I'm still alive and working on music!!

This is just to let you know (whomever you may be) that I have NOT fallen into a pit without musical instruments and that I am still writing songs and the challenge is NOT OVER! I'm in the middle of a very stressful and complicated cross-country move and have had to delay the recording of new songs until I reach my new/old home. This doesn't mean I haven't been writing (I have) but with my life upside down and being shoved into boxes it has just been impossible to devote the time I need to make decent recordings. When my life gets back into some form of order I will make up for the missing weeks and continue with the set year-long time frame. In the future no one will know of this delay (well no one but you, but you won't tell anyone, will you??) as I plan on listing the release dates for the songs in the every Tuesday sequence I had started. There are more songs online that I haven't gotten around to writing blogs about but that shouldn't stop you from listening. As always just visit my bandcamp site http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/ for instant listening/download access to all of my songs created for this "Single-A-Week Challenge". Please continue to let me know what you think about the songs/recordings right here or by shooting me a message at this electronic mail address MichaelMorseMusic@gmail.com . Thank you dear reader/listener for your support/understanding/good looks/ability to click on the ads on this blog page! Please click on the ads, it will cost you nothing but give me a few penny fractions which I so desperately need. I'll report back soon and with new music!

-MJM

Week 10 - "Violet" b/w "Ghost Town"

Oh no, I'm ten weeks in! Ignore the date listed for this posting, I'm not late, the world is. Sorry to do this again but please click on the ads on the page, I really need those penny fractions! If you have stuff you want me to click on, let me know! I'll click! Probably!

To hear and/or download this week's songs, I've conveniently embedded a player below so you don't have to leave to listen but if you just have to leave then follow this link: http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-10



If you need to classify them, both of this week's songs can be classified as "country". So many people write off the whole country music genre without even taking the time to listen and form their own opinion. I will admit to being one of those people at one time, that is until I was exposed to REAL country music...Hank Williams, The Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson...these are all true artists that wrote incredible songs. It's amazing to me how little in common what passes for country music today has with the old greats. "Modern" country is mostly embarrassing redneck pop trash, it's no wonder why so many people hate it...but so many love it. One more complaint (audience cheers), what the hell is with country (oh and general pop) "stars" NOT writing their own songs!? If I can do it, why can't they? All the people I listed before recorded plenty of other people's songs but they wrote too and are primarily remembered and celebrated for their original compositions. The whole Nashville songwriter system makes no sense to me. With that being said, any country or pop "stars" reading this, please record my songs and give me tons of money, I'd greatly appreciate it!

The A-side "Violet" is the story of a bird that escapes her cage and flies away...OR IS IT??? It also works as the story of a girl stuck in an oppressive relationship that she runs away from. She was so eager to leave home but of course she wasn't ready and the real world (or gravity if you still think it's about a bird) started to rapidly pull her down when a "valiant" man comes along and saves her from ruin at the cost of her freedom. Then as I've already said, she escapes! I really like this song. I don't know exactly what inspired it but I've liked the name Violet since reading the first handful of Series Of Unfortunate Events books in my second year of high school. I don't know why I never finished reading the series, those books are so good!The recording was pretty easy, guitar, vocals, bass and lap steel! Yes, I've finally found a use for my lap steel! I've had it since my 17th birthday but haven't really played with it in a few years which is a shame as it is a really cool instrument. For those of you that don't know, a lap steel is a small fretless electric guitar tuned to an open chord that is played laying down on your lap with a slide usually made out of solid steel, hence the name! I need to use it more and also get a real steel slide.

The B-side "Ghost Town" is an exercise in overt sentimentality. I'll admit it won't be my favorite song from this challenge because of it's sentimental overtness but I think it turned out pretty well for what it is. It's written from the POV of someone returning to their home town many years after leaving and being overcome with memories and emotion seeing how run down and deserted it has become. I kept the recording very simple and bare-bones, just acoustic guitar and my haunting voice (ha). I added one other element, wind! You might need to turn up your volume or use headphones to hear it but it begins and ends with the sound of wind blowing through the empty town which really enhances the loneliness and isolation of the song. I created the wind by lightly blowing into the mic and then turning the track reverb all the way up. It worked quite well.

