GO TEAM: Monitor and the Merrimac

MP3: Montior and the Merrimac - Lonesome House Blues

NOTE: Today's GO TEAM contribution comes from one of my favourite Connecticut artists: David Grazynski, who performs as Monitor and the Merrimac. He released "Grandma's Old Couch" at the end of last year and has been a consistent staple in my listening habits from then and well into this year. The record features contributions the CT all stars including members of Mates of State, Quiet Life and TITLES and is all hits, no misses.

David has been kind enough to give us some background on one of my favourite songs from the album, "Lonesome House Blues". Fuck yeah!

I have to preface my explanation of this song by telling you that I purchased a town home in the summer of 06 that I live in by myself... It has a pool and a nice back porch and I made the entire record down there. Ok... here goes...

I wrote this song sometime during the summer of 07 when I was feverishly writing and recording during some downtime at work. It started, as do most (if not all of my songs) with a line "I sing the big lonesome empty house blues" and the verse that begins "go tell your father..."I remember going to the pool and sitting there for a while right before a late afternoon heatwave storm rolled in and I just started jotting down lines for verses that could end with "I sing the big..." It was around this time, and it should be noted, that my girlfriend took an internship with Howard Stern in the city. Now living in the north end of Bridgeport isn't exactly "Country livin", but I just don't like the hustle and bustle of the city all the time, for me it all depends on my mood, sometimes I love it, sometimes it gets me down. So that's kinda what started those lines (about the city), as my friends all migrate towards New York I am still here and very content at being here...

The breakdown and the last verse were all written much later, the original lines were really just placeholders. those are very true to the situation that was happening with the recording of Grandma's Old Couch. I would be stealing time in the afternoons in the basement pounding on drums trying to learn how to play the drums, all hoping that my neighbors wouldn't get pissed off. I recorded everything in my basement except for the instruments at the end and the foot stomps and hand claps in the breakdown... Those were done at my friend Jason's house. We were stomping on an old suitcase and he played the piano and concertina at the end. I am happy with the way the recording sounds... I wanted it to sound like we could be on my back porch... I am trying to get that same sound and feeling throughout the rest of the record too... like.. you could hear these songs in a bar or you can hear them played by a bunch of friends on a porch. All in all the song is just about a dude living alone in a house. Being bored, doing far too much sitting on the porch and bbqing. Banjos and shuffle beats and foot stomps and hand claps and harmonica and hollering.

{purchase "grandma's old couch from monitor and the merrimac}