The Honorable Mentions

Forget This Town

Matt — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 01:41:12 +0000

Hey, folks.

We spent all of February writing and recording a new album, entitled “Forget This Town.” For those of you into the whole internet-music-downloading thing, you can grab the tracks below.

It’s our most album-y album yet! It has our longest song ever. And our shortest song ever. Back to back, even! Plus, all the songs feature words AND music–so you’re really getting your money’s worth.

It features lyrical themes including, but not limited to: malaise, yearning, ghosts, urban decay, graffiti, dissolution, leaving town, coming back to town, lying, not lying and space travel (figurative).

Musically, we kept it pretty straightforward this time around. For example, the toy piano only makes one appearance–and it isn’t even on the album’s one waltz!

So, please take a listen, (hopefully) enjoy it, and if you’re so inclined, please let us know what you think. We want to make a video for one of the tracks and we’re open to suggestions if one song or another jumps out at you.

As always, thanks for listening, and see you around the internet.

Matt and Jen

Headlong

Broken Silence

All Summer (Na Na Na)

I Wouldn’t Deceive You

Waveform

Dirty Ashes (Hey Hey)

This is How Everything Goes Wrong

A new video!

Matt — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 15:15:42 +0000

Check out this new video for our band, The Honorable Mentions! It was shot in Hollywood in October when we went out to hang with our pal, Russ. Russ shot it along with Stoney Sharp. Special thanks go to Dave Simmons & Tony Bevilacqua as well. Russ and Stoney made us feel like rock stars and we’re eternally grateful to them for making the video.

Let’s Let Go – a new album by The Honorable Mentions

Matt — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:20:15 +0000

Hello, folks! Long time, no chat. How have you been?

OK. So, Jen and I spent February writing and recording a brand new album as part of the RPM Challenge. What is this “RPM,” you ask? Well, click the link, go find out, then come back here. We’ll wait!

You’re back? Or maybe you never… even… left… well, at any rate, the end result is that we are quite happy to present “Let’s Let Go” — ten brandy-dandy new toe-tapping tunes for your downloading and listening fun!

Remember how we recorded a different song every week last year? That project was fun because we kept switching styles, arrangements, instruments, blah blah blah to keep the process fresh for ourselves. But, for this project, we wanted to quickly create what we hope is a more cohesive listening experience that hangs together like a proper album. Did we succeed? Who knows! But we sure had fun trying.

We also recorded in such a vacuum last year that we wanted to pull some pals in to record this one — so we did! Special thanks to Mike Chmielecki, Nate Hastings, Neville Menday, Russ Lichter and Patrick Rowan for playing so excellently on this album.

Below, you can download each song individually, or grab the zip file at the end, which contains all the files plus the album artwork and lyrics so you can print yourself out a cool cd package.

As always, thanks for listening!
Matt and Jen

You can preview files here: http://thehonorablementions.rpmchallenge.com/

Or download ‘em here:

Let’s Let Go (with Patrick Rowan on bass)
Moonies (with Patrick Rowan on bass)
Spring Ahead, Fall Forever
Henrietta Forever (with Russ Lichter on outro-synth solo)
Pound For Pound (with Nate Hastings on electric guitar)
Surfaces (with Mike Chmielecki on cellphone-distorted acoustic guitar loop)
Radio Telescope
What Not To Do (with Neville Menday on accordion)
Conversely (with Nate Hastings on electric guitar)
See Stars

Or grab the whole thing with PDF artwork here:
files.me.com/matttalbot/6nq6so
(I think you’re gonna have to copy and paste that link into a new browser window to make it work!)

“Lost and Unsettled”… the video?! whaaaaaaa?!

Matt — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:08:11 +0000

Jen and I wandered around town this weekend and shot a simple video for one of our songs, Lost and Unsettled. We know nothing about making videos, but quickly figured out that… well, for one thing, it’s really hard. For another, when you have no budget, you just gotta improvise. So, these are shots from our excellent neighborhood here in Somersworth, mixed in with some hot accordion action for good measure.

