Resolutions

I consider all the 2007 resolutions for my band and label, as best as I can remember making/stating them, to be so very close to completion, that I can consider them accomplished. We released 2 of the 3 re-issues I resolved to, the 3rd is like a month away from completion. The new album will not be out by February, but very likely by March. Humaninhuman released /distributed 4 albums with 2 to be released within a month and 2 others quickly following. I think that's damn close to my resolutions. Biggest goal of all - rebuild BBH as a real-world, multi-membered band that practices regularly, plays locally and records. To quote Meatloaf, 2 outa 3 ain't bad. Moses, Kit, Zach and I practive evry third Saturday and with our initial temp drummer played a show in September. We even attempted to play an illocal show but thru no fault of our own, it did not happen. No new material is ready yet, so there has been no reason to record. I call that not only a year well spent, but with my health and spirit in the best shape they've ever been, 2007 was the best year of my life. Cue Matthew Wilde.

So what are my resolutions for 2008 in regards to BBH and HumanInhuman Records?

Main thing is to distribute the Slumlord album and release the 2 BBH albums. Hopefully Bruce Satinover's albums will quickly follow and the next mikingmihrab after that. BBH will continue practicing, playing locally, maybe even try again playing illocally. We are making a concerted effort to expand our repertoire, heavily concentrating on LLP and especially the new FOP stuff. The change of name comes when we start recording new stuff, Moses' progrock album GGP. Man... it doesn't even seem like we oughta squeeze that into '08...

I know this: I want to play a show or two with Armalite. I also know this: using the name Bernie Bernie Headflap, I'm going to put out another one man band album, recorded partly at home, partly at SSSS, mostly real instruments rather than software. It'll be titled Gnome Sane? and have mostly all new songs, but some new versions of older oneman band songs that coulda done much much better

also there will be a deluxe remastered version of Cheese on Wheat with new art, megadoses of bonus tracks released under the name Cheese on Wry.

That's all I'm gonna resolve to. If other stuff happens... it'll be gravy... mmm... gravy!!

Did Chronic Pain Kill an Idol?

Here's something I've been thinking on since reading the 33 1/3 book on In Utero a few months back.

Read my discussion on askville

Top Story on Indie Ezine today

Our recent press release posted on musicSUBMIT.com got picked up by this Mesa, Arizona website and was made their top story today.

IACMusic.com BBH radio Station Posted on our Myspace

Here is a bulletin I just posted for our Myspace friends to read:

" HEY ALL --

Sure, we still have our little myspace player with its choice of 4 songs over here on our page.

But we don't expect any visitors to use it anymore. We'll just have to forfeit those precious song play stats. Besides, 4 BBH songs just does not give you the scope of our vision. Takes at least 5 times that amount to even start to get a glimpse.

So now when you visit our page our internet radio station on IACMUSIC.COM is automatically launched and, if you choose to let it do so, it'll play 20 entire BBH songs: 4 from our currently released 4 cds, and another 4 from our soon-to-be-released "The Royal We" reissue. We might add audio commentary in the near future. And definitely look for 8 more entire songs as our third reissue and our all new cd drop in the months to come. Point is, we're not fuckin around here, people. We've had tunes dripping out our pores for 15 years and this selection represents about a fifth of them. See if you can find a real shitty one in the bunch. Go on now. Click our pic, get on over here and give us your ears for an hour."

I'm gonna repost it periodically.

Where have we been?

Man o man o man it's been a while since Moses or I have posted anything here. Well, we're still fighting the good musical fight, gettin done all the stuff that needs gettin done on each and every front. The next reissue, The Royal We will be out in a couple weeks and man is it lookin and soundin fine. This is such an attractive package I'm hoping some of you download devotees consider revisiting the world of physical product just this one last time. But it will certainly roll out to your favorite d/l retailers and subscription services over the coming months.

So here that is coming out and Less Like Penguins has really not started to be promoted or publicized yet. I sigh and say I'm working on it. It is all about which services turn out to be truly effectual and which do not. I am trying a service that I think could have taken Stone Cold Blue quite far if I had only had the health energy and ambition to follow up on things adamantly 4 years ago. I have those now.

In addition, other releases are coming out and being planned for my label, and BBH are scheduling practices and trying to get that second gig that jives with our schedule plus gigs beyond that, too. If we can work our first practice with drummer Zach Price into our booked studio time next weekend, man that'd be a huge huge coup.

There was a minor mixup getting our final masters from Kramer, but he and I cleared that all up, so those should now be in the mail to me and Moses. The aforementioned studio time goes towards finishing up our/ Mike's half of the album -- a little bit o' recording left to do, mostly mixing and mastering.

I do see it all wrapping up and being released on the later side of the originally planned target range, ie February... and why not? Get it done exactly right, and this way promotional efforts won't have us competing with our own reissues.

Without question, creatively I'm enjoying the best year of my life,

Today was a great day for the Phillies and their fans

Read why here.

I hope to find and post pix soon.

We got interviewed and here is the link

http://indiemusicstop.blogspot.com/2007/09/interview-bernie-bernie-headflap.html

9/23/07 was a very good day for BBH

Practicing for the show and performing it were equally fun for me. Okay, maybe the actual show was more fun. Hearing the positive reactions during and the good talk afterwards, that's real nice. If you wanna read more about the show, and see pix, go to the calendar page and click 'show past dates'. I don't know why the template on that page is dark text on dark background, but I'll try to fix that. Selecting the text helps for now.

We also got a review for Less Like Penguins on Indie Music Stop. Check our Reviews page to see it. Our current setlist includes several songs from this album.

Faithful reader...

...the new song that Alan so generously refers to in his last post is "Neddy, Echo, Shot, and me (Annihilation, pt. 2)", which I mention in a previous post. It was directly inspired by the novel "Rant" by Chuck Palahniuk (of "Fight Club" fame).

- Moses

On the 7th, I recorded guitar and vocal parts for 'Room for Doubt'. Then guitar parts for Sincere plus minor edits. There musta been more cause it was a ten hour session.

The 8th was shorter but more massive. The full band practiced. Whew. Nice. We are half ready for our khyber show. I mean, 1 down, 1 to go, so we're half ready, right?

Then Moses recorded his outrageously rockin last song fo the album. Not meaning it will be the last song on the album. No, I don't see that happening.

Today I learned about twitter.com, Mike fed-exed the first batch of songs to kramer, and then a site called indiemusicstop.com asked to interview me, or possibly the whole band was what they were requesting. The editor likes the struggle angle to the story. I said absolutely and just asked who all they want to interview.

So that's a nice 4 day period of keeping busy.

Oh yeah, I also recorded a song for Mood Stabilizer and in so doing, made some decisions on what will improve my home recording setup -- which I call Size McWaive's.

