Music Videos and Saucy Messages

News From The Week That Was

It’s here – the official music video for Songs About Crying is now live and available to check out!  We have some other things on the go, but don’t want to distract from this, so that stuff will be available on the next instalment of the news.  Enjoy!

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. One can be a poet and the father of fascism.
  2. Beer koozies with saucy messages are much better in French.
  3. No matter what week it is, the most popular time to start “not drinking” is next week.

Busy Weeks and Egg Kindness

After a week off from the web, this was a busy week for us in The Cube getting back to it!  Firstly, has everyone had a chance to check out “Songs About Crying” yet?? If not, you can find the links for the streaming services and for a free download right here.  We have two new tunes on the go, worked at some of the acoustic set as well as two major new projects.  The first of which is a music video for the titular (tee hee) track for Songs About Crying which should be available very, very soon.  Also, we are working on a bonus track for some of our more loyal listeners.  Info to come on that!  Lastly, we finally got around to doing a press photo.  Look at us getting the bare necessities done a couple of years in.

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. Some people beat eggs very, very gently.
  2. In The Cube, a suitable replacement for hello is, “‘Not drinking’ starts next week.”
  3. Swoop will straight up screw you over.

Crying and Grateful

News From The Week That Was

It’s finally here!  The full release of Songs About Crying is live!  You can check it out on your favourite streaming service – Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or if you don’t subscribe to any of those, you can just download it for free here.  If you are doing the free download thing, just click that you are going to purchase it and select a price of $0 (we let ya do that cause we love ya).

Three Things I’ve Learned This Week

  1. 407 employees are not fans of Tesla owners.
  2. I’m not the only one infuriated by Chapin holes.
  3. The support from everyone who got ahead of the actual release has been overwhelming.  Thank you all for checking it out.  Not funny, just grateful.

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.