Sheet Rock Man

So, in explaining transposing songs from electro-techno-pop a la the Postal Service to acoustic guitar a la sensitive boy rock I came up with this:

"The bass and the drums are more the steel and structure of the building, but you don't have to transcribe them. You can get away with the extraneous material to give an impression of what the complete song would sound like… more like the musical sheet rock. Yes. Guitar is just a big pile of sheet rock."

Bittersweet Me

It was tough getting into it last night, I have to apologize. The first half of the set I was uptight trying not to let the sentiment sink in and therefore the set did not gel until later. No wit. No banter. It was hard to think about the events that lie ahead. I am leaving the city I have called home for the last 4 years this week… onward and upward!

In with the positive… my head is still abound with the schizo-kinetic energy today. I cannot form a complete thought or convey a complete idea. Ask anyone who has talked to me. One cup of coffee and I'm a self-contained comedy duo, but only both comedians keep on cutting each other off, so you only get half of what each is trying to say!

I was very touched to see so many old friends last night. Thanks for making my week. Sorry if it was a bit loud, we're working on the sound. Expect some quieter material from MFA in the future. There is talk of banjos and pianos, keyboards and fully audible lyrics. In the meantime, if you want to know what we're saying, drop a line to me for some lyrics.

Oh, This Is The Start of Something Good… Don't You Agree?

Dress rehearsal #1 is done. MFA is ready to go.

Let me tell you about our rehearsal space. It's part of what is now a landscaping storage garage, and seems to have a hollow floor. So last night I was surveying the scene and realized it might have as many as two more levels. What is down there? How old is the space? It's built into the side of a hill, and has a long sloping roof, with three windows diagonally placed following the fall line of the roof.

We have to unlock two doors to get to our space. Are there more keys leading to more lurid things than 15 year old Playboys that we want no part of? This shed/garage thing belongs to another band that was gracious enough to split it with us for the month of April, while MFA gets it's rock jones out. As we locked up last night, I felt this great sense of relief having cleared my amps out… the boogey man is real. Somewhere in those two lower lairs he is there– swallowing up guitar picks and residue.

Did I mention the EP's are ready? The first copy is being/was sold today, sans stencil on the front. I guess it kind of differentiates itself from the rest that way. We are pleased, and very excited, to be entering this recording into the canon of recorded western music. Or was that cannon?

See you tomorrow night!!

My Blood is 75% Coffee

When it rains it pours, or some other worn out cliche.

All I know is that my car got macked up and I ruined 50 CD's for the initial EP run in one shock-induced, spray painted evening. I got up yesterday morning and realized what I had done, threw out every single one of them, and meandered in traffic 'til I got to work and chugged a cup of the brown diesel.

Now the stuff is running my show. I'm not sleeping because there is so much to do (stencils, spray paint, rubber cement, fumes, late night phone calls, plans for germany, philly and show)… when in doubt, turn to the bean. Fact: I quit about once every other month, suffering through headaches, and then turn to it in my darkest moments. Don't judge!

The good news is: our show is going to rock. You will be pleased with the rock and will buy up all of our CD's. They're hot (when done right).

MY FRIEND AUTUMN!
STACCATO!
SATURDAY!
with Death By Sexy!
with Hello Tokyo!

OUR CD's ARE READY!

YOU LOVE OUR EP!

caffeinatedly yours,
mc

Buy Back

Anyone seen the film "Chilicothe"? It's very odd, but no other film has encapsulated my life in such a dead on way. Funny thing is, I didn't like the film very much. It involves the telling of the 20-something guy, from dreaming big dreams to being lonely out of love to finding someone and coupling off. I watched it with my 3 dearest former housemates. One of which, now 2 years later, is married, the other lives in Brooklyn to rock a monkey off of his back, and me, I'm preparing to leave my city's safe economy for the city of brotherly love.

Anyways, there was a conversation in this film about not selling CD's you'll regret selling as you know you will buy them back. This conversation revolves around "Joshua Tree" by U2, but I want to talk about the only CD I have ever bought back. "Return of the Rentals" by the Rentals.

