…if I could just move on, maybe you would too.

2007 is damn near over and I’m stunned at the speed in which it happened. We’ve done about 70 shows since brian joined the band july 1 and it’s felt like a fast forward sequence of an action movie. Crazy, crazy, crazy.

I write this from my hotel bed in las cruces, new mexico, where miggs seems to have some great fans. This leg of the tour has been interesting. Phoenix was a blast with a cool outdoor show and then we hit a few places that may need someone telling them it’s now the 21st century! Time warp stuff, for sure but we had fun. We always do.

So to end 2007 we’re completing that new album, UNRAVELED, which will be released overseas initially and then here in the states early in 2008. That is the plan. Unfortunately, things can change due to circumstances beyond our control. See, we are negotiating a deal here in America and if we sign they could decide that the release date be X even if we want Y because they may feel it’s smarter timing and we want to give UNRAVELED every chance for success. Got it? Music 101 has ended for the day…

Anybody out there read rolling stone? The 40th anniversary issue has a great editors note from jann wenner about the state of our country and the incredibly poor leadership we’re under, the global warming issue, this war we don’t even understand and music. I just read it and it makes me want to not WATCH this election go by. We all have to decide to become part of the solution. It’s not too late. This year we have a chance to do something never before done. We could have a black president. A female president. All very cool. What I hope is that we pick the RIGHT president because time is running out on making things better. Don’t mean to sound like a downer but we’re on the titanic and the wedge of ice would certainly capsize us if we weren’t melting it so fast! And I know that I do things every day to make things worse, so this isn’t don miggs on a soap box. I’m just worried about where we’re going. I like being alive. See, the earth isn’t in danger. We are. The earth will survive and mutate and do it all again. Just visit a museum to see that. It’s us humans that are in trouble!

Ok, enough of that. I’m getting depressed!!!

But there is hope. There is a new miggs album coming out. A shedding of the skin, if you will. Excorcising our demons, our past. Staring at the future. Wow, that was terrible!LOL UNRAVELED is a period at the end of phase one of miggs. If you’ve been to a show lately we are dusting off older tunes every day and adding in songs just written. It’s been a challenge deciding what to play each night so we wing it instead. Tonight we get to play for two and a half hours so we will throw everything but the kitchen sink at the audience. And if it gets nuts enough, maybe even the kitchen sink…

Fave CDs at the moment:

New coheed & cambria is kicking my ass
New ryan adams EP
New killers
New bruce springsteen

Meet the day and be good to each other,

miggs

Labels: arizona, elections, global warming, hilary, insomnia, jann wennner, killers, late nights, miggs, myspace, new mexico, obama, Q time patio, rolling stone, truth, U2, unraveled, youtube.com

there's a fire burning out her heart...

so we've spent the last week holed up in tampa working on the album that is to come out in scandanavia in the new year, as well as doing pre production for the NEXT release internationally. it's a crazy time. we have all this music and want to share it but don't want to introduce it all too early and then when the album comes out, you're all like "been there, done that" on us!

but the UNRAVELED album is coming along nicely, thank you very much. we just got the mixed version of NOTHING and it sounds pretty great. look for it to post on myspace for a little bit. if you've heard the acoustic version from LATE NIGHTS & EARLY MORNINGS, it is that on steroids- complete with brian totten smacking the drums and electric guitars (remember the acoustic version has no electric guitars and jason played brushes-no drum sticks).

this album will contain some songs already released but redone in the current format of miggs, which is a bit more raw and stripped down. we're doing this album for IMPORT and decided to mix the last 3 albums since the european people didn't get the first albums (unless they went to iTunes or something like that). and then we will try to get a completely new miggs album out in mid 2008 so stay tuned there.

where was i? ah yes, so we're mixing some stuff and it's been cathartic revising these songs and playing with expectations a little. INVISIBLE was a song i really loved and am excited to rethink and finally put on an album. the orchestration that jason gianni did to that was magnificent and i want people to hear it. in fact, you should leave here now and visit jason at jasongianni.com. tell him we said hi.

if you didn't go yet, thanks.

go buy bruce springsteen's magic. i'm not 100% sure i LOVE every bit of the album or am just so impressed with his ability to tell a tale and write a relevant album that isn't missing the commercial mark. i appreciate that he is out there. and i think i do love the album cause i listened to it for 5 hours today flying from tampa to LA.

ok, off to vegas for some shows. be good.

