The newest episode of my favorite podcast is out, which means i’m going to take a minute and go all fanboy over it.
Did you ever have band in high school or college? Ever do theater in high school or college? Whatever it was you did, whatever passion you tried (or are trying) to make happen while dealing with the whole growing out of your teens thing, this podcast knows all about it and was (is) there right with you.
The Band That Never Was is the true recollected story of a group of friends who form a band during that late adolescent travel from the teenage years to adulthood. It perfectly captures that time of life and the dramas and foibles associated with it and trying to do something serious for the first time, ie form a band that will make brilliant music while conquering the known world despite having never even lived outside your parents’ house before.
It’s also an excellent window back into the 90s when the events took place.
“Packed with honesty, laughs, relationships, irony, and some damned fine tunes, The Band That Never Was is a documentary podcast about many things. Friendships, life, music, growing up, and a study of what, at its core, failure may or may not be.”
It’s a brilliant slice of life and feels almost like someone is telling my own memories.
Today we shall feature a little music. Moody and mellow for your melancholy Monday.
Back when i lived in NY i was working on a project and ended up with an extra track that i was unable to use at that particular time, but which i adored. It was Lady Chatterlaine written in conjunction with Matthew Broyles.
I had met musician Matthew Broyles while we were both struggling musicians in NYC. He showed up at a restaurant i was bartending at, having arranged to meet the pianist who played there every week. (I don’t remember the pianists’ name but i loved that guy. He was a walking encyclopedia of 70s jazz fusion, a particular fetish of mine at one time, and would play some really insane and obscure things for me which no one possibly had any idea of. He would blast through Return To Forever’s Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant on solo piano for heaven’s sakes and demolish it. I could have murdered everyone else associated with that damn restaurant, one of the worst jobs i ever had, but that guy shines as the bright spot. Alas, i digress)
Anyway, the pianist didn’t show up so Matthew had a few drinks at the bar and we got to talking. I, of course, am a pianist also (although what poor Matthew did not know at the time is i couldn’t hold candle to that other guy. Even if he was drugged and unconscious he could still wipe the walls with me playing wise). More so than just piano playing though, we had a great many of the same influences and were both dedicated primarily to song construction above all else. So we became friends and would help each other out on numerous projects in various ways. (10 years later, still do actually. We also made an album together just last year, The Silver Key, but for some reason i am in the mood to chat and wander into long digressions today and need to reign this in a bit.)
Long story short. Long story short. Long story short. Wanting to actually collaborate instead of simply asking each other for specific tasks as we were doing (i.e. need some guitar/keyboards/extra ears on this track) i sent him a music bed and asked him to write and put vocals on it.
The result was Lady Chatterlaine, which i adored and is STILL one of my favorite tracks. I eventually put it on the Cthulhu: The Funksical album.
I also decided that over the course of time i would make 3 Chatterlaine songs. Is it 8 years later? Well, i made a Sister Chatterlaine for the album Subduction a couple years later and just last month i finally wrote and released Madam Chatterlaine for the FairyTales for the Lost and Wandering album. Thus the trilogy i swore i’d get around to one day has been gotten around to. Thus i seek to amuse you this fine day with all 3 songs brought together in one spot. Lady Chatterlaine and Madam Chatterlaine are story oriented and relate very much, with Sister Chatterlaine being…. it’s up to you how you want to connect it.
So here 3 nice, lilting songs for you. The Chatterlaine trilogy.
(Vocals and Lyrics written and sung by Matthew Brolyes)
Fairy Tales for the Lost and Wandering is a series of short, melancholy, original fairy tale-esque stories set to music. They are sung, they are spoken, the music ranges from simple to layered, haunting to lush.
The finished album is available on Bandcamp for a mere pittance of $5. When i figure out what possible musical genre to file it under i’ll let you know, but if you have any ideas…
Well, we can safely assume the Americans in our audience will be out of commission today as today is the sacred Day Of The Mixing Of Beer And Explosives (and honestly, it’s basically as awesome as it sounds). We shall however continue unabated with our story telling program.
Today we shall showcase A Scene In Ice the story that benefited the most from studio treatment. As ususal the entire completed album can be explored (and bought!) here.
Let’s listen to something a little more upbeat today, shall we?
As mentioned before, what started out as some simple piano and voice demos has now become a fully produced album. This week i shall play some selections from it before posting the entire finished thing. Should you want to check out the entire thing you may do so HERE. If you like, please consider buying or sharing a link!
This one was the reason i decided to make the demos into a full production. I really loved this story but the piano demo fell flat for me. It sounded too much like a demo that wanted to be flushed out into a proper track and it sounds SOOOO much better with additional instrumentation. So without further ado, we present the next fairy tale in our Listen To A Fairy Tale series: Piston Brown.
A little while back i posted a few demo tracks featuring original fairy tales made into song form with acoustic piano. I liked the idea, the stories but other than one song (Diedre) the tracks with only piano left me quite unsatisfied. They sounded simply like demos, not like they were what they wanted to be. So demos i declared them and set about to make them into things i could be satisfied and proud of.
I made an entire album of sad, fairy tale like stories. In fact, the album will be released online tomorrow and thus this week we shall listen to several of the tracks. Listen to a fairy tale.
One track, however does NOT contain fairy tale elements. It is the only track which is not fantastical in some way. And yet, it is the one i am going to premiere and play today since it’s currently my favorite track on the album. (Although to be clear it’s also the most recent song completed, made over this past week, so that factors is a lot. My favorite track on a given album is usually the one i’m working on….) It’s the final track in the Chatterlaine trilogy… spread across several of my albums are a couple songs about a Ms. Chatterlaine… Lady Chatterlaine, Sister Chatterlaine and now Madame Chatterlaine.
