August 2011
1 post
The Last Performance
The Whiskers will be playing one final time, at 8pm sharp, in the Flying Squirrel in Rochester, NY, on Saturday, August 13th.
Be sure to attend.
July 2011
1 post
Rough Track #7: Ornithopters
A few days after The Distorted Historian was released, Jim and I started shaping some of Jim’s riffs and progressions into a fast-slow-fast song. It was 8 or 9 minutes long but it seemed right. So once that structure was finalized I spent a while writing lyrics and a melody and recorded this:
ornithoptersROUGH1.mp3
There might have been something that came before this, but let’s just say this...
June 2011
1 post
One Final Show
The Whiskers (nearly every official member and some new people—TEN total) will be performing a single show in Rochester, NY. It will take place the evening of August 13th.
Details soon.
April 2011
6 posts
You probably already are aware of these bands, but... →
Thanks, bye!
Music is no longer being made by the band called The Whiskers. War of Currents was their final release.
Though: members of The Whiskers will continue to make music, and you can find them in several bands on a soon-to-be-updated thewhiskers.com.
A one-for-the-road show is being considered and planned. We’ll let you know. It would be in Rochester, NY.
Thank you for listening.
Rough Track #12: Roses
I don’t know why, but on December 1st of 2006, I spent my evening writing a song called Roses. I programmed the drums and synth in a few hours and wrote the lyrics and melody in about a half hour. I recorded a bunch of takes and mixed it and thought it was good, but it needed bass.
So I posted it on the internet to perhaps find a bassist who could record something and send it to me and...
Rough Track #11: Heat Death
Full disclosure: this song was started by a chord change randomizer on the internet. Those chords were then rearranged a bit and then assembled into this mix, underneath the only vocal take ever recorded for this song:
heatdeathMIX1.mp3
I don’t know.
Next week: very first Whiskers song and some important news!
Birds of Paradise, Remixed
On April 16th, a remix—in the truest sense, as Thom Stylinski, who mixed the album track, also mixed this one—of War of Currents’ Birds of Paradise will be released on something called: AWKWARDCORE COMPILATION #1.
Several other Whiskers-related bands will have tunes on it. More info will arrive from Awkwardcore soon.
Rough Track #10: Sails
Back in college, I hung around this music venue in a basement.
One of the bands that opened a show there did a little number called, “The Old Ship of Zion.” Well, that old spiritual never sounded so defeated and dirgey and I loved it, all while they went on playing it for too long, and then they just kept on singing: “Is that the ooooooooooold… ship of ziiiiioooooooooon… I...
March 2011
4 posts
Rough Track #9: Cogs
This is just an earlier mix with a different vocal take in the middle and some synths pushed forward. Jim prefers it to the album version.
cogsMIX3.mp3
Rough Track #8: Grownups
We used a message board to discuss the songs as they were being constructed. Here are some excerpts concerning the latest mix of Grownups compared to the very first version of Grownups, found here:
grownupsROUGH1.mp3
Matt:
guess what i’m trying to say is that there is a such thing as overdoing a song, and especially with grownups we’re close to doing so. right now i would simply...
Rough Track #6: Cob and Pen
Not much to say about this song. It emerged from Jim and I mucking about. It’s about haikus, I suppose. It’s about some fictionalized/simplified/distorted manner in which swans fight, and how swans occasionally capsize and drown.
It started as a rough improvised recording and then had to be re-recorded to a steady beat—which I would prefer to avoid, but the way in which these...
FAQ #3
Are you the ska band called The Whiskers?
Nope! Not even a little bit.
Rough Track #5: Birds of Paradise
A week after the very first version of this song was bounced, in October 2008, I requested the following:
could someone else sing this song and change melodies? i want ideas a-flowin. i am THIS close to 86ing this thing.
I kept that attitude for a year and a half.
Initially the song contained no percussion. Matt said, with the callous intonation that usually harbored encouragement:
a...