Labels: anyway, insomnia, killers, late nights and early mornings, miggs, miggsband.com, myspace, perfect, tour, truth, unraveled, youtube.com

"and if i'm such a joke, then why aren't you laughing?"

spring has sprung and i'm wide awake. how about you? i know i owe some detail in this entry so sit back and take a load off your feet. i gots things to say.....

it's been a great year so far. a sold out show in san francisco. thank you to all who came. we filmed the show and hope to release it as a DVD. we'll see how it looks first, of course. some fan video is up on youtube.com that i saw and it looked cool as hell with the crowd singing "options" and me standing there in semi-awe.....i am a geek, what can i say?

i bought the first 9 seasons of south park on DVD, by the way. those guys are truly amazing. the scenes may slip into some bizarre stuff but they are dead on with their points. do yourself a favor and check this stuff out. some side-splitters, as they say.....

had a nice little surprise on the florida run of shows with michael and matt joining me. it was still acoustic based but a lot more fun with them out with me. it sounded good all stripped down. we did some different songs, too, which was fun. and then we worked on some brand new songs for the next electric album, whenever that will rear it's head. maybe early 2008 but who knows. we just released "late nights & early mornings" and i'd like to release a CD with all the songs miggs never released but recorded. there are some that i really like and a few i should probably leave off but i figure we took the time to record them so maybe you'll want them. that should release before christmas time and i think i'm calling it "unraveled". you heard it here first.....

oh yeah, i definitely liked reading "haunted" by chuck palahniuk. the short story "guts" was a tough read through because i thought i may hurl at a few points. i was laughing and holding it in at the same time. classic. now i'm reading "long way down" by nick hornby and then onto sidney poitier's "measure of a man" and then someone sent me "perfume" by patrick susskind and said they could only send this to me...which i will decide what that means after i read the book, i suppose!

back to the new songs, though. it was fun demoing up some of my new things with michael and matt. they definitely added an element that wasn't there before. well, since i only recorded vocal and acoustic, i guess THAT wasn't too hard!!!LOL

the song titles being worked right now are:

-"weapons" (which you can hear the acoustic demo on myspace.com right now, unless i've come to my senses and had it taken down): i wrote this as a Killers meets american idol pop song but with lyrics about how WE make the decisions we're forced to live with. like george bush. and that what he or we say isn't nearly as bad as what we actually do....
-"fire": this whole the fray phenomenon puzzled me. nothing wrong with them and whose to argue with a gazzillion CDs sold, right? right! but they seem like coldplay light and coldplay (God bless them too!) are U2 light so wonder how light we can go before there is no buzz at all!!!!!! this is my light, light, light, light version of this genre......with some balls, i hope.
-"dear diary": some of you heard this song december 3rd 2005 when we debuted it at great american music hall in SF. it was the first and last time we played it live becasue that version of the band stopped at that point. i've resurrected it back to the way i originally wrote it and hope to have it see the stage again soon. i wrote this after reading "diary" by palahniuk. it's about not just sleepwalking through life, basically.
-"pretty people": i wrote this around the same time as "diary" while on tour. sep, the guitarist at the time, heard me playing it in the van a million times and liked it. one day he came over with some modifications, added the prechorus and we finished the song up. we did it a few times. it rocks. i've sort of revamped it again and there is a version with some lyrics added by phil barnhart, a grammy winner from nashville i write with some and i'm not sure which lyrics will ultimately be used but it's cool to have choices. ironically, i wrote this song about two things- all the hype for paris hilton and her "type" but also based on some stories sep would tell about he and his wife's relationship with this wealthy family and how they could be. it's ironic now for so many reasons that i won't go into but i learned my perception of this family was wrong even though the song still resonates!
-"enemy": i love greg dulli and i know that listening to his last solo album "powder burn" influenced this song ultimately BUT i wrote it while waiting for kyle cook to appear at my door for a writing session in nashville. he was a little late and while i waited this entire song came out. it sounded VERY nashville at the time i played it for him and he said it was complete. but i thought it was too nice. i got home and the proverbial "shite" was hitting the fan and the lyrics sort of moved from where they were. then the song sat becasue i wanted it to rock more and the chorus didn't. recently, i came up wiith a better chorus, moved the chorus to the bridge and there is was. complete.
-"everyone but me": i like this one a lot. i'd been toying around with this riff for the past couple of years. it was a cool time signature but kept the feel of a rock song. that was jason gianni's influence and i bet i initially did it to impress him! but then the chorus came together and i had a song. matt, michael and i played it once when we three had to do a show in Utah. and then we never played it again. it's like foo fighter-ish.
-"running out": i love jeff buckley and wish i could sing like him. period. i can't. i forget which book i had finished when i worte these lyrics or the exact circumstance and i am not interested in researching right now!LOL i like the chord choices here. a bit too mature for me but it's good. almost put this on the acoustic album but it didn't seem to fit. not simple enough.
-"for you": i've spoken about this one before. new love will get you everytime.......
-"crawl inside": this is definitely dulli influenced. sweet with just enough sour. i've not gotten the sour down right yet but i'm working on it. and my piano playing is so bad it works.

