the darkness and the daylight

a small step for you a giant leap for me or the opposite of that

Sat, 10 May 2008 05:06:24 GMT

I'm excited to announce that we just sent my EP off to be pressed. It will be a limited run of 500, each will come with a full color poster. It will be available at live shows and my website ONLY. I'm excited for you to hear these tracks! I literally recorded the final song the night before pulling an all nighter with the graphic designer to make deadline. Who needs sleep when there's work to be done? Special thank you thank yous to Brian Lee aka Whiteteeth who is not only a badass visionary but an incredible sport even on limited sleep. Release show is Sunday June 1 at the Doug Fir w/ London and the Look, and Oh Darling, with a special appearance by Jerry of Spider Virus in from Nashville. It will be a special evening of guests and ghosts. More soon.

love,
mg

epiphanies and awakenings

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:40:03 GMT

I've heard a lot of really great sentences in the last year that have changed my life, two in particular in just the last few months. I was talking to a friend about a guy I liked that I had just met. I said I was terrified and freaked out about him. My friend said "Now wait a minute. LANGUAGE DICTATES REALITY. Are you really terrified and freaked out?" I had to think about it. Well, NO. I was excited and overwhelmed because I knew this guy was going to be a big deal in my life. I could feel the inner rumbles of an impending life change and I knew this new person was going to be the catalyst. Changing my language really did help me shape my real feelings thus my reality. Impressive.

Recently I was at the grocery store and bumped into an acquaintance Tim that I hadn't seen in a long time. I was shaking off some bad energy from the day and was glad to have some interaction. Tim told me about a major life change he was going through. Said he'd quit his job, moved to Vancouver, and so on. He said "NATURE HATES A VACUUM" and explained that the Universe will always help you fill it up even if you created it yourself. Last month I quit a band I was playing with and inadvertently ended a friendship that had been important to me. Even though I felt it was time for these two things to end it still felt awful. But in just a month the Universe has presented many things both personally and professionally to fill the vacuum. Impressive.
The mind is a powerful thing, but our heart's desires are even mightier.
Thank you for indulging me as I share some of my inner-hippie.
xo

What do you mean I'm not a superhero?

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:49:13 GMT

Myspace is funny, I hate it and of course I love. I just spent an hour tracking down a fantastic guitar player I saw last year at Djangofest. I'm doing a few songs at a Billie Holiday tribute so I'm rocking the jazz guitar and I wanted to see some badass shit on youtube. (If you have a chance check out Stephane Wrembel he is amazing). Anyhoo, so I spent a bunch of time looking for him online because I couldn't remember his name and I was so happy to have found him I left him a myspace comment telling him how wonderful he is, I also left Kruno a comment, another amazing player from Djangofest last year. Myspace is like that easy comfortable relationship you get stuck in that makes it impossible for you to grow emotionally. When you want some advice you throw it out to your friends and OF COURSE they all love you so they tell you exactly what you want to hear....thus you feel like every idea you have is good, you walk around radiating goodness and light because you feel like the world is made of love....for you. Everyone LOOOVES you right? Of course they do, you don't have any enemies! Thats why Tom calls them "Friends".

So, I sent a shout out via bulletin and blog about this demo EP idea. I got tons of feedback (awesome) and everyone that wrote thought it was a great idea...so I'm doing it. I was so excited about committing to do it that I sent the news out to my mailing list and put it on my website. I'm invincible, music has set me free, people love what I do, I love the attention, I feel great about life and......wait, whats this? An email to my mailing list with 'remove' in the subject?? Someone who once wanted to be in the KNOW about my life no longer cares about me???? Someone who used to like me is BREAKING UP WITH ME???? It's melodramatic, it's ridiculous, it's pointless to think about, it means nothing, but it sent me crashing back down to earth from the clouds. egads. In my head I was Seinfeld's mom, incredulously defending myself, "How could anyone not like me?"

impossible.
hehehe
mg

If I build it will they come?

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:34:00 GMT

I made a list of potential songs to record for the next MG album, 36 songs! Some of these are new songs that I've demo'ed and posted recently on myspace like Valentine, Come Around, Eyes in the Back of My Head, and You're Gonna Ruin My Life. I dig the home recording I've been doing lately but I'm also excited to really spend the time and make a real album...it's been like 3 years since the last one. I'd really like to compile these demos into something cool though, they all have a cool vibe. So I was thinking - why not do a limited edition release of all the demos I've done in the last year, make it very fan-centric and special with 10 songs in all including an unreleased version of Freshman from 2004 with Sean Flora on bass and Sam Henry on drums. Obviously some of the songs will be on the next MG album but they'll sound completely different so it will still be a completely unique release. What do you think? Seriously, I need some feedback.
mg

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:34:17 GMT

I think I've mentioned this before....I watch a LOT of tv, not just because I'm a mouth breathing vegetable but because I'm always working on my laptop or playing guitar and the tv is just always ON. (I chalk it up to the low level of consciousness I require for creativity...don't judge). Anyway, I'm especially digging Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, not just because I have addiction in my past but because I love Dr. Drew. I remember sitting around with my drinking friends namely this crazy couple I used to run around with, (we'll call them Susan and Bill...no thats boring....we'll call them Scarface and Pugsly). Every once in a while we'd do some cocaine and wax poetic, you know, philosophy, music, love and life...that sort of thing. If I mentioned anything about being an alcoholic Scarface would say "You're not an alcoholic! I drink WAY more than you do." And Pugsly would chime in, "yeah, if you were an alcoholic your life would be way more in the gutter" or something to that effect. I knew I had a problem from a very young age. I started drinking when I was 15 and I knew it was poison for me, it just took me another 12 years to get a handle on it.

