10:58 PM - Guitarded: why my friends are so amazing

Undoubtedly by this point some of you have seen this linked in other places around the web (both by those involved and interested/confused/weirded out friends), but I am going to approach it as if nobody has any clue about the project. Of course for all I know everybody in the world knew about this all along except me (which now that I've found out about so many secret meetings and coverups and near-misses seems entirely possible).

It was this saturday night. I was having a party. Daniella (who you might recognize as "D" from comments here) sat me down on the couch, a bottle of champagne in her hand, and called everyone over to the living room. I thought I was going to get covered in ketchup or something, but instead she (and everyone else there) presented me with - GUITARDED: THE SONGS OF BRYAN BRUCHMAN - an all-star homage

The basic idea is that for my 25th birthday, a big group of my completely totally awesomest most amazing friends put together an album of 11 songs... specifically 11 songs that I had written (to varying extents - some I only wrote the music, others I wrote the music and words - for each song I'll specify) and rerecorded their own versions/interpretations/mutations of them. Some of these songs have been previously recorded by Man in Gray, while others never made it past a few performances, but managed to resurface for this project. The people involved are my bandmates, my best friends, my favorite bands - all incredibly talented, creative, and downright sneaky people who managed to pull this off without me ever having even the slightest clue.

Here's a track by track response to GUITARDED, with links to the mp3s (click the track titles) so you can hear it for yourself. For the complete liner notes, take a look at Guitardation, the secret blog which those involved used to keep track of their progress, and find photos of the process and from the party at Jenny P's site.

1. Teenage Squirrel - "Multiply"
[Phil, Tina, Jeremy, d. - I wrote the words and music - MiG version on No Day/No Night] This was recorded back in 2003, and is the apparent seed for the whole concept of the project. I knew about it, and may have heard parts at some point, but I don't believe I ever got to hear the whole thing. I did, however, hear about it pretty frequently.

2. The Unsacred Hearts - "Hoboken"
[Joe Willie, Dave, Travis - I wrote the music, but all of MiG, including Dan Wholey, had something to do with the writing of the song - MiG version on MiG/UH split 7"] After the cracked out version of Multiply, I was a bit scared. I kind of thought they were making fun of my songs. But when this came on, I instantly knew that was so far from the truth. I've talked about the Unsacred Hearts quite a bit - I love them all as people, I enjoy taking pictures of them, and working with Travis when he records MiG is always a great experience. For them to tackle one of my own songs and to do such an amazing version of it (definitely with a VERY-UH twist to it) is a huge compliment.

3. G love & Special K - "Kill the Messenger"
[George, Kristie - I wrote the music, Tina wrote the words - no prior recording exists] This one was quite a shocker. For the uninformed, "Kill the Messenger" was a fairly short-lived Man in Gray song, and the whole idea behind it when I initially wrote it was that I came up with a bunch of parts that I really wanted to put in a song, and I crammed them together into something that didn't really work, yet we didn't know what we were doing and it started really cool so for quite a while we were opening shows with it. However, by the time we started to take ourselves at all seriously and began recording songs, KTM just disappeared. When I heard that first recognizable chord progression and Kristie's trademark breathy vocals, I was amazed. Kristie and George happen to be in another one of my favorite bands, the Song Corporation, and their rendition of this forgotten "classic" damn near broke my heart, especially since I know that Kristie was really sick and struggling through recording it, plus (get ready for sentimental Bryan here) she noted in the liner notes that she used the same guitar (with the same B tuning) as she did when we played together (over 20 hours) in the recording of Glenn Branca's Symphony 13 last year. Aww.

4. Beastmaster Romance - "Neighbors" (abridged interlude)
[P.L. Rosenbloom - I wrote the music, I think Jared wrote all the lyrics (right?) - MiG version on No Day/No Night] Oddly enough, I was basically making a version of "Hoboken" just about a month ago that I really would have like to sound as cool and minimalist techno-ish as this does... it's only 57 seconds long but Phil threw in not one but TWO Mr. Rogers soundclips. A wonderful interlude. Note: Phil's contribution number TWO to the project.