Anyway, a wise man once told me, “it is what it is,” and at least we now have something to throw up on the ol’ YouTube. Special thanks to our great pal Rich Woodall for the use of his Flip cam!

Original song download here:
Lost And Unsettled

Songs for week 51 and 52 – “Hidden Camera” and “The Last Song”

Matt — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:32:15 +0000

Hi everyone,

Well, this is it! The final two songs. It’s feels pretty bittersweet to be posting these. I even sat on them a couple days because some part of me just doesn’t want this project to be over, even though it was a ton of work. Fun work, but work nonetheless.

Jen and I decided to undertake this project a year ago because we wanted to get into playing music for some time and didn’t know where, or even how, to start. We thought a series of deadlines would help us get over the frightening prospect of writing, recording and sharing music with the world. And in that sense, the project worked perfectly. Recording a song a week meant there was no time to look back–only forward to the next song. Every week meant a new chance to try to create something special.

I’m very proud of what we accomplished, and I’m happy to say we’ll continue to write and record in the coming year. (We already have some big plans in mind.) And, we’re looking very forward to playing out as well, hopefully in a town near you!

Finally, I want to sincerely thank everyone who took the time to listen, and especially those who left us comments here and on Facebook. It was very, very exciting to get your feedback.

See you soon!

Matt and Jen

Hidden Camera

The Last Song

PS. We rang in the new year by recording a new cover tune with our pal Russ–so look for that to posted in the near future!

Song for Week 50 – “Playing With Mercury”

Matt — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:01:50 +0000

Does anyone remember the Yamaha PSS-170 keyboard? I got mine when I was in the eighth grade in the late ‘80s, and I’ve had it ever since. Mostly, it’s sat in storage, though Jen and I did dust if off to sample the intro for our tune Permanent Address.

Anyway, the thing is cheesy to the extreme. It’s hard to imagine it being useful for much, but I’ve held a special place for it in my heart because it was the first thing I ever used to play music.

So, we decided to use the PSS-170, and ONLY the PSS-170, to compose the music for our latest song, Playing With Mercury. I sampled the keyboard’s drum noises and re-sequenced them in iDrum to make the beat, and every other sound is direct from the keyboard with nothing but some reverb and the occasional delay.

It was fun to break from our normal process. Really fun! We’re very happy with the final result, and hope you dig it.

Happy holidays!
Matt and Jen

Playing With Mercury

Song for Week 49 – “Turn The Radio Down”

Matt — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:49:16 +0000

I had a hankering to strum the ol’ banjo this week, so that’s what I did. And Jen added electric piano and some vox and all of a sudden, we had this new song. Good times.

We’re already hard at work on the song for week 50, and it’s crazy different and fun. Can’t wait to finish it up!

Matt and Jen

Turn The Radio Down

Bonus remix!

Matt — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:30:16 +0000

Tonight, we are very excited to post our friend Russ’s remix of our song Outlier!

Russ is a film editor and musician (google Justice Beats of America, or ODYSSEY! A Rock Opera, just to name a very few of the excellent projects he’s been involved with). Or perhaps you should watch the awesome Har Mar Superstar video he edited?

Anyway, we’re super-psyched about this remix and think you will be too.

Outlier (amoebafingers remix)

Also, for your reference, the original version: Outlier

Matt and Jen

ps. Back tomorrow with our new song, Turn The Radio Down!

Song for Week 48 – “Two Mirrors”

Matt — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:40:37 +0000

hi gang,

Here’s the latest song. It’s actually been done since early this week but we’ve been too busy/lazy to post it! Anyway… hope you like it.

Matt and Jen

Two Mirrors

Song for Week 47 – “Finding Me Out”

Matt — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:23:04 +0000

And here’s our latest ditty, “Finding Me Out.” Oh, Jen, why are you so angry? Won’t you please explain?

Later this week, we’ll be posting a special treat. Our friend Russ remixed one of our earlier songs, and it is WAY cool. Yes, this is a total tease, and I hope you’re excited. Because we were excited. And what is the internet, if not a way to spread excitement? Moving on…

Five songs to go. Five weeks to go and this year is in the books. Crazy!

Matt and Jen

Finding Me Out