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When you’re a hammer, every song looks like a nail

Sure was a long, long hot summer night. Wait … was that more than one night? THREE MONTHS? Jesus, I slept late. Stupid alarm!

We’re coming to the close of a very quiet summer in Big Green land. Hey, you know how it gets – you spend two years on an album, drop the mother, then you’re on to other things. Matt’s holed up in his private compound deep in the woods of Central New York, churning out songs, writing a book, feeding the beavers at Spring Farm (pictured above), and generally making a nuisance of himself.

Me? I’m flying in my taxi, taking tips and gettin’ …. wait, no, that’s not it. Just keeping the home fires burning, folks. We’ve got pieces of the next project under construction, pre-production if you will (and even if you won’t), and some tracking. It’s a slow roll, but it’s a roll.

Friends in Manila (and Jakarta)

Funny thing about our latest album, In Retrograde, is that it’s doing better in The Philippines than pretty much anywhere else. Who’s number 2 in the Big Green fan club? Indonesia, that’s who. Could have knocked me over with a feather when they told me that. Longtime readers of this blog may remember our shaggy dog tails about our Jakarta-based corporate label, Hegemonic Records and Worm Farm. If THOSE dudes find out people are listening to us over there, lord only knows what comes next.

What’s their favorite song? Far and away, it’s Matt’s “Could Be On Your Way“, one of my personal favorites on that long-ass album.

It’s a bit of a sleeper, but I like it because it makes us seem like we actually work up arrangements rather than just play random instruments about a million times until it sounds like something.

They got it the wrong way round, see?

Other groups (and they know who they are) look at us like we have two heads because of the way we work. My response to them is, yeah, we have two heads because we’re two people. What’s confusing them, though, is that we use digital recording tools – computer workstation, digital instruments, etc. – but record in a super old-school way. We’re just playing parts, overdubbing, punching in, etc., like we were running a Tascam 8-track deck. No sequencing, no virtual stuff, aside from drum patterns.

Call us Luddites. Call us cavemen. Call us anytime – we’re always glad to hear from you. Yeah, we’re set in our 80s counterculture ways, so what’s new? We may have it the wrong way round, but it’s the right way to our dumb asses. Thing is … how is it that these Southeast Asia listeners are finding “Could Be On Your Way” when it’s seventeen songs into a remarkably obscure 24 song album?

It’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma then dunked into conundrum sauce. Sounds delicious!

WTF is next, anywho?

Well, that’s anyone’s guess. We’re in pre-production for another new music project, and then there’s all the Ned Trek stuff that needs to be remastered. Suffice to say, there’s no rest for the weirdies.

News

What the hell are they saying, anyway?

Kids say the darnedest things, at least according to Art Linkletter. (Ask your grandmother.) And I’m pretty certain that if they heard Big Green’s latest album, In Retrograde, they would more than meet old Art’s expectations. It’s the darnedest collection of songs we’ve ever released. You can quote me on that.

Thing is, we’re not talking about kids here, my fine friend. We’re talking about reviewers and listeners. That, as they say, is where the rubber meets the road. And with an album like In Retrograde, they’re leaving skid marks.

The big picture

So, what the heck are they saying about this box of two dozen songs? Let’s start with the reviewers. Here’s what Leif Zurmuhlen (friend of the band) had to say about the album in Metroland Now:

Don’t let the cold, soulless retro robot on the album cover fool you; Big Green’s In Retrograde is brimming with songs filled with so much humanity and compassion that it could reduce a full-grown mechanical man to a weeping puddle of rust.

Damn, he’s good! Sticking with general comments, check out what reviewer Jenna Sents had to say in NYS Music:

In Retrograde, takes an overall turn away from their usual ironic and humorous writing and steps into a more sentimental territory. “There’s a lot of pain and there’s a lot of angst. “I’m not really sure a lot of that was consciously put into the songs,” Matt Perry said about the lyric writing process. He notes himself as a “compulsive songwriter.” For Matt Perry, writing poetry for this album was like doing a psychological evaluation, he said.

