the nourallah brothers (part 3)

a lot of our problems revolved around
differing opinions over production style
the fact that we were both having personal breakdowns
didn't help any with our failing powers of communication
over 10 years together
playing musican
a trail littered with disappointments
musical failures
missed-opportunities
and heartache
although i was the oldest
by 18 months
the big brother/little brother roles had been reversed
i would shut down
shut up
and keep my opinions to myself
anytime something bad came up
maybe a result of having been bullied by dad?
i had a hard time ever communicating the things i didn't like
about some of the recordings we made together
he'd eventually figure it out and it always hurt his feelings
on the flipside
F felt like i wasn't interested in his tunes
so he stopped allowing me to play on them
using the fact that he was writing them on the spot
as the reason
i tried to remind him i put christmastime and i'll be around
at the front of the cd i sent to s. fellows
along with
every burned cd i ever made
the final version of the NB cd
even contains more of his tunes than mine
and i'm the one who picked the songs!
it's all pretty sad

so the dysfunctional duo motored on
one afternoon
me F and our friend j.c. hanging out
on the front porch of my parent's house
F came up with an idea
"let's all go over to the studio immediately
and try to write and record a song on the spot
as a team - we'll see who ends up being the musical dictator"
cut to approximately two hours later
F at the mic
singing and recording i wanna be an artist
as the world now knows it today
johnny outside having a smoke
me behind the drumkit in the corner of the studio
contemplating how long it might take to learn how to play them
somewhere the lights don't shine
turned out completely different than the way our band
had previously played it
F was bored with the guitar at this point
he insisted on putting keyboards everywhere
he slaved over the music and i came in and did all the vocals
michael bolton style
someday i'm gonna re-record this one
bring it out of synth land back to guitarland
the lost resort was next and another that faris did alone
i love this song
i see it all in slow-motion when i hear it
i wish we could've shot a surrealistic black and white video for this one
i'll remember you was the first one i did without F
it's a song that means a lot to me
as it was written for my close friend
royce legg
royce had taken his own life earlier that year
i got ex-MF drummer bill shupp to show up and play a beat
then i cut the "wanky" guitars (as F called them)
i know my brother could have done it better but
who cares
this song was for my friend
i needed to do it myself i suppose
missing you and down were two of the last ones recorded
by now faris would work on his songs
when he knew i wouldn't be around
then i'd show up and do mine
no teamwork
no camaraderie
a lot of tension
we were recording like people in work cubicles
it was pretty obvious it was "over"
"let it be"
without the fame fortune or action figurines
it had stopped being fun
it was a drag
steve fellows never became our manager
we never moved to england
by the summer F was in portland
and we stopped speaking to each other

even though the nourallah brothers were over and done
finished and broken up
before we even released our debut record
there was a mini-miracle coming our way
after 10 years of bad luck
finally something good...

i was working one afternoon at cd world
when i got a call from my friend
john dufilho
he said "you'd better go find a MET now and read it"
wouldn't say why
i figured someone was in there slagging the poor old MF
i was wrong
there was an article on a fledging indie label
outta austin
called western vinyl
they were hooked up with some bigger label
called secretly canadian
wv's owner
brian sampson
had heard us on the UT radio station a year before
so taken by this song he heard
he had to pull off to the side of the road
stop
and listen
he could only find out the makers of this song were from dallas
and called something like the noorullalla brothers?
tried to find us on the net but with the bad spelling
nothing
anyway
he put out a message in this interview
if there was anyone out there at all who knew who we were
or what our real identities were
please contact him immediately
he wanted to put out our record
i never read the MET
without that call from john d.
who knows?
you might not be reading this here blog
i might have become a haberdasher or used car salesmen

western vinyl would go on to release the nourallah brothers cd
almost 2 years after it's completion