Get Help

Far Away Now

tony — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:15:47 +0000

It’s hard to believe this band of ours has been around for 4 years now. That’s pretty frickin’ exciting, if you ask me. To ape a Larry David philosophy, I don’t understand all the fuss about the five’s and oh’s and using their increments to celebrate our anniversaries and set up meeting times. What’s wrong [...]

The Pretty Boy with an Ugly Face

tony — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:06:00 +0000

I had a dream about this song once. It’s a dream I have from time to time, where the song changes, but the effect it has on my psyche I am sure is invariably the same. I will call it a “songwriter’s dream”, although as far as I know, this is the only supergroup-of-unknown-musicians-with-an-mp3-blog blog [...]

SPF 45 (Get Help Gets on TV)

tony — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:15:18 +0000

We’re proud to announce that two of our songs, Carne Asada (available on our album) and SPF 45 (available above) will be on the TV! Both songs will appear in the PBS series Gourmet’s Adventures with Ruth, episodes “Seattle” (airing this weekend!) and “Mexico”.

This elates those of us at Get Help HQ for [...]

Yelling Theater

mike — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:05:45 +0000

Somewhere in this apartment, on the back of an unused band postcard was a list of 10-12 things to do that I was supposed to do the next morning, no doubt scratched out with a nearby marker found late the night before. Pretty simple stuff. A sample: (1) buy soap, (2) wash dishes, [...]

Big Mistake

mike — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:21:06 +0000

It’s been a really nice summer. Not too hot. A bit more rain than usual, but that hasn’t hurt anyone. Down in Virginia where my parents live, they finally got the lawn green. I don’t know how the tomatoes came out, but the string beans from their garden were absolutely delicious.

I [...]

Crooked Streets

tony — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 04:33:27 +0000

Getting a new song in under the buzzer, and on the tree of life, it’s a tortoise. Or perhaps, a glacier. Something about the continental crawl of this one resonates with me. It came about from some lazy playing, putting the capo bar all over the neck of the guitar, rambling into the mic, dropping [...]

I Guess, But You Know

tony — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:16:09 +0000

Finally, something new for the blog. But we have not entirely been sitting on our buttocks lo these many weeks. As enjoyable as that activity might be, we’ve been working on our live act. Our handful of loyal readers know that Get Help’s recent history saw the induction of Gene and Brian into the band, [...]

The First Song On The Next Get Help Album

mike — Thu, 14 May 2009 03:15:39 +0000

Good morning. I was going to start this post with the disclaimer that it’s been way too long since I contributed a post to our site here, but I have the sinking feeling that if I went back and looked at my last couple, they’d start the same way. Instead, let me start [...]

Get Help @ Trash Bar Apr 23

tony — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:09:05 +0000

Perhaps we’re getting a little too ensconced in the current news cycle, but nevertheless, we’re going to “play the economy card”, as in: ”in this economy, who can pass up free beer?”

We’re pretty sure we don’t know anyone who can. So if you are within the sound of our voice, please come see us, as [...]

Safe As It Ever Was

tony — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:29:14 +0000

A new song for the blog. February and March seemed to go by in a whirlwind: I was busing my butt up to Providence and back every weekend to record with The Beatings during February, crashing on sofas and floors in a manner that no longer suits the mid-30s man all too well. But the [...]

Get Help @ Rehab Feb 12

tony — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:40:22 +0000

Usually we’re not above the sort of puns that could curdle milk in a glass, but when they’re handed to you like this, even we have think twice. A stale cookie might help, though.

Yes, we’re playing live again, and soon:

Thursday, Feb 12, 9pm Get Help @ Rehab 25 Avenue B New York NY

Rehab, formerly Club Midway, has been [...]

So Slowly, She Goes

tony — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:25:25 +0000

While going through my Garageband folder, I rediscovered this tune. It wasn’t entirely forgotten; it’s been sitting around for a long time, on and off the ipod, and I’m not sure why the reluctance in posting it. One day I didn’t like the lyrics, the next day, I did.

Technically, the genesis for this song came [...]

Band in Boston, Revisited: Red Jacket Orchards

tony — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 01:47:57 +0000

The second song from our latest visit to Andy and Jen’s. Full post is here.

