Sounds Vol 1 - 3

The new albums are done!
3 in all, to be exact.
37 songs in all.
Approximately 2 and a half hours worth of Matilda music...
Feel free to stream, download, or ignore.
I do this for me, and if you don't like it, go to hell.

Vol 1
(if the link isn't working above, copy paste the url below)
http://matilda.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-vol-1-twoettes-and-threeos

Vol 2
(if you don't know what to do here, see the above parenthesis)
http://matilda.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-vol-2-the-life-and-times-of-dr-morris-leifer

Vol 3
(same journey here as up there. nothing new to see)
http://matilda.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-vol-3-the-clawson-apt-songs























Or, if you really want, I guess I can just put up some players on the blog.


















In all seriousness. I hope you enjoy it. I had fun putting it together.

Snow Days and Warm Ups

Above is the "warm up" video from the house show we played last summer. This isn't a song per se, we were just playing some improv stuff so the kids would know we were ready to start the show.
The most memorable part of the show was how hot it was in that basement... That and the fact that half of everyone there was too busy trying to sleep with someone [read: anyone, or anything] else to watch music being performed.

Anyway. Things have slowed a bit with Danny and me and Matilda now that the snow has come. We no longer live in the same city, let alone the same house, so we haven't practiced in a while. He's busy with the other bands he's in, and I've been writing material for a new Matilda record. I'm also in the staring stages of a few other projects I have in the works.

Probably around Christmas I'm going to release 3 new Matilda albums. The last album I put out was a re-working of an old album, then a cover record before that, so, there hasn't been any new original music in over 2 years... And it's not because I haven't been working on it. I just haven't felt like anything was finished. And now that I've been formulating another record, and I'm close to having it all written and figured out, this giant pool of unfinished songs needs to be released before I start recording the new, new album.

Initially I was going to just release all of the songs together as a "b-side" comp or something, but they're not b-sides, they're a part of something that is unfinished. Unfinished as an album, or even some are unfinished as a song. So I think that I'm going to release them as separate albums, but put them in a different category, or maybe sub-label them... Like, "From the Sounds Collection: 2009 Clawson Apartment Songs" - or something like that.

As soon as I post them up, I'll post a link up here, as well as just about everywhere else.
If anything else exciting happens, I'll let you know. Lately, it's been pretty uneventful in the land of Mathilda, but I hope to change that soon.

I'm also thinking about looking into a label, if anyone has any ideas, send me an e-mail.

Don't fret...

We're still practicing and playing and planning, I just haven't been updating the blog...
Very busy with things I wish I wasn't busy with.

But we're writing new songs and working hard on old ones.

Don't give up on us yet.

More to come very soon.

--Shaun

Live Show on Sound Cloud

Hello Reader!

The live show Danny and I played was recently uploaded to our Sound Cloud page, and in celebration of that I'll be posting all of those songs right here...

Right NOW!

 01 Cough Drop by Mathilda

 02 Memorial Day Dream by Mathilda

 03 Black n' Yellow Shirt by Mathilda

 04 End of the Park by Mathilda

 05 Untitled 26 by Mathilda

 06 2 Birds 1 Stone by Mathilda


 07 Sea Life by Mathilda


Video of the event coming soon...

--Shaun

They came, they saw, they exited the basement...

We played our first show yesterday!

Felt really good!

Aside from sweating so much that I couldn't see, everything seemed nice.

I'd like to thank all ya'll who stayed down for the whole set even though it felt like we were in an incense filled dryer with a mold and cigarette scented dryer sheet set on high heat.

I'd also like to thank Chops and Jason for having us over, and doing their things.

Our set list was:

[Improvised warm-up tune]

1 Cough Drop

[Guitar Tuning]

2 Memorial Day Dream

3 Black n' Yellow Shirt

[Broken String repair]

4 End of the Park

[Guitar Tuning]

5 Untitled # 26 (fishnets & regrets)

6 Two Birds, One Stone

7 Sea Life

Here are some pictures courtesy of Jon Berz.

More to come soon... We had Jon also record the show with a nice little hand held recorded, and there was videos taken.

After I filter through all of it, I'll be posting it.

