Today it’s just about Blueburst and sessioneer Craig Miller’s latest release, Amplify Me and Train in Vain, which might have been called a B-side in the sixties and seventies. I play on these tracks and Craig kindly gave me a songwriting credit for Amplify Me. Train in Vain is written by Jones and Strummer from The Clash and was the B-side of London Calling (1979) and also featured on the album of the same name. Blueburst has a Bandcamp page where you can check out these songs and even see a mad AI-generated dystopian video. You will also find previous single releases, Vanish and Supernova. Last but not least, Craig is looking to form a band in the Atlanta area, see the link, give him a call.

Music Of The Daze

Anekdoten are in Montreal this weekend playing their debut album Vemod (1993) for its 30th anniversary. I hope all you Québécois people got to see them. In the meantime, I am in the studio in Texas and I’ve been working on Space Summit 2 with Jed, drummer Jason and engineer Kevin, and the funny thing is that even when you are in the studio, not venturing outside, doors closed, the outside world completely shut off, it still feels like Sunday.

The spring flies are on the march, I saw a butterfly landing on the roof and a sparrow hopping around outside the open studio door, another bird singing a tune hidden in a tree packed with recent leaves. There are new shoots, bright light green growing out of the trunks. The wild creatures are the only thing that’s moving outside as the afternoon has put rest to the runners walking their dogs in Sunday togs. A cloudy sky conceals the sun but the heat squeezes through, albeit with a little less bite.

I haven’t been getting to guitars, it’s looking more and more like these five days are to get down as many drum tracks as we can and work on everything else later. We should take advantage of having Jason available for these five days, other overdubs we can do anywhere. So I may not be playing much guitar and/or bass as we try to get as many beds down as possible.

We have a whiteboard in the studio and I draw the squiggly lines and tick off instruments we have recorded. Usually, it’s all the instruments and it helps us keep track of what’s done but now we just have ticks for the drums and one bass. You should have seen it for the Valley of Salt project!

Last but not least New Zealand haven’t been able to trademark Manuka honey. My 250g/8.8 Oz jar cost $26, expensive but there are anti-bacterial properties, I’m sure it’s helping my throat.

Music today has been Love and Rockets‘ Earth, Sun, Moon (1987) because it’s come up a couple of times in the last week and it’s never too late to discover this band, especially as they are out touring again out of the ashes (geddit) of Bauhaus.

Music Of The Daze

First day in the studio with Jed and the Space Summit project. We had Jason Garner playing drums, Salim came in and played psychedelic bass on one track and Jed listened and passed on thoughts throughout the day. We are wondering how to approach this record, should we complete two tracks or should we get as many backing tracks down as possible and finish songs with guitars, vocals and everything else at a later date? We only have five days and so far today we have three drum tracks and one bass track, we’ll continue tomorrow and see what transpires.

We had to Uber to the studio today, the driver was a lady who told us she was a singer-songwriter and drove in the day to support her real passion. She sang us a song called Electric Meditation. She dropped us off and told us “God Bless You” and you got the feeling that it wasn’t empty words, it was a sincere hope that God would bless us and it came across even stronger with a Texas accent. She had one of those cars where the doors open automatically but you just can’t help but push them anyway.

I spoke to Atlanta Craig on the phone as he travelled down to Florida. There’s action in Atlanta Craig land which I will tell you about in the coming days. There is also action in Indiana Brian land with The Simpletons’ great new Trampling Roses EP. Here’s the information about the band, I have been helping with some objective opinions, I hope you like it.

The Simpletons are a reformation of an alternative Dallas-based band from the early 1990s. The first new music after such a long hiatus needs to inspire, and Trampling Roses deliver handsomely. Originally formed by Australian Nathan Fynn, the Simpletons relied on innovative chord structure, driving creative melodies. In 2021, Nathan and Brian McMurtry renewed their musical friendship, writing the first Simpletons compositions in three decades. Because the team was 9000 miles and 16 time zones apart, they collaborated through endless video calls and recorded in separate studios. They engaged veteran guitarist Marty Willson-Piper (formerly of the Church, Noctorum, All About Eve) as executive producer, and have created a 5-song EP worth the wait.

