High Lonesome [6:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (8)

The last couple of weeks, we’ve been trying something a bit new with the project. Rather than trying to always come up with lyrics on-the-fly as I’ve been doing, I thought it’d be interesting if we used lyrics from songs that we really enjoy.
So basically, it’s like we’re doing covers, however, we make no attempt at trying to make the music actually sound like the original songs. In fact, often most members of the project have never heard the original songs, which works well as they have no attachment to the original material and we can come up with something entirely original to work with the lyrics.
This week, we have a song called “High Lonesome” from The Gaslight Anthem. It’s a pretty recent band, that I’ve really been listening to a lot and I loved the lyrics. Jim came by last weekend to jam with us and I thought it would work perfectly to fit the lyrics along with his banjo work. Check it out and please feel free to post your thoughts. Thanks.

 

 Warehouse [7:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7)

During the late 90s and early 00s, the warehouse party scene in Baltimore was thriving. People would locate abandoned warehouses throughout the city, bring along a portable power generator, some turntables, speakers and lights and invite a few hundred of their closest friends for huge parties lasting through the nights.
I remember attending more than a few of these during the time, as I tried to figure myself out and decide what I wanted to do with my life. Everyone I met felt to be in the same situation so it felt comforting being with this crowd who were all just looking to hang out and enjoy the moment.
However, a year or so later, the word “rave” was all over the news and mainstream media and the scene exploded with a surge of people. Some were simply looking to enjoy the party but many were looking for the drugs. Suddenly the parties were overrun with drugs and many were quickly spiraling into addiction.
It was this time period that I thought about while singing through the lyrics in Warehouse.

 

 Reflections [6:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7)

This is one that Jeremy did pretty much by himself. He wrote all aspects of the song and played most of it in his home studio. I sang the lyrics he wrote but aside from that, this one is all Jeremy.
The lyrics are interesting as they’re like a lyrical equivalent to found art. He took various lines from other poems and songs that referred to reflections and put them together.

A great deal of our material tends to come across as dark in both mood and lyric so it was refreshing to work on something really positive for a change.

 

 The Lost Cymbal [3:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (13)

Apologies for the late posting this week, everyone.  I guess I’m still just running with a holiday state of mind and it totally slipped my mind that it’s already Wednesday and I hadn’t put anything up this week.

This week’s song, The Lost Cymbal, is a short tension building song which starts off quickly and builds steam as it plows along.  The bass and keys have an interesting slightly off-set call and response interplay through much of the beginning of the song eventually building into some crazed drum fills.

Abruptly, everything comes to a halt, however, as one of Neil’s cymbals simply couldn’t keep up with the pace and flew off on it’s own…hence the name of the song.

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend and has fun listening to the new song this week.  See you next week!