Catching up (or attempting to)
Jay has posted his list of favorite tracks thus far - check them out (and download them) HERE.Labels: jay moores, mark harvey, rain station
Mark Harvey is the owner/operator of Nobody Records, Pumpkinland Studios and 13thTrack.com Halloween Radio. In my world it tends to be Halloween much of the time. Strange most of the time. Busy all of the time. Join in on the fun, leave a comment and enjoy your stay...
Jay has posted his list of favorite tracks thus far - check them out (and download them) HERE.Labels: jay moores, mark harvey, rain station
Greetings! I'm back with another music post (after the two "trip" blog entries) and today I'm going to write about Beth Eyre and Month of Sundays. Beth is my sister and she has a beautiful gift - both singing and songwriting. For years she lived in L.A. working primarily in cover bands around Orange County (although they did gig around the Southland). She managed to make a very nice living doing it and she was excellent at it. I recall as a teenager (as I was playing in bands) thinking that it was a shame she was singing other people's music and that true artists only work on their own music. How wrong I was. Playing (or singing) other people's music gives you the opportunity to craft your own skills - your own sound - and in the end makes for a better artist. During her time in L.A. she was working with a guitarist named Vinnie and recorded a large number of tracks (five that can be heard on this CD). We selected our favorites of these sessions to put onto this CD.
After living in Southern California for well over a decade Beth decided to move back to NorCal and soon after she did we started playing music together. Three of the tracks on this CD we wrote together - Beth wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music. The first song we wrote together was "All This Time'. "One Man" and "Let It Go By" followed and we recorded a three song demo to shop our wares and to get gigs with. We wrote many other songs, but they were never recorded. Working with my sister was great and our band was INCREDIBLE. We had studio caliber jazz musicians backing us up and our gigs were nothing short of amazing. One of them (pictured with Beth and I) was Frank Buchanan whose Mother was in a singing group (The Diamond 'Lils) with our Mother - a sort of Andrew's Sisters act. We had (sort of) grown up together watching our Mothers so it was funny that all those years later we were playing music together. Frank brought our songs to a new level as he is an amazing guitar player and songwriter. This act was definitely the best I have ever been in. We opened for a number of national acts. We were becoming a sort of "Brand New Heavies" type of act.
One day I received a cease and desist from a band out of Boston (I think it was Boston - can't find a trace of them now) so we just adjusted our name and added Beth's name. Eventually it became too difficult to corral the drummer and bass player as they had better paying gigs (Beth and I would give 100% of our pay from gigs to the backing band - they deserved it!) and we disbanded. The dream of the sister/brother duo died.Labels: bay area, beth eyre, mark harvey, nobody records, rain station
Friday morning I headed up to Bowling Green, KY to do my "work related deal" and that went very well. Got to have lunch at Cracker Barrel (here). I love me some Cracker Barrel, yes I do. Many years ago I was first introduced to Cracker Barrel, a chain of "Old Country Stores". From Wikipedia, "As of May 2009, the company, founded and based in Lebanon, Tennessee, was operating 582 full service locations located in 41 states in the United States. In 2008, Cracker Barrel was ranked as the top "family dining" chain for the 18th consecutive year in Restaurants & Institutions magazine "Choice in Chains" annual consumer survey". Cracker Barrel serves traditional Southern comfort food. The retail store carries mainly nostalgic merchandise, collectibles, old time toys, classic candies, scented candles, and items used in making Cracker Barrel entrees. My favorite menu item (non-breakfast - although the breakfasts rock) is their Grilled Chicken Tenderloins dinner with Country Green Beans, Hashbrown Casserole and Corn Muffins. The closest Cracker Barrel is in Utah (not close) so when I am in a place that has one I got to get me some Cracker Barrel. On a family vacation two years ago I drove my family to the nearest Cracker Barrel (an hour one way) about four or five times. OK, I am obsessed!
