dear reader,

this is my brain on drugs.

i still can’t quite get this thing to work. it now sounds wonderful 80% of the time, and like a screech owl (or falcon, anyone?) being fed through a paper shredder the other 20%.

but tutoring is almost into summer phase, joe and i actually finished “river in the dry” before he left for california, we just had a great weekend with trevor and megan here in nj, and i’m gonna get some rest. even my bevy of partially working amplifiers and benched pedal projects are not enough to dampen that slow euphoria: rest.

my ambition for the next couple weeks is to post enough that this blog gets truly boring. just totally banal. it’s a lofty goal, i know.

talk to you soon.

try and imagine those three words in a triangle.

dear reader,

“she wrote a letter” was probably the most difficult single yet to mix. hopefully it’s not the most difficult to listen to. (actually, i’m listening to it right now, on our site. i’m always on our site now because i accidentally dragged my gmail bookmark right off the bar, and the good night, states bookmark is now where the gmail one was. imagine the confusion.)

yesterday i had a sudden influx of free time, which in some way, shape or form, is what most of my posts seem to be about lately, and which i knew then to be short-lived, certainly, so i spent it editing this long overdue video. i promise you will either find it charming or absolutely terrifying and not at all funny, in an understated way. anyway, you should watch it and share it, because i’m sure one of my band mates will make me take it down soon.

as is often the case, i was in the midst of mania inspired by mixing last week. i think it’s part of human nature for lows and highs to accentuate each other, mostly because emotions are generally dependent on perception (which for human beans is not real objective on the whole); and if said ups & downs are right next to each other, then you’ve got something really, really special.
again, well-tread ground on this blog is the fact that mixing creates that for me all on its own, regardless of whatever personal equanimity or lack thereof i’ve got, because of the process. unusually, though, the most memorable moment of last week’s blur is one of real euphoria; and like all truly great bouts of euphoria in my life, it was also a moment of great clarity.

(let me take another sip of coffee to really settle into an ironic tone.) that clarity was clearly exhibited last wednesday as i drove down the hills of allendale road quite a bit too fast, singing/screaming “OH YEAH!” on the way to my 3.30 session. it seemed like the only thing to do. you see, “she wrote a letter,” is really about (drum roll, please… ) CHANGE, in all it’s difficulty and destruction and most of all beautiful elation. freedom, people. fo rill.
i’m tired pretty much all the time now. joe’s theory is that no matter how careful we are, the in-between week is not long enough to catch up from the weekend. ever. that’s probably true, and i think it’s also true that a lot of my fatigue is really internal. in any case, the song reminded me just in time that nobody has to stay where they are–if marilee changed her dollars for pesos, her DMs for euros, baby, then man i can, too. specifics will die, nay are even now fading away. embrace the nothing-permanent.

without the details, of course, i’ve got no kind of dialectic, but that’s ok. i traded it for freedom.

ps. ok, SERIOUSLY, watch the video.

dear reader,

feels like the home stretch here. i sat here mixing for so long yesterday i don’t even want to do the math. on saturday, two very good friends are getting married (to each other, no less!), and i’ve got quite a bit more preparation to do for the pieces i’ll be playing.

but let me just celebrate for a moment with you. i’m really happy with “good times, so wearily desired!,” and i sincerely hope you’ll give it a listen (the in the impossible tension tracks have been moved in the player and are after the short films songs. you can do it. you can find it).

it turns out that working on songs very quickly goes a long way towards precluding the crafting of messages i usually try to do as a songwriter. this track, consequently, is maybe a bit more candid in some ways than most. granted, allyson still doesn’t know what it’s about, but she did say, “does it have something to do with proust?,” which is really pretty insightful/awesome. [earlier versions of the lyrics actually included proust AND his madeleine (!), but it just sounded too weird. (raise your hand if you have no idea what i’m talking about.)]

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS A LONG, PHILOSOPHICAL EXPLANATION OF THE PREVIOUS PARAGRAPH WITH LITERARY REFERENCES. IF YOUR FACE BEGINS TO HURT OR YOU ARE PREGNANT, SKIP IT.
the story runs thus: i had come across the original english title of marcel proust’s famous work, which i believe is remembrance of things past. it struck me because, although sort of pretty, it doesn’t have the strength or provocation of in search of lost time, which is more of a translation of the french title (i think there’s a later english version with that name). naturally, any confusion/comments/complaints/suggestions in the gretz household regarding proust are directly put to our resident proust expert, allyson. come to think of it, she’s the only expert on the subject i know–resident or otherwise.
the significant part of this is really the conversation that allyson and i had about proust’s re-experiencing of the past, and the questions it naturally raised for me. is it possible to remember ANYTHING factually, without re-interpreting the experience? can one even trust his memory, consequently? the more personal counterpoint is that nearly all memory has a sort of negative emotional screen for me, which is probably why i emphasize the interpretational aspect of “memory.”
END WARNING.

