Every week in the year 2011, Michael Morse will write, record, and release two brand new songs! He will then write about it here! You can hear and/or download the results at http://michaelmorse.bandcamp.com/
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!
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.
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...