February 2011
4 posts
Rough Track #4: The Seamstress
On October 19th, 2008, Jim and I recorded this idea of a song. I threw some lyrics together and Jim layered several guitar tracks and we thought a proper song could form from this, eventually:
theseamstressROUGH1.mp3
We kept going and added two or three more movements and on July 21st, 2009, this mix was bounced and sent to the other band members, with my note:
how is this song ever going to...
Rough Track #3: The Current
Shortly before the release of our two song record The Current & Cob and Pen, I announced a “Secret Word Contest” on this very blog. If someone sent me an e-mail containing a predetermined and undisclosed secret word, they would get a free copy of the new release in addition to some other goodies.
The secret word was PLEASE. I figured the first mildly polite correspondence would...
Rough Track #2: Only Source of Light
So this Brett Mattox guy drives up to Rochester from Talladega to play some shows in April 2009. While the “band” is “practicing” together (for the second time ever), this Brett guy says he has a new song he wants to try. So he plays it for us and it’s great and everyone joins in and we sort of write our parts together like I would imagine a real band does all the...
January 2011
3 posts
Rough Track #1: Cameras
This is the very first version of Cameras, dated October 3, 2009:
camerasROUGH1.mp3
I proposed this song end with a fade-out. You know how pop songs used to end? It seemed right.
Matt’s response:
the only thing i hate more than holocaust deniers are fade-outs.
"New Mix Tonight" or: "Needs More Tuba"
Beginning February 1st, I will be posting early versions, rough mixes and sketches of songs from all four Whiskers releases, in reverse chronological order. This will occur once a week for twelve weeks, as twelve songs will be featured.
A quick bit about the way Whiskers songs were made: Jim and I (Thom) would occasionally throw some ideas together—Jim’s riffs and chord progressions,...
Rough Stuff
There is an early version of Sails out there somewhere on the internet I think. It was twice as long as the album version. If I find it I will post it. It might be worthwhile to visit early and rough versions of these tunes if you people are into that sort of thing.
Oh hey—this is the internet—I can just ask you: Are you into that sort of thing? What do you want to hear?
December 2010
3 posts
Lyrics to "That Old Pastoral" by Ganache
It’s not easy to remember, but a vision exists of a navy polka-dotted dress with billowy sleeves backlit by the death of Summer. There was a smell of friction in the air: the result of the seasons rubbing against each other. There was mascara and lipstick, a beauty mark—marking a weekend—and a suitcase full of cardigans in the corner (by a pile of rodent skulls and mason jars,...
We did this a long time ago.
Download!
Ganache Update
Several Ganache songs are developing legs—to the point that a full-length album isn’t an absurd idea. Shall we say… about a year from now?
The closest thing to another Whiskers album will be a Ganache album. Let’s say November 15th, 2011. But nothing is chiseled.
October 2010
3 posts
A remix of "Birds of Paradise" is upcoming.
Ganache tunes
In addition to Will It Play In Peoria?, Ganache is also working on a song called The Ice Cave in Goof Troop (which samples and remixes the score to the 4th level of SNES’s sleeper hit “Goof Troop”) and a cover—is it proper to call this a cover?—of the aria Ecco il sol, ch’esce dal mare from Handel’s sleeper hit “La Resurrezione”.
I don’t...
Cage Your Queue →
September 2010
2 posts
The Whiskers are NOT playing a show in Chicago on...
Thom Stylinski interviewed by restaurantslut.com
August 2010
3 posts
Zane, I'm sorry about what I sang about your mom.
Lyrics to "Will It Play In Peoria?" by Ganache
It starts with fists pounding cracks into every desk and the desks are cracking fists back and the fists are affixed to wrists and they’re wrapped with ticking gold worth more than your father told you would make in a year if your prose was tied in a bow and sold to the highest bidder then it cuts to you as your lips are turning blue as you let another tune fall across them till the...
July 2010
2 posts
WHEN YOU BRING THOSE SAND-FILLED BOOTS TO MY...
Ganache is Thom and Jim Stylinski (of The Whiskers).
They will release songs one-at-a-time in various ways on various things at various intervals. The next song is called Will It Play In Peoria?
