What is Sawhorse music?
(Daily Listen)
| (Saw Log) | |
| A little bit of Country City-pushing. | (4 Aug 08) |
| Raised By Robots, a new/old album. Finally "finished"! | (23 Jun 08) |
| Word Rap, by Lea. | (21 Jun 08) |
| Emily 35, the music video. | (21 Jun 08) |
| A live recording from the Spring Green General Store, 24 May 2008 | (11 Jun 08) |
| Photo of a RXR performance. | (6 Apr 08) |
| A Sawhorse sticker for someone. Someone like you. | (4 Apr 08) |
| Happy Birthday Emily, 9 April 2008 | (3 Apr 08) |
| A page for my buddy Zach Parker | (27 Mar 08) |
| The Bastard Duo, 2005 recording. | (27 Mar 08) |
| B.T.Blue & the Trained Professionals: The Buttons | (9 Mar 08) |
| A new comic! "Stuck" | (22 Feb 08) |
| Voyages On Vinlandia in the purpose-built "Other People" section. | (7 Feb 08) |
| "The Daily Listen is still happening," Tom said resolutely. | (7 Feb 08) |
| (more) |
| Listen Clickable album pictures are super. | Look |
Want to own a thing, CD, sticker, sheet music? I will send it! Email me:
 |
|
Country City Miniatures(05) Robots Unplugged - Scriabin Prelude - Mr. Stumbles Ramen Stomp - The Cop Who Ruined Christmas 
Country/CityHello Hank - High School Poetry The Hag Imprint Roll Down |
Country/City was a band destined to be named Goodbye Kitty. While thwarting Fate, we played two acoustic guitars, two trumpets, and one drum kit, with great fellowship. In a typical performance, freewheeling modernism dissolved into stalwart assaults on pop culture. I became disenchanted after being bored at a performance by Chicago instrumental band Tortoise - may have been a mistake...
This album is also available on the Zach Parker page, but it deserves a closer listen. We actually put this together in the first month of our year's existence. Trumpet man Graham Stephenson left for the Big City a week or two later, to Country-City's great misfortune. |
|
Saw HorseRaised By Robots (08) Raised By Robots Bonus Tracks: Backfield Hag by Tim Morgan AM (Etc) by Zach Parker Pennybox by Z.P. |
Raised By Robots is a radio opera, depicting a radio which slowly comes to understand that it is sentient, then realizes that, as a radio, it is trapped in a metal box, unable to use its sentience to any fruitful purpose. Roughly speaking, the piece has the form of a continuously shifting instrumental music/sound stream, which begins in pure electronic sound and moves towards acoustic instrument recordings. Then there's a song. This album was quite a long time in the making - I originally conceived it in around 1998, gradually understood a way to pull it off (more or less), and only became able to accomplish the end result in the last several years. The earliest recording here is from 2003 or 2004. The album on CD is divided up into tracks, and it was created as a series of independent pieces, but for now on the web I'm only providing the album in one piece. There are some prototypes below, though. |
Read: Daily Listen Updated 2xWeek word rap poem by Lea Brock Sticker: (print onto adhesive label)  |
Brian BrockLive at the General Store (08) Mole in the Ground 14 Tiles I've Got a Plan Waiting for the Dust to Settle Click the image to hear the rest of the show. |
Four of the songs I played at the General Store, 24 may 2008. It was actually a pretty decent show, by my standards. "Mole in the Ground" is an old timey song. "14 Tiles" is a slow, weird instrumental thing. "I've Got a Plan" is a simulated big freakout. "Waiting for the Dust to Settle" is a new song. |
NM Trash:  |
Happy Birthday Emily, 2008 |
It's my sister Emily's birthday again.* |
 |
B.T.Blue & the Trained ProfessionalsThe Buttons (08) Cucumbers Radishes Very Nice (explicit lyrics!) Grean Beens Hermes |
B.T.Blue and the Trained Professionals present 5 tracks of pure fun for vegetables, young persons, and the general public. From the relative calm of Radishes to the stomach upsetting Grean Beens, something will be sure to please everyone on your wish list. Watch out for the politically charged Cucumbers! The acerbic, acidic, and Hasidic - pick one - are sure to find food for thought here. Note that Very Nice explicitly refers to acts of reproduction without using swears, cusses, or bad words - what daring! Let Hermes hammer your shield into a relaxing plowshare as you drift away into the darkest regions of your mind. |
  about the NM Trash Pictures |
Saw HorseMarsh Marigolds (07) Why Letting Her Think Gone (click the flower for all) |
Marsh Marigolds is a songs album by Sawhorse. It's Wisconsin music, with friendship in the form of Tim playing drums - his singing also pulls "Gone" back from the brink of gloom. "Death Valley" seems popular, so you might like to look for that one, and it's very big with sandy words, but I'm consistenly happiest with the grinding confusion and clarinet breakdown of "Why". The thumb-hating clarinet is also part of the big washdown banjo hop after "Letting Her Think" gets its song out of the way. "There's One Airplane in the Sky" surfaces differently here than in the time of 14 Tiles - there's Tim's drums, but he also told me about Dietrich Gosser's interpretation of the lyrics, which of course was awesome - eventually the words suddenly changed in a way that enables bivalency, which is my favorite thing. The other 4 songs, "You're So Sure", "Sit Down", "Stay", and "Difficult Run Farm" are Tim-less. "Difficult..." is a kind of mixed-meter country thing about kids; "YSS" is a song of loyalty (look rightward for sheet music). So, listen pleasure only, and all that. |
  
