Category Archives: Music & Pictures

Sounds, Stills, Films and Zoetropes. You can also stream the entire catalog at my Bandcamp page.

2020: Year in Review

2020 year in review

Can we just all be happy 2020 is over, and then never speak of it again?

Despite being… well, the WORST… I am somehow managing to end this year as alive as I started it, and despite being, again, the WORST, this year did bring something of a creative burst or two.

In the early days of the lockdown era, I played a living room concert broadcast on the fantastic rsuradio.com. It was so much fun that I later released two more living room shows of my own: Live at San Quarantine, Volumes 1 & 2.

You can stream, download, and purchase both volumes of Live at San Quarantine over at Bandcamp. New stuff – old favorites – new versions of old favorites, including a milestone update to “Pushin’ 40 Mid-Crisis-Life Blues” – and the Medley to boot. Will there be a Volume 3? Only 2021 can say. But frankly I don’t trust that guy just yet.

I also managed to find a little bit of time to knock out two new issues of the loooong-running zine News From Around the Bend, which you can go download and/or read for free at your leisure at nfatb.com. (How long is “loooong,” you ask? Our 30th anniversary is coming up in February 2021.)

And finally, I also managed to finish writing all the songs for the long-awaited CARDIAC ADVENTURE piece. The last two songs’ lyrics were finished written on a plane the second week of March. Just under the proverbial wire. I also worked on writing the connective-tissue talking bits for that set, and the visuals, and I’m hoping to end the live-performance hiatus by debuting that show sometime in the coming year. (If the coming year decides to allow such things.) At the very least, the “album version” will be in the works VERY soon.

So that’s my year and a quick look at the coming one. If you’re still here, or even if you’re not but you were for a while – thanks for being here. Hang in there and maybe we can do this in person again soon.

New Music in 2019: Part 3

Downloadables

The story so far: After a 4-year hiatus, we are approaching The Coming Out Of Some New Things, so in the coming months, I’m releasing odds & ends that fell through the cracks during that gap.

Today’s entry is (FINALLY) our first original track in this series. It’s a demo of a track I’ve been playing live for a while, and it’s also a somewhat shocking true story.

In early 2006, Russia finally revealed that late one night, more than 22 years earlier, their missile defense early-warning system (named Oko, old Russian for “Eye”) reported five missiles coming in from the US. The supervisor on duty that night, Stanislav Petrov, read the warnings and determined it was unlikely to be a real attack. Had he followed orders (as most of the military folks who rotated on that shift would have done), it could have meant the end of the Cold War in explosive fashion. Fortunately, he was right to ignore what turned out to be a false alarm. (Which falsely alarmed repeatedly that night.)

Stanislav Petrov saved the world, and you never even knew about it. The whole story around it is nuts, and Wikipedia is a good place to start digging into it.

So my love of history gave me the idea, the blues gave me the structure, and the Beatles and the Russians gave me the title. Check it out here: The Ballad of Petrov and Oko.

New Music in 2019: Part 2

Downloadables

The story so far: After a 4-year hiatus, we are approaching The Coming Out Of Some New Things, so in the coming months, I’m releasing odds & ends that fell through the cracks during that gap.

Today’s entry is another cover: “Whipping Song (Who’s Gonna Whip You),” originally performed by the CRIMINALLY underrated Sister Double Happiness. I worked on a handful of covers and originals for what was to be a sideshow/carnival-themed EP, including this, “Two Headed Boy” (our previous entry), my own “Make It Crispy!” and feat-of-strength medley, plus a number of other original & covered goodies. That EP never materialized, but a few things did get completed, so here’s one of those nuggets.

It was a great excuse to break out my old MATH LAB growl. That’s me on all instruments here, including the acoustic bass I had just snagged from a pawn shop right before recording. I was a bass player long before I played a 6-string, and it’s always nice to let that guy out again for a bit.

(It was also fun to bash the crap out of that hi-hat.)

Check it out here: Whipping Song (Who’s Gonna Whip You).

New Music in 2019: Part 1

Downloadables

Hi folks!

After a long hiatus (4+ years), we are finally approaching The Coming Out Of Some New Things. Over the next few months, I’ll be releasing some odds and ends that fell through the cracks during the gap.

First up is a cover of a Neutral Milk Hotel classic, “Two Headed Boy.” Recording was pretty straightforward, other than a double-mic / bounceback / reverb thing I did on the vocals. I sung into two mics, adjusted differently, at different distances (one of them in fact moving throughout), in a corner behind a door and a pair of Zappa posters. Those vocals were smoothed out and blended by doing sort of a double-wide mixdown, some layers with and some layers without a slight room reverb.

