Well, it has finally happened.
After a fierce breakup, yellowviolet's final album has been released.
Late last winter, an argument about whether or not to insert a jaw harp solo or some "funny grunting sounds" got out of control. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that yellowviolet could even sit in the same room together and semi-cordially go over the tracks to determine which ones made the cut.
This isn't the first time that yellowviolet has called it quits. Back in 1999, yellowviolet took a break that lasted 7 years. Although yellowviolet has declined to describe this as a "hiatus" or a true breakup, he did say that he "couldn't even think about spending another session with that assclown."
There was even a rumor that the album was going to be literally split in half – not one song here and one song there, but track by track.
"Nobody wants to hear some jackass playing a jaw harp solo for an hour and a half. I guess we'll just get it over with and release the damn thing the way it is."
The album, originally called "Here It Is, Now Fuck Off" was released last week under the tamer title, Grand Finale. Grand Finale goes places where other yellowviolet albums were headed, but halfway there got kidnapped, thrown on a bus and tossed over a cliff in a whiskey barrel. I'm not really sure what that means, but I'm pretty sure that no other album has ever gone there.
So, before the web site is shut down, check out Grand Finale. You can listen to the album in it's entirety at yellowviolet.org and can download by right-clicking on the tracks.
I encourage everyone to reply to this blog and try to get yellowviolet to patch things up and get back in the studio.
Thanks for listening.

Leroy Harding - the Happening

Hey fellow Myspacians.
It has been a couple months since two weeks ago... but a new song has arrived.
This song, Final Words (now he's dead) is a great song to play for someone who wants you to do some remedial everyday task that you just don't want to do. Life is a risk - and every action has a consequence. Sometimes you would rather sit and do nothing than run to the store to get a half gallon of milk.
This song is about giving in and doing something for someone else - and getting killed in a horrible accident while doing it.
So, next time you're asked to do someone a favor, play them this song first so they will know who to place the blame on when you don't come back home.
Tip: Humming the refrain just before walking out the door may get you some valuable free time.

Final Words (now he's dead)
Go outside and mow the lawn
Go outside and mow the lawn
Go outside and mow the lawn
Now he's dead

Change my tire, keeps getting low
Change my tire, keeps getting low
Change my tire, keeps getting low
Now he's dead

went to take the garbage out
tripping on the power chord
falling on the garden hoe
forever in a rectangle

Go to town before it snows
Go to town before it snows
Go to town before it snows
Now he's dead

Take a sip, don't smell so good
Take a sip, don't smell so good
Take a sip, don't smell so good
Now he's dead

taking dog out for a walk
just a quick one 'round the block
slipping on a patch of ice
ashes over fireplace

What was that? Go check it out.
What was that? Go check it out.
What was that? Go check it out.
Now he's dead

You're such a hypochondriac
You're such a hypochondriac
You're such a hypochondriac
Now he's dead

claim it was an accident
blame it on the government
try and make some sense of it
lie about your involvement

Go outside and mow the lawn...
Now he's dead

So... was I on a trip for the past few weeks? Did I slip on a rock and trap my arm in a narrow crevice? Was I grounded from the internet? Did someone tie the ends of my socks together so that every time I tried to make it to the computer I would just fall on my face while that same someone just stands over me laughing while forcing me to survive on nothing but the butt ends of the beef jerky strips that he/she spits out?
No. I have no excuse...
Obviously, I have failed at making a Song of the Every Other Week for the past few every other weeks. Have I run out of ideas? No. But I do think I need to take a break from the schedule. I heard an interview with Kurt Cobain recently (it was pre-recorded...) and he talked about how much he hated television because they needed to pump out a new show every week and the art was lost to a tight schedule. I'm pretty sure he was right. I had a good run (about a year and a half with a new song every other week)... but the schedule was starting to get to me.
I'm finishing up the album ("Table of Incontinence") and will start a new one shortly... but the next album will be made in a more traditional fashion without the time constraints.
I'll still be posting new music, just not every other week... so please keep stopping by!