CDBaby Doin's

Then I went over to CDBaby to sign up The Royal We and noticed that every cd they sell is now also available as a download. That is so huge, and smart on their part. I hope they go and offer a subscription service; that would be killer.

I set the download price of the 4 cds on cdbaby to 8 bucks. Looks like they do not sell single tracks, just complete albums.

I wonder what else they have in store?

Less Like Penguins Hits Napster!

I just happened to be over there doing research for my Internet Music Meanderings blog. I'm scooping even CDBaby with this!

Fear of People Cover Art

Over the past couple days, Moses and I have been discussing front, back and inside cover art ideas, and we agreed pretty quickly on something that we think will say some things we want to say. And it shall be put to paper by the incomparable Mo Moussa Nice. Go Phillies!

Fear of People's Progress, Latest Edition

Last night, my folks drove me to the studio -- I had to stop driving 10 years ago -- and I laid down the vocal tracks for 3 songs: Moses's 'Waiting Game' and 'All I Want to Say to Sting' and my 'Livin on the Fringe.' I think I did really good work, and it went much more quickly than last time, that whole part of the session took like two and a half hours. Just like last time, Mike gave good feedback to guide me quickly toward usable takes when my initial ones were not good enough.

Then we did some drum edits and experiments with synth effects for other songs, but after a while Mike 'hit a wall' and we called it a night. Mike has to be at a video shoot for the song that the Boils wrote for the Flyers. That's one of his last commitments with those guys. Then BBH gets to borrow his drumming services for a bit, as he is filling in for our initial gigs till we hold our auditions and find our new bandmate. Mike is also helping out with that process and it's being held at his Second Story Sound Studio.

80 South Forge Manor Drive

I found out two days ago that the next M Knight Shamalyan movie 'The Happening' is filming in Phoenixville, in a little roadside restaurant called the G Lodge on route 23. From 1971 to 1980 I lived literally half a mile down the road from there. I remember eating at the G Lodge maybe 3 times: once on the day we moved out of that house to go to Valley Forge, then twice during my more recent dialysis years when the unit was part of Phoenixville Hospital.

Nineties baseball phenom Mike Piazza lived near there too -- my mom used to drive him and my bro and other kids to kindergarten.

Also nearby, a diner and a movie theater were used in the original 1950s version of the Blob.

So there you go, a big dose of past present and hopefully future for you.

tI don't know if Shamalyan's 'The Happening' takes its title from anything related to the Pixies song of the same name.

Didn't I Say this would Happen?

The garageband.com community has decreed that even 'Fairuza' is not a four star song. What a rollercoaster ride ending in disappointment, as predicted.

Gonna take a break from that site for awhile. Till the next reissue comes out. Octoberish I guess.

Hugely more important stuff going on, before then.

As I remember it, the Benie Bernie Headflap's first practice session occurred in Ritter Center at Ursinus College on August 22, 1992 -- which makes TODAY our official Crystal Anniversary.

Up and Running

Thanks to a great deal of assistance from my dad, Joe O'Connor, Bruce Satinover, Mike Bardzik, and the M Audio tech support team, my little home studio setup is back in operation. I am doing the basics now; it's all just a matter of learning new terminology and gui buttonology when switching to new software. So there is still much to learn.

But now I can at least record demo versions of the parts I intend to record when I get to the studio, and be better prepared.

Today for about 4 hours I worked on my latest versions of the vox and gtr parts for a song called 'Room for Doubt.' I'm likin' it.

And the first word in today's jumble was DOUBT, so I took that as a good sign.

4.4 at 4:40

Here's an amusing review 'Fairuza' just got:

"Fast-paced.
I like the speed of this song. Also, the ascending guitar chords and riff are cool in parts. The rhythm, overall, is unique in a good way. I'm not sure I understand many of the lyrics, so maybe that should be worked on. I think I heard the word "yellow" in there, though. Oh, and shimmering.

All-in-all a good experience, though."

bringing its current rating to 4.4 stars.

My back end of this blog is still set to pacific time. It's actually 3 hours later, AFTER a full night's sleep. I'm not sure how I got onto this schedule.

Just another lullaby...

Al,

Maybe it was just the collective subconsciousness we call the internet's way of telling you that there's no need to go to garageband at 1 something AM, and that you should instead go the hell to bed. :)

I think we should put something like that on our site. From 3-4AM, the headflap site should simply say,

"The members of BBH sincerely appreciate your interest in our band.

Kinda late, though, isn't it?

Maybe you should go to bed. We'll still be here in the morning."

Psychiatric Self-Diagnosis

Then again my most elaborate paranoiac delusions usually have some very very simple technical pc glitch as their root.

Okay?

Butterfly Effect

I tried to get to my garageband account 5 minutes ago to reply to a recent message, and the entire site seems to be gone, not even the usual 'sorry, we are down due to site maintenance' message. Sure hope my recent posts didn't cause this.
?
Naaah.

Didn't I Say This Would Happen?

Yes, generally favorable reviews have indeed brought 'Fairuza' back to just above 4. I think I'll start acting Catholic again and arrange a rosary vigil to keep this rating up there.

Here is a particularly awesome review that a person of extraordinary taste posted yesterday:

" Atonality as an Art Form...
Bizarre scales and chaotic arrangement make this song an off-the-wall masterpiece. Unconventional (though masterful) guitar work somehow clicks perfectly with eclectic vocals to produce a technically and artistically brilliant song. This is a band you should know about.

"

The Search is On!

It occurred to me yesterday: now that Creeping Weeds' mini-tour in support of their phenomenal debut full-length is over, maybe Chris' time commitments have lightened some, and he might be able to help out the flap in its attempts to gig again... like, be our drummer? I mean, wouldn't it be dumb if the offer were never made? So I emailed the man.

Long and short: no. CreeWees are intensifying their assault on indie rock, AND Chris is headed to grad school. Just can't fit us in at this time - but he did offer help in getting some initial gigs, and that is much appreciated.

So, the 'flap launches its drummer search. I have proposed a concept to my bandmates; details and dates just need to be agreed on by all bandmembers and other involved parties before anything further on the subject will be posted on the website.

I'm psyched.

Another Thing About Jefferson Airplane to Consider

Several posts ago, I pointed out a few things about Jefferon Airplane that I never fully appreciated before. Now I see in a new light how they altered their very name as they entered significantly different phases -- but in a way so as to maintain a link to their past, for ease of fan recognition. Food for thought to feed my head.

'Some You' Nearly Completed

Mike and I scheduled a short-notice session for yesterday at which I hoped to possibly complete what is expected of us to complete for 2 songs. But we had just four hours to work with so I knew a more reasonable expectation was that I would complete vocals, gtr, and editing drums on 'Some You.'

