Digital Release Re-Cap 2003-2009

Regular readers of the "My Band Rocks" blog (all three of you) know that the "Audio Archives" column here has been the venue for unearthing and releasing many rare recordings from the Mojo Wire, Honey White, and other projects involving us guys from those bands. Before that, I'd uploaded every show we did to the Live Music Archive, so there's a substantial amount of music that has never been released on CD.

There were several re-issues (for lack of a better word)—the four Mojo Wire albums had digital resurrections, each with a slew of outtakes attached; the first Low Tide E.P. and Bryn's solo album also came back to haunt us via mp3 as well. For the most part, though, the digital items were all previously unreleased:

The Mojo Wire - Bedrock Crude (2003)
Companion to the CD best-of Low Fidelity Favorites, this was the first "My Band Rocks" release available only as a download.



The Mojo Wire - Honey White - Live Shows Archive (2005)
Tyler Huff pushed me to upload every Mojo Wire and http://www.archive.org/details/HoneyWhite live show to the Live Music Archive (20 in total), in a feeble echo of Pearl Jam's similar stunt with their own stuff. Formats are .shn and .mp3.

Honey White - How Far is the Fall Singles (2007)
B-sides to non-existent singles from Honey White's full length studio album.



The Mojo Wire - Rare and Unreleased Vol. 1 & 2 (2007)
Ill-advised barrel-scraping exercise of barfing up the good, bad, and ugly of Mojo stuff 1996-2001.





Honey White - Rehearsal Tapes Vol. 1 & 2 (2007)
Double-whammy helping of the best bits from HW practice sessions.





Honey White - How Far is the Fall Take Root Sessions (2008)
Two-volume release of each take of each song from HW's first weekend in the studio, July 2004.





Honey White - My Band Rocks! Sessions (2008)
Each instrumental take of each song recorded for HW's debut E.P. in July 2002.



Honey White - Secret Jam Band (2008)
Instrumental jams from HW practice sessions, 2002-2007.



Bryn DuBois - Alone and Bored (2008)
The HW frontman compiles some recordings he did back in the year 2000.



Low Tide - Washouts (2009)
Outtakes from Keir's side project's 2008 Weapon of Young Gods album.



There's not a lot left in the vaults after this—short of a few Honey White barrel-scraping posts and an albums' worth of Brian's solo stuff—so it's a good thing that we have all been making various "let's play again" noises at each other. You've been warned.

Be Careful Not to Touch the Wall

(Cross-posted from Dubious Ventures)

Yeah Bobby, cause there's a brand-new coat of paint going up over at ye olde My Band Rocks Dot Com. Mira:





The Honey White version of the site has actually looked like this for most of 2009, but I figured it was high time to re-vamp the rest of the bands' pages over there and effectively bring them into the year 2001 with some basic, gimpy CSS. Right now they look a little bare-bones, for sure—but the plan is to (relatively soon) integrate them with a relatively agile content management system like MODx.

Also, they're pretty dependent on social media tools for content right now. Those ugly little ShareThis! buttons are on every page, the HW news is piped in via FeedBurner's RSS thingy, all photos are in Flickr slideshows (and it'll probably use Lightbox at some point too), HW and Low Tide have small YouTube pages, and as always every album is streaming in the XSPF Flash players from archive.org. But it's a start. More as it develops...

Audio Archives 23: Keir's Demos & Outtakes 2005-2008

I guess I lied when I said I'd post a lot more stuff. I've already used up most of my non-existent Friday night energy, so this edition of the AA will be pithy and lame. Fittingly, it's for songs that either (a) never got finished properly, or (b) were hastily assembled after the fact. Three are "Honey White songs," sort of. The other four are "Low Tide songs," but barely. So, without further ado:



Hold Still is a recording I did in about September '05 for a lyric I'd just finished that was nasty and mean and ugly. Funnily enough it was attached to a mellow, slidey song of Bryn's, that he first played for me on July 4 of '04. Honey White took a pass at the tune when we went into the studio for How Far is the Fall a few weeks later, and that take was what I spliced together as a backing track. And yes, horror of horrors, that's me singing. There's also some extra fuzzy bass guitar too.

