that song is about his treatment for testicular cancer, he had to cancel coming to the US in late 2015 because of it
I kinda slept on this for too long because I've been so busy but I've been listening to it a lot the past week and it's so great.
It's still incredible to me how easily these songs are opening themselves up. Not like he's necessarily obtuse but his stuff has often had to grow on me before I loved it but not so with this one
I still prefer the live Wasted On The Senate Floor over the album version but that happens a lot with his stuff so it's all g
I had that preference for a while too, and tried to figure out why. The only think I can come up with (because the versions are not radically different) is that the live version genuinely has a different energy to it, and hearing the crowd collaborate on the recording gives it a different life that is incredibly infectious
the live version of that song definitely is better. though the songs have totally taken different space for me at this point, gladly.
got my records yesterday but haven't been able to open up the package yet. i'll post some pictures of the songbook later too, and if i have extras maybe i can figure out a way to get some to people who missed out
tab book has a link on the back to see the PDF of the book and download the (as of now nonexistent) midi and stem files
I looked at the tuning for wasted on the Senate floor (mine arrived today!! Pics later, maybe??) And I was like super surprised it was in drop d but then I looked closer and realized I made a mistake. Pretty sure it's in open D (DADGAe) might be wrong tho
record came in today and it prompted me to finally give Stephen Steinbrink's album a listen (don't know why) but damn this is beautiful
i have two of the clear vinyl and wish i had at least one of the black and white swirl bc that looks dope. im not like a huge vinyl collector bc i don't have a turn table atm, but if im gonna have an album twice, then it makes sense to have different variants lol also i kinda wanna talk about the line in wasted on the senate floor: "let's see who's gay, and who gets lonely" contextually i think it's a p clever line, when previously in the song he mentioned locking the doors; it's interesting to switch the prison narrative stereotype to fit a bunch of politicians that will probably never see jail time for crimes committed, and doing so in such a deft manner. and to simultaneously point out their lack of empathy -- people in the situation they'll never be in (whether in prison or gay and out) could have easily been those politicians and vice versa. that they weren't is mostly chance, but they still punish people via imprisonment or unjust legislature just to line their pockets, not once thinking of these people as actual human beings
yay it all worked out! ask about the artwork because i forgot to ask and someone else in the thread was curious uhhhhh...let me think of things i didn't get to ask him and i'll get back to you soon