there may be more. who knows!!!!

ok, what i'm listening to? a lot. just ordered the hold steady's and hear that he is a genius songwriter.


what else?

come see us on tour, buy the new album, visit us at myspace, tell friends in the towns we're in where you are not to see us and say hello........

i do the photo shoot for the new website friday. it's looking cool and i think we launch it may 10th. a great day. and bono's birthday.


oh yeah!!! my late nights song review i promised. here it is:

NOTHING: i wrote this song after i finished a book by........guess? yep, chuck palahniuk. but also a book by tiffanie deBartolo called "how to kill a rock star". do yourself a favor and find this book. great read. the genesis of the song was a night in reno where i wrote the "tape look running through my head" line and couldn't get much further. it sat and one day finished itself while i slept! in the studio, chris (manning) and i made the decision to "work this song up" instead of just an acoustic and voice. this is what changed the direction of the whole album because it was originally going to be quieter but this song begged for more production and then we did the rest to follow suit (except late nights...). i love that this vocal take is the scratch track. that's the name for the recording you do to just keep place for the other stuff. it was never intended to be the FINAL vocal track but i sang it like i meant it so we kept it. we got jason gianni to play WAY outside of his comfort zone on the piano and he did same good stuff at the end. we had him listten to black crowes a bit before we hit record! i just remembered that i came up with the "it get complicated with the lights on" line while running through chicago. i was looking at two rather large people kissing and thought how it must be tough to get "busy" and then saw another couple who seemed to not want anyone to know they were a couple and the words just fit both scenarios.
TO BE WRONG: this is a track i've recorded 4 times now. 2 electric, 2 acoustic. each differently. it resonates for me so i wanted it on. i wrote it for a friend who needed to assert herself and trust her intuition. it's a woman's anthem and i'm proud of it.
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN: my friend sean o'malley was the singer in the alliance, my high school and early 20's band. he sings like steve perry, sort of. i used to write songs for his range and one day he didn't show up at a show so i had to sing. it humbled me but also made me work for more range! he wrote these lyrics and i immediatley gravitated to singing it like he could easily. since i can't, i went in a more jeff buckley direction. it's a nice song. we recorded a version for what became insomnia CD but never released it. this one is much different.
DON'T FIX ME: my manager had the words for a chorus in answer to coldplay's "fix me", a song she loves. she gave these to me and i wrote a song around it. it's supposed to be a song like the who would have done. i would like to hear this one electric. maybe one day. i like the bridge a lot. very zeppelin-y. i had a fan/DJ surprise me and ask me to play it live one day and i didn't remember most of it and the chorus is so high i couldn't hit the notes so early in the morning. a real train wreck....
PAYING FOR MY SINS: this is the song that marked the end of my relationship. it said it all. the vocal take is basically one take and it pained me to sing it. i insisted on the heartbeat bass drum pattern but think the song would benefit from moving away from that in the bridges. oh well. another one i'd like to see fully done with electric guitars and drum sticks (both of which were not used on late nights at all). the phone dialing is us actually dialing a number and recording it and the surprise was the woman picking up saying "hello" so perfectly. and the screaming kids are chris' boys getting a bath and we recorded it. they may hate that in 20 years!
LATE NIGHTS & EARLY MORNINGS: the album was done regarding song selection and i wanted to always write a song with this title. i did use it on "choices" but only becasue i didn't want a song named "choices" on the same album as a song named "options" but what could i do!?!?!?!? gavin mackillop HATED this song title and the request to name the album this. said it sounded like an acoustic singer songwriter title. so when i did the acoustic singer songwriter album......i had a name! anyway, chris said if i came up with something that night, great, we could record it. i went home and this song FELL out of me. the whole song hinged around the last line "i've learned my lesson, that's for sure. it's not funny anymore.....come home". after that, it was easy. i recorded this live- guitar and voice- first take. and we left it right there.

have a great week people,

d

Labels: american idol, insomnia, killers, late nights and early mornings, south park, U2, wide awake, youtube.com