Call to Patriots

Get over to Unreal ID and fax your Senator(s) about opposing legislation for the REAL ID. The site will tell you everything you need to know about this hideous, Communist piece of work. Do it quickly; they're meeting up tomorrow to do their Senator thing. Here's my fax:

Messrs. Saxby and Chambliss,

I'm writing you to urge your support for the Baucus-Tester and Grassley-Baucus amendments to the immigration bill in light of my opposition to the REAL ID legislation.

REAL ID, were it to become law, would push America substantially closer to being a Police State. It would be ineffective at its stated purpose, and would only further bottleneck American daily life - as if the debacle we call "airport security" isn't enough...

Furthermore, REAL ID would be an exorbitantly expensive undertaking in a time when such funds could be used to better ends. REAL ID would cost $8 billion dollars in additional taxes to the citizenry alone.

Perhaps worst of all, the nature of the REAL ID database makes it an egregious violation of privacy - a violation that would endanger all citizens with the very real specter of permanent and irrevocable identity theft.

America is the best country in the world, and it's our job to protect the qualities that make it so. In short, REAL ID would be an unmistakable victory for those who wish to obstruct the day-to-day existence of innocent Americans going about their legal and necessary business.

Please support the Baucus-Tester and Grassley-Baucus amendents to the immigration bill and prevent this ill-conceived disaster from befalling us.

News (but not "The Big News")

We need to play out live in the next few months; some of the shows would feature both of us and some could be The Brian Solo Experience, but all of them would be worth an evening out of the house for you and yours. That's to say they'll be entertaining, either because you'll like the music or we'll mess up and embarrass everyone in the room. Or both.

There are a few coffeehouse-type venues we're considering, such as The Singin' Bean in Lawrenceville (suggestion courtesy of David T. Bakersfield), Java Monkey in Decatur, Starbucks in Lilburn (Lake Lucerne), and Borders (I guess the one in Snellville).

If you've got suggestions or requests, cough 'em up; we haven't played out in three years and it'd be nice to see some old friends on the concert circuit. If we develop any live fan support, we'll eventually try to play Eddie's Attic or something, at which point our Indie Cred Score will rise.

Playing the ever-popular "Taints on Parade"

PS - We once rocked this now-defunct (you're about to see why) coffee shop in Thrillburn called Sweet Aromas. Jake can chime in here, but I think it's safe to say that show was the crappiest of our career thus far. The staff repeatedly told us to decrease the volume during our set - once in the middle of a song - because we were "only supposed to be background noise" for the patrons. Never mind that more than half the people in the joint had arrived for the WB(!)...

Raise your tankard for "background noise", would ya?

This is the kind of crap you can do...

...when you live in California.

photo by Chris Berryman

Comment if you know who these two dudes are (hint: they currently perform as solo acts, although they fronted incredible bands in the 90's).

Big news coming up soon...

Jake and I are hatching a plan to bring you something we've never given you before. I think it will shift your perceptions of what we do, and hopefully turn the tide in the War for Relevance.

The Evolution of a Song (a.k.a. the Writing Process)

People ask how we write songs, "where does it start?" or "how did you get there?" So in a nutshell, here's how it works about 85% of the time.

1. Brian writes a song and records a demo for me.
2. I write something that could not possibly stand on its own, but when laid over Brian's stuff sounds great. Why??? Because I have always hated it when a band has multiple guitars playing exactly the same thing, and I'm too lazy to learn what Brian wrote.
3. We tweak it, and track it (for example, Hear Me Out)
4. Time goes by, I forget how to play what I wrote, and Brian gets bored with the song how it is.
5. Brian completely redoes the song, save perhaps some lyrics, to the point that it sounds nothing like the original.
   
6. Step 2 is then repeated
7. We over tweak, and record 9 part harmonies
8. We realize we've over done it, and pull out 8 of the 9 harmonies, but realize another instrument would sound great in there (In this case, a mandolin).
9. We have a song that sounds great, but we can't play live as 2 people (updated Hear Me Out).
10. We tweak again and come up with a "live version" that will work (Hear Me Out Live).
    