Tempting Fate is from Feb '07, and a bit more manufactured. The lyric was hard to finish—not as much as "Lightning Rod," but more than (the Mojo Wire 2001 song) "You're On Your Own"—and though I think it was still tinkered with after this recording was made, some of the better lines made it into my Weapon of Young Gods novel. The instruments are me as well, which I guess is why it doesn't feel like a "real" take of it. Drums are my blunt, dumb attempts at sampling, from some bits Billy recorded in July '05 for me and Brian to use in this very way. Least complete of these first three.

Winner Take All is from Nov '08, although the lyric was finished about a year before that, and the tune (a rootsy/rockabilly jam of Bryn's) was recorded in rehearsal by Honey White around Oct '05. And again with the endurance test of Keir-vocals. The lyric is as finished as it's ever gonna be, and that's more than enough for now (kind of like the old quasi-Mojo song "Peak of My Career") considering my glacial output in that department since the last Honey White CD.

One of the things I used to do in between albums for both the Mojo Wire and Honey White is to make tracklists of stuff that I wanted to record for "the next album." These three would be on that list, plus another one I'm trying to finish right now (a Brian tune). Added to the two of Bryn's that Honey White's already played live ("Nightfall" and "Green Hills"), plus another one by Brian that we've also tried in practice ("Happy"), and that list begins to look hearteningly album-like. There's so much stuff HW hasn't even tapped in terms of leftover jams and ambient Brian-isms, after all.

But anyway, enough misty-eyed silliness from me. The Low Tide tracks are all instrumental outtakes from the Weapon of Young Gods soundtrack I released early last year. They're a bit too much on the ambient/easy listening/trippy side for my taste—the only burst of life is on Shatter the Surrounding Splendor, from drums by Billy that I recorded in Jan '04—but would have probably fit well enough on their parent album as interludes. Their titles (the others are Crippling Nostalgia, Fitful Mind Games, and Crushing Psychic Penance) are all taken from chapters that I thought would benefit from their vibes (which is how the ones that made the cut were named as well).

Jesus, only two beers and I'm already hopelessly adrift in another sea of what-ifs. I think I'd better pull together some of those ugly and cynical gonzo blogs of mine into lyrics before the muse totally deserts me in favor of some other pretentious fool. Stay tuned...

Audio Archives 22: We've Got You Covered Edition

Yes, the archive-trawls are back, but I'll keep 'em on the short side, commentary-wise, so there can be less talk and more rock. I have at least 3 new ones to post, so if I can keep from rambling about this stuff, maybe we can take care of all of them this week. So here we go: selected covers by the Mojo Wire and Honey White, 1997-2007. Play the audio below, and scroll a bit further for some oh so lucid commentary.

Audio:


Driftin and Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out: Adam and Bryn swiped a few Unplugged- and From the Cradle-era Clapton arrangements of old blues standards. The former is a solo Adam piece, and the latter appeared as track 3 on the first Mojo Wire album.

Margaritaville and Wonderful Tonight: More Adam-influence on the selection of covers. We actually did a few more Clapton & Buffett songs sometimes—"Layla" and "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw", for example—but these two ended up on the second Mojo Wire album. Even so, the take of "Wonderful Tonight" hasn't aged too well, and "Margaritaville" was a bit messy too (here in its glorious, live surf-punk version from 4/7/01).

Wipeout and Pipeline: Thanks to Bryn and Kevin, the Mojo Wire had a whole arsenal of surf instrumental covers, including "Miserlou" as well, but that never got recorded like these two. "Wipeout" is from the third Mojo Wire album, and "Pipeline" is from the same era (though it eventually ended up on Bryn's solo album too).

The Night Before was a suggestion of Joe's, and the Mojo Wire covered the classic Beatles tune at several shows in 2001 (this take is also form 4/7/01). We never successfully finished a single performance, though—for some reason this song always fell apart halfway through.

