Finalizing the tracklist on disc 1

Download "I Don't Think It's Right" (FUSTERCLUCK!!! Outtake) -- free mp3

I haven't been very good at updating this blog. Maybe I will add more things as the release of the album approaches, discussing topics that theoretically I should have talked about before.

Today was pretty exciting because we finished up the last bit of work -- and I just finalized the tracklist -- for disc 1 of the album. Now, there is just some scattered work on some of the songs on disc 2.

A few weeks ago, Major Matt and the whole band went into this studio in Brooklyn and knocked out 6 of the songs live, including some full-band recordings of some of the old lo-fi solo tracks like "Run-DMC", "Turn Out Right" (which now has a killer punk rock sound), "Hot As I Are" (which has morphed into a ska song), and "Let's Fuck" (which has now turned into the bar-band blues number it always threated to become).

This is noteworthy, because usually the band never plays any of our studio tracks live; we record each instrument separately. But I figured all of these tracks would benefit from just ripping right through them without much fuss, especially since most of them are remakes I wanted to capture to better reflect how they sound when we play them live these days.

Today, I brought my roommate (and Elastic No-No Band's labelmate) Joe Crow Ryan in to the studio to put some vocal harmonies on "Run-DMC," since he had done it recently at a live show of ours -- and since then I can add his name to the lengthy list of collaborators and guest stars on the album. Now, I'm not just trying to feed off of Joe's immense starpower here; all of the collaborations on this disc are borne out of a desire to create a kind of scrapbook of the artists and friends I've been lucky enough to know and play music with. And I don't think the album would have been the same without Joe.

Anyhow, after Joe left, Major Matt mixed the track, and I plopped it onto my iPod, where I proceeded to try to arrange the songs I had earmarked for disc 1. In the process, two songs bit the dust: a country waltz called "Exception to the Rule" (you can hear me do a live solo version of it at this link right here) and a solo ballad called "I Don't Think It's Right" (you can download it at the link at the top of this entry). I'm thinking of doing a collection of love songs as one of ENB's upcoming projects (maybe our next album??), and I figured that these two songs might be better suited to that... or maybe the second volume of No-No's?

Without further ado, here is the tracklist for disc 1 of Elastic No-No Band's upcoming album, Fustercluck!!!

1. Good Evening, Anybody/(Theme From) Elastic No-No Band
2. (The Shame About) Manboobs (you can download this track from the blog entry just below this one)
3. Imaginary Girlfriend
4. It's Different For Girls (Joe Jackson cover, feat. Nan Turner)
5. Poor Jenny (Everly Brothers cover, feat. Toby Goodshank)
6. Daddy's Song (Harry Nilsson cover, feat. Liv Carrow)
7. Zaftig
8. I Bought Me a Cat (feat. Debe Dalton)
9. The Color Machine (feat. Brook Pridemore)
10. Mouth
11. Hangover Dial
12. Hey 2-Eyes (feat. Dave End)
13. There's A Hole In The Bucket (feat. Debe Dalton)
14. (Re-) Run-DMC (feat. Joe Crow Ryan)
15. Goodnight Irene (Lead Belly cover)
16. Let's Fuck (Differently)
17. No F Words
18. The Congregation (feat. Thomas Patrick Maguire)
19. Abilene, Abilene
20. Don't Neglect Your Hands, Students
21. Red (Mellow, Shouty Version, feat. Chris Andersen of The Christian Pirate Puppets)
22. And Then There's Me
23. Go Away (Goodbye Southern Death Swing) (Major Matt Mason USA cover)
24. The End of Disc 1 As We Know It