This is the sound of summer. Forever and ever. Wait, I don't think I sold this one. I am pretty sure someone made off with it. So I bought it back. I haven't even bought back "Parklife" so you know this is for real real, not play play. I wasn't one for their second record, but "Return of the Rentals" captures a certain exhuberance that rarely gets captured on tape. This is the sound of the Moog returning to popular conscience. This is the sound of an artist discovering himself amidst his day job (I mean, who QUITS Weezer?!).

Always buy back the records you love. Better yet. Don't sell them. Always lose them. Losing records is a better testament to your affection of a record.

ON DECK!

Ladies and gents,
MFA is now officially your friendly neighborhood scab band! Really, if there is ever an indie rock strike, look for us to fill any and all vacancies and rise to prominence.

This time around, Eastern Homes has asked us to step in for the Apparitions at Velvet Lounge tomorrow night, whose lead singer may or may not be sick. Regardless, our fires are stoked and we are too. Bring it! This will be one of our last small rock shows, so come get nostalgic over the band that never was, or was, but will be and then some.

MFA
w/ Eastern Homes
Velvet Lounge 9th and U St. NWDC
Thursday, April 7th • 9pm

Study Up For Thursday Night's Show!

and awaaaay we go!

Spent a few hours assembling the website last night. Amazing how much detail you have to give the most mundane aspects of a webpage. As you can see, it's severely high-tech… I call it "Flash Pre-Beta," you can find pads of these in your company's supply closet!

Ran across a band called Lali Puna yesterday. Check them out… for fans of the Postal Service record, or even anything with MIDI beats, you'll dig them. I bought this record as a soundtrack to future jet lag, much the same as I did with Wilco's Summerteeth back in 1999.

come see us on my space if you have a minute.

Publish or Perish

Man o man,
For the second time, our website has gotten a potential traffic maker and has yet to be posted. I designed the logo for this years' Six Points Music Festival, and the site designer linked my name with the MFA page. The new site is ready to go, I just haven't had time to put it on-line. If you have found your way here from there, please stay tuned!

In other news, Arlington's Cowboy Cafe is closing after 15 years. Coincidentally, it would be a slammin place to put a music venue, if anyone can afford a lease and own and operate a club. Old Arlington is slowly succumbing to the glitz of whatever happened to Clarendon. I can only imagine rising rent played a hand in the Cowboys' demise. If otherwise, let me know, and I'll drop the rhetoric.

pax,
mc

St. Ides

I was going to say beware the Ides of March and all that, but the day came and went with little more than a phone call to a friend and an appointment to get my hair cut. Then I'd say beware letting your friends cut your hair around the Ides of March, but it's not like that. She's got cred.

Went to see none other than Laura Burhenn at Iota last night. Her set was rather truncated, but satisfying. Playing with only her drummer, I really didn't miss the bass or the guitar. Of course, I was humming bass lines in my head the whole time. Throat bass is so Butch Willis, I know.

Today I dub St. Ides Day. You are half way to St. Patricks Day, and half way away from the Ides of March. This day only comes once a year, don't waste it!

Not For Lack of Currency

Matt here. I walk into record stores with fear lots of the time. In full knowledge that my wallet could quickly empty, I keep finding things that I have been looking for for years. Luck? Fate's way of telling me consumerism is so NOW? Often under the pretense that I will someday take up a DJ residence at some obscuro electro-indie-alt-country-punk-house-hip hop club, records now line my floor. Actually, floors in two states.

Mark and I holed up this weekend to finish the last addition to Opening Flower and Happy Bird. We beat ourselves up for not being the geniuses we know we are, and ended up taking the long way around to a good track. Texting Jim for his input as to Quiet or Rock ("QUIET," he said), "I Was Electric" boasts a loop that Mark didn't know if it would work, and as much mellotron as your ears can handle.

Sometimes I think I shouldn't have been born IN the 70's, but born to play the freaky keyboards that were invented DURING the 70's. Of course, that would probably make me Genesis' biggest fan. Okay, I love the 00's. Back to reality.

Sleep Deprived… again

Sorry for having to cancel at the last minute, after picking the show up at the last minute. We promise not to do that often, or at all if possible. I didn't mean to alarm anyone with the mention of "emergency," thanks for your emails of concern. We're coping with an illness in the extended family and had to make a choice.

