When We Paint Our Masterpiece

Please enjoy "Getting Back Into My Life." The lead-off track from the forthcoming Floor Models album, written by power pop legend Marc Jonson, who also contributes the stunning background vocals. That's some asshole whose name rhymes with Sleeve Nimels on bass and sampled strings, BTW.

Marc says he wrote the song for us, which is quite a compliment; we used to play it live back in the day, and it was an unbelievable thrill to finally record it this year, especially given how unexpectedly gorgeous it turned out. In any event -- thanks, pal.

As for the album, we're in the process of recording one more tune -- one of our own originals -- and we hope to have the album ready for release by the end of the year, although these things always take longer than you plan. I'll keep you posted.

[cross-posted from PowerPop]

September Updates

My beautiful and brilliant art-director girlfriend has really outdone herself with the cover of our forthcoming album.

And she's working cheap, I'll tell you that for free.

In the meantime, here's a recently completed track from the CD. This was one of the last things our late great 12-string genius Andy Pasternack wrote for the band, although I hadn't heard it until last year.



I should add that we're hoping the album will be ready for release by December, but as you know, these things always take longer than you expect.

I should also add that the Weasels CD project...

...is moving right along as well. More on that as it develops.

Words Fail Me

Fabulous singer/songwriter Jenn Bostic, out of the great goodness of her heart, does a killer cover of The Floor Models' "Excuses Excuses."



I had no idea this was in the works, and when I first heard it last week I will confess I was reduced to a puddle of tears. I only wish my late great bandmate Andy Pasternack (who wrote it) had lived to hear Jenn's version, but I think he's smiling about it in heaven. And thank you for doing it, Jenn, from the bottom of my rapidly aging rock-and-roll heart.

BTW, there's a backstory to all this, involving longtime reader/friend of PowerPop Phil Cheese and my abject failure to write about Jenn's CD Faithful...

...after he kindly sent an autographed copy of it to me a while back. But let's not get into my myriad moral failings.

In any case, here's a track from said CD, and if it doesn't make you grin from ear to ear, consult your physician.



You can (and should) buy Faithful over at Amazon HERE. Jenn's new album, which comes out in May, can (and should) be pre-ordered, also from Amazon, OVER HERE.

And may I say once more -- thank you, Jenn.

[cross-posted at PowerPop]

For Andy -- With Love and Squalor

[cross-posted from PowerPop]

So, as you may also recall, late last year the surviving members of the Floor Models went into the studio to recreate a song of Andy's that we all loved, and which we used to perform live for ages, but for some reason had never demoed. You can read the whole saga, and listen to the finished song, over HERE, but the shorter version is that it turned out so well that we planned to include it on a forthcoming EP of previously unreleased studio material in Andy's honor.

In any case, a few weeks after we finished the track Gerry let it drop casually that there was actually an Andy song that I had never suspected existed. One that was the last thing he wrote as a member of the band (and probably one of the last things he wrote ever) and that the band had never worked it up back in the day (I was no longer a member then, in case you're wondering).

Naturally, I found this (shall we say) intriguing, and Gerry graciously agreed to record an acoustic guitar and vocals version of it for my perusal.

When I listened to it a few weeks later I was totally gobsmacked. In fact, I thought it was one of the most heartbreakingly sad and beautiful songs I had ever heard; fortunately, Glen "Bob" Allen, our ace drummer and my musical director for the last fifty years, concurred.

And so back into the studio we went.

And now, please enjoy the world public premiere of Andy's utterly gorgeous "Sarah McLeod."



That's essentially 95 percent finished, if truth be told; we'll probably have Gerry re-record his lead vocal for clarity, but damn, if that doesn't sound wonderful even at this point.

I should add that the background vocals and rhythm guitar are by special guest Flo Mo Joe Benoit, who showed up at the studio and nailed all his parts in about a half hour. The fabulous Telecaster licks and the Andy-esque 12-string, of course, are by our long-time regular guitar hero J.D. Goldberg (of Hi-Beams CD fame).

If truth be told, I'm finding it difficult to believe we did anything quite this lovely, actually. But I think Andy would have approved. And it now looks like the planned EP is going to turn into a genuine album, one that with luck will be ready for public consumption some time before the end of the year.