Draw your own conclusion.  Please watch and listen to the children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEaA7HSGB5s&feature=related

a demo of the new Munook single is available for streaming exclusively on http://www.ilike.com/artist/Munook

Go check it out or I'll find you and throw raw hot dogs at your knees until you do.

I'll try to make this short and sweet, 'cause I've got A LOT of work to do (...if I don't finish this album by Christmas, I'm going to lose my mind...but seriously)

Here are the lyrics and a list of credits for the song "Cactus Flower". For privacy reasons, I will not specify to whom this song is directed. I will say, however, that "Cactus Flower" is intended for a young lady who has not completely wrapped her head around the concept of adoption and what that means for her. It is intended for her ears once she is ready to accept certain details of her existence. The lyrics are as follows:


If you're a little bit suspicious and something doesn't smell right,
your ears should be ringing from the pinging of the hammer strike. Clear your mind of everything, ignore your insecurities, focus on the target, & drive that nail head home.

There's no wrapping your head around the current situation. Explore it if you like or begin interrogation. I can lead you to the answers dear, show you how you've gotten here; if it's truth you're looking for then look no further, I'm here.

I don't know what it was in me that felt the need to save you. Saving is something done by the heroes; someone braver, but I took you by the fragile hand, looked you in your searching eyes,
stood before the ocean, & promised you the entire world.

So saddle up the horses; go clear your poor, weary head.
Know you're not alone; don't succumb to the emptiness!
...and since we're being honest here; all of my initial fears that would've dampened all my dreams were sent to the grave by you.

David John Lanier: Songwriting, Lyrics, Vocals. Bass, Synths, Samples, Drum Programming, Keyboard, Harmonica, Guitar, Clogging, Recording, Production, Editing, & *Rough* Mixing.

Patrick Murphy: Engineering

Cactus Flower was recorded in The Sanctuary and Engineered in Fun House Studios, Nashville. The song has yet to be sent to a Mastering House, so please bear with the lacking audio quality.

Please note that all samples were hand made, I do not use other peoples tracks to create my own music. That's cheating. And yes, I actually strapped on a pair of clogs and went to town. For more info on clogging, click here http://en.wikipedia.org/wi..ki/Clogging.

Enjoy.

P.S. All music and lyrics are property of Ninja Dave Soundwaves LLC and Parasaurolophusongs ASCAP. Don't steal and/or plagiarize without permission please.

P.P.S. You can listen to the song here http://www.ilike.com/artist/Munook among other places.  If you are truly interested, Please google the word Munook

A demo of the new Munook single, "Cactus Flower", is available for streaming directly from this website; http://www.ilike.com/artist/Munook

Also, I just added it to the Munook myspace page.

Aaaand here http://www.imeem.com/munook (leave no stone unturned)

Enjoy.

P.S.  None of the tracks have been mastered yet, so bear with me.  That'll be the next phase after I'm finished making the album.  ; P

I am writing from my wreck of a workstation.  It appears to have been operated by someone who has spent the last several months drinking way too much caffeine and sleeping far less than necessary.  Tsk Tsk.

The trip to Nashville to have my album mixed and quasi-mastered is over.  To spare everyone too many boring details, some of the trip went better than expected and some of it didn't go according to plan.  No surprise there; how like life.

There are now, in my possession, six songs from the pending ten song album (which will be titled, "In and of It").  I am listening as I type.  Where are the other four songs, you ask?  (ahem)  They are still in the production phase.  I went to Nashville with 70% of the album finished and had the intention of wrapping it up live in the studio.  I thought it would be a nice way to add some sonic variation and end the CD on an interesting, spontaneous, and experimental note.  However, once six o'clock p.m. rolled around on Thursday and it was time to start setting up for the live programming, the engineer made an executive decision (with a tone in voice that said, "It's not in my job description to sit here and wait while I watch you wrap up programming [which is insanely boring by the way].") and stated that, "...doing a half-ass job on the last few songs and slapping everything together in a hotel room/studio just so you can rush to the label and give them thirty minutes and five seconds of music; barely eking by the required time limit, is not going to be nearly as beneficial to you as it would be if you took the last 30% of the album home to finish it properly.  Then you could come back to Nashville one last time and leave with a finished product that you are confident you've made to the best of your abilities and ENJOYED while making it [me thinks he was picking up on my stress levels]."

So, after dealing with a slight guilt trip from the studio owner (i.e. he had to turn away a potential client for me), "Team Munook" decided to postpone the last day and return at a later date to wrap up the album PROPERLY and with LOW STRESS LEVELS.

My Nashville liaison will contact the studio, engineer, and label in the very near future to nail out another work date.  In the meantime, I will distribute the six songs I have finished (well, 95% finished, they still need mastering for radio-play apparently), to loyal friends and fans to gather together a general consensus as to whether or not anything needs changing, as I will have time to fix it upon my last visit to Nashville.

I am very proud of what I and everyone involved has accomplished thus far.  The music is sounding surprisingly good.  Actually, in places, it sounds great.

