, reading the evening news...and that includes the sports and weather, motherfuckers!!!"
It's total bullshit, but it explains the song pretty well, if you ask me.
This is an example of a song, that, lyric-wise, was a complete stream-of-consciousness explosion, aided by sleep-deprivation, and media over-exposure. That's a mouthful, isn't it?
It was late Summer, 2016. Dim Donnie Trump had just clinched the Republican nomination for....(gulp)...the....presidency. I mean, it was unTHINKable! One couldn't take it seriously, almost. It just felt like a big fucking joke - one that stood out, significantly, in a world that's FULL of bad jokes.
It was one of those nights in which I stayed up all night at my girl's house, watching crappy shows on Netflix, and dicking around, playing Words With Friends, etc, until 6:30 in the morning, when one (usually) has no choice but to pass out.
That was when it hit me: "Armageddon won't be televised, Pull the silver screens over your eyes...." Again, this ultimate fruition of what they called "Trumpism"....it COULDN'T be real. It HAD to be a fucking JOKE. It will PASS, and SOON, right? He can't possibly, WIN, right? RIGHT?!!! Something in the back of my mind probably was probably a little nervous, even if I wouldn't admit it to myself or take it seriously. So I got back up, and wrote the ENTIRE lyric of this song, pretty much verbatim with how we recorded it. I then immediately texted it to Lase, who asked me why the fuck I was still up!
What's weird about it is, that third verse: "The nightmare, Baby, has come true, The shallow end is deeper than you..." Again, I was pretty-much kidding. I mean, I thought it was..."apocalyptic" enough, if you will, that this fucking moron got the NOMINATION. I'm not pretentious or full-of-shit enough to say that I was being prophetic or some shit - I had NO fucking idea what was going to happen. What I did think was that maybe this was, in some sick way, a way to a path forward - one that would possibly scare us into some good sense (and, hell, maybe it still is, but I have my doubts). That's what I think I meant by, "You can fucking keep yesterday..." The last I heard, looking back never got anyone anywhere. I have always felt that nostalgia, more often than not, holds us back from becoming what we should be...you know, that kind of shit. Before long, you start telling kids to get off your lawn! What I guess I'm getting at is, if we can survive and get through this dark fucking mess, maybe we can can come out of it better than we were somehow. That's probably a big "IF" I don't know what choice we have but to try.
[There's also an excellent chance that this is all a big CON JOB, but....that's another discussion.]
This shit sure took on new meaning for me after the election results came in, almost a year ago. But, if you're reading this, you already know all about that, so...we'll leave that there.
The point of this? Well...some people are calling it the end of the world. I am not - at least not yet. But if it is, there's really not a lot that any of us can do about it except educate ourselves and be the best that we can be, in spite of it. "If tomorrow never come, When the lights go out, we'll have our day in the sun." (That's probably a nod to PRINCE, too).
As far as the actually writing of the song itself, I just sang the lyrics over Lase's riffs that he came up with on the fly. What we came up with really plays to my (admittedly limited) strengths as a singer. I'm sort of imitating an imaginary hybrid of David Johansen (again) & Lux Interior having the misfortune of selling used cars, or some shit. For that reason, it's probably my favorite song in the set to sing.
What do YOU think?
Thanks for reading & listening. Song #4 one week from now.
Marty E.
"Don't be afraid, Baby, to take that dive, 'cause it's the only way you'll ever know you're alive...."
LAST WEEK's ENTRY: Songs: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: Songs #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"
Stream/Download "Kiss My Apocalipps" on BandCamp
Download "Kiss My Apocalipps" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)
Download "Kiss My Apocalipps" on Apple iTunes
Download "Kiss My Apocalipps" on Amazon
"Kiss My Apocalipps" on Spotify
It's total bullshit, but it explains the song pretty well, if you ask me.
This is an example of a song, that, lyric-wise, was a complete stream-of-consciousness explosion, aided by sleep-deprivation, and media over-exposure. That's a mouthful, isn't it?
It was late Summer, 2016. Dim Donnie Trump had just clinched the Republican nomination for....(gulp)...the....presidency. I mean, it was unTHINKable! One couldn't take it seriously, almost. It just felt like a big fucking joke - one that stood out, significantly, in a world that's FULL of bad jokes.
It was one of those nights in which I stayed up all night at my girl's house, watching crappy shows on Netflix, and dicking around, playing Words With Friends, etc, until 6:30 in the morning, when one (usually) has no choice but to pass out.
That was when it hit me: "Armageddon won't be televised, Pull the silver screens over your eyes...." Again, this ultimate fruition of what they called "Trumpism"....it COULDN'T be real. It HAD to be a fucking JOKE. It will PASS, and SOON, right? He can't possibly, WIN, right? RIGHT?!!! Something in the back of my mind probably was probably a little nervous, even if I wouldn't admit it to myself or take it seriously. So I got back up, and wrote the ENTIRE lyric of this song, pretty much verbatim with how we recorded it. I then immediately texted it to Lase, who asked me why the fuck I was still up!
What's weird about it is, that third verse: "The nightmare, Baby, has come true, The shallow end is deeper than you..." Again, I was pretty-much kidding. I mean, I thought it was..."apocalyptic" enough, if you will, that this fucking moron got the NOMINATION. I'm not pretentious or full-of-shit enough to say that I was being prophetic or some shit - I had NO fucking idea what was going to happen. What I did think was that maybe this was, in some sick way, a way to a path forward - one that would possibly scare us into some good sense (and, hell, maybe it still is, but I have my doubts). That's what I think I meant by, "You can fucking keep yesterday..." The last I heard, looking back never got anyone anywhere. I have always felt that nostalgia, more often than not, holds us back from becoming what we should be...you know, that kind of shit. Before long, you start telling kids to get off your lawn! What I guess I'm getting at is, if we can survive and get through this dark fucking mess, maybe we can can come out of it better than we were somehow. That's probably a big "IF" I don't know what choice we have but to try.
[There's also an excellent chance that this is all a big CON JOB, but....that's another discussion.]
This shit sure took on new meaning for me after the election results came in, almost a year ago. But, if you're reading this, you already know all about that, so...we'll leave that there.
The point of this? Well...some people are calling it the end of the world. I am not - at least not yet. But if it is, there's really not a lot that any of us can do about it except educate ourselves and be the best that we can be, in spite of it. "If tomorrow never come, When the lights go out, we'll have our day in the sun." (That's probably a nod to PRINCE, too).
As far as the actually writing of the song itself, I just sang the lyrics over Lase's riffs that he came up with on the fly. What we came up with really plays to my (admittedly limited) strengths as a singer. I'm sort of imitating an imaginary hybrid of David Johansen (again) & Lux Interior having the misfortune of selling used cars, or some shit. For that reason, it's probably my favorite song in the set to sing.
What do YOU think?
Thanks for reading & listening. Song #4 one week from now.
Marty E.
"Don't be afraid, Baby, to take that dive, 'cause it's the only way you'll ever know you're alive...."
LAST WEEK's ENTRY: Songs: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"
THE WEEK BEFORE THAT: Songs #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"
Stream/Download "Kiss My Apocalipps" on BandCamp
Download "Kiss My Apocalipps" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)
Download "Kiss My Apocalipps" on Apple iTunes
Download "Kiss My Apocalipps" on Amazon
"Kiss My Apocalipps" on Spotify
Sunday, October 29, 2017
SONGS: #2 - Midnight Crisis - "Midnight Somewhere"
First of all, this song is definitely the most optimistic one on the entire album, and probably the closest thing to "radio friendly" - whatever THAT means, these days.
Not to sound cliche', but, I swear that this wasn't intentional.
