Games For May Video

We had a blast filming this one last month. Once again, Joah Colby employed his fantastic shooting ability to render our madness for the big screen. You can see the final video HERE.

WITCH WATCH Underground/Overground Track 5 Decapitated French Novelist

"Some days I hold you, some days I scold you, some days I bowl with you.."

A song about a relationship between a person and a severed head? Yep. The head can still talk, so it's not a one sided affair.

Before Austin added his new wave, uptempo drums and Rory his tasty, intricate bassline, Decapitated French Novelist started out as a super chill bit of shoegaze that was content to float away into the ether. Then a full band arrangement and lyrics grounded it into a good paced bit of catchy pop.

On this track I used a trick that I employed also on Ash & Apple, a pre-chorus. Normally when I write a song, I write the music first and then the lyrics afterwards. Sometimes I work off an arbitrary title and use it as a literary device or challenge. Can I write a song about X? Other times I'll ignore the title and write about something that has nothing to do with it. In any case, I usually write a melody on guitar or make subhuman noises vocally to rough out a vocal line. Next I'll rough out a story with a few key lines and then I'll do a bit of math and calculate the syllables per line. Lines get edited into form and I'll do a vocal demo. In this particular situation, I had written a long ass verse. A long ass verse can be boring and so I decided to add a repetitive pre-chorus:

"Some days I hold you,
some days I scold you,
some days I bowl with you

No shoulders to cry on
No arms to hold on
No legs to run from me
To run from me.."

Leading into the chorus:

"A box to put me in
A box to put you in
A box to put us in"

That leaves the verses to deal with the details of the relationship:

Verse 1:

"When I first met you,
You were beside yourself.
I took you home and
Sat you on my shelf

Verse 2:

I love your ego
I love your cortex too
Shellac preserves you
And leaves a tannish hue

Verse 3:
They say your words can
Conjure a dream or two
But when I dust you
The words are often blue"

It's fairly absurd stuff. A bit Ray Davies mixed with Robyn Hitchcock.

For those keeping track, there are two demos versions and the released studio version of the song.

You can hear the song HERE.

WITCH WATCH Underground/Overground Track 3 No Place To Go

No Place To Go is probably the oldest song on here. It was written prior to and rejected from the Murder Shoes debut E.P.

In it's original composition, No Place To Go sounded like a hazy and shimmery The Verve style acoustic/electric track. Some psychedelic guitars figured in there too. Anyways, I always loved the song and brought it to Anna when we started Witch Watch. She threw vocals on that same demo and we ended up NOT using it our debut either. The reason escapes me.

After the first album we went to Texas as previously discussed. We recorded A Song For Afterward, Discarded Rituals, and Trouble. We were now about to take another stab at No Place To Go. The last three songs we cut were acoustic driven, chill pieces, and we we're about do another, and that irked me. Shawn dialed in a super nasty distortion tone and Anna and I cut a ripping version. It doesn't have drums or bass on it, but you get the idea of where it's going. When we played the Texas tracks to Rory and Austin, it was this one they responded to most favorably.

Right around this time Robert joined the group. We worked it up as a band and tracked it in that first Underground session in August 2017. I'm happy to say that version DID make the album, and it's been in damn near every set we've played live. To me, the song now sounds like a mashup of an AC/DC song (pre-79) and Juju era Siouxsie and the Banshees.

WITCH WATCH Underground/Overground Track 2 Emily Empathy

Track two finds us at Emily Empathy. A song demoed in 2016 for the never officially completed 2nd Murder Shoes album. It was part of a bunch of songs that were freed up once that band split. Anna put vocals on it that same year and it had been tossed around as a song we'd re-track with Austin and Rory for our debut, but alas, our budget only allowed for eight songs to be recorded with Knol "mutt" Tate, and so we ended up choosing songs that we could learn in a day and a half before going in. All the more nuanced songs were held over the next Witch Watch album, which brings us up to date.

The origin of the song derives from a purchase. I had just gone to Twin Town (there's a pattern here) to scope reverb pedals. I traversed home with the Electro-harmonix Cathedral reverb unit. It gave me plenty of options sound wise and definitely upped the Murder Shoes live sound on my end. There's a saying that every time you buy a new pedal, you write three new songs just messing around with it. It's no lore, and Emily Empathy came out of it. I used it in conjunction with a Seymor Duncan 805 a Boss DD7 Delay, and a Boss Chorus CE3. I twiddled the knobs until I got a ferocious, swirly sound and used it on the intro and chorus parts and then opted for a more gentle chorus/delay/reverb sound on the 12 string for the verses. I was looking for a cross between The Cure's Pornography album, Joy Division's Still, and some Treasure era Cocteau Twins.

