Dirty Mountain - Up On Dirty Mountain

They call themselves Dirty Mountain and they make good on their name in the first track on their self titled disc “Saying in the South” who’s refrain features an unforgettable tag line that I’ll let you new comers hear for yourself as to not ruin the moment for you. The entire cd is filled with songs strong on lyrical content (strong meaning well though out and clever not necessarily dirty) which is why I love this disc.

The recording features four different lead vocalists and just as many songwriters; the contrast between these singers’ vocals and their song writing styles keeps the listener interested throughout. This country cd never gets to be “too much of the same” which is more than I can say for Kenny Chesney’s Greatest Hits disc (okay Kenny, you like to vacation in the Caribbean…who doesn’t. Jimmy Buffet isn’t dead yet so knock it off!).

Don’t expect to hear the big production you have come to expect these days from main stream country music releases; with 6ML there just isn’t that kind of time. The resulting product has a definite “garagey” quality kind of like the Gear Daddies had. Appropriately enough the cover features the band in what appears to be a garage.

There are some “dirty” songs here (Deb’s contribution “My Dog is My Copilot” is an extremely racy little song sung so sweetly that it makes me a little uncomfortable but that’s OK, I dig being pushed out of my comfort zone) but, not every song is “dirty”. Adam Z’s “Angel, Devil, Woman” is a song I could hear Charlie Pride singing and that’s even after listening to Charlie’s “Did you Think to Pray”. Kyle’s “Friends like You” would fit right in on Tom T. Hall’s Faster Horses album and Carl shows he’s perfectly capable of writing a would-be/should-be country classic in “Country Song” (this one reminds me of something the ole gang on Hee Haw would have made into a huge production number with Roy Clark and Buck Owens trading vocals).

Nice work everyone. This cd is a nice showcase of the kind of songwriters we have in the 6ML stable and an inspiration to the rest of us. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go listen to Deb’s song again.

by Marc Severin

Middle Aged A**holes

For Your Entertainment: Horno

Ladles and Gentlemen: In the Stew

Nerd Alert - Give Me More, More, More

IMHO, Nerd Alert was one of the most underrated acts in the annals of 6ML history. Consider this the first signature on a petition demanding a proper Nerd Alert album. In the meantime, though, you can check out their entire set from 6MLV4 on YouTube. (BTW - The title of this post is a Quiet Riot reference for those of you who didn't get into side 2 Condition Critical.)

Up on Dirty Mountain

Even if you're not a C&W lover, you'll still fall head over heels for the first two singles from Dirty Mountain's excellent album from 6MLV5. Check out "Saying in the South" and "Friends Like You (Are Hard on the Liver)," now spinning on our MySpace page.

Six Months to Live V6 Show Date!

Six Months to Live will be back for another season at the Triple Rock Social Club for the season 6 show. Mark your calendars for Friday, June 4, 2010! More details will follow closer to the show date.

See you there!

Get Drunk Tonight

Check out "Drunk Tonight," the latest song by Blood County on MySpace.

There's No Slam Dancing at the Grand Ole Opry

New Song from Blood County

Check out "Car Crash," the latest song from Blood County on the 6ML MySpace Page.

New Music Video from Blood County

6MLV5 Show Photos

A shout out is in order for Ryan Eggleston of Ryan Eggleston Photography for documenting the Six Months to Live Season 5 show with his fancy-pants camera skills! We're glad he was there to capture each moment so that the grandchildren of the Megamuff clan will have a chance to witness what took place that night on stage.

Check out the latest photo uploads on the Facebook fan page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Six-Months-to-Live-6ML/102490687213

...and then go check out the Ryan Eggleston Photography site to catch a glimpse of his other work:
http://www.eggsphotos.com/

A big thanks to Ryan on behalf of the 6ML community!

What Species are You? Dissected

What if Meat Loaf (the singer/actor not the scrumptious concoction of hamburger, bread, and ketchup) were a working stiff and a raging alcoholic who had a friend (Jim Steinman) that created a rock musical based on his everyday life? You would end up with a piece of work that sounded quite a bit like Fist and Shout’s What Species are You?.

Sung from the perspective of a young heavy drinking office space taker (part played by Aaron of 6ML lore), What Species are You? takes the listener on an exhausting journey of alcohol fueled debauchery during the work week.