All I know is that the night we wrote it, I knew on the train ride over to LASE's house that I wanted to write a song called "Midnight Somewhere", but I had no lyrics, no riffs, and no particular ideas in mind at all. I just thought that it was a cool title, not just in relation to the band's name, but also...regardless of that, it seemed to me like a title that implies a what my idea of what the spirit of Rock n' Roll is all about, which is, essentially, that anything might be possible if you make it happen...and that life presents awesome opportunities, both large and small, at every turn, if your mind and your heart are in the right place and your eyes are willing to see them. PLUS, every night's true beginning, in MY mind, has always been at MIDNIGHT, but....it's always midnight SOMEWHERE, isn't it?
Anyway, we had a little drink of this and maybe some of that, and then Lase picked up a guitar and hit what became that opening riff, & I, in my Rock n' Roll Seinfeldian way, said something like, "That's fucking good! Keep playing THAT!" Then he started singing that little "Ah-uh-ah" hook that we do in the intro sections. This was beginning to sound like something resembling a SONG, already.
I started scrawling lyrics down about whatever came to mind. I was remembering what was typical & magical in its way, not too long ago....wandering down Ludlow Street, maybe a little after 10pm in the late September chill (at least at the time) with no particular destination in mind (ok, full disclosure: Motor City would have likely been the first stop), and not knowing what the night might bring, but knowing full well that the plan was to have as much fun as humanly possible (and maybe write a song about it later - no shit). There's something about that feeling of not knowing what's going to be happening four hours from now, but knowing that you surely as all hell want to find out. If you're reading this, you are likely to know the feeling that I'm talking about, but whether you do or not: "So hot, so bright, Out in the cool breeze tonight, You don't know where you'll go but you're damn sure where you might..." It's not a feeling or a state of mind that's easy to recreate, & trying too hard might ruin it, like a night like that, itself. But...we were in the zone, and I think we might have gotten it as close to in that first verse as we possibly could. Every time I sing it, it still takes me down that street, heading South.
The second verse seems like it might be a little bit of a downer - you woke up after partying & celebrating your very existence. Lord knows where you are & with whom, & you're discombobulated, and not just a little bit hung over. But, at the same time, "You're lucky you woke up today..." It's not all bad. It used to always be my assertion that a bad hangover is a reminder of the good times you had the night before. That's not my point of view nearly as often these days, but....I can certainly still write about it. "The Sun is passing through the hourglass, It's your shining moment make it last.....HEY!!!" The optimism continues, huh? I guess...
That was a way of life for a long time....
That's about it, really....oh, except the bridge....
That just came from this idea I had about...sort of turning chicken shit into chicken salad, as they say. "Obliterate. Deviate. Alleviate. Elevate. CREATE." Again, it comes from the same line of thinking that, to be honest, has probably killed a lot of those of the "creative ilk" - the old stand-by about taking life to the limits in order to fuel your creativity. There's a certain amount of truth to that, but I think that creativity depends a lot more on having experiences, the ability to channel them into whatever your talents dictate, and above all, having something passionate to say about them, and perhaps something to communicate regarding learning from them.
Jesus H. Christ....I digress....
I had delusions of bringing signs onstage with the words from the bridge hand-written on them like Bob Dylan and INXS, but.....that idea got shot down, HAHAHAHAHAHA....
It's kind-of funny - one of the first times we played this song live, I sort-of paraphrased Social Distortion (after a fashion) when introducing this song, by saying, "If you like 'happy songs', enjoy this one, because this is the only one in the set!" (This, if course, isn't entirely true, but...whatever). After the show, my homeboy Chris Santos came up to me and said, "Yo, that 'happy song' was my favorite song in the set!" Hahahahahaha. That's cooler than hell. The way I see it, is...if you like ANY of these songs enough to pick a favorite, then we are definitely getting somewhere. And...hell, maybe THAT's what the song is about.
I don't fucking know. To paraphrase Keith fucking Richards, we just happen to be there when the songs arrive.
Anyway, thanks for reading, thanks for listening, and there will be another entry next week, and ever week until we have one for each song on the album.
Cheers.
Marty E.
"Outshine the brightest star!"
LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"
Stream/Download "Midnight Somewhere" on Bandcamp
Download "Midnight Somewhere" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)
Download "Midnight Somewhere" on Apple iTunes
Download "Midnight Somewhere" on Amazon
"Midnight Somewhere" on Spotify
Not to sound cliche', but, I swear that this wasn't intentional.
All I know is that the night we wrote it, I knew on the train ride over to LASE's house that I wanted to write a song called "Midnight Somewhere", but I had no lyrics, no riffs, and no particular ideas in mind at all. I just thought that it was a cool title, not just in relation to the band's name, but also...regardless of that, it seemed to me like a title that implies a what my idea of what the spirit of Rock n' Roll is all about, which is, essentially, that anything might be possible if you make it happen...and that life presents awesome opportunities, both large and small, at every turn, if your mind and your heart are in the right place and your eyes are willing to see them. PLUS, every night's true beginning, in MY mind, has always been at MIDNIGHT, but....it's always midnight SOMEWHERE, isn't it?
Anyway, we had a little drink of this and maybe some of that, and then Lase picked up a guitar and hit what became that opening riff, & I, in my Rock n' Roll Seinfeldian way, said something like, "That's fucking good! Keep playing THAT!" Then he started singing that little "Ah-uh-ah" hook that we do in the intro sections. This was beginning to sound like something resembling a SONG, already.
I started scrawling lyrics down about whatever came to mind. I was remembering what was typical & magical in its way, not too long ago....wandering down Ludlow Street, maybe a little after 10pm in the late September chill (at least at the time) with no particular destination in mind (ok, full disclosure: Motor City would have likely been the first stop), and not knowing what the night might bring, but knowing full well that the plan was to have as much fun as humanly possible (and maybe write a song about it later - no shit). There's something about that feeling of not knowing what's going to be happening four hours from now, but knowing that you surely as all hell want to find out. If you're reading this, you are likely to know the feeling that I'm talking about, but whether you do or not: "So hot, so bright, Out in the cool breeze tonight, You don't know where you'll go but you're damn sure where you might..." It's not a feeling or a state of mind that's easy to recreate, & trying too hard might ruin it, like a night like that, itself. But...we were in the zone, and I think we might have gotten it as close to in that first verse as we possibly could. Every time I sing it, it still takes me down that street, heading South.
The second verse seems like it might be a little bit of a downer - you woke up after partying & celebrating your very existence. Lord knows where you are & with whom, & you're discombobulated, and not just a little bit hung over. But, at the same time, "You're lucky you woke up today..." It's not all bad. It used to always be my assertion that a bad hangover is a reminder of the good times you had the night before. That's not my point of view nearly as often these days, but....I can certainly still write about it. "The Sun is passing through the hourglass, It's your shining moment make it last.....HEY!!!" The optimism continues, huh? I guess...
That was a way of life for a long time....
That's about it, really....oh, except the bridge....
That just came from this idea I had about...sort of turning chicken shit into chicken salad, as they say. "Obliterate. Deviate. Alleviate. Elevate. CREATE." Again, it comes from the same line of thinking that, to be honest, has probably killed a lot of those of the "creative ilk" - the old stand-by about taking life to the limits in order to fuel your creativity. There's a certain amount of truth to that, but I think that creativity depends a lot more on having experiences, the ability to channel them into whatever your talents dictate, and above all, having something passionate to say about them, and perhaps something to communicate regarding learning from them.
Jesus H. Christ....I digress....
I had delusions of bringing signs onstage with the words from the bridge hand-written on them like Bob Dylan and INXS, but.....that idea got shot down, HAHAHAHAHAHA....
