Welcome to the fourth edition of #MattyMonday, the streaming debuts of songs from my new album “Meta Dada”. Get caught up on previous releases: 

Episode 1: Tracks 1 & 2: “Satan Gave Me Sunglasses” and “Media Casualty” 

Episode 2: Tracks 3 & 4: “In Our Coldest Time and “Mild” 

Episode 3: Tracks 5 & 6: “I Need Another Vice” and “Sunburn” 

As always, the best way to experience the album is on vinyl; records are available at Rock N’ Roll Land and Green Bay UFO Museum in GB, at Eroding Winds in Appleton, and online via my Bandcamp page. But hey, in this cultural economy? I’m glad you’re checking out the songs in any method. 

If you haven’t heard the songs before, I recommend listening to them first before reading all the context and lyrics. For those who have heard the music, I hope these posts add magnificence to your “Meta Dada” experience! 

Boldly barreling into Side B this week with two more compositions, starting with perhaps the most *striking* moment of the record. 

Track 7: “Ode to Jove” 

Listen to “Ode to Jove” on Bandcamp

Listen to “Ode to Jove” on Spotify

The players 

Drums, Percussion: Ryley Crowe 

Keys: Alex Drossart 

Sounds: Anders Day, Batman Day, Roosty-Roosty (RIP) 

Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, Harmonica: Matty Day 

The session 

Ryley figures into Side B of the album in a big way, and it kinda cracks me up how this is his first moment on the album, kicking off with “the cowbell shot that sounded like somebody kicked open the door to your mind.” I bought that ridiculous piece of percussion for when Muddy Udders recorded “Kim Lee (Jewel of de Jungle)”; this is seriously only the second time it’s been of any use—but what use! 

Alex really made this sound super Dylan-esque, not just with his spot-on piano part but with suggesting what I did on bass. Not that there’s a ton to explicate on this one, but I talked about it on my Into The Music interview (about 30 minutes in) among a whole lot more. 

Sam is ultimately the real star on this one, though, for taking it riotously over the top. I knew we needed the lightning strike sound, and I recorded my dog Batman howling, my then-two-year-old son crying, and as a nod to Hamlet my then-living rooster crowing, which I recorded just before I cut his head off (he’d started viciously attacking my kids; might have to write a blog on that). I hated that bird, almost as much as I hated killing him; in the cosmic scheme he’s been immortalized on this track, so call it a wash. 

I had to step out of the studio at some point when Sam was whipping up this sonic masterpiece, and when I came back he and Alex were giddy with the results. They’d opted to lower the pitch and distort the crying to make it sound trippier and actually less disturbing. The other sounds—the twinkling bells, storm sounds, and volcano—were their inspired choices. 

I want to say that was the only song we worked on that night. Tough one to follow! 

Uh, Matty, what’s the deal here  

Again, I tried to explain the inexplicable on Into The Music. But what developed a nickname of “Bob Dylan Dies and Goes to Hell” started out not quite as mischievous. Years earlier I’d come up with the lyrics out of some annoyance at generic Americana music, but we got to joking in the studio and it very quickly turned into Dylan parody. In whatever sense taste can be considered, believe it or not we did use some restraint, opting for the muffled sounds versus the poor vocalist yelling utterances like “Infidels!” 

Tough to call anything audacious these days, but let’s just say I was overjoyed that one friend of mine in particular—who happens to work for a certain celebrity who happens to have created music which coincidentally resembles that which we’ve made here—was not offended by this piece. 

The title is of course a Greco-Roman-centric play on Beethoven’s work. Give the gods their due. 

Lyrics 

Well 

You know lightning is a bit like luck 

I’m walkin’ in the rain tryin’ to get str— 

Track 8: “Untrue & Not Enough” 

Listen to “Untrue & Not Enough” on Bandcamp

Listen to “Untrue & Not Enough” on Spotify

The players 

Drums, Percussion: Ryley Crowe 

Slide Guitar: Bill Grasley 

Back-Up Vocals, Arpeggios: Sam Farrell 

Keys, Harmonies: Alex Drossart 

Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Cigar Box Guitar: Matty Day 

The session 

First we set up Ryley to try and get the right drum groove for the verses—less a repeated part than a general vibe, somewhere between The Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” and Aerosmith’s “Jaded”. Here’s a snippet from that session. 

I knew Sam could nail the harmony on the choruses. He and Alex did the response lines (i.e. “it’s not the saaame”) during the verses. Sam also came up with the arpeggiated guitar part to add jangle to the choruses, and Alex added organ super tastefully. 

You can see in the credits I added cigar box guitar. This was a gift from my late friend CJ Edwards. He had just gotten into building them, and he gave one to all three of us in Muddy Udders—on the condition that we play them on an album. That never happened with MU; the best I’d done was including the guitar in the stack of instruments on the back of The Priggs’ CD.

You’re supposed to play those with a slide, but I wanted to use the sitar-type sound it made when strummed open, so we just tuned it to the right key and added some effects. 

