Author: Ben

OK, I’m flipping out. We put in an offer on a house and it was accepted!

We’ll be living in, believe it or not, Eldersburg Maryland. We had been looking into Howard County or Baltimore County, but they were simply out of our price range. So we’re buying a cute little 3-bedroom split-level right down the road from my mother’s house (free babysitting!), and we’ll be poor for the next few years as every ounce of money we make will be channelled into the house. *whew*

We close December 8th – think happy thoughts for us!

Kander & Ebb once said, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere – it’s up to you, New York, New York.”

Well, I couldn’t make it there, so screw it, I’m going home. 🙂

On June 30th, Dani, Joey, and I will be moving back to Maryland. Dani’s been out of work for 3 months now (laid off), and her severance package is running out, and we decided to be proactive rather than wait until we start digging into savings.

We’ll be staying with my mother for a little while, in order to live rent-free and put a little money in the bank, and then we’ll start looking for a house, probably in the Howard County/Columbia area. I’m try to transfer to the DC office of my firm (luckily there’s a position available), and Dani’s got an interview today in Bethesda. With any luck, I’ll be able to get into Georgetown Law.

I feel like this is a really good decision for us. Since I stopped pursuing opera as a career, we’re in a position where we’re no longer tied to the New York area like we used to be. We’ve got more and better quality options for day care for Joey, and our money will go much farther towards a home down there. Plus, having a whole set of free babysitters nearby won’t hurt.

We’re looking forward to getting to know Maryland all over again, as adults. It’s been six years, and we’re ready. NYC, for all its excitement, can be a tiring, dirty city, and we’re looking forward to getting a break.

So, you’ll all know where to find me when it comes time for the Wayward Sun Reunion Tour. More details when they become available.

Boy, are you guys in for a treat. Over the weekend I was digging through some old cassettes and found a treasure trove of old Wayward Sun material – stuff I didn’t even know I had. This is all material from the early days of WS – I think they’re all from early 1991, but perhaps Matt and Sam can help with some of the details. Enjoy!

(Note: I apologize for the quality of some of these recordings. They’re cassette copies of my dad’s old videotapes — you can hear Sam’s mom clapping, my dad talking, and other things which distract from the sound of the band. Ah well.)

ROCK BASH — Yes, that’s right, I found a recording of the Montgomery County Rock Bash. A packed house, screaming fans, etc. If memory serves, this concert was in March or April of 1991.

• Wayward Sun – The theme song never sounded better. I remember that Kevin had borrowed somebody’s drumset with a double bass drum – his solo sounded totally phat. (mp3, streaming)
• For What It’s Worth – One of our most popular covers in the early years. Humorously enough, we never bothered to figure out all the words of the Buffalo Springfield original – most of this is stuff Sam made up. Listen for Jen Wolfe screaming, “Matt, I have hot pants for you!” (mp3, streaming)
• You Know This Guy, He’s Always There – Also known as “The Sky Is Always There”. Good harmonies. Nobody writes good ballads anymore. (mp3, streaming)
• Madness – I still like this song after all these years. So much fun to play live. And this recording is funny because of Sam & Matt’s failed attempt at the “The union boys are coming to close us down” line from Steven Banks, which wouldn’t have been funny anyway since we were the only people who got the joke. (mp3, streaming)

Stream the entire Rock Bash!

Liberty High School Concert – I’d forgotten we did this concert until I found this tape. This is a concert we did at my high school about a month after the Rock Bash, the week that TAFTFT came out. It was a benefit for something or other, I think, and it was basically a disaster. No one but a group of about 10 fans (which was mostly family) had a positive reaction – most of the audience was rude and obnoxious, waiting for Stranger Than Fiction, the headliners, to play.