Trampling Roses are best classified as indie dream pop without falling into languorous navel-gazing. At a tight 21 minutes, the music aficionado is treated to a variety of musical textures without an indulgent carry-on.

The EP begins saucily with the lead single, Wishing the Day. The Spanish-influenced 12-string acoustic guitar introduction is an attention-grabber that leads into Fynn’s road-worn tenor voice. McMurtry’s reverbed vocals on the middle 8 are classic dream pop, featuring layered, lush guitars. For us, the highlight in the song involves an extended bridge reminiscent of sumptuous Brian Wilson-like harmony sandwiches consumed by the side of “the sea of tranquility.”

Fynn’s strong melodies and dark lyrical content splatter the canvas of the second song, Bright Lights. Particularly emotive is his raspy delivery on the haunting chorus, which is an elegy to the passing between worlds. “This song really is about having a conversation with death,” Fynn opines. McMurtry layers multiple acoustic and electric guitars on this cut, demonstrating a strong capacity to weave countermelodies and capture what Johnny Marr calls the “guitar-chestra.”

Marbury Park is pure dream pop, containing some of the more esoteric lyrics on the album. At the beginning, the vocalist advises the listener to “shed the mortal coil, embrace the daydream a while.” This cut exudes an earnest Cocteau Twins vibe, replete with opulent harmonic structure. “Marbury Park doesn’t exist as a real place,” McMurtry explains, “but it’s a place in your head where all your most creative thoughts escape, and anything is possible.”

The startling Into the Aether is a tip of the hat to Dreampop/Shoegaze band DIIV, with an aggressive, gritty bass driving along the rhythm section. “We put a Leslie on the lead guitar to really give the song a trippy vibe,” recalls McMurtry. The lead vocals on Aether as well have an otherworldly quality, phased and chorused soothingly. Fynn’s melody-craft really shines on the chorus, which also features a standout guitar hook reminiscent of the Cure.

The album closer, Faded Nocturne, features McMurtry’s arranging capabilities, with traditional orchestral instruments (oboe, harp, and strings) meshing with sumptuous 12-string acoustic and electric guitar arpeggiation. Evocative of R.E.M., an Irish bouzouki is featured on the second verse. “I really wanted to capture the essence of Baroque pop on Nocturne,” says McMurtry. The song and album close with a piano playing a variation of the song’s primary motif as it descends gradually into cavernous reverb- and fades with the vinyl scratching of an album’s runout groove as if to signify, “this is the end, and similarly, the beginning.”

In all, Trampling Roses is an excellent debut EP for the songwriting duo known as the Simpletons. After three decades, this collaboration leaves the listener wanting more. The work style of Fynn as primary lyricist/melody writer and McMurtry as composer/arranger effectively works in the tradition of Morrissey and Marr. The lead single, Wishing The Day, drops on all major streaming platforms on May 5, 2023, and the EP Trampling Roses will release on June 2, 2023.

The Simpletons single can be purchased from Bandcamp and can be streamed from all major streaming services. There is also a music video for the lead single, “Wishing the Day,” available here:

We have reached over half of the In Deep Music Archive – Phase 2 GoFundMe, thank you very much for all the support, the dream is alive and well and living in Porto. We are talking to the builders and painters and plumbers and electricians as they are about to begin the task at hand, they have the keys and the will, and as we have raised a significant amount, we can engage them to start the work. We won’t be back till July so we imagine by then there will be progress and possibly even taps, or at least hot water. As far as Phase 3, the actual move, well it seems everything takes a lot of time, planning and funding and every project we do contributes to the collection and the concept, the last stage, Phase 4, will be the cheapest and the most enjoyable, that is sorting it all out.

