Dan lays down the bass line for "Long for Shipwrecks"

That’s the starting point for our new collection of songs, “Big MT”, my think-piece on modernity and decay.

I don’t actually wish for the downfall of our culture, I love TV and The Whopper® too much, and I doubt I have the woodsman skills to make it in the madmax future I am picturing. I am fed up with it though. It’s constant and nagging. It’s a dull ache.

It’s really not direct imagery that I’m going for here either, it’s more about seeing it all fall apart in your life, realizing those elements that stay after the rest is burned away, and knowing what is truly important. Topical for most folks these days.

I don’t think it is any different than any other period in history…I am just feeling it acutely these days:

My job sucks. I lost my house. Bills pile up. It’s hard to stay optimistic.

Part of me craves an end to pop idolatry and junk culture for sure. Part of me fears I’m missing out on it. Part of me fears it for the sake of my son. I suppose these are natural enough feelings for a new father on the edge of so many places:  the middle class, politics, on the edge of pop culture.

listening back to tracks with Brandon and Kurt

I think a lot of people feel on the edge like me these days, which is what brought me to  “Big MT” in the first place.

return to the upright, and blisters

It feels hollow out there. Expansive, and without direction or purpose. I am hopeful for the sake of my sanity and family, but am weary of what is missing. Not what is lost, mind you,  but for what is missing.

I am reaching for something that is not there. With every idle strum, pulsing drone, and echoing pad. It’s the big empty I am swimming in.

RECORDING THE SONGS:

We’ve taken a different approach this time around, and are doing all of the tracking and preliminary recording ourselves, and at this point, we are almost there – just a few odds and ends to drop in, and the vocals.

Each group of songs is an evolution for us. We push out the corners of what we write as a group. We add new instruments. It’s the same here: banjo and upright, my ancient broken B200 wheezing it’s way into a song, pedal steel where I didn’t think it would go…it’s been fun and life affirming to have so much energy be breathed into these songs.

Brandon tunes up the banjo for "woods pretty"

This record is important to me for a lot of reasons, I hope that when it is finished it will be important to you too.

I’ve dropped in the scratch demo of one of the 1st songs that starting me thinking about all this, “Liberty Bell”. I’ll get around to giving all the details on each song after we’ve got the finished product, but I wanted to give you a little something for reading through all this

My family came from Vaasa Finland…

A song about my great-grandfather, who died when he fell through the ice one winter near my family’s hometown of Vaasa. Life was hard back then, and I should think on this a bit the next time I don’t have a decent wi-fi signal or my $6 coffee is made wrong.

 
Alan Wuorinen — Wasa (demo ’11) by Static Motor Recordings

The last track on the album, UFO, was written by Brandon, take it away:

I cringe a bit at the idea of referring to myself a “songwriter.” I write songs, but “songwriters” are a completely different breed. One thing that seems to be true for all of us, however, is the (all-too-rare) “song that falls into your lap.” As a guitarist first, I’ve typically constructed songs from chord progressions on up. I can usually do that pretty quickly once an idea strikes me, but vocal melody and lyrics often frustrate me for weeks—or even months. It’s not that I have a hard time coming up with vocal melodies or lyrics, it’s that I rarely trust my first instincts. I assume my first vocal melody isn’t thought-out enough, interesting or daring enough. And my lyrical placeholders—those who know me know that I’m capable of singing complete nonsense for months—sometimes make it hard for me take a fresh approach when it’s time to finally pen the words.

But once in while, even for me, it all just falls in your lap. “UFO” is one such song, as is “Fade“. (Maybe I’m turning a corner? Both my songs on the album are super-short-and-to-the-point-pop so I know I’m not breaking any new ground here, but it’s nice to have an idea and translate it into song without too much latency.)