• Wrong Words – Kevin had broken a finger, so he had his hand taped up and couldn’t play the piano, so therefore this is the only time we played Wrong Words with drums. Notice that start the second verse with the wrong keyboard sound. Ah well. (mp3, streaming)
• Pressure – No wonder they didn’t like us – it was 1991, the golden age of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and we were playing a Billy Joel cover from 1983. 😉 Additionally, it was way too low for me to sing! Oh well, it still sounded good. (mp3, streaming)
• Compulsive Fire – An early look into a WS classic. This is apparently before we wrote the bridge and the third verse. Sounds pretty good actually. (mp3, streaming)
• Just A Moment Away From You – I had completely forgotten that we’d EVER played this song live. And you know, it doesn’t sound half bad. Featuring Tim Miller on French Horn, who, oddly enough, was found dead in his apartment at the age of 24 – no idea what happened. Note: There’s about 3 seconds of empty space in the middle of the track, when the tape flipped over. (mp3, streaming)
• All Over Again – Another early look into a WS classic. Bears very little resemblance to the track that eventually made it onto The Right of Way. I think it sounds a lot better with Sam singing lead than with me. On backup vocals were Dani (my then-girlfriend, now-wife) and my sister Katy, although Katy’s mic was turned off, so you can’t hear her. (mp3, streaming)
• On My Way – Still sounds good after all these years. And now, my attempt at the “The union boys are coming to close us down” line – still not funny. This is before we were using a bass regularly, so I would take the mic and work the crowd (oy). Hey Matt, what’s a headrun? (mp3, streaming)

Stream the entire Liberty High Concert!

Basement Band – Two tracks from a “practice” concert we did in the basement of my house in February 1991.

• Pushing Us Down – A basically improvised live version that starts out strong and almost completely unravels by the end. A good illustration of why we never performed this song live. (mp3, streaming)
• Sad Anger – This song came up on one of the other Wayward Sun threads. I’d completely forgotten it even existed, and here I find a live version of it! (mp3, streaming)

Stream both tracks

It occurs to me that the four of us were between the ages of 15 and 17 at the time. Can you believe we were ever that young?

The Magnanimous Matthew B was kind enough to donate some valuable barnson.org bandwidth so that I could put up some of the later Wayward Sun tracks for public consumption. Enjoy!

No Further Questions
(CD, recorded January 1995, Studio 508, Baltimore MD)

• Destination: Nowhere (Sam/Ben) – This song was a chance for Sam & I to rail against the expectations of our parents and society and everyone who thought we should “make something” of ourselves. And a chance to rock out in the process. (mp3, streaming)
• Afterlife (Ben/Katy) – Originally from The Right of Way, this was a song I wrote in high school (my sister Katy wrote the second verse). I really don’t have a clue what it means, but it’s still one of my favorites. I much prefer the CD recording of this one to the original – the real piano adds so much depth. (mp3, streaming)
• Waterfall (Ben) – Rock epic! In my further attempts to break the 8-minute barrier, this tune reaches incredibly self-indulgent lengths, but still turns out well, mainly due to the services of the Horns of Terror. (mp3, streaming)
• Chica’s Rag (I’ll Put My Love In You) (Sam/Ben/Matt/Kevin) – As Matt mentioned in his liner notes to The Right of Way, this tune was the result of a late night jam session in my parents’ basement. I’ve never been happy with the CD version – I always thought that Kevin went overboard on the auxiliary percussion, and I don’t think the final mix is especially good. Your results may vary. (mp3, streaming)
• All Over Again (Matt) – One of my favorite Matt tunes. We really could’ve brought about the resurgence of the power ballad with this one. Magical moment: that perfect bit of feedback on the guitar in the beginning of the second verse was a complete accident. Somehow it’s perfectly in key. (mp3, streaming)
• One Man (The Road to Forever) (Matt) – Another Barnson classic. I know I couldn’t do it justice, but I loved being able to record this song again. I play the piano and the guitar on this one, but not being as talented a tapper as Matt, Sam had to sit next to me during the recording session and dampen all the other strings while I was recording the track. (mp3, streaming)
• Breathless (Sam) – A Sammy G gem. The recording of this track is so tight, Sam’s vocals so warm – if this song doesn’t get you laid, there’s something wrong with you. (mp3, streaming)
• The Big Picture (Ben) – Me being deep. There’s a number of things I would change about this track if I had the chance to do it over (mostly having to do with the awkward ending), but overall I’m pretty pleased how it turned out. (mp3, streaming)
• Bad In Practice (Sam) – This song began life as “Sixth Sense”, a song that some our fans thought was crude even by our standards. Sammy went back and re-worked the lyrics, and the song morphed from a diatribe about fat chicks and transsexuals to a diatribe about consumer culture and the dumbing down of modern America. (mp3, streaming)