True that. But these are professionals. What about the ordinary folks? What does the person on the street think of this particular bag of tricks? Well, Ben on Facebook calls it “Garbage”. Not everyone on Meta wanted to leave us at the curb, however. John’s comment was “Cool art”. And Charles said, “Sounds great ….. if you like dead silence.” (I’m calling that a maybe.)

In Retrograde - Big Green's newest album

Down in the weeds

Here’s what reviewers had to say about individual tracks:

Matt goes Cat Stevens-y with the delicate stand-out track “Tear Inside My Eye” and “When Will I See You Again?”. His electric guitar is Neil Young-crunchy on “Where is the Sun” and his acoustic is Lindsay Buckingham-nimble on the folky “Follow You”.  Meanwhile, Joe’s keyboards are funky like Billy Preston for “Sound Asleep” and churchy like Procol Harum on “I Found You”. 

The catchy “Meet Me In The Middle” bounces along like the theme song from a ‘70s sitcom that never existed. Matt argues that meat is murder in “Can’t Be Without You” singing, “What’s it like to be tied and then boiled alive?”. And “Don’t Unfriend Me” tramples in like an XTC track with Joe expressing that he is willing to take all manner of abuse, so long as he still gets likes: “I saw your anger emoji under the pictures from my destination wedding, but I don’t care if you offend me, please don’t unfriend me, don’t walk away…”.   

– Leif Zurmuhlen

The album begins with “Alone for a Day,” a 70s-inspired funk rock song with layered vocals and warbly synth. The driving snare beats and distorted, yet distant guitar make the listener feel like they are floating through space.

“Is It Wrong” takes a darker turn on the album, creating a feeling of someone walking aimlessly around with their thoughts. The haunted vocals further this feeling with lyrics about being unsure if you’re in the right relationship. It starts out with a simple love-song-esk line: “I love you // So I wrote out this song.” By the chorus confliction and self-doubt plagues the speaker: “Is it wrong, is it wrong, // Is it wrong for me to want to be with you, // Is it right, is it right, // Is it right, I should tolerate the solitude.”

“Don’t Unfriend Me,” written by Joe Perry, is a humorous song about a social media stalker. The track makes fun of the parasocial relationship a needy stalker can have over someone they “follow” on social media. Meanwhile, the person being “followed” barely known of their existence. In the penultimate track, “You Can’t Help,” takes the listener on a journey about the doubts and struggles of a relationship. Each verse adds a new though around the inner conflict about letting someone see your most vulnerable self.

– Jenna Sents

Your turn

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News, Songs

Big Green’s In Retrograde is here!

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The wait is over – Big Green’s fourth album, In Retrograde, is out now. Twenty-four new tracks from America’s most obscure indie band are now available on all major streaming services as well as right here at big-green.net.

“This packed album is one small step back into the analog warmth and wide range of sounds heard on late ‘60s and early ‘70s FM radio.”

– Leif Zurmuhlen, Metroland Now

Recorded in Big Green’s lowly basement studio in upstate New York, In Retrograde is an album that draws on the music of rock’s early days in the 1960s and ’70s; a colorful collection of torch songs, love ballads, and full-throated laments that mark a dramatic departure from the band’s usual thematic direction, rendered with characteristic simplicity and passion. It’s an album that weighs in at 24 tracks, one for each hour of the day. (You can listen to it like that, though your mileage may vary.)

We’ve got three great ways to get an earful of this, our newest (and longest) album, two years in the making:

  • Download the album (or just a track) on iTunes or at Amazon music
  • Stream In Retrograde on Apple Music, Spotify, or any other major streaming platform
  • Kick back and listen right here at big-green.net:
In Retrograde - Big Green's newest album

Spread The Word

If you like In Retrograde, please let us know, and be sure to share it with friends, family, pets, passing squirrels, and everyone you know on the internets. Big Green is back, baby!