All posts by Joseph

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What did YOU do on YOUR Summer Vacation, bruh?

The dog days are upon us, once again. Hot as a motherfucker up here in Central New York. It makes me think of all those New Yorkers who moved down to Florida when they retired – so many that they took ten electoral college votes with them. If they had just waited a few years, sweltering Florida weather would have found them right the fuck here. The more you know.

So, how did you spend your summer? Working like a dog? Vacationing? Here at Big Green, we know it’s none of our business and that we have no right to even ask. The fact that we did, indeed, ask is just more evidence of our transgressive nature as a band from the alternative rock era. I mean, just look at that banner image from 1992 – DRIPPING with attitude. What a bunch of fuckers. (If you want to see the action figures in action, go to our Videos page and scroll down to “I Hate Your Face” or “Why Not Call It George“.)

Anyway, the least we can do – or, speaking for myself, the least I can do – is tell you what I did over the summer. Sure, you’re not asking, but again, I remind you, as a transgressive rocker that presents no real obstacle. And the chef’s kiss of my 90s arrogance is that I will tell you all about, and then say, “You’re welcome”. Ouch, right? Why couldn’t we have been one of those ironic hipster bands?

The Basement Tapes

Okay, so I can’t speak to what Matt Perry did with his summer. Suffice to say, it had a lot to do with chasing birds and feeding beavers . (And no, those are NOT euphemisms for sexual adventures. You think with that brain?) Much of my time was taken up much less productively with a project that involves unearthing archival recordings tracked many years ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Let me start at the beginning. Our erstwhile drummer (and current brother-in-law) John White brought over a box of reel-to-reel tapes this past Spring, all of which were unlabeled, kind of grimy, and not in the greatest condition. We suspected some may be recordings of my late brother Mark, who came up as a classical pianist from about age 7, but it was hard to know because (wait for it) I didn’t have a reel deck.

Big Green's new state of the art Akai reel to reel stereo tape recorder. His master's voice!

I won’t bore you with the details, but over the Spring months I tried to procure an old-school stereo tape recorder. I ordered one off of Reverb.com, listed as “very good” condition, and it didn’t work. I ordered a second one from a different vendor – THAT one didn’t work. Finally, I made my way out to a used electronics shop outside of Syracuse and bought an Akai deck that did what it was manufactured to do – play back old reel tapes.

Country to Chopin to … Kermit?

What was on those old tapes? Well, some recordings of Mark as a young pianist, playing short classical and popular pieces. There was one tape that I believe was a dupe of a recording he did at Syracuse University in 1969 or so, playing Chopin’s ballade no 4 in F minor, opus 52 – beautifully, I might add. (A bit like Rubenstein played it.) There was also a recording of a jazz concert that featured him performing in what sounded like a sextet, likely in the mid to late 1970s – I have no idea who the other musicians were or where they were playing. Pretty amazing tape. Those are the highlights.

Then there was some oddball stuff, like a recording of a local pop country singer named Bob O’Donnell singing a couple of numbers; a jam tape of the upstate New York rock band called Sky Church, which Mark played with (though he wasn’t on the recording); and some random stuff from old time television, like Kermit the Frog’s Rubber Ducky song. (Seriously.)

More where that came from

Right, so the old tapes in the cardboard box are not the only reel-to-reel recording I have on hand. Now that I’ve gone through all of them, I’ve started to listen back to our more well-preserved archive tapes, and I’m finding some strange stuff – like recordings of me and Matt jamming in our parents’ living room, Matt playing some of his original guitar instrumental pieces from 1980-81, and other stuff I was only vaguely aware of.

I suspect some of the better bits will see the light of day – I’m digitizing everything that’s even marginally listenable, and will post stuff as seems appropriate. Call it a vacation. I’m guessing we’ll get back to recording new Big Green material this Fall, depending on Matt’s availability. But for right now, we’re sticking with the lazy man projects.

What did you do over the summer? Again, though we have zero right to that information, you can let us know at [email protected] or in the comments.

Oh, yeah … YOU’RE WELCOME.

News

Even the most topical songs got a little love in them.

Anybody who knows us knows we do our share of topical songs. I don’t mean the kind of tunes you spread on your skin as a moisturizer – I mean songs about shit happening in the world. You know – the kind that get you pegged as a commie or a freak or something. Yeah, we do those.

I guess you could say that our latest single Against It is one such number. It’s a little ditty about the genocide in Gaza and how American politicians try to cover their asses over their support for the Israeli campaign in that unfortunate imprisoned enclave. Just the sort of song that might have put some noses out of joint five or ten years ago, though less so now. I’m guessing it’s gotten us added to somebody’s list, though likely we were already on it.

Welcome To It

Of course, Against It is not our first foray into this particular area of international political controversy. Our 2008 album International House closed with a song called Taxidermist Zoo, which was about the occupied territories during the Sharon-era crackdown against the second Intifada. (The title comes from a kind of bloodless New York Times article at that time describing a zoo comprised of stuffed animals in the West Bank, made from the carcasses of the creatures formerly on display who died as a result of the ongoing Israeli attack on Palestinian society.)

In fact, International House was almost entirely made up of topical songs, from the opener Welcome To It (about the Washington consensus and global domination), to Enter The Mind (rendering prisoners and torture), to For Your Majesty’s Amusement (people powered revolutions), and so on. Then there’s, well, Volcano Man, which is about … I don’t know … something.

Cousin Rick’s Contribution

I suppose you could say our most overtly political album was Cowboy Scat: Songs in the Key of Rick, if only because it focused exclusively on former Texas governor Rick Perry and his exploits in the 2012 presidential election. That said, it was also our silliest album by far, made up of songs culled from our podcast, THIS IS BIG GREEN, in which we took delight in roasting Rick and other strange public figures in the political space. (Cousin Rick was such a rich vein for that sort of thing – the songs practically wrote themselves.)

Some of the songs on 2000 Years to Christmas had some political shadings, but that was not the driving theme by any means. Our most recent album, In Retrograde, however, has no overt politics, just stuff about love and angst and loss and wanting shit to happen – you know, the usual stuff pop songs are made of. Took kind of a hard turn on that one. I mean, typically even our topical songs contain a little bit of honey, but that sucker was the whole hive and then some.

We’re Number One!

Can’t remember who said, come up with a category no one ever heard of and be the best at it. Well, I can’t make that claim for Big Green, but what I can say is that we are the single least commercially successful band of our generation. That’s a superlative we totally own. No one who has written and released as much material as we have has sold fewer units …. no-body. Hey – somebody had to do it!