It's kind-of funny - one of the first times we played this song live, I sort-of paraphrased Social Distortion (after a fashion) when introducing this song, by saying, "If you like 'happy songs', enjoy this one, because this is the only one in the set!" (This, if course, isn't entirely true, but...whatever). After the show, my homeboy Chris Santos came up to me and said, "Yo, that 'happy song' was my favorite song in the set!" Hahahahahaha. That's cooler than hell. The way I see it, is...if you like ANY of these songs enough to pick a favorite, then we are definitely getting somewhere. And...hell, maybe THAT's what the song is about.
I don't fucking know. To paraphrase Keith fucking Richards, we just happen to be there when the songs arrive.
Anyway, thanks for reading, thanks for listening, and there will be another entry next week, and ever week until we have one for each song on the album.
Cheers.
Marty E.
"Outshine the brightest star!"
LAST WEEK's ENTRY: SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"
Stream/Download "Midnight Somewhere" on Bandcamp
Download "Midnight Somewhere" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)
Download "Midnight Somewhere" on Apple iTunes
Download "Midnight Somewhere" on Amazon
"Midnight Somewhere" on Spotify
Sunday, October 22, 2017
SONGS: #1 - Midnight Crisis - "Take Control"
"Take Control" is the first song on Heart Beatings, my first album with Midnight Crisis, which is my first album as a lead singer & songwriter, (along with LASE, of course)....and furthermore, it's the first complete-incomplete song idea I've every put together on my own (which LASE added to later).
So, there are a lot of firsts, there.
Oddly enough, that song came spontaneously, out of cluttered air, about four years ago. It was one of those rare nights (at the time) when I stayed in & chilled after at least a week of going out every night. I was sitting with my acoustic bass guitar, which I'd had for the better part of ten years, but had done nothing short of jack shit with...and I thought: let's try something this rhythmic riff idea that I got from the Sisters of Mercy's song "Ribbons" - really simple, but quite deliberate, and easy to put a melody and an attitude over. So I fucked around with it, rolled it, poled it, and marked it with an E...but then I had to go to the other part of this idea...which was to take the main riff to Janes Addiction's "Ain't No Right", and put THAT through the same battering process to change it JUST enough to sound like it might resemble something of its own. (I also wanted all of this this contextualized by some sort of Guns n' Roses "Rocket Queen" or Motley Crue "Too Young To Fall In Love" sort of feel and swagger, if you will). Then, somehow, I came up with the bridge part, too, just via trial and error.
It's not as if I was or am ANY kind of bass player, or guitar player, but I am able to teach myself how to play what I have on my head and show it to someone else...who can then take the main idea and add the punctuation - dot the Ts and cross the Is - make this bold, and italicize this, and add lots of colors & shades & cool shit to it, and make it a fucking SONG, ya know?
I digress...
Another really funny thing I did when I did the original demo of the song (which, like all of my song ideas, I made using GarageBand on my phone, and doing a LOT of swearing in the process) was....I banged out a sort of "machine-shop" percussion track on this metal stool of mine, kind-of like I'd imagine Cop Shoot Cop probably did once upon a time, and it gave it this really cool, unique special percussion effect. It's for the reason that I banged out a similar pattern on an iron skillet when we recorded the song for real, at LASE's house, and if you listen really closely, you can start hearing it, I think, after the chorus kicks in.
Lyrics? Hell, I don't know. I came up with the entire thing on the fly, lyric-wise, and kept 95% of it the way I wrote it that night. It was just something that took shape, in that spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness kind of way that songs (sometimes the best ones) often do. I after I'd gotten the musical skeleton down, I just listened to it, and, without thinking about it, started with, "Sometimes I think about you when I'm lost into the night...." (a little PJ Harvey and a little Only Ones - right in the first line, huh?). I mean, ANYONE from your girlfriend to your grandma wants to hear that, you know what I mean? But you have to say these things within the rhythmic context of the song, and hopefully wrap enough of a melody around it to make it palatable for anyone besides yourself, HAHAHAHAHA!!! It can be a bitch....but when it works, it works.
My favorite lyric? The last line in verse 1: "...every tear you cry paints a picture of my heartbreak."
The chorus? "Take control"...of what, exactly? Hell....I think I was just really singing about what the fuck I was doing, now that I think about it. I'd had a lot of song ideas in my head for years, some being better than others, and was frustrated that none of them were coming into fruition. So, without giving it a lot of thought, I finally grabbed myself by the breaches and got to work....and now, we finally have an album of it.
I digress....
Anyway, the lyrics took about 5 minutes to write, and I finished the demo around 6am or so, or in my world, bed time!
It's the coolest thing in the world for me to have made this a real, recorded song, with LASE's killer guitar madness, not to mention his top-fucking-notch production/engineering work, + Mike's brutal warrior drums whipping it mercilessly into shape.
Anyway, download a copy....or at LEAST stream it.
And thank you for listening.
Next song, next week.
Marty E.
"Nothin' matters but tonight and you and me..."
Stream/download "Take Control" on BandCamp
Download "Take Control" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)
Download "Take Control" on Apple iTunes
Download "Take Control" on Amazon
"Take Control" on Spotify
So, there are a lot of firsts, there.
Oddly enough, that song came spontaneously, out of cluttered air, about four years ago. It was one of those rare nights (at the time) when I stayed in & chilled after at least a week of going out every night. I was sitting with my acoustic bass guitar, which I'd had for the better part of ten years, but had done nothing short of jack shit with...and I thought: let's try something this rhythmic riff idea that I got from the Sisters of Mercy's song "Ribbons" - really simple, but quite deliberate, and easy to put a melody and an attitude over. So I fucked around with it, rolled it, poled it, and marked it with an E...but then I had to go to the other part of this idea...which was to take the main riff to Janes Addiction's "Ain't No Right", and put THAT through the same battering process to change it JUST enough to sound like it might resemble something of its own. (I also wanted all of this this contextualized by some sort of Guns n' Roses "Rocket Queen" or Motley Crue "Too Young To Fall In Love" sort of feel and swagger, if you will). Then, somehow, I came up with the bridge part, too, just via trial and error.
It's not as if I was or am ANY kind of bass player, or guitar player, but I am able to teach myself how to play what I have on my head and show it to someone else...who can then take the main idea and add the punctuation - dot the Ts and cross the Is - make this bold, and italicize this, and add lots of colors & shades & cool shit to it, and make it a fucking SONG, ya know?
I digress...
Another really funny thing I did when I did the original demo of the song (which, like all of my song ideas, I made using GarageBand on my phone, and doing a LOT of swearing in the process) was....I banged out a sort of "machine-shop" percussion track on this metal stool of mine, kind-of like I'd imagine Cop Shoot Cop probably did once upon a time, and it gave it this really cool, unique special percussion effect. It's for the reason that I banged out a similar pattern on an iron skillet when we recorded the song for real, at LASE's house, and if you listen really closely, you can start hearing it, I think, after the chorus kicks in.
Lyrics? Hell, I don't know. I came up with the entire thing on the fly, lyric-wise, and kept 95% of it the way I wrote it that night. It was just something that took shape, in that spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness kind of way that songs (sometimes the best ones) often do. I after I'd gotten the musical skeleton down, I just listened to it, and, without thinking about it, started with, "Sometimes I think about you when I'm lost into the night...." (a little PJ Harvey and a little Only Ones - right in the first line, huh?). I mean, ANYONE from your girlfriend to your grandma wants to hear that, you know what I mean? But you have to say these things within the rhythmic context of the song, and hopefully wrap enough of a melody around it to make it palatable for anyone besides yourself, HAHAHAHAHA!!! It can be a bitch....but when it works, it works.
My favorite lyric? The last line in verse 1: "...every tear you cry paints a picture of my heartbreak."
The chorus? "Take control"...of what, exactly? Hell....I think I was just really singing about what the fuck I was doing, now that I think about it. I'd had a lot of song ideas in my head for years, some being better than others, and was frustrated that none of them were coming into fruition. So, without giving it a lot of thought, I finally grabbed myself by the breaches and got to work....and now, we finally have an album of it.
