Rain This Time

Good evening my friends,

June 28th, 2011 and we've got RAIN here in the Bay Area. Today has been the wettest on record for this date in much of the Bay Area and the rain just keeps on coming.

As of 2 p.m., .37 inches of rain had fallen on downtown San Francisco, breaking the old record of .22 inches set back in 1952.

Don't get me wrong, I love the rain, but it is really messing with the whole Summer vibe that folks have going right now.

Needless to say this weather brings to mind some music.  Now is the time for The Screaming Paisleys and "Rain This Time"

Enjoy the track, stay warm and dry and drop me a note - lemme know if you're digging the scene here.

Mark Harvey

Just how many?

Good evening,

I was recently asked how many CD do I have out.  My answer was that I'd blog about it since I need to sit back and count the releases.  I've not thought about it and the question got me thinking.  It is amazing to think about releasing music.  There are a bunch of steps to it and because I've been doing it for so long I don't focus on numbers, just that I enjoy doing it. So...here we go... (click an album title or the play button...have a listen...)


The Screaming Paisleys "EXIT"


mopehead "Cheer Up My Camp"


mopehead "Ballads for Bogun"


mopehead "Songs for Spim"


mopehead "SS-MOPEHEAD"


mopehead "instrumental mopehead"


mopehead "It's Always Good"


mopehead "Big Top Blues"


mopehead "unreleased mopehead"


mopehead "instrumental mopehead volume two"


Rain Station "Criminal Goat"


Rain Station "Fancy Fancy"


Rain Station "The Living Room Sessions"


Rain Station "Stonedozer"


Rain Station "DARK RIDE"


Rain Station "Unreleased Rain Station"


Rain Station "Underground"


Beth Eyre and Month of Sundays "Nobody Records Presents:"


MITCH "Outlaws"


MITCH "Unreleased"


Mark Harvey "Pumpkinland"


Mark Harvey "Pumpkinland II"


Mark Harvey "Pumpkinland III"


Mark Harvey "Unreleased"


Mark Harvey "Fleshrot: Songs from the Dead"

There are a few more releases not listed (not on Bandcamp). In total there are about 27 releases.

There you have it!

Have a great evening,

Mark Harvey

Porch at the Hemlock Tavern

Hey there,

So last night my buddy Jay (Rain Station) and I went out to see the band Porch at the Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco.  Jay was telling me it was his first time out without the wife and child in 5 or so years.  WOW...we need to go out more. It was very cool getting caught up with Jay, having dinner and hanging out.  It was great seeing Todd, Chris and Michael (of Porch) as well as Zac Briesach (a high school friend and an admin on NorCal Beer Blog's Facebook page).

So, Porch.  I believe it was somewhere around 1992 or 1993 when my high school friends Dave Ayer (who played in the The Screaming Paisleys with me) and Jeff Palmer joined former Primus guitarist, Todd Huth,  to start Porch.  After they recorded their 1993 CD, Jeff left and Chris Frey joined Porch and a little while after that another high school friend, Michael Jacobs, joined Porch.  I was a staple at their shows in the early days - great music - great musicians -just plain great. Last night was no exception.

When I heard Chris was going to be in town for a couple of shows I knew I had to find a way to get out and see them play.  I knew they were working on a new CD and was looking forward to hearing new tunes (as well as some old ones).  Turns out that they hadn't played a show in around 5 years, but you wouldn't know it.  They all play in other bands so their chops are super tight, but there's just something about the sound these three guys make.
(set list photo to the left was swiped...hope you're not mad at me Chris)

These guys are epic musicians.  Chris and Michael are a rhythm section to die for - heavy - solid. Todd is just plain genius.  The intensity was huge - pounding out old tunes and new songs. There comes a point when you look at this three piece and wonder where is all the sonic goodness coming from...only three guys?  Yes.

Anyhow, I am hoping they play again and I am eagerly awaiting their next release.

Well done guys!

Mark Harvey
(ears still ringing)

A Thousand Times

Good evening,

Here's another track taken from The Screaming Paisleys "EXIT" LP.  "A Thousand Times" was another 4-track tune that I wrote...about a girl.  Tony's fretless bass is fantastic and beats the bass bends I had done on the original 4-track version.  Dave's drums follows nearly the same pattern as the 4-track version, but Dave's drum skills beat my programming any day of the week.

