New Diefengoodness!

First off, I'd like to sincerely apologize for the sound quality of these two:

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD: Differential Speeds (raw recording) 12.19.09
(Jeff never gets my jokes)

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD: Deafening (raw recording) 12.19.09

They were recorded with a handheld cassette recorder, so the quality is dicey at best.  It should also be noted that they were recorded during the BLIZZARD OF '09. I tried to fix it in SoundForge, but now they just sound echoey. While they aren't really official 'demos' (I am working on the keyboard parts), we wanted to give you an update on what's doin' with Diefenbaker! Other than watching a lot of Due South. We could honestly be watching more Due South. Watched "Hawk and a Handsaw" last night and it has seriously been about, oh, 20 hours and I'm still laughing about the "Why am I always the fulcrum?" bit. It got stuck in my head and it won't leave me alone.

Anyway, onto the music. Jeff writes the lyrics so I have no idea what the actual meaning of 'Differential Speeds' is, so I'll let him cover that particular lyric later.  He did, however, let me into some of the mystery of the lyrics of 'Deafening'.  As much as I'd like to save it for our VH1's BEHIND THE MUSIC, it's actually really simple.  For example, the first line is "Hey, post-punk" - I have this habit, whenever dinner's done (because I am horribly domestic - although I'm terrible at cleaning) I knock on his office door - usually he's listening to music, so I make up a funny name to call him. In example, if he were listening to the The Replacements, I would say, "Hey, Paul Vest-erburg, dinner's ready." Or if he was listening to grunge, I'd say "Hey, Seattle." There have been funnier examples but I can't remember them at the moment. The chorus line "The silence on the radio is deafening" comes from a message board  after the collapse of one of Jeff's favourite radio talk shows. The rest came from listening to too much NPR, due to the lack of said radio talk show.  I've been working on lyrics myself, although I'm not terribly talented at writing lyrics.  Jeff keeps bugging me about them.  "Have you worked on those lyrics yet" "Yes, but, you see....."

He also noted that at some point we should compile some compendium of what our musical influences are.  My main influence is working with whatever small talent that I have, and going with it. Some day I'd like to play some mean Farfisa organ like Jerry Harrison, but I obviously can't right now, so my keyboarding style right now is "doing sort of a keyboard bassline with a synthy organ sound and one note at a time, which Jeff has difficulty mixing because it's neither a keyboard part or a bass part."

That said, I have compiled a list of my 10 favourite songs of all time. I have not only limited it to ten, but I have also limited it to one per band, otherwise it would look like this:

1. Roadrunner
2. Astral Plane
3. Old World
4. Pablo Picasso
5. She Cracked
6. Hospital
7. Someone I Care About
8. Girlfriend
9. Modern World
10. I'm Straight

My ACTUAL list is (it's actually in no particular order):

1. The Modern Lovers - Hospital
2. Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City
3. Wire - Mannequin (you  have no idea how many times I've been on a bus and want to go ALALALALA  LA LA LA LA LA uh uh uh  TELL MEE and physically stop myself)
4. Billy Joel - All For Leyna 
5. The Waitresses - No Guilt (I don't even know anyone in Toronto!)
6. A Certain Ratio - Du the Du (Casse) (one of the most amazing bass lines ever - and I've always thought of  A Certain Ratio as "Ian Curtis on a tropical vacation")
7. The Clash - Lost in the Supermarket (happens to me entirely too many times for comfort)
8. The Smiths - Sweet and Tender Hooligan
9. New Order - Temptation (because I think really highly of myself and like to think that you've never. met. anyone. like me before.)
10. Gang of Four - Damaged Goods (as mentioned previously, I am a sucker for a fine bassline)

That is actually a terrible list.  I've forgotten all about The Cure, Magazine, Pulp, The Psychadelic Furs or the Au Pairs or the Slits and and and..... It's like having  five million children and then having put ten in a boat to save them  from a flood. I promise I'll do better next time. The first four are certainly for real, not sure about the rest, though.

(Top 3 Cover Songs: 1. William Shatner & Joe Jackson - Common People (try it, you'll like it); 2. The Slits - I Heard it Through the Grapevine; 3. Art Brut - Catch (I usually consider The Cure covers to be sacriligious; however Eddie Argos does an amazing job,  also likes Due South, comics and the Modern Lovers, and is otherwise worthy of having the same name as my cat, so it's okay.) 

Enjoy the recordings!
xoxo

Shari