Track number 2 from Virginia Is For Hoverers (Part II). By the way, throw us 8.45 really quick for the full album download – you won’t regret it 
This tune is unfinished lyrically, even though I like where it’s ended up. I wish I had more time and money to work on it. I had a few more ideas. I rewrote the lyrics recently (only a few changes) and titled it German Girls. When I wrote this song, Read More …
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Don’t forget, buy the new album Virginia Is For Hoverers (Part II)! Just click here —>
Hello, beautiful human – thanks for checking out the new album, Virginia Is For Hoverers (Part II). People are actually buying this thing. It’s doing better than any other thing I’ve put out. Amazing. I wasn’t sure if I would have to trap and eat the mouse that lives in my apartment to survive, but fortunately, Jerry lives another month (this is weird, right….I named him after Jerry Seinfeld, but then someone pointed out there’s Jerry from Tom & Jerry…how did I not Read More …
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Presenting: Virginia Is For Hoverers (Part II).
Chris Merritt – Virginia Is For Hoverers Part II Digital Download 8.45:
Virginia Is For Hoverers – Deluxe Edition *see details below 40.00:
Thanks for your patience, folks. I have the most supportive fans on the planet – I really don’t deserve you and it amazes me that there are people who are interested in this music I make. You guys rock.
You can buy a digital download for $8.45 (the price of two slices of pizza and a coke at the pizza place down my street!) or buy a deluxe edition for $40 (more on this in a second). I know it’s easy to distribute mp3s for free, but keep in mind that your purchase will help me survive and give a big push towards getting a real label (or something) involved in my music. If I ever have the resources to make big studio records, I’ll be giving you guys as much free music as I possibly can. I want to use this record to promote myself and get some things happening with all the connections I’ve been making over the last three years. I would really like to be able to turn my internet back on, get some groceries, and get some cough medicine (haha!! do I sound pathetic enough??) and get some physical promotional copies of this thing made. Let’s get this music out there!! It’s time to shop labels/management/promotion!! I need your help!
*About the deluxe edition: As we’ve been making Part II, I’ve been hard at work on a Deluxe Edition of Virginia Is For Hoverers. The Deluxe Edition will feature Virginia Is For Hoverers (Part I and II) as physical copies, with a bunch of bonus stuff, including cool bonus artwork. They will be mailed out in about three weeks (prints and CDs are being copied!!), but you get the digital downloads of Part I AND II, plus the Big Girl and Sugar singles immediately. The package will feature:
Listen loud.
Enjoy.
Love,
Chris
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
finishing artwork…..perfectng track order
Downloading masters. Finishing artwork. Deciding track order.
Phone dead. Charger broken. Internet out (sitting outside Brooklyn Public Library). Pockets empty. Face unshaven.
Hit with a flu. Hungry. Tired. The proudest and happiest I’ve ever been.
Check tomorrow.
Virginia Is For Hoverers: Part II is nearing the finish line.
John Carmack said that you can make anything you want if you have enough pizza and diet coke. I don’t have either of those things, but my apartment is a cave of wires and microphones and empty water bottles (I found out recently that soda is bad for you). Dirty dishes, darkness, harmonies coming from the headphones. This record began as another frustrating excursion into the world of no resources, trying to make a good record with no money, no time, no gear…..most of the pianos I have to tune myself. Most of the tracks were recorded in different places. I have to track vocals when the girl downstairs decides to give the dance-club-level hip-hop an hour’s rest. I don’t know if she has a job or what, but she’s up before 7:30 and she stays up all night.
So I started this record with the frustrating knowledge that I will be cutting corners. I was ready for a compromise. But something magical has happened…the obstacles have become beautiful. I’ve become so good at location recording, using cheap gear, EQ’ing out loud hip-hop….this is really the Chris Merritt sound, if there is such a thing, at it’s very finest. It’s quirky and raw…but the production quality is the best it’s ever been. I’ve been lucky enough to have some amazing people work on this record, too. Brett and I tracked a couple songs in a great studio in NY owned by our new friend Nathan, and then my new friend Andy, who is a producing genius, has been generous enough to do a few mixes and let me track some things at his studio. Brett has been putting great, crazy percussion on everything. Jake Thro has put his finest basslines of all time on a couple tracks, has produced the album’s finest tracks, and is mastering the album at this very moment. Well, actually, at this very moment he’s reading this sentence right now, aren’t you Jake? Get back to work you lazy-…. (That only works for Jake but I bet it freaked him out)
My intention was to release this album, and then make a “best-of” to start shopping to labels and other folks. But I’m starting to think that this record is a “best-of” on its own. Big words maybe…but it encompasses what I’ve been after….the lyrics are science-ridden, but I’ve also taken a sentimental turn back to cheesy love songs….there are biting rock songs….weird time signatures…..but also these pretty, poppy, embarrassing songs. But good embarrassing. If nothing else, these songs feel really honest.