Band in Boston, Revisited: Early Hours

tony — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 01:45:59 +0000

As our handful of faithful readers know, Get Help performed at Andy and Jen’s Flophouse way back in November of ought six. It was an eye-opening performance for us, and was fittingly enough also our first. Their living room and our DNA are intertwined, and I am speaking figuratively, of course.

If you’re not familiar with [...]

Labor Day

mike — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 06:25:49 +0000

Well thank Prince that year’s over. It’s 2009 and I hope to write more songs than I did last year.

Probably the crown prince of the short ’08 pile was this Labor Day track, which grew out of an obsession with ‘Les Yper Sound’ from Stereolab. Off Emperor Tomato Ketchup, it’s the perfect example [...]

Warm Gray, Submerged

tony — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:31:23 +0000

Perhaps interesting only to me: one of my new year’s resolutions was to organize and compile all the random Garageband tracks I have, born from moments of inspiration, appointed nights of impassioned hackery, and the all-time favorite: drunken, sloven doodling. My filing system is horrid, usually a series of numbers to indicate the date — [...]

Reminders

tony — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:12:54 +0000

As usual, when you start something with a minimal amount of thought and have no idea as to how it will end, it takes on a life of its own, sinks its claws into you, and won’t let you walk away. This one started as a Yamaha experiment, just cycling through the sound dial and [...]

The Pedestrian Song

tony — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:31:47 +0000

I am happy to announce that Get Help is now in possession of its very own Yamaha PSR-E413. What this means to the world at large is probably insignificant, but I find these instruments to be a great source of fun and inspiration. And it keeps me off the streets at night.

This particular tune was [...]

Freezing Point

mike — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:59:05 +0000

Since the album came out, I have found little time to make music. Life kicks in, and months pass by.

A sedative is to take a beloved song and reexamine it. This song is from arguably the best indie rock EP ever released — Archers of Loaf, “vs. the Greatest of All Time.” [...]

The End of the New Country, the album

tony — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:54:57 +0000

It is with much pride, conceit, vanity, and egotism that we announce our debut album The End of the New Country will be available on the mighty Midriff Records come Oct 14. Much to our astonishment, The End of the New Country was picked up early by the extremely, extremely intelligent and all-around-awesome Robin Hilton [...]

Little Symbols

tony — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:13:55 +0000

One of the greatest listening experiences in the world is We’re an American Band by Yo La Tengo. There are days when it is, without question, the greatest listening experience in the universe — even without headphones — and nothing else, not even Dave Atell’s “Skanks for the Memories”, comes close. Tied for first is [...]

A Brittle World

tony — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:59:38 +0000

The building I work in is about the size of a city block, and we share it with a lighting design company. While venturing into the beeping nether regions of our castle in my quest for snail mail, I heard through the walls a repeating bassline from some mix tape one of the lighting design [...]

A Plug & a Song

mike — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:26:59 +0000

We recently got a nice couple of mentions from Ryan of Ryan’s Smashing Life. He plugged our recent Boston show and posted Red Jacket Orchards (from our upcoming record) as, well, a song to listen to, over at his recent guest spot at The Plugg.. Thanks, Ryan.

I’m a big Fugazi fan. Not [...]

Let us pray

tony — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:08:43 +0000

Get Help will be performing soon, and also imminently:

Saturday, June 28, 9pm The Church 69 Kilmarnock Street Boston, MA 21+, $8.00

We will be performing with our label mates, The Spanish Armada (12am), as well as the fine fellows in Shadwell (10pm) and The Daily Pravda (11pm).

We will also be annexing some ships from the Spanish Armada for a few [...]

General Winter

tony — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:02:46 +0000

This song was originally conceived one day on the Light Rail when I decided I was going to go home and write an entire concept album in one sitting. If there is anyone left still reading after that sentence, let me just say that I didn’t even come close to achieving this goal. Not even [...]

Eric Lang

tony — Sat, 17 May 2008 01:10:03 +0000

Mike and I have finished recording an album. Our friend Eric is mastering it, and doing a superlative job at that. His enthusiasm for the record, thus far, has only been matched by Chris and Ted, who engineered it. I’m not sure even Mike and I are as excited about the welfare of this album [...]