I drew the cover in pencil then colored it with watercolor pencils. It was my first time using watercolor pencils, I played around with wetting the pencil itself and also coloring first then going over it with a wet brush. It's not perfect but it has its charm. Oh and I think the birdcage turned out pretty good. Ok, no more self back patting.

the complete untouched masterpiece

That's all for now!

10 down, 42 to go!

MJM

http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-10

Week 9 - "Paper Presidents" b/w "Hallway Blues"

Before we get started, please notice the ads on the page, I'll wait. Pretty interesting right? If you just give one of those a click when you're done reading the blogs here, it would really help me out. Heck, if you really want to help me, click on both of the ads, come back and repeat.

You know the drill (I hope), to listen to/download this week's songs (for free by entering 0 when asked to name a price) just use the conveniently located player below or follow this link: http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-9

It took me a while to get to Chicago. Even though my first exposure to the blues was probably Chicago-style (or derived from) and (as mentioned in my first blog) seeing B.B. King was a very important event in my life, when I got into the blues I went straight for the delta (and some near-by areas) and stayed there. It was seeing Robert Johnson's name in the writing credits of albums by The White Stripes, Cream and Red Hot Chilli Peppers that first got me curious. Who was this guy that wrote these great songs? I had to know! When I finally got to hear the original recordings of "Stop Breaking Down Blues", "Cross Road Blues" and "They're Red Hot" I was hooked. I had been searching for raw, primal music and delta and country blues was it. The grumbling growl of Charley Patton and the bold defiance of Lead Belly was what I needed. At first, Chicago Blues sounded too slick for me, at least what I had heard at that point did. I don't mean to say that there was not any Chicago electric blues that I liked, because there certainly was, but I really preferred earlier rural acoustic blues. I think it was hearing Howlin' Wolf's menacing recording of Willie Dixon's "Spoonful" that really got me interested. Muddy Waters soon followed which of course lead to his harmonica player Little Walter's solo work (probably my favorite Chicago bluesman).

pick a key, any key!

Both of this week's songs prominently feature the harmonica. I should be a better harp player than I am as I've been playing it for quite a while now, just not as frequently as I should. I grew up with cheap Hohner Bluesband harmonicas. I'd get a new one every now and then and end up just puffing on it aimlessly until I got bored and moved on to some other activity. In high school I got yet another Hohner Bluesband in the key of C (probably at a Cracker Barrel restaurant) because I really wanted to play "Love Me Do". For the first time ever I actually read the little instructional paper and learned "When The Saints Go Marching In" (a song I love playing on most instruments) and later "Love Me Do". My growing interest in Bob Dylan got me interested in seeking out more keys. I got a harmonica rack and a super cheap set of Kay harmonicas and started figuring Bob out. I got a more expensive C Hohner Blues Harp but eventually blew out the reeds and haven't been able to replace it because they doubled in price! I later got Hohner's cheap (but decent enough playing) all plastic Piedmont Blues set and for this last Christmas Hohner's (slightly more expensive) Bluesband set. I've been wanting an Astatic bullet-style harmonica mic for a while and thought I was going to get one last month only to find the one I wanted (also made by Hohner) had doubled in price! Stop that Hohner! I did end up getting a harp mic though, a homemade ebay special Egg-Static, which I used on both of this weeks songs.

I was definitely inspired by and thinking about general Chicago blues and Little Walter specifically when writing and recording this week's A-side "Paper Presidents". I had meant it to be slower but for whatever reason (probably the manic punk inside me trying to claw his way out) it didn't come out that way. I touched on my money frustrations in my last overtly blues song in this challenge ("No One Believes In Me But My Mother Blues"). Ohh I could go on and on and on...but I won't! Suffice it to say I hate how much you and I need money. I hate how it controls us and makes our decisions for us. I hate how it opens doors for some and closes those same doors in other's faces. I hate money but like I just wrote, I need it. But that doesn't mean we can't have fun without it. I encourage anyone and everyone reading this to have as much fun as you can without touching your wallets.