So… STORIES! Who doesn’t like stories? Let’s listen to some and meet some interesting characters. We begin with Madam Chatterlaine.
Today we feature an excellent band making modern noir music, Bohren & der Clud of Gore.
It’s ambient jazz technically, but it sounds like what youo would think heavily chilled, dark modern noior music would sound like. Sparse, slow, moody as hell, with something ominous waiting patiently in the shadows.
Listen:
It’s beautiful, right?
Bohren & der Cluc of Gore are a German band. The line up is:
THORSTEN BENNING Drums
CHRISTOPH CLÖSER Saxophones, Fender Rhodes, Piano, Vibraphone
“Driven by the idea of a more unique style of music, they formed BOHREN (german word for drilling) in 1992 to play, as they called it, „ doom ridden jazz music“.”
Collected all together here in one post is a 5 song experiment in storytelling: telling 5 original, melancholy fairy tales using only piano and voice.
How well it’s pulled off is up to you to decide. But not only can you listen to them here at your leisure, if you particularly like any of them, you may HAVE THEM. All can be downloaded at a name you own price rate. You want them for free, take them. If you feel they’re worth anything and you believe that artists should also eat, you may name your own price.
Otherwise, please enjoy these stories and for our regular readers, we return to our regularly scheduled program tomorrow.
For the next few days we’re going to do a track a day of a different dark tinted fairy tale.
It’s a… it’s a series of tracks of a work in progress. I honestly have no idea what i’m actually doing with it. I have long wanted to do some sort of album/EP which was simply piano and voice, utterly stripped away of all the lavish orchestrations i normally use.
I also like to make up stories. So…. it’s a series of grim fairy tales, told through piano and voice.
There are two questions i have regarding these:
1. Do they work?
2. Am i limiting their potential by insisting on keeping the tracks stripped down to just piano? Note that this question is NOT: COULD i add more instrumentation, trust me, you can ALways add more instrumentation. The question is: is it indeed necessary?
In any case, if you enjoy short, little melancholy stories then i hope you enjoy this series. We begin with Dear Departed Diedre.
Let’s have some fun with this. Yes, lists. Based of course on my personal preferences, although the last 3 at the end are not only my favorites but also illustrate exactly what i’m going for with the new track. However, instead of just a list of 3, which i could and should have done, let’s do an entire top 10.
We’ll start with a song that is actually one of the best of the list. It’s number 10 not because it’s the 10th least best, but because it is SO good it deserves to open the mix:
10. Israel Kamakawiwo’ole: Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Who gives a crap about the original? Some do, i don’t. At all. But when Mr. Kamakawiwo’ole does it…. O. M G. Who can actually sit through and not just…. melt. Cry, stare wistfully out the window… this is one of the greatest falsetto recordings ever. It takes a song i feel nothing for and makes me ACHE… ache.
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9. Curtis Mayfield: ANYTHING, but we’ll pick Pusherman
A group of friends and i used to have an ongoing drinking conversation. You sit at a bar and someone throws out a name, usually musician but it grew to include other mediums. Everyone at the table then shouts out “soul” or “no soul”. occasionally a good drunken debate will occur.
Curtis Mayfield IS soul. He doesn’t HAVE soul… he bloody well IS soul.
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8. Beck: Debra
I LOVE this song. LOVE it. It is SO much fun. And it’s quite funny and wonderfully silly. Beck rules.
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7. The Lion Sleeps Tonight
You HAVE to include this song. You just have to. It’s hands down the most famous falsetto songs in popular music and it deserves it. Who doesn’t love this tune? What kind of shmuck you gotta be to not love this?
Although made famous in 1961 by the Tokens it was first written and recorded in 1939 by Solomon Linda and The Evening Birds, a south african group. (for an interesting comparison, their original can be heard here.
We’re going to play The Nylon’s live performance of it. This song is best when done as acapella doo wop as possible.
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6. Scissor Sisters: Don’t Feel Like Dancing
I could have gone with several Scissor Sister’s tracks. They are super fun, super awesome, super catchy, and their retro feel means that we can give a nod to the disco groups from the 70s who used heaps of falsetto (the Bee Gees are the most well known). But the fact is i’d rather listen to Scissor Sisters than old 70s disco (although give me a bunch of alcohol and what not in a club and i’ll dance to old 70s disco just fine) so here they are:
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5. Prince: Kiss
Kiss is one of the most iconic falsetto songs out there. Finding a Prince video to use is near impossible as Prince is obsessed with not having anything of his on YouTube. However, a TV appearance of this song is already out in the public domain, so here it is:
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4. Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons: Walk Like A Man
With the Big 3 approaching this last slot would have gone to a number of singers and bands (like Miko or Sparks), except it is simply a crime against humanity to have a conversation about great falsetto songs and not mention the group that defined the entire concept for decades: The Four Seasons. Frankie Valli’s falsetto is unparalleled, truly. They reigned over 50s doo-wop and with all the other falsettos trying to compete for his title, Frankie leaves them all in the dust.
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The Big 3.
Now we get serious. This is what i’ve been talking about. Falsetto used to achieve an otherworldly-ness. Beyond gender, beyond the base, beyond animal and material…. transcendent:
3. Sigur Ros. EVERYTHING. But we’ll go with Svefn-G-Englar.
Sigur Ros is one of the my all time favorite bands. The beauty of their music is beyond words.
This award winning video by the band and film maker Agust Jacobsson features a troupe of people with Down’s Syndrome performing to the song.
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2. Bon Iver: Stacks.
I don’t know if i can listen to this song without crying. i don’t know if i’ve ever attempted to. I’m not about to start now. It’s that beautiful. It stops me dead in my tracks and brings me to my knees.
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1. Jeff Buckley: Corpus Christi Carol
I mean… Jeff Buckley. Do i need to say anything more?
