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Meyercord: using the most cutting edge technology to bring you tunes

Last week I wrote and recorded a Christmas song.  It is currently on my myspace player.  It was written and recorded in a two hour time period so it has that special "lo-fi" sound.  There are sleigh bells, references to Christmas lights, gifts, mistletoe and everything.  A bonified Christmas song (though not a carol).  If you would like an mp3 of it just let me know.  I can send one via email.  Or if you order my ep or either of the Ball of Wax compilations on which I appear I will send you a physical CD of the Christmas song (artwork and everything) backed with a version of Silent Night I recorded with Annie Bethancourt last year.  The EP is $5 and the compilations are $4 each.  Happy holidays  and all that.

I don't know what to do.  I want to experiment with and/or deconstruct my live performance some how.  I am drawn to work more with looping and mixing in other instruments (like keyboards drum machine whateves).  I am at the same time drawn to play with other people.  In order to do either, I need to actually practice more as opposed just thinking about it.  That would require me to make better use of my time.  I think I have gotten bad at that lately.  I am able to get most things done, but I know I can do more. 

This may be old news to some, but it may be new news to others.  Ball of Wax 13 is out.  If you don't know what Ball of Wax is, let me explain.  Ball of Wax is a quarterly music compilation that Seattle's Levi Fuller runs.  It often is very Pacific NW - centric but includes other artists as well.  Lucky number 13 has the concept of using as much cursing and foul language as possible.  I personally don't do this very much in songs so when I heard the premise, I took it as a challenge.  I also decided to do it the day submissions were due (extra challenge!).  So I sat down and wrote and recorded the very tongue in cheek song called Shit on My Heart.  You can now own an afternoon of my life by ordering this compilation and hearing my rough recording of a song that will most likely never be recorded again.  You can get it from the Ball of Wax website or from me by messaging me.  I also have copies of Ball of Wax 12 which is "out of print".  The issues of Ball of Wax are $5 each.  Unless you buy them at a show in which case they are $4.

So this is the official tour blog. I am writing this from David Kyle's friends Cosmo and Karen's place. Super nice people. Last night was amazing. The Portland Cello Project was awesome. There was a a couple nice surprises. One Y La Bamba and Meyercord were able to do a split set before PCP took stage. The other surprise was that Bright Red paper, a Portland mostly instrumental band played a couple songs with PCP. The other bands that played were awesome too (Hurtbird, Loch Lomond, and John from The Ginger Patriots who did an incredible rendition of Britney Spears' "Toxic".) There was free pizza and salad. In fact I got Richie's, from Loch Lomond, salad too (apparently hes not much of a salad eater). Thanks Richie. I will update this later.

Day 2

When we woke on day I forgot to mention that morning we for some reason had a conversation about this guy who took a silver supplement to cure these medical problems that he had. It totally worked for him but there was the side effect of turning his skin blue. The crazy thing is that later that day in Ashland, David and I were at the Co-op and we saw a guy who did look kinda blue. He had a kid with him that looks kinda blue. Later I asked one of Luzelena's friend and she confirmed that it was the blue man. Crazy.

We played two sets in Ashland. An acoustic split Y La Bamba/Meyercord set on the deck of the bar at 6:30. Afterwards we go to meet Luz's family. Her brother Daniel showed David and I around the town (super nice of him). Later we did electric sets (David Kyle and The Invisibles, Meyercord, and Y La Bamba). It was really cool. All of Luzelena's friends were very supportive and nice to us. We slept on the floor of Luz's friend Rainy. It was carpeted so more comfortable than the night before. Yay!

The other night we slept on the deck of Cosmo's place in Eugene. It was kind of funny because he lives pretty near the college campus. There was a party going on almost all night. I was able to sleep fine, but apparently it may have been an issue with David and Luzelena. Then at like 8 in the morning it started to rain a bit and I had to move under the covered area of the deck but managed to fall back asleep.