The bulk of the session was spent doing the vocals. Mike is great at coaxing the best possible performance out of a good singer with many good ideas. I did an initial 3 takes of the lead vox of the entire song. We listened to each section, each take in turn, and chose the best of each one. We agreed many were usable. For each section that did not have a usable take, I resang, with Mike's coaching, till I got it just right. We did this most intensively for the ending, which anyone who heard the demo would say had to be done just right. And I believe a very good rendition was nailed.

I did stick to the well-worded advice of Moses. I focussed my approach.

At some point I will have more to say about what my original point for this song was, and how I altered it after hearing advice from two very good married friends, one who was just writing lyrics to a song 12 years prior, and the other who might have really thought he was just coaching a vocal performance/ co-producing a record.

Then I did all the background vocals, combining what stuck out in my mind from my demo with on-the-fly attempts and Mike's suggestions and feedback.


The entire process was much more organized and yielded a better result than the haphazard approach I have been taking when recording at home. And simply more fun. Creative input from others is a good thing. Music making should be a communal event - in many to most cases. I still see one man band projects in my future.

After this 3 hour process of doing vocals I laid down a couple very very simple and totally unflashy gtr lines. Thanks to the tia, this took 45 minutes.

Mike performed the 2 minor edits I requested, which were merely the removal of two two-bar drumkit phrases at :04 and 1:10, to be replaced by original or royalty-free sampled breakbeats at some point.

And then we just need the horn section to come in. I have been assured that that will soon be scheduled to happen in a few weeks. Then all the files will be sent to fla for Kramer to mix and master, and you will hear the results in December or January or thereabouts.

Cause and Effect

That reviewer sent me a reply with no words in it.

A Recent Review and My Response

"[quote]
i enjoy dissonance a lot.
Off the bat, my face turns to a confused face. i can't hear anything concrete. The overall sound is very raw and natural which i generally like. The arranging is some of the most interesting i've ever heard. I can't understand the vocals. Some sections are fantastic and i'll call this progressive indie. I like it. however, there's too much going on and the sections move very quickly.
[/quote]

we feel that those reactions lead to repeat listening and those who care to listen as many times as it takes to figure it all out can be termed 'true fans.' a weeding out process.

please join, if you care to.

if not, no biggie.

alan"

To which I Replied

Thank you for that detailed response. I understand
now the limitations of the current system. Seems
maybe just a little irresponsible of gb to use a
system that raises hopes early with its inflated
estimates only to dash them, so I hope you can
improve the system quickly.

The friend I mentioned who calculated (over the course
of lunch on a busy day) the impossibility of my star
ranking drop is actually my father. He has a ph.d in
math and has used it alll his life and as a result we
live comfortably. His company helped find the pieces
of the first space shuttle disaster. He loves to
solve challenging problems. Maybe he'd be interested
in helping you guys work on this one.

alan

The GB Response

Thank you for contacting GarageBand Support. All reviews weigh in the
same and the algorithm is not something I can pretend to understand.
Here is a bit of information to help you understand the process... this
was written by a manager...

Prior to the genesis of the star ranking system, there was no good way
for the user to gauge how well a song was doing. They could tell that
their song was at X position in the charts, but there was no way to
really tell how a song was doing against its peers because all of the
songs are shifting positions.

We responded to overwhelming demand from our user base by creating the
star system as an early predictor of how the song is doing against the
galaxy of its peers. As a predictive indicator, the star system is not
highly accurate in the early stages and becomes more accurate as the
song approaches the end of its reviews.

One inherent problem right now is that both the chart positions and the
star rankings are calculated not only by the song's reviews, but by ALL
reviews of the song AND ITS PEERS. This causes understandable
confusion
among users.

For example, if I enter a new song, it will go through a period of
heavy
rotation and climb the chart. At some point, the review frequency will
decrease but OTHER songs are getting reviews. I may see a single
review
or even no review at all and on the same day see that my chart position
and/or my star rating will move quite a bit. It would be natural for
me
to assume that this condition was caused by the single reviewer when in
fact it is because there is a whole lot of other data being
considered--namely, the data of all the other songs in that genre that
are receiving reviews.

In truth, a single review can't substantially move a song's position
because we are using quantitative rather than qualitative analysis. I
do understand, however, that this can be the perception and that this
perception is very important.

We are planning to address the way our star system calculates the
ranking. While there is no way to 'fix' the inherent inaccuracy of a
narrow sample, there are steps we can take to offset the star ranking
to
reflect the confidence in the sample accuracy.

At this point, we have not fully discussed how we would implement this
but it is something of which we are aware and intend to fix.

Thank you,
Jennifer
GarageBand.com

The GB Response

Thank you for contacting GarageBand Support. All reviews weigh in the
same and the algorithm is not something I can pretend to understand.
Here is a bit of information to help you understand the process... this
was written by a manager...

Prior to the genesis of the star ranking system, there was no good way
for the user to gauge how well a song was doing. They could tell that
their song was at X position in the charts, but there was no way to
really tell how a song was doing against its peers because all of the
songs are shifting positions.

We responded to overwhelming demand from our user base by creating the
star system as an early predictor of how the song is doing against the
galaxy of its peers. As a predictive indicator, the star system is not
highly accurate in the early stages and becomes more accurate as the
song approaches the end of its reviews.

One inherent problem right now is that both the chart positions and the
star rankings are calculated not only by the song's reviews, but by ALL
reviews of the song AND ITS PEERS. This causes understandable
confusion
among users.

For example, if I enter a new song, it will go through a period of
heavy
rotation and climb the chart. At some point, the review frequency will
decrease but OTHER songs are getting reviews. I may see a single
review
or even no review at all and on the same day see that my chart position
and/or my star rating will move quite a bit. It would be natural for
me
to assume that this condition was caused by the single reviewer when in
fact it is because there is a whole lot of other data being
considered--namely, the data of all the other songs in that genre that
are receiving reviews.

In truth, a single review can't substantially move a song's position
because we are using quantitative rather than qualitative analysis. I
do understand, however, that this can be the perception and that this
perception is very important.

We are planning to address the way our star system calculates the
ranking. While there is no way to 'fix' the inherent inaccuracy of a
narrow sample, there are steps we can take to offset the star ranking
to
reflect the confidence in the sample accuracy.

At this point, we have not fully discussed how we would implement this
but it is something of which we are aware and intend to fix.