Thanks again.

Duck[s] and Cover

Blogger was acting a little weird on me during my last post.

I tried to upload 4 videos and it error-ed out two of them...

So I'm trying to upload a few more in a separate post with a similar name. So if you haven't seen the other post called "Duck and Cover[s]", then check that one out too.

The videos in the last post, as well as this one, all come from the same rehearsal.

The first video shows the birth, life, and death of many cover songs.
Starting as a joke, I told Danny that one of his drum parts sounded like a Blink -182 song, then decided to play "Damnit" - Then totally regretted it.

Then Danny wanted to test my Weezer song knowledge, so we went through 4 at random. Some of them I hadn't played or listened to in quite a while.

It's all about having fun when your practice room is about 96 degrees with no fans or air movement.

So here's "Damnit El Scorcho Say It Ain't So In the Garage My Name Is Jonas"




Next.



Here is a preview of a new songs we're ironing out. Tentative title is "Says Me Street." What you'll hear see is us working on verse one and chorus/freak out which is worded for you below.

I'm saying:
Bet you're nobody's Big Bird
Bet you're nobody's swan
Bet you're nobody's ugly duckling
Stuck face down in the swamp

The truth is gorgeous
And you're oblivious

[There are more lyrics, but it'll wait until the song is done.]

Remember this is our first time around it. Don't expect quality.






I'm debating on if it is a good idea to bring my laptop to the house show, just for documentation...
Because that's what I want this blog to be.
A history of this band.
The evolution of our songs and shows and ideas.

Maybe I'll just bring a camera and have Julie take pictures/vids.

Duck and Cover[s]

Our show is next Friday.
That's the 16th of July.
We're playing first.
We're playing to a crowd of people who all know us, which, is probably a lot more nerve racking that playing to strangers, but we'll see how it goes...

I can't remember the address exactly, but if you really want to go, just get a hold of me or Danny and we'll let you know the exact location and time. Even if I could remember it off the top of my head, I'd feel weird about posting it on a blog. It's a house show. Some one actually has to live there after the night is over. I'd feel bad about inviting the whole internet.


Sorry internet.



Here is a bunch of shit for you to watch/listen to.

It feels like we're getting better, but we may not be.


Instead of always calling this "untitled" or "# 26", I'm changing the name to "Fishnet and Regret" for tonight. Maybe it'll be called something else next Friday.




"2 birds 1 Stone"



This is what I'm saying:

You're still sleeping in my big bed
Leaving your scent
On the exact same sheets
That we
Slept in
In our first apartment

But now you're not mine anymore
I don't yet have the heart to
Let you sleep on the floor
In a house we moved in to
With a few of your friends

So for me
It's been weeks
Under strangers sheets
And tonight I feel weak

So for me it's been weeks
Under strangers sheet and when I feel weak
I reach for
All the bottom shelf drinks
Because they're cheap
And they'll put me to sleep

And if I don't wake up anymore
Fuck the dual funeral
It just seems forced
Just promise you won't
Bury her next to me
I'm afraid we'll be in love when we sleep

And after years of being underneath
An earthquake could shake
Our caskets and we might be touching
Our corpses cuddling
While we eternally dream

Don't let it be
Two birds under one stone

House Party 4: Down to the Last Minute

Hello internet!

Whenever I'm on netflix trying to look up the television show "Party Down" the movie "House Party 4: Down to the Last Minute" shows up on the list.

A couple things.

1. Our first show.

Our ["our" being Shaun and Danny] mutual friend Chops is throwing a house party/show at his house in the near future and has asked us to play. We said, "yes." We are very, very excited. We don't have all the details as of yet, but we were asked - and that's good enough for me to want to blog about it.

I do know there will be other bands. Probably.
Ummm.
I know it'll be loud if said bands play.
I know there is a possibility me and Danny might suck, or play very well.
If you come you'll probably hear us play a lot of the stuff on this blog.

And I also know that when I get the details ironed out, I'll post them here.