Now find the secret bonus psychedelic trash picture. |
Saw Horse (other things) Ten Tun Truck (07) While Delano Was Here (07) Yelling Dog (07) |
These are prototypes from the design phase of Raised by Robots, a radio opera. Delano Quonset-huts tractors where we live. Temporary music. |
Read: -The Tree That Didn't Want to Lose Its Leaves -The Mole (scary) |
|
Slop Den (03) I Love You (03) She's So Shy (02) |
These are some old songs offered up by special request. Slop Den could be seen as the defining Saw Horse song, and it was around that time, while I was cutting tile for artist Sandra Miller in Taos, NM, that the name "Sawhorse" came to me. Check out the hot Beatles rip-offs. |
Scores: -You're So Sure -Emily (32) |
|
Emily Everything (HBE 34) (07) Two Nutses Bub (07) |
Happy Birthday, Emily - 2007 * Two Noises, Tuna Says. What do tuna say? "Bubble." The radio edit only features one of the noises. To get serious: this is an attempt to simulate radio static as heard driving around - FM. AM is way cooler, but I felt it would be better to start small. |
Bobfest Pictures:  Panorama (big) |
b brockDylan Songs and Heresies (07) Going, Going, Gone You're a Big Girl Now I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine He Wasn't Any Friend Of Mine Nobody 'Cept You When You Paint Your Masterpiece I Shall Be Released |
In May 2007 I played at Bobfest, an annual Bob Dylan birthday celebration in Spring Green, WI.
Culturally speaking, I see Dylan as a translator of early recorded folk music for those who have succumbed to the intellect.
I have probably used my classical guitar to separate the songs from their musical roots while developing the
structure inherent in the lyrics. The heretical material here, "He Wasn't Any Friend..." and
"When You Paint..." are songs I wrote while conscious of Dylan. See the cover. |
 Thumbs Up  Muy Simpatico |
Brian BrockStudy (06) Study Middle School Bus Happy Birthday Emily (32) Mouvement de Priere Religieuse, by Fernando Sor Up Through the Anthill River Song |
Study is my classical guitar album. Tim Morgan plays
Drums on my only all instrumental "Happy Birthday
Emily"* (my original vocals, here played by Tim on trumpet,
were just ridiculous). Not a Sawhorse album. Check out Lea's drawings for this album:
|
pics: D. Ainsworth |
| Minuet 1 from Cello Ste 3, by Bach | "Melodic-style" banjo playing on a perfect Bach piece. |
Other Pictures: |
Saw Horse14 Tiles (05) 14 Tiles Get Serious With Theres One Airplane In The Sky Snow Falls No I'm Playing This 14 Tiles (take 2) |
14 Tiles combines determined solo guitar playing with raucous thought-explosion and songs of outdoor scrutiny. Don't be fooled by the folky beginning of "Snow Falls", it will destroy your speakers. "There's One Airplane In The Sky" is the hit. The first Saw Horse album. |
 Barn  Raised By Robots |
 B. T. Blue & the Trained ProfessionalsRain Off (04) In the Way (with Lea B) Avocadoes Happy Birthday Emily (31) Carrots |
B. T. Blue & the Trained Professionals is me and my machines. Except my wife Lea wrote and produced the first song on Rain Off, "In the Way", which is really more of a Saw-Horse song. |
 Brian 
"Lookin for Quarters?" |
| Comics |
 He Runs Away |
 Guitar |
 Straw Dog |
 Ice Storm |
 Old Friend |
 Waterlogged |
 Stuck |
| Video |
|
 Bandidos |
Emily 35 |
|
Other People shows, recordings, unauthorized biographies. |
 Voyages On Vinlandia
|
I recorded this concert in 2005, some time ago. I dropped them a line to let them know about it, haven't heard back though. I will have to remove it/the link if they want me to. Since it was one of my favorite concerts, I thought I'd put it out there for other people who were there or weren't there. I spent forever cleaning up my old recordings. |
 Zach Parker
|
Zach Parker is a great, mysterious musician I know from Wisconsin. He lives in Chicago now. |
The Bastard DuoJan 2005 Eeh Ooh |
The Bastard Duo is what I'm calling Jeremy Evans and Tim Morgan. I recorded them on a fateful trip to Madison in January of 2005. I visited to make friendly and recordings - some of the earliest Raised By Robots recordings happened then. Tim and Jeremy were technically just practicing, but since I was there I asked to record them. We were in the "dungeon" of Nottingham Coop, a cement room the size of a very large washing machine. They made quite a spin cycle. While there, I was digging around in my pockets for something and found Jeremy's phone number, which I had taken from a bulletin board years earlier, when I lived in Madison, with the thought of making music with him. I made up these track titles, hope that's O.K. with them... The picture link goes to the MySpace page for Jeremy's current incarnation of the Bastard Trio. |
|
(Saw Log continued)
|
__________________________________________________
* Since 1998, I have written a song each year for my sister as a birthday present.
© Brian Brock