Category: Blog
True life adventures of my real true life.
The story behind Frankie
So, I have a new song available for sale today. You can download it at the following locations:
iTunes | Amazon | CDBaby.com | Bandcamp
It’s the first, strictly digital single I’ve released and I’m really proud of how it turned out. It’s called Frankie and it is the story of a sarcastic, talking cat named Frankie. It is based on a true story. And even though I say that before each time I play it live, people don’t believe me. But it’s true, it’s based on a true story.
My good friend, and fellow puppeteer, Alison Mork has a pet cat named Frankie. Yes, that’s Frankie picture as the album art for the single (photo courtesy of Alison Mork at the Frankie Archives). Alison and I talk on the phone regularly and she’ll often update me on something cute that Frankie has done since the last time we spoke.
Back in 2012, she excitedly called me and told me that Frankie had actually spoken to her. Apparently, one morning she had looked at Frankie and said, “You are just a cute little gentleman.” Frankie, meowed in return but his meow, more of a squeak actually, sounded exactly like he was saying, “I am.”
So I laughed and said, “Great, not only does he speak, he’s full of himself.”
A few days later, Alison told me that he had done it again. She had said something complimentary to Frankie, and Frankie had replied with a meow that sounded like he was saying, “I know.”
And the idea for the song was born. I wrote it rather quickly, took me just about a day, sitting at my computer figuring out the lyrics. It was the first song I’ve written on mandolin, a departure from all my other songs which were written on guitar.
I’ve super happy with how the final song turned out. Steve Goodie did an amazing job on the instrumentation on the track. It’s everything a bluegrass fan (me) could hope for. I do wish my vocals were a little better but I’m never happy with how I sound, so that’ll never happen.
Another interesting tidbit about Frankie. A lot of the time authors base characters in their books on real people. Some even write real people into their books. I’ve sort of done that with this song. Of course, Frankie is based on a real cat, but whenever I sing the song I always picture the reporter as being my good friend, author, Mur Lafferty and as far as I’m concerned, that’s who the reporter is! So Mur has a cameo in my song.
Anyway, that’s a little of the backstory on my new song Frankie. I hope you get a chance to check it out.
I’ve also sent the track to Dr. Demento, so if you have a moment, CLICK HERE and request Frankie by Throwing Toasters on The Dr. Demento Show. Please, just one request per week.
Three singles.
It has been a long time coming. Soon, very soon, three brand new Throwing Toasters/Mr. Grant songs will be released. It has been far too long.
My good friend, and funny musician, Carla Ulbrich was out in Los Angeles recently recording songs for her new CD (which you can pre-order HERE). We were talking after one of her recording sessions and it really got me thinking about my own comedy music. I lamented that I had attempted to record some songs in my office, but they just weren’t coming out as good as I would have liked because of my inexperience in recording music featuring anything more that just one guitar and one microphone.
Carla said I should get in touch with a mutual friend of ours named Steve Goodie. Steve is another funny songwriter and a super talented musician. Carla said she had sent him song ideas in the past, he recorded the music and sent it back for her to ad vocals to and the tracks came out great. So, I got in touch with Steve! He was all Carla said he was and more!
Thanks to Steve’s masterful instrument playing, he has fleshed out my demos into really great songs that I’m super proud of and that shall be released shortly! Two of the songs are songs that have been ‘out there’ for awhile now.
Unfriend is a song where I air my grievances regarding Facebook. It was played on the Dr. Demento show once in 2013, but that was just a demo. This new version ROCKS!
Frankie is a song I wrote on mandolin and there’s a video of me playing it on YouTube. Proud to say this version is a bluegrass treat thanks for Steve’s pickin’.
And finally, a brand new, never before heard outside of the one time I played it at Flappers last Saturday, song called Everyone’s Invited. Actually, the official title is going to be longer, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise. This one was written on ukulele but we’ve turned this one into a hoedown that is a lot of fun.
Frankie and Everyone’s Invited are super kid friendly. Unfriend is not blue, but it borders on PG-13 in terms of subject matter.
I’m super excited to get these out into the wild and I’m planning on doing a post about each song when they are released. Unfriend is working its way through the digital distribution pipelines as I type. Frankie will follow suit tomorrow. Everyone’s Invited will be a little bit longer, as I need a special guest to come in and sing parts of it. But it will follow shortly.
Working with Steve has been great and it has really inspired me to write more. Who knows, maybe this is the start of a bunch of new Throwing Toasters songs!
It’s so good, I want to hate it.
Do you watch Bob’s Burgers on FOX? I got to the show late, probably third season, but it really is a fun show and it really makes me laugh.