5. Scarlet Fever School - "36"
[d, Jeremy, Alex aka da Dirty - I wrote words and music - MiG version on MiG/UH split 7"] I remember when Daniella was trying to convince me that I actually had some sort of talent as a songwriter, citing 36 (or Thirty-Six) as an example, but I refused to believe her. She was talking about how it could be played in any style and still be a great song every time... well, now I believe her. This one is really quite beautiful - and D, you have a fantastic voice.

6. theJLM - "Better v3.2"
[theJLM - I wrote the music, Tina wrote words - no official MiG release, though tons of live versions and one aborted version from the No Day/No Night session do exist] This one scared the crap out of me. It sounded like the Liars beating the crap out of TV on the Radio on a summer eve, though I couldn't tell for the life of me what song it was during the first couple minutes of hearing it... although from what it reminded me of I could tell who was doing it at least... this one is rumored to already be a HUGE German club hit. It's the track where I keep discovering new things each time I hear it. I never knew JLM could be this insane. That beat at about 2:50 is so awesome, I wonder if he can pull that off with real drums too.

7. Carol Ann & The Fantastic Stand - "Tuesday Night"
[Carol Ann, The Fantastic Stand - I wrote the music and some lyrics, Tina wrote the rest - no official MiG release, though a few live versions and one aborted version from the No Day/No Night session do exist] I don't really get the codenames, but they sure are clever. "They" are George and Jess from El Jezel, aka everyone's favorite adorable indie rock couple. By this point in the listening experience, I was expecting this one, and, quite frankly, looking forward to it. I always knew that this was their favorite in the MiG catalogue, and usually made sure that we'd be playing it if we knew they'd be around, and there had been talk at various times of them covering it, but for whatever reason it just hadn't happened yet. I think they really handled it beautifully, and the spoken word interlude that Jess added in is just so genius, I absolutely love it and hope that some time we can get her to come and do it when MiG plays it onstage.

8. Baby Be-Gone - "MiG"
[Stephanie, Jared - I wrote the music, Tina wrote the lyrics - MiG version on No Day/No Night] I remember when I was working on the music for this song Jared always seemed to like it so much, saying it sounded like a track left off Daydream Nation or something like that. At the time, there really wasn't anything more encouraging that I could be told about a song. You may know Jared as the shirtless, stomping bassist from MiG, but here he's responsible for all of those fantastic guitar parts, including one played on the guitar that we bought together, the infamous "King Alfred" (how's that for more guitar-related sentimentality?). I didn't even know Steph could sing (which is why it took me forever to figure out who was singing), but damn, she did amazing things with the song, in a totally awesome Heart style.

9. The Marks - "Crawl"
[Phil, Tina, Mary - I wrote the words and music - MiG version on the top secret Fall 04 demo] This one is interesting. From the first guitar stab I knew it was the Marks. Nobody else I know plays like Phil (I do mean this as a compliment)... they made it dancier, punkier, and well, perhaps just a little bit more deranged. Phil sang like I'd never heard him do before, and it's really pretty cool. Though it is unfortunate that their band no longer exists, I have to admit that I do feel pretty special knowing that the last thing they recorded was something that I wrote (and possibly the longest song they ever played, clocking in at OVER 3 minutes!). Also - the stop/start they added is so completely perfect and I'm totally stealing it for MiG. This is the third track that Phil was involved in.