Thank you,
Jennifer
GarageBand.com

A Weighty Issue

I submitted this question to Garageband.com:

"are certain reviews more heavily weighted? reviews by users whose review rank is n/a? round 2 reviews?

i have a round 2 song that dropped from 4.5 to 3.6 after receiving 2 reviews that basically liked it, but had issues with it. i could see one being a 3 star and the other a 2. my mathematician friend says that even if they both gave me a zero, after 23 reviews my rating should only have dropped to 4.1, unless weighting is involved. So... is it, and how exactly? (I've been here for 9 years and have noticed that newbies can really burn you in round 2)"

I eagerly await their reply and will post it here.

Djdn't I Say this would Happen?

Here's a message I just sent garageband.com reviewer loveandsunshine

"[quote]
Excellent Performance
Vocals are lost... I can't hear them very well at all.

This band sounds like it'd be really great live and the performance itself is excellent. I'm sad because it seems like something's been lost in translation as it was put online.
[/quote]

no one else has yet complained about the vocals being lost in this song. that has been an issue with some of our songs, and imo it is not an issue here. i am sad you cannot hear them. i am way way more sad that it appears to be your review that dropped us from 4.5 -- with what seemed like a real shot at holding a good star rating -- down to 3.6.

seems like being on gb.com just leads to sadness all round."

This member has reviewed 5 songs. Ah the power of one.

Hopefully the next one, 2,3,4,5 etc can build the score back up again...

Comparison Analysis 1: Modest Mouse

Depending on what song or album the listener/reviewer has heard, BBH gets compared to several bands frequently. The Stone Cold Blue album inevitably brings about TMBG and Devo references. I worship TMBG and only know "Whip It," "Satisfaction" and "Girl You Want" from Devo. Further investigation sorely needed.

"All the Mother" and other songs' reviews have brought about on more than one occasion comparisons to Modest Mouse. When Paul was in the band, he worked at The Wall for a bit. He would often bring back to the place in West Chester promos that were always worth checking out. If they had made their way to retail, then serious backing was involved, and if Paul digged it, I figured I might, too. so he brought back a Modest Mouse cd, and after looking at theit Yahoo Music Unlimited offerings last night, I assume it musta been The Fruit That Ate Itself
I remember after a 1 or several listens coming away with the impressions that definite catchy things were happening, there was a likable southern accent. a guy with a reasonably high voice, a good brand of humor, classic rock bent, and strong strong obvious Pavement influence.
Yeah. Definite strong Pavementesquiness, im late nineties o. Enough for me to be disturbed. Too slavishly imitative of a single pioneer, I concluded, and not yet individuated.

So as Mach 2 bbh disintegrated I got less and less into the general indie primarily gtr-based rock scene with the sole exception of Frank Black and the Catholics, more into very early synth stuff like Silver Apples, real jazz, where I discovered my ultimate hero is Monk, and, above all, Canterbury scene. I put in a good effort to remain aware of indie rock by listening to local npr affiliate wxpn, tuning into Conan and even MTV2 now and then. I think it was on the latter and on xpn where i cauht Modest Mouse's huge bustout onto the mainstream, "Float On." I heard th song a lot, paid attention to it, and was convinced they had indeed individuated, were no longer blending classic rock with a fixation on one contemporary pioneer. Sounded to me like they were throwing in some Talking Heads with a tried and true guitar hook thing, with some other truly original element that I still haven't pinpointed. It might be 'well defined personality."

Now that I've subscribed to a download subscription service, unbelievable music exploration is possible, and one avenue is to catch up and refamiliarize myself with the inde rock world's present and past.

I listened to Good News for People Who Love Bad News last night once. My first impression: it is good. Many funny moments with remarkable vocal performances. Overuse of multitracked lead vocals, especially when rhythms are not tight. I have been guilty of this too. Even though it is mixed to try and convince you this is ensemblework, instruments take a back seat because they rarely do anything more interesting than what the vocalist does. He is at his best by far when delivering desperate character monologues ('bury me with it', 'the view'.) He could stand to hit the notes more often than to yell them offpitch as much as he does. I have been guilty of this too, but have improved, I think, because hitting the notes does not sound as irritatingly Broadway as I always feard. I comment on his work as if he is a noname gb.com artist whereas he is actual rockstar and I am not. Opinion is opinion.
On first listen, 'The View' is my favorite album cut, and I will gladly check out their newer and older stuff, in time. For now, more Monk and Allen!!

And I do believe that mentions of Modest Mouse in reviews of "All the Mother" are warranted.

'Fairuza''s First Few Round 2 Reviews

The song's rating has gone up a tenth of a star, and it will be the indie rock track of the day for August 11th. Here is a review I particularly appreciate I made it the signature review:

"Hooky and Original!
Cool intro. Vocals are engaging, original and not overly affected. There's a fantastic hook to this song, despite it being super original with the choice of guitar voicings and melody. Harmonies are tight and well executed. Drums and Bass keep it solid throughout. Guitar solo is clean, not overly noodling and the perfect length. The song, as well, is a perfect length and kicks ass.

Extra Credit: Production."

Nice, huh? Think this will finally earn BBH a place in 4 star land?

This and more all were bestowed upon 'All the Mother" and in the song's final week in the contest, several mediocre reviews from newbies knocked the song down into the 3.something region.

New Review of Stone Cold Blue

Back in April, I figured before publicizing the 3 re-issues, I ought to do at least a little for Stone Cold Blue, as, back in 2003, I had no budget to do it and no energy either. So I joined indie-music.com and sent them a copy.

Here is the review they posted yesterday:

"While Bernie Bernie Headflap has grown in band members since this outing, Stone Cold Blue features the one-man-band styling of founder Alan McCabe boasting a collection of songs written between 2000 and 2003. The album shows off an interesting mix of instrumental and vocal tracks without ever letting one completely define the CD’s sound. Headflap’s music seems to be more about exploring the possibilities of the modern rock genre than either being a straight alternative or electronic band. McCabe never lets the music go too far in one direction and continuously employs both techniques in a pleasant balance. I have this feeling there’s a strong Devo and/or They Might Be Giants influence here.

There’s a lot to like in the music of Stone Cold Blue. McCabe really has a knack for creating some extremely catchy melodies. I’m very much digging the rhythm of “Action is Fast,” which features a bouncy xylophone/synthesizer sound (I’m honestly not sure what). It kind of reminds me of “The Nurse” from The White Stripe’s Get Behind me Satan album – just a bit more energetic (and electronic). Many of these songs feature some kind of particular beat that gets stuck in your head and refuses to leave. With this in mind, I think some of the CD’s strongest tracks are the instrumentals, which allow McCabe to truly show off his composition skills. The opening track “Icicles” is especially well put together, featuring an eerie little tune which carries almost continuously through the entire song. Once the strong drum beat is added, the track creates a sound that I can only describe as chilling. Very cool indeed.