11. Repeat step 4

This has happened a good number of times (as you can further see by comparing Brian's Bridger post and the EP version).

So what are the typical changes we make???
hmm...I would say my most common suggestion is "speed it up." I'm not saying Brian writes funeral dirges or anything, but if we speed up a song a bit to make it a four-and-a-half minute song instead of a seven minute one, its an improvement.

I'm sure we'll let you all into our minds a little more some day, but this is good for now.

Who sees through it? Why, you do, Mr. Bridger.

I can't make a habit of this, but today we're going to resurrect an old demo.

And the reason for the summoning is because this demo represents one of those peculiar occasions where you get something right the first time and then...not quite so much on subsequent tries.

When I was writing what ended up as "Bridger," I came up with some riffs that sounded kind of wide open and made me think of what it must have been like to see America in the days before your eyes got tripped up by urban sprawl. Naturally, I started thinking about cowboys and the like, but then I started focusing on the idea of exploration, of being in absolutely virgin country. After honing in on that theme, Jim Bridger seemed a good character to express such a sentiment through.

As concerns the recording of this here song, I asked Jake to try something "Western." Right there on the spot, he worked some kind of hoodoo and produced this amazing, smoky-toned guitar sound that felt like all the good stuff about the Early American experience wrapped up in a freakin' beaver pelt for your convenience. This track stands as one of my favorite musical memories of this band...

We couldn't quite pull off that wonderful tone again when we recorded our EP; we didn't have a lot of time budgeted for tracking and compromises end up being made in time-crunch situations.

Oh well; enjoy the tune, friends. Have a good weekend.

The Secret Origin of the Band Name

I have a lot to do today, so I'll spin you a brunch-hour yarn and begone.

As you may know, "Woodburning" is the name of a Toad the Wet Sprocket song on the Dulcinea album (1994). I like the song well enough, but I like the word even better. Since there's a pretty well-established precedent for band names being pilfered from other groups' song titles (Radiohead is the only one coming to mind right now, but I know there are others), I didn't feel too badly about using it for the name of my little venture.

What's interesting though, is that appropriating this name for my band constitutes a 2nd-generation borrowing, as the Toad song pays tribute to fellow Santa Barbara band The Woodburning Project (Toad thought the track was reminiscent of the other band's sound). So the plot thickens, eh?

In '94, TWP released their one and only album, Watershed. After that, they signed to a record label (Columbia, I believe??) in '95 and were subsequently dropped in '97 without having recorded anything further.

This is a real shame, because Watershed contains some lovely music, with one song (their self-admitted masterpiece) in particular distinguishing itself so effectively that I have no choice but to include it in my *drumroll* TOP TEN SONGS OF ALL TIME list. (More about said song in a minute.)

So, during my period of rabid Toad fandom (between about 1995 and 2001), I repeatedly saw mentions of TWP, but there was very little info of any substance to be had. In early 2003, I happened upon a useful lead; two of the former members, Angus Cooke (cellist) and Thom Flowers (guitar) had founded a studio in California called Orange Whip. (Both Toad and Lapdog have recorded there during their respective tenures, so it's definitely a pro-level operation.)

Intrigued and wanting a copy of the disc - which I couldn't find anywhere - I called the studio and got Angus on the phone, who very kindly fielded my questions. Upon hearing that I'd like to have a copy, he personally mailed me a home-burned CD-R of the album, complete with home-printed liner notes - free of charge. He didn't have any sealed copies laying around, and this was "the best he could do." Wow. Somebody needs to buy that dude a pint...

As I said, the album is good, but the special song, "La Lune," is outstanding (and incidentally was covered on Glen and Nickel Creek's Mutual Admiration Society album). With permission from Mr. Cooke to distribute the material - as Watershed is long out of print and unavailable for purchase - I present to you one of my personal very-favorite-songs: "La Lune."

Attention, Mr. Jedediah Springfield: your hoss has been saddled.

Danny, have I got a new band for you, sir! They're called Great Lake Swimmers, and they're frickin' awesome - for a bunch of Canucks, that is. (Just kidding, you know I love those syrup-swilling goofballs.)

