For the duration of the year 2017, Analog Moon will be releasing a song every month, culminating in a complete album at the end of the year. Consider it a slow stream of consciousness. Don’t expect cohesion. Don’t expect polished perfection. This is an experiment, or rather, an opportunity to experiment. Styles and genres will likely change from month to month. Even the participants will probably change fairly frequently. It’s the world right now, as observed from the Analog Moon. ?
Songs will be available to stream at soundcloud.com/analogmoon/sets/to-owe-ones-heaven and some may have additional media/material available elsewhere. Watch Analog Moon’s social media outlets for announcements:
(instagram.com/analogmoon, twitter.com/analogmoon, facebook.com/analogmoon)
January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November
#1 (January):
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (Manic Street Preachers Cover)
January 20 – It’s 2017 and what a start. Forgive our cynicism, but we have just forgone electing a leader in favor of hiring a crooked petulant manchild to host our reality TV nation state. We felt Manic Street Preachers said it best, though their ballad is about Welsh volunteers fighting Francisco Franco’s fascists for the Spanish Republic. The sentiment is timeless. God save us all. – Analog Moon
#2 (February):
February
February 14 – When in doubt, look to your heroes. Perhaps a hero will make a cameo appearance in this month’s song. Anyway, it’s February. And it’s Valentine’s Day. Love somebody. Love everybody. – Analog Moon
#3 (March):
March!
March 30 – I feel inspired – inspired to write, inspired to play and sing, inspired to be a part of something bigger than myself. And I feel inspired to march. I love you, and I’ll see you out there. – Todd
#4 (April):
Fool (Perfume Genius cover)
April 28 – Yeah, I know this isn’t out in time for April Fools Day. It’s barely in time for April. We never promised punctuality. This is a song by one of my favorite artists, Mike Hadreas a.k.a. Perfume Genius. Covers are tricky for me, because I feel like one should always honor the original without trying to mimic. I hope we’ve brought something to this song, but I encourage you to check out Perfume Genius’s version along with the rest of his catalog. He has a new album coming out in a week. – Todd
#5 (May):
Mayday
May 11 – Today is my 40th birthday. I don’t feel 40. Maybe I should. Maybe it’s irresponsible not to feel your age and to eschew the things that people your age typically do. My friends and I made a song for my birthday. Josh, Matt, and I wrote one together and each took a singing part. It was a blast, and I couldn’t have asked for a better present from the Analog Moon guys. You’ll have to figure out the themes for yourself. I’m not even sure we were singing about the same thing (probably not). Enjoy. – Todd
#6 (June):
Junebug
July 21 – I know we didn’t manage to get a song out in June. It was written, but we didn’t get it properly recorded, so here’s a demo. I slammed this one and July’s song out on acoustic instruments around the studio. Written for Liz, my muse. Hope you enjoy. – Todd
#7 (July):
Jewel and Bug
July 21 – This is another acoustic one that kinda spun off of June’s song. We’ve officially crossed the halfway point on this project, so I think these two (June and July) will make a good centerpiece. They’re both inspired by our love of wondering the planet. There’s a lot to see. Get out there. – Todd
#8 (August):
Ágúst
August 23 – This month marked the 1-year anniversary of a trip to Iceland I took with Liz and two of our closest friends, Brian and Shea. It was a life-changing experience, and I would recommend it to anyone with a penchant for mind-blowing natural wonders. A little over a year prior, Josh also visited Iceland. Our individual experiences have been the fodder of much evening beer-fueled discourse. We all agree that you leave Iceland a different person than you arrived. “Ágúst” is Icelandic for “August”, the month of our trip. Merriam-Webster defines the adjective “August” as “marked by majestic dignity or grandeur”. Coincidentally, that’s exactly how I would define Iceland. This is our attempt at expressing that musically in a bite-size consumable medium. By all means, don’t take our word for it, but if you go, leave it exactly how you found it.
Liz edited together some short videos we took on various devices that we had with us. I won’t pretend that this is anything near experiencing Iceland in person, but it’s as close an approximation as we could manage. And I think Liz did an excellent job on the editing. I recommend fullscreen and speakers cranked. So here it is: Ágúst – Todd
#9 (September):
Harvest Mind
October 19 – Yeah, yeah, we’re late on another one. We’ll let Josh take this one: This song of the month project has been such a learning experience. I think it has really given Todd, Matt and I the flexibility to explore some new (to us) genres in the practice space and studio, with no pressure for some type of cohesiveness from song to song.
Some of these songs have been based on small progressions or lyrics that we have had tucked away individually. Some, like September’s “Harvest Mind” were written and recorded during a single practice. What I really appreciate about this track is the collaboration and raw nature of the recording. I think it really captures what an evening in the practice space is like. We hope you are enjoying listening to these as much as we are enjoying producing them. – Josh
#10 (October):
Halloween Theme (Analog Moon Remix)
October 31 – Happy Halloween, ghouls and boils! Here’s a little treat to scare your pants off – John Carpenter’s Halloween (Main Title Theme) Analog Moon Remix. – Todd
#11 (November):
November Brain (featuring Jeff Kozelski)
November 10 – November steals another one… This song was originally written a couple of years ago when I was visiting my friend and occasional Analog Moon bass player, Jeff, down in Charleston, SC. We wrote and recorded a couple of demos that weekend, and this track is a rework of one of those demos. It already had “November” in the title, so it just seemed to fit. It’s a prison love story. That’s Jeff singing the lead vocal and playing rhythm guitar and bass. I only recently recorded the guitar solo, re-recorded my backing vocal and got Josh to add a harmony, as well. Jeff has a new album coming out really soon, so keep your eyes peeled. – Todd
#12 (December):
Fin
December 29 – For our last song in this series, Josh brought in this chord progression and a few rough melodies, and what resulted might be my favorite demo of the year. After I added some beats and a little guitar and Matt cut a bass line, it was all but finished (except for vocals). It’s really been a fun project, and it’s certainly been very challenging at time. Not really sure where to go from here. But for now… fin. – Todd