That being said, the weekend was pensive but rewarding. Being holed up in a cabin in the Poconos with no TV, Inspector Gadget 2 on DVD, and a fickle propane fireplace, what else do you resort to? That's right, a game– good old fashioned Charades! I got Warren Buffett and had to pass. How do you motion "super-rich tycoon?"

SHOW CANCELLED

Hey guys,
My Friend Autumn will NOT be appearing tonight at Staccato. There has been an emergency that Matt has to attend to.

Please go show some love to Audrey Ryan Band and Casey Abrams regardless.

Last Minute Show!

Dearest Radioland…
MFA will be playing Staccato Friday night in a last minute development. We will be sharing the bill with Casey Abrams and the Audrey Ryan Band, both from Boston.

"Everybody’s waitin’/Gettin’ crazy/Anticipating love and music/Play, play, yeah…"
copies of Opening Flower and Happy Bird will be available as a party favor! And if you have an extra appendix, please see us after the show. MFA crew represent.

Live at Budokan

Listening to one of the records that first made me want to rock: Live at Budokan by Cheap Trick. I forgive you for "The Flame," though I was too young to realize just how bad it was. But man, as soon as I had Live at Budokan to compare that to, or rather, the fury of thousands of screaming Japanese girls, my life changed and faux-hairband ballads were cast to the depths of nostalgia forever. We're all alright!

Went to the hollows of foliated kudzu that is North Carolina this weekend to see my mom and dad. After church Sunday morning, who should walk by but a lost interest from college. She and I worked everything out, but nevertheless, the abyss of post-collegiate relocation swallowed up what could have been left of a friendship. The thing is, I didn't recognize her immediately, and therefore, didn't have a chance to say hi in the midst of the throng exiting mass. She walked past, and into some Cusackian morning swimmingly alive in my head. Was she married? Did she have kids? She looked happy. Then again, she always looked happy.

In honor of this event, I, Matt of MFA, present:

My All Time Top 5 records when I was approx. 9:
Beach Boys "Concert"
Bob Seger "Like A Rock"
The Highwaymen "The Highwaymen"
Duran Duran "Seven and the Ragged Tiger"
Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms"

Lovely.

Please point your browsers to justification for the existence of the internet.

We here at MFA would like to thank the internet. We love you.

New Agey Nonsense

There are few things I enjoy more than the feeling of interconnectedness amongst people. You know, finishing sentences, long cerebral discussions (sadly, as I grow older, these get fewer and fewer), and little existential proof that we are not just amoeba floating through some kind of time tracked void of lightness.

I was thinking earlier of being down in Richmond a few years ago. Patrick used to live just outside the reaches of urbania, in a place called Powhatan. My brother and I would go down periodically to visit and to escape our awkward adult lives in DC. We were driving back from a climbing gym where Pat worked, Dan climbed, and I contemplated getting exercise, on a very sunny late autumn afternoon. The trees were mostly stripped bare of any last jagged sandpaper leaves, yet strangely the fading sun was quite warm, zipping about in my old VW through once lush Virginia backwater.

Listening to a mixtape a friend had made the previous year, we came about "New Paths To Helicon Pt. 2" by Mogwai pulling out of a gas station and turned it way up. Just as the droney mellow part gave way to the ethereal noisebath that is the second part, we passed into a portion of road lined with trees. The strobing effect of the sun through the trees coupled with the ambient wail that is New Paths to Helicon nearly tore my scalp off with goosebumps, adrenaline and near epileptic sunlight.

I said something like "holy crap!" to Dan, he responded with an exasperated "I know…"

It was a moment that justified my love of music, needing no explanation other than cutting down to the tendrils to a place where there is nothing left but sound and light.


Reading: "Steven King: On Writing"

In Your Ear

Matt gets all the fun. Bloggin’ all the time. Hey there, It’s me, Jim. Who? Very funny. Yes… I know I haven’t been around lately. No, it’s not you. Um, come on, that’s not fair. Of course I didn’t forget about you. Ok, fine be that way, if you must.