For the actual slide part, that’s all Wild Bill. These sessions were never about shoehorning people in just for the sake of having them on the record. That being said, I loved getting to finally be on a song with Bill. We’ve been buds for quite a while and have certainly jammed live, but never on a recording. I knew I wanted him to play the slide lick during the verses, but it seemed kinda silly to not have him do much else. I want to say that gave me the idea to add a bridge, which was the right move, and I absolutely love Bill’s work on that part.  

For the solo, I tried in futility a number of times to make it up on the spot, but ultimately had to put some time into it at home, using the Justin Hawkins technique of writing a solo just beyond one’s capabilities. Since “Sunburn” is an instrumental, this is arguably the first guitar solo on the album. 

For the lead riff, I’ve got a wah-wah pedal on but stationarily, for a bit of, ya know, edge. I’m told this was the first time a wah-wah had been used in The Refuge. A true honor! 

Uh, Matty, what’s the deal here 

I showed a sketch of this song to Alex after The Priggs’ album, thinking it’d go toward perhaps our second album. The verses were inspired by trying to do an impression of the type of stuff Kevin Barnes was doing for of Montreal, where an unusual chord progression is tied together with a catchy vocal line. 

Wish I had more insights than that, but like Rob correctly nailed, we were going for a Raspberries type of sound. It’s funny how aiming for something rather retro lands you somewhere less so; this tune sounds very ‘90s in a way I also appreciate, like Gin Blossoms or even “Tiny Music”-era STP. 

In some ways this song and the next two are the three song-iest songs of the album. Surely anyone who’s made it through the previous seven tracks has earned that! The earlier Shakespeare reference in “Mild”—the line “will we ever get past the prologue?”—feels like it’s finally resolved. Whatever arc there is to this album, it seems like, after a pair of lyrically scant tunes, it’s just now ready to assert itself following this power-pop kiss-off. 

Lyrics 

Darlin’ if you’ve been untrue 

Then I will have to set you free 

It’s gonna be so hard on you 

You’ll wonder 

How you blew your shot with me 

And how forgiving I can be 

Since the day you winced away 

I have been so happy 

Now I’ve seen what lies beneath 

Your sweet velvet wrapping 

(It’s not the same) 

Such a cryin’ crime to consent 

To self-kidnapping 

Couldn’t tell if the spells we’re under 

Were overlapping 

(It’s such a shame) 

Darlin’ if you’ve been untrue 

Then I will have to set you free 

It’s gonna be so hard on you 

You’ll wonder 

How you blew your shot with me 

And how forgiving I can be 

Is not enough 

It’s not enough for you to miss what we had 

That’s not what love should be 

(It’s a luxury!) 

I spent so long singin’ swan songs 

You nearly made me make a martyr out of me 

I’m settin’ you free! 

(You’ll wonder) 

Trusted you to heal me through 

Some pseudo-Tikkun Olam 

I handed you my heart and soul 

You just freaked n’ stole ‘em 

(Got to reclaim!) 

Darlin’ if you’ve been untrue 

Then I will have to set you free 

It’s gonna be so hard on you 

You’ll wonder 

How you blew your shot with me 

And how forgiving I can be 

Is not enough 

To take you back—NO 

The video

Ridley Tankersley did excellent work Hang Ten’s video for our song “Don’t Get Me Started”, so heck yeah I was wanting to work with him again. He had this great idea of getting us a soundstage from one of the buildings at Lawrence University, where he’s an alumnus, and Sam’s girlfriend works, so they figured it out. Admittedly I didn’t quite know what a soundstage meant, but it was perfect! I mean, we couldn’t drink there, but other than that.

I had the basic idea of doing a “band” video based on the context of the “Meta Dada” Soirees; with everything having been so abstract and dashing expectations for actual live music, I thought it’d be a cool, sort of grounding moment to have a representation of a band in the mix. Goes without saying I love n’ adore these dudes, so the chance to act like we were a band was a blast.

Couple other notes: 1. Sam had the idea for the giant pick, which I loved as a nod to my using a pick to play bass on this one, which I hadn’t done since “Stinky Hole Epidemic” for the first Muddy Udders album. 2. Alex is briefly seen playing the cigar box guitar in the video, too. Miss you, CJ.

I hadn’t given Ridley any direction beyond “you know, like a band video,” and I felt pretty bad about it, so I started to write what were some general suggestions but got super carried away, and ultimately gave him this huge document of time-coded shots and sequences for the entire video. Swung the pendulum from underguided to micromanaged. So I tried to walk it back and told him to take or primarily leave whatever ideas he wanted from it, but that dude seriously, mind-blowingly found a way to bring that mess to life, and do so way cooler than whatever I would’ve pictured.

Further, additional props for Ridley. Dude had total command of that soundstage, leaping across ladders, programming lights, scaling curtains and the like. Then he edited it masterfully and totally creatively. Man’s a gem. Ultra-talented musician, too. Thank you forever, Ridley!

And thank you for diving deeper on these tunes! We’re now two-thirds through. For some timeline context, at this point in recording we took a couple of months off; I had gigs with The Blowtorches and The Foamers? to study up on, and Hang Ten had our first shows to prepare for. 

See ya next week! 

-Matty