Check out the new solo instrumental album from Wounded Buffalo Theory's Jay Cowit here!
Available to buy for $5 on CDBABY.com and free streaming on Spotify and more!
Feauturing 9 new original electronic instrumental tracks, this is the first solo release for Cowit since 2007's Jay Cowit and the Enemys album. Something different! Enjoy:)
]]>Let's start with Freak Circus This was a Rob song from around 2006, where simultaneously we were producing Japan on the Moon, and also formulating songs for GREEN. We all knew we loved the melody and structure, but, and not uniquely with our mixed history of genre-switching, we had trouble finding a place for the track, on albums or live.
At shows, the track was more like a catch-your-breath moment, and also a chance to fuck around with edrums.
Back in the lab, as tended to be the case over those few years, the song took a spacier, pop-song structure.
After GREEN was released, the band started it's tumble through lineup changes and new ideas, and, as it's not the easiest track to pick up for new guitar players, Freak Circus kinda fell away in terms of rotation. Fast foward 6 (!) YEARS, and midway through recording Golden Days, and Rob thoughtfully offered this track as an intro section to Fish, as both were in C. Kurt picked up the changes very quick (it's right in his wheelhouse, if you ever get a chance to listen to his acoustic demos), and I'm pretty sure it was one of the easier tracks on the album to make.
FISH IN A BARREL is one of mine, but it had plenty of help. For starters, I'm positive I stole the chorus lyrics and title from some song John had left in his room, on a piece of lined white p
aper, tacked up on his wall, when we lived together on 4th ave in Brooklyn.
I wrote the song on keyboard, with the idea of it being a big nice opening song to start my solo career. I don't have any footage of that, but I'm pretty sure it sounded like this version:
Right after I wrote it (it's about a girl, by the way. There, I said it), WBT pretty much stopped playing, so that's when the Enemy's started up, which, of course, included all of WBT most of the time, plus some incredible work by John Dennison, Christan Blanton, Tara Lynne, Tami Johnson, Hannah Hens-Piazza...too many more to list. 
This song was sorta a lynchpin of that band's sets, as it translated perfectly to a soft-bluegrass feel. We also put it on our album.
So after that little fun era of drunken fake country, Buffalo started playing more and we kinda got into heavier rock and so Fish left rotation for a long long time. Sometime in 2011 (and this is where the other help comes in), Rob mentioned that Fish was his favorite song I ever wrote, and questioned (yelling, I might add:)) why we didn't play it a lot. And so with that renewed vigor, we dusted it off, added drums to the mix (which is why the new version is my favorite), and found ways of exploring the middle section that kinda gives this an Allman Brothers vibe now.
This picture isn't trying to be Allman Brothers. I just wanted to post it randomly somewhere. And here it is.
All in all, on an album that talks a LOT about acceptance, and finding the final pieces of puzzles, Fish was a song that really fit in the theme, lyrically, and as a musical bridge to the album's ending songs. Literally, we had found a way to complete a song that was again, 6-7 years old, and finally be at peace with the final product. Hope you enjoy(ed)! jc
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Usually lyrics are the last thing that come together for me, and "ZPA" is no exception. Originally, the song had no lyrics at all - just a succession of nonsense words and vowel sounds - with a few vaguely sappy love song cliches thrown in for good measure. And, once again as usual, Jay forced me to push the lyrical content in a new direction. What if an army of zombies rose from the Gowanus canal to threaten all life as we know it? And what if the destruction of the known world by this flesh-eating radioactive post-humanity was, in fact, the greatest blessing the world had ever known? This concept of renewal through death - creative destruction - was such an apt metaphor for the whole process of writing, reworking, destroying, and recreating the song itself. In the end, I have to thank my bandmates, again, for saving me from the dangers of banality and forcing me out of my lyrical comfort zone. The end result, I think, fits well with the triumphantly epic tone (what's better than a big open E chord on an electric guitar?!) and soaring melodic vocals and solos that give ZPA its distinctive character as the rock anthem of Golden Days.
So lock all the windows, draw the shades, slap on your trustiest headphones - and prepare for the ZPA invasion!
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At the outset, the combination of an almost dub rhythm from John and Rob with the strong hint of '70's R&B in Jay's drumming creates an infectious groove supporting Jay's lyrical reflection on the problem of ethnocentrism. Then, the song slowly evolves into psychedelia with the bridge melody giving a nod to dark psych and a solo spiraling into a wall of interwoven guitars hinting at something almost recognizable, but never establishing a concrete form. The bridge lept straight from our collective head like Athena, fully formed in a single rehearsal. The solo was a longer process.