So the music’s likable, but how are the vocals? Well, I feel like Bernie Bernie Headflap has potential to do better than this. Unfortunately, there are times where I think the recording equipment McCabe used is holding him back. Sometimes the echo’s a bit too strong or the singing gets to be more distorted than it probably should. These aren’t terrible problems really, but at times the vocals suddenly become louder and the effect can be a little grating on the ears. However, these are things that can sometimes come with the indie music atmosphere. It’s all part of the experience to see the groundwork for something special. Really though, I think if the sound were a bit more polished and McCabe worked on the vocal range some, Bernie Bernie Headflap could be an especially entertaining band. Hearing Stone Cold Blue makes me interested in seeing how the sound has evolved over the past few years. "

I cannot argue with one word of that.

A Helping Hand Steps Forward

That title is a mixed metaphor, isn't it?

Anyway, the helping hand is my fried from high school days, Gary. Gary seems sure he can transport me to these monthly gigs we're trying to pull together starting Octoberish. If you read my bio on this site, it's the position I describe there. Alas, to my tastes, Gary is not the sexy nurse I was hoping to hire. But he is a good, dependable guy and catching up with him while listening to golden oldies during the car rides seems like an enjoyable way to spend an evening once a month for a year at least.

IT Stuck. For Now.

'Fairuza' ended its round 1 review cycle on Garageband.com with a 4.5 star rating, at 80something in indie rock. That was good enough to get it into round 2 where it starts at 60something and will receive 20 more reviews -- plenty of opportunities for the newbies to waltz in with their uninformed, clumsily-phrased, terse opinions and knock my attractive rating back down into mediocreland, leaving my hopeful heart broken once again.

Will it Stick This Time?

As part of my multi-pronged approach toward promoting and publicizing 'Less Like Penguins', as well as the other 2 re-issues, I am submitting several songs into the contest on garageband.com. I have been using the site for 9 years and in the first 6 years I completed so many review pairs that I now can still enter 60 songs into the contest.

Right now, 'Fairuza' is in the process and getting some really nice, positive reviews. Its current rating is 4.4 stars out of 5.

But I've been through this before. Usually what happens is the rating will continue to go up, peaking in the mid to high 4s, based on feedback from truly insightful people. Then, in its closing days, the song will receive a slew of reviews from a bunch of newbies who can barely string more than 3 sentences together, and the song's rating will be knocked down to the mid 3s.

I still use the site not to try and win the contest but to reach those rare souls who get what we're about the instant they hear a song. There really are such folk out there.

I have seen no evidence that the site ever leads to song or album sales. Not for a 3 and a fraction band like Bernie Bernie Headflap.

Neddy, Echo, Shot, and me

One of the song's I'm putting on _Fear of People_ is called "Neddy, Echo, Shot, and me (Annihilation, pt. 2)".

It is directly inspired by the novel "Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey" by Chuck Palahniuk, which is a frigging great read. About four different times I thought I had this book pegged, and happily each time I was wrong.

I bought it not having ever read Palahniuk before; it wasn't until I had the book home that I realized, "Oh, this is the guy who wrote 'Fight Club', the one that they made into that Brad Pitt movie". I bought it not because it was a Palahniuk novel (though I'll buy anything this guy does from now on, and have already read "Invisible Monsters"), but because it looked sufficiently and correctly weird, and because the title seemed to draw up images of Beat writing (another song I wrote, called "Tio Male", which I haven't decided should be on _Fear of People_, was inspired by a short story by William S. Burroughs).

Though I've written a song based on one of his novels, I think that'll be the extent of my demonstration of my admiration for his work. I do not plan on having Mr. Palahniuk's signature tattooed anywhere on my person, nor will I be moving out to the Pacific Northwest to be near him; two things that a sizable number of his fans have apparently done.

Sincere

I just like how simple the vox track is. It's simplicity matches the song.

Simple = uncomplicated = no bullshit = sincere


Nothing wrong with trying new stuff out, though. I like the new "Fringe" better than the original, for example.


- Moses

Feelin It

Difficulties with my home recording setup are STILL preventing me from laying down these vocal and guitar tracks I wanna do myself. (You ARE supposed to be able to hear the parts after you record them, right?)

But I have been listening to the roughs of the stuff Moses and Kit did at Second Story, and in the case of "Some You" -- I am in the zone. I know the approach I will take to sing that one. To paraphrase Moses, I will focus my approach.

And against Moses' advice, I do believe I will take a stab at alternate vox for my song "Sincere." Just slightly more dynamic and layered, I think, but very much in the same spirit as the demo Moses thought I shouldn't mess with.

A Newfound Appreciation of Jefferson Airplane

As a kid, I became very fond of several records in my dad's collection, but neither Volunteers nor The Worst of Jefferson Airplane were two of them. In fact there was one experimental, atonal song on Worst of that I grew to loathe because my brother used to lock me in the basement with the lights out and play the song on our toy phonograph. I would cry and cry.

But even their songs with discernable melodies did nothing for me. Didn't like 'em, didn't dislike 'em. They were just there, and I had no opinion whatsoever about them. I react to the music of U2 in almost the same way.

But last night I watched a documentary called 'Fly Jefferson Airplane,' and for whatever reason, the music started to almost reach me on an emotional level. Then the bandmembers started to reminisce about how at one gig, one of the members suddenly started to take one song completely in his own direction -- to fly, the bandmembers kept terming it -- and before long, each member was flying on each song in many individual directions. "Six musicians in search of an arrangement," is what they said the band sounded like at that stage in their career. They might have been quoting a critic from the 60s, I'm not sure.

So that phrase really clanged a bell in my skull as it occurred to me that that is the kind of thing that garageband reviewers are saying, in their own many ways, when they review 'all the mother.' They talk about 'controlled chaos,' about how 'busy' or 'complex' it all sounds, and how the beat keeps changing. All these issues are expressed as complaints, praise and indifferent remarks. Sometimes Sonic Youth is mentioned.

So the thought inevitably crossed my mind last night that the BBH of ten years ago was 5 members in search of an arrangement. Except for that song was meticulously arranged one afternoon in Joe's bedroom, one of our 2 usual practice spaces.

So what were we in search of? I remember I had a plan to try and compare all the local ice cream parlors' chocolate milkshakes, joe really wanted to taste lion meat, and paul... I'm not sure but I could ask him if we get to talk this evening, as we plan to.

Funny, when Paul was in BBH he played a 12 string guitar, similar to the one Paul Kantner played in Jefferson Airplane. As I listened to that music last night, it souded like something was a hair out of tune. I assumed it coulda been the 12 string, because though BBH has always had gear issues, keeping that 12 string in tune was often a particularly problematic one.

