The welcome track for September is a rare one indeed. This comes from an acoustic/folky live performance at Kalamazoo College in 2003. With only a few audience members, it comes off more like a studio/radio performance than a concert. Dave Poytinger joined me to sing a few songs, including this traditional song, "The Water is Wide." Dave played guitar and I played the accordion my Grandpa Schley gave me back when I graduated from the 8th grade. Prior to its appearance here, this track has never been released in any form. Enjoy.
"It's been a long, long time long, long time" the great song says. For us, it has felt like an eternity since we were out and about playing our music to y'all. But, the time will be here soon when you will see us again and be able to pat us on the back, let us buy you a drink, sing you a song, just like Tom Petty.
Soon I will be putting up some prelim mixes and unfinished tracking of songs from the next record. You know the kind. Scratch Vocals, empty tracks, fudged notes here and there. Gives everybody a little bit of something/something to wet your apetito.
Now, the sound of the record? The sound of the new band? Well, we are a "pop music group" although you know it as indie rock. I suppose guitars and keyboards, drums and bass, and lots of vocals mean that we're an "indie rock" band. How about some diversity, though? Yea, that gets confusing while drinking, but try to imagine it. Diversity.
The new record is joyful but joy that does the unexpected sometimes. We have rock songs and folk songs and pop songs and funk songs...all within the same track.. Motorik. Prog. Sludge. Maybe even some Freakno. We are emphasizing groove, color and form more. Weird form that is. Quick joyful moments. Pop tunes. Songs you can dance to if you want to try. And be happy to or be smitten with emotion to. Songs where you'll remember why the whole genre thing is pointless.
Harkening back to a day of blah blah blah? Shut up. The 80s were NOT a dark stain on our past. The 90s...oh man, they WERE though. Because all of a sudden some grumpy people said the 70s and 80s were bad. Um, no. No good music after date X? No. Not intelligent as quartet so and so conducted by Maestro A? Silence yourself.
Well, what about the 20s, classic rockers? The 40s? Every decade is great. Jerome Kern is great. Queen is great. Silver Apples is great. Duke Ellington is great. Bruce Haack is great. Fats Waller is great. Arvo Part is great. Abba is great. DNA is great. Oasis AND Blur are great. Tito Puente is great. Public Image Ltd. is great. ELO is great. Nina Simone is great. Elvis Costello is great. Judas Preist is great. Gene Austin is great. Run DMC is great. Wham is great. Judee Sill is great. Blackstar is great. Toto is great. Sun Ra is great. Gwen Stefani is great. John Cale is great. Zakir Hussein is great. Steve Reich is great. The song "I got my mind set on you" by George Harrison is great. "Toxic" by Britney Spears is great. I could go on forever. You know who isn't great? ..................Think about it.
Yea. You know. In your hearts, you know.
ANYWAY, our record is just rock-oriented pop songs, built with our own brand of goofy misperceptions and sonic shenanigans. Diverse but I'd say unified by a strand that we think you'll pick up as soon as the record finishes.
Most bands we play with choose to focus on certain parts of a genre or fuse a few. That's fine, too. Remember, Ramones and Van Dyke Parks equally great, people. But sometimes it makes us look bad. Like we're just not easy enough to talk about around the water cooler after a hard weekend of indie-tastic local music hopping. That we're elitist. It's the opposite actually.
The cliche of "not easily definable" is not arrogance but a choice. We choose to celebrate lots of music not just genre A or B or A+B. It's a choice that I personally enjoy working with. And I know lots of people who do it too. But most importantly, I guess The Beasts and I have some kind of faith that you really do like diverse, fun, and sometimes challenging pop records that don't have to make it obvious ("look we're innovators!") that we're having fun with genres. Maybe it's wrong, but I guess I aspire to make records like the ones I love, and that diversity and the unexpected tends to be what I get nerdily buzzed about.
Besides, do you just listen to one genre A or B, anyway? Yea, exactly. So hopefully this helps give you an idea what it's going to sound like.
Sometimes, reworking larger ideas leads to interesting results.Working on the record, I've been developing songs out of pre-recorded jams. I thought I'd put one here in the BOB II previews... This is it . A segment (or small ambient track) called "Little Neddy Goes to War."
From now until the completion of the record, I'm gonna throw up odd audio or video previews of the music from the next Beasts of Burden record. This is the first one. A slow take of Second Lining. Check it out.
Beasts of Burden drummer Ryan Malinich gets a feature in LA View. Check out the BLOG for the complete article, or go to their page. Give 'em a good pat on the back when you see him.
Mike Vasas and The Beasts of Burden will be playing their first show at The Palace of Auburn Hills on March 28th, 2008. Opening for Creedence Clearwater Revisited, we will be performing at the home of The Detroit Pistons, The Detroit Shock and the old home of the Detroit Vipers. I once played a hockey tournament on the ice so it'll be cool to be back. CHECK OUT PERFORMANCE PAGE for more info.
Four more Found Sound Records are released today. Happy Leap Year. Same as Found Sound I, these records are download for free/donate what you want.These Found Sound records are ambient electroacoustic records. Not pop music!
Found Sound I : Street Musicians is released today. Download the entire record and donate what you want. Suggested retail price for this recording is $16, but you could pay $2, $200, $5,000 or $0.50 or less. Whatever you want. Street Musicians, along with all the other Found Sound series releases, are electroacoustic "ambient" sound works. No pop songs here.
Found Sound I : Street Musicians will be released tomorrow online. You can download the record for free and pay whatever you feel necessary. Check back tomorrow for the link to get the record.
Soon to be famed guitarist Matt Mepham has joined The Beasts of Burden. The next record record featuring Matt and the guys will be out next year? Anyway, Matt is great and we're all excited to have him on board. More news to come.
Tomorrow's show at Royal Oak Music Theatre is taking place at 8 pm. Doors are at seven. be there before 8 because we'll go on around 8. Cost is $7 Show info!