Stream the entire album!

Unreleased
(A fancy way of saying that these are tracks we recorded in Ed’s basement in the fall of 1995)

• Goes Around Comes Around (Sam/Ed) – Never ones to take criticism well, this song is an outright attack against a music reviewer for the UMBC Retriever who described one of our songs as “the kind of lyrics used to seduce 13-year-old girls.” The result is a really fun song, and the most difficult rhythm guitar work I ever had to do. (mp3, streaming)
• Hamlet In My Mind (Ben) – Perhaps the best song I ever wrote, at least if you ask my family. I wrote this during my junior year of college, when I was already starting to get tired of all the crap that comes with college. For some reason, my dad thinks it’s about suicide. (mp3, streaming)
• Jane (Ben/Sam) – Ah Jane. Dani’s college roommate, 6 feet tall, gorgeous, English. She came to us one day and said that all of the songs called Jane (Foreigner, Jane’s Addiction, etc.) sucked, and that we should write a song for her. So we did. I banged out the music (complete with the idiotic semi-classical instrumental break), and Sam and I wrote the lyrics. On a side note, Jane is getting married this summer and is thinking about opening a boutique. (mp3, streaming)
• Order of the First Verse (Sam/Ed/Ben) – Wayward Sun’s attempt at Art Rock. I think Sam and I were listening to too much Kansas at the time, and the result was this amalgamation of time signatures and nonsense lyrics. Unfortunately, this recording was the first time we played it, so it’s a little rocky. I’ll have to see if I can dig around for a good live recording. The title, by the way, comes from the fact that Sam and I wrote a series of completely unrelated verses, and we decided that it was completely arbitrary which verse should go first, and which order the subsequent verses should go in – hence “order of the first verse”. (mp3, streaming)
• Shadows on the Wall (Ben/Katy) – At Matt’s request, here’s a recording of this song. My sister helped me with some of the verses, which explains the paranoic, stalker quality of the lyrics (she’s especially good at those). When it comes down to it, this song just plain doesn’t work — the original recording (which I’ve lost) had this weird break in the middle, which we tried to cut in this recording, and the result just sounds awkward. It has its moments tho. (mp3, streaming)
• Leave the Past Behind (Ben/Katy) – Originally on Don’t Try This At Home, this song turned out to work really well live, although we only got to perform it a few times. The outro is totally worth it. Don’t ask me what it’s about, because I don’t know. (mp3, streaming)
• Compulsive Fire (Sam/Ben) – Two recordings for the price of one! We pulled this Right of Way track out of the stacks for one more go-around, and found that it held up pretty well! First is a recording done the same time as all the rest (mp3, streaming), and the second is a later recording we did using an electronic drumset that Kevin had borrowed from a music store at which he was employed at the time – very cool. (mp3, streaming)
• Worlds Collide (Sam/Ben) – The last Sam/Ben collaboration. I remember writing this song in Sam’s Virginia apartment – he’d been working on some lyrics and I’d been working on a chord progression, and we just shoved them together. I’ve always been fond of this song, and although it’s not the best recording (the electronic drums don’t sound as cool on this one as they did on Compulsive Fire), it’s still a good indicator of what a good song this is. (mp3, streaming)

Stream all the Unreleased tracks!

