2006 November

Get Help’s First Live Show: The End of the New Country

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In preparation for our first gig ever, Get Help performs our first gig ever. Out of the approximately 36 hours Mike and I spent in Boston this weekend, I would say 28 of them were probably spent either rehearsing or performing one of the six songs we ultimately recorded live at Andy and Jen’s Flophouse. Mike also got to meet Bill for the first time, which I think is very important: Get Help members should have a vague idea who other Get Help members are. The setlist: Traveler’s Shaving Kit, End of the New Country, Carne Asada, Temporary [...]

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Town Fires

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I am disenfranchised by the New York City music scene, and it’s fun to use a footstep sound effect as a snare drum. That’s all it takes to write a song. I found the music on my 8-track from a year ago, recorded as part of a project where Tony and I drunkenly agreed to write music specifically to sell cars and rug deodorizers. Get Help may still be that project, but as of this date I have no car and dirty rugs, so maybe not.

Carne Asada

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When this whole project started, we were just building instrumentals, little nuggets that would waft towards the country’s collective brain. Like pie cooling on a window sill, you know? And we needed a way to keep the instrumentals sorted; so we named them after one of our favorite things in the world: Mexican foods. It was a brilliant idea at first because naming instrumentals anything when you’re making so many is a bit, well, self-conscious. And after 10-12, well, it looks like a menu.

This music’s Tony’s and the lyrics are mine in case you’re interested, or a royalty [...]

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All Else Fails

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I built a silly drum beat in Pro Tools and the music came 15 minutes later. sent the idea to Tony and he sent it back a day later with the ‘teardrop’ guitar and noise wash, and I realized how satisfying it is to collaborate on a song with someone who works on your idea when you’re doing something much less worthy of collaboration. Like in this case, there was a pretty good chance I was watching ‘My Name is Earl’ and drinking box wine. Also, a tip of the hat to Lou Barlow for the lyrical theme.

A [...]

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