The journey starts with him at home drinking alone in “Drinking Tonight”. Then it’s off to the office where it just happens to be “Jerry’s Last Day” and the whole crew (or a bunch of them anyway) are going out for happy hour. The following numbers chronicle drinking heavy in various settings, meeting girls, offending friends and friends of friends and eventually trying to find a way home. The journey culminates with “Last Call” where our hero ponders his drinking habits after a particularly rough night. Is this the wake up call that will send him to treatment? Nope. He can handle this one himself by cutting down on his mid-week alcohol consumption.

Part of me wants to hear the sequel (may I suggest What Species are You Too) so we can find out what happens to our protagonist from here, but I think we all have that certain friend or uncle or co-worker that lives (or lived) that story out for us.

I love this CD. Musically it’s great with nice dynamics and solid musicianship. Aaron and Josh wrote lyrics that will seem humorous to some and tragic to others; nice job fellas. The vocals and backing vocals are top notch. This CD could actually sell with very little promotion if not for the worst CD cover since The Handsome Beasts’ Beasteality. If Bat out of Hell had a cover like this Meatloaf would only be known as a scrumptious concoction of hamburger, bread, and ketchup.

Coming Soon

Twitter Bug

Hey 6ML musicians, fans and those of you lurking in the depths of the blog corners:

Good news! Six Months to Live is now on Twitter!

My voice is hoarse and raucous from the first two tweets, but I am seeing a vocal coach and can't wait to eventually get all of those 6ML thoughts off my chest. Come by our Twitter page and start following us. Better yet, start tweeting back and forth with us.

http://twitter.com/sixmonthstolive

Chirp. Chirp. Tweet. Tweet.

Saturday Evening Post(Oh What a Night!)

Dang! Friday night at the Triplerock was hugely entertaining! As a lifetime member (all five years) of 6ML I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome. Apparently, 300 plus people attended the show and I have yet to hear a single negative comment about the night... Wait, my sister thought it was too loud, 'course she always does, so never mind that. Even the Triplerock staff had a great time and were noting the energy and the creativity of the bands. I heard the bartenders were swapping stints behind the bar to take turns watching the show. This night was especially rewarding for me because of the opportunity to visit each band during the year. All acts truly used their six months productively and really blew the doors off for a large, grateful crowd!
Here is my "best song" highlight from each act-
CHRIS GEIGER- Sorry, no song to highlight, but great hosting job, Chris! You literally stayed in character from the moment you walked in at soundcheck(6:00ish) until you stumbled out the back door at 1:20 AM. Next time, though, you may want to work more things out beforehand with your manager, Jerry; you seemed a little confused at times.
BLOOD COUNTY- Incredible lyrics, fellas, and a great stage-setter for the rest of us. Your best song was "Settle Down", I can't shake it out of my head. Send me the lyrics and music so I can sing it around the campfire. By the way, I contacted Vince Gill...he's never heard of either of you. What's up with that?
SEXY RESULTS- Sam, for criminy sakes, what's your secret? Yoga? Double joints? You're like a hybrid of John Cleese, Mr. Bean, and Pee Wee Herman! Awesome! I loved the recurring "Man of Action" theme, but the best song was "Six Months to Live Saved My Life". It could be a theme song for the project.
MR. BUTTER- It's awfully hard to rate your own band, due both to bias and being on stage at the time, but I'll give it a shot; Marc Severin is the MAN! From 10:00 to 10:45 he transformed from a 50 year old man(his actual age is 45) into a 25 year old. He commanded the stage like Mick Jagger(circa 1974) and drove the whole band up, even Brian was on his feet most of the set. Best song? I gotta' go with the closer, "Ray the Crippler".
MEGAMUFF- Clearly the theatrical highlight of the evening! You guys nailed the hairband genre perfectly! And just like I did with Poison in the 80's, I found myself noticing which famous women you all resembled. Hard call on the best song, there were many, but I'm going with "Ace in the Hole" (of course the "Megamuff!" chant is also permanently glued in my memory).
DIRTY MOUNTAIN- I've never heard such smooth instrumentation, rich vocals, and full harmonies delivering such crass, sick lyrics! The Triplerock bartenders loved you guys something fierce! You should either be signed or fined! Lots of great tunes to pick from but the one about "Don't Put it in Your Mouth" wins for best song.