I remember going to bed one night—probably after watching some “space” show on the Science Channel—and singing that UFOuuooohh bit. It immediately struck me as kinda cool so I grabbed my iPhone and sang it into my voice recorder so I wouldn’t forget it. The next night I quickly found the chords that made the most of the line. (Lyrics first, chords second…for those keeping score!) Right away it began to sound like a mid/late ’90s Guided by Voices song so I figured I was on the right track (Longwalls albums likely contain one such track, it’s in our DNA). It all came together in one sitting.

Lyrically, I guess I was captivated by the idea of not believing what you’re seeing no matter how awesome the sight. Not because you’re jaded, but because you’re wise and you’ve this all before.

Explosions, remains… nope, you’re not going to sell me on this one! Not this time!!

After all, UFOs can come from anywhere. So long as it’s a place that’s well out of sight…

UFO
It can’t be real to me
As flames burst over seas
Falling down…
UFO
It can’t be sold to me.
As remains fall down on me
Falling down…
Good night my burning light
Blinds me by decree
Falling down…
UFO
It can’t be sold to me
Can’t be sold back to me
As remains fall down on me
From a place I’ll never see…

My original demo

Get the real thing! Careers in Science on sale now at StaticMotor.com / Bandcamp / iTunes.

Cheers!

-bcw

Concept:

In the long-long ago, when the crops failed, when there was famine, or when the plague hit, we would look to our king for responsibility. It was he who had a covenant with the gods, and it must have been his offense to the gods that brought upon our strife. We would pick up torches and the day’s equivelant to pitch-forks, march to the king’s tower, pick him up, and throw him out the window. The gods would be satisfied, his transgressions that affected his people would be forgiven, and the next king would do a much better job (or else).

Have we changed that much in a thousand years? Or even in 200 odd years since we departed from the British monarchy? I don’t know. Perhaps it is again childish of me to think so, but in a thousand years from now, will future people, in their silver speed-suits and flying cars, look at us as that much differently from those villagers of Bohemia?

We need to have someone we can love. We need to have someone we can hate. Someone to pin it all on. A despot is just as useful as a messiah to us these days. As long was we get to bitch and throw him out on his ear every four years.

 - “The King is dead, Long live the King, Long live the Kind, The King is dead.”

Music:

I love the way this one builds organically until everyone is playing as loudly as possible in the end…the dynamic works really well live, but is a little difficult to capture in a studio recording…I know I stuggled with it, as the song changes somewhat when you take away the live, ‘the wheels might come off’ feeling that I get when playing and singing it. Still, the studio recording is a great document to this one, I know I will always love playing it live…

Track 6, Sex and Work, was written by Dan.. Take it away Dan!

I was reading Star Island by Carl Hiaasen - a crime novel/ social commentary/ satire about a Britney-type singer who can’t sing and lives in Miami – it got me thinking about Madonna and Lady Gaga but mostly I was playing guitar – strumming the beat – the 1 the 2 major the 4 – used many times in rock songs – uplifting church chords really – staring at my bookcase.

My wife used to edit books for a lesbian erotic press in Pittsburgh – we’ve got Dyke Strippers – Switch Hitters – a bunch of Susie Bright stuff – and there was a book called Sex, Work : Writings By Women In the Sex Industry – next to a book called Madonnarama – Sex – Work it’s all the same to me – Madonna, La Gaga it’s all the same to me – the lyrics have since changed but that’s all it takes to have a song sometimes.

Keep playing and rhyming to figure out what it means as I go along – I like the idea of the sex worker – or porn star – or pop star – so strung out on there job that it’s all the same to me – the American dilemma – too much sex except where you need it – there’s a window to this world that tempers everything we see – sure the tv – the flash player – quicktime – nothing groundbreaking but it worked and felt true to the song – skins vs skirts replaced the Madonna Gaga rhyme – quick lyric bursts – harmonies – major chords then the minor 6′th – power pop – Cheap Trick singing about Kiss records and their mom and dad.