Live at the End of the Edge
(Live concert as part of UMBC’s “End of the Edge” concert series, recorded April 30, 1996)

• Come and Get It (Sam/Ben) – This is the song with “the type of lyrics used to seduce 13-year-old girls”, and doggone if it didn’t work! I mean, uh… Anyway, I think it’s a pretty mature look into the power struggles of sexual relationships, but that’s just me. (Note: Due to stupidity on my part, there’s about 16 seconds of empty space before the song actually starts.) (mp3, streaming)
• Back to Basics (Sam) – Written in the summer of 1994, this tune was written by Sammy for his then-girlfriend Noel, who at the time was on a choir tour of Europe (with me). A straightforward pop song, this tune was always a big crowd pleaser. (mp3, streaming)
• Dirty Shoe Funk (Sam/Ben/Ed) – No self-respecting band can consider its repertoire complete without a booty-kicking funk instrumental! Based on a funky bass riff by Sam, this tune grew into one of our most popular offerings. A nice touch in this recording was that I got to play on a vintage Hammond organ. (mp3, streaming)
• Seasons Change (Ben) – This is the last pop tune I wrote. It’s a wistful piece about how change is eternal, and yet everything comes full circle in the end (a point well illustrated by the fact that 15 years later, we’re all chatting). (mp3, streaming)
• Famous Band/A Day That Ends In Y (Sam) – These remain two of my favorite WS tracks. Famous Band is a semi-comical look at our own dreams, while A Day That Ends In Y is about the mundanity and boredom that ultimately creep into any serious relationship. Pay close attention to my awesome bass-guitar work. 😉 (mp3, streaming)
• Spoken Echoes (Sam/Katy) – Sam took an old poem of my sister’s and created this atmospheric tune. It’s anyone’s guess what it’s about. I remember Kevin throwing a fit when we suggested using a drum machine for the beginning of this tune. Temper! (mp3, streaming)
• Hoped to Be (Sam/Ben) – A collaboration from Don’t Try This At Home, it was nice to get to do this live – I think it’s the only time we ever did. I remember cowriting the lyrics with Sam at my mother’s house, trying to fit words around the complicated internal rhyme scheme we’d worked out. Again, Sammy on piano, me on the bass. (mp3, streaming)
• I Will Wait For You (Kevin) – A WS switcheroo! Kevin on acoustic guitar and lead vocals, me on the bass, Sammy on drums. This was a happy little tune about whoever Kevin happened to be dating at the time. (Note: Due to the recording engineers running out of tape, this song fades out about halfway through.) (mp3, streaming)

Stream the entire concert!

Slow day at work today, so I thought I’d talk a little about my current circumstances, if anyone is interested. And even if you’re not. So there.

I came to the conclusion about 6 months ago that the music industry really sucks. Not necessarily every part of the music industry, but definitely the parts that center around being a performer, and more specifically, the opera industry.

After 6 years of pursuing a career as a professional opera singer, and doing fairly well when compared to the legions of other NYC wannabe opera singers, I’ve decided to call it quits. I’m tired of going to auditions and being rejected over and over. I’m tired of having to kiss the behinds of complete jerks just to get the few jobs that are out there. And I’m tired of being poor. This starving artist stuff is for the birds. 🙂

Basically, I came to the conclusion that I was no longer interested in a career where, if I were lucky enough to be the 1% of 1% who actually go on to viable, successful singing careers, I’d be away from my family 6 months out of the year. That dream no longer hold the allure that it held for me when I was 22.

So, it’s time for a huge life change – woohoo! I’m currently preparing to apply to law school. Yes, quite a change, huh? I’m studying for the LSAT, reading up on school, etc. So we’ll see what happens. At least I’ll be able to use my brain again.

So, there we are.

A few pictures of the boy for your perusal.

Laughing Boy Yo quiero Taco Bell! Look who’s walking! (sort of) Kid’s got big feet!

Holy crap… when did we all get so old?