This week's song of the every other week was made nearly entirely on a little hand held digital voice recorder. Alright, maybe more like half of the song. But half of the drums, 90% of the vocals, some random beeping sounds and the static was laid down on the little machine before transferred to the mixer.
Halfway through recording this song, I threw the recorder in my pocket and went for a ride. On my way back home, I realized that my recorder was missing. I drove back to all the places I went - drove around the supermarket, the liquor store and the pet store... no machine in sight.
If you are a yellowviolet fan, you know how f'd up some of these songs are. I'm not sure if I was more upset about all the lost songs, or more scared about what would happen after some elderly couple in Portage started to listen to the crazy things coming out of the recorder.
Would I get arrested? Sent away for therapy? Deported?
On a whim, I called the store next to the pet store... Sure enough, someone found it in the parking lot and gave it to someone at the store. Holy crap - only in small town, USA. So, after 3 or 4 trips to Portage and back, I was finally reunited with my recorder - and the song could be finished... And I didn't even have to explain the whole "we did it upside down, they did it sideways" and all the other jibberish that may be on that thing.
This one is basically the theme song for me and my lady... mostly the latter. Enjoy.

The mama from the mountain and her tall blond friend

The mama from the mountain and her tall blond friend
It is not a mountain now but it was a mountain then
The mama from the mountain and her tall blond friend
I'd look her in the eye but she don't come up to my chin
Making her own clothing, but my socks she'll never mend
Parted down the middle and a dimple on her chin

We did it this way
We did it that way
We did it upside down
They did it sideways

Always loves the vodka, but she stays away from gin
Sometimes disagree with her but never will contend
she was gonna sign an autograph, but didn't have a pen
The mama from the mountain and her tall blond friend
The mama from the mountain and her tall blond friend
There probably is a story, but I can't seem to begin

Here kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty

The mama from the mountain and her tall blond friend
The mama from the mountain and her tall blond friend

Ever seen a pair of shoes hanging from a power line? Ever wonder how or why it happened? Well, this song tackles these important questions... from the shoes perspective, of course.

shoes
I got up in the afternoon
I got up in the afternoon
I got up in the afternoon
and I haven't been down since
I got up in the afternoon

strung out on the telephone line
strung out on the telephone line
strung out on the telephone line
and now I am a leg behind
strung out on the telephone line

ends have all got tied together
ends have all got tied together
ends have all got tied together
bottoms rubber but the sides are leather
ends have all got tied together

empty is a fine thing for a while its not a bad thing
I've been thinking of the times I've wasted recollecting
I've been walked on the last time and I think I'm gonna miss it
never has the sound of cars and trucks and things kept shaking me both in between
and just before and after still in the middle of the night until it happened

I got up in the afternoon
I got up in the afternoon
I got up in the afternoon
and I haven't been down since
I got up in the afternoon

I think it happened yesterday
I think it happened yesterday
I think it happened yesterday
unless it isn't yet today
I think it happened yesterday

it was such a fun time for a while it was enjoyable
up and down and round and round like the incredible vertical toilet
and I've been chewed up by your dog and you didn't try positive reinforcement
never has my sole been so exposed to all my neighbors, friends, the mail man,
the paperboy, the Fed Ex girl, the school bus full of screaming kids and Brown until it happened.

I got up in the afternoon
I got up in the afternoon
I got up in the afternoon
and I haven't been down since
I got up in the afternoon

This week's (or technically last week's) Song of the Every Other Week is called Drinking a Martini and Writing Love Songs... a song written about writing songs and being abandoned.
For those of you who don't know:
Sconnie [skohn'-ee]- noun, Sconnies - A rockin' female from Wisconsin. I was going to do something productive, but that Sconnie was all over me and my cheese.

Drinking a martini and writing love songs

Drinking a martini and writing love songs
She was out the door this morning at 8 am
And I'm on house arrest watching her best friend
Awe, what the shucks, you know she's my best friend too

Drinking a martini and making love songs
Wonder if you can have one without the other
Wonder what it'll sound like after I wake up
when you're somewhere in New York with all my friends

Shaking a martini and making love songs
Songs I would sing to you if you were here
I've filled up all the memory on my dictaphone
and have to rely on what's between my ears

Driving a Zamboni metaphorically
Trying to smooth the ice around your heart
And I'm sitting here alone watching Spies Like Us
with a dog who seems to have to always chew

Loving a martini and writing drinking songs
Songs I'll wish tomorrow never happened
And I'm waiting by the phone to make sure you're okay
cause I'm on house arrest and I can't do anything else

Drinking me a martini as the sun goes down
I forgot what I began celebrating for
Or maybe it was that I had a real bad day
Ever since that Sconnie walked out of that door

Drinking a martini and writing love songs
She was out the door this morning at 8 am
And I'm on house arrest watching her best friend
Awe, what the shucks, you know she's my best friend too

I wrote this one a long time ago - the original was called thank you very much for calling on the album reversed polarities back in '96.
Well, I'm wrapping up the next album - which I'll probably call Table of Incontinence.
I'm going to start a new approach to the Song of the Every Other Week. I'm going to keep the next album under lock and key instead of giving tidbits of it twice a month. Some of the songs of the every other week will be brand new, but most will be remakes of older tunes... but none will be on the next album. It should be pretty fun.