When I completed my work related tasks I headed over to Gallatin, TN to visit my friend, Jeff Preston. Jeff is a phenomenal artist (see his work to the left or click here - he has been inducted into the Society of Illustrators, by the way) and an all around incredible guy. He was the owner/operator and visionary of Terror on the Square (here) a haunt that (in my opinion) should still be operating. We spent HOURS talking. He shared a special bottle of wine (Preston of Dry Creek here) which I initially thought was something he labelled for himself, turns out it is a wine from Healdsburg, CA - NORCAL, baby. We grabbed some dinner at Larriviere's On The Square (here) and talked some more. We covered quite a bit of ground - got caught up on what we've both been up to, art, Halloween, workout routines, art, Halloween, wine, art...OK, you get the picture. He showed me around his beautiful home (he's got a HUGE deck) and he also showed me some of his original pieces. I was in awe. Being in the presence of such an artist is amazing to me. His vision and artistry is just superb. I ended up leaving his place at 3:00 am - drove back to Nashville, slept for a little less than 3 hours and then got up to fly home. Labels: cracker barrel, halloween, jeff preston, mark harvey
Tonight I went into downtown Nashville and things were NUTS there. CMA Music Fest is going on tonight - Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Julianne Hough, Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts and Darius Rucker. The streets of Nashville were packed. I just wanted to grab some dinner (and a beer) and get back to watch the NBA Finals. I would have liked to see some of the acts, but I had no idea that this was going on until it was a little too late. Plus, it just wouldn't seem right to go without my wife. I also wanted to check out a few places, but the sea of people just made me beeline back to the hotel.Labels: mark harvey
Many times I am at a loss for words (yeah, right Mark)...and for moments like that there is instrumental mopehead. Many of these songs have lyrics written - fully - partly - while others not at all. Some of this music was made for soundtracks, independent movies, video and film. You can find these tracks featured in the NYU grad film "Ozone", the Independent Video "The Anemic Butcher", the web sci-fi saga Super Spy Chick and The SOB Puppet Hour. Jay helped me select the tracks that made the final cut. I have what might amount to a TON of instrumental tracks that have not been released. I should make another pass through them and put out instrumental mopehead volume two...maybe that'd be a good Summer project.Labels: Bandcamp, jay moores, lo-fi, mark harvey, mopehead, nobody records, rain station, revolution
My buddy John Pearson (pictured on the left) and I had worked on a few soundtracks for video games he was making for Ra-Dev (a game development team) and he asked me to put together a CD for his graphic novel (Fleshrot:Tales from the Dead) so I accepted the challenge. I recorded a number of rockin' tracks, some ambient ones and used a couple of tracks that I had already composed. It was a very fun project.
My buddy Ed Cagnacci (All About Evil, Gary Floyd Band, Spokepoker, Charm School Dropouts - and many other bands - pictured on the left) helped me out with "Misty Graves" - and it was a little more than helping me out. He played guitar, bass and lent his vocals to the track - so the song is pretty much Ed with me on drums and backing vocals - THANKS ED, I love you, man...
Another buddy of mine, Erik Frykman (a multi-talented guitar player, a guitar "gun slinger" - pictured left) lent his guitar solo prowess to "Fleshrot Anthem", "Insatiable Hunger" and "Last Stand". His solos REALLY made the tracks POP and without them I don't know where I would have been. I love you too, Errrrrbang.
Then after the mixing was done I brought the whole project over to Lev Perrey at Title Studios to master the disc. Lev is AMAZING - ears of magic - plus he has an understanding of gear that would boggle your mind. I got a lot of luv for Lev.
Any serious zombie fan or comic collector will now have a copy of the Fleshrot: Tales From The Dead graphic novel. The Fleshrot team don't just stop there, they like to take it up a notch by having a soundtrack as a companion piece to the comic.Labels: 13thTrack.com, Bandcamp, ed cagnacci, erik frykman, fleshrot, halloween music, john pearson, lev perrey, mark harvey, nobody records, pumpkinland, pumpkinland studios, rain station, title studios
"The Living Room Sessions" is a relaxed recording of an acoustic "unplugged" Rain Station event. Well...actually Jay and I were just sitting around in our living room at the Rain Station in SF. Two guitars, two guys...heavy mellow. I had purchased a portable DAT recorder and had been playing around with the mic input. I took a pair of my high end Sennheiser headphones and took them off the headband and placed them in front of Jay and I. The recording quality was pretty remarkable. Jay brought out his book of tunes and we just ran through them (with little or no practice). Jay's songwriting skills are really highlighted on this disc and these tracks are some of my favorites. Jay was saying the other day that he'd really like to record these songs in a "real" studio. I am hoping to provide him with a "real studio" to record in by having a nice Pro Tools set up to get these tracks recorded with Jay. I'd like nothing more than to get these produced and released. So without further comment, click below for the Bandcampiness that is "The Living Room Sessions":Labels: Bandcamp, hoagie malone, jay moores, lo-fi, mark harvey, mopehead, nobody records, rain station, the living room sessions

Thank you for visiting - Mark Harvey