Tag: history of

One Week, No Shortcuts and Eight Years

News From The Week That Was

It’s here – the titular (tee hee) and final track from “Songs About Crying”.  The full album will be available for download (FOR FREE!!!) from our bandcamp site next week.  In The Cube, this was a bit of a catch up week after two weeks off – working through some live songs and recording another potential for Fun Drunks.  Puffer is away for a couple of weeks, so we may have some limited progress through the rest of August, but we will continue to keep you up to date!

A History of ….

Songs About Crying, Track 8: Songs About Crying

Songs About Crying

This is another early song for us, predated on this album only by Impression of You.  Scarfo aimed to write a simple piano riff to give Boyne the room to do what he wanted to vocally – it clicked almost immediately.  As we were still finding our writing style and our groove in terms of working together, this song became a little meta and was a self criticism of some of the easy shortcuts to take, “He can’t cheat that/he can’t repeat that/Just to save himself a line.”  This also became a tongue in cheek rallying cry for the type of song that ended up on this record, just us ‘writing songs about crying’.

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. Magnum P.I. ran for 8 seasons and 160 episodes.  Amazing how far a moustache would take you in the ‘80s.
  2. There are only so many funny observations out there.
  3. Small town folk really are kind.

Goupy Eyes, Looking Inward and Seeing Fires

News From The Week That Was

This ended up being an off week for us as Puffer was away on a family trip and Boyne was feeling a little under the weather.  No “Cube” News to pass along, but you can check out the newest track from Songs About Crying below!

A History of ….

Songs About Crying, Track 7: Hesitant

The intention here was not to make some sort of political statement.  Rather, regarding the whole vaccination semi-controversy, I wanted to reflect on how I feel now as a middle aged man versus how I feel I would have reacted in a similar situation when I was still an angry young man.  I imagined a conversation between the two versions of ‘me’ and that’s what this is about.  I can’t stress strongly enough that this is not myself or Fighting Whiskey trying to make a statement, simply a reflection on my own life.

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. Building a good fire can be a very rewarding experience.
  2. Angry older women are terrifying.
  3. Some people are pretty intent on getting others into a pool.

Chops, Gils and Fools

News From The Week That Was

This week in The Cube was mostly focused on keeping up the acoustic chops.  With a couple of weeks coming that won’t see the full band together, we wanted to make the most of the time that we did have so as to ensure that we weren’t too rusty when we got back together again in mid August.  Beyond that, there was some work done on a personal project, but not a ton of progress to report.

A History of ….

Songs About Crying, Track 6: Old Gil (Acoustic)

Shortly after the release of Dandelions and Failure, as a fun exercise, we sat down and recorded a live version of Old Gil, fully acoustic.  In doing so, the song changed quite a bit – it was slowed down, there was a short guitar solo added and it had a completely different vibe to it.  Based on the positive feedback we got from the live version (see it here), we decided to do a studio version as well.  The remarkable thing that came from this is that it was a one night effort – the whole thing, from first note to final mix happened all in one night.  Sometimes, things just land properly the first time.

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. Even the most vile of acts can be made more classy by referring to their frequency as ‘fortnightly’.
  2. The last acceptable form of public mockery falls upon fans of the Cleveland Browns.
  3. Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, get your shit together.

New Song, Old Song and Fish Kids

News From The Week That Was

Another jam week in The Cube – working on honing some acoustic skills.  We also made some progress on a project that might not end up being a FW song and hammered out some potential new lyrics.  The main news this week is yet another new tune – “Impression of You”

A History of ….

Songs About Crying, Track 5: Impression of You

This is the very first Fighting Whiskey song, even pre-dating “Old Gil”.  I had hammered out some lines on a piano and found myself stuck – after nearly 10 years of writing for The Dexter Holmes Story, I was suddenly in the position wherein lyrics weren’t tied to a story.  Stepping out of that box was a little scary – I didn’t know what to write about.  When forced out of that box, I got to thinking about life in general and how things end for all of us.  3 of my 4 grandparents passed away from some form of dementia or Alzheimer’s, and so I thought I would dive into that.  Digging around on what it feels like to see that happen to someone that you love and the overreaching fear that it is an inevitable fate for me as well *shakes fists at genetics* …

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. A cat will look you dead in the eye while punching another cat, then leave his paw there to show you that he doesn’t care about being a dick.
  2. I’m capable of getting excited about someone else’s tracksuits.
  3. In terms of DNA, children are 99.8% fish.

