Music – Page 2 – Small Glowing Pig

Odds and Ends

Despite a lack of posts and varying levels of quarantine, Small Glowing Pig has a handful of projects in the cooker. Let the updating begin!

First, in late spring, Jefim, Steve, Devin, and I began writing some new tunes. Steve, Jefim, and I recorded a bunch of ideas and we’ve laid down partial tracks for six songs – two from each of us. Most of the bass, rhythm guitar, and percussion are done and there are vocals on two of the tracks. The progress has slowed a bit in the last month, but hopefully more will come of this at some point.

Next up, Steve Blonski and our Forefathers has not been abandoned, but is on a recording hiatus. One of our goals with the project was to get the instrument recording sounding the way we wanted and then take a few weeks to lay down each instrument in a sonically consistent and cohesive way. With COVID mucking up any chance at consistency in the short term (and long term?), we’ve decided to wait on this a bit rather than compromise on sound.

In the meantime, Steve and I have started writing for the next Ear Buds EP. Our timeline has us finishing up the demos of the new songs in the coming week and then taking August to record the proper versions of each track. We’re also planning to change the formula a bit. There will still be a few songs that we write and “pass off” to each other for full re-recording, but we’re also going to record some tracks and have the other person build off of them to complete the song. It should result in an album that’s a little more varied than the stripped down original. If all goes according to plan, we’ll have a release ready in September.

Finally, here’s the mp3 version of the General Pancakes show from a year ago at The Cue in Danbury. Enjoy!

GP Live at the Cue 2019.07.31

General Pancakes2016

Wild World

Daniel

No Woman No Cry

Won't Back Down

Ziggy Stardust

Comedy Night Advertisement

Crazy

Bad Leroy Brown

Easy

Brown Eyed Girl

Mary Jane's Last Dance

Last Call for Raffle Tickets

Hard Day's Night

Land Down Under

All Night Long

Santeria

Brandy

Jenny (8675309)

50-50 Raffle

Movin' Out

Stuck in the Middle with You

Superstition

Comedy Night Advertisement Reprise

Hey Jude

-Mike

Vacation Planning

It turns out, “not at work” does not necessarily mean “on vacation”, but even so, I have squeezed in some time in the last few weeks to finish writing, recording, and mixing the second Vacation album.

For this set of songs, I tried something different. It began in the fall when Steve lent me his Peavey amp and a giant cabinet. Once I set it all up in my basement, I had the loop pedal running guitar and bass through separate amps. I’d make up a simple guitar part, lay down a quick bass line, and then jump on the drums. It amazed me how much more fun it was playing along with a real bass amp than when running both instruments through the guitar amp.

Inspired, I began coming up with parts. I’d force myself to lay down A and B sections each time I played. After recording over 20 song ideas, I went through them and culled the less interesting ones. Below are three that didn’t make the cut to the final album.

After settling on eight that I liked, I began recording each as produced songs using Reaper. The idea recordings that became each track on the album are below.

This idea would later become track 1: A Room Apart

This idea would later become track 2: Break 2

This idea would later become track 3: Figure Out Who I Am

This idea would later become track 4: Stay Outside

This idea would later become track 5: A Figure on a Window

This idea would later become part of track 6: Break 7

This idea would later become track 7: To Do List

The lyrics and melodies were, as usual, the hardest part. I decided to make the lyrics personal and heartfelt – something that I don’t often do. I didn’t scour Wikipedia for fun topics, but instead tried to find big important things and small moments that resonated with me. I ended up with songs about applying for new jobs, playing hide and seek, and simultaneously thinking about missing my dog when she passes away and my daughter when she grows up. For many of the songs, I ended up “stopping” working on them rather than truly finishing them. As often happens, I’m left hating some of the words and feeling indifferent about many of the melodies.

I started recording the album during my winter break at the end of 2019 and finished it during the COVID-19 lockdown of March and April 2020. I don’t know how the tone of the album fits across both of those “vacations” – but it is what it is…

Check out the album here.

-Mike

Socially Isolating the Snare

Amidst a backdrop of toilet paper shortages and Lebanese shawarma, Blonski and I met to hit some drums and think really hard about the sounds that came out of the computer afterward. One of our goals with Going Down in History is to take our time (maybe not this much time…) with the recording process. With this in mind, we spent months recording demos of each song. Our next step is to get the right sound for each instrument as we record them.

First up is drums.

Just imagine the drum sounds that made these bars dance around…

We set up the kit in Blonski’s new studio room, muted the toms, and placed the mics. Here’s a tour:

Next time we brave the distopian COVID-19 lockdown, we’ll record drums and scratch bass for one or two tracks. Updates forthcoming…
-Mike

An Incomplete Reunion

Since last November four fifths of Black Velvet have been meeting once a month to catch up and run through as many of the old tunes as we can handle. There been as many rusty half finished song attempts as surprisingly competent renditions.

We don’t have any grand plans, but we do want to set aside a day each month to play some rock and roll. Below you’ll find a couple of recordings from November and December.

November – Banditos

November – What Lies Ahead

December – Trippin on a Hole in a Paper Heart

December – In the Meantime

Thanks to Blonski for recording and mastering these tracks.

-Mike

Live at RHS Band Aid

This past Friday I pulled out Blonski’s purple bass and his fat Peavey amp and rocked and rolled at Rockville High School’s Band Aid concert. I’ve played with a few other teachers in my middle school at our talent shows for the past five or so years, but when Jen’s son suggested we take our show on the road to the high school, we though, “Why not?”

Thanks to Jen Roggi on vocals, Judy Thompson on drums, and Ryan Kupferschmid on acoustic guitar. We had a blast and hopefully we’ll do it again next year.

Rock on,
-Mike

Demos and Dead Political Figures

I was originally planning to put the demo tracks for Volume I of Ear Buds up about a month after the EP released, but here we are and it’s November already. That happened fast…

In any case, these are the original demo tracks. We passed these to each other a year or so ago and then took another few months to learn them, practice them, and record them.

01 – Edification Demo [download]

02 – Going Home Demo [download]

03 – Paint Demo [download]

04 – Moments Demo [download]

In other news, we’re in the thick of writing the next album. We’re finally getting around to an idea Steve had probably a decade ago for an R&B album about the founding fathers. Who else could be more qualified for this endeavor than the two of us? We’ve written parts of seven songs and are at the point where we can arrange them and fill out lyrics and melody. The goal is to have some demos laid down in the next few months so that we can practice and then record before/during the summer of 2019. Hopefully we’ll have more to talk about soon!

-Mike

We’re on the cover!

After completing the most recent season of Duck House, Blonski and I decided that we’d tackle a shorter project before delving into something long-term again. Season 4 took about a year and a half to complete, and we were eager to turn some music around more quickly.

This time, we found our challenge in a new way of writing and recording. Each of us would write and record live demos of two new originals using only acoustics and vocals. Then, we’d learn each other’s songs and record them for the final EP. Each song would be devoid of overdubs or layering – they’d be tracks we could theoretically play live just as they sound on the album.

And so, the Ear Buds project was born. With Volume 1, we’ve got four tracks of singer/songwritery goodness for your collective ear holes.

Maybe we’ll do this once a year or something. Maybe we’ll revisit these songs and record them as “full band” tracks one day. Maybe we’ll take more photos of us awkwardly holding instruments and then put them on top of Hubble Telescope photographs of deep space. Who knows!

Download the mp3s here, visit the discography page, watch a static image of the cover art over at YouTube, or visit Bandcamp for some FLACs!

-Mike

The House that Duck Built

After weeks of very slow mixing progress, Season 4 is complete. It is, without a doubt, the fourthiest of seasons for Duck House. Thanks again go to collaborators Kate Bojanek and Jim Hernovich for their work on the album. Enjoy!

You can download mp3s here, check out the catalog page, or get some sweet lossless goodness over at Bandcamp.

We’ve got a few ideas for what might be next. Possibly an acoustic EP where we write songs for each other to perform. Maybe a soul record with a focus on historical presidents. Even a video for one of the Duck Houses could be on the docket. We’ll have to wait and see!

-Mike

Rock Music Advertisements of Days Past

As Blonski and I continue to “wrap up” the fourth season of Duck House, I spent a minute or two looking at the cover art for the upcoming album. For some reason, this jogged my memory of a few of the Black Velvet show posters I made years ago and figured sifting through them a bit to revisit old times might be a fun exercise. It’s probably not the worst idea to get them up on the SGP blog for posterity’s sake too. So, without further ado, behold! The Black Velvet show posters in reverse chronological order. As a bonus, I’ve included the letter from our apartment complex that cancelled Willi-Oaks fest II. Typical The Man.

My favorites are the Ketchup vs. Mustards and the Marilyn Monroe picture signed to Don, the manager at the Hungry Tiger in Manchester. I don’t think he ever framed it and hung it up, unfortunately. Thanks to Carmen Zambrano for contributing a sweet sketch to the Jim Beam Me Up Tour. Finally, that All-Stars poster is a total ripoff of Witch Season and Dead Diamond River.

New music soon!
-Mike

Something Foul is Afoot

A few days ago we released Duck House Season 3, oddly enough before we released Seasons 1 and 2. Well, today we make right what was once wrong. Behold, Seasons 1 and 2!

Each album includes a handful of One, Two, Three and Unspecified Hour Challenges. There were some clear breaks in writing philosophy and time that aided in making the cutoffs for each Season. Nothing on here is new, except for the mix of Resistance, which reduces the reverb and brings the vocals out a bit to hopefully allow Steve’s melodies to shine a little more. Enjoy!