Rawk, Role

Right. Well, another BRB song is ready for the masses. Last night, we braved the cold of our rehearsal studio to put together a new tune called Regret.

As we said after putting together Atlantis, Regret sounds different than anything we've done before. Which I think is a good trend. It's a country/folkish thing in 3 (waltz feel). Very spare and atmospheric. Doc and I stayed after Barret and Aoife left to work through some cool harmonies, which will add quite a bit if we can pull them off together.

To wit:

REGRET Left something beneath the moon that night As the desert sky swallowed our hearts Had the pitch, the count and all the signs But I just couldn't knock it out of the park Regret You mean nothing to me You mean nothing to me We all believe that time stands still Even if we act like it don't I've got a silver bullet and a bulletproof voice And I'll never leave you alone Regret You mean nothing to me You mean nothing to me And I wish I was there before The ghost signed its name upon your door Maybe the part of this that you never knew Would have been too much Would have been too true Now it's done, time to move on Let the chips fall where they might The years and miles could never keep us apart And I'm not going down without a fight Regret You mean nothing to me You mean nothing to me Regret You mean nothing to me You mean nothing to me

******

Actually, in looking back at my writing book (more on that later), I see that this tune was actually written in April and May of this year. I also started scouting out studios for our planned early 2006 recording project. My first instinct was Electrical Audio, of Steve Albini (Nirvana, Magnolia Electric Co., tons more) fame. I think we'd be able to manage blocking out a Friday-Sunday there. If it worked, we'd try to spend Friday setting up and getting sounds, Saturday getting basic tracks all live (drums, bass, guitar) and maybe Sunday getting violins and vocals done.

Electrical Audio has a beautiful space and the capacity to capture the live type of sound we're going to shoot for on this project. Depending on how these songs take shape, we'd aim for getting 3 full band tunes, and maybe one acoustic tune... although the new stuff is taking on such a great, simple, straight ahead feeling, that we might be able to squeeze out another if my vocals could take it.

That's exciting. Good times.

Coming next week: I publish actual excerpts from my first songwriting journal, circa 1995. I've got one page left in my current writing book (an anniversary present from last year), and I'm ready to move on to my next book, a beautiful leather bound journal Gina brought me from Italy. After that one, I've got a stylish book Barret and Aoife got me on their honeymoon. I take these writing books very seriously, and I'm very superstitious about them. I believe that each book has a unique character and my writing in each has a unique character...

I've thrown away writing books that I feel have bad feelings or karma attached. So as I finish one writing book, I like to look back at some of my previous books, just to get perspective on where my writing has been, and where it's going. I have every one of them dating back to high school...

So check back next week for vintage, scintillating, SCINTILLATING high school-era lyrics from yours truly. And get ready to clench those gluts.

jbg