I digress....
Anyway, the lyrics took about 5 minutes to write, and I finished the demo around 6am or so, or in my world, bed time!
It's the coolest thing in the world for me to have made this a real, recorded song, with LASE's killer guitar madness, not to mention his top-fucking-notch production/engineering work, + Mike's brutal warrior drums whipping it mercilessly into shape.
Anyway, download a copy....or at LEAST stream it.
And thank you for listening.
Next song, next week.
Marty E.
"Nothin' matters but tonight and you and me..."
Stream/download "Take Control" on BandCamp
Download "Take Control" on CD Baby (or buy Heart Beatings CD)
Download "Take Control" on Apple iTunes
Download "Take Control" on Amazon
"Take Control" on Spotify
Sunday, August 22, 2010
The Best Little Kiss-Off in Texas...Or Was That a Blow-Off?
This past March, my band The Dirty Pearls played at South By Southwest in Austin, TX. It was a week full of adventures, fun, and Rock N' Roll. I had a great time playing Rock N' Roll and partying with my homeboys. That's what we do!
But the funniest thing I remember about it happened the night we got there.
I was walking down the massively crowded street on my own after checking out some band somewhere...I was wearing my new (at the time) Chinese Police Hat, and was feeling pretty damn good about it. While I was carefully considering just where the source of my next beer might be, a gaggle of DIPFUCKS walked by me. One of them had the panache to yell to me, "HEY, nice HAT ya fucking FAGGOT!!!"
I was stunned, not only that this cock mongrel had the insolence to imply that I was a homosexual, but by the fact that he was clearly an ignoramus for not recognizing a fucking cool hat when he saw one! And, let me tell you, Gentle Reader, there was going to be RETRIBUTION!!!!
I turned around, and I BELLOWED after the whole lot of them, these immortal words that will make them think twice before ever again disparaging another Rock N' Roller (at a MUSIC FESTIVAL, no less).
I screamed, "HEY!!! If I'm such a FAGGOT, why don't you come on OVER here, and SUCK MY FUCKIN' DICK?!!!!!"
The blowhard in question then turned around, and said, "WHAT?! WHAT WAS THAT?!!!"
I then pointed to my pelvic region with both hands, and answered, "I SAID, 'SUCK MY DICK!!!!' AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!"
Of course, the boys in shorts didn't attempt to intervene any further, and I walked away, very satisfied with myself! And, I hit the drums even harder than I normally would at the gigs we played over the next couple of days. Here is some footage:
Thanks for reading!
Marty E.
But the funniest thing I remember about it happened the night we got there.
I was walking down the massively crowded street on my own after checking out some band somewhere...I was wearing my new (at the time) Chinese Police Hat, and was feeling pretty damn good about it. While I was carefully considering just where the source of my next beer might be, a gaggle of DIPFUCKS walked by me. One of them had the panache to yell to me, "HEY, nice HAT ya fucking FAGGOT!!!"
I was stunned, not only that this cock mongrel had the insolence to imply that I was a homosexual, but by the fact that he was clearly an ignoramus for not recognizing a fucking cool hat when he saw one! And, let me tell you, Gentle Reader, there was going to be RETRIBUTION!!!!
I turned around, and I BELLOWED after the whole lot of them, these immortal words that will make them think twice before ever again disparaging another Rock N' Roller (at a MUSIC FESTIVAL, no less).
I screamed, "HEY!!! If I'm such a FAGGOT, why don't you come on OVER here, and SUCK MY FUCKIN' DICK?!!!!!"
The blowhard in question then turned around, and said, "WHAT?! WHAT WAS THAT?!!!"
I then pointed to my pelvic region with both hands, and answered, "I SAID, 'SUCK MY DICK!!!!' AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!"
Of course, the boys in shorts didn't attempt to intervene any further, and I walked away, very satisfied with myself! And, I hit the drums even harder than I normally would at the gigs we played over the next couple of days. Here is some footage:
Thanks for reading!
Marty E.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
A short and sweet statement from the bottom of my heart
Rock N' Roll (or what's passing for it these days) has been hijacked by Hip Hop, hipsters, and horseshit!
My band, the Dirty Pearls, are preparing to steal it back.
Mark my words.
Rehearsals/pre-production for our debut album with David Kahne start one week from today.
When we're through recording this fucker, get on board....or get your sweet ass out of the way!
Your good friend,
Marty E.
My band, the Dirty Pearls, are preparing to steal it back.
Mark my words.
Rehearsals/pre-production for our debut album with David Kahne start one week from today.
When we're through recording this fucker, get on board....or get your sweet ass out of the way!
Your good friend,
Marty E.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Clips from the Dirty Pearls taping for Little Steven's new Fuzztopia.com earlier this year.
This past March, The Dirty Pearls
did a taping for Little Steven Van Zandt's new website, Fuzztopia.com, out at Soundwaves Studios in Union, NJ (whose staff are all great guys, and we appreciate their support). Our good friend, Rich Russo from 101.9 RXP was there hanging out as well.
The clips just became available, and I thought I would share them.
We had a blast, as you can see from the clips. But the much to our surprise, Little Steven actually took the time to come check us out. After we played, he hung out with us, pose for pictures, and just shoot the shit for a little while. He proved to be a very cool and gracious host, one that truly cares about great Rock N' Roll. It was truly an honor.
There was plenty of beer to be consumed as well, and, as you know, we all love that!
I'm not going to ramble, but check out the clips!
Marty E.
PS. For best results, drag your mouse over the clip, once is starts, and turn the HD off.
THE DIRTY PEARLS "Caffeine and Gasoline" from Fuzztopia on Vimeo.
THE DIRTY PEARLS "Love Sick Love" from Fuzztopia on Vimeo.
did a taping for Little Steven Van Zandt's new website, Fuzztopia.com, out at Soundwaves Studios in Union, NJ (whose staff are all great guys, and we appreciate their support). Our good friend, Rich Russo from 101.9 RXP was there hanging out as well.The clips just became available, and I thought I would share them.
We had a blast, as you can see from the clips. But the much to our surprise, Little Steven actually took the time to come check us out. After we played, he hung out with us, pose for pictures, and just shoot the shit for a little while. He proved to be a very cool and gracious host, one that truly cares about great Rock N' Roll. It was truly an honor.
There was plenty of beer to be consumed as well, and, as you know, we all love that!
I'm not going to ramble, but check out the clips!
Marty E.
PS. For best results, drag your mouse over the clip, once is starts, and turn the HD off.
THE DIRTY PEARLS "Caffeine and Gasoline" from Fuzztopia on Vimeo.
THE DIRTY PEARLS "Love Sick Love" from Fuzztopia on Vimeo.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Musing on the movie madness or when I saw my head on the big screen, I agreed that THAT was about the size of it....
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=723580726339&ref=mfSo, The Perfect Age of Rock N Roll finally had it's New York City premier the other night (Tuesday, October 20th) on the opening night of the CMJ Festival. After a year and a half of spouting off about it to anyone who would listen, I finally was able to put my damn money where my mouth was and invite my friends to come and see the finished work.
Now I know what you're thinking....you're thinking that Mr. Marty Egomaniac just wants something more to spout off about in the bar....right? Well....that may be true, but there's something much more important than that involved here.
When you've worked with something so intensely and become so close to it and the other people who were involved in creating it....to see it come to some kind of fruition is extremely gratifying and fulfilling....and that's something that you feel smack dab in the deepest pit of your heart. I guess that's what made this experience a lot like unleashing new songs on an adoring audience with your band.
Anyway, back to Tuesday night....I went over to the Trailer Park bar across the street from the Theater about a half an hour before the scheduled show time to have a beer or two. Were those butterflies in my stomach? What...are....these...."nerves"? Yup....guilty as charged. The bartender there was a real prick, but I guess it's his job to check ID's.... more on that later...