Chop News, Slide Blues and Beet Juice

News From The Week That Was

Apologies again for last week, I had to leave in a hurry and was short of a couple of things that I needed.  Still, my hope is that “Lately” was worth the wait.  As a general update, the last two weeks were focused on honing some acoustic chops in The Cube.  We may be popping up to workshop a couple of acoustic songs in a live setting somewhere in the area very soon.

A History of ….

Songs About Crying, Track 4: Lately

Lyrically, this is a pretty straightforward song.  It really was just something that I was feeling in the moment.  Overall, the structure came together pretty quickly, but the real difference came when Boyne started to sing it.  I’m not sure if it was something he heard in the way that it was written, but his vocals came out with a real country twang.  After that was established, he added the backward guitars that sound kind of slidey and we were well on our way.

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. The phrase that is key to an enraged Maha is, “You just missed him by five minutes”.
  2. Cappy really, really likes beet juice.
  3. There are two types of people in this world: Those who think, “What if Mr. Big covered the theme from Perfect Strangers” and those who don’t.

Hurt, Ugly and Farts

News From The Week That Was

A bit of a recovery week in The Cube this week.  While Boyne’s foot woes continued, Scarfo developed some of his own.  Puffer added a burnt arm to the mix and we were a banged up bunch.  We focused mostly on vocal layering and mixing so as to not strain ourselves too far.  The older you get, the longer it takes to recover.  Still, another tune for you this week, “Ugliness in You”.

A History of ….

Songs About Crying, Track 3: Ugliness In You

Simply put, this is a song about disillusionment. It looks at a moment when a person realizes that someone or something else isn’t what they initially appeared to be.  The main line, “Now I see it/The ugliness in you” is something that Scarfo scribbled down on a notepad in a hotel room years ago.  As the disillusionment grew across the last two years, the song started to come together as a whole.

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. Don’t start a fart war with an 8 year old boy unless you are prepared to lay waste to your entire home.
  2. For me, 41 is “Get a cane years old”.
  3. A penis themed colouring book is an acceptable birthday gift?

Off Week, Bar Creeps and Good Sleeps

News From The Week That Was

This was an off week for us as we were dealing with some family obligations and injuries. Even though nothing new is brewing The Cube this week, enjoy track 2 from Songs About Crying, “Run”!

A History of ….

Songs About Crying, Track 2: Run

Inspired by the “Milton’s Incident”, Run is a song about bullying.  For those unaware, last year, the city where we are from, Kitchener, Ontario, became internet famous for a few days.  And as you can imagine, when someone or somewhere becomes internet famous for a few days, it isn’t for positive reasons.  A video surfaced of an autistic gentleman being physically and verbally abused by bar owners in the city.

By far the heaviest most ‘rock’ song on Songs About Crying, at its heart, Run is about bullies.  Even though there are distorted guitars, we felt that the slower pace and the themes of the song made it fit here.  

The three verses look at different aspects of bullying.  The first, is the traditional type of bullying that older generations faced.  The second verse looks at how the cyber world has now given bullies the opportunity to attack their prey even when they aren’t in the same room.  Lastly, the third verse looks at the way that some people now use the term ‘bully’ to actually bully others.  Needless to say, this is where some of the NSFW language comes in as it is incredibly infuriating.

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. Getting older means getting way too excited about buying a new bed.
  2. Through a cat’s eyes, my head resembles a springboard.
  3. All else fades, but if you can find someone who will laugh with you when you have simultaneously smashed your faces into the same thing, that is forever stuff.

It’s Here, A Different Gear and Free Beer

News From The Week That Was

It’s Heeeeere!!!! The first track from Songs About Crying, “Shivers and Shakes”!  See below for more details, or visit it on the releases page here.

A History of ….

Songs About Crying, Track 1: Shivers and Shakes

Shivers and Shakes is one of the older tracks, one of the ones that predates The Cube.  Scarfo was just getting back to piano, and saw an opportunity.  Writing in B flat and D minor has always seemed to him to have a special sound – something about D minor just seems a little sadder than the other minor keys.  This isn’t something that had been previously explored as this is not a key that is particularly conducive to guitar.  It isn’t impossible, it’s just uncomfortable with a lot of bar chords and we can be lazy from time to time.

