Howdy Folks. Lots of work, few postings, here's some notes and updates:

Sweet Addy in  Mastering - Speaker go bad..

'Sweet Adeline' is off being mastered and would be back by now, if not for some speaker problems at the master-er-ers. We hope the new cones arrive from France soon. I hardly think our little 'old song blew out the speakers. Mr Lynch what are you doing??

I can report that the 'Buttercup' mix was the most downloaded by a 30% margin so that's our release version....as soon as we get it mastered. yes I know I said I wasn't going to do that, or at least I thought I wasn't going to do that even if I didn't say anything, but I changed my mind. So there.

Big thanks to everyone for downloading their favourite versions and helping us to choose the release.

New Single to be recorded as soon as we can work it out

In other news, we've picked the next single for recording and release and surprisingly, it's going back to one that we've previously recorded but left unreleased. No I'm not going to tell you which one it is yet. I like suspense :-) If you're familair with our live repertoire, the picture might help you work it out..

We're going to try a new recording of it, produced by our grand pal Pete D. Yaay!

IT's ALIVE!!! Time for new experimental stuff

Whilst pondering on the strange passion we have for releasing a series of singles, I've only just remembered that we were due for another experimental thing - remember, our plan was 1 studio album, 1 experimental, so let's have a look:

Whiskey Talking (studio)

Spacejunk (Ep, all analogue, live recording)

Nuevo Retro (studio)

Carl's Chair (Acoustic, recorded live on location, was meant to be an EP, wider range of styles)

Hired Guns & Borrowed Glory (70's style location house recordings + studio work, I still consider this a 'studio' album)

and this time the experimental process will be to record and release a bunch of singles and then gather them up onto an album when we're done, or ready, or bored, or feel like it.

We're calling this process 'The Curious Assembly' as a working title.

Make with the words kid

We've got a bunch of new songs and I've realised the hold up.

it's ME!! (bad MJEB!)

Mark Twain once said: the difference between the Right word and the Almost-right word is the difference between lightning

and lightning bug

 .

Yep, that's right, there are three songs right now that could come into the set if only I could find the right last part of a verse (slipping through these blues), a third verse (give me something I need) or a 2nd and third movement and words to go with it (Twice shy girl).

(sigh). Just can't let it go until it feels right. To illustrate my point let's take a wild and weird segue:

Here's Jim Morrison of The Doors.

Some of his lyrics have been ridiculed as, well, ridiculous. I am a fan of his stuff, including the bits that can be a tad..err..flowery. I think history has started to appraise his work a little more honestly, divorcing the fact that he was the Lizard King from his poetic license. It might not be to everyones taste but I think he had some well crafted thoughts in there. Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection? Raymond Chandler would have applauded that line in a Hard Boiled Detective Novel.

Now I mention this in the context of finding the right words versus the almost-right words.

Here's a song I've been re-listening to from The Tea Party (circa 1995) , and on the surface, I think their lead singer is influenced by the Doors both in how he's styled and his lyrics . I like this song, despite Mr Wizard's ridicule  (he's sooo serious :-) 

The more I thought about it, the more I thought 'wow, this is like a modern progression of the Doors' , the third verse very much hearkens of 'The End' (Mother? Father? Freud?).

Excellent work, a different band, influenced by but not trying to replicate, (IMHO) and I am sure they would not hate me for making the comparison nor noting the difference (love your work guys) but for my money, the last verse doesn't stick the landing as cleanly as Jim Morrison does in his work, to borrow a gymnastic analogy. There's one phrase in there that makes me think 'almost right'...and that's the problem I have with my own stuff at the moment. The most recent work (excluding sweet adeline which was simple and elegant) has been 'almost' right. It's near enough but is it good enough? Nope. Back to re-writing.

Trying to capture a thought and render it into a singable phrase that is meaningful, beautiful, poetic, rhyming or useful in a song turns out to be bloody hard. 

New Videoclips Underway and I might hate my new editing system

Another prop for our next videoclip. If anyone can tell me what I am making, a prize awaits!

I so enjoyed the camera look of our last video, for Texas Rosie (see below) that I am keen to replicate the colour depth and feel

When I edited this last video I cursed and moaned for 2 weeks whilst my poor old editing system chugged away underneath a weight of hi resolution data and at the end of the process, I quoth, 'never more' and went looking for a replacement that would let me work in h.264 native (for you non video people, H.264 is a new 'codec' or compression format for video that is nifty).

Our video buddy Dion recommended we try Lightworks and for $60, you'd be mad not to have a crack at it. unfortunately, it's wildly different from the systems I am used to and non intuitive for a windows user, as it appears to have come out of an open source/linux/debian style heritage, which means some of the simple functions such as maximizing the screen to fit dual monitors is lumpy as hell. I think I might hate it.

I'll suck it up, try and learn it and cut a clip. Who knows, I might be back here raving about it soon.

Either way, we have some new clips coming out, so stay tuned.

Tonight we're off to the cellar session, which is proving great fun. Come on down if you're in the area.

End Rant:

MJEB