For the record, part 2

Yeah.

I used my '72 Telecaster Thinline on "Zen in D", "All I Want to Say to Sting", and "Waiting Game". Mike's Gibson Les Paul I used on "Annihilation", "Concetta", and "Tell Me Now".

The bass parts I played on Al's little Danelectric (if that's the name), which has great tone, even up high.

The drums I played on myriad drum kits that I wouldn't know the first thing about giving the proper nomenclature to, but which were certainly dynamite. I think I remember names like Pearl, Tama, Yamaha, Paiste, and maybe Zildjian.

The bottled water I drank during the sessions was Poland Springs, and the protein bars I ate were either the new Clif bars or MetRx bars.

The vehicle I drove to pick up Al and head to Second Story is a Volkswagen.

Entities associated with the above brands please feel free to contact me with details on endorsement deals. Thank you very much.

- Moses

Fear of People's Progress Part Suchnsuch Subsection Thisorthat

The other session moment I want to describe happened during the recording of my composition, "Livin' on the Fringe." I had made two demos of this short song for Moses and Kit to get the basic idea, a sort of garage rock attempt, and a faster new-wave-metal version. It was decided that the new wave version was a better concept by far, and I guess my demo guitar parts and some of the midi drums will end up in the final version. The song has 2 short sections at the beginning and end each made up of chorus and verses. But most of the song is its bridge in the middle which flies, and I mean flies, thanks to how Moses and Kit played it, off into a structurally sensible but unexpected direction before, with exhilarating and elegant simplicity, landing right back into its opening theme. Like a person walking down the street, nonchalantly morphing into a hang-glider and taking a soar, making a smooth landing that returns said person to nonchalantly walking down the street as if nothing happened, to ultimately stop by the bar where all the morphing hanggliders hang out for a pint, and the door shuts solidly behind after entering.

Yeah.

So, witnessing Moses and Kit working both together and separately, brilliantly, till their parts met with their own satisfaction and the group's -- that was inspiring to see. And again Mike's studio's impressive collection of gear played a major part in creating the scene I witnessed and, more importantly to the world, the compelling audio document of the event.

The song, no matter what genre you want to term it, is a 3 chord (or is it 6?) rocker so Kit played through a vintage Fender amp with a spring verb. So the sonic effect speaks of surf but the particular notes Kit chose during his pizzicatto bursts in the verses just take you t0 some twisted dimension that my questionable reportage can't do justice. (ok, so maybe it was a titter and not a giggle.) Hearing himself caused Kit to quietly comment a few times that Mike had made him sound like the Ventures. This comment was made with increasing volume and intensity each time, till, after we all listened to a rough all the way through, Kit exclaimed, forcefully pointing at the amp with each word, "Mike, you made me sound like the fuckin' Ventures!"

So once Fear of People gets released, hopefully December of this year or not long thereafter, you all can determine whether these songs live up to my effusiveness. Till then I really should concentrate on the three re-issues. Did I mention Less Like Penguins is now available? Well, it is, and I'm trying out a promo service to try and get it on npr radio, along with some print and internet coverage beyond what i've been able to accomplish this past decade.

For the record...

...it was with sincerity that I inquired about the Les Paul. Mike's got some awesome shite lying around his studio.

See, earlier that day, out of Al's earshot, I was remarking to Mike about how goddamn great the sound of my acoustic guitar during "Zen" was, saying, "Mike, how the hell did you pick that up so well?"

He says, very matter of factly, "Well, you're playing into an $1800 microphone plugged into a $3000 preamp."

I shrugged, smiling, and said, "Well, yeah, that would explain a lot."

So when Mike went into the back, I was basically expecting some monster axe, and of course, Mike delivered.

Oh, and though I was ecstatic about the sound that Les was giving me, I don't believe I have ever giggled in my life. :)

- Moses

The Sad Part is How Funny my Mind is Lately

How about a brief interruption before I tell that second Second Story story. A couple years ago I saw an episode of some popular crime drama show in which the victim was raped and murdered after the criminal covered her body with poison. I don't remember the name of the poison or what it actually did: suffocated her, made her drowsy or what?

Anyway: now, whenever I receive a bear hug from a friend or relative, I usually feel good about it at first and reciprocate, but sooner or later I experience a panic attack in which I think, "Oh shit -- so and so wasn't hugging me -- he was covering me with that poison and this very panic attack is the effects kicking in!" And then I expect to drop dead.

The funny part is how truly sad it is that my brain really works this way now. The thoughts are not fleeting and laughed over soon afterwards, as they might have when I was young. They linger.

Who or what did this to my brain?

I just thought these twisted tales of musicians at work in studio needed a light-hearted change of pace.

Fear of People Progress Part Whatever

I thought I'd start describing in more detail some of the scenes I've witnessed as they unfolded around me during the recording of the Fear of People album. These first two stick out in my mind because after each of them I felt as though 1. my composition had created an opportunity for a musician to have some real fun, and 2. my good friend Mike Bardzik's longtime vision of having an awesome studio has become a reality to such an extent that it allows musicians to have real fun as they create quality work.

"Annjhilation." -- Back in January, when Moses and I started to cook up this plan, we agreed that he should have about 7 songs on the album that he would for the most part produce. For one of these, he decided on not one of his own compositions, but "Annihilation," one of our oldest tunes, by myself and Hicks. We only ever made a demo recording of it, and a version that ended up on a 7" but which had veered way off-course of the band's original vision for the song. So Moses thought that the song, done truer to the original concept, would surely fit nicely on an album called Fear of People

So, watching Moses record the bass and drums was cool as always. Sure, watching/listening him do this for his own comps is always cool, but any songwriter will tell you that there's a special thrill witnessing a fine musician at work on something that was born in the songwriter's brain. A shared vision, a common goal, something from nothing.

(I wonder at what age or at what number of songs written / recorded or at what level of success that thrill typically starts to fade?)

So then it came time to record the guitar parts. Earlier in the session, Moses had unveiled the vintage semi-hollowbodied Fender Tele a friend of the family gave his mom to give to him. He told Mjke and me how the friend might or might not have known what it could be worth, how the overwhelmed Moses could not accept it, how his mom hushed him up and told him to. That guitar was put to phenomenal use by Moses on his song, "Zen in D" and a couple others if I remember right.

But after Moses completed the first take of the first guitar part for "Annihilation", I felt compelled to stand up and say, "That was awesome, Moses, but on this one I don't think the Tele... we need something..." I began to gesticulate in a way that made sense to me, and apparently did to both guys as well (such is not always the case) and Mike bolted out of the room.

Moses said with zero commitment to either sincerity or sarcasm: "Oh, what's he getting -- a Les Paul?" to which I muttered "You'd be surprised what he has lyin around here."