Eyes Swim

mike — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:59:12 +0000

Months ago, I saw a motorcycle cop wipe out on First Avenue here in New York.

Ever been walking down a street with your iPod and heard some city sound that infiltrated the song, and weren’t sure if it was a part of the song? This happens to me all the time. Usually construction [...]

The Fanged Robot

tony — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:42:49 +0000

About 8 or 9 years ago, while on tour in the wilds of Tennessee, The Beatings met a young drummer named Robby, who was performing with us at the Pilot Light in Knoxville in a band called Pontius Co-Pilot. Through some miracle we kept in touch and met again on the next major Beatings run, [...]

Tumbleweeds

tony — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:47:49 +0000

Another product of goofing off at the Yamaha station with a recently purchased RC-20 XL (now with loop fade-out!). This was mostly done using a finger bass setting, and overlaying the same part multiple times through an RV-3 pedal, which generated that weird scratchy sound I find so spooky. Mike swears he’s going to put [...]

The Good Green Earth

tony — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:38:21 +0000

Clearing out the backlog with a good old instrumental. After moving to Jersey, I went through some withdrawal from being separated from the 500-channel Yamaha. I compensated by learning Garageband’s software instruments, the musical typing feature, and how to edit its digital “notes”, which increases the amount of potential instrumentation by at least, oh, [...]

…and we’re back!

tony — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:56:24 +0000

Hello, one and all. We have returned from a (gulp) 8-month exile from the blogosphere. ‘Exile’ might be a bit harsh, as it was more of a sabbatical. A sabbatical where, instead of engaging in travel, study, and/or the betterment of ourselves, we recorded an album. Well, two. Sort of. Whatever it was, exactly, that [...]

Everything must go

tony — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 04:04:56 +0000

We have yet another summer performance on the horizon:

WED AUG 15 BASEBALL TAVERN BOSTON, MA

Mike and I are about to begin recording the first Get Help album, right after our first annual home run derby picnic. But before that, ten push-ups, and a garage sale fundraiser. How about this deal on an old bathroom scale? Wow. See [...]

Band in Boston: Temporary Speed Zone

tony — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:35:21 +0000

The fourth song from our first Band in Boston session. Full post can be found here.

Band in Boston: Town Fires

tony — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:34:31 +0000

The third song from our first Band in Boston session. Full post can be found here.

The Summer of Help compels you

tony — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:33:29 +0000

Just a reminder that we have an imminent live performance on the horizon:

FRI JULY 27 @ 8:00 PM CLUB MIDWAY 25 Avenue B (btw 2nd and 3rd Streets) New York, NY

Another early show. And we are getting very excited about this one; it looks like we will have Shifty Dan and Lazy Thumbs Bill coming down from Boston [...]

New Low

mike — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 01:17:13 +0000

We conclude today’s Sasquatch sighting with a new track, ‘New Low’. This is the Get Help wheelhouse of distorted reverb guitars, this is a back-to-base guitar anthem, something you might have heard on a mid-90′s Matador sampler.

This was my first blow-through with my shiny new Pod, a wonderful tool for making music late at [...]

The Summer of Help continues

tony — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:37:30 +0000

It’s hot in the city streets, and the city streets are hot. Help yourself to two flavors of Get Help this month:

Tuesday July 17, 9pm PA’s LOUNGE (Band in Boston Residency) Somerville, MA

Our very first show was at the Band in Boston Flophouse, and its necessity mothered some invention; invention which has left an enduring imprint on [...]

Red Jacket Orchards (v2)

mike — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 06:30:16 +0000

Compression is a (the?) wonderful beast. Used incorrectly, it’s a weapon; it’s the metal spatula, squeezing the bejesus out of the already tired-looking chicken about to be laid to rest in a grave of yellow rice at your local Halal truck.

When overused, it’s also a weapon I guess, but something more along the lines of [...]

