February 2005 | Main | April 2005
10:00 AM - Game/Home
This Flash video (Beck: Gameboy/Homeboy - a version of "Qué Onda Guero") that Jenny F linked is ridiculous. So colorful! Oh and I bought the deluxe version of Guero, which, if you ask me, is totally worth it. I'm a sucker for a cd package that looks and feels like a book. Haven't checked out the dvd yet but I'm looking forward to seeing exactly what it has on it.
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03:18 PM - Cats have birthdays too!
Lots of birthdays the past few days - Tina on Sunday, Tom yesterday, and today... Happy birthday, birthday people (and animals.)
Sammy turns 14!
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02:58 AM - Oh and also, music!
Music things are good too. First we have the late night collaboration between EMSO and MISS(demeanor) PISTON, featuring an Apple robot on vocals. Get the mp3 here. Just keep in mind it was conceived and produced in a very short period of time, very late at night, and while I was making it I thought it was the greatest thing ever. Judge for yourself. I saw the Features for the second time tonight. They sounded much better (and HUGE!) at Irving Plaza than they did at Mercury. I bought a shirt. I have to mention that "There's a Million Ways to Sing the Blues" is an incredible song and you should buy their album (Exhibit A) for that if nothing else. Then Ben Kweller played, and he was in total rock star mode. I think Adam Green (or a reasonable facsimile) was standing next to me checking out his set. Thanks to the sponsor of the show (which only had a ticket price of $5, that was great!), and their insane promotion, I found in my hands a free copy BK's On My Way, which I'm looking forward to checking out. Finally, the Walkmen played... and, well... I don't know what was going on with the sound. When I was up front all I could hear was vocals (um, screamed. Painfully.) and it was all treble and it hurt. Ouch. It sort of ruined most of their set for me. But then at the end I retreated to the back while they played their encore of "Wake Up" (only one song? pfft) and from there I could at least listen without being in pain, but the sound still wasn't very good. What was up with that? It's too bad. I like them a lot and would have like to actually HEAR their music. Also, if you haven't seen it yet, check out the Doves EPK video. It has a whole explanation of exactly what they were trying to (and if you ask me, did quite well) with the whole theme of their new album, Some Cities. Here's the link for the hi-speed quicktime version. Read the rest of the post for the other version if that's not to your taste/modem speed.
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02:39 AM - fun with good things.
These things are goods things, and come highly recommended by me. 1. Old school furniture found on the street. Also, new forms of public education that really do take the learning experience outside of the classroom. Here we have Jared being a bad student and talking back to his teacher. 2. Dogs. Especially adorable and very sweet ones named Goose. 3. Wide angle (sort of fisheye but you can't really tell here) lenses that make normally average at best photos of someone blowing out candles look totally wacko and awesome. Also, parties. I have decided that I like parties now. I might also like dancing, but I'm not sure yet. Probably not so much. Those are the good things of the evening for which photographic evidence was provided.
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01:06 PM - Bring it back
Jeremiah has finally brought back 1015. Looking good!
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12:48 PM - On the subject of the sounds of the day/week/month
Before I get into all this, I need to mention Tina's new business venture, Limetta. She's been making clothes and bags and jewelry and stuff for a while and now she's gone all legit with her craftiness and you can buy it! Go on, check it out. I obviously don't need to list all the "great" albums out this week, as other people are good at taking care of that. I'll just mention things that I'm hearing right now, all of which are new or at least pretty recent I think.
This got me wondering... I always see "Phones Mix" on promo mixes and b-sides and such these days, so I was wondering who or what Phones is. All I've been able to find so far is that Phones worked with the Futureheads on their album (which makes sense). Anyone have any more info?
That's all for that. Not super-insightful but that's not what you come here for anyway, right? Sure hope not. Whatever, I saw the Thermals last night. They blow all these other people away (even when they're stuck with a lineup as horrible as last night). Yup.