Later we went to coffee with Cosmo and Karen. On the walk there, a homeless person asked for if I had a dollar. I did have sixty cents in my pocket I was not planning on using anytime soon, so I gave him the change. He took it, looked at me and said, "is that all you got?". I t really kind of threw me .

I really like riding in the car thus far. We are listening to David Kyle's ipod and I am being introduced to many bands . I like a lot of them.

Day 3

Woke up in Ashland. Had coffee at Evo's. The one hour David and I a lotted turned into two and a half hours, but we got to meet a bunch of cool people. Then we drove a ways and were in Sacramento. Yay!.

Old Ironsides was really cool the booker/promoter, Jerry, was super cool. He made sure that we got paid and then bought one of all of our CDs. Plus a girl I met at an Eskimo and Sons show in Portland who lives in Sacramento was at the show. THat was super cool. In fact she was so cool that she let us crash at her place. Even going as far as to make us all tea (she offered fruit salad too) . Thanks Kari!

So I have news regarding Meyercord.

First of all, the Ball of Wax quarterly compilation featuring many wonderful bands and musicians (including a song from yours truly) is now available through the the Ball of Wax website. I will also have some copies to sell at shows too in the very near future. The compilation is pretty great it has 21 tracks of mostly original unreleased material (mine is a demo of an unreleased song previously available on myspace).

On Monday, I am playing a show with my friend David Kyle and The Invisibles, and Love Menu at Y La Bamba at Backspace. Kele Goodwin and Brittain Ashford are also playing and are both great. Remember that Ball of Wax compilation from earlier in the post? She' s on it too. Kele plays and sings kinda like Nick Drake (i know the Nick Drake thing gets thrown around a lot, but in this instance its true). Brittain also is a fan of the autoharp driven affair. She writes folk pop songs that are worth hearing. I am excited to be a part of this show.

Then on Thursday I will be driving down to Eugene with Matt Sheehy to play a another show with Brittain, but this time as Meyercord. Check out Matt's tunes, they are well executed pop. What I have heard of his new album Tigerphobia has been really impressive. I haven't seen him in awhile so I am looking forward to seeing him play again. We will be playing at a place called the Wandering Goat. It should be tons of funs.

In other news, I wanted to mention that recently I put the Childish EP in the Tender Loving Empire store. Man I love that store. It has one of the best local music section in town. Seriously if you randomly pick any of the CDs of the shelf, you are sure to have a great CD. Plus they have a lot of local clothing designs, and print, and independent comics. It is awesome and you should check it out.

Also last night I made the decision to repackage and start selling and old EP that I used to have at my shows. It features three songs that are not on the Childish EP. It was recorded in one day back in December 2006. If you are a personal friend of mine, chances are that you already have it. If not will be available for the cheap price of $3 at shows (the Childish EP is still available for $5 at shows).

ps I know i just copied the bulletin post I made earlier. So What?

So there is a quarterly music complilation based out of Seattle put together by Levi Fuller.  It is called Ball of Wax.  It is pretty awesome because there are usually a lot of people on the compilations that I have never heard and yet are astoundingly good.  You can download a bunch of issues for FREE on that link above.

Any way, I am on the issue 12 that was just released.  You can order a copy of the Ball of Wax website.  They are hella cheap (21 tracks  for $4 postage paid).  I beleive that the Seattle Radio Station KEXP has a copy so you can request it if you live in the Seattle area.

Happy Monday everyone,

Ben

While I was away on Vacation  (it was awesome, thanks),  Fensepost posted a review of the new EP.  You can read it right here if you would like.

-Ben

I have finished the ep. It is called Childish EP. It contains five songs recorded in Gas House Studios (Portland, OR). It also includes a bonus cd of one track acoustic versions of all five songs. All of the cds are hand-packaged by yours truly. I have been selling it where ever I perform. But I figured that I should make it available to everyone though. I have not decided yet what direction I want to go as far as distributing it. But for now, you can order it direct from me. You can email me at meyercordmusic@gmail.com and we will figure it out. It will be $6 which includes shipping. In the mean time I will be making plans so that I can make more music.

-Ben