2. New video practice recording process.

Decided (because the sound has been so terrible) that I would start using a real microphone instead of the built in one on my laptop to record the audio of our practices. I hung up a condenser mic in the middle of the room and angled it toward my guitar/vocal amps. The videos below are using the new recording method. The guitar and vocals are still a bit too low, so I'll probably be setting up a second mic right in front of those above mentioned sounds for our next rehearsal... But these sound better than before.

3. New videos of practice

[And a new video angle!]

Here's a solo Matilda song we just started playing.
It comes from the record "People Only Listen to Recorded Music"
[or the aforementioned record's younger, better brother album, "People Only Listen to Recycled Music"].


2 Birds, 1 Stone




And behind door number 2.
A song we've posted before.
Maybe more than once.
And we're more than likely still working out that ending...

[drum roll]

Black n' Yellow Shirt

[cymbal crash!]







Thanks for sticking with us.
[Even if I'm just posting videos to 3 people, it feels nice to know someone is checking it out.]


We're starting getting the ball rolling now.
Things should become more exciting.


But, then again, you never know.


Cheers.

Untitled 26

New song.
First time playing it.
And also:
New vocal amp from garage sale.
Great Price.

Bad purchase.

[Good thing Danny works on electronics in his spare time.]




So far, this is what I'm singing. This may change.

When I was a kid
I always thought that I'd be someone big
Always dreamed that I'd be important
Someone more than this...

Now I'm 26
My songs have never been radio hits
Albums never make the years best list
Some kind of artist that I turned out to be...

But dreams
Like memories
They only
Last as long
As you hold on to them
Then they're gone...


Thanks for watching/listening.

Pulling Thread

So, as promised, here is the cover song that just sort of happened.

This is how it sort of just happened:
I was in the middle of setting up my guitar levels and Danny was just warming up on a few things. All of the sudden he played an intro that I've heard hundreds of times and I just jumped in. You can see him hesitate after he plays the intro because he didn't think that I was going to jump in, and you can hear me really fuddle the first few bars for the above mentioned reasons.

Wrapped up in all of it's flaws, here it is.





More to come soon.

Good grief...

Last week Danny and I played through and video recorded about 6 songs.

-Black and Yellow Shirt
-Memorial Day Dream
-Cough Drop
-I went too
-[untitled B.S.S. sounding song]
-Secret cover song that just kind of happened

We also did quite a bit of noodling around with new ideas as well as just plain noodling.


We worked on "Black and Yellow Shirt" for about a half hour.
The video below is probably our best run through.
The ending is too long and we will shorten it, but we were both just trying to get a feeling for what to do with the last part.


Oh. And just to warn you. Audio/Video Lag City.






Commentary now available in the form of cheesy video text.

Maybe I'll post the cover song tomorrow.

Here's a hint:
"It's been a while man. Life's so rad..."

and

Lots of dogs.



Know it?

I went too, too, too. [echo]

Another video from the 5th of May.

I know in the last video post I said I'd upload another video "tomorrow" - And then that never happened, and the first 5th of May video went away.

There were some technical issues with the new video editing/hosting site.
Everything seems to be ironed out now.
Just know, I've tried to upload this video everyday since the 6th.

Only a week late.



The song above is a newer song we're still working on. I wrote it sometime last year, and it has yet to have a decent recording made of it, or does it show up on any album.
Right now it's called "I went too."


The video has our first attempt with us pixelated out.
[don't know if pixelated is a real word]
Then our first and only start to finish run through.
You may have noticed some edits in the middle of the video also... It's because we played some things for just much too long. Both of us were just trying to get a feeling for what should be going on in the song.

But on the bright side:
We do have a vision in mind for how this song will be eventually:

Start with this bouncy/upbeat thing, throw a few verses in.
Hit the pre-chorus, which is kind of punk/dance rock for like 3 bars.
Back to bouncy/up-beat thing, but have some strange improv over top that kind of deconstructs the song.
Back to pre-chorus, then real chorus, and some noodling then done.


Have the day off today, so I might work on it a bit more.


Maybe one more video from the May 5th to come in the near future.
Maybe not.

Not making anymore promises.

Cough Drop pt 1

Danny and I sat down and ironed out a couple of songs today...
Thinking I'll upload just one for today, and then maybe one tomorrow, and one the day after.
[If I remember]

Here is an oldie called "Cough Drop" - I think this is our 2nd, or 3rd run through. First time we made it to the end of the song with out totally stopping.