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12:11 PM - the year in photos thus far
I know, I've been horrible with keeping up the whole photoblog things this year. You should notice, however, that things have been rather lively over at my Flickr page, which is where you will find all my photos of bands (with thumbnails of the latest few on the side of this page right here, just over yonder --->). So to start this off, here is Jeff UK doing his classic "point at the head" move at my birthday party while the Phillips sisters cheer him on. Here, the lovely lads and lady of El Jezel demonstrate their love for the Boston Red Sox at the SBR party. Just some ghostly dude walking through central park. Ignore all that orange stuff. Jared at the chili cook-off, where a bunch of drunken fratboys totally stole the competition just because they managed to bring all their friends. Maybe the problem is that 90% of Jared's friends seem to be vegetarian. Chris being awesome with a DD poster. There's so much more awesomeness in this post, just click and don't say I didn't warn you...
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12:02 PM - from way back when...
At Tiswas, looking a bit glammy, according to Jenny P. Late night at Chickpea, which I rather like quite a bit.
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07:50 PM - Virtual drumming all night long
I stumbled across this site where you can play a whole bunch of virtual recreations of vintage drum machines. It's a pretty amazing time waster, and also useful as a place for me to find out what all these crappy 80's drum machines I keep bidding on over at eBay actually do.
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12:05 PM - Meeting people is easy, when free alcohol is involved.
The other night, quite infamous in its own right at this point among a few select rock stars, also held a nice little extra special super duper bonus in terms of meeting new people. Who, you ask? More people in bands, of course! I met a fine fellow in the Silent League with whom I discussed the frustrations of being an 'upcoming' rock band, to the varying degrees that each of our band has had some success and touched on the prospects of even more success at times, thought often without total fruition. Then I met one of the members of 1/2 Astronaut, a band I have yet to see or hear but who are good by association in my mind (TSC/El Jezel). Finally I met um... another dude whose name I can't even come close to remembering (sorry!) from the band Kinetic (their site seems to be having some issues). I saw them once and thought they were pretty awesome, but then didn't hear anything about them since... well lookie here, a copy of their EP just landed in my hands and, well kids, it's quite fantabulous. You can get it too! Buy it at Insound (thanks for the link, Brendan). See pictures of bands I saw playing this week (including new faves Mistakes, Narchitect, and the Wellington Ladies' Welfare League) over at Flickr. Oh and HEY! People in bands! I'll come shoot your show or press photos for a VERY reasonable price! Email me or leave a comment.
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01:06 PM - gettin' serious!
I found more people willing to be SBR models! First, we have mister rockstar, George of El Jezel fame. Note that he is proudly displaying an Emma la Reina button. Last night at Death Disco was fun. And wild. Oh my.
Then of course next has to be the stunning Jessica, also of El Jezel.
And finally, wildman Chris from the aforementioned Emma La Reina.
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04:45 PM - ARTS! MUSICS! DISCOTHEQUING!
Before I head out - here's where you should be tonight. First, get over yourself and head to Williamsburg (if you don't already live/work/have band practice there, all of which are likely) to check out the opening of "in spiritus: an exhibition curated by Christina Chow" at RKL Gallery (349 Leonard St, Lorimer stop on the L). Drummer extraodinaire Oliver Drew-Rivera (hyphenated names are so IN!) has some work in it. Opening is tonight from 6-8pm. I'll be wherever the free cheese is. THEN! You need to head over to the Delancey for Death Disco to see El Jezel do their magic thing. I mean music. Magical music. Like swirling, rocking, crashing, booming, floating, flying, dive-bombing. You'll love it. What, you think that the week is over after three days in a row jam-packed of rock shows? NO WAY, BUCKO! Tomorrow I'm going to find a good reuben if it's the last thing I do. Friday is Xiu Xiu and Annie Clark (who Kristie and I met at the Branca recording) at the Knit. Incredibly enough I actually don't have a bazillion things planned for Saturday and Sunday. Imagine that! Have you checked out my rock photos at Flickr as a slideshow yet? That thing is wicked cool. I did NOT just say wicked. Shut up.
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02:12 AM - and now a word from our sponsor
This is Kelly. Aka Kelly from the Art of Shooting. I like her because she let me take this picture of her with an SBR sticker on her face. That's awesome and stuff. I think I'm going to start a collection of SBR-stickered faces.
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11:33 AM - Vicious tonight at Rothko!
Come on out, kids. MiG hits you with a flower 'cuz yr so vicious... Jenyk/dot/com + Melody Nelson present VICIOUS @ Rothko! 11pm - The December Sound With Guest DJ: DJ Fludd! Rothko :: 116 Suffolk St. Between Rivington and Delancey St. Get there early for MiG, stay late for APTBS! Rock!