Wayfaring Stranger and Dead Man: Honey White presented a whole new angle on covers, and we got some truly fantastic results in that band as well. Bryn had been playing the Johnny Cash arrangement of "Wayfaring Stranger" for about a year before Billy and Brian helped us record it for the first Honey White E.P. in 2002. "Dead Man" is a Neil Young instrumental from the Johnny Depp movie of the same name, here recorded (but not included on) Honey White's How Far is the Fall album in 2004. Brian's performance is truly awesome.

Lover, You Should've Come Over and Been Around the World: We were practicing the former, a Jeff Buckley song, at Earl's studio when Johanna Reed showed up and loved it so much that we kept it in the live set for the rest of the year (this take is from the 10/31/02 show). The latter is one of my, and Bryn's, favorite Cracker songs (here from the 1/30/03 show).

Karma Police and This Lullaby: Bryn has many Radiohead covers at his command, and "Karma Police" is a solo performance from 5/22/04. "This Lullaby" is a full Honey White pass at the Queens of the Stone Age song. It was from our last rehearsal on 5/27/07.

Okay, more goodies when I have the time. The vast majority of them will be decidedly weird, so hang on to your panties and stay tuned.

Consequences of Digital Packrat-itude, Part II

Like the last post, this one's just a list of all the other recordings I've finally dumped onto a new terabyte drive, including Mojo Wire shows and practices from 1996-2001 as well as solo/side project stuff from me, Bryn, Adam, and Brian (1999-2007).

The Mojo Wire
1996-09-18 The Clap in Mono
The Adam-Bryn-Keir-Kevin lineup, in two separate sessions at Kevin's parents' house in Laguna Niguel (June and September 1996). Gloriously bad. I love listening to these—"Your Mama's a Ho," "12:15 Blues," "Wipeout"…it's like hearing something from 1953.

1997-07-06 Drum Machine Demos
Wherein Adam, Bryn and I (but mostly Bryn) record lots of songs using Bryn's keyboard drums to keep time. All the initial Mojo songs are here.

1997-11-24 Adam's Cassette Demos
Dubbed from Adam's tape of drum machine demo highlights. Many songs same as above.

1997-12-15 Battery Acid Blues
First real Mojo Wire "album," with Brandon playing drums. Well, a drum pad, but it rocked anyway. Click the link to hear the tunes plus bonus tracks!

1997-12-31 Loose mp3 '97
Lots of Mojo Wire cassettes are long lost, and only available to me as mp3. This is some of that (including the Dec. '97 "keg tape" and notorious intro to the Bryn/Adam/Ian "Further Adventures of Imran & Bjorn" show on KJUC radio).

1998-04-08 Rocket Fuel Malt Liquor
Second Mojo Wire "album," stranger and less coherent than the first. More here.

1998-12-31 Loose mp3 '98
The key find for me in here was a Keir-Bryn-Brandon jam from April '98. One which the Kristens from the next apartment surely remember as we were VERY LOUD.

1999-04-20 Seaside Hamlet Skids
Third Mojo Wire disc, muddier/surfier/more acoustic than the rest, but for some reason it still makes my heart mushy. Read & listen more here.

1999-07-05 Post-Seaside Recordings
All kinds of weird reverb-y half-songs and proto-tunes from the beginning of a long hiatus in Mojo activity.

1999-12-31 Loose mp3 '99
More random crap, including demo takes from songs that would end up as Honey White songs years later.

2000-12-15 Live 6710 Sabado Tarde
This Mojo Wire show famously featured the "opening act" of Sean and Adam boxing, and since Sean won in a horrible and brutal fashion, we had no frontman for the first 4 or 5 songs. It was a mess!

2000-12-31 Loose mp3 '00
The best stuff in here includes the only rehearsal at the Penthouse apartments (Adam/Bryn/Keir, Feb. 2000), where Adam effortlessly extemporized a song called "Broken Nail Blues."

2001-02-16 Live 6710 Sabado Tarde (Front yard)
A power trio lineup of Keir-Joe-Bryn careened drunkenly through 14 songs. I almost got in a fight with meat-heads, and this quote from Joe sums it up: "You know how hard that was, to keep a straight face?"

2001-04-07 Live 6710 Sabado Tarde
"Public rehearsal" with the whole band in the backyard, practicing for the Giovanni's show. It was cooooold.