My "wall of sound" guitar sound was a part of what The Screaming Paisleys were about (during the recording of this track with Bart Thurber at House of Faith Recording), but as we began to gig more and more my sound became a little less ambient and a little clearer.

Anyhow, hope you enjoy the track, drop me a line and take care.

Mark Harvey

There once was a band....

...named The Screaming Paisleys...

I've written about The Screaming Paisleys a number of times on this blog, but have you ever taken the time to have a listen to the tracks from The Screaming Paisleys one and only LP, EXIT?

I plan to post tracks from the LP so you can listen to the tracks one by one (unless you're daring and just want to dig in and listen to the whole LP now), PLUS I'll give a little insight on the songs, background, etc...
So, today I am featuring "Morning Dew" - track number 4...

"Morning Dew" was an early 4-track tune that I recorded when  I was around 16 (I still need to dig out the 4-track and try to mix down some of the REALLY old tracks).  I was listening to lots of different types of music then - ska, reggae, alternative and gothic rock. My early 4-track recordings were heavy on the gothic rock side. Typical of the tracks on "EXIT" and many of the mopehead tunes "this song is about a girl".  I just got a laugh writing this...Dave Ayer (The Screaming Paisleys' drummer) would say that into his mic (with a very low tone) before most songs as a joke when we played live.  We'd all get a kick out of it.

So...that's our track for tonight.  I hope you take a minute to listen to it as well as the other tracks on EXIT.

Have a great night,

Mark Harvey

The Screaming Paisleys

Just a little taste of the old school...



Have a listen...download...whatever...

Mark Harvey

Fancy this!

Rain Station's "Fancy Fancy" is a combination of tracks written at different times and put together by Jay and I as a sort of compilation CD. The CD features tracks recorded by Jay and I, Brian Peet and I and by Jay, Tony Iuppa, Brian Peet and I. Soon after Jay's recording project gave us "Criminal Goat" I moved to San Francisco with Tony Iuppa and Yun Shin, but after a short while Tony and Yun decided that the commute to the Peninsula was just too tough so they wanted to move out. Jay was living in San Francisco's Mission District, I was in need of some roommates and since Jay's living situation was a bit..let's say, different, I convinced him to move into the house in the Sunset. For a time Jay and I tried to put together a "live" act with Jay on vocals (and sometimes acoustic guitar), Tony Iuppa (The Screaming Paisleys) on bass, Brian Peet on drums and me on guitar. We recorded a three song demo in our Sunset livingroom (re-recording "Summer Home", "Widdershins" and "Quiet Morning") with the hopes of getting some gigs and gaining some momentum, but it didn't pan out as it was really tough to get together and rehearse. Unless you're living together, as Jay and I were, it is nearly impossible.
So since Jay and I were living together we had the ability to create whatever whenever the feeling hit us. The "SOB Puppet Hour" was born out of this living arrangement. Jay and I recorded "Hold The Sky", "Solitude", "More Out Of Life", "Smile Like A Monster", "Empty Home" and "Fancy Fancy" in various rooms of what became The Rain Station.

I got engaged and decided to move in with my fiance, Jay got more roommates and eventually moved to New York (where he met his wife). During that time Brian Peet (here) and I recorded some tracks together - some on his gear - some on my gear (which I upgraded from a 4-track tape machine to a digital 8-track recorder with MIDI capabilities - the same gear I have today). To test out the gear, I recorded "The Place I Once Came From" and "Slice A Piece Of Heaven" with Brian lending vocals on the tracks. We recorded in his (much better studio) some tracks for his Syrinx project. Brian had access to a pro studio and he wanted to try out recording some of my old mopehead tunes so we did "It's A Good Day" there with Brian playing drums and lending backing vocals and me recording guitar, bass as well as singing. "It's A Good Day" is by far the best engineered and sounding track on the CD and it is one of the things that motivates me to get new gear.

Like "Criminal Goat" you may not like some of these tracks, but keep listening as you may find one that you do dig.

Thanks agan for reading,

Mark Harvey