The evolution won’t be on tv – the internet and new paradigms don’t ring as true as they once did – it’s still entertainment – turns out the revolution was tweeted since then but Stephen Sodenburgh making a movie with Sasha Grey doesn’t strike as me an important social phenomenon – more like Milli Vanilli winning a Grammy – there was a moment when an institution told the absolute truth about itself by vote – democracy that made Ben Franklin smile.

I’m a mirror to the world – I always loved the last lines of Kundun – something like I think i’m a reflection like the moon on the water – when you see me and I try to be a good man you see yourself. I gave the pop star her due – don’t blame me if you don’t like what you see.

I had a lot of fun writing and singing this song – loved Alan’s whistling – Brandon’s harmonies and harmony guitars – Kurt’s cow bell.

Get the real thing tomorrow!!

For now, my original demo (and lyrics) below…

Oh my duodenum!! Or as Alan says ‘Owww!’

Lyrics

Sex Work – it’s all the same to me
Skins vs skirts – it’s all the same to me
There’s a window to the world that tempers everything you see
Sex and Work – it’s all the same to me

Text flirt – it’s all the same to me
Wet t-shirt – there ain’t no shame to me
There’s a window to this world the evolution won’t be on tv (not any time soon)
Sex and Work it’s all the same to me

I’m a mirror to this world
Don’t blame me if you don’t like what you see
Sex and Work – it’s all the same to me

Dan London – Sex and Work (DEMO ’10)

–Dan

Come away
break your mother’s heart
come away
come away
Come away
break your mother’s heart
come away
come away

The town I grew up in...

A song about loss,  “homecoming” was at once an easy one for me to write and a difficult one for me to explain. It’s sort of a return to an earlier lyrical style for me, a little more fuzzy on concept from the outside, way too much information on the inside. Makes it difficult for me to write about at all, much less break it all down. The rest of the lyrics are next – soak in the texture, and we’ll make our way to the music without any heavy-handed explaination of my life story:

Ground was cool
happy to be a home
blistering day
blistering day
Ground was cool
but nothing
to call your own
Come away
Come away

Painted brass and
breaths of glory
fingers at your
hem
where you run
they’ll never
follow
till I come and call
for them

Gone the way
of Dodo and Buffalo
gone away
gone away
gone the way
of Dodo and Buffalo
gone away
gone away

Dust and Steel
pistol was at your hip
terrible day
blistering day
never draw
just shot up
into the air
gone away gone away

Painted brass and
breaths of glory
fingers at your
hem
where you run
they’ll never
follow
till I come and call
for them

Great opportunity here for us to stretch out and use as much layering and texture as possible…Kurt did a bunch of cello tracks, filling in nicely where you might hear keys instead, and I got another change to play some pedal steel, and as a novice, it took me some time to find the line between comping and soloing, and then to keep my solo lines traditional enough to fit the song – or at least keep it from coming across that I am a total guitar hack. I like it though. It ended up filling a sonic void that only a steel could.

any excuse to play some more pedal steel

You can check out the final album version when it’s released on Careers in Science on March 1st – in the meantime, here is the first demo that I posted:

And just an early reminder, our release show is Friday, April 8…hope I see you there!

Concept:

Being lost and trapped in space.

Being so far from home.

Having no hope of rescue.

If you are to survive, it will be by your own wits. All this and the man who is supposed to be in charge is dead and gone, and he left you to command. And you are ill-equipped. The mission is doomed, crew members die because of your hubris, and eventually, your life is taken too by your own incompetence.

It’s compelling imagery, but I wrote the song because of the feelings it evokes rather than the actual story. I feel ill prepaired for adulthood, even at 34. Whether I like it or not, I am in charge—of my career,  of my newborn son, of  my family—and it scares me to death. I am full of doubt, and the feeling that my choices will ruin us is always with me. The loss of a father figure (or never having one), the loss of the captain, is by no means new territory, but I explore it in the best vehicle I have, a rocket in space!