2001-04-12 Live Giovanni's I.V.
According to Joe, this was the "best Mojo Wire show EVER." Unfortunately the guitars didn't get recorded too well.

2001-04-21 Random Jams with Kevin (w/future Sindicates?)
Bryn and I jam around with a visiting Kevin Nerison and his buddies (who may or may not have ended up in Los Sindicate with him, I can't remember).

2001-03-10 Mojo Wire Remakes
For a little while there, we tried re-recording some of our better songs digitally. It only sort of worked out.

2001-06-03 You're On Your Own
Final Mojo Wire album, released at our last show. This folder also includes a 2003 stereo remaster and 2007 mono remaster.

2001-10-29 Table Salt Jams
One of the first Mojo rehearsals at Table Salt in downtown Santa Barbara, with only Keir/Bryn/Joe checking in.

2001-12-31 Loose mp3 '01 (incl unfinished drum/bass tracks for remakes)
Most of these are unfinished bass & drum tracks from the earlier "Remakes" sessions.

2003-08-05 Low Fidelity Favorites 1997-2001
Mojo Wire "best of" remastered (poorly) and compiled by yours truly in summer '03, long after the band fell apart.

2003-08-05 Bedrock Crude
Companion mp3-only release to "Low Fidelity," this stuff is all our dumbest, grossest, and funniest songs all in one place.

Solo Stuff & Side Projects
1999-06-16 Adam's Acoustic Demos
Mp3 and wav files of the Adam-ballads "Anywhere but Here," "Breathe," and "Happy Birthday."

1999-07-26 Low Tide: Dive E.P.
My first foray into echo-bass-guitar side project self-indulgence, aided and abetted by Bryn on drums.

2000-04-09 My Second Shipwreck
Solo CD from Bryn, who pulls a Prince and plays everything. Some of these later ended up in Honey White live sets.

2000-09-10 Bryn's Alone & Bored Recordings
Also taped in the Sabado garage, Bryn wrote more about these tunes here.

2006-03-15 Brian's Solo Demos 2004-2006
I haven't highlighted these yet with their own post, but I hope to very soon. Brian has made some very cool, very weird solo recordings over the years, and this is a collection of them I like to call "Before and After Neuroscience."

2007-11-04 Keir's Demos 2005-2007
Multi-track demos for my songs "Hold Still," "Tempting Fate," and "Winner Take All." Hopefully Honey White will get to record them sometime.

2008-03-11 Low Tide: The Weapon of Young Gods
Multi-tracks for my second side project CD, done as a soundtrack for a novel I'm still trying to finish.

2008-11-08 Low Tide: WOYG Leftovers
4 or 5 weird out-takes from the above novel-soundtrack.

Consequences of Digital Packrat-itude, Part I

Recent acquisition of a terabyte drive has allowed me to go back and do the audio archive-trawl again, mostly for the sake of organizing all the band recordings (and my design stuff, and text, and…). By far the most stuff is in the "Honey White" folder, 92 GB worth of live shows, jam sessions, and recorded practices—listed below since I have nothing better to blog about right now.

*** Complete HW mp3 ***
Everything. The whole shebang in low-fi 128kbp glory, with many recordings included that exist only in mp3 (such as the legendary Adam-Bryn-Brian-Keir rehearsal of 8/15/03).

2002-01-30 MW-HW Demos
Bryn and I made these in the interim between the Mojo Wire and Honey White.

2002-03-08 Practice - Table Salt
First practice with Bill and Brian. Horrible recording, but we did okay.

2002-03-14 Practice - Table Salt
Second practice with full HW lineup at Earl's studio. Better playing, worse recording!

2002-05-20 Practice - Table Salt
First multitrack digital Roland recording. Better playing & we used it for first demos.

2002-08-09 Live - 6664 Pasado I.V.
Good live show, bad recording. I mean, like Andy-holding-up-a-dictaphone recording.

2002-08-16 Live - 6643 Sabado I.V.
Subpar gig, in Shaun's garage. Didn't do so well recording it either.