I had friends rolling in here and there to pregame with me, which calmed my nerves a little bit....but not much....after I basically slammed a Budweiser, I went across to street and stood outside, waiting for a friend who was to accompany me. Thanks to Mr. Obama's speech at the Hammerstein just 10 blocks North if the Theater, traffic was thick (DAMN it, I should have invited him, ahahahaha....)...so that took awhile. No matter, I had a LOT of friends to say hello to as they showed up (and once again, THANKS everybody!)....
Anyway, we went in right as the movie started rolling....perfect....the place was fucking PACKED....but the first two rows were empty. That's fine with me, I like sitting in the front....I can hear better, you know....plus I like having that huge screen in my face. (I was the type as a kid, way back when, who sat WAY too close to the tv). SHOWTIME!
In one of the first scenes (if not the opening scene), Jason Ritter's character directs a classroom of children through a rousing rendition of "Hot Cross Buns" on these plastic fifes.....it's absolutely hilarious, and one of my favorite parts of the film.
But, at the risk of sounding crass....the first time I appeared in the film, a bunch of my friends cheered....(again, THANK YOU).....I didn't know whether to laugh or cry...but I figured I'd call it even and just grin from ear to ear.....
Really, what makes the film for me is the "live" performance footage....I mean, you really get into the Rock N' Roll spirit (which, really, is what the movie is all about, from what I get out of it)....you can feel this electricity watching it in the theater (and kudos to Tom Richmond, who's one hell of a camera man)....it made me want to jump out of my seat.
During one of these scenes, I heard what sounded like some kind of a scuffle going on near the back if the Theater.....I thought that was funny....and I found out later that it was my compadre' in the Dirty Pearls, Mr. Johnny B, telling some drunken assholes to shut the fuck up and stop kicking his chair....hahahahaha....great stuff!
Other than that, I don't want to give too much away about the movie, because I'm hoping, if you haven't seen it, you will get the chance to sooner than later.....
So afterward, my director/producer Scott was kind enough to wave me up to the front for the Q&A with him, Joe White, Jason Ritter, and Jasin Cadic, which really meant a lot to me. As my friend Gabe told me later, I was grinning like the Kool Aid Man ("OOOHHH YEEEEAH!"). It was strange being on front of that many eyes, but not being behind drums with my Homeboys in the Dirty Pearls....I mean sure, I sing with the Brian in the Lonesome Fools every now and then, but....this was different...I mean it was exhilarating, but I felt like I wasn't wearing pants at first, ahahahaha....but I got accustomed to it.
The dipshit whose ass Johnny B almost kicked in asked a stupid and inappropriate question, but Mr Ritter handled it like the Gentleman that he is. That was cool. At some point, I made some joke about having done character research for the role for, like 20 years, ahahahahaha!!! But the coolest thing, again, about it, was just....being able to experience being a part of the presentation of this THING we all made together....and it's still happening. If you ever get a chance to experience something like this, I highly recommend it. But there's not a day that goes by that I take something like this for granted, and I'm truly humbled, in many ways, that such an opportunity came my way. I'm extremely fortunate.
Afterward, I went back to the Trailer Park bar to have some shots with a few of my friends....and the same bartender was there, and was even more of a prick than he had been earlier...he gave us hell about ID's and credit cards, and whatnot, and generally, ran serious risk of ruining some great vibes if we stuck around there (how this guy makes a living on tips is beyond me, and you can tell him I said that). With that, my friends (and the CAKE that one of them made with the movie's logo on it) (wink wink) and I got the holy hell out of there.....
....and we jumped in a cab and went to the AFTERPARTY at Norwood. I did some press pictures with my aforementioned homeboys from the film (and the aforementioned cake). I love that shit.
Then, I proceeded to get BOMBED out of my BRAIN on Gin (Bulldog, I believe) and Lemonade for the rest of the night.....this is when the details get kind of fuzzy...not that I'd TELL you anyway, hahahahaha....although I heard that I missed meeting Actress/Rock N' Roll UberBabe Gina Gershon somehow....perhaps another time!
Anyway, to sum it up, it was one of the best nights of my whole life....and I have some great fucking nights, to say the least. I can't thank everyone who worked on the film with me enough......or all my friends who came to support and celebrate it's New York City premiere with me....it was indeed a night that I'll never forget.....
....well....most of it, anyway, hahahahaha.....
Marty E.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
How to meet girls the long, hard way, or what's this dirt on my eye? (Weird Tales From the City, Part 2)
This strange occurrence happened about 8 years ago....and many, MANY beers, hahahaha....it's 100% true, as far as I can recollect....some (not many) of you might remember this when it happened.
I'd been in NYC for less than a year....so, I almost had my "sea legs", ie, I had a band, my personal style had adapted to my surroundings, and had made my way around the block a few times. Things were pretty cool. But I didn't have it all figured out by any means (and I still don't, for that matter). But I did learn a valuable lesson...
I had been out on one of those legendary late nights that I talk about all the time....it was a Friday night, and I'd been to a friend's dinner party....let's just say I'd had MANY martinis of some kind. This had been on the Upper West Side....and I believe I had joined some other friends of mine for beers afterward, at the now-closed Bellevue Bar (which I'd since been banned from for practically nothing, but that's not nearly as good a story) and had more than a few beers. But at around 2 AM or so, my friends had left, and I was left drunk and alone. This wasn't altogether out of the ordinary (and still isn't), but....let's just say I was *very* intoxicated, and should have really just gone home at this point (I lived right down the street).
But NO, of course, I HAD to stay OUT, and have MORE FUN, right? So I went up the street to Rudy's to have a few more beers.
The events that followed were lost in a fog....
I woke the next morning, aching like a clubbed seal! Again, not too out of the ordinary. I got up, walked down the hallway to the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and thought to myself, "What's with this mud on my eyebrow?!"
It wasn't MUD...it was black and blue....clearly, I'd been clocked! It wasn't TOO bad....but...I was concerned, to say the very least!
I also had a bunch of voicemails on my phone from worried friends back home whom I'd apparently drunk-dialed during the night....damn....
Amidst the haze in my brain, the last thing I remember was....(holy shit)....falling through the doorway, and a little blonde girl tumbling down with me.
I spent that entire day wondering what the fuck happened....so I went back to Rudy's to ask them what went down. All they could tell me was that I'd pissed someone off, and they punched me out the door.....and that was about it.
FAST FORWARD TO ABOUT 6 MONTHS LATER>>>>>>>>>
I was at LIT's opening party.....which had an HR Geiger exhibit in the back. It was GREAT fun for an early Saturday evening. I was to guest DJ at Georgie Seville and DJ Chrissy's Glam 2000 party at Nouvelle Justine (now closed) later that night....so, this was a nice pre-party for me.
So, I was in the gallery, checking out the art, with a glass of Merlot in one hand....and a glass of Merlot in the other....checking out the art that adorned the wall, cluelessly fascinated, as I like to be while admiring something intensely cool that I know nothing about. I was taking a sip from the glass in my left hand, when a little voice to my right said, "Well....HI! How are YOU?!"
I looked over, and there was a cute little blonde girl smiling at me. What luck! I answered, "Pretty DAMN good....how are YOU?!" Hahahahahaha....right?
She answered, "You don't REMEMBER me, DO you?"
I replied, "I'll be honest....I really don't....but please, refresh my memory...I'm ALL EARS!"
She said, "You got into a scuffle over me some months back....."
"NOOOOOOOOOO FUCKING WAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!"
So, she and her also-cute friend (whom I still talk to-to this day-she knows who she is) and I sat down and they told me what had happened.