Music:

Here is the 1st demo that I recorded of the song…unapologeticlly Bob Pollard in it’s delivery, it changed a bit when we ported it over to The Longwalls as a true band song…

Here it is as performed with The Longwalls at Band in Boston’s “Flophouse”:

And our final album version:

Lyrics:

We lost the captain
an hour ago
we all cried and begged him
please not to go
sunglasses smiled
he said,
‘space ain’t that large’
put his hand on my sholder
and left me in charge
Sargasso
Sargasso
Sagrasso
make a liar out of me
Engines entagled
and life support low
the airlocks were leaking
and filling with snow
surrounded by suns
I’m freezing up here
fought for direction
and killed our engineer
Sargasso
Sargasso
Sargasso
make a liar out of me
Sargasso
Sargasso
Sargasso
make a liar out of me
wish I was home
wish I hadn’t lost my cool
lost in space
I wish I oughta
dropped out of school
comlink is dead
and artificial
gravitys gone
looks like my captains choice in me
well he was wrong
Sargasso
Sargasso
Sargasso
make a liar out of me
Sargasso
Sargasso
Sargasso
made a liar
made a liar
out of me

"if you smoke, that's a day in the cooler"

Concept:

On the TV, two men are in a cafeteria in prison. One knocks out a beat on the metal picnic table with his hand and a coin, the other sings about the regrets of his sentence and the powerlessness that he feels in prison. It was maybe 15-20 seconds on the screen, but I had the image in my mind for weeks afterwards. No real hope, no chance for immediate redemption, and any resistance will lead to a longer sentence. It’s childish of me to think in these terms, but the song ends up feeling like a song of teenage rebellion, not to diminish the seriousness of prison life in America, but I suppose it’s the only way I can relate to such a stark and bleak existence – being a kid and not having your life be your own. Maybe a prison metaphor is a little dramatic, but there you have it. The song is also about having a choice to make, whether I will be the best person I could be, or, as I have done so myself at times, choose ease, anger, thoughtlessness. Rebelling against my own better judgment to prove I belong in mental lock up.

Music:

I wrote the music, at least in part, a couple of years ago and had shelved it, not fully realizing the subject matter and the opportunity that it had with The Longwalls. While gearing up to put a track list together for “Careers in Science“, Brandon mentioned that it might be a great fit. I jumped at the opportunity and put down the basic guitar/rhythm/vocal tracks and gave a copy to Kurt, asking him to drop in some noise and keyboards which he had so expertly used in his last solo record, “Pyramid“. He returned a week later with some of the most subtle and cool work that I have heard from him. I’m proud of this track for the collaborative elements that it has, and how well it blends both Kurt and my style of writing.

First, here is the original demo from 2006, I used this great Korg B200 with about 12 broken keys to play the bell sounds. I still use the B200 when doing demos, its a lot of fun, even with the backflips I need to do to play chords with all the missing notes.

Some of the changes to the song from demo to final recording:

> Keys, aimed as accompaniment  in the way I recorded the demo, more enviromental when Kurt took the reins, which I think worked out great.
> The album version also has a steady crescendo, starting with just kick, guitar, and vocals, and adding in more percussion, keys, and guitar as the song moves along

And here is the album version. Obviously polished up, but so much more of a collaborative effort… l love the crackly bits that Kurt put in under the guitar solo…

Lyrics:

Your kit
is a hand
and a quarter
or a slug
I can’t be sure which one
I can’t be sure which one
I can’t be sure which one
I can’t be sure which one
If you smoke
that’s a day
in the cooler
or a strike
I can’t be sure which one
I can’t be sure which one
I can’t be sure which one
I can’t be sure which one