A small test audience who has heard the album beyond the tune "Square 1" and witnessed  Munook in "live ensemble" form , have compared the music to:

-Portishead
-The Flamming Lips
-Tricky
-Radiohead
-Coldplay
-Phil Collins
-Final Fantasy Soundtracks
-Trent Reznor
-Sonic Youth
-Incubus
-Jeff Buckley
-Modest Mouse
-Bob Dylan
-Joni Mitchell
-Yes
-Bjork

Thanks for all the support; more details coming sooner than later......

Good grief.  I believe there is a saying, "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and usually at the worst possible time".

I couldn't agree more.

First let me apologize for getting everyone all excited and then dropping the ball.  Contractually, I was supposed to have my album to the A&R @ the record label by July 27th.  Several snafus occurred and I pushed the date back to August 22nd.  Now, my engineer has contacted my secretary (yeah, I have a secretary [those of you who know me well probably have a pretty good idea of who that is, but for the rest of you, I'll keep it a secret to make it sound more interesting]) and said that he has an "unbreakable appointment" during the middle of the week I am supposed to be working with him in Nashville and wanted to reschedule, so reschedule we did.

NOW, I am on track to be in Nashville to work from August 25th to the 28th.  The engineer (who's name is Patrick Murphy) does a lot of work with Dolly Parton, so I imagine the interruption was something along those lines (I imagine she pays him better than I do) but either way, he is a very kind and supportive soul, so I am not holding this over his head.

I am looking at this as "divine intervention", because I am working my self to the bone, putting in about 12-14 hours a day in the studio, and now this gives me a little more breathing room, and reduces a little bit of stress.

So, don't expect to hear anything too very exciting from me for the next three to four weeks.

For those of you with enough time, please google the word Munook and go exploring.

Stay strong.

P.S.  I just wanted to say that I am a VERY FORTUNATE individual who is surrounded by a team of VERY SUPPORTIVE people who are allowing me to work on this album full time.  I don't know how long it will last, but for the time being I am living my dream.  I hope this exciting period in my life will conjure some decent music that you will all enjoy and possibly benefit from.

I am currently working on a song for my son, Liam Hudson Lanier. He is six years old and I wrote the lyrics for his 26 year old self (at least I think that is the age he will be when this will make the most sense). I titled the track "Introverted Revolutionary". The lyrics are as follows

(ahem)

You can't see until you close your eyes
You can't feel until you break the skin, until somebody breaks your heart
You won't understand your place in the world until you are completely set apart

Try not to be afraid...

Don't reach out for love, it will find you if you humble your heart.
Be sure to burn a light inside because things in this world often get dark
You've got to be strong for others because people, they tend to fall apart

Try not to be afraid...

Be patient my son, let world turn
Let yourself go, let the pain burn
Because from a little bit of pain comes a whole lot of progress
From a whole lot of progress comes a little bit of change
From a little bit of change comes a revolution
From a revolution comes a "war"
From "war" comes pain, from pain comes progress, from progress...change
And change brings revolution

Don't you worry son, EVERYBODY gets lost
If you fall and I'm able, I will pick you up

I will always love you....

(Copy and paste)

http://www.jango.com/music/Munook?l=0

Hello. Please bear with me, I was up late and up early, so I am a little groggy. No, I'm a lot groggy with a side of grumpy (gnashes teeth; raises hackle).

An update (which brings to mind the question, is there a downdate?):

I am still shooting for July 27th as my deadline. At this point, I believe that the date is self imposed. I have spoken to my friendly A&R recently and he instructed me to, "take my time" and give him "something that will sell". He closed the conversation by saying, "If you need more time, just let me know"

Yeah, there is always that, but then again, my contract only lasts for a year and the longer it takes me to give them an album, the less time I will have for them to move it (or at least try to move it). Plus, the lovely people @ Deka Records (who?!) are promising me some pretty cool stuff and I really don't want to give them any leeway to short change me by not following through on MY end, which was to have a commercially available product ready for sale within three to four months of signing. July 27th is the four month mark.

Hi, I'm stressed. How are you?

A progress report:

8 songs written; 2 left to write
1 song fully mastered; 9 left to take the trip to Nashville
3 songs ready to be engineered 7 left to be put through the production process.

Murphy and her stupid law have been in full effect throughout the last three months. Someone once told me that when starting your own business, everything will take twice as long as you think and anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and typically at the worst possible time. He was right. The brains of my operation had to be sent to California for repairs TWICE; that took three weeks. Also, I had this crazy notion to put together a different band for every song. That was a horrible idea. The results are awesome and exactly what I envisioned, but considering my limitations, I am going to have to reconfigure and fly solo for a few tunes, perhaps even for the rest of the album (weeeee).

The only new tune that has been on my page since JANUARY (Square 1) is still the only song from the album I feel that is really worthy of being released, as the other two that could be are still a little rough around the edges.

One more quick disclaimer/excuse...The album is being mastered in Nashville using Pro Tools HD and Dolly Parton's engineer and it will sound great (considering it's just one dude producing out of his basement). However, when you pull the wave file from the hard drive, import it into itunes for the MP3 conversion process, and then import the tune into facebook, myspace, etc...a lot of clarity and quality is lost. So bear with me, it is a growth process. I am but a babe in the woods.

I love you all and and I'm so happy you cared enough to jump on board.

It means worlds to me.

P.S. Nothing is available for sale yet. Nor is it available for download.