034 Happy New Release Day To You

It’s Tuesday and that means it’s New Release Day, so i’m going to do something that i’ve always wanted to do. Are you ready? Good. I’ll prepare it for tomorrow. It’s going to take a little bit of research, but it’s the least that I can do... especially since this post will basically be dedicated to THE NEW HEY MERCEDES EP that gets released today.



Hey-yo! The final, closing chapter in the Hey Mercedes saga is set free to the public today. It’s the Unorchestrated EP and contains 2 b-sides, 2 unreleased tracks, and an extra special live version of “Unorchestrated.” Plus, it has the stellar artwork of Chris Strong & Gregg Bernstein, along with a slew of random photos on the inside sleeve. If I could say a little bit about the music on the CD....

“Roulette Systems” was written at the Dutkewych house in Riverview, MI smack dab in the middle of our tour with The Early November. Since Vagrant needed a new track within a short time frame for an upcoming comp, we scrambled to write the song on the road and then record it at Smart Studios as soon as we got home. Mike laid down the basic guitar line, we all chimed in and added our parts, I came up with a vocal melody, and within 4 or so hours, we had an alright song. We loaded the song onto our iPods and spent the rest of the tour fine-tuning it into something special. It was recorded with Mark Haines and Chris Common during two maniacal sessions at Smart.

I wrote the main guitar line and vocal melody for “Warm Chords” in my bedroom and recorded it on this crappy mini-digital recorder I had. It broke within a month. I also wrote the basic parts of “Lashing Out” at this time. Everyone had their way with it at practice at the Graff residence in Port Washington, WI and we eventually recorded it at Camp Street in Cambridge, MA with the Loses Control CD. About halfway through the session, the producers decided that if a track was going to be cut, they were leaning towards this one. We didn’t put up much of a fight, but had some second thoughts when we had an initial listening party for some of our friends in Boston once it was too late. We played them the whole record and put “Warm Chords” as track #12. When the CD was stopped, one of the listeners came up to me and said, “the cd was great and i really love that last song.” The title comes from a song written in 1971. Do you know which one? Sean Slade caught the reference immediately.

More of the same for “Own Up.” We wrote it along with most of “Loses Control” at the Bichler cabin in Spread Eagle, WI during our two week retreat there. This was one of two straight forward rockers that came out of the session. We included it on the demos we sent to the producers and I included it on CD’s i made for some trusted friends. And wouldn’t you know it, out of all of the songs, my best friend said that “Own Up” was his favorite. It lasted up until pre-production, when it got cut. I’m not sure why anymore. It was one of those songs where I had lyrics, but I figured I’d fine tune them once we got to Cambridge... and then we ended up not doing it, so the lyrics stuck. I think it works, since in this particular instance the vocals play second fiddle to the actual vocal melody line.

“We Lie Half the Time” was written on an acoustic guitar and you can kinda hear that down home jumpiness in the tempo. I think it was always a bit uncomfortable to play because of that fact. It was built for the acoustic, yet we were strumming on the electric. Way after the fact now, people really like this song. I’m really happy with the lyrics and i’ve even added it to a few City On Film sets since it works so well as a one guitar solo piece. Cuba Road is really haunted by the way. It’s some desolate stretch of roadway in the nether northwest suburbs of Chicago.

And lastly, the slow jam on Loses Control. “Unorchestrated” live. Towards the end of our touring, we added an extended sample to the beginning and it’s represented here. It’s from “Waking the Dead” and it’s a beautiful monologue by Billy Crudup. I’ve used it for many City On Film sets as well, but not anymore. I had a feeling that “Unorchestrated” would end up as a “last” song and i’m not just saying that because the final lyrics are “it’s over.”

You can ORDER THE UNORCHESTRATED EP HERE!

And there you have it... Seriously... I am so excited for tomorrow’s post. You’ll love it. And now, some other stuff...

Saddest beard removal ever.

Now let’s talk trailers. We have one for sale! It’s 6’ x 10’ x 5 1/2’, single axle, with a 2000 net weight carrying capacity. Salivating yet? I’ll take some pictures this weekend. If you or your band is interesed please email me about it. If we can’t sell it to friends within a week or so, it’s up on ebay she goes...