Today we had Tess in playing cello and Rich in playing harmonium and piano. There’s never enough time to get it all done, Tess will be back in a couple of weeks and Rich was in early afternoon but came back late evening as he wasn’t done before Tess arrived. When you are engaging musicians on those instruments you can’t play you usually send them the tracks in advance so it’s not a tricky surprise when they arrive at the studio, but today we were working on a song with Rich which seemed like a great one for Tess and of course she hadn’t heard it and she wasn’t prepared – but it was Tess, and she breezed through it anyway.

As we are starting the Space Summit album tomorrow we had Jason come in to set up drums, mainly so we don’t take away from the recording time – we only have five days. Kevin also brought in two amps, a Bad Cat and a Vox and John brought in a Fender Super Reverb. Fred lent us his Archer pedal and Jed is bringing his Ibanez UE 405 multi-effects. Today whilst talking to sessioneer Rajan who is coming to record in June, we discussed equipment and found an American UE 405, 110 volts, with switches instead of a foot pedal (Fred has one like this), so I bought it so I can use it for American projects, it’s just something I like for my guitar tones, and combined with everything else I use, it adds a little something special, maybe like Bob Clearmountain’s tissue paper on Yamaha NS-10Ms tweeters.

The heat was threatening today but as the afternoon became early evening, thunder, lightning, and rain fell from dark black clouds, obliterating the blue sky like a bruise. It was bad timing for Jason as he was loading in his drums. I sat in the recording room playing my Seagull along to a vibrant cello section building up to a crescendo and landing on a satisfying Em from a Cmaj7.

Music today has been The Smiths‘ Strangeways, Here We Come, my favourite Smiths album, and in memory of the sad passing of bassist Andy Rourke. I met him a couple of times in New York, introduced to him by my own lovely bass player Hannah. He was a sweet guy and gone too soon at the age of 59. RIP Andy.

Music Of The Daze

In the studio today on the bass. I was using Kevin the engineer’s 1963 Gibson EB2. It’s deceiving to look at in that it’s semi-acoustic and heavy. I am not able to take all my instruments with me across the oceans so I’m at the mercy of who has what. Luckily working with Fred in Minneapolis he has a great collection of guitars and a 1964 Vox AC30 that I really like. Having said that the studio (The Terrarium) also had a fine collection of amps, Marshalls, Fenders, and a Vox. At Pleasantry Lane in Dallas, there’s an array of amps, and engineers Kevin and John have brought in their own amps so we have a varied choice of sounds before we start on Space Summit 2 on Saturday.

We saw Jason today who will be playing drums on the Space Summit album. He plays with The Polyphonic Spree and has also played drums on the Valley of Salt project, all albums in the process of being made, mixed, or readied for release. As Jason was here we had him play percussion on a mystery album track as he had a handy metal guero close by – as you do. He also brought in a marching drum for use on future projects and as it happened whilst listening to a track in the control room from the live room, I started hitting the drum and as usual with random ideas, we recorded it for the track in question.

It was a hot day in Texas and you are trapped inside with the air conditioning, I’m unsure what’s worse, stifling heat or freezing vents, it seems hard to get it exactly right inside and outside is out of your hands. I haven’t been bitten to death by mosquitos this time around but the studio has some kind of anti-mosquito automatic spraying system that keeps them away. Last year I was the food source for every mosquito in Dallas.

Shelley and Jason visited today, fans of Salim who he met whilst playing with Rhett Miller in Philadelphia. They came and listened to what we were doing, we were laying down violins through the evening and working our way through the songs fixing bits, adding bits and asking the songs what they needed, fulfilling their desires. Sometimes you have to talk them into things, other times they ask for your help.

The gardeners were out today with their dastardly leaf blower and space-age lawn mower, making a racket. We try and record with the background noise, wondering how we can utilize it if we can’t avoid it. A studio with great microphones is a wonderful thing but sometimes they pick up the sounds of fighting butterflies, petals falling off flowers, and giant machines, growling.

Music today has been Shirley Collins & Davey Graham – Folk Roots, New Routes (1964). Shirley Collins has a new album coming out on the 26th of May called Archangel Hills, she is 87 years old and essential.

Music Of The Daze