2002-09-23 Practice - Table Salt
No, wait—I think this is the first Roland recording for practice.

2002-09-27 Live - Camino Del Sur I.V.
Good gig at Andy's in I.V.; we opened for his band The Hip Crowd. This recording also includes an aborted gig from the next night on Trigo, when the IVFP shut us down after only one song.

2002-10-31 Live - SBRHA Goleta
Honey White plays in an office parking lot. On Halloween, no less.

2002-11-16 Live - Del Playa
The legendary HW balls-ass freezing D.P. gig, where I failed to notice Emily being hit on by creepy drunks.

2002-11-26 My Band Rocks E.P.
Honey White's first studio recording, including every take we did with producer Mark Anthony back on 7/13/02.

2002-12-05 Live - Giovanni's 1 I.V.
CD release gig for MBR. Good show overall but we were a bit loud for the venue.

2003-01-28 Live and Unprofessional (Live 2002)
Compilation of our best live stuff from the year's gigs.

2003-01-30 Live - UCSB UCen
Live webcast from the Hub, thanks to Will Wood and his AP crew.

2003-02-20 Live - Giovanni's 2 I.V.
Second Gio's gig was less energetic, but we have Nicole Franz screaming on tape; what's not to love?

2003-04-22 Live - Musical Cafe TV S.B.
Our only TV appearance in Santa Barbara. They tested new mixing boards on us and demolished the live sound. Good camera work though.

2003-04-30 Live - Wildcat Lounge, S.B.
Our downtown Santa Barbara debut. Loud and crazy; my left ear suffered permanent damage from this show.

2003-06-10 Epic Noise Now! (Live 2003)
Second HW live compilation, from a smaller pool of (admittedly better) shows.

2003-12-04 Practice - Seville St.
First practice after Bryn came back from Europe. Reuss plays guitar on "Dead Man."

2004-01-24 Practice - Seville St.
Billy was miked really well for this one, but Bryn and I weren't (Brian was in Tokyo).

2004-02-26 Live - Giovanni's, I.V.
We had to follow a Lakers-Kings game for this one and the assembled masses were not amused.

2004-04-17 Practice - Seville St.
First of three warm-ups for the 2nd Wildcat show. Strangely, no vocals recorded on this one.

2004-04-18 Practice - Seville St.
The Seville room was unbearably hot. We got a good instrumental take of "Oblivion" though.

2004-04-25 Practice - Seville St.
Third verse, same as the first. We were ready for the Wildcat after this one.

2004-04-26 Live - Wildcat Lounge, S.B.
Best-documented HW show, with audio/video and a real live lighting crew.

2004-05-22 Live - Red's Santa Barbara
Bryn and Keir open for Earl and the Expanding Polka Funk Experience. Polka your eyes out!

2004-06-24 Saturated Songs (Live)
Compilation of the best live stuff from '04.

2004-11-20 Practice - Table Salt
Shambling takes of our new "How Far Is The Fall" songs, fresh from the San Francisco studio.

2004-11-21 Practice - Table Salt
Better than the night before, but only just.

2005-01-29 Live - Embarcadero Hall I.V.
My favorite live show recording, from the old bank building in Isla Vista—the one that burned down in 1970.

2005-02-26 Live - Campbell Hall UCSB
Q: Is it a good idea to be the only rock band in a multicultural talent show? A: No. God, no.

2005-03-26 Practice - Table Salt
Preparing for the Nicholby's show at the much-less-roomier t-shirt factory.

2005-03-27 Practice - Milpas Gallery
First time (I think?) where we rehearse @ Bill's parents' art studio in Santa Barbara.

2005-04-20 Live - Nicholby's Ventura
Really good gig. How do I know? I don't remember anything about it at all!

2005-04-25 How Far Is The Fall
Honey White's first full-length, recorded at Take Root in San Francisco (including all the original takes from August-November 2004).

2005-07-03 Practice - Milpas Gallery
Bill, Brian and I get abstract, under the influence of the gallery's current exhibit.

2005-08-07 Live - Red's Santa Barbara
Nothin' like an 11:30 am gig on a flatbed. Good recording, actually.