The recording of "Paper Presidents" gave me some difficulty, especially with timing the guitar stops but I think it came together nicely. I admit it's kind of sloppy, most of my recordings are, but I hope that adds more charm than distraction. I didn't realize I had forgotten to add a bass to the song until after I did the final mix-down (oops) but thought it sounded fine without it. I plugged my new Egg-Static in my little Vox and turned up the gain and turned down the tone to try to get that dirty Chicago sound.

Egg-Statics are a girl's best friend

The basis for the B-side "Hallway Blues" dates back to my senior year in high school. That year I had a lot of time to do nothing in school. I had finished my math, science and english classes the previous year and pretty much had a half day but had to wait around all day for a stupid health class (the only one available was of course during last period). I started bringing my guitar and harmonicas to school a lot more to help me pass the time (when I wasn't watching Arrested Development on my portable DVD player or looking up Monty Python videos and Looney Tunes online in the library). I was a little hesitant to do an instrumental. While I enjoy instrumentals, I don't know if other people do. But if Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Little Walter can do them then so can I! I really like how "Hallway Blues" turned out. I kept the instrumentation very simple, acoustic guitar, simulated piano and harmonica and I think they all complement each other so well. Again I used the Egg-Static, only this time plugged directly into the recorder. I think I may try more instrumentals later in the challenge.

The cover design is based on Chess Records' 50th anniversary "best of" collections. Whoever designed those did a great job, they fit the content so well, exactly the way a cover should. I donned stereotypical blues garb, sunglasses and fedora, for the picture which was taken by my mother. To relate it to the A-side "Paper Presidents", I used the only money I had at the time (a 1 and a 5) to make origami rings to wear. That 5 dollar bill has since been given to Wendy Thomas in exchange for one of her burgers and a salad.

source of my money folding secrets...

That's it!

9 down, 43 to go!

MJM

http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-9

Week 8 - "God's Last Words" b/w "What You're Thinking"

Here we are, 8 weeks and 16 songs! And this blog is extremely late! And no one but Steve and my mother read it! Please click on the ads (most of them are pretty interesting), it will only take a second but it will help me out greatly! If you had ads I'd click on them!

To listen to and/or download this week's single (that's 2 songs, an A and B-side) use the convenient embedded player below or if you've had enough of this blog already but still want to hear the songs, follow this link: http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-8



This week's A-side "God's Last Words" is one of the best songs I've written, although I'm not sure if that comes through in the recording. It would probably be a controversial song if the wrong people (or right people??) heard it because it does the unthinkable by suggesting that "god" is wrong. I could probably write a thesis on my feelings and frustrations concerning organized religion but I feel your attention span already starting to drift so I'll keep it brief. In the little I've learned about the foundations of the major religions, I've seen a pretty clear unifying theme of love and brotherhood which is thrown around all the time and used as a recruiting tool by all sides but NOT practiced. Supposedly "god" loves everyone (except people that don't abide by whatever strict and ridiculous rules set by that religion's higher-ups of course). To quote myself (someone has to) from an earlier song from this challenge, "who knew unconditional love had so many strings attached?" Oh the hypocrisy of it all.

blah blah blah

To me, the most offensive and horrifying religious idea is that of the Christian judgement day. I've known actual living, breathing human-beings that believe this part (and every other event) of the bible to be absolutely 100% factual. That the "loving god" who cares for us so much, the one that drowned every living thing on the planet once, the one that commanded a father to murder his son just to see if he'd do it, that that guy is on his way to smite the "non-believers" and take those "he" deems worthy back up to heaven leaving any one left over to rot and burn down below. What's even more disgusting is these people find some sort of sick comfort in this. Fuck that! And fuck them! (I'm studying French) When a parent seriously threatens and hurts their child, they are punished and the child is taken away. I think the same ideas should be applied to religion. If our "creator" causes us pain and suffering, we should take ourselves away from that "creator". Because it is US that matter. We are here and "god" is not. We need to "serve" and love each other, not a myth.

Mandolin!

