Soundcloud Site, and What I've Been Putting There

I have given in to the inevitable, and established a Soundcloud site for the music I've been putting here. I don't anticipate it will lead to any change in posting frequency (or infrequency) here--I had originally hosted the files themselves at MIT, then on a Google Drive site, now they'll be on Soundcloud (or at least the new ones will).

I've got five tracks posted right now, one of which has already appeared here as the Inevitable Found Wanting Support Live Set. The others currently posted as May takes over from April are:

Canon Romance: This one also sort-of appeared here, in solo acoustic form not long after it was written. Here it's been fleshed out with the rest of the Gedankenband, including a little intro. I was fighting a cold so it's somewhat more nasal than it might be, I'll certainly revisit the vocals before it gets an official release.

Let's Go Out (While We Stay In): I've moved my NaPoWriMo output to Twitter, but some of what I've written has ended up here, anyhow. I had a day when I set out to write song lyrics, and the relative novelty of the coronavirus response led me to write this relatively light-hearted song. I'm likely to pursue it for the next album, if I can get a Gedankenband arrangement that works.

Bought and Sold: Another NaPoWriMo product, though I'd written the first verse last summer. I'm pretty happy with this one, I don't tend to write a lot of lyrics like this, though I do write poetry like it a lot, I think...

Stormin' Gorman: I suppose it's fitting that so many of these have NaPoWriMo connections. This one started as a poem I wrote during my very first NaPoWriMo, when I was writing poems about baseball. I'm not sure why, but it was going through my head and struck me as something that could be set to music relatively easily (if not necessarily relatively well).  I don't know if this one has a future, but I could see it making it onto the next album (or the one after)...

The Inevitable Unplugged Found Wanting Support Live Set

When the Gedankenband last released an LP back in 2016, I recorded a few songs from it live and unplugged in support of it.  Since we've just released the Found Wanting EP (available on Bandcamp, Spotify, Amazon, Apple, etc.), I thought I'd do the same. :)

Here's the set! 

It's live, solo, and unplugged, and has three songs from the EP (The DART Song, "All Yours", and When We Look Back To Now) and one oldie ("(Good Luck with the) Woman of Your Dreams", from Not For Having, But For Tasting. 

Enjoy! 

New Release: Found Wanting EP

As previously promised, the newest release from the Gedankenband, the 5-song EP Found Wanting is now available for download at Bandcamp! (Click here: https://andyrivkin.bandcamp.com/album/found-wanting)  The downloads are "name your own price", which includes a free download if you are so moved.  Thanks to Christine Rueter for the amazing cover art!

The EP should also be finding its way onto various streaming services (Spotify, YouTube, Tidal, etc.) over the next few days as well. We're also on track for a fall release of a full album, possibly to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the release of The Red Album... 

Upcoming EP: Found Wanting

Songs at the bottom!

I'm happy to announce that the Gedankenband have some music releases planned for 2020 after a quiet stretch that only saw the release of the 'Oumuamua/Surf Titan! single. While a full album (provisional title: The Hanging Spaghetto Problem) will likely be an ongoing work through the year with a goal of a fall/winter release, after considering another single release we realized there's enough material ready for a 4-song EP.  Or even a 5-song EP, but I'll probably keep it at 4.

We're shooting for a release of that EP (current title: Found Wanting) in roughly a month. The songs slated for inclusion (running order TBD) are:

• All Yours
• The DART Song
• When We Look Back To Now
• Lap of Luxury

While there are some older recordings that may find themselves on the album, all of the EP songs are newly recorded at The Pleasure Grounds over the past month or two, and "When We Look Back To Now" was only written shortly before it was recorded.

As a bit of an amuse bouche, I'll point to two songs. First is an early version of "All Yours", from an attempt at recording it for These are My Monkeys, This is My Circus. This version is kind of over-arranged, using various Garageband loops adapted for its use rather than the more guitar-driven version planned for Found Wanting.  I've been calling this the "Candelabra Version" as a nod to Liberace, who this version eventually reminded me of...   The second is an "acoustic draft" of The DART Song, upon which the final version is being built.

All Yours (Candelabra Version)
The DART Song (acoustic draft)