You haven’t heard the last of The Whiskers or its members. You shall hear new recordings from The Whiskers and their relatives soon.
May 2010
1 post
FAQ #2
Is Thom Stylinski really writing a novel? When is it coming out?
Yes he is. 2011 or so. It is not as lazily written as his lyrics.
April 2010
1 post
This Friday, the 30th, is the last day during which War of Currents will be available as a free download. From then onward, it will be available for purchase at awkwardcore.com.
I suppose one could argue that it will forever be available as a free download as long as the internet exists, but one could also argue that Guilt will exist beyond the internet.
And Guilt is a strong, vicious acid. And...
Download WAR OF CURRENTS.
For the month of April, War of Currents is available as an mp3 download at thewhiskers.com
You can also purchase the CD at from awkwardcore.com
March 2010
4 posts
Listen to "CAMERAS" from WAR OF CURRENTS!
Cameras is totally available for the listenin’ on awkwardcore.com or thewhiskers.com
FAQ #1
Is “Marsh Blood” on War of Currents the same “Marsh Blood” found on The Lifted Brow 4?
No. It is a different recording.
"Cameras" mp3 soon!
Cameras lyrics:
Oh my dear I know too much of this work is a boring waste and the chores that we do go on and on but in the dark we felt a spook in our midst and we clapped on the lights and blasted flashbulbs with our sights set under the world and all we had missed and did you blink when you saw I was backlit by Ra? I’m a cephalophore! I’m a statue of lead! And I’m losing my...
February 2010
3 posts
AWKWARDCORE RECORDS TO RELEASE THE WHISKERS THIRD...
Precisely two years after the release of THE DISTORTED HISTORIAN, The Whiskers are exhibiting their best effort yet and it is called WAR OF CURRENTS. The songs are long, rich, complex, analog. The album is unlike the mishmash of past work: it is cohesive and complete and can be mistaken for being serious or somber. It is still most certainly The Whiskers: layered vocals, unrepeated choruses,...
BIG NEWS TOMORROW.
There is a new album by The Northwest Man
It is called The Devil in the Dark The Northwest Man is Brett Mattox of The Whiskers.
Download it for free, nerd.
December 2009
1 post
The key to power is bat speed.
My 7th grade Geography teacher, at the time, was a wacky crazy nut, climbing on desks, swinging a golf club mid-lesson, yelling at the good students and ignoring the bad kids. He actually expected us to read the text and ask him questions. It was unsettling and alien and it took all of us quite some time to realize that he was a proper teacher—he taught us things.
For example, one day, out...
November 2009
1 post
War of Currents
Oh yeah; you’re probably looking for the four-dubs on the new record.
Well: we’re still working hard on it and you should expect an EARLY 2010 release date.
October 2009
3 posts
"Poland" by Ganache in The Lifted Brow 6
Ganache is Thom and Jim Stylinski, from The Whiskers.
They have contributed a song called “Poland” to The Lifted Brow’s sixth issue, easily gotten at theliftedbrow.com
Secret Word Contest.
Win a free copy of the new EP!
There is a secret word. Just send an e-mail to whiskermageddon@gmail.com. The first e-mail to contain that secret word wins. You will be notified through e-mail.
Dear "The Sartorialist",
I didn’t know fashion was just a combination of any of these things:
- Wearing brown oxfords without socks - Being a beautiful woman - Being a skeezy dude - Looking like a homeless time-traveller
Thanks for the update on fashion, internet!
Sincerely, Thom from the Whiskers (who are releasing a great EP in two days.)
September 2009
5 posts
Two (2) New Songs
On October 6th, Awkwardcore records will ship out a two-song “EP” by The Whiskers called The Current & Cob and Pen. It will include those two songs. It will not be available for free; it will only be officially released as a compact disc.
Mad Men
PEGGY This is good champagne.
DON I don’t think so.
I still can’t stop laughing.
We have exciting news about a new Whiskers release, but not a peep until the specifics are settled upon. Just a few days I promise.