The final songs are these (I had to draw the line….there were more I wanted to do…) White Boy, Surfin’, Radio, Pep-Pep, This Is Your Brain On Carl Sagan, Big Girl, Sugar, Wire, Spin The Bottle Champion, Pulse, Such A Long Time Ago, Donna, Margaux, Two Guitar Songs.
I know I suck with deadlines. My problem really boils down to bad prediction skills. Jake says the masters will be in my hands on Sunday. I’ll have everything ready to go and you can expect this new record on Sunday sometime. Please buy it. I’m broke as hell.
Tracking done. Mixing mostly done. Mastering being done by our very own Jake Thro.
This thing is actually sounding ok! Better than hoped.
Looking like
Margaux, Such A long Time Ago, Surfin’, Radio, Times Are Changing, Pulse, Donna, Big Girl, Sugar, Pep-Pep, Wire, Walking On The Water, New Secret Song, maybe another new secret song, maybe This Is Your Brain On Carl Sagan, maybe Little Bird
off to tune Simon’s piano and hopefully eat some of his food. Then back to finish final songs. Tomorrow work in the morning and then off to Andy’s studio to finish Times Are Changing and a couple others. Jake is mastering as we…..speak? Brett has disappeared to the sunny Galapagos Islands to find himself. Or maybe it was snowy Russia, I don’t know.
I’ve wiped my schedule clear for the next week and all I’m doing is finishing Virginia Is For Hoverers: Part II, which I hope, when it’s finally finished, will be considered by music scholars everywhere to be one of the worst named albums ever.
I sit confined to my cave and I’m ignoring the virtual heap of email and the phone rings like a joke that’s left unsaid. I let it finish its tantrum and resume recording a vocal take.
Here’s a song from the last time I tried to mix a record:
I’m not sure when this will be done. I think it will in fact be done at some point, though, if I don’t die or starve. I said the 12th? Hmm. Release date updated to….maybe this weekend. This is really the first full day I’ve had to work on it. Yesterday I was in every inch of Manhattan running around. Worked in Rosalyn, picked up a paycheck from the Upper East Side, dropped off a bag of someone’s toys midtown (long story), picked up headphones from Sonny at his production studio, paid bills in south Brooklyn (perfectly depressing place to pay bills). By the time I got home I tracked vocals for Such A Long Time Ago and fell asleep in my chair.
Such A Long Time Ago. Donna, Radio, Surfin’, Margaux, Times Are Changing, Splitting Me, Sugar, Big Girl, Wire, Pep-Pep, Favorite, Fool, This Is Your Brain On Carl Sagan, Little Bird, Pretty Bitch, Blue, all candidates lining up for evaluation.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Don’t forget to buy your tickets straight from me for The National (Richmond, VA) show – you can get them cheaper. Plus, we get more of the dough.
Friday. Richmond, VA. Eight of clock. Free CDs with pre-sold tix.
Working all week. Monday and Tuesday in the city. Drove down to Virginia last night. Working landscaping in VA today. Tomorrow teaching a summer camp on jazz in Charlottesville. Friday show at the National and Friday night back to NY to work Saturday morning. Then huge nap and then….mixing!
I love the drive from NY to VA. I love driving. I think I could be a trucker. I adore every part of the experience. I prepare my books on tape ahead of time and last night it was No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Mixed in with some Nada Surf, MJ, The Darkness, Pinback, and I finally gave Andrew Bird a good listen. I like to stop once during the 6-hour trip and I fill up on gas, get a sandwich, coffee, and a Black and Mild. I save the Black and Mild until the last hour of the drive as sort of a celebration. I can only smoke about a third of it before I throw it out the window in disgust. Those things make me sick.
As a side note, the woman who made my sandwich was this incredibly beautiful Russian woman in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania. I only tell you about that because she really was incredibly beautiful.
Thanks for your comments/emails, as soon as I have a spare second I’ll respond! Someone pointed out that one of the new songs sounds like old Paperface, which is cool, because that song was written in that era, and Jake of Paperface plays bass. Good ears, wow.