Apparently, I was at the jukebox at Rudy's, gloriously drunk, and put a Doors song on...I think it might have been "Touch Me" ...and I sauntered up to this table where these two girls were sitting, and started serenading them along with the song, all Top Gun style...except I used my Budweiser bottle as a microphone, and....I sang a lot better (I hope)....I was paying particular attention to the blonde....
....what I wasn't paying attention to was the dudes they were sitting with, who alledgedly played in some Brooklyn Hardcore band whose name I won't mention here. I guess they weren't WITH these guys, per se....but these dudes had designs on them, and they were none too pleased to have this black-haired pretty boy (me, at least at the time, hahahaha) closing in on their action. I guess it was getting close to bartime, and this girl and I were going out for a smoke or something....and we were heading toward to the door. As I opened the door, a big mug of beer bounced off the wall to my right. I was in the middle of turning around, and exclaiming, "What the FUCK," when the punch landed, and the girl (who apparently was trying to stop this guy) and I tumbled out the door onto the sidewalk.
Then I did the first smart thing I'd done all night, and hauled ass down the street back to my apartment.
So that was that.
Oh, and after the party at Lit, I dated the little blonde girl for over a month.
She doesn't live in NYC anymore, but we write occasionally. She's a nice girl. Her friend (now my friend too, hahaha) I see around the city here and there....she's also a nice girl.
The moral of the story?
While this might have (eventually) been an effective means of making friends....it's always better not to black out alone.
Thanks for reading!
Your good friend,
Marty E.
I'd been in NYC for less than a year....so, I almost had my "sea legs", ie, I had a band, my personal style had adapted to my surroundings, and had made my way around the block a few times. Things were pretty cool. But I didn't have it all figured out by any means (and I still don't, for that matter). But I did learn a valuable lesson...
I had been out on one of those legendary late nights that I talk about all the time....it was a Friday night, and I'd been to a friend's dinner party....let's just say I'd had MANY martinis of some kind. This had been on the Upper West Side....and I believe I had joined some other friends of mine for beers afterward, at the now-closed Bellevue Bar (which I'd since been banned from for practically nothing, but that's not nearly as good a story) and had more than a few beers. But at around 2 AM or so, my friends had left, and I was left drunk and alone. This wasn't altogether out of the ordinary (and still isn't), but....let's just say I was *very* intoxicated, and should have really just gone home at this point (I lived right down the street).
But NO, of course, I HAD to stay OUT, and have MORE FUN, right? So I went up the street to Rudy's to have a few more beers.
The events that followed were lost in a fog....
I woke the next morning, aching like a clubbed seal! Again, not too out of the ordinary. I got up, walked down the hallway to the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and thought to myself, "What's with this mud on my eyebrow?!"
It wasn't MUD...it was black and blue....clearly, I'd been clocked! It wasn't TOO bad....but...I was concerned, to say the very least!
I also had a bunch of voicemails on my phone from worried friends back home whom I'd apparently drunk-dialed during the night....damn....
Amidst the haze in my brain, the last thing I remember was....(holy shit)....falling through the doorway, and a little blonde girl tumbling down with me.
I spent that entire day wondering what the fuck happened....so I went back to Rudy's to ask them what went down. All they could tell me was that I'd pissed someone off, and they punched me out the door.....and that was about it.
FAST FORWARD TO ABOUT 6 MONTHS LATER>>>>>>>>>
I was at LIT's opening party.....which had an HR Geiger exhibit in the back. It was GREAT fun for an early Saturday evening. I was to guest DJ at Georgie Seville and DJ Chrissy's Glam 2000 party at Nouvelle Justine (now closed) later that night....so, this was a nice pre-party for me.
So, I was in the gallery, checking out the art, with a glass of Merlot in one hand....and a glass of Merlot in the other....checking out the art that adorned the wall, cluelessly fascinated, as I like to be while admiring something intensely cool that I know nothing about. I was taking a sip from the glass in my left hand, when a little voice to my right said, "Well....HI! How are YOU?!"
I looked over, and there was a cute little blonde girl smiling at me. What luck! I answered, "Pretty DAMN good....how are YOU?!" Hahahahahaha....right?
She answered, "You don't REMEMBER me, DO you?"
I replied, "I'll be honest....I really don't....but please, refresh my memory...I'm ALL EARS!"
She said, "You got into a scuffle over me some months back....."
"NOOOOOOOOOO FUCKING WAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!"
So, she and her also-cute friend (whom I still talk to-to this day-she knows who she is) and I sat down and they told me what had happened.
Apparently, I was at the jukebox at Rudy's, gloriously drunk, and put a Doors song on...I think it might have been "Touch Me" ...and I sauntered up to this table where these two girls were sitting, and started serenading them along with the song, all Top Gun style...except I used my Budweiser bottle as a microphone, and....I sang a lot better (I hope)....I was paying particular attention to the blonde....
....what I wasn't paying attention to was the dudes they were sitting with, who alledgedly played in some Brooklyn Hardcore band whose name I won't mention here. I guess they weren't WITH these guys, per se....but these dudes had designs on them, and they were none too pleased to have this black-haired pretty boy (me, at least at the time, hahahaha) closing in on their action. I guess it was getting close to bartime, and this girl and I were going out for a smoke or something....and we were heading toward to the door. As I opened the door, a big mug of beer bounced off the wall to my right. I was in the middle of turning around, and exclaiming, "What the FUCK," when the punch landed, and the girl (who apparently was trying to stop this guy) and I tumbled out the door onto the sidewalk.
Then I did the first smart thing I'd done all night, and hauled ass down the street back to my apartment.
So that was that.
Oh, and after the party at Lit, I dated the little blonde girl for over a month.
She doesn't live in NYC anymore, but we write occasionally. She's a nice girl. Her friend (now my friend too, hahaha) I see around the city here and there....she's also a nice girl.
The moral of the story?
While this might have (eventually) been an effective means of making friends....it's always better not to black out alone.
Thanks for reading!
Your good friend,
Marty E.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
One day in the life of a performer who always needs to be on or next time I wonder what it will be like if I just go out & get drunk the night before
Last Wednesday, I went to the studio w/ The Dirty Pearls to record a song which has become our anthem, "New York City is a Drug" with Daniel Rey producing.
The night before, I decided to stay clear of drinking/partying/trouble of any kind in an attempt to get a decent night's sleep for once. Well that was a fucking great idea. I had a Grolsch beer to stabilize my system, read from Bukowski's Women (an old favorite of mine that I've been revisiting lately), listened to some Gram Parsons....and tried to sleep. Well, that didn't work. I tossed and turned, as if my bed was a washing machine set to the goddamn "Spin" cycle. You know how that it is when you know that you need your rest, and the pressure thereof prevents you from getting that rest? That was me. So, I wound up getting two hours of it. I fell asleep around 8am...and Daniel called me up at 10:15 to tell me he was on his way to pick me up....well....I remember what Klaus Meine of the Scorpions once said, "Being a Rock N' Roller is a lot like being an athlete...you have to perform no matter how you feel." Damn right!
So, I put my Thin Lizzy shirt on, grabbed my cymbals, and walked downstairs into the pissing rain, and got into Daniel's car. I told him immediately that I was going on two hours' sleep. He laughed and said, "Yeah, well, you can never sleep the night before a session...I got four hours' sleep myself!"
Yeah, I like this guy. So we drove over, talked about the Ramones, Circus of Power, and whatever the fuck else. Daniel had told me that he had called Tom (an awesome engineer, owner of Nuthouse Studios, and a stand-up dude) the night before w/ some specs re: mics and shit in order to cut down set-up time. Awesome.
I like working with a producer - at least one like Daniel, who understands the band's vision and how to achieve it....and creates an atmosphere that's comfortable for everyone to play their best. His authority in the studio goes without saying, but in such a way that allows the band to be itself and themselves. It was a great balance, and a great dynamic. It looked like a winning team between the 7 of us, and I knew I could do my part no matter how much sleep I'd had. Hell, I played a gig one time on less, w/ guys I was unfamiliar with, and it went down without a hitch...I could certainly kill it in the studio with the Pearls.