When we originally debuted the tune at an acoustic show in April of 2011, I don't believe there was a solo. By the time we recorded the basic tracks for the album in June, we decided on an extended one. In the basic tracks, John and I just layed out a ton of space, eventually working up to a rhythmic peak at the end. Atop that I decided to conduct an experiment in controlled anarchy. I played 4 solos completely independently of each other & then blended all four of them into the existing rhythm tracks. This is why the whole solo is suggestive of something without taking a final form. It's meant to reflect our inability to understand life as a totality - any almost established form is always receding into the ether.
Anywho - I thoroughly enjoy the way the synergy within our collective ears can take a couple of simple riffs and transform them into grand stylistic experiments. We hope that you all love it as well. You can listen to Jingo here:
You can purchase all of the tunes on Wounded Buffalo Theory's Golden Days at Cd Baby, or other common destinations on the internet. Kurtis out...
]]>Flash forward four years and this skeleton of a song has evolved and matured tremendously. Jay's bossa nova drums, Rob's bouncy bassline, and Kurt's slinky, dreamlike slide guitar provide an arresting contrast with the still somber vocal line. The product of our collective experiences, musical and otherwise, WBT songs are always evolving and growing, as I'm sure Below the Fold will continue to do. But man am I happy we got this one on tape:
We hope you've enjoyed both versions. Got an opinion on which you like more? Want more archival tracks? Leave some comments and requests and stay tuned for more behind the scenes commentary on the making of Golden Days.
]]>Wounded Buffalo Theory proudly presents Mrs. Danceypants. I would suggest getting your game face on, slapping that play button, and grooving out. Come on back when it's all finished, and remember you can buy our album at the link to the left below our logo. Remember, tracks will be exported soon for everybody to remix. I haven't told Kurt yet, but I'm sure he's ok with it... Zing!
All better? Music making is a lot of fun, but don't just take my word for it:
"To me, Mrs. Danceypants is a great example of what happens when WBT approaches songwriting as a group. Often one member will come to the table with a relatively full song idea and we work from there, but Mrs. Danceypants was different. Rob had been playing around on the verse bassline for a few rehearsals, and I think we'd all been excited to see where he took it from there. But instead of going off and working out the song on his own, Rob basically told us to figure out how the rest of the song should go. We spent a while working out parts for the verse, Kurt and I mirroring the bassline over Jay's infectiously driving beat. The vocal came to me almost immediately and I think we all knew by the end of rehearsal that we'd put together a perfect example of what can happen when four musicians who know each other's playing well all contribute to the construction of a piece of music. Not since Jay, Rob, and I collectively wrote WBT classics like The Pledge, Halo, or Neckface had group songwriting felt so natural, and I think the exuberance we all felt when writing in this way shines through on this recording. I hope you all enjoy listening to this track as much as we enjoyed making it. So get up and move to Mrs. Danceypants. - blanton"
Holy crap, did you read all that? How about another enthusiastic random person's remarks...
"this is the fastest song for drums in our entire collection. It is a BITCH to play.:). Hence why we haven't ended shows with it, yet. I wanted to do it as a rock 4 with swing, but John forced me to keep the quick beat, surely for the best. If I don't talk much after some shows these days, or I look like a meth-head, it's usually cause we played this somewhere in the set. - cowit"
Oh wait, that's our drummer. He's a pretty great liar too, because I'm fairly certain that Danceypants isn't a dog! WHAT THE....
"Like much of this album, Danceypants evolved and evolves in a very organic fashion. It started from a simple melody that grew more complex with time without relinquishing its core simplicity. The bass, drums and rhythm guitar create an impetuously forward looking beat that becomes relentless by the end. Atop that the vocals and lead guitars create a beautiful counterpoint to the simple bass melody. But no matter how far out it goes, it is still a double helix at its core. - leege"
With Love Always,
Wounded Buffalo Theory
]]>To celebrate the new release of our album Golden Days (which you can BUY FOR $6 here), every few days we'll be posting a song from the album along with some interesting side commentary. Batting lead off today is Otzi of the Mountain.
Towards the end of this little run, we'll be exporting some single tracks of a few tunes (Otzi included) for a little remix contest. Depending on the buzz we get, it sure would be swell to put out a little disc of all your remixes. For all that hard remixing work, the first ten people to offer up a solid remix will win a new disc, autographed by a random member of the band.
Lyrics:
sunrise on the eastern slope
my anger resolves to hope
i find a way to ignore
everything above me
running with the northern wind
my distance is running thin
I find a way to ignore
everything below me
peaceful on the easy road
happy with the lighter load?
i found a way to ignore
everything about me
staring at the love hotel
meters from my prison cell
i found a way to ignore...
Image courtesy Heike Engel/21Lux, Südtiroler Archäologiemuseum, and NG Deutschland
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You can also LISTEN to GOLDEN DAYS here, with soundcloud, and on the menu bar to your LEFT <<<<<!!
Pick one up whenever ya can, and until then give it the ole college try preview on Sound Cloud at the link above!
See You In March!
]]>Happy Thanksgiving from the Buffalo Family!