[NOTE: Just noticed on Danny's computer that his browser shows only half the video. If you're having this issue and you use a PC you can right click the video and full screen it. If you're using a mac, you're on your own.]


Videos will look like this now, which (if you even care) is different from the previous videos.

I had to get some new webcam software and a new video editing program. I kind of like this new was better.
Just copy and paste the embed and I'm done.
No more waiting for blogger to upload shit.

And, if you watched the video til the end you may have noticed there are cool effects and transition and cuts we can use now.
(Get ready for some sweet/awful videos!)

Anyway.
Keep your eyes and ears to the internet this week.
More neat stuff is coming.

--S

Broken Social Scene Presents...

Broken Social Scene Presents ... Matilda and Friends!

Today's installment has us blatantly ripping off Broken Social Scene.

We're thinking about sending these videos over to the guys [and gals] and maybe they'd let us tour with them, or even join the ever-changing band.

In all honesty, we were just playing around with different chord changes, and drum lines, and these ended up sounding a lot like BSS. The odd cuts in video [starting and stopping] is because there were multiple variations of these "songs" [like nearly 20 minutes of each].

Anyhow, thanks to Kevin Drew for inspiration.


Part one



Part Two



Regardless of inspiration, and the final output [if there is one] of these songs, I like them a lot. They make me kind of want to dance. And write cool lyrics about mundane things. And get like 12 other people to play them with us. And on, and on...


Good fun.


Soon, we'll start to upload some more serious things.


Maybe...


I promise.

Glitch / Rock [Trials and tribulations of band-dom]

First up:
One of our finer moments captured on webcam.

It's hard to hear the keyboard part that I'm playing because my laptop microphone doesn't pick up tones that low, but as you'll see from the video, it was pretty loud.

Vibration City.


"Uh-oh."
"What happened?"
"Ummm. Where's my laptop?"
"Did it fall back there?"
"[Laughs]"
"Whoa. Is it broken?"
"No."



For our next trick:

Danny and I had been playing for a while, and I decided to break out a slide-tuning and try and write something on the fly. At one point near the end of the video, you see Julie standing at the door with a slipper in her hand. Earlier that day before she went to work she had asked me to, "make sure the dog doesn't eat my slipper."
Needless to say, I did not make sure that the dog didn't get the slipper and she wasn't too happy with me when she got home.

Zepper.



"Can I use that?"
"Sure."
"I need to pay some bills."
"[Silence]"
"And if you see her with my slippers..."
"No, that's why I closed the bedroom door. I didn't think she had it out there."





This is the life musicians dream of.


Dream on, young-ins.

Country Redneck Freckle Speck

Here are a few more gems/jams/ phlegm/ what have you.

The levels are not very good on both video and mp3.


This is a little country warm-up, tear-down thing we've been doing. Just a bunch of finger tapping and drum fills.
Not sure yet if it'll find it's way into finished song land, but it's fun to play.
At times in this video, the drums kind of take over the sound, but it's worth it. Danny does some nice work.





And here is an old song that was never put on any Matilda album that we're re-imagining, which basically means, it's a whole new song.

M and F - redneck part 3 by Mathilda

For now the song is called 'Redneck'

This is sort of what I'm singing:

Here's a redneck
peck on the cheek.
I'm trading sweets
for teeth.

And how far
would you drive
for my
best impression
of a Sunday car ride

Just because you've found me
doesn't mean that I'm hiding
I just fed
all my friends
to the dogs

Just in case you're listening
doesn't mean that I'm singing
just exchanging feelings
of the things
that I saw.

Sound Cloud

Along with video, we'll also be uploading tracks to listen in on via SoundCloud, like this:

M and F - Memorial Day Dream by Mathilda


This is an old Matilda song that we are currently re-working called "Memorial Day Dream."
I think this was our third time playing it, so bear with it.

Starts and Stops

This is the beginning of a re-birth.
We've decided to start playing old solo songs as a group and also write new ones in the process.
This process is slow going, so don't get your hopes up.