A Different Version of a Saint

Remember the video Matt made for “Medicine Show,” for an online music group he belongs to? If not, please see previous post. Now I can share another video, made by members of that same group. I love their take on “St. Lazaro”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5hRSvm6Y24

Besides being a lot of fun, the video makes me appreciate once again just how far the recording world has come. Yes, I can be a Grumpy Old Man sometimes about technology (“Get off my lawn, Auto-tune!”), but fifteen years after Rycopa was recorded some tech-savvy and talented fans can put together that sounds just as good (even better?) than the original we made in the studio.

Medicine Show

Matt made a “Medicine Show” video for an online music group he belongs to. You can watch it here:

It’s one of my favorite songs on Rycopa, a mid-tempo, moody, melodic number driven by piano, sleigh bells, and the f-bomb (be forewarned!). Enjoy!

Reviews!

Here’s a link to a new review, written by someone who grew up in the same hometown as the four of us:

http://orangemen44.com/2013/powerpop-cd-review-uncle-greens-rycopa/

It’s a thoughtful review–how can a band not be grateful for any review that urges people to go out and buy the record? I especially like the link between our story and Cotton Mather, another band with a lost record that Kickstarter helped save.

The review also raises a point we expected reviews in general to raise, when the record came out–the idea that Rycopa could have been a more focused and consistent record if it had been, say, 14 songs instead of 32. It’s a valid point, but I know from the discussions we had back in 1998, when we were prepping the record for a Sony release, that picking 14 would have been impossible. At least for me. “Soulmating,” for example, is a song I love that would likely have not made the final cut.

In the end, I’m hoping the final version is embraced as the kind of sprawling, rambling double album we grew up loving, with songs that you may skip the first few listens, but eventually grow to appreciate.

Now We Are Thirty-Two

Welcome to a new website for an old band.

We started playing together in the day after Christmas, 1980. We were fourteen, and weary of playing cover songs. We were going to start playing our own music, survive high school, and then take over the world. Like most fourteen year olds, we had plans that did not work out exactly as we expected, but like most happy fortysomethings, there’s not a whole lot I would change now, if I had the chance. I’ve seen enough time travel movie to know that “fixing” even one moment from your past could screw up your present.

One thing we did want to change was the way our last record never made its way into the world. On May 21, 2013, Uncle Green finally released Rycopa, 32 songs over 2 CDs that had been recorded for, and then rejected by, Sony Records. Thanks to the good people of Wampus Multimedia, we now have a proper release. We’ve created this website to fill in those just catching up with our neverending story, and to let old and new fans alike know what the band members are up to–individually and collectively, musically and non-musically.

We’ll start those updates soon. In the meantime, the links!

To sample Rycopa via Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/1hi3MRO8rc4V3lu6EaCLUr

To follow Uncle Green on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/UncleGreen3LbThrill?ref=stream&hc_location=timeline

To go ahead and buy Rycopa: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/unclegreen2