Knol captured everything better than the demo as per usual. Prior to recording, when we gathered on his porch to load in our equipment, I had my 5 string and 12 string acoustics in tow. Knol, in his usual serious/not serious manner said "what the hell is that?" while focusing on our wooden guitars. We hadn't used any on the first album (with him) and he probably thought we were going soft on him. Knowing he was fucking around, I shrugged and said "you'll see". As it turns out, Knol likes our non-rock shit the best. Listen closely to the verses for some subtle and tasty Buddy Holly style guitar licks from Robert.

New Posters (June Edition)

Last Few Posters

Some recent work, including our upcoming show with Chrome and The Rope at 7th Street Entry.

Witch Watch Posters

Sometime in 2018, I'll be unveiling a massive Witch Watch art book. Lots of sketchy, inky, painted things alongside some lyrics and other mania. That will time out with the arrival of the second Witch Watch album. It would be nice to do a poster exhibition alongside that. Maybe all the Murder Shoes/Witch Watch stuff. There's quite a bit.

Transparencies Animated Video

For the past month I've been drawing and painting a million scenes for the attached video, which was finished a couple days ago. Originally, it was going to be for Pink Salt, but, to torture myself, I picked a longer song instead. Here tis-

It's Monday. You Should Watch A Video.

Last month my new group, Witch Watch shot a second video for our upcoming album, Wandering and Wondering. There's a corresponding single to go with it on Bandcamp, featuring another three non-album b-sides. If you like songs about people named Mr.Fish, raising the dead, and just flat out stream of crazy wordplay, you may be in luck.



The director of the video is Joah Colby. Molly Uravitch designed the costumes. I made that weird bug that sits atop the amplifier and edited/storyboarded the thing. The album comes out April 21st.

Witch Watch Stills

I haven't been a postin' as of late as I've been busy working on a number of projects. One of which is a mildly animated video for the Witch Watch song called "Witches Woods". There are two other videos in development, and I'll share stills from those later, but first I thought I'd share a few from "Witches Woods" first.

Murder Shoes Fall

The plan was to record another twelve songs and then pick the best ten from a pool of twenty. We wanted to up our game and give ourselves the opportunity to experiment and explore new terrain. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite end up happening.

The songs were there though. A massive pile of them had been demoed. In fact, they had been rapidly accumulating since May of 2015. The bulk of Daydreaming had been written by then, and the songs kept coming.

Having three songwriters can be a good thing. There’s the variety of styles and strengths, the healthy competition, and the undying flow of material. Three songwriters can also be trouble. Too much material to choose from, a lack of outlet, and conflicting artistic direction. Songs sit around and tempers flare. Side projects happen. Songs from the central pool vanish and reappear elsewhere. Those things happened and now you have a version of what was supposed to be our second album. Before I move on to discuss the new compilation, let me first gush a little bit about my former band mates.

When Murder Shoes coalesced, it was really, and truly beautiful. A functioning musical democracy is an unusual thing. We all brought songs in but in the end, it was down to Elliot and Tim’s expertise in arranging that made things happen in a timely and pain free manner. A hot steaming lump of riffage could be rendered into a rare gem quickly by the Elliot and Tim rock tumbler. Chris could always be counted on to pull out some evocative expressions from his guitar and I’ll definitely miss his pool of hits to work on. Tess, perhaps my twin in stubborn pride, has an undeniably amazing voice. It was a pleasure to see her write and sing melodies with ease even though our brand of rock was not as she once stated, her forte.

Chris and Tess did a lot of the behind the scenes emailing and connecting, the communications that lead to great shows and having a place to practice and we wouldn’t have gotten very far without their determination. Thank you.

Now, the album.

Eight of the songs on Fall come from a session we did with Ali Jaafar at Ecstattic studios.

Greater Expectations came from an idea to merge the casual swing of third album era Velvet Underground with the sweaty groove of CCR. Kind of like Girls Named Benji, but less manic. It was a great opener at shows, and it was damn good fun to play.

Burning Cedars was meant to be a sort of palette cleanser of sorts between rockers. A breezy Smiths meets Velocity Girl calm before another storm. That said, you’ll notice that the wind picks up audibly at the end of the middle eight, a swirling black cloud of impending doom complete with temperature shift. (Let me just say that having just written that, I’m a little over weather metaphors, but my original line was going to be something like Burning Cedars is like a gentle back massage between stabbings. Pick your favorite, I guess).

Tape Organ started life as an acoustic Pixies kind of number and then took a sharp left turn back in time to something more of a doo wop r&b and country flavor. It recalls the cigarettes and whiskey of Patsy Cline and also the starry-eyed wonder of The Flamingos “I Only Have Eyes For You”. It’s a throwback and gentle nod to the earliest sounds of Murder Shoes. A tip of the hat to those who enjoyed songs like “Jenny Says” and “Every Heart has a Fool” (available on the expanded version of our debut release Cash On Fire).

Mirror Sky is a track that sort of epitomizes what we do best. Combine one part come-hither sensual vocals with equal parts dread, melancholia, restlessness, Western vistas, and who gives a damn steel-toe swagger. A shit-kicker for the indie rockers.

