Music for Perfect People

While we anxiously await the upcoming release of a Mason Proper album, the band’s frontman Jonathon Visger has been treating us to singles under his solo moniker Absofacto. Today, the track “Punch Drunk on Black Mold” was released and you can grab yourself a listen/download below.

According to Abosfacto:

I had a completely different song all ready to release a couple weeks ago, but at the last second it got earmarked for inclusion as the b-side on a 7″, which left me with no song for you. So I whipped out the ol’ acoustic guitar and amazingly, 45 minutes later I had a song. I haven’t been able to write that fast in a long time, but I made my way pretty easily from line to line. It felt pretty good!

I wanted to record this one in free time, not to a click, since I was going for a looser old pop feel. That way I could be a little more impulsive and speed up a tiny bit if I got excited about something going on, which I sometimes did.

I was going to limit myself to 8 tracks all on my tape machine to keep me from going off the deep end like I always do, but once I dove in it became clear I was going to need a lot more tracks for layering up the backup vocals, so I bent the rule and let myself have some extras on the computer.

The music itself sounds like a sad song about lost love, but to me it’s actually a happy song about escaping from a psycho killer. But it can also be about lost love if you like!

Related Posts:

• ALBUM STREAM:: Absofacto – ‘Sinking Islands’
• DOWNLOAD :: Elsinore – “Happiness Is What You Want” [Absofacto REMIX]
• WATCH :: Scattered Trees – “A Conversation About Death on New Years Eve” [LIVE]
• WATCH :: Good Old War – “Window” + “My Own Sinking Ship” [LIVE on ApKmedia Microshows]
• MP3 :: Scattered Trees – “A Conversation About Death on New Years Eve”

What better way for Elsinore to promote the release of their latest album Yes Yes Yes then to have their friend Jonathon Visger, of Mason Proper, remix a few of their tracks into one super song?  What you have below is “Happiness Is What You Want,” a mash-up of four Elsinore tracks that were thrown together under the Absofacto moniker! Enjoy and grab yourself a copy of Yes Yes Yes here.

Related Posts:

• DOWNLOAD :: Absofacto – “Punch Drunk on Black Mold”
• ALBUM STREAM:: Absofacto – ‘Sinking Islands’
• MP3 :: Absofacto – “Nobody on the Subway”
• MP3 :: Ra Ra Riot – “Each Year” [Absofacto Remix]
• LISTEN :: Absofacto – “Synthesocietal”

In regards to the latest Absofacto track “Nobody on the Subway,” Jonathan Visger said:

I’ve been focusing really hard on the Mason Proper album, but I gave myself a couple days to get an Absofacto song done because I’d be really depressed if I missed a month. Normally I spend about ten to fifteen days on each one, but this time I had to go through the writing, recording, and mixing process in three.

I started recording before I had any idea what it was going to be. I just flipped out and said to myself, “Self, play that one drum beat you like!” and so I quickly set up the one microphone I had and played it. When I listened back I noticed a kind of overtone ringing coming from some undampened drum head somewhere on the kit. Rather than fix it, I just figured out what note it was and decided that would be the key of the song so that whatever else I added wouldn’t clash. Then I was sad that my drums sounded so monauralisticish because of my only having/using one mic, so I tried to play them again identically so I could make them sound stereophonical.

Then I plugged my guitar into the direct input on the microphone preamp I was recording the drums through, but the level was all wrong for the guitar because it was set up to record the drums. It was turned up way too loud and was distorting. I said to myself, “Self, you don’t have time to be turning all kinds of knobs! I guess that this is going to be your guitar sound.”

After working out some guitar parts, it was time for vocals. And I said to myself, “Self, you don’t have time to be writing all kinds of words!! Make the vocal melody sparse!!” And so I broke up a sentence into a long amount of time. “There. Goes. Someone. That nobody knows.”

I liked that a lot, so then to make a long story slightly less long I worked day and night for three days and finished the track. Most of the third day was spent in frustration just trying to get the final mix printed without any computer glitches.

Sometimes it’s really fun to make things under such a crazy deadline, even if it’s self-imposed. Otherwise I give into the side of myself that wants to labor over every little decision. You would be surprised at the little decisions I labor over.

As far as the end result… I guess I just have to say that the weather has been sunny and BEAUTIFUL, I’m in good spirits, and I think you can hear all that in the song.

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DOWNLOAD :: Absofacto – “Nobody on the Subway” – [MP3]

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-Mangtooth

Related Posts:

• LISTEN:: Absofacto – “If You Want”
• DOWNLOAD :: Absofacto – “Punch Drunk on Black Mold”
• DOWNLOAD :: Elsinore – “Happiness Is What You Want” [Absofacto REMIX]
• LISTEN :: Absofacto – “Triangle 3″
• VIDEO :: Mason Proper – “Lock and Key”

Before a couple weeks ago, I had never heard of Jon Visger, his main project Mason Proper, or his side project Absofacto. This all changed when I stumbled around the interweb and found the track “No Power” from Absofacto. I’m not quite sure what it was about the track but the mellow guitar and the shuffle of the drums really grabbed my attention and I thought I should take a stab at listening to some Mason Proper. I am quite pleased to say that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to their debut album There is a Moth in Your Chest and their latest release Olly Oxen Free. The following video is for the track “Lock and Key” off Olly Oxen Free (like that rhyming?)

Related Posts:

• DOWNLOAD :: Absofacto – “Punch Drunk on Black Mold”
• DOWNLOAD :: Elsinore – “Happiness Is What You Want” [Absofacto REMIX]
• MP3 :: Absofacto – “Nobody on the Subway”
• LISTEN:: Absofacto – “If You Want”
• ALBUM STREAM:: Absofacto – ‘Sinking Islands’