If anyone has a different opinion about my assessment of Friday go take a flying...I mean please comment on your best songs, or any other observations of that fine evening that you may have.
Peace out, 6MLers

Six Months to Live in the Star Tribune

A heads up to check out the entertainment section of the Star Tribune this coming Friday for a write up on Six Months to Live! Thanks to Gretchen, Lisa, Keith, and Josh for sprinkling their fairy dust and making that happen.

I am also including a list of links where the Six Months to Live event has been posted. Let me know if you run across others.

http://events.twincities.com/minneapolis-mn/venues/show/56918-triple-rock-social-club

http://radiok.cce.umn.edu/events/

http://twincities.decider.com/events/six-months-to-live,48612/

http://twincities.metromix.com/music/eclectic/six-months-to-live-cedar-riverside/1131893/content

http://www.triplerocksocialclub.com/shows/

http://livekick.com/6ML_Minneapolis_MN_5-29-09-08.00-PM-tickets

http://indietickets.com/tickets/customer/home.php

http://cal.startribune.com/dynamic/entertainment_finder/event_detail.php?event_id=76092

Saturday Evening Post(No County for Old Men)

Hoo-hah! Exactly 8 days before the big Triplerock show, I completed my mission of personally visiting a practice of each 6MLv5 band! All of you were so willing to open your doors in the last six months and expose yourselves to me! You whipped it out with no compunction while I snapped photos, scribed away in awe, and spread it all out on the internet! Thank you 6ML-ers, your openness and apparent lack of humility has truly helped to ramp up the excitement this year!
But, seriously... witnessing your effort and creative process first hand makes this cub reporter positively giddy about 6MLv5! Ironically, Blood County, our opening act on Friday night, is the last band I visited.
Fighting my own schedule and personal demons I managed a late arrival at the studio on Thursday night. Tucked in an industrial area over two sets of railroad tracks in Nord'East, this little studio space houses the creative minds of Aaron and Josh. Despite my tardiness, this duo took some extra time to share a sparse, but rich sounding sample of their country-flavored ditties. With only an acoustic guitar strumming, cheerful keys, and sphincter tight harmonies, these boys deliver a sound sweet enough to bring moisture to Minnie's Pearl!
These fellas also delivered some head-scratching stories, though, that without their dimly-lit earnestness would have this reporter in disbelief. Apparently, Josh and Aaron have a 30 year partnership with country music star, Vince Gill. Odd, considering the boys' ages, but Aaron traces the relationship back to 1978, when, at 5 years old, he began backing Gill up in the studio. Though the relationship is shaky, both boys swear the current separation from Gill is only temporary, and are awaiting the call, "any day, now!", to rejoin him on the road. The reverance for Gill is clear even though the stories are laced with slams and profanity against him; "He's a f**##' fathead! Don't print that!", says Aaron. And Josh begrudges Gill for failing to tell them that minimum wage had increased, paying them only $2.13an hour through 2004. Aaron has a soft spot for Gill's wife, Amy Grant, though, and claims a long standing relationship that includes fondly watching her come home every night, hang up her coat, brush her hair, her teeth, and any other act observable through the foyer windows.
I had to laugh at many of the lyrics I heard Thursday night, but in hindsight, they were probably not funny, but true. Blood County writes about heartbreak, they claim... see for yourself this Friday!

Let's do this, people!!!

Saturday Evening Post(Do you know the Muffin' Man?)

Whew! Four bands down and one to go!
Who knew it would be so hard to follow through with my goal of visiting one practice of every 6MLv5 band? I mean I actually thought I'd see y'all once before January and then again before the May show! Of course, I had also thought I'd be blogging several times a week, too. This morning I went back and read every blog that was posted this season and realized that in most of my posts I'm apologizing for one thing or another. So, let's get that out of the way right now...I'm sorry.
This past Saturday (yes I know it's Thursday! I said I was "sorry"!), I visited Jay's house to witness MegaMuff. Sadly, frontman Dave E. was not in attendance, but I went anyway, partly because I figured it would be my last chance before May 29th, but also because I was bored silly and Jay didn't say I couldn't. Let me commence this report by stating that Jay's basement is truly awesome and is a close rival to Mike's Frog Bar as far as alltime favorite practice spaces (no offