It’s the first of the month, which means there’s a new Mediocre Bad Guys song! Except there isn’t – not yet. But it’s almost there! Alas, we are putting the finishing touches on the new song – and believe me, you’re gonna love it! Just last night Steve, Doug and Jerry were in Flytrap Studios recording a huge swath of backing vocals. What, you don’t believe us? Here’s a pic to prove it:
See? So there.
Anyway, we’re near the tail end – hope to have it to you by the middle of next week. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, we wanted to remind you that we have a killer gig at Old North State Winery in lovely downtown Mount Airy next Saturday, June 9, at 7:30pm. We’ll be joined by our good friend Old #10. We’ll play our favorite covers and all our originals – including the new tune you would’ve downloaded mere days before. Tickets are $10 and are on sale at the winery, and you can also get them from your favorite Bad Guy (or your second favorite). If you do the Facebook thing, here’s the Facebook event:
We had such a great time with our good friends in Old #10 last January at Old North State Winery in Mount Airy that we’re gonna do it again!
So mark your calendars: Saturday, June 9. Music starts at 7:30pm. Admission is $10, and tickets will be on sale at the door as well as before at the winery.
Here’s the Facebook event – feel free to RSVP if you do the Facebook thing:
It’s May! Well, almost. So it’s almost time for the next Mediocre Bad Guys song, right? Nope. It’s time right now! Because we made you wait a few extra days for “Virginia Virginia” last time, we’re releasing our next track, “Simple And True,” a whole 50 minutes early! Pretty sweet, eh? Simply click on the pic below (or click HERE):
By now you know the drill – you can stream the song by clicking on the play button. Assuming you’ll then want to immediately download it as your own, simply click the “Buy Now” link to start the download process. You get to name your own price – and if you’re one of the first 200 to download the tune, you can get it for free! How cool is that?!
In your rush to enjoy the MBG goodness, don’t forget to click the Facebook “LIKE” button under the album cover art and tweet it as well. We greatly appreciate any help getting the word out about the new tune. And please feel free to head over to our Facebook page and leave a comment there letting us know what you think.
Yes, we know, it’s been four whole days since the first of the month. But it wouldn’t have been right to release our latest tune on April Fool’s Day, right? Anyway, it’s here now; ready for your audial consumption. Simply click on the pic below (or click HERE):
By now you know the drill – you can stream the song by clicking on the play button. Assuming you’ll then want to immediately download it as your own, simply click the “Buy Now” link to start the download process. You get to name your own price – and if you’re one of the first 200 to download the tune, you can get it for free! How cool is that?!
In your rush to enjoy the MBG goodness, don’t forget to click the Facebook “LIKE” button under the album cover art and tweet it as well. We greatly appreciate any help getting the word out about the new tune. And please feel free to head over to our Facebook page and leave a comment there letting us know what you think (and follow us on Twitter while you’re at it).
“Carolina Sky” was a co-write I did with Jerry three years ago. I love doing co-writes with Jerry. We write together in a variety of ways, but often (because he’s too lazy to work on ideas I start), he’ll send me a seed of an idea, and I’ll take it from there. Sometimes that seed is pretty fully formed, and sometimes it’s pretty raw. And I’ll pick and choose what I like and take it from there. One of my favorite things about co-writes with Jerry is that, in retrospect, I may believe I know what each of us contributed, but when I go back and check the original demos, I’ll often find I’m wrong. On “Carolina Sky,” for instance, I had modestly congratulated myself for writing the lines “we gave it all our very best/but we’re as far from north and south as east is to the west.” Crazy thing – turns out Jerry wrote that. Ah, well.
So what I’m going to do is to open the curtain and share with you Jerry’s original demo snippet – exactly what he sent to me – as well as my note to him (three years ago!) about what my intentions were for writing the rest of the song.
And here’s what I wrote Jerry, after a little work:
**************** On Feb 22, 2009, at 6:10 PM, dougdavis@flytrapmusicproduction.com wrote:
Alright, here’s the deal. Every once in a while, I try to write one ofthose Freedy Johnston songs, like “This Perfect World,” which, on thesurface just sounds like a sad relationship song. Then you dive in andrealize that something terrible and cinematic may have happened. Maybenot. Maybe she disappeared. Maybe she died. Maybe he killed her. Hardto say.
So, you started this one with “she set herself on fire again,” and Idecided to take it metaphorically, but seriously. There’s a folksytimelessness, and there will be Winston-Salem regional touches (shuttingdown the tobacco plants and auction floors leave the narrator out ofwork). She’s a swan, he drags her down, he’s down on his luck, she’sangry about money, class, something happens. What? We don’t know, butshe’s gone, gone, gone. This one needs a few more verses to paint thepicture. The law comes around in the last verse and asks about her, buthe doesn’t know “where she is tonight.” Lost love song, or was heconfused and scared and forgot where he buried her? Either way, he’s nottelling. Ideally, you can dig in to the mystery, but if you miss thepoint entirely, you still get a nice lost-love folk song.
Great performances from the band when we finally got in the studio. This is exactly the kind of song I wanted to write for Les to sing, and he really nails it. There’s a mournfulness in his voice that inspires me. Wish I could sing with that kind of inherent sorrow. Steve plays accordion here, and it’s a perfect touch. He’ll be happy to tell you he’s just learning the instrument, but I think his instincts were strong. Jerry really drove the rhythm on bass, and me, well, all I had to do was to keep strumming. The VIP was Sir Ricky Lee Nathey on pedal steel. He came into the studio for half an hour, and all I had to do was run him through a Bassman with generous amounts of analog delay and give him a cold Budweiser, and we were in business. It should be noted that the solo was to have been Steve’s on accordion, but Rick’s “background” melodies were so strong that we really didn’t have any choice but to feature him. And those high notes at 3:25 still break me down every time.
And finally, a word on the title. I intended for “Long Night’s Moon” to be the name of the song. Long Night Moon, in some reckonings, is the name of the full moon in December. To me, this is a winter’s song, and the resonance of full-moon behavior is at the heart of the song. The “Carolina sky” bit was a throwaway line to me, but Jerry felt strongly that that phrase had greater resonance. I still have misgivings, but I’ve been wrong before, and, if anything, I appreciated the idea of using “Carolina Sky” as a deflection.
Definitely my fave MBG tune to date. Hope you enjoy!
We’ve got a neat show coming up this Saturday. We’ll be playing at The Garage in Winston-Salem. If you’ve never been there, it’s literally a garage converted into a super-duper original live music venue. We’ll play all our original tunes that hopefully you’ve had a chance to listen to HERE. We’ll also be joined by fellow Mount Airy band and good friends Janus 4-14, along with Sunshone Still. Five bucks will get you three bands – not too shabby. Please head over to our Facebook event and let us know you’re coming!
And while we’re on Facebook, the four of us are in a bit of a campaign to get some more Facebook page “LIKES.” We hope you already count yourself as one of those – but if not, would you? Just click the pic to the right to head to our page and do that awesome “LIKE” thing.
We’d also be thrilled if you’d consider subscribing to our website. Of course, if you’re getting this in your email or RSS reader, you already have. But if by some twist of fate you’re reading this otherwise, perhaps this is a sign you were meant, in this very moment, to subscribe to the Mediocre Bad Guy’s website. Just go to www.mediocrebadguys.com and enter your email address on the right where it says, “Your Email, Please…” No spam, we promise.
Thanks for all the support and for listening – see you at the show on Saturday, we hope!
Happy March, everyone! Sorry you had to wait an extra day for your MBG goodness in this leap year. Nevertheless, the first day of the new month has arrived, and so has our newest song! Simply click on the pic below to go to the download website.(click HERE if the picture isn’t showing):
By now you know the drill – you can stream the song by clicking on the play button. Assuming you’ll then want to immediately download it as your own, simply click the “Buy Now” link to start the download process. You get to name your own price – and if you’re one of the first 200 to download the tune, you can get it for free! How cool is that?!
In your rush to enjoy the MBG goodness, don’t forget to click the Facebook “LIKE” button under the album cover art and tweet it as well. We greatly appreciate any help getting the word out about the new tune. And please feel free to head over to our Facebook page and leave a comment there letting us know what you think (and follow us on Twitter while you’re at it).
Following the “Download of the Month” release, members of MBG will share their thoughts about that song in subsequent blog posts. We hope it’ll give you a greater appreciation for the tune and all that went into writing and recording it. Enjoy!
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I’m sitting here listening to last month’s MBG single, “Diamonds.” As per usual, I’m listening as a fan. As long as we continue to put out music that we would actually like to listen to, I think we’ll be a happy & productive band. I don’t mean that out of conceit. I just mean to say that, if you’re a songwriter, you could do a lot worse than to make music with friends that also happen to be excellent players & singers.
It also occurs to me that this song marks a few firsts…
It’s the first MBG song in which Doug agreed to play a guitar solo that was similar to what I had on the demo.
It’s the first MBG song that is completely autobiographical.*
It’s the first MBG song that was written about a movie.^
It’s the first MBG song to feature Steve playing his sweet accordion.+
It’s the first MBG song to feature the lovely pedal steel of Rich Nathey.++
It’s the sixth MBG song that I like.
*Patently untrue.
^Partially true. Any guesses?
+Until tomorrow.
++Also until tomorrow.
See you tomorrow, when the new song comes out.
Jerry
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TO DOWNLOAD FEBRUARY’S SONG “DIAMONDS,” CLICK HERE
Happy February, everyone! It’s the first day of the new month, and has been the case for the previous five, Mediocre Bad Guys are psyched to share with you our latest original tune for your audial consumption, “Diamonds!” Simply click on the pic below to go to the download website! (click HERE if the picture isn’t showing):
By now you know the drill – you can stream the song by clicking on the play button. Assuming you’ll then want to immediately download it as your own, simply click the “Buy Now” link to start the download process. You get to name your own price – and if you’re one of the first 200 to download the tune, you can get it for free! How cool is that?!
In your rush to enjoy the MBG goodness, don’t forget to click the Facebook “LIKE” button under the album cover art and tweet it as well. We greatly appreciate any help getting the word out about the new tune. And please feel free to head over to our Facebook page and leave a comment there letting us know what you think.
Okay, so it’s not really an “old song.” In fact, “The Dance” came into being a mere eight months ago if you’re counting its first release date; twenty months if you’re talking about it’s original inception. And it’s not really a “new twist,” either, because the funny thing is, the Bad Guys’ version is how I intended for the song to sound all along.
Let me backtrack a bit: May 2010. I was coming home from an awesome week in Austin, TX; doing nothing but soaking in the rich and fertile music scene that has blessed that town. I was on a three-month sabbatical that summer in an attempt to reclaim my creative musical muse and regain some confidence in my songwriting chops. I boarded the US Airways flight and found my seat. As I was putting my bag in the overhead compartment, I noticed in the row behind me a young woman, sitting there with a little kid in her lap. I’m going to guess he was 10 or 12 months old. Normally this quick visual would mean little to me, vanishing from my consciousness as soon as I turned to sit down. But for some reason this stuck with me. Maybe it was that muse starting to show itself again. Maybe it was odd effects of a plane cabin being pressurized for flight. Whatever it was, I ran with it. As soon as the pilot gave the ok, I opened the laptop and began typing lyrics, imagining this story that I’m sure had no grounding in reality, about this woman and her child, returning home to her husband or boyfriend whom she had left a few months before. A song of redemption and second chances and starting anew. I began switching back and forth to GarageBand, clumsily using the keyboard to type in guitar chord progressions and a rough melody line. By the time my plane landed in Charlotte I had the makings of a new song.
The funny thing is, songs have a habit of evolving on their own in ways that sometimes surprise even the person who wrote it. Take a moment to listen to how this song came out on my solo album last May, Let Go:
You’ll notice the tune is piano-based, more free-flowing. And, of course, the “Hey Jude” moment at the end. I couldn’t be more pleased with how it all came together. But the thing is, this is not how I originally imagined the song. I wrote it to be a full-band tune, much more up-tempo, very Jayhawks-ish. When it came time to record the Let Go project, however, I knew I wanted a piano number to close the album on. I tried writing one, but couldn’t really settle on anything. On a whim I decided to try my Austin-plane flight tune on the ivories, and knew immediately I had what I wanted.
Back to the Bad Guys. In this Download-A-Month project of ours, Doug has pressed the rest of us hard to write, write, write and submit songs for band consideration. Initially I hesitated throwing “The Dance” in the mix because I already recorded it; and the last thing we wanted this MBG project to be was simply a rehash of Jerry/Doug/Steve solo songs. But the more we played “The Dance” in that originally-intended up-tempo style, the more we liked it. In the end we decided it was different enough from the “Let Go” version to merit as a Bad Guys single. See what you think:
This was a fun tune to record, as I got to play all three of my instruments: acoustic, piano and Hammond. Listening to Les’s smooth vocals wax poetic on my lyrics is a treat every time I press play. I’m especially stoked about the backing vocals that Jerry, Doug and I recorded, ala “Bohemian Rhapsody,” where all of the band members of Queen recorded each of the various parts individually to give it that choral feel. We decided to give that a shot here, and in my opinion it more than paid off.
I like the fact that music can be interpreted, experienced and re-experienced in so many different ways. There’s a universality about that which is especially intriguing to me. I think that is what keeps guys like me, and bands like the Bad Guys, doing what they’re doing. We sure appreciate you coming along for the ride.
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TO DOWNLOAD JANUARY’S SONG “THE DANCE,” CLICK HERE