In the song, I've presented the world as if "god" actually existed in the form the major religions suggest. But this god, on the verge of dying, realizes there is one thing left to do, apologize to us and let us know that we are loved. "I've seen the error of my ways, there will be no judgement day......I just want you all to know how much I truly love you so". There is a lot of truth in the old saying "To err is human, to repent divine, to persist devilish". In the rest of the song I briefly suggest what the world is like now that god is gone. It is very idealistic and simple but I think that's how we all should be. There's no reason for us to fight so let's all sing together...la la la la lala la la lala la la la...

The Epiphone!

The recording of "God's Last Words" went very quickly and each part played is either my first or second attempt. I finally found a use for my Epiphone mandolin on this song which I'm happy about (I need to play it more). I think I could have played around a little more with my voice in the backing vocals to give a better sense of different people singing though. It came out a lot shorter than I thought it would be but I really like the song. I'm sure I'll record it again (with other people) at some point.

I know I've already written far too much about this seemingly simple 2 minute and 20 second song but there's more... Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman is one of my all time favorite comic books and definitely the best Superman story ever told. In the story, one of Lex Luthor's evil plans finally works and Superman is dying. In the final issue, something changes in Lex Luthor who has found a way to give himself all of Superman's powers. He starts to see the invisible threads that bind us all. He says "This is how he sees all the time, every day. Like it's all just us, in here together. And we're all we've got." That line was a major inspiration for this song and how I view the world in general.

Last week an animated movie adaptation of All-Star Superman was released on DVD. I was lucky enough to get to attend the world premiere screening where I got to meet and talk to the movie's screenwriter Dwayne McDuffie. A few days later, Dwayne died from surgical complications. Besides doing a wonderful job adapting Grant Morrison's story to the screen, Dwayne McDuffie was a tremendous writer in his own right. He scripted the majority of the best episodes of the instant classic animated Justice League Unlimited series. His Fantastic Four run was one of the comics that got me into going to the comic shop every week. Instead of wasting energy complaining about the lack of ethnic diversity in super hero comics as some creators do, in the early 90's he took matters into his own hands and founded his own comic company Milestone Media with the goal of employing great black comic creators (and any other race too) to create characters that they could identify with with problems that mattered to them. When I met him he was a heck of a nice guy and very receptive of fans. He was a giant in both real life and his industry and will be greatly missed.

Me with the late, great DwayneMcDuffie

Oh, I should discuss the song on the B-side too! "What You're thinking" is a much much much simpler song about how frustrating it can be to try to get through to or please some people. There are just some people that are for whatever reason impossible to deal with and no matter what you do for them, they don't appreciate it. There's no solution offered because there is no solution. This recording was also very easy. It's a simple song so I kept it simple using only 3 elements: vocals guitar and my new Hohner Melodica! If you don't know what a melodica is, it's pretty much just a small keyboard with a hose you blow into to make sound. it has a great almost accordion-like sound that really enhances the mood of the song. I'll be using it more in the future.

Melodica!

The cover is of course a small section of Renaissance artist Michelangelo's "The Creation of David" but with the hand of God removed. I don't think I need to write anymore about that as I think I've already covered it in this excessively long blog.

before I fooled with it

That's it! Hopefully next week (this week actually because this blog is verrrry late!) won't be as painful.

8 down, 44 to go!

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MJM

http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-8

Week 7 - "You Don't Love Nobody Else But Yourself" b/w "Some Things Never Change"

Before I start yapping about this week's single, please notice that there are now two ads on the page (on the right side and directly under the first blog). Please click on those! Most of the ads I've seen here have been pretty interesting and usually music related. It only takes a couple seconds to click on them and would help me out greatly (and cost you NOTHING). Ok now...

7 weeks and 14 songs! You know how this works (unless you don't), just use the embedded player below to listen to and/or download this week's songs or if embeded players make you uncomfortable then follow the link to my bandcamp site which is right here: http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-7



There's no big story behind this week's songs so this will thankfully be a shorter blog! They both work well as my week after Valentine's Day single.

"You Don't Love Nobody Else But Yourself" is one of my favorite songs I've written so far in this challenge. It's a fun song but still has a little venom in it, something I'm sure I've stolen from young Bob Dylan. It's the first time I've used a high falsetto (I guess that's what it is) in a song I've written. I like the contrast created switching between the high and lower voice and will probably try it again sometime.

Hey, Mr. Tamborine Drum...

