Quick Album Update: The Ghost of John Henry
It’s a very exciting time for me, since the new album will be out on Tuesday and we’ll be playing our CD release show a week from tonight. We’re taking digital pre-orders here and physical CD orders here. It’s hard to quantify how much different this feels than when the first album came out in […]
House of the Rising Sun
We headed into the studio with ten songs to record for our next album, “The Ghost of John Henry,” but at the last minute, I decided to add an 11th to the schedule (we had to go up to 11, after all…). In a lot of ways, recording that last song — “House of the […]
Couch by Couchwest
Yes, SXSW is in full-swing in Austin, and while I once lived in Austin, that was a while ago. It’s cool, though, because the Couch by Couchwest festival is here for us all — those of us “too broke or too lazy to get off our couches and go to Austin.” Over the weekend, we […]
In the Studio, Final Weekend – Video Blog
We wrapped all of the recording for the new album, “The Ghost of John Henry” this weekend with our final cello, guitar, and vocal sessions, in addition to getting some miscellaneous percussion tracks. Percussion “instruments” on this record will include chains, old cast iron jail keys, artillery shells, homemade stomp box, a “thunder tube” (not […]
Great Album Reviews: Pictures at an Exhibition (Moussorgsky/Ravel)
Album: Pictures at an Exhibition Artist: Modeste Moussorgsky (composer), Maurice Ravel (arrangement) Genre: Classical Year: 1874/1922 Though originally written as a piano suite in 1874, way before anything like what we think of as an album existed, I don’t think it’s a stretch to call this an album. If you wanted to, you could even […]
For Auld Lang Syne
Spend any time at all on Turner Classic Movies, and you’ll hear Auld Lang Syne sung by a big group of folks. They’ll sing it on New Year’s Eve, Christmas, birthdays, or just when Henry Fonda or Jimmy Stewart has a nice day. It’s everywhere in movies made before about 1950. As someone who has […]
In the Studio, Week 1 – Video Blog
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6eMNjh7HDc] I took a stab at a video blog, and I’d love to hear what you think. Here’s a three-minute peek behind the scenes at our first sessions in the studio to work on the new record. As always, for more about the band, free downloads, other videos, etc., visit www.scifiromance.net.
The Studio Awaits
Tomorrow morning we start work on our new album “The Ghost of John Henry” at JaronSound Studios. We’ve got ten songs to tackle in order to tell the story of the album, and we might try to bang out a couple of one-offs or would-be B-sides if there’s the opportunity. My plan is to try […]
Road Stories: The Russian Dude
After a somewhat crappy show at the Pig ‘N Whistle in Hollywood, I went to the bar and got a beer. Standing beside the bar, a guy with a heavy Russian accent, a purple shirt unbuttoned to his stomach, and a heavy gold chain complimented our set and I thanked him, then went to watch […]
Thinking About the Album as Art Form
As we gear up to head into the studio to record the next album, naturally I’ve been thinking a lot about albums. Everybody knows that the album as we generally understand it — a coherent collection of songs by an artist — is pretty much dwindled to a niche preoccupation. Bands like Radiohead get some […]