2005-10-23 Practice - Milpas Gallery
I was sick during this one so we played some weird versions of So Cold and Shivering Sand.

2006-03-18 Practice - Lounge Pop Ventura
Bill was forced to not use cymbals so much because of the tight, tiny room we played in.

2006-08-04 Live - Ocean Institute Dana Point
Our belated O.C. debut, starring screamin' Steve Foster.

2007-05-26 Practice - Table Salt
Acoustic, mellow jamming the night after I moved into my new house.

2007-05-27 Practice - Milpas Gallery
Owen took tons of photos at this one—to date, HW's last get-together for rehearsal.

2007-07-03 Deluge And Drought (Live 2005-2006)
Compilation of our better recent live recordings.

Next up, the Mojo Wire stuff from 1996 to 2001. Yes, that's reverse-order, and no, it doesn't matter.

The Pick of Silent Awesome

Honey White frontman Bryn DuBois checks in with yet another brilliant anecdote:

At long last, here is something I had meant to document weeks ago.

This is the coolest gift I received from my students this year: I have dubbed it the Pick of Silent Awesome. Conner and Ian from my 6th period class presented it to me on the last day of school so that I could use it to "shred it up with the band."

Which is, of course, yet another reason that the band should get together some time in the not-too-distant future. There has not been enough shredding in the world of Honey White recently, in my opinion. The upside, of course, is that the lack of shred has given me the time to become a Teacher.

Fine work all around, gentlemen.

Bryn ("Mr. DuBois")

The Three-Decade Mark Marches On!

Another denizen of the My Band Rocks world has passed the age of 30: erstwhile Mojo Wire frontman Adam Hill did so this week. Happy birthday Adam!

This spate of inexorable shattering of the 30-mark has been going on ever since Bryn smashed it back in October, and Billy demolished his own marker earlier this month. It will continue apace late next month, when it'll be Brian's turn, and then (I believe) Joe is next up after that in September. I, of course, pioneered this ugly reality almost three years ago. Ye gods.

But right now belongs to Adam—because he is also the only one of us degenerate rock stars to choose fatherhood. I met baby Sarah for the second time last weekend and she is already a budding rock star. Adam and Marie will have much Sarah-related stardom to contend with in the future.

Honey White Drummer Takes Out a Rabbit's Heart

Because that's what you do when you're a professional kick-ass mechanic with some free time. What, you thought this would be his Ozzy moment? Well...we shall see. Happy birthday Billy!

Ten YEARS Man! ("Seaside Hamlet Skids" Edition)

The auspicious date of April 20 is a legendary one here at My Band Rocks World HQ: the first Honey White show in history took place on this date in 2002 (Roma's in Santa Barbara, with Norm and Johanna Reed's mighty Buttcheek Doofus), and one of the best Honey White shows ever also happened on this date in 2005 (Nicholby's in Ventura). However, ten years ago, on 4/20/99, my first band the Mojo Wire released its third album, Seaside Hamlet Skids. For whatever reason, that poorly-recorded, muddy little album still makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and this third entry in the "Ten YEARS, Man!!!" series highlights the Mojos on that goofy acoustic slice of surf-noir. Click on the link below for a self-congratulatory, pretentiously vain essay by yours truly. Listen to some audio below that.

The History Mix #2: No Lifeguard On Duty

Let's face it- "trouble in paradise" is probably the oldest and most banally superficial cliche in the history of popular songwriting. It is initially, however, a real kick in the head when you happen to notice it. Exposing the nasty, poisonous underbelly of some idyllic Shangri-la is one of the first rebellious impulses that anyone learns, and if they're lucky, they won't forget to apply it to any subsequent promise of perfection. Righteous anger doesn't exactly have much of a half-life, of course, but it tends to go down easier with a nice slathering of sweetness on top. That was the eventual modus operandi of the Mojo Wire on their third album, but the mostly acoustic, folky surf-noir of Seaside Hamlet Skids doesn't easily place itself in the canon of pretentious bubble-bursting, despite some loosely-focused effort. More...

Play this album (with 4 bonus tracks!):