Tuesday March 15th :: 7:30pm :: $8 :: 21+
Sponsored by FILTER magazine in conjunction with ASCAP, featuring...
10pm - A Place to Bury Strangers
9pm - Spielerfrau [EP Release!]
8pm - Man in Gray
7:45pm - Eugene
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07:47 PM - shouts for SBR bands!
Everybody's favorite Serious Business Records bands, Man in Gray and the Unsacred Hearts, got some love from Coolfer. Thanks dude.
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03:58 PM - woah
Lacey and her boyfriend Myk got engaged! Crazy! Awesome! Congrats!
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02:54 PM - Who would DO something like this?
Oh this is great fun, and could provide you with a very nice little time wasting break if you're stuck in a cubicle and need to get out some frustration... check out this new Trail of Dead flashplayer which has a video of the band just breaking EVERYTHING while their tour manager babbles on about something or other. You can also listen to songs from the album and stuff there (by the way, the audio isn't really safe for work so wear headphones or turn it down while you check out the video). NYC kids take note, second show at Irving Plaza just added for April 10th. Yay.
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04:25 PM - things on the internet you should look at
Egads! Ok, list time.
Much more in this post...
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02:34 PM - new Dandies!
The Dandy Warhols have a new album coming out "some time this year." They say the title will be "ODDITORIUM OR WARLORDS OF MARS" and the first single (for which they already shot a music video apparently) will be "Smoke It." OK, so who has some Dandies promo material for me? Huh? Come on now. I know you're hoarding it. For real. And they're working on a DVD. Wowzers. That reminds me, I just got two DVDs I need to watch - Pavement: Slow Century and X (the band): The Unheard Music. I can't wait to watch them.
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01:55 PM - Feeling a bit... listslist?
In a perfectly respectable "fashionably late" style, Jeremiah has finally revealed the results of the 'big' 2004 "Best of... Poll" that a bunch of our friends took part in. In his usually style of totally showing blogspot who's boss, he set up a page for it over at Lists: Not Just For The Listless Anymore. As somebody who sat here while he was in the next room scratching his head, collecting votes, going after the latecomers and reminding me of the films and albums that I liked so I could properly fill out my ballot (but I think I still forgot to add in the Liars, damn), I can say that it was quite a task he took on, figuring out this whole system of tallying votes that he did. And the results? Well, they really did end up pretty close to so many other lists I've seen. Funny how that works, aint it?
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11:03 AM - Lalena on Gothamist and Deli treats
Lalena from the Color Guard is the interview subject on Gothamist today. Pretty neat. Catch them live tonight at Arlene's Grocery at 9:30pm (sorry I forgot to put it in the calender, but I figure mentioning it in a post is sort of more attention anyway). The Color Guard are one of the featured bands in the next issue of the Deli (which will also have contributions from a few bloggers out there this time around, indeed). The Deli, which, mind you, is having a party this Friday at the new uber-cool sounding (though I haven't been there yet, so what do I know?) Llano Estacado in Williamsburg.
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01:44 AM - WBAR Radiothon Closing Show!
From Bidi, who for some reason I haven't seen in a billion years: WBAR also has two really awesome on-air performances coming up... tonight from 8-10pm you should tune in to check out Oxford Collapse (a fantastic band that MiG played with at a Crashinin show last summer and who StereoactiveNYC has been keeping tabs on). Then on Saturday (the day of the closing show), check out Four Volts on the air from 10am-12pm. Coincidentally enough, Four Volts are playing that same night on a great bill at Sin-e that also includes The Art of Shooting and Electric Turn to Me (who Kelly from TAOS has assured me are "so cool").
This saturday WBAR is wrapping up their Radiothon (to raise money to wire the entire Barnard campus so the station can be heard in all the residences, which it should be, because it's a really cool station - I'm not just saying that, you can listen online).
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03:09 PM - Feel the pain!
Dinosaur Jr. Back together. Oh my! I wonder how long J. and Lou will be able to go without killing each other onstage. Hopefully long enough for me to see them, at least. Click on 'more' for the full story.
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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). 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" 9. The Marks - "Crawl" 10. botany bay - "Niv" 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.
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.
[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.
[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.
[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?
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