It Begins (Well, Again) (v2)

mike — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 06:15:44 +0000

Get Help has long studied Japanese “just-in-time” management techniques as a model of efficiency. This slightly updated version of It Begins Well grows leaps and bounds over its predecessor, it’s the 15,000 cars in a month that Hunt Stevenson had promised us; all we’ve done is throw in three gallon-drums full of drums and a [...]

Get Help (v2)

mike — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 09:00:30 +0000

I haven’t shown up in these parts for a few months; treat a post from me at our little page with the same incredulity you would a Sasquatch sighting. But there’s some housecleaning to do… In this post Tony introduces the new, (and instantly afterwards) latent feature of the Get Help Remix. In the [...]

Early Hours

tony — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:12:23 +0000

Every once in a while I still manage to delude myself into thinking I can encapsulate, in a single song, my obsession with the mnemonic redshift that comes with “growing older”. Once the earth has cooled after such an attempt, I consider myself lucky if I have scraped off something akin to lemon zest. But [...]

The Summer of Help

tony — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 23:11:22 +0000

Mike and I have an imminent, super-secret Get Help performance on the horizon:

Friday June 8 Club Midway 25 Avenue A (btw 2nd and 3rd St) New York, NY

We will be taking the stage at 8:00pm in a dusky, twilight performance.

Unfortunately with the short notice we weren’t able to get Lucky, Lefty, and Will to join us, so it [...]

Fall-in-Love-to-Song (v2)

tony — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:47:49 +0000

A considerable upgrade to the original, done entirely by Mike on live guitar and drums. I had always been quite satisfied with the original guitar lead, which tickled my one-take-takes-all, leave-in-the-dropped-wine-glass, GBV mentality. But Mike apparently had bigger and better ideas, which have since left said mentality under the bookcase with the old Tascam.

Student of Philosophy

tony — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 11:45:09 +0000

Another instrumental. I moved into my friend Damon’s place in Sunset Park for a while this year, and as a result gained access to his Yamaha DGX220. I think I became as much a piece of furniture as the keyboard itself for a while there. There are about 500+ sounds on that thing, and [...]

A very special Get Help

tony — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 16:05:48 +0000

We are happy to announce that Get Help will be performing live very soon, in our hometown away from our hometown, Boston, MA. We will be joined once again by a talented cadre of Midriff Records recording artists in the spirit of community and punctuality that is the ethos of our existence. The details:

Tuesday, May [...]

Cool Gray Oscillating Sequence

tony — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:48:48 +0000

In the midst of frustration with a long-premeditated idea that wasn’t coming together, I recorded a D to G transition with a hip-hop drum beat, just to hear something pleasant to my ears. Lo and behold, two weeks and about 40 tracks later, numerous lessons have been learned, about songwriting, computers, panning, and yes, myself. [...]

It Begins Well

mike — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 22:04:17 +0000

The Loop Station is a great tool for making a Get Help song, which features layers and layers of sound, like so much paint on a 50 year-old building in the East Village…say, mine. Paint so thick that you know the building will never fall.

Starting with a harmonic track that you can kinda hear [...]

The new Get Help site

tony — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 01:28:54 +0000

We have revised the site from its last incarnation. If you are one of the forty or so people who saw it last time, you might notice a slight difference. If you’re new to the site, please proceed in blissful ignorance of our hideous past. Download, share, and enjoy. Comments are welcome.

A Lost War’s Victory

tony — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 04:19:42 +0000

I was spending a Saturday in, preparing mentally for New Year’s Eve, determined to finish Light in August. I did. Makes a guy want to populate a small fictional world with gamblers, reluctant widows, and old folks full of quiet mystery. Not to mention hills and valleys of tremelo. Enjoy.

Life is Full of Surprises

tony — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 04:12:42 +0000

This one brings a smile to my face for some reason. A strange coming-of-age tale, full of unbridled enthusiasm. A regular three dollar bill. Started one night while insomnial.

Red Jacket Orchards

mike — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 01:59:48 +0000

Bought some delicious juice at a local farmers market from a place called ‘Red Jacket Orchards’. Growing up there was a 8-foot fence that separated my backyard from an expansive orchard, and all I could see were the tops of trees. I always wondered what it would be like to live there.

As is [...]