I recorded the vocals, guitar, bass and later the organ with relative ease. The drums however are another story. Every time I try to put drums on a song, it becomes painfully clear I am not a drummer. I'm sure with practice I could get better however the window in which I can do that is very small as I do not live in a drum friendly neighborhood. Is there such a thing? Just in case you didn't know, real drums are VERY LOUD and the older people that live around me have no reservations about calling the police or the town when something bothers them. I work best at night but I can't drum at night. It is extremely frustrating for me trying to create something and having the trivial restriction of time of day get in the way of that. I hope soon I can motivate myself to get ahead in the recordings so that I can actually spend time on the drums. I managed to get a drum take that while not perfect, is livable. The only thing left to add was the organ which was no problem at all (at least not compared with the hell that was the drums).

The B-side "Some Things Never Change" is a song I started over a year ago but never finished (until now that is). It's a little repetitive but I think it goes with the subject matter, one sided love. I'm very pleased with the lines "I feel you drift away, I see that you're bored as I reach out for the notes that make up the chord".

organ...and creeping lady hand?

After the very easy recording of the vocals and first guitar I wasn't really sure what to do with the song. Thankfully I didn't think drums were necessary for it (!) and neither was a bass guitar but it needed something. I looked to my trusty old half-working Yamaha organ's pedals to add some bottom. I intentionally played a pedal that was a half-step off of the corresponding guitar note when changing chords for the slight warble it created and added touches of the top keyboard vibraphone. After recording it I turned the track's reverb all the way up which did something very weird to the sound. The drum hit you might be able to hear at the end was created accidentally when I cut off the reverb-heavy organ's mic  I didn't want to add a second vocal track but during the playback I started doubling some of the lines in a low almost whispery voice which I think really added something interesting. Next and final was the second, higher guitar which I put through my under used flange effect pedal which added some extra strangeness and distracts from (what some might think excessive) repeats of the "some things never change line". Aw, the addition.

The all-seeing blue flanger eye!

With Valentine's day being the day before the intended single release date and both songs being about a lack of love, an empty heart-shaped candy box seemed perfect for the cover. The empty heart works as a great metaphor for the songs. Whoa, I'm clever! Also the kitten on the box is just so cute.

Awwwwwww look at the kitten!

If you're listening to the songs every week and reading this please tell your friends and tell me too! And please click on the ads! I'm sick of writing this now so that's it!

7 down, 45 to go!

MJM

http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-7

Week 6 - "Sister, Will You Marry Me" (a tribute to The White Stripes) b/w "That's The Way It Goes"

This is the 6th week of my "Single-A-Week Challenge" meaning I have now completed and recorded 12 songs! If you would like to listen to and/or download this week's songs (and why wouldn't you? I mean you are reading this blog, right?) just use the little player below this paragraph or click on this link: http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-6



Last week I mentioned the recent official disbanding of The White Stripes.  I opened my mailbox on the night of February 2nd and saw an email from their website with the subject "The White Stripes". I knew what that meant before even opening it. While they haven't been active for a few years now, seeing the announcement was still kind of a shock to me. It sent a rush of memories to the front of my mind and reminded me how important that band is to me. In my first blog post here, I mentioned how important seeing Chuck Berry and BB King was to me in my freshman year of high school but I completely forgot what discovering The White Stripes did for me.

not my pics but from a show I attended at Keyspan park in Brooklyn

I remember sitting in the car in a drug store parking lot while my mother ran inside for something when "Fell In Love With A Girl" came on on the now defunct K-Rock. It instantly brought a smile to my face. It was so short and fast and completely different and better than everything else that station played. It satisfied my ears' hunger for loud fast punk sounds but was something really different. It wasn't until I heard the incredible "Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground" that I knew this was the band for me. The songs were so powerful and primal and simple and easy enough for fledgling guitarist me to play. At the time I was also going through a phase of bass loathing. The bass just made no sense to me, in so many things I listened to at the time it was barely even audible, it was just this ugly grumbling underneath that upset my stomach. And then here comes a band without one!   It all made so much sense. They also inspired me to dig deeper in music and go back to the blues 20's and 30's.