It all seemed like a good idea at the time, as did recording it a half-step low. Over time, the downbeat sounding flat started to get on my nerves, so I finally pitched it all back up that half-step, and here we are.

Check it out here: Two Headed Boy.

The Self-Improvement of Acoustic Ross

THE SELF-IMPROVEMENT OF ACOUSTIC ROSS
Downloadable Mix Tape. Released December 2014.

Self-Improvement

I made you a little mixtape for your December holiday of choice. Fifteen songs of various vintage, mostly remixed and remastered.

Yes, the title is another Twilight Zone reference.

Stream for free, or pay-what-you-like starting at less than 50 cents per song, exclusively from Bandcamp:

 

The Anarchist Fakebook

THE ANARCHIST FAKEBOOK
CD. Released July 2008.

The Anarchist Fakebook

By a landslide, the best-sounding Acoustic Ross release to date. It was a tedious process pulling this thing together but the album is the better for it. I’d been trying to get this thing off the ground since the EP came out four years earlier, and somehow finally managed to pull it off.

Recorded at home in the spring and summer of 2008, through entirely different (and entirely superior) equipment than the previous albums. Looking back at the old catalog, you may recognize a couple titles, but these are all-new recordings. This is also the first Acoustic Ross album to actually feature guest musicians. See below for some links to lots more info about this one.

Tracklist:
history lesson – part iii
misanthropic love song #95
pushin’ 40 mid-crisis-life blues
swept down the plain
+3 sword of protection
*blushes*
ugly american
48 days adrift
rough weekend
the anarchist fakebook
ruby
without
the r.i.a.a. took my baby away
life imitates life
fault country
+ 6 super-secret bonus tracks

All songs by Acoustic Ross.

For more, check out the Merch and Lyrics pages.

The 918 UFN EP

The 918 UFN EP
CD. Released 4/17/04.

The 918 UFN EP

This one’s chock full of great stuff. I had a trio of specialty tracks from late 2002 / early 2003 sitting around:

  • “Just the Thing” — my entry for the duct tape club contest I didn’t win
  • the “Brodsky Megamix” — which I arranged and learned for a single performance at Adam Brodsky’s “Hookers, Hicks and Heebs” CD release party, a gig that launched an East Coast mini-tour
  • “Talkin’ Don’t Pick on the Big Guy Blues” — also written for a single performance, this time at a January ’03 Elvis Birthday Tribute edition of Tom Skinner’s Wednesday Night Science Project

Then I wrote some other new stuff I liked a lot and decided not to wait until I had a full-length album ready. As a result, this short EP runs only 7 minutes shorter than the last full-length CD.

You were expecting me to start doing things that made sense?

“Swept Down the Plain” was intended to be a preview of the next full-length, which I intended to prep and release a year or so after this EP came out. A fleshed-out version of that audience favorite did, in fact, grace the next full-length – when it came out four years later.

With the exception of the archival bonus track “Ceiling Light”, these are all NEW recordings from late 2003 / early 2004 during stolen moments between bouts of roof work.

Don’t get me started about the roof.

 

Scene Selection:
swept down the plain
talkin’ don’t pick on the big guy blues
just the thing
mean-spirited chorus
bad night in boise
brodsky megamix

Bonus Features:
talkin’ don’t pick on the big guy blues (with director’s commentary)
just the thing (with director’s commentary)
brodsky megamix (with director’s commentary)

Archival Footage:
ceiling light (December 1995)

Plus Hidden Bonus Features!

All songs by Ross, except the Brodsky Megamix, which is about 95% Adam Brodsky and 5% Ross.

For more, check out the Merch and Lyrics pages.

News From Around the Bend

NEWS FROM AROUND THE BEND
CD. Released March 2002.

News From Around the Bend

The first ‘official’ Acoustic Ross release, and the first time I wasn’t making all the copies myself at home (although that IS how I did the packaging). Released shortly before the word ‘Acoustic’ became a permanent addition (the second pressing includes the Acoustic Ross moniker).

Recorded at home in early 2002. A few of these tracks appeared on earlier releases — several of them on the Where Is Everybody? cassette — but these are all brand-new ‘definitive’ recordings. I can still listen to this without (much) physical pain, which puts it WAY ahead of its predecessors.

Tracklist:
over you now
83 ribbons
idiot
princess from saturn
nothing ever happens
don’t get me wrong
pieces of me
tribute album
ed’s secret identity
suitcase campus
souvenirs
time for one more
+ unlisted hidden bonus tracks

All songs by Acoustic Ross.
If you look closely, you might just find the first arrangement of the infamous Medley hanging around this place.

For more, check out the Merch and Lyrics pages.