Month: April 2015

I’m really pushing it by calling this one a Two Hour Challenge.  I mostly just don’t know what else to call it.

This latest release started as an acoustic faux-bossa sequence of chords and mediocre finger picking.  I wanted to avoid having it sound too samey with some of the other stuff we’ve recorded, so I stepped only barely outside the comfort zone:

• Programmed drums using sampled beats (not unlike some of The Name‘s stuff)
• Finger picking instead of strumming (mostly)
• Weird effect laden chorus that includes reversed guitar

Then Blonski completed it with some inspired out-of-the-box thinking of his own.

• Lyrics vaguely about terrorism?
• Smooth, relaxed vocal that lays just behind the beat
• Lyrically repetitive but harmonically interesting chorus
• Trumpet/melodica solo
• Awesome picture of a guy in a red scarf

Two Hour Challenge – Resistance

Bonus side effect of mixing this track: I realized that I’ve been mixing down in mono for the last few songs!  Hooray, now Universe 25 sounds better too!

Until next time,
-Mike

I’ve been dishonest.  Well, actually, I’ve generally fessed up to my inability to complete a challenge in a set number of hours with each blog post announcing  a release. It’s the cover art that has been dishonest.  “Two Hour Challenge,” it proclaims stubbornly, refusing to acknowledge my greater-than-120-minute writing and recording sequence.

But I’m the one that makes the cover art.  The blame must, therefore, reside with me.  I figured it was time to talk to Steven.

After a discussion that may or may not have occurred while licking people into a pile of bombs, we both agreed we should re-release all of the challenge tracks as an EP or even LP at some point.  Calling them “One Hour Challenge” or “Two Hour Challenge” seems a little silly at this point.  As we’ve done so many times before, we’ll look to the Desert Sessions for inspiration and try to come up with something.

This time, the release is “Universe 25,” a song that started as an acoustic idea and then went to Blonski for some lead guitar.  We worked on the lyrics, each writing a verse and a version of the chorus, and then I tracked the vocals.  For inspiration, we researched the eponymous Universe 25 and placed the narrator as a mouse in the experiment.

Two Hour Challenge – Universe 25

A few more tracks and we’ll look to compile under a new name that probably won’t be GrllBrsh.  There are a few more on the burner with Jim on vocals, though schedules seem to align about as frequently as the planets.

When they do, you’ll know!
-Mike