1st public performance doing "Dead Leaves" in High School

"Dead Leaves" ended up being the first song I ever performed for an audience (at a Halloween party at my high school) and shortly after I recorded acoustic versions of "Offend In Every Way", "Sugar Never Tasted So Good" and "Little Room" (which I used a tambourine only to play) for an acoustic cover album (which after a recent listen, I've discovered is pretty awful). At the first performance of my "band" MJ & The Heretics at my 17th birthday party at CBGB's Lounge, we did a medley of "When I Hear My Name" and "Little Room".

My love of The White Stripes also created some problems for me, I lost "friends" because of them. I wouldn't and still won't accept negative criticisms of them. I remember getting into an argument with some prick that I ate lunch with and ended up kicking him several times under the table over his moronic mocking of Jack's voice until he finally left the table calling me a "faggot" as he huffed away.  I remember the extreme irritation I felt listening to this group of rock-radio-listeners lambaste Meg's drumming which I eagerly and whole-heartedly defended trying to explain to them that it just would not work with anyone else or any other "style" of drumming, and how none of them understood the blues or what feeling music meant. My high school was mostly filled with tasteless philistines. Meg is a great drummer! She and Jack were so in-tune with each other and she always kept up with him. I wish I could drum like her! I wish I could find someone that could drum like her! Do people trash the simplistic drumming of Moe Tucker (another one of my favorite drummers)? I guess not as The Velvet Underground never had the indignity of being sandwiched between Korn and Yellowcard on the radio.

I played "When I Hear My Name" on my lap steel at 1st MJ & The heretics show/my 17th B-Day party

When I started performing a lot, I had a lot of difficulty finding a bass player and ended up playing without one a bunch of times and I loved it. It was so freeing to play and not have to worry about communicating my ideas with 2 or 3 other people when I wanted to change something on the spot. I gt a lot of criticism for playing this way. It was either "rock bands have to have bass players" or "just guitar and drums isn't very original at the moment" or both. Shit, I just want to make music, and no matter if I have one player or ten behind me or no one at all, I'm going to make music for ME! Because I love it! AGGGHHHHH!!!! Sorry, I was venting and got a little carried away. Back to the reason for this blog...this week's songs!

I decorated my amp for the recording

"Sister, Will You Marry Me" is my tribute to that band that meant so much to me. After learning of their break-up, I dug out my WS albums which had gone far too long without being listened to, sang and played the guitar parts I could remember and read old interviews and articles about them. I rediscovered my love for them and had to express it somehow.Since I was already in the middle of this challenge, I decided to do it in song. The first two verses are about their formation and the last is about their demise. I really tried to capture something close to Jack's phrasing of the words and stuck in several references to other WS songs both lyrically and musically and of course the title references the whole brother-sister presentation. I did my best to ape Jack's guitar playing and Meg's drumming (which I need to work on). If any White Stripes fans read this and/or listen to the song, please let me know how I did.

My audio engineering skills are severely lacking and it seems like I can't get a clean mic sound to save my life so the recording sounds a little rough which may or may not enhance the WS-feel of the song. I had considered adding some organ or piano in parts of the song (as heard on many of their songs) or even adding a bit of marimba to come in at the end of the song in reference to Get Behind Me Satan but decided the classic and simple guitar and drums would be the most effective and make it clearer to non-fans what I was trying to do. I finally put together my drums and set them up in my living room for recording to give it an extra first-incarnation Third Man Studios feel (and also because it was the only room with enough space).

Drums and Cat.

I too got in a car accident with Renee Zellweger and injured my finger

I thought about coming up with another kind of tribute for the B-side but had already worked hard on the A-side and didn't want to take much focus off of it. I did however want a song that could relate at least thematically to "Sister, Will you Marry Me" and a song about divorce just seemed natural. I wrote "That's The Way It Goes" very quickly. It is very silly but hopefully enjoyable. It was a very easy and straightforward recording. After I got a good vocal/acoustic guitar take I did my best Tennessee Two impression to fill out the rest. Johnny Cash and the Two (Marshall Grant and one of my favorite and underrated guitarists Luther Perkins) created such a great sound. While the song is not at all Cash-like, the Tennessee Two sound fit perfectly with the song's rhythm.

my audio engineer and former drummer.