Where's my money? I went to the ATM and took out 35 dollars and I put in 30 and she put in 30 and I only ended up with 15 dollars wait I thought 35 dollars minus 15 dollars is 20 dollars and I only have 15 dollars I'm 5 bucks short I searched my pockets and found a bill but the bill was only worth one dollar damn I remember that I did my laundry but really I only dries 4 towels and 4 washcloths and a load only costs 50 cents and I didn't have any change just a 5 dollar bill so I used that to get change in quarters I had a lot left over so I had spare change I mean a lot of spare change so when she wanted some Ritz Bits crackers and her dollar wouldn't work in the machine I gave her 4 quarters in exchange for the old dollar bill so that's where that dollar came from so now I've got 16 dollars and a pocket full of change which should be 21 dollars and a pocket full of change what the hell did I do with it? And then I went over everything that happened and I realized something when I went to the atm machine and took out 35 dollars I really only took out 30.

I'm not as messed up as you think I am.
I'm sure others would argue differently, but it is true.
There is a totally rational explanation for nearly every song written. Sometimes they are explained, sometimes its probably better not to say a whole lot about it.
This is one of those times.

Almighty Good Buy
do you mind if I ask you a few questions?
do you believe in god? do you like circus music?
would you believe you could have both, together at last?
I'd sell you it all for 50 dollars.

its a mighty good buy

you ever hear god at a circus?
do you wish you could bottle up that feeling and take it with you wherever you go?
well now you can.
I'd sell it to you for 50 dollars.

its a mighty good buy

I've got it all right here
you can have it for a nominal fee
assuming, of course, that you like the word of god and the sound of circus music
I'd sell you them both for 50 dollars

Its an almighty good buy

I can see yourself with this, you know
I'm sure god would notice you a little more as well
because I hear god rather enjoys the circus
and you're not going to find it for less than 50 dollars

its a mighty good buy

Are you allergic to elephants?
maybe those walls of hay give you a bit of a fever
but you still long for that sweet circus sound?
have I got a treat for you
and I offer it to you for 50 dollars

its a mighty good buy

Alright... not a whole lot to comment on about this one. This is a true story.
The link below is mixed quite a bit differently than the one on myspace.

squirrels have sex

and I'm just sitting here watching squirrels have sex
if it doesn't bother them it don't bother me at all
they don't respond to me or all my gifts of mulberries
yeah, they look pretty intense

I slowly walk away and go back inside
I drag you out there but you're much more unimpressed
she couldn't have her drink 'cause I didn't see the anchovies
yeah, but that's another event

first time I saw them I thought it was just one
I only saw her head until I tossed her the food
and then there he was, concentrating hard keep control of his love
yeah, it was a little like us

and I'm just sitting here watching squirrels have sex
if it don't bother them it shouldn't bother you at all
they don't respond to me or all my gifts of mulberries
yeah, its a little event

So... another song about birds. This one is different from the last bird song ('nother dead bird), because this one's about all the other things that happen to them before they die.
The next song will likely be about squirrels... or perhaps a puppy.

Feeding the Birds
white breasted nut hatch crawling backwards down a tree
dark-eyed junco only comes around in wintertime
rose-breasted grosbeak will always be a friend to me
sparrow broke its crown after slamming into kitchen door
(I've told you that before)

robin tips his head and finds a meal hidden in the earth
there's no need to feed him, though - he's doing fine without my support
blue jay circling round and trying to sound like a crow
the crows are over there gnawing on a rotting deer

feeding the birds
feeding the birds

goldfinches like the fennel that I put in a tube
cardinals only eat the expensive food
red winged black bird's been stopping by this summer
the brown headed cowbird is the first to return

feeding the birds
feeding the birds

finches are common almost all of the time
I've only seen an oriole once around here
tufted titmouse is a bird that is so fun to say
but the first that would die if we let our cats outside

feeding the birds
feeding the birds

little downy woodpecker drumming on a tree
the yellow-bellied sapsucker's always watching me
indigo bunting mostly around when I'm not
males always brighter and are easy to spot

a bat's not a bird but I'd feed them if I could
if they agreed to still eat when the sun goes down
the mourning dove cries almost all of the day
I can't seem to keep all the squirrels away

feeding the birds