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.

A Friend, The Frond and Marked Sticks

News From The Week That Was

This week saw us have a bit of a ‘life gets in the way sometimes’ situation in terms of the acoustic conversion process.  Still, Puffer and Scarfo were able to get some real work done on converting “Had a Friend” and hammered out some of the yet unreleased “Shivers and Shakes”.  Additionally, Scarfo was able to lay down the beginnings of yet another new track.  Scarfo is a machine! (says Scarfo…)  The audience in The Cube (Carey, Pacitti, Halloween Cat and Homer) went wild.

Fighting Whiskey Recommends

Boyne’s #3 – New River Head

Who? The Bevis Frond

What? New River Head

Why?

This double album is inspiring on every level to me.

“The Frond” will never get their due – that has been established since their inception in 1987.

I am just doing my itty bitty best to get the word out.

This is an excellent place to start, however damn near every album is, if you can dig this you will dig em all.

Recommended especially if you like hawkwind power pop and psychedelia in general.

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. Crudely drawn mild pornography can be a thoughtful and heartwarming gift.
  2. Despite shunning geography in university, I am a heck of a map builder.  Eat it, Laurier.
  3. Technology can’t ever improve upon a well marked stick.  Long live the stick.