After spending some time with drum sounds and getting the drum to sound like the artillery needed to blast this song into Rock N' Roll oblivion (which, of course, takes awhile, but not nearly as long as I'm used to for this sort of thing)....Daniel told me to step out and grab a bite to eat and some coffee, because it was going to be time for me to go to work soon.
So I went to this diner down the street. They wouldn't serve breakfast items (it was "lunch time"....fuck....)....so I ordered something called "pretzyl bread", a french onion soup, a buttered roll for one of the guys, and a couple of coffees. Simple enough, right? Nope....I waited like a HALF HOUR for this crap. While I was waiting, the Rolling Stones song, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" came on the radio. While I sipped a coffee and sort of swayed my head along with it, some numbskull in a booth across from me said to the waiter, "Hey Man...who sings this song?"
I rubbed my temples and shook my head in my hands....
The WAY overpriced food/coffee items, after an extended wait? $16....witnessing the stupidity of one who should be old enough to know who the fucking Rolling Stones are? Priceless!
I went back and ate while the other guys got set up for their rhythm tracks (which they were to play along with me) and Tommy's scratch vocal...which again, took awhile, so I rested for a bit...then it was time to go forth and thrash.
We ran through the song a number of times, only stopping occasionally to make sure we were on the right track in terms of sounds and parts, and to make some adjustments with tempos, etc....after a couple of hours or so of this, I was about done, and someone else mentioned being hungry, so we all ordered these kickass italian subs and bs'd about this and that. Afterwhich, Daniel asked us to do one more take....I decided, since the mozzerella was so fresh on my sandwich, that I'd play some of it a little differently this time....which seemed to be to everyone else's liking. After that, I was through with my biggest responsibility, and could sit back and relax. Who needs sleep, anyway?
Dougie's bass playing was so spot-on from the rhythm takes, I don't think he did any overdubs at all....he's a genius, that boy, he really is.
So...onto guitars....Ritchie was first....he added some great parts on there, as well as, most likely, the best solo I've ever heard him play.....it was fucking awesome....nice one, Rich! Then Johnny sat down and added this fucking "spaghetti western" western part that really added depth and dimension to the sound...
This was really turning into something.
The guitarists had had enough at this point, and split....Dougie and I decided to stay and sit in on Tommy vocal takes....which went pretty much without a hitch. I like to be there after I finsih just to add encouragement and all that shit. Tommy batted it out of the park, and finished up his lead vocal lines and the harmonies he wanted to do rather quickly.
Then Daniel, Tommy, Dougie, and I went in to do the gang vocal parts in the choruses (which for me, is the most fun part of a session).....
....and that was it....the track is in the can....we should have it ready in a couple of weeks.....
...the track will go directly to Sirius/XM Radio, and we will be doing a Single Release Party @ Santo's Party House on Thursday, July 23rd....Eve to Adam and Midnight Fistfight and other special guests are on the bill, and it will be an awesome Rock N' Roll event, and there will be lots of surprises....stay tuned!
I, for one, can't wait!
Thanks for reading!
Marty E.
The night before, I decided to stay clear of drinking/partying/trouble of any kind in an attempt to get a decent night's sleep for once. Well that was a fucking great idea. I had a Grolsch beer to stabilize my system, read from Bukowski's Women (an old favorite of mine that I've been revisiting lately), listened to some Gram Parsons....and tried to sleep. Well, that didn't work. I tossed and turned, as if my bed was a washing machine set to the goddamn "Spin" cycle. You know how that it is when you know that you need your rest, and the pressure thereof prevents you from getting that rest? That was me. So, I wound up getting two hours of it. I fell asleep around 8am...and Daniel called me up at 10:15 to tell me he was on his way to pick me up....well....I remember what Klaus Meine of the Scorpions once said, "Being a Rock N' Roller is a lot like being an athlete...you have to perform no matter how you feel." Damn right!
So, I put my Thin Lizzy shirt on, grabbed my cymbals, and walked downstairs into the pissing rain, and got into Daniel's car. I told him immediately that I was going on two hours' sleep. He laughed and said, "Yeah, well, you can never sleep the night before a session...I got four hours' sleep myself!"
Yeah, I like this guy. So we drove over, talked about the Ramones, Circus of Power, and whatever the fuck else. Daniel had told me that he had called Tom (an awesome engineer, owner of Nuthouse Studios, and a stand-up dude) the night before w/ some specs re: mics and shit in order to cut down set-up time. Awesome.
I like working with a producer - at least one like Daniel, who understands the band's vision and how to achieve it....and creates an atmosphere that's comfortable for everyone to play their best. His authority in the studio goes without saying, but in such a way that allows the band to be itself and themselves. It was a great balance, and a great dynamic. It looked like a winning team between the 7 of us, and I knew I could do my part no matter how much sleep I'd had. Hell, I played a gig one time on less, w/ guys I was unfamiliar with, and it went down without a hitch...I could certainly kill it in the studio with the Pearls.
After spending some time with drum sounds and getting the drum to sound like the artillery needed to blast this song into Rock N' Roll oblivion (which, of course, takes awhile, but not nearly as long as I'm used to for this sort of thing)....Daniel told me to step out and grab a bite to eat and some coffee, because it was going to be time for me to go to work soon.
So I went to this diner down the street. They wouldn't serve breakfast items (it was "lunch time"....fuck....)....so I ordered something called "pretzyl bread", a french onion soup, a buttered roll for one of the guys, and a couple of coffees. Simple enough, right? Nope....I waited like a HALF HOUR for this crap. While I was waiting, the Rolling Stones song, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" came on the radio. While I sipped a coffee and sort of swayed my head along with it, some numbskull in a booth across from me said to the waiter, "Hey Man...who sings this song?"
I rubbed my temples and shook my head in my hands....
The WAY overpriced food/coffee items, after an extended wait? $16....witnessing the stupidity of one who should be old enough to know who the fucking Rolling Stones are? Priceless!
I went back and ate while the other guys got set up for their rhythm tracks (which they were to play along with me) and Tommy's scratch vocal...which again, took awhile, so I rested for a bit...then it was time to go forth and thrash.
We ran through the song a number of times, only stopping occasionally to make sure we were on the right track in terms of sounds and parts, and to make some adjustments with tempos, etc....after a couple of hours or so of this, I was about done, and someone else mentioned being hungry, so we all ordered these kickass italian subs and bs'd about this and that. Afterwhich, Daniel asked us to do one more take....I decided, since the mozzerella was so fresh on my sandwich, that I'd play some of it a little differently this time....which seemed to be to everyone else's liking. After that, I was through with my biggest responsibility, and could sit back and relax. Who needs sleep, anyway?
Dougie's bass playing was so spot-on from the rhythm takes, I don't think he did any overdubs at all....he's a genius, that boy, he really is.
So...onto guitars....Ritchie was first....he added some great parts on there, as well as, most likely, the best solo I've ever heard him play.....it was fucking awesome....nice one, Rich! Then Johnny sat down and added this fucking "spaghetti western" western part that really added depth and dimension to the sound...
This was really turning into something.
The guitarists had had enough at this point, and split....Dougie and I decided to stay and sit in on Tommy vocal takes....which went pretty much without a hitch. I like to be there after I finsih just to add encouragement and all that shit. Tommy batted it out of the park, and finished up his lead vocal lines and the harmonies he wanted to do rather quickly.
Then Daniel, Tommy, Dougie, and I went in to do the gang vocal parts in the choruses (which for me, is the most fun part of a session).....
....and that was it....the track is in the can....we should have it ready in a couple of weeks.....
