the nourallah brothers (part 2)

the track by track
blow by blow saga of the nourallah brothers
continues today
we find our dim brother combo hero's in the middle
of making their 8-track wunderpiece...

who are we and heaven is the day
both recorded within 24 hours of each other
heaven was built around a demo i had done a couple of months earlier
without a metronome
it proved to be quite a pain in the ass for F to play drums to
with my ragged out of "perfect time" guitar
much cursing was done before this task was finally accomplished
it also led to the really really lo-fi sound of the entire recording
i wanted it on the CD despite all that
mainly because for me
this song had really fond memories attached to it
we wrote it one glorious afternoon
with our long-time friend bob schneider
(he also later designed the album art)
it was the first time F and i had stood in a room and played
with bobby in ten years
since el paso 1987
we had so much fun
it was like being kids all over again
cherry pie
granny smith's apples
innocent girl (she was just seventeen if you know what i meeeaaan)
all horrible n pretty funny impromptu "jams"
i still have the 2-track live recording of that
it still cracks me up when i listen to it
when we were all just boys we were going to move to austin
to play music together
F on drums
bob on keys
me warbling and strumin' bad guitar
bassist position vacant
the summer before we were supposed to move
bob went to germany to visit his parents
when he returned i had decided i would rather move to denton
(great choice sn)
he went ahead and moved to austin
he's been pretty successful with his music there
a much better environment for the arts i think
during the frustrating nineties i kicked myself
over and over again for that bad decision
so did faris
denton? how could i have picked denton over austin???
what kind of moron was i?
well
i have a pretty good idea
but now i think things definitely worked out for the best
at least for me
someone that you knew is a sad song
about the death of my ex-girlfriend's mother
right before i abandoned her as well
this song had a lot of sentimental value to me
i had been wanting to record it for awhile
i think i actually prefer the unreleased stark acoustic version
i still have trouble listening to this version
it was the beginning of the bickering
i didn't like what i considered to be the over-wrought nature
of this treatment
F's production touches were just too much for me
i think it was the last one we actually worked on together
he did she'd walk a mile
i'll be around and sorry with good-byes
all around the same time
the beginning of 1999
faris was writing songs as he recorded them
so i guess there wasn't much of a way for me to be involved
i always brought in finished songs to record
so it was much easier to know what the nature of the beast was
so to speak
i'll be around is one i wish i could have played on
maybe that's why i've recently adopted it as my onw?
i've just recorded my own version of it
with my band
the noise
perhaps a b-side or e.p. track in 2007?
everything about this song is
in my opinion
brilliant
the vocals are amazing
the melody superb
this is the one brian from western vinyl heard
on the ut-austin radio station
the one that tipped him off to our existence
that story coming to you soon
in the nourallah brothers christmas miracle special
(in pre-production now)
we both dress like andy williams
wear matching white turtle necks
sport big toothy grins and neatly coiffed hairdos
spread yule-tide joy
brotherly love
peace in our time
with starstruck toddlers in elf get-ups
and babes in tight sweaters
gazing up at us
while we lip sync yer favorite holiday tunes

stay tuned for more and more and more