I wish you could have seen James "Moses" Crowder's change of expression when Mike came back into the room with a Gibson Les Paul Swamp Ash Studio.

Suffice it to say, we had to wait a bit for Moses to get over his giddiness long enough to capture the aura of tension and dread that the song demands. But between each of the four tracks Moses was right back to behaving like a giggling schoolgirl, in the presence of - and playing!! - this exquisite vintage axe.

Bernie Bernie Headflap is not accustomed to performing on extremely fine gear.

The song still needs one more vocal track, and then mixing and mastering, but even in its present state it is scorching enough to fool any listener out of suspecting that its guitarist was a quivering puddle of girlie-man-ness between every take.

(btw when i first saw the guitar Mike brought into the room, I shit a massive load of diarrhea in my pants. Again. And smeared it all over my face between every take while double-dutching with my imaginary friend Thnoopah. Meanwhile, Mike sat non-judgmentally at the board.)

The other scene stuck in my mind occurred during the song 'Livin on the Fringe," and I'll tell you about that soon.

Hell, yeah

Anyway -- yeah. Kit sure does rock.

An After Dinner Thought

My folks reminded me that prior to my recent visit to NIH, Dr. Gahl expressed his opinion that the left hand thing was not caused by the cystinosis because conditions caused by this disease occur symmetrically. And William Gahl expressing an opinion about cystinosis is like Stephen King expressing an opinion about horror novels. Seems foolish to doubt, imo.

Conflicting Opinions

Anyone who has suffered serious medical situations can tell you that with each visit to an actual doctor, you will receive a differing opinion on what exactly caused the situation in question. Although he did not have all the charts in front of him, the last time I consulted with Dr. WILLIAM gAHL OF THE nih, THE SUBJECTS OF MY LEFT HAND AND MY tia AROSE, AND IT WAS HIS OPINION THAT THE TWO PHENOMENA WERE VERY LIKELY related. Sorry about tapping caps lock there. The one hand typing and all.

Hell, yeah.

I've admired Kit's playing for a long time now. He's always been our guitarist. It's just recently that he's become aware of this. I am extremely grateful for his awakening, and I look forward to the myriad opportunities we'll have to take down the white whale.

- Moses

New Kit in Town

Moses and I have grown lax at updating this blog regarding the progress of the new album. I believe I can speak for both of us when I say it's not due in any way to being soured on or bored with the project. No, not at all. The album is coming along fantastically, and the recording sessions have been loads of fun and satisfying work... well, the work part is all Moses, so you'd have to ask him whether or not he'd call it 'satisfying.'

In my dialysis years, evidently, I suffered a TIA, similar to a minor stroke, the result of which is my left hand is nearly useless. I can pluck a note or two at a time now, but I've known for a while that someone else would have to be brought in to handle the real guitar chores both live and in studio.

Enter Kermit Lyman, known to friends of the Philadelphia area indie music scene as Kit.

Kit joined us for our July 6 and 7 sessions and the results are magic fire. imo BBH has always rocked. but with Kit's guitar stylings thrown into the mix, we smoke and sizzle.

Kit and I talked briefly about his playing with us live and helping us put together our once-a-month shows in the Delaware Valley in the coming months. I would like to discuss all that with him further this week.

Also I need to reassemble my home studio set up these next couple days, and this has been a long drawn out process that gets me very cranky and frustrated. So I have to make sure I choose the time wisely to call Kit, as I don't want to misdirect any crankiness at our new unsuspecting bandmate. I am thankful and psyched about the opportunity to work with Kit. You can check out his band at
http://www.myspace.com/slumlordphiladelphia

Officially a blogger

Okay, so now I'm officially a blogger.

Can't stay, though. Have about six songs to nail down. Bye.

- Moses

Our Story So Far (Entire Blog from Old Site)

May 23, 2007
Blog
Tue, May 1st, 2007 8:37 AM PDT
addendum (Moses)
If I knew Al's middle and confirmation names, I'd have used them, too. :)
Mon, Apr 30th, 2007 10:38 AM PDT
the white whale, part two (Moses)
All right. Here's what Al's referring to:


AL: Moses, right there after the second thing, I want you to play kind of higher and flittier.

ME: Flittier?

AL: Yeah, just take off.

ME: Uh, okay. Now what "second thing"?

AL: You know, the second time you come in, after the bridge.

ME: Okay.

(As he begins to play, our hero realizes that the end of the song is totally different from the version he has been listening to)

ME: What the hell was that?

AL: (looking confused, then with the voice of someone who's speaking to a 5 year old) That's the new ending.

ME: What new ending? There's a new ending?

AL: Well, I e-mailed you the new version. I assumed you'd listened to it.

ME: Which new version? AAAAAAAAAAA!

(Editor's note- Al sends me multiple copies of each song, and I submit that no mere mortal could ever remember what the latest one is. Besides, my job keeps me so busy that I have to learn the songs on my drive out to the studio, so if I don't have it on disc I can't learn it.)

MIKE: Ready? Okay, recording...

ME: AAAAAAAA! Damn you, Alan McCabe! What the hell are you playing there?!?

AL: Um....

ME: Well?

AL: That's a B-flat, then F, then the fifth of F...um....

ME: C?

AL: Yeah. C. That's it.

(Our young sailor hero Moses improvises in the aforementioned keys and produces a sound, that, along with Al's recorded track, sounds like the rapid emptying of the insides of a yak's colon)

ME: B-flat, then F, then C? You're *sure*?

AL: Yes.

ME: (listening) Alan McCabe, that is *not* a C. Hang on...

(our hero listens intently, frantically trying to figure out the song ending as our patient man at the rudder, Mike Bardzik, plays the recorded track a time or two.)

ME: Alan f-ing McCabe, that's F, then *B-flat*, then *A-flat*.

AL: No it's not.

ME: Yes it is.

AL: No it's not.

MIKE: (watching me as I figure out the new ending) Yes it is.

AL: Are you sure?

ME: You don't even know what you played!?!!

AL: (shrugs shoulders) Now, at the very last part of the new ending, it changes to, um...
Sun, Apr 29th, 2007 3:46 AM PDT
"Fear of People"'s Progress Part III
Another recording session yesterday. I thought things were about to get dicey when Moses started addressing me by my flrst and last names. Lucky for me he did not escalate it to using my middle and confirmation names too. But it was all warranted because I forgot the chord changes to my own songs and just told him to play whatever. (I think I TOLD nicely, though,)

To clarify, Moses makes up his own basslines when playing my songs. I just tell him the chord changes.... well no evidently I don't even do that. He gets the idea by listening to my demos. Sometimes I might offer some suggestions. Like on a song we did at the first session, "Room for Doubt," I definitely knew I wanted a Stonesy feel. We knew from Ursinus days that we both liked late 70s disco-ish Stones best, so the bass line captures much of the spirit of Wyman's work from that era and the drum work pays homage to Watts (his work throughout Stones' entire career, not just the disco era) , as filtered through Crowder. Imagine Watt and Watts as your rhythm section. Huh. I never thought of that before.