Hands. Sometimes known as Show Me Your Hands or Give Me Your Hands. At the end of the day, Hands. Rather than try to explain the merits or story behind Hands, I’d rather the song speak for itself, though I will say that this song was a trump card in the previously alluded to plan to try new things out. Had the second album been finished, we knew this was would have made the cut. I wish we could have finished that damn second record.

Missle Siren is a baffler. A really weird cousin to Mirror Sky, Missle Siren is a demented take on what we do best. The really unusual two part chorus always sends me some place not of this earth. It’s off in the best possible way. What the hell is going on? The faucet is running, the toast is burning, and the cats are loose. This one always makes me grin. Love it.

Far Away is the third part of the Mirror Sky/Missle Siren trilogy. As the title suggests, it’s the extended desire of wanting be someone or somewhere else. Like the other two songs, it’s epic in scope, encompassing icy cliffs of reverb, moss covered fortresses, and ship destroying waves. Spooky perhaps, there’s a lot of wandering sprits around this one. Crushed souls and dreams on a journey elsewhere.

Cities was another stab at something different, another exploration. To date, we hadn’t written anything that was dance floor bait and the time was right to try it out. Cities was a joy live as you could be loud as hell and broadcast a dub like groove at the same time. Stray notes, dischord, melancholia, and good times. This one would have made the second album cut too.

Two more songs on Fall come from the Daydreaming sessions we did with Knol Tate.

They were cut from Daydreaming at the last possible second. The vinyl version of Daydreaming has lyrics to both Cash On Fire and Leave It Love. Those who have been following our progress will note that Cash On Fire was our very first single. We decided to record another version of it that would feature Elliot and Tim, and as it happened, it couldn’t be more different than the original. The song is now a panoramic expanse. A lusty beckoning call in the middle of nowhere or an angry spirit sweeping through gutted buildings and burned out motor vehicles. Both maybe?

Leave It Love is a curious thing. Originally brought to us by Tim, our mysterious fourth songwriter, Leave It Love was transformed from a very chill Hank Williams deal into an exercise in rowdy roughneck punky-tonk We can be mellow, sure. We’ve done it many times, but it’s possibly a set-up, one to catch you unawares for a song like Leave It Love and its hot pint of backwash to the face. It’s a soundtrack to fists swinging, car chases, narrow escapes and reckless dancing, the sort that results in decapitation. We only ended up playing this a few times live. Bummer, but now you get to have it.

So that’s the Fall. Not officially our second record but parts of it. If you’d like to know what else might have made the cut, you’ll have to check out our new groups. Songs like “Equator”, “True Love”, “My Fist Is On Your List” “Last Date”, and “Hand Painted Dinosaurs” amongst MANY others, were all in that second album pile. Keep tabs on Witch Watch and Damn Wesley if you’d like to hear and know more about those missing puzzle pieces.

For now the Murder Shoes Fall album is available via bandcamp, but soon it’ll be on itunes and all that jazz.

(The front cover art comes from my book Enough Astronaut Blood To Last The Winter. Available from better indie book stores, Fantagraphics Books, and amazon.)

Best,

DVG

April 5th At The Kitty Cat Klub

Wow, we haven't played the Kitty since before our midwest tour. Crazy!

Tonight At The Triple Rock

Tonight at the Triple Rock, we'll be playing with Cherry Cola, as well as Ripper and Deleter, who are releasing a cassette EP and vinyl LP respectively. Very very excited for them. You can also pick up our recently released LP and maybe hear a new song or two. That's right, we're demoing for the next album. It's gonna be a good year.

Murder Shoes 'Daydreaming' LP

OOH yes. Here tis. These are images of the LP but it's also available on cd and download.

Murder Shoes Album Release Show

Just got back from New York and I'm jazzed to be playing tonight at our album release show. Just to make it even more special,we'll be playing a new song to warm up.

Girls Named Benji - Murder Shoes

The second single from our Daydreaming album was just released today. It's called Girls Named Benji, and it has its roots in a situationalist challenge between band mates. First we had the title and then had to write the music around it. In my mind, it would have a repetitive call back lyric in the verse and then I thought of solo Lou Reed or the Velvet Underground and went about writing some manner of song with the simple sort of lovable chug that makes the VU so damn catchy. In a strange turn of events, my absurdist lyrics stayed when we all worked it up for what we now have here. A bit of ridiculousness now set to footage from our recent midwest tour.

Daydreaming, produced by Knol Tate, arrives via Landski Records Nov. 6th with a release show happening at the Icehouse on Nov 10th. Live radio session soon after! Meow.

Murder Shoes Debut Album Artwork

Here's a first look at our debut album, Daydreaming. It'll be released on November 6th via Land Ski Records on CD and download and also on vinyl via the band. Mmmm vinyl. Haven't been on vinyl since 1997. VERY much looking forward to that.

September 10th The Nomad Minneapolis

August 13th Show

Murder Shoes At The Kitty Cat Klub