Crooked Building/In My Time + News...

hey everyone.... matt here. just wanted to give you all an update on several things that we have going on. we've mentioned a few of these things here & there and i thought it would be good to condense the info and put it all on one place. 

[new songs] 

 "CROOKED BUILDING"

-music: Lee 

-words: Cluthe 

 (Lee) Written back on October 27 2011 on a very rainy, cold mid-fall day after ingesting a few hours of Neil Young and Crazy Horse records. Totally inspired by their Ragged Glory record. I had some crazy ideas for this song when I first wrote it - none of which would have been good now listening to what Matt did here! Matt's leads on here are fantastic! His timing in the bridge especially! 

(Cluthe) Easily one of my favorite songs we've worked on in the last several months. It was shelved for a little bit because we had so many other songs brewing & because of the holidays. Chris told me that he had some ideas, but sent me the basic track & asked me to explore. So, I did! 

"IN MY TIME"

-words/music: Cluthe

 (Cluthe) I had the flu for about 1-2 weeks & couldn't really talk without having a crazy coughing fit, so it gave me a lot of time to work on my songwriting with only the guitar. Once I started getting my voice back, I recorded this song in one take. I thought it was going to be a demo, but Chris liked the tone of it, so we kept it. And I'm glad that we did! 

(Lee) If memory serves, Matt recorded this when he had a cold? Or was just getting over one? Great acoustic driven number. Percussion and added guitar needed to be woven gently into the song. I initially added all this crazy delay/reverb drenched leads into the song to try playing off Matt's great lead licks - but in the end took a very minimal approach (which I love).

[in-progress songs] 

first of all, i just wanted to mention that we're working hard on the next batch of songs! we have a few that are in various stages of mixing/recording right now. on top of that, we're each trying out several other new ideas. i've changed my songwriting approach a bit & have decided to really take my time with my writing so i can (try to) get the best out of each and every song. the new songs are really shaping up nicely....here's a quick list of the ones that we're working on now. 

-We Became (Cluthe-words; Lee-music) 

-They (Cluthe-words/music) 

-The Ghost (Cluthe-words/music) 

-Give Yourself Away (Cluthe-words/music; Lee-music) 

[new album & website] 

 we're really excited about our third album (still untitled at the moment). we're trying a different approach & have enlisted the help of a sound engineer (Wil) to master the album. this is a long process, but we have plenty of time before our tentative release timeframe of late summer/early fall. the mastering work has already begun & Chris will be there to listen in as it moves forward. the first song that we had mastered was "It Spins" and it sounds absolutely HUGE to our ears. Wil is doing a great job & we can't wait to share all of these tracks once the album is released! 

we're getting close to finalizing a tracklisting as well! we're really excited to have maura back on board designing all of the original artwork for the album. our new website is being built by maura's husband, jake. he also happens to be my brother in law & it's really cool to have them both involved! we have plans to launch the new site so it coincides with the release of the 3rd album. stay tuned! 

[wishlist Austin pre-party] 

as you know, Chris & I played the PJ20 Wishlist pre-party last september & it was a blast! i was asked to play the Austin Wishlist pre-party last week by the organizers & i can't wait! the set(s) will consist of all original songs with some PJ covers thrown in here and there. the party is on April 27, 2012 at The Local Pub & Patio in Austin. It starts at 2pm and I should have set times soon. It's open to the public, so if you're in Austin...please stop by! 

that's it for now....hope this message finds you all well. 

 Matt 

[links] 

twitter: @clutheleemusic; @mattcluthe 

website: www.cluthelee.com

Unfolding/Red Clouds

[UNFOLDING]

Matt: This song has been in my head since I wrote it late last year & I'm very happy to finally release it! Ha! My wife & I were in the middle of packing and moving and I remember feeling a tad overwhelmed. I had this little idea circling in my head one day, so I stopped packing & picked up the acoustic to write this song. I ran through it once or twice, then switched to my Strat & hit record. To me, it sounds very rough around the edges...which I love. I was unsure of my solo at first, but Chris insisted that we keep it. This song has gone through a few mixes & revisions, but the core of the song has remained. I'm really proud of this song & love to play while sitting around the house.

Chris: Another one sent back in November 2011 that got put on the back burner for all of December during the break. Throughout work on this song Matt would tell me that this one was pretty special to him. Before I started working on it he'd said that it was an "album #3 contender." Real moody song - the vibe dial is turned to 11 on it for sure! Like Red Clouds, drums for this were very difficult for some reason. In past blogs I've said how difficult it is keeping time first as a novice drummer, and second when we're not recording these songs in the same room! I think there were something like 5-6 takes that all sounded horrible - before I took the Meg White approach on the kit and tried using the simplest drum cadence I could do - no fills - not a whole lot of cymbal work. I remember the kick drum was giving me fits. I ended up taking out the blanket & grabbing some newspaper and stuffing the bass drum with it (John Bonham technique for all you R&R buffs). I think I finally got the punchy sound I was looking for. For my guitar parts - I ended up recording two - I was trying to match the moody/vibe of the song. Jumping in on parts and jumping out took some time. Matt did a great job editing what I sent him - which was pretty constant playing throughout the song.

Cluthe (words/music): vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass
Lee: lead guitar, drums

[RED CLOUDS]

Chris: First of a few songs that we started working on after nearly a month off from music. I think Matt recorded this song back in November 2011? So many songs - one loses track of when things are done! Red Clouds is a nice little acoustic ditty with this slamming break down that took me by surprise when I first heard it. The solo he played was equally surprising - Matt has really come into his own with guitar solo's in the last year or so. Drums were tricky on this because it was acoustic. Lots of takes on this one - lots of back and forth to the mixer trying to find the right tone/sound for this song. I ended up using one wood stick and one brush - a strange combo but I wanted to make sure I didn't overwhelm the song with the drums. Not an easy thing to do when I usually have no clue what I'm doing behind the kit! Hahaa!! The guitar parts I added came pretty quickly - I wanted something really contrasting to the quiet/acoustic tones of the song. This one didn't take too long for Matt to mix this once my parts were finished. Great song - could see us playing this live for sure.

Matt: I'd been fiddling around with the main riff/chord progression for awhile, but was never sure what to do with the bridge. I decided to do a rough recording to see what Chris thought. Well, the rough recording stuck! I love his drumming on this song & it's amazing to hear how much his drumming has evolved since he set up his kit. The solo truly came out of nowhere...and again, I was surprised that Chris wanted to keep it in the final mix. It's a fun tune that was also written while we were gearing up for our move & the move even crept into these lyrics: "Life more fragile than a box..don't you know?"

Cluthe (words/music): vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar
Lee: drums, bass, rhythm guitar

We're really excited to finish these songs & we're working on the next few songs as I type this. As always, thanks for your support!

Matt & Chris