I’ve been a busy bee with lots of different band stuff going on at once.

MFA will be in Inner Ear soon to finish up the studio portion of our record. I love working with Matt and Nick in this setting so I’m looking forward to recording more. This will be the 3rd time in there with Matt and 4th time working with Nick. I think the idea this time is we are going to take a day off of the grind to get into the studio. I love this idea. I don’t think I’ve ever been there during the day, during the week.

Lavajet is back to playing out again! Feb 23 at DC9. Looks like we may have some new tunes. I’m really liking the new songs, some of them have a totally different feel from what

people are used to with LavaJet. Oh, and it’s Paul’s coming out party. I almost forgot that we haven’t played out with him yet.

My seasonal side project, Potato Famine, has been asked to play in a battle of the bands in NYC at the Knitting Factory. It’s been a dream of mine to play at this place. I really dig the vibe they have there. 3 floors with music on each floor. How can you go wrong! Everyone should come with me for this one.

The Actor and The Waitress

After a night of much needed catch-up sleep, this morning I disembarked the bus for the blue line at Pentagon. Has anyone else encountered the menacing Pentagon police there? It's quite strange to be commuting half-awake past men who are hyper-alert carrying large machine guns. I'm not up on my weaponry, but there was probably enough firepower in those cartridges to lay waste to every single human on that bus in about 5 seconds. Walking past, I smiled meagerly and looked one of these policemen right in the eye.

After playing the sleep depravation game, I am glad to be back in the world of clarity. Watched 3 episodes of Project Greenlight last night and, surprise, surprise, am now inspired to rewrite an old song in need of less venom, about an actor who is writing a screenplay. No, I will not call the song Garden State.

Opening Flower and Happy Bird

This week has been back to business as normal. By that, I mean imagining album and EP titles and seeing if they stick. We've come a long way since first laying down tracks on our EP, and we are just about done mixing now. It always amazes me to hear how a recording progresses. To hear where Mark would add a little reverb or EQ a portion of the recording, and how better just a little work makes it sound.

Our strategy was to lay down some live drums and guitar, and then overdub everything else. The songs were 90% written when they came in, it just took learning them and ultimately a little re-writing. In the end, most songs don't total more than 8 tracks. In a burst of simplicity, we ended up cutting keyboard parts out– figuring that less is more. And since we aren't doing an ELO record, what is the point of one… more… synth…?

So there you have it. Our first foray into modern recorded history: "Opening Flower and Happy Bird" EP is done! We will be working on the packaging and tweaking the final mix throughout the weekend. Look forward to some shows to promote this succulent record! We also have some surprises up our collective sleeve, stay tuned!

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Last night wandered through the haze of running on 5 hours of sleep to our show at DC9 with the zeal of a proud father having watched his child win a soccer game, only at 2am on a schoolnight. Really, the buzz of doing something of value– in this case raising over $1,400 for the children affected by the tsunami– has carried me and then some. Jim and I played a more "rock" set (eschewing the slower numbers) and covered the prince of rock darkness: Elmo ("I Don't Want To Live On The Moon").

I remarked to Anne how I wish that every day I could do something fulfilling like the fundrasier, and she mentioned that if that were possible it would be exhausting. But really, I always end up doing things the only way I know how: like an insane idiot. Jumping right in feet first and worrying about details- sleeping, eating– later.

That being said, playing with Private Eleanor and Alcian Blue last night was a pleasure, honor and priviledge. I am only beginning to get Alcian Blue's nuances, and what they do blows me away. So dense and driving, yet intricate. Just as much, I am only slowly climbing out of social-awkwardness and genuinely meeting other bands. It's so strange, these people in other bands have the same motivations, the same passion, and the same interests to being playing in bands at roughly the same age, yet I somehow always fall prey to my own schisms. Not sure if that stems from my own, amateurish deification of all things music, or if it's some deeply rooted social anxiety, but I seem to rest myself somewhere close to slackjawed or googily-eyed and self-concious about whether I am coming across like a dick. It's the same thing that really prevented me from dating in college.

Funny? Maybe. Marcia Toms, where are you now?

Bundle up, baby it's cold outside.