The Refreshments’ debut album for Mercury Records, Fizzy, Fuzzy, Big and Buzzy, came out 25 years ago today. A few years ago, I gave the whole thing a listen — plus the B-sides! — and jotted down whatever popped into my head.
The Album
“Blue Collar Suicide”
This is an old Roger song from his time in the Mortals. It came together while recording Fizzy when Roger played the track’s rhythm guitar part and P.H. gave it the Bo Diddley treatment. We all instantly knew we had a new track for the album and worked it out on the spot…
I’ve decided to write notes describing each of the tracks on Loving Every Other Minute of It. I’ll publish one of these pieces per month until I touch on all ten tracks. Start at the beginning of the series here.
Raquel and I moved to Ashland, Oregon in 2003. We spent one year, 2008, in the Chicago area and moved back to Oregon — Portland this time — in 2009.
I cannot tell you how happy I was to get back to this state. Oregon is the only state where certain folks seem to be able to function happily. We…
I’ve decided to write notes describing each of the tracks on Loving Every Other Minute of It. I’ll publish one of these pieces per month until I touch on all 10 tracks. Start at the beginning of the series here.
In early 2019, as I chose the songs I wanted to record for Loving Every Other Minute of It, a song I knew for sure I didn’t want to include was “Be Home.”
Why?
Because my goal with this album was to include only “up” songs. My last solo album, Songs from Memory, tended toward darker and lonelier stuff. I…
I’ve decided to write notes describing each of the tracks on Loving Every Other Minute of It. I’ll publish one of these pieces per month until I touch on all 10 tracks. Start at the beginning of the series here.
This month, it’s “Johnny Marr,” for which Bret Hartley and Chris Glass Hartley just finished a live-ish video. Take a look.
For as long as I can remember, Blush and I have liked to joke around.
In August-ish of 2019, a Facebook friend of mine named James Smith commented on some post or other about how hard it was to…
On Saturday, I shipped the first 25 vinyl copies of Loving Every Other Minute of it.
Both the vinyl and CD versions of the album now ship immediately from my website. You can also buy the album as a digital download through Bandcamp.
That means Loving Every Other Minute of it is now available in all formats. It’s been quite a journey to bring the music to you in all of these formats, and I’m very pleased with how it’s come out.
Also, we’ve recorded a series of “live” videos that — with the generous help of Chris Glass Hartley…
I’ve decided to write notes for each of the tracks on Loving Every Other Minute of It. I’ll publish about one of these pieces per month until I touch on all 10. Let’s start with “Incident.”
In 2008, right after I released my first solo album Songs from Memory, I wrote a song called “Incident.”
I liked this tune quite a bit. It was based on a story from a friend of mine describing his experience with Match.com. It seems that one of the ways to improve your options on the site is to increase your radius. That is, instead…
Now that Loving Every Other Minute of It is out as an mp3 download, it’s got me thinking about when I decide to buy new music.
I’ve bought quite a bit of new music in 2020. These purchases have included CDs and mp3s by newer and established artists such as Buffalo Jones, Olivia Awbrey, James McMurtry, The Breeders, Victor Krummenacher, Eliot Bronson, and Michael McDermott.
These days, it seems almost impossible for me to buy music by an artist with whom I have no strong previous connection. As I look at the above list, two of the artists are from…
You can now buy my second solo album Loving Every Other Minute of It as a digital download through Bandcamp. This is a great newer company that makes the payment process simple, and it offers a respectable rate to its artists. Also, at bandcamp, whatever you spend there on the First Friday of every month goes 100% to the artist. Hey, today is the first Friday of the month! Get yours now!
The CD version of Loving Every Other Minute of It is now for sale at my website and ships immediately.
Over the years, I’ve heard plenty of musicians talk about how they’re in it for the music and not the money.
Still, growing up in the 70s and 80s, I saw making music at a certain level as synonymous with making money. I assumed that the acts on American Bandstand or Night Flight or MTV were doing well enough for themselves. For me, part of the dream of becoming like them was the hope I would do well enough not to have to work a day job.
That time for me is long gone. I have a day job now…
While we designed the vinyl version of Loving Every Other Minute of It, I became vaguely aware of download cards.
Apparently, you can include a download card with each vinyl copy sold, and that way folks who make the investment into vinyl also can download the mp3 version of the album.
This sounded like a great idea, but with everything else going on, I didn’t get around to exploring download cards. I suspected it would cost more, and the cost of our limited-edition vinyl pressing was already pretty impressive.
This leads me to my high school friend Matt Hancher.
Art Edwards
Art Edwards is a co-founder of the Refreshments. His latest solo album, Loving Every Other Minute of It, came out in November 2020.