I Don’t Have the Stomach

tony — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 04:02:39 +0000

Mike wrote the music, I wrote the words. The fair-trade deal with Carne Asada. He sent me the original audio while he was undergoing some gastrointestinal distress, hence the title. So of course after you look at something for a few weeks you can’t imagine it being called anything else, and you’d break the legs [...]

Dream Deep of You

tony — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 04:00:02 +0000

The aftermath of Punishing Good Deeds. Took about 1/8 the time. I originally amused myself by thinking of this as the fallout of an 80′s style-conflagration, sort of like Nightranger, Loverboy, and REM going up in a hot air balloon and getting plowed into by Def Leppard in a Lear, but now, I’m not really [...]

Punishing Good Deeds

tony — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 03:28:19 +0000

Entering the acoustic phase. Mike and I recorded what seemed to be about ten hours of guitar lines, bass lines, tremelo guitars, solos…Jesus. I think we had an oboe player come in off the street at one point. We were incubating a Bohemian Rhapsody Jr. And we didn’t even get to vocals. Anyways, point is [...]

Get Help’s First Live Show: All Else Fails

tony — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 15:32:25 +0000

The second song from our first live show, ever. Full post can be found here.

Get Help’s First Live Show: The End of the New Country

tony — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 15:31:31 +0000

In preparation for our first gig ever, Get Help performs our first gig ever. Out of the approximately 36 hours Mike and I spent in Boston this weekend, I would say 28 of them were probably spent either rehearsing or performing one of the six songs we ultimately recorded live at Andy and Jen’s Flophouse. [...]

Town Fires

mike — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 04:58:10 +0000

I am disenfranchised by the New York City music scene, and it’s fun to use a footstep sound effect as a snare drum. That’s all it takes to write a song. I found the music on my 8-track from a year ago, recorded as part of a project where Tony and I drunkenly [...]

Carne Asada

mike — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 04:55:40 +0000

When this whole project started, we were just building instrumentals, little nuggets that would waft towards the country’s collective brain. Like pie cooling on a window sill, you know? And we needed a way to keep the instrumentals sorted; so we named them after one of our favorite things in the world: [...]

All Else Fails

mike — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 05:02:53 +0000

I built a silly drum beat in Pro Tools and the music came 15 minutes later. sent the idea to Tony and he sent it back a day later with the ‘teardrop’ guitar and noise wash, and I realized how satisfying it is to collaborate on a song with someone who works on your [...]

Fall-in-love-to Song

tony — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 03:14:29 +0000

A song about songs, I guess. Recorded with Pro Tools at Mike’s apartment. A riff that was laying around for a loooong time and a lyrical idea about random radios. All coming together thanks to red, red wine and the egg of rhythm.

Temporary Speed Zone

tony — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 02:55:13 +0000

I had some serious writer’s block so I sat down with the opening guitar line and just slogged through it until it was over, determined to get something done. The guitars, drums, and vocals were done in Garageband. Mike and I added the bass and the keys at his apt the next week in ProTools. [...]

Growing Circles

tony — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 02:16:48 +0000

Started out with an odd drum beat, dueling leads, big hair; a lotta foofaraw that just didn’t cut the mustard. It has grown into a big sweaty rocker when played live, however. Good boy.

The End of the New Country

tony — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 02:34:18 +0000

I feel a bit the tawdry whore because I came up with the verse structure while soundchecking on stage with The Beatings. One of my earlier Garageband experiments. Mike and I have played this tune live in various incarnations, and have re-recorded it in some high-fidelity environments, but this version, sonically akin to seeing a [...]

Traveler’s Shave Kit

tony — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 02:28:15 +0000

Originally intended to be a big, acoustic, reverby ghost of a song. Not quite how it turned out, but if it wasn’t for happy accidents you just might get no happy at all. You may need to jack up the volume on this one, the recording level is a little low.

Salsa Verde

tony — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 00:06:08 +0000

And with a clink of beer bottles in the East Village, Get Help was born. Our initial intent was to craft gossamer wisps of irresistable dittiness for commercial licensing. So of course our first composition together must have a refrigerator compressor as a backing track. Glastender still has yet to call. And we were titling [...]