Next up is Brandon’s track “Where Things go to Fade.” Take it away…

Hey ya’ll. Brandon here. Recently I’ve had the pleasure of spending a few weeks a year in St. Petersburg, Florida with my good friends Scott & Sarah Robinson. Inevitably, our time together includes a lot of late night “porch time.” As late night becomes early morning, we’ll decide it’s time to “have a stoop.” We’ll sit outside, nurse the night’s last beers, and talk about whatever—Tom and Jerry, hot sauce, astronomy, the housing collapse…

One night last spring—the last night of that particular trip if I remember correctly—Sarah was telling a story and asked something like, “what do you call that ledge behind the back seat of a car?” To which I responded, “Where things go to fade?” Sarah of course meant the rear deck / back dash (what is it called?!?), but the first image that came to mind was of the warped CDs and faded books that always seem to collect there.

That line has stuck with me since then, and will probably stick with me forever. Or will it? I began thinking about memory as a temporary thing. Photographs fade, recordings degrade, and so does the mind. The laws of the universe seem to dictate that nothing is permanent. It can be cold beneath the sun, and there’s nothing we can do but wonder why..

The mangled word play line is a lot fun, but it took forever for Alan and I to be able to sing it in unison properly—consistently:

I remember when you said, “where things go to fade”
When things start to fade, I’ll remember what you said…

As for the music, it’s interesting to go back and listen to my original demo (below). It’s quite different from the song you’ll hear on the album. I did end up carrying over the programmed electric piano bit that flows over the “fade” lines above  (nice to have a remnant from the home recording on the record), but the similarities end there. I didn’t write a second verse until sitting on the Red Line on the way to the studio to do the vocal track. The album version is also much faster, and features Alan’s first crack at pedal steel, loads of hand percussion from Kurt, and some great bass playing by Dan.

That’s the fun of being in band..

It’s good to have friends. In the studio.. and on the stoop…

Enjoy the demo, and check out the real thing when we release “Careers” on Tuesday, March 1.

Cheers,
Brandon

First up is one of my tracks. The opening / title track, “Careers in Science”:

Concept:
I recommend watching the whole series of videos from Vice TV on North Korea, but this was the section that really got to me:

This girl is basically a prisoner in this tea house. She waits there for tourists that never come, knowing that every moment she is being watched by Kim Jong Il’s agents. Perhaps compared to the horror that any number of her countrymen face in prison work camps for political dissidants her life may not be as hard. But imagine being trapped in this incredibley lonely place, with no hope of escape, no hope to just quit your job if you don’t like it, and when you do get to interact with another human, you are on a short, deadly leash. That’s the genesis of the song, but it expands in my mind to the sort of limits that I, and most people I know, put on themselves and their aspirations. Maybe the authoritarian DPRK in my brain that keeps me in my place.

Music:
Ennio Morricone was in my mind when writing the opening pentatonic line. I wanted a driving, bombastic melody that walked into the room with brass balls and started shooting up the place. To seal the deal on the spaghetti western sound, we also borrowed our old friend from music school, Damian David, to play the trumpet line. It worked out well I think. I also wrote it as a overture, both for an album and a live set, as it is quick to get attention and rolls out the feel for the rest of this particular suite of songs.

Before we get to the goods, here is an early demo I recorded to get the idea on tape. As with most of my work with The Longwalls, it’s the writing that happens as a group and in the studio pushes the music to a great new place that I never would have arrived at by myself.

And now, without further adieu, I submit for your approval the opening track of our new album: “Careers in Science.” Enjoy!

Lyrics:

At the turn of a wagon wheel
and the brush of steel
on the stair
a pretty payer in uniform
and a song that formed
in the air
golden bridge
russian tubes
ill informed
cautious two
mind my master
you’ve been warned
of all the states I’ve hated
called friends
negotiated
careers in science that never would come to pass
Karoke and Jasime tea
they’ll be watching me
while we play
a knife is hidden
but at my side
we’re prepared to die
any day
folded notes
broken english
passed in fear
mother’s men
wait outside
should I leave here
of all the states I’ve hated
called friends
negotiated
careers in science that never would come to pass