So, I was watching Celebrity Rehab and Dr. Drew said this - "We define addiction not by the quantity or frequency but by the consequences."

I find this definition to be very validating, whether it's booze, drugs, sex, attention, or whatever. The consequences...
Indeed.

thats NOT a compliment

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:23:20 GMT

I was visiting with my good old friend Marc today and we were talking trash about a local singer songwriter we can't stand. I generously offered that Mr. Songster was "good at what he does" because he did have a killer band and and he did have a nice ride for a while. I think it's funny how you can undercut a compliment so easily though. "He's really good." compliment. "He's really good....at what he does." NOT a compliment. What it really means is I can't stand to listen to that shit but surely there are unsophisticated fools out there who are willing to pay good money for it, inevitably translating the sonofabitch's crap shit music into a decent living.
yes, I'm capable of seething bitchery.

VH1 Classic

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:35:18 GMT

I just got expanded cable today. So I'm sitting here watching Def Leppard videos and it occurred to me that nothing has really changed since I was 13. Check it out - I slept in way too late today (6pm hello?) I'm stressed out about missing too much school this term, watching tv, my room's a mess, I'm about to play guitar all night instead of doing homework, writing songs about the cute boy I like who doesn't like me back, waiting for my friend to come over and watch tv with me and yes we're going to gorge on chocolate and smoke cigarettes. The only missing is my mom yelling at me to do the dishes....oh yeah, except I'm 30 years old.
I'll never grow up.
sigh.

What's Liz Phair's problem?

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 08:28:09 GMT

Exile in Guyville was an amazing album for me and sooo many other people. I had a cassette tape of it and literally played it until it broke. Why is it not on iTunes? I've read that she's like embarrassed about that album and that it's not really what she's all about anymore. I don't care! Get that shit on iTunes!
wtf???

and we're back

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:07:53 GMT

I have not blogged since June? Holy crap. the most exciting thing to happen is I finally moved out of my shoebox apartment and into a space where I have a lot more room to record. I just recently upgraded my set up too so no more dumping 8 track songs into my laptop :) digital to analog to digital? No wonder there was so much noise...ah!
I've posted a few new things on myspace, most recently the Valentine Song. Now I just want to re-record everything with this new set up! No more awful drumming on the electronic kit. (I know I'm not as bad a drummer as I say I am but still....what a headache) Doing the drums with the keyboard is just so much easier.

I have tentative plans to record a song with Rob Daiker next month, he recorded his own version of my song It's Only You. Check it out on his myspace if you have a chance. He's a great producer so I'm excited to see what we come up with.

Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day.

New Rock of Love 2 tomorrow night! ah, I am such a dork for this show!!
xoxoxo
morgan

I Did It! and more to come soon

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 08:33:35 GMT

I finally figured out how to dump songs from my 8 track to my laptop. I just needed an adapter. Okay, the rest is boring.

Here's a song I did last month called Eyes in the Back Of My Head. I debuted this song this weekend at Dante's when Sam Henry and I opened for Storm Large. The show was pretty fun, Storm is always a class act. It was also my debut with Kleveland on guitar.

Anyhoo, this song is just a rough 8 track demo. Sam and I should start getting to work on the upcoming album sometime next month. I just gotta make some dough first.

enjoy!

m

this is just the beginning....

Mon, 21 May 2007 10:18:38 GMT

I read this great article in the New York Times that profiled a bunch of successful independent musicians. A guy was posting one song a week on his blog that he would record in his home studio. A lot of the results were silly but sometimes he would strike gold with a bonafide hit. His listenership was in the thousands. A song a week from a home studio? I thought. Hey, I can do that! When I was a teenageer I used to four-track all the time. maybe one day I'll convert all of my old cassette tapes to digital and post some of those long forgotten gems but until then....I'm going to make this my goal - one song every week. There are some bugs I have to work out with my home studio though, like for one, the microphone I won in the contest doesn't work! I have to send it back to Audix and get a new one. I'm borrowing a nice condenser mic from my pal Sean Flora though so I'm still in business. I also need to find a way to dump song mixes from my 8 track recorder into my laptop. Should be easy enough but my 8 track is kind of OLD. anyhoo, just a preview of things to come. With all the drama and shit-storms the universe has thrown me these last few months I'm excited to have a new project.
stay tuned.....
love,
Morgan

welcome to my blog

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:16:18 GMT

I must be the last person in the world to get a blog. I use my website to keep folks updated with music stuff but I figured this one could be a little more uh, personal...or detailed rather....cuz I have stuff to SAY (!).

I just returned from a weekend in New York where I was visiting my new pal Fred Armisen from Saturday Night Live. I'll write more about that later though....

this is just a quick hello entry.

hello!

over and out,
mg