...the track will go directly to Sirius/XM Radio, and we will be doing a Single Release Party @ Santo's Party House on Thursday, July 23rd....Eve to Adam and Midnight Fistfight and other special guests are on the bill, and it will be an awesome Rock N' Roll event, and there will be lots of surprises....stay tuned!
I, for one, can't wait!
Thanks for reading!
Marty E.
Monday, June 15, 2009
A Rock N' Roll version of "Pay It Forward", or "Working My Way Back to..."????
If you know anything about me, you know that music, especially Rock N' Roll music, is my passion, joy, and pain. From a very lean age, great Rock N' Roll has inspired me to seek out what inspired it, as much as it has to create my own.
I discovered this a LONG time ago, when Guns N' Roses released Appetite For Destruction. For a young lad such as I was at the time, there wasn't ANYTHING that sounded quite like it (especially since I was used to....well, shit like Motley Crue and Kiss, etc, which are fine and good in their own right...but comparatively dim in my view). The music was raw, real, honest, deep, and made no apologies, whether it was about Sex, Drugs, Love, Paranoia, Struggling, Starving, or whathaveyou. But, in hindsite what I REALLY liked about Gn'R was that they name-checked their influences in a LOT of their interviews, and insodoing, they not only did a service to those bands that influenced them by exposing and paying tribute to them, but they were also doing just as much of a service to pint-sized, impressionable fans like myself.
The first band that Gn'R were responsible for turning me onto (besides, perhaps, Aerosmith) were Hanoi Rocks. And the influence was evident right away, not only visually (Axl Rose and Izzy Stadlin', in the early days, certainly resembled Michael Monroe and Andy McCoy), but musically as well. Guns, surely by no coincidence, lifted the title, "Welcome to the Jungle" from a lyric in the chorus if Hanoi Rocks's "Underwater World". That being said, Guns made sure that the first 4 Hanoi Rocks studio albums (and later their live All Those Wasted Years album) got released in the US via Geffen on their Uzi Suicide imprint. You have to admit, that's pretty fucking classy.
The Guns N' Roses/Hanoi Rocks connection didn't end there by any means. First of all, it was then via Hanoi Rocks that I got into the New York Dolls (and of course various spin-off/solo projects rose from their ashes)....for which not enough has been written and there's just too much to write...but case in point, I loved/related to the Dolls pretty quickly and the older I get, the more I love them and what their music represents...which is close to what Gn'R represented, but it was much more controversial to dress up and live that level of decadence in the 70's, which proved, in a nutshell, to be the Dolls' undoing....and the Dolls were and are a New York institution, and as far as Rock N' Roll goes, probably the best and most definitive, for my ears.
Furthermore, it was via Hanoi that I really started to appreciate Punk Rock....sure, I was into the Sex Pistols and the Clash to a minimal degree (at the time), but I didn't quite "get it" yet. Then I read an interview w/ Sami Yaffa in a Hanoi fanzine about how The Damned were his biggest influence, or something along those lines (I've since been able to thank Sami in person, hahahahaha). THIS I understood. They were fun, didn't take themselves too seriously (until much later), wrote great songs, and played them well. And via the Damned, I was able to appreciate what the other Punk Rock bands of that era (especially) had to offer. And that has certainly done a service to me and the music I've played.
Of paramount importance, though, is the fact that the GnR/Hanoi Rocks/Aerosmith/Dolls/English Punk lineage led me, once and for all, to the Rolling Stones....who, like AC/DC and the afrementioned Punk bands, I didn't understand fully until I had been drinking for a little while, hahahaha. I can't really say a goddamn thing about the importance of the Rolling fuckin' Stones that hasn't already been said 75 Billion times, but....it was through those bands who took their style and spun it into their own who brought me to them......
Anyway, I could write a lot about all the directions this could go in, from Motown to Trip Hop to Death Metal (well...a little bit anyway), but who has the time?
My point is, that while listening to your idols is important, it's just as important to listen to your idols' idols...(and maybe a little Billy Idol, for that matter)....so then they become yours too. And furthermore, if you have an opportunity to tell people who are into what you to, you're doing a service not only to the bands in question, but to your listeners. My hope is that one day I find myself on a level at which I can make that matter to lots of people as much as my boyhood icons made it matter to me!
Thanks for reading!
Marty E.
I discovered this a LONG time ago, when Guns N' Roses released Appetite For Destruction. For a young lad such as I was at the time, there wasn't ANYTHING that sounded quite like it (especially since I was used to....well, shit like Motley Crue and Kiss, etc, which are fine and good in their own right...but comparatively dim in my view). The music was raw, real, honest, deep, and made no apologies, whether it was about Sex, Drugs, Love, Paranoia, Struggling, Starving, or whathaveyou. But, in hindsite what I REALLY liked about Gn'R was that they name-checked their influences in a LOT of their interviews, and insodoing, they not only did a service to those bands that influenced them by exposing and paying tribute to them, but they were also doing just as much of a service to pint-sized, impressionable fans like myself.
The first band that Gn'R were responsible for turning me onto (besides, perhaps, Aerosmith) were Hanoi Rocks. And the influence was evident right away, not only visually (Axl Rose and Izzy Stadlin', in the early days, certainly resembled Michael Monroe and Andy McCoy), but musically as well. Guns, surely by no coincidence, lifted the title, "Welcome to the Jungle" from a lyric in the chorus if Hanoi Rocks's "Underwater World". That being said, Guns made sure that the first 4 Hanoi Rocks studio albums (and later their live All Those Wasted Years album) got released in the US via Geffen on their Uzi Suicide imprint. You have to admit, that's pretty fucking classy.
The Guns N' Roses/Hanoi Rocks connection didn't end there by any means. First of all, it was then via Hanoi Rocks that I got into the New York Dolls (and of course various spin-off/solo projects rose from their ashes)....for which not enough has been written and there's just too much to write...but case in point, I loved/related to the Dolls pretty quickly and the older I get, the more I love them and what their music represents...which is close to what Gn'R represented, but it was much more controversial to dress up and live that level of decadence in the 70's, which proved, in a nutshell, to be the Dolls' undoing....and the Dolls were and are a New York institution, and as far as Rock N' Roll goes, probably the best and most definitive, for my ears.
Furthermore, it was via Hanoi that I really started to appreciate Punk Rock....sure, I was into the Sex Pistols and the Clash to a minimal degree (at the time), but I didn't quite "get it" yet. Then I read an interview w/ Sami Yaffa in a Hanoi fanzine about how The Damned were his biggest influence, or something along those lines (I've since been able to thank Sami in person, hahahahaha). THIS I understood. They were fun, didn't take themselves too seriously (until much later), wrote great songs, and played them well. And via the Damned, I was able to appreciate what the other Punk Rock bands of that era (especially) had to offer. And that has certainly done a service to me and the music I've played.
Of paramount importance, though, is the fact that the GnR/Hanoi Rocks/Aerosmith/Dolls/English Punk lineage led me, once and for all, to the Rolling Stones....who, like AC/DC and the afrementioned Punk bands, I didn't understand fully until I had been drinking for a little while, hahahaha. I can't really say a goddamn thing about the importance of the Rolling fuckin' Stones that hasn't already been said 75 Billion times, but....it was through those bands who took their style and spun it into their own who brought me to them......
Anyway, I could write a lot about all the directions this could go in, from Motown to Trip Hop to Death Metal (well...a little bit anyway), but who has the time?
My point is, that while listening to your idols is important, it's just as important to listen to your idols' idols...(and maybe a little Billy Idol, for that matter)....so then they become yours too. And furthermore, if you have an opportunity to tell people who are into what you to, you're doing a service not only to the bands in question, but to your listeners. My hope is that one day I find myself on a level at which I can make that matter to lots of people as much as my boyhood icons made it matter to me!
Thanks for reading!
Marty E.
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