Tag Archives: In Retrograde

News

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

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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!

News, Songs

T-minus 22 for our new single; time to learn some guitar chords.

First, tune your folk guitar to the standard tones. Okay, so how does that go again? Every Good Boy Does Fine, right? But what about the sixth string? Wait a minute – you mean there’s a DIFFERENT system for guitar strings? Man god damn. This is more complicated than I thought.

So, you may well ask, why am I furiously brushing up on my substandard guitar skills? Simple, my friend – we will be releasing our new single on June 1st, and I may be called upon to perform the number at some point. And pianos are heavy, or at least mine are, so it makes more sense to work up a solo version on my nice portable Martin D-1. Which I can barely play. Hence the drills. Get the picture?

Up “Against It”

I am authorized by Big Green’s counsel to announce that our new single, Against It, will be released on June 1. This will by our first commercial release in a year, since we dropped our fourth album, In Retrograde, on May 1 of 2025, and I guess you could say we’re excited. Yes, you could certainly say that, though saying it doesn’t make it true. We’re not the excitable type, frankly – we just kind of do our thing and chill, like they did in the old days.

That said, Against It is not exactly a chill track, so to speak. Unlike nearly all 24 of the songs on In Retrograde, this single is topical. And no, I don’t mean it’s the kind of song that comes in a tube and that you should only use externally. Against It can be termed a political song. We’ll have more to say about the lyric later. I can tell you that the cover art is a photo by a Palestinian photographer named Hosny Salah, who works in Gaza (see below).

So, hey … something to look forward to, anyway. Am I right? I said, AM I RIGHT?! Whoops. Apologies – I keep forgetting this is a blog post, not a face to face conversation. Wrong of me to expect instant affirmation.

Other things happening … and not

Aside from our pending single release and my ongoing struggles with a low-rent six-string, we’ve got a few things on the back burner. These include:

The Ned Trek Collection – As I previously mentioned, we’re planning on pulling together one (or possibly three) albums worth of our Ned Trek songs from the same-named podcast we ran in the twenty teens. These would mostly be remixes of the songs we included on the musical episodes, plus some material we never released (including eight tracks from the mythical “lost episode” that we recorded in 2018 but never finished).

There are – again, as referenced in previous posts – about 100 Ned Trek tracks. We’re going to work them over and see how many will meet our AMAZINGLY HIGH STANDARDS for commercial release. (Please keep the laughter down – I’m trying to think while I type.) In any case, whether or not we drop one, two, or three volumes via CDBaby or whatever, we will make the other tracks available for listening via other means (yet to be determined). Maybe a King Crimson-like archive! Or (far more likely) something infinitely cheaper!

New Songs – Lest we be denounced as mere retread-focused has-beens (or, in our case, more like never have-beens), we do have a raft of new songs just begging to be recorded (well …. Matt has new songs. I have song ideas that need work, so situation normal). Once we dispense with the Ned Trek remixes, we will move on to that little project. (Promises, promises …)

Write the colonel

If you have questions about anything to do with this lame-ass band, don’t hesitate to reach out at [email protected]. We always respond to inquiries … and I mean ALWAYS. (You can also consult our Freakishly Unanswerable Questions for more general info.)

News

Who the hell knows what’s coming? My guess is nobody.

Hey, there’s a lot to look forward to, people. Like, I don’t know …. whatever is next. And some other stuff. When it comes to Big Green, well … it’s anyone’s guess. Nevertheless, we’re still doing the thing. And that thing is weird ass music.

Here’s basically what we have in store for you:

New Single: Against It

That’s right – we’re dropping a one-off , tentatively titled “Against It” in May, just in time for the first anniversary of the release of our album In Retrograde. (Hardly seems like a year, does it? More like five.) The new single is, well … let’s say a bit more topical than what’s on the album. We’ll post the lyrics so you can sing along! (Just be careful where you sing it, or you might end up on some kind of shit list.)

We’ll push out details about the new single in future posts, so watch this space.

New Album: Pick your adventure!

Hey, like any band, Big Green is always thinking about the next project. You know how it is – you get one collection out into the world, and next thing you know, Matt’s got about seventeen new songs he wants to do. (Joe is a little slower on the uptake, frankly. Dude’s got issues.)

So, we’re back to where we were a couple of years ago. Should we do all new material, or should we work through the mountain of Ned Trek songs we produced over the previous decade? As before, the answer is, well, both, but this time around we’re leaning more in the direction of finishing out the Ned Trek catalog. That’s about 100 songs in total to choose from.

Our plan is to cherry pick the best numbers, work them over a bit, and release that as an album. The rest we will either release over time, collect in a volume 2 at some point, or just put out as a “pick your adventure” database. Either way, less work for mother. We’re lazy-ass mofos, let’s face it.

This day in history

On this day in 1986 (or sometime around this day), I started playing in a bar band out in the Albany area. A drummer I had worked with in previous bands was pushing the bandleader to hire me as a bassist, mostly because the leader’s girlfriend and lead vocalist was filling in on bass, and let’s just say … playing bass was not her strong suit. The keyboard player in the band was Ned Danison, and we had such a good time jamming together that we formed Big Green later that year.

Of course, before we did anything, we press ganged Ned’s friend Leif Zurmuhlen to take some promo shots of us, such as the one below. (Ned is on the right. The drummer is actually Leif, sitting in for our lack-of-drummer at that moment.)

Big Green (original cast)
Big Green in 1986

Matt still has that Rick bass (you can hear it on our last album) but the Kustom 88 piano is long gone. Damn, that sucker weighed a ton and sounded like ass. I absent mindedly left that scarf in a pizza joint in Saratoga something like a year later. And Matt’s hat was eaten by wolves, but anyway … that was the week that was.

Listen to our 1986 demo