But "Room for Doubt" was two weekends ago. This past weekend's results were possibly even stronger. No photograoher's strobe this time and maybe being a little pissed off might have helped. Plus being less rusty. This is all based on first impressions, hearing the songs performed and then played back a few times in the studio. At some point this week, Mike will drop off the roughs and separate tracks and I'll spend hours giving them real close lidtens.
Thu, Apr 19th, 2007 11:52 AM PDT
the white whale, part one
My hands are finally in shape to type now after that last workout.

Not used to pulling triple duty, I guess. It was harder than I thought to run the sails, man the harpoon, and keep the engine room going.That damn click track gets me all the time. I think my timing's much better when we don't use a click, but Mike was at the rudder, and he's a stickler for that kind of thing. Then Al starts throwing down suggestions from the crows' nest (how the hell'd he get up there?), and then it starts raining strobe flashes and I'm trying to get things done while bouncing around in wake, right? Now, I'm not complaining. I'm just not used to being in the spotlight.

Anyway, I think they turned out just fine. I particularly like the last one we finished up. It's an oldie but a goodie.

- Moses
Mon, Apr 9th, 2007 1:34 AM PDT
"Fear of People"'s Progress II (Alan)
Moses and I worked on more demos on Friday. Sounding REAL good. This week, I will be chatting with Kramer regarding his mixing/mastering of 10 of the songs on the album. I am shooting for there to be 16 tracks in all. On Saturday, Moses and I are to go to Second Story Studios where Mike Bardzik will record Moses' first basic tracks. I'm recording my parts here at Size McWaives.
Wed, Mar 14th, 2007 3:47 AM PDT
"Fear of People"'s Progress (Alan)
The current NEW album that BBH is working on is called Fear of People. I started working on demos a couple years ago. Moses stopped by my house this Monday and we started recording demos of his songs. As Borat would say, "Nice!"
Thu, Feb 22nd, 2007 3:34 AM PST
Top 10 $$$-earnin' BBH Downloads/Listens
1. Christopher Walken
2. Icicles
3. Art
4. Jealousy
5. Modern Science
6. You Probably Cannot Stop the Funk
7. What's Wit Got to Do with Love?
8. Jack Rabbit
9. Cara Mia
10. Patrick in the Past Tense

Gone are the days when BBH can claim with artsy snootiness that commercial trends are not influencing our creative processes. Based on these stats, expect (based on track 1) more songs about and titled after the names of celebrities (I'm working on one now called Ron Howard and Drew Barrymore) and that (2 and 3) our album-openers will better reflect our strongest material. (6 and 7) The general trend of having interesting titles seems to be working , so that will continue, so (6) I'll keep asking for suggestions from original drummer Chris Wirtalla (and I'll pray that Creeping Weeds never discover the goldmine they have sitting at the skins!)
Sat, Feb 3rd, 2007 1:52 AM PST
I am the knuckles down low end harpoon thrower
Time to throw down the anchor and harpoon the whale
Sat, Jan 27th, 2007 7:20 AM PST
BBH 2007 addendum
Scratch those digipaks. We're sticking with jewel boxes.
Thu, Jan 25th, 2007 8:32 AM PST
BBH 2007
There used to be a thing called Vaudeville.

But that's not important right now.

A century later, there was a thing called mp3.com. It still exists, but it's nothing like it used to be.

Similarly, there was, and still is, a site called godsofmusic.com. They review bands' songs when those songs are available for free on sites like what mp3.com used to be.

Back in 2000, I asked them to review a demo of a song called "Some Emotional Situation" which I had posted on mp3.com. They did, and the reviewer quite liked it, giving it an 8 out of 10. And he predicted, prophesied even, that BBH would be well known and well respected by 2007.

I always remembered that part of the review in particular.

I mean, when the GODSofmusic speak, one should listen.

So I've decided to do my part to make 2007 a very good year for Bernie Bernie Headflap.

First off, I'm gonna release all 3 of the cds that I made available through mp3.com's DAM CD program, those being:

Less Like Penguins
The Royal We
Bernie Bernie Headflap Loves Polly Polysyllable.

Each one will be newly mastered, come in full color digipacks with new artwork by who other than Mike Piontek, and have some bonus tracks which were not included on the DAMs.

I'm hoping all 3 will be available by mid 2007.

In the second half of 2007, hopefully, look for up to 3 NEW Bernie Bernie Headflap CDs, the 2 mentioned earlier in this blog and one more... rhough I suspect that THAT one won't be ready till 2008.

ALL releases will receive full coverage on the pages of this website, and will be for sale on CDBaby.com, and through their digital download program, available on just about every website that sells song and album downloads, except allofmp3.com, 'cause I just don't see them winning that 1.65 trillion lawsuit, as much as I'd like them to.

And all of this because of one prophesy and a thing we had called Vaudeville.
Thursday, March 31st, 2005 1:55 PM PST
I've been noodling with the lyrics for the title track "Fear of People" for many months now.


The first line is definitely "I'm not going to the party."

Today I came up with a second line: "Lest I be exposed for the dullard that I am."
Thursday, March 17th, 2005 12:00 PM PST
Song idea forming, vaguely.

Title: "eventually."

Refrain: "It'll all make sense eventually/ In a moment of psychosis."
Monday, February 14th, 2005 2:33 PM PST
Today I worked on a song.

This may not seem like big news coming from a so-called songwriter, but I am excited about it because it comes after months of writer's block-induced dormancy.

Also I'm excited that I seen to have rediscovered the approach to songwriting that I originally had. like the songs on Cheese on Wheat, where conventional chord changes are out the window.

This song will probably remain an instrumen'al. It's got a wicked synth line and some industrial-ish percussion noises. Working title is "That's why they're called Inner Demons." It has a haunting sound, like some of the instrumentals on Stone Cold Blue.

Tom Selleck did not consult me ragarding the naming of his new tv movie Stone Cold.

By the way at this point I am working on the next TWO cds, tentatively entitled "Fear of People" and "Mood Stabilizer." For the first one, all the songs, 17, are in varying stages of incompletion, most of them just missing verse lyrics, similar to how I worked on "Stone Cold Blue."

Till next time... hopefully it won't be months before I have another song idea.
Friday, February 4th, 2005 7:07 PM PST
Updates coming soon!