I drew the cover image. Since the main song was inspired by the end of The White Stripes I thought drawing them both as skeletons would be a funny complement to the music. I'm pretty happy with it. I looked at several pictures for reference but did not copy one for the composition. I stuck to the band's 3 color motif of Red, White and black.

uncovered cover image

Well that's it. Next week (hopefully) won't be this long but this week I had a lot to say (and still do). With them being just two people I really doubt that this break-up will be permanent (at least I hope it won't be) but I'm sure if there is ever a reunion, it won't happen for quite a while. We'll see. The truth doesn't make a noise.

6 down, 46 to go!

MJM

http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-6

Week 5 - "No One Believes In Me But My Mother Blues" & "All I Need"

Welcome to February and week 5 of my "Single-A-Week Challenge"! To listen to & or download this week's songs just follow the link below or easier still do all that using the super handy player below that link! Just so you know, you can download any song/2-song-single for free by entering 0 when asked to name your price. I won't mind! I want people to keep listening!
http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-5



This week's offerings, "No One Believes In Me But My Mother Blues" and "All I Need", are both pretty sparse on instrumentation. I'd say they are both very stripped down but I think they would have had to have been stripped up at some point to qualify for that distinction.

amps.

"No One Believes In Me But My Mother Blues" definitely represents how I feel a lot of the time. The Blues are supposed to come from an honest, raw, emotional and individual place which I think is why a lot of modern blues players come off so phony. Some guys either sing about things they've never experienced themselves and/or ignore the real problems in their life. They look at blues as being one specific sound or thing and play it in such an uninteresting/safe/polished way.  I don't mean to say you need to have experienced everything you sing about (because that would be insane) but the emotions behind it all should be real and visceral to the person singing/playing it. I don't really understand why I get so much resistance from seemingly everyone around me when I try to create something but it can be very emotionally upsetting which makes it a great topic to fuel the blues that comes out of me.

An Al Otto Original

To get the guitar's raunchy tone, I used a custom fuzz box built for me by legendary Electro-Harmonix employee Al Otto (he said it's the same effect used on "Spirit In The Sky"). I've had it a while but this is the first time I've really used it and I was pleased with its performance. I tried getting distortion on the vocals by running the mic through a distorted amp but the results were too muddy to understand the lyrics so I ended up just turning up the mic's gain on the recording console and getting real close to it. Before recording I had thought I would add some kind of percussion but a musical consultant (my mother) and I both agreed it sounded great the way it was. Raw and gritty. I think the starkness really adds to the tension and isolation I was trying to express in the words.

On the other side is "All I Need" which is a MUCH different song. It's a silly, fun song! Hooray! While it brings up some things that could cause some anxiety, it shrugs them off. It owes a lot to Woody Guthrie's lighter songs. I think the message of the song is I'm thankful for what I have but I want more more more! Don't we all? Yes, we do. But now that I think about it, all I really need is for you to clap, slap or tap a tambourine along with me while you listen!

All I need is a capo and short finger nails.

It was pretty easy to record, just turned on the mics and played. I added a few layers of clapping, slapping and tapping percussion and it was done. That was all it needed. Hahahahaha...sorry about that.

clap, slap, tap.

In case anyone wasn't aware, it's been an especially wintery winter. When last week's blizzard hit, I saw a great cover photo op. I put on my coat, grabbed a guitar, jumped out in the snow and had my mother start snapping. The image fits the first song pretty nicely I think. Although I'm glad to have had that snow opportunity I'm finished with snow altogether now and it can please go away.

A different snowy guitar.

Before I close this, I'd like to mention this week's announcement that The White Stripes have officially disbanded. The White Stripes (both Jack and Meg) were extremely important in forming the way I approach making music (that influence may be a little too apparent in some of my songs). While Jack will continue to build and expand his little recording empire and I'm sure Meg will (at least I hope she will) find somewhere else to express herself musically, the music world is a lot less cool without them creating music together. I'll have more on my stripey white roots next week...

5 down, 47 to go!!

MJM

http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/album/single-a-week-challenge-week-5

Stay warm!