At any rate, these guys will take care of your banjo fix. It's possible that they may be superior to Sufjan, but it's yet too early to tell.

This song is quite good; it's the lead-off track from their latest album, obtained free and legally - as usual - from Pitchfork. God bless you, elitist hipsters.

Ancient history

Our first PR photo, shot in Fall of '03 near my house. The image later ended up on a show flier.

Fun fact #1: Jake cut his hair shortly after this picture was taken; alas, I doubt we'll ever see the return of that Lion's Mane... I think of this motif as Jake's Visigoth Look.

He no longer looks like a Visigoth, but he still is one (see footnote).

"Why do you say that?" you ask?

I'll tell you why - because only a freakin' Visigoth would do this:


And yes, that is a forklift. (Photo credit: Richard)

Fun fact #2: On our last day of work at GDI (which took place a few months before the PR shot was taken), our manager informed us that our entire department was being laid off due to lack of work. Attempting to be clever in the face of doom, I suggested that we "pitch our tents and wait it out."

Well, that's what my brain was thinking, anyway.

What actually came out of my mouth was, "Why don't we pinch our tits and wait it out?"

No one listened to my suggestion.

*He actually is of Teutonic heritage. "Visigoth!" (For the full effect, say it out loud in the Walter Sobchak fashion, as when he proclaims "Shomer Shabbas!!")*

Radio Jake

In December of '05, I took a position at an internet start-up owned and operated by two couples. Couple A are Chinese; the wife is English-fluent, but the husband is almost totally incomprehensible. He ran the IT department; unsurprisingly, his leadership role was actually a cruel joke perpetrated upon the staff. worked out really well for everybody because highly technical language is actually easier to understand when spoken in Pidgin English.

Couple B originally hail from Planet ADHD, a little-known vacation spot in the Douchebag Asteroid Cluster. are plain old easy-to-understand American, and the husband in particular (who was the President and my direct report) was a real sidewalk treat.

A couple of months after I started, I haplessly managed to "score" a position for Jake, who was looking for a part-time gig to supplement his wife's income before he resumed his school career (thus rendering the second time in my life that Jake and I have worked at the same office). He lasted about six months and I was gone not long thereafter, but stories and hi-jinks abound - enough to fill volumes. I'd give you more details, but we're saving it for a book or a screenplay. Sincerely.

Anyway, part of my job occasionally involved fooling around with audio; I was drafted to create little things like soundbeds for my boss's appearance on some podcast material. One of the other managers heard about this and asked if I'd be interested in producing an in-house, no-budget radio commercial for one of the company's online stores. Preferring that to being ignored by the big man, I set about my task of rounding up talent.

Jake, of course, had to get in on this. We tracked about ten minutes' worth of content, which has been posted here and here for your listening pleasure. I like to hear the unedited versions, but if you prefer to skip to the characters he performed on the fly, I proudly introduce: Radio Guy, Tom Shane, Angry Guy and Surfer Guy.

(The final spot ended up featuring one of the women in the office; sorry, Man Of At Least Five Voices.)

There are other forthcoming testaments to our on-the-clock tomfoolery, but for now, know this: Jake totally missed his calling.

New stuff fo' ya ears

Glen Phillips once wrote the words: "Well, I wonder...do we learn? Seems we're making the same wrong turns..."

I don't know about wrong turns, but I don't think we'll ever "learn" that hardly anybody cares about this thing but us and a few friends / family members. In that spirit, I make no apologies for continuing to waste my time be an artist. You know, we still write, even though we haven't played out in awhile.

So! I cut a demo by myself last week; it's a drastic remix of some two-year-old guitars and vocals.

You can also go to ourspace and catch up on anything else you haven't heard, like another demo from last December called "Wind And The Waves" (or you can download it to keep).

Jake and I might record something in the next few weeks. And then again, we might not. You'll just have to wait around and see, I suppose.

As an aside, I've just discovered Neko Case, and I'm really impressed. I found this track for free on Pitchfork; it's from her album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and I freaking love it.

Also, I have no indie credibility, but I'm not convinced that I really need any.