Lyrically, at this point in Fighting Whiskey history, Scarfo and Boyne were toying with different approaches to writing, and this is one that fell into a particular category.  The idea was to have one of the two tell the other a story or what they wanted the feeling to be about, and the other would write the lyrics based on that.  In this case, Scarfo presented an idea to Boyne and Boyne did the writing.  The reverse of this was done on “Touching Stoves” from Dandelions, wherein Scarfo wrote lyrics to something Boyne expressed.

We wanted this to be the first song released from Songs About Crying in that it is pretty thematically indicative of the rest of the record to come.  Sound, tone, different keys, slower – this song has a little bit of all of that. 

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. No one in Fighting Whiskey is as excited about “Fun Drunks” as Euro is.
  2. A child who won’t clean his room will gladly clean a softball or home plate without being asked.
  3. The best beer isn’t just free beer – it’s surprise free beer.

Big Announcements, Why Crying and Sexy Groceries

News From The Week That Was

I’m not going to waste too much time with a regular weekly update as we have a big announcement!  We’ve talked about it for a while now, and it is finally set to be released.  On Tuesday, August 9th, 2022, Songs About Crying will go live to the world. 

In the meantime, starting next week, we will be featuring one of the tracks with a ‘history of’ on the song as well as an audio preview.  Every Tuesday (I’ll be doing it Monday night, but at different times, so Tuesday it will be guaranteed to be here), there will be a new track, its history, meaning and a chance to hear it before the album comes out.  The album cover that you see is essentially a negative of Dandelions – for an idea of why and what’s coming, see the History of “Songs About Crying” below.

A History of ….

Songs About Crying

When we started writing back during the pandemic, we were finding that our songs fit into two general categories – “angry” and “sad”.  Originally, we were going to put it all together on the first record, but as we got down to the nitty gritty, it became apparent that the two types of songs really didn’t fit together on one album.  We made the decision at that time to split it into two records – the heavier, more upbeat stuff became Dandelions and Failure, and what was left over, we were going to turn into “Songs About Crying”.  Much like not every song on Dandelions ended up being angry, not every song on Crying is sad, but there is a unifying theme.

Some of these songs are as old as the first songs from Dandelions – a lot of it was written simultaneously.  A few of them are as new as being first conceived less than two months ago, so this really has been a work in progress for more than two years.

If you are expecting more of what happened on Dandelions, you will want to adjust your expectations.  As I mentioned a few weeks back, this will be ‘your mom’s favourite Fighting Whiskey album’.  For everyone who has ever said, “Scarfo, why don’t you play more piano?” or “Boyne, try and do something a little more serious”, this is the album for you.

Stay tuned next week for information on the first track, “Shivers and Shakes” … fun little video teaser below.  Okay .. maybe not fun, it’s just Scarfo playing one of the parts on the piano for less than a minute, but it’s fun to us.

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. If you are going to buy groceries for your vegan friend, they’d best be sexy groceries.
  2. I need to start ignoring my phone on Friday afternoons.
  3. Learning a Harry Chapin song teaches you an important lesson – Harry Chapin was a dick.

Laying Tracks, Hanging Racks and Boyne Scats

News From The Week That Was

A heavy recording week this week in The Cube.  We added more layers to the newest song, tentatively titled, “Happens to You” and completely re-recorded the mystery cover that we were talking about a few weeks back.  We wanted to slow it down a bunch from the original, but what we had put down was simply too slow, so we started again 10 beats per minute faster and think we have a version that will work much better.

A History of ….

The Cube, Part III: From Dandelions to Crying to Fun

Now that we were set up, it was time to get back to work.  With the limited space, we had to hang the guitars from the walls and mount a number of shelves to cut down on the clutter.  Still, once it was ready to go, the minimalist approach really helped.  Having the piano next to the recording rack led to a whole lot more piano tunes, a lot of which ended up going on Songs About Crying.  One or two are even sneaking their way onto “Fun Drunks”.

The current setup is one that we are very comfortable with and are hoping to work with for a very long time.  

Who or what will the next history focus on?  Only one way to find out …

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. The more you scream, the more water gets in your mouth.
  2. When a “Barry White” part is needed, somehow Scarfo is the go to.
  3. Boyne jazz scatting is hilarious. Cause we needed more scat.