so, “good times, so wearily desired!” is a song that shares my experience of and outlook on memory, or at least part of it. the lyrics should be up pretty soon. you should probably disagree with what the songs says, ultimately, but you should also bop along to the consumer electronics of yesteryear.

oh, yeah, the celebration. i kinda got sidetracked there. well, i gotta go, but YOU should have a beer.

happy 15th.

dear reader,

good morning. by the time i post this, many of you will probably be at work, or on your way. did you forget anything?

i admit to some pretty continual confusion about where all of my gear is (pittsburgh? ramsey? the coat closet?), but that certainly can’t quite account for what joe and i did last friday morning.
we were running pretty late, heading out to the ‘burgh to write “sometimes i see you on the lawn” and finish recording “she wrote a letter.” on our way out we perused our in the impossible tension rig, which in our defense is a pretty intense mix of junk electronics, labyrinthine routing, and recording equipment, and joe asked obligatorily, “do we need any of this stuff?”

“no,” i said, car running and clock ticking. “i think we have everything.”

this is the scene where all the footage is fast-forwarded. (actually, we had a really nice trip. joe drove so i could work on the song a bit more, and later on 28, so i could play him eagles songs on the guitar. although he didn’t know that.)
in fact, everything would be fast-forwarded, AND the screen would be split so you could see megan’s repeated communications with katie white (yeah, katie white!) to secure a piano for recording “she wrote a letter,” of course all while i fudged my way through “the greeks don’t want no freaks.”

so jt pulled up to the bakers’, opened the door, and reached back for his jar of peanuts. i don’t really like the ones with paprika. he got this real slow, deep smile, like he does.
“we are so stupid,” he says. “SO STUPID.” following his meaningful looks to the pile of equipment in the back seat, i get a sinking feeling.

this is the part where it’d cut to a flashback, and i’d see ALL THE RECORDING EQUIPMENT sitting there among the casios in nj. maybe the music would swirl up in dark, forboding washes that make the viewer wonder with a deepening sense of dread, WHO WILL THE KILLER GET NEXT!?

joe, of course, starts laughing. “look at me casually eating peanuts! this is so funny!”

at this point trevor walks out his front door and waves once from the porch. we look at him, and back to the peanuts. joe just laughs more.

“EVERYTHING is funny when you’re so casually eating peanuts,” he roars. “Here, you have to have one!”

“oh, man.” i take one. stupid paprika.

epilogue: good night, states, continued on to a productive songwriting-only weekend, and planned to finish “she wrote a letter” in two weeks. megan caused a miniature explosion that launched a needle into joe’s leg, dan napped a bit in the sunshine, trevor did GNS computer-related stuff that i don’t really understand, and joe recovered sufficiently to consume 1.5 chicken fried rices from tram’s, as did i. flat, gluten-free bread was baked in the meadow where all the characters would eventually frolic unto the forgetfulness of the disrepair into which has fallen their family’s estate and which will certainly be undone by their forthcoming marriage to the wealthy and upstanding Mr. Max Harding; NOT the forgetfulness that leaves you 400 miles from your recording gear.

ps. just a friendly reminder–we’ve got track two of in the impossible tension coming out on thursday. it’s great. for those of you who had a little trouble getting into “arsonist’s blues,” this will be easier. i promise.

pps. a couple of folks have confessed personally to me being behind with the internet releases. i understand, but people, it’s only gonna get worse from here. if you haven’t downloaded “there is a treasure” yet, do it NOW. (please.)

ppps. if you did forget your lunch today, go to franktuary.

pppps. oh yeah, and i beat tetris again. those dancers are awesome.

dear reader,

no time for the rambling musings you’ve come to expect of my posts. gotta get this label submission to the post office (they still take hard copy–isn’t that the craziest?) before i go to work.

the title here goes out to megan and joe, and for the rest of you is from a bout of recording-induced delirium on saturday. there’s really nothing to get.

recording… oh yeah. so, joe and i are going to be finishing some songs over the rest of the spring as part of a gn,s ep called “in the impossible tension.” probably not all of the songs will make it onto the site as singles, but then again, maybe they will. the first one is going up tomorrow, and it’s called “arsonist’s blues.” it’s the best.

i think i mentioned this in my last post, but this brings our track-release schedule to a ridiculous once-every-two-weeks (whether that’s biweekly or semi-weekly, i’ll never know; someone comment and tell me!). part of the reason we’re doing it is to build a listenership, and if you’re reading this, we need your help doing that! any band stupid enough to try and write, record and mix a song every two weeks is clearly a conversation piece, right? right.

well, thanks. i knew i could count on you guys.

ps. if you’re a prayin’ man (or woman), pray that jude cole and keifer sutherland would give us a record deal. i am not making this up.