Once again, we fell a bit behind. But as I look at the publish date for April, I see we beat that by a whole day! So here it is, our proud little three song EP for May, The Cavalry Arrived Again.
The plan, as the folklore will recall, was to independently write three songs in isolation and no discussion between us (though we cheated a bit there) using a common bass line that followed a chord progression we wrote together in Chicago nearly a month ago.
As it turned out, our challenge, dreamed up as a way to change up the process a little, proved to be more demanding. It can be difficult, when life and jobs and other activities start to creep in, to find the time and ambition to be creative. At different times, I think all of us were feeling a bit burnt out and under-inspired. But as the days crept away, I think this collection of music came together nicely.
With Greg’s deconstructionist approach, Aryn’s hand percussion whimsy and my set of lyrics that have staring roles in not one, but TWO songs (I still find it strange to hear Aryn sing my words in his song), I think we somehow found a good last-minute flow of songs.
So without further ado, check out the album here, listen to our podcast here, befriend us on MySpace, and feel free to comment right here on our blog or write to us at mayEP@hellocomein.com. Enjoy!
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Temporary Setback :: January 2007
Clouded Spaces, Falling Skies :: February 2007
First Pull Up, Second Pull Down, Third Take Away :: March 2007
Ancient Telephones :: April 2007
The Cavalry Arrived Again :: May 2007
Designed In Anticipation Of His Centennial Years :: June 2007
The Rundown :: July 2007
The Ninth Great Fire :: August 2007
Empty Bottles And Dog-Eared Books :: September 2007
I Can Fix Things In The Morning :: October 2007
We Are Full Of Useful Noise :: November 2007
The Last Duel :: December 2007
Here are the original lyrics as I conceived them for my song… Aryn took some liberties in his arrangement but there you go:
the cavalry arrived again
armed with photographs of times back then
they all lined up in my doorway
with their muskets and their horses made of clay
and sifting through my recent past
thumbtacked Polaroids of faces all recast
and fixing up their bayonets
reminded me of when we first met
historical implications of all my life’s complications
have gone
but way back then dressed to the nines
in their corduroys and shirts with skinny ties
the cavalry burned away the past
with tiny particles and chemicals made of glass
historical implications of all my life’s complications
have gone
historical implications of all my life’s complications
have gone
Yeah, I took quite a few takes to figure out what I liked.. and decided to rearrange some as it went along.. Even with the chord changes the same, same (well maybe similar) set up of lyrics, we still have very unique outputs of songs.. Good to know we have different brains after all..
so when I recorded Bayonets I actually had the full chords played out in that crunchy rhodes sound ( which is through the homemade amp) and when I transfered it over to live to add vocals I forgot to transfer that part, which actually turned out better I think.. gives it a sparser sound.
Man , greg I am hearing some serious Tortoise here…
I hope that’s better than funny Tortoise.
wakka wakka.
i think this EP has some decent flow epecially since we were working in isolation this month.