One of my favorite moments is when 9 year old Louise goes to a concert with her older sister Tina to see the boy band/One Direction rip off Boyz 4 Now. The entire trip to the concert Louise is ragging on the band and even through the first part of the concert, she’s giving her sister grief about it. But then the Boyz 4 Now member Boo Boo takes the stage and Louise is instantly smitten which leads to this hilarious line…
Besides being hilariously funny, I think we have all felt this feeling or something like it. She’s so in love with Boo Boo but she knows it goes against everything she’s said up to that moment to love him because, in her mind, she’s supposed to hate Boo Boo. So, she combines the two feelings (love/hate) into one. “…he’s so gorgeous. I just wanna slap it, I wanna slap it, I just wanna slap his hideous beautiful face.”
I found myself in a similar situation this week when I stumbled upon the web series Paint By Monster. It’s a web series hosted by a monster puppet monster named Easel Monster and he teachers art and art principles to kids (and adults).
I had seen mention of it on Twitter and checked out and, honestly was not expecting much. From the opening song, though…I was hooked. I loved everything about it. The style, the puppet, the character, the way it is for kids but has an adult edge to it. It really captivated me. There are four episodes of the show out and I’ve watched them several times each. I want to know how every shot was accomplished. Is it a miniature set, if so, how? It’s just really fascinating to me. I would not be surprised at all if we hear about Paint By Monster being picked up and produced as an actual TV show. It’s that good.
It’s so good. It’s so good, I just want to slap it!
Making a web series is not a competition, theres enough bandwidth for us all. But this show was so good, I instantly loved and hated it. Hated it only because, in my opinion, my productions (Uncle Interloper, etc) are nowhere as good as Paint By Monster. Do I want it to fail, no. In fact I’ve promoted it heavily on my Twitter accounts. Do I wish the creator harm? Absolutely not! It’s just one of those things where I know my limitations and, watching this, I know that I can’t do it as good.
The show has a style and I think that’s something my creations lack. A sense of visual style. That’s because while I feel I do come up with good scripts and characters, I lack a sense of visual style. For example, where were putting together Stanley & JAX for Nerd-ament, Russ hit on them both having the same basic colors. That would have never occurred to me. Paint By Monster has such a great visual style and it frustrates me that I couldn’t do something that great.
The thing is though, the show inspires me. It shows me what a good, engaging web series can be and it gives me a goal to strive for. And I will.
So, please go watch Paint By Monster. He deserves your time. You will enjoy it.
And Easel, if I ever meet you, I promise not to slap you.
I love all the episodes released so far of Paint By Monster, but if the opening song in this one doesn’t make you smile, you’re taking life way too seriously.
How I got where I am.
I’m always a little leery of comments from people I don’t know here on the blog or my dwindling social media accounts. A lot of time they are spam and I’m always skeptical if something is genuine or not. The other day, this comment came in on one of my Instagram pictures:
Please email me; I’m young, ambitious, and curious. I want to know how you got where you are. (EMAIL REDACTED)
I clicked through to the account and it seems like a real person, but even if it’s not, I gave his question some thought. What advice would I tell this young, ambitious and curious kid?
I would tell him to find some masters. Some heroes. Find what makes him laugh, what entertainment he ‘gets’ and then pursue those people as much as possible. Now, by pursue, I don’t mean stalk them, I mean read about them, get your hands on everything they’ve produced. Study them. See if you can capture what about what they are creating captures you. Never stop studying these people and search out new ones. Always be on the lookout for people who inspire you.
Once you’ve done that for some time, start creating. Create your own stuff. Don’t wait to try and get someone to produce your stuff, start producing it yourself. And keep producing it. Build up a body of work and keep on working. This is THE best way I know to get noticed and achieve your dreams.
People always ask me how to be come a Jim Henson Company puppeteer. I always say they way to NOT do it is to show up at the front gate of The Jim Henson Company with a puppet on your arm. Don’t corner Brian Henson in a restaurant and make him talk to your hand. The best way to become a Jim Henson Company puppeteer is to learn the art of puppetry by creating your own puppet projects. Forget Henson, just keep working on your own projects. Build up those skills. Build up that body of work. Henson will notice you if you work hard enough.
A perfect example of this is my friend Conner Asher of Creventive Studios. He’s doing exactly what I said above. He’s not waiting for Henson or Sesame Street to give him a job, he’s busy creating his own work. And he’s pursuing it, seemingly, twenty four hours a day. I have no doubt that if he continues working as hard as he is right now, he will wind up doing great things. I also have no doubt, I’ll be working for him.
Be so good they can’t ignore you. – Steve Martin
Finally I would say, you asked me how I got where I am. In my mind, I’m nowhere. I’m certainly not where my dreams want me to be and because of that, I keep working. I work as hard as I can on the projects I’m passionate about and I don’t stop because I’m not where I want to be.
I hope this helps. If you are real, and I apologize for doubting you if you are, I hope this helps.