10. botany bay - "Niv"
[Eric - I wrote the music, Tina wrote the original lyrics - MiG version on the top secret Fall 04 demo] My friend Eric (formerly of Old College Try, now in The Secret Life of Sofia), contributed something quite special - by taking a song that I conceived as little more than a huge wall of sound-laden rocker and turning it into one of the sweetest, most beautiful things I've ever heard. OK, that sounds a bit heavy-handed, but dammit I mean it. I've always championed Eric's skills as a songwriter and musician, and I knew he was quite adept at recording, but I swear it took some kind of magic to take something that was very much Sleater-Kinney and Secret Machines and turn it into Elliot Smith and Death Cab for Cutie. And I'll admit it, I was walking down the street listening to this and damn near started crying like a baby. There. You people ALMOST got me to do it!

11. The Plus Ones - "Catholic Schoolgirls Rock"
[Jenny Piston, D-hella, Steph, Mary, Phil, Alex - I wrote the lyrics and music, with the help of my friend Ben years ago - thankfully no real MiG recording exists, except for a few practice space 4-track versions)] I knew they had to have something really big planned for the finale (Mary teasing me with "Come on Bryan, what's left? What OTHER songs did you write?" and then giggling was a bit of a hint). I thought perhaps it would be something really big and beautiful and sweet and touching, but then I realized that all my good songs had already been taken care of... and that the assumption would be that they'd chose one to end it with that I had written completely (so that takes "Stale," "the DB," and "Coffee Shop" out of the running). Basically the remaining options were "Mister Trigger," "Nietzche," "Golfballs," and "Catholic Schoolgirls Rock!" The first and third were too short lived and never really very good and the second one would be too hard to find a recording of (thought it would have been pretty funny to hear someone do it - I would have expected Jared to had he not done MiG), so that meant it could only be the most infamous song in the Man in Gray history. Yes, "Catholic Schoolgirls Rock!" I will attempt to retain some dignity (and ward off thoughts that I might have some sort of weird obsessions) by reminding everyone that I wrote the song when I was in high school, and it was about HIGH SCHOOL girls, ok, you perverted weirdos out there?

So the story with the song is tied into the story of Man in Gray. When we found out the we would be playing our very first show (at NYU, in April of 2001), we thought we should have a gimmick to get people to pay at least some attention to us, and this silly song that I had seemed like the perfect tool. The concept behind it was that we would start off with "Catholic Schoolgirls Rock!" with me singing, as at the time I was a bit of a notoriously bad singer (I swear I've gotten MUCH better over the years), and that towards the end of the song Tina would come onstage and start singing and the crowd would be so relieved that I wasn't the real singer that they'd fall in love with us. I'm not entirely sure if it worked. But either way, that was the only time we played it at a show, with good reason.

On to the significance of the performers known as The Plus Ones - as you may or may not know, they are the girlfriends (and boyfriend, with a special guest appearance from Alex as well) or the various members of Man in Gray. The concept was to do a 'girl group' sort of thing, and wow, I'll sure say it worked. Of course every girl group has to have their leader, right? Who better than the wonderful Jenny Piston, who is also, coincidentally enough, the only Plus One who was actually there to see that sole performance of the song? Indeed. It's so funny to me (and a bit ironic), that Jenny P is singing my part of the song, and then Phil comes in at the end doing Tina's part. Hilarity ensues. But all joking and silliness aside, it's a damn good track! Even with the funny interpretations of me messing up lines in the source recording that was used (no, I don't want a Catholic school girl to HUMP my band, thank you very much). BEST SNAPS AND CLAPS EVER. (final note: Phil's contribution number 4).

So there. That's the blow-by-blow. Thank you so much to everyone, I think I might be the luckiest person in the world to have so many fantastic people in my life. These are the totally awesome people, to whom I owe really good birthday presents now: Thank you Daniella, Mary, Jeremy, Travis, Jeremiah, Jared, Tina, Phil, Jenny Piston, George and Jess, Kristie and George, Dave and Joe Willie, Stephanie, Alex aka Dirty Sasha, and Eric. An extra special thank you goes to the lovely Heather, who made the cover artwork (everybody got a unique numbered edition!)

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Now head over to Guitardation to see just how crafty and crazy and sneaky they all were in preparing what really was the Best. Birthday. Ever.

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