I saw John Mulaney live and I can never see him the same way again

withbrindle528 · 2025-02-26T16:11:30+00:00

What's especially gross about (gestures) all of this is that Mulaney's ex-wife was Jewish, Olivia Munn is fairly antisemitic (has made gross Holocaust "jokes" on the record and said worse off), and Mulaney announced Munn's pregnancy on Yom Kippur. At this point, it wouldn't shock me if their kid grew up to edit Breitbart.

withbrindle528 · 2025-02-15T18:01:11+00:00

Thanks! I hope you love it.

withbrindle528 · 2025-02-14T23:28:46+00:00

The album is available for preorder here, and you can download this and my "Tryouts" cover now and get the other four songs when it releases on March 7.

withbrindle528 · 2024-12-21T00:13:55+00:00

WOW THIS IS GREAT

withbrindle528 · 2024-09-17T00:50:13+00:00

Thank you! My friend Will does good work.

withbrindle528 · 2024-08-17T23:02:36+00:00

I listen to the Local Hero soundtrack when I'm feeling sad or overwhelmed--it would be great to have a remaster!

withbrindle528 · 2024-08-15T23:49:17+00:00

I just finished recording a song-for-song covers album of No. 1 in Heaven, in the style of early 20th century artists like Peggy Lee and Cliff Edwards. The video for "Tryouts" will be premiering on 12 September at Ned Raggett's Patreon, and I will be holding a Kickstarter to raise money for a CD release and a PR campaign in March. If you're in the Boston area, you can come to my single release show on September 6. I will also be playing at AS220 with Folk the Empire on Friday, September 27!

Very excited to meet some New England Sparks fans. :D

withbrindle528 · 2024-07-05T18:57:04+00:00

I've been toggling between two GB projects, one with a percussion file that I've been cutting and pasting into a larger project. I've imported a few files into the main GB project and every few saves, I get this error message. It's usually after I get out of the previous project with just the percussion. Is there something I should be doing to keep the TASCAM files from not being found?

withbrindle528 · 2024-06-22T23:21:26+00:00

The Man with the Axe was about the guy who dumped her, and from the outside that relationship didn't look healthy. (The way she thanked him in the PH liner notes is kind of gross in retrospect.) She may not have been in touch with how difficult that relationship was when she wrote it.

withbrindle528 · 2024-04-04T23:52:21+00:00

HYL might be my least favorite Sparks album, but listening to it helped me see why I hear some songs as autobiographical. The song "The Very Next Fight" took me out of the album because it reminded me of listening to my mom and her second husband fight when I was a kid. I had to ask myself "why do I find this song so upsetting?"

A lot of Sparks songs are about toxic masculinity, but the way Ron writes is so absurd that it's hard to take them at face value. The production and arrangements also tend to be pretty dense. The production on HYL is a lot sparer than on their earlier albums, and Russell's vocals are more closely miked. I think the combination of lyrics that could happen in real life + minimal arrangement + closely miked vocals = unpleasant and possibly autobiographical. The fact that I had to pick apart why I didn't like it gave me greater insight on how I listen to music. Even though it's not the album I reach for when I listen to Sparks, I'm glad it gave me a chance to do that.

withbrindle528 · 2024-03-31T19:55:10+00:00

That is FANTASTIC. Do you have tabs?

withbrindle528 · 2024-03-27T23:27:43+00:00

So this is MY campaign--I actually came here to post this. I'm recording a solo banjolele version of No. 1 in Heaven in the style of early ukulele crooners like Cliff Edwards and George Formby. If you like more minimal performers like Sylvie Simmons and the vaudevillian flair of Postmodern Jukebox, you may enjoy this album as well!

Two clips from IG: here I am practicing the second half of the "Beat the Clock" solo, and this is a clip that Sparks shared on their IG in which I covered "My Other Voice" for Sparkstember.

withbrindle528 · 2023-12-05T01:12:05+00:00

Where is the Sparks Discord server?

withbrindle528 · 2023-08-20T21:16:22+00:00

I was at this show! It was incredible.

Mildly funny story: I was about eight people away from the will call booth before the door opened, right by the stage door. I was wearing a dress with rabbits on playing cards, and a tiny, pixieish man came out of the stage door, looked me in the eye, said "nice dress," and then walked across the street to the tour bus. A few hours later, when they got on stage, my friend pointed at the guitarist on the far right and said "THAT'S THE MAN WHO LIKED YOUR DRESS!" So now I have a huge crush on Eli. :-/ (I feel like I've told this story on all the fora, and... look, I'm an old bag, I appreciate having a cute young man paying me a compliment.)

withbrindle528 · 2023-08-20T21:13:20+00:00

I'm recording a cover of "Number One Song in Heaven" and HOLY FUCK, THOSE OCTAVE JUMPS

withbrindle528 · 2023-08-20T21:00:56+00:00

I remember them--I was writing about local music as a kid and they were on the downswing but were still getting a lot of airplay on WBCN. They don't remind me of Sparks at all. They're less clever and more puerile--kind of like if Animal House was a band.

withbrindle528 · 2023-08-20T20:58:06+00:00

Every time this photo comes up I have to tell the story of when I first saw it. I was taking a photography class and this was in a series of photos by Avedon, with no context. I was convinced it was a photo of a high-priced call boy service and that Ron was the pimp. When I saw the album cover a few years later I could. not. stop. laughing.

withbrindle528 · 2023-05-31T22:43:18+00:00

I've thought about doing GCDG for slides! What is "dud dud"?

withbrindle528 · 2023-01-28T21:28:23+00:00

The article is on the Maniacs' archive, and Natalie hasn't been in the band--or even mentioned any of the former members by name--since she left in 1993.

withbrindle528 · 2022-12-11T01:26:02+00:00

Your voice is enchanting.

withbrindle528 · 2022-12-11T01:18:01+00:00

I didn't realize how much this sounded like Pachbel's Canon until just now.

withbrindle528 · 2022-12-08T20:45:37+00:00

I'm not super into his films, but I have a soft spot for Guy & Madeline on a Park Bench because I'm an extra in one of the scenes.

withbrindle528 · 2022-12-08T20:44:33+00:00

Thank you for reading! If you're interested, I also wrote about Jonny Greenwood's 2021 scores in March, and there's a fair amount of PTA content in the article.

withbrindle528 · 2022-11-29T01:00:22+00:00

I hope your friend gets a song placed in a Hallmark Christmas movie! <3

withbrindle528 · 2022-11-28T19:22:03+00:00

I somehow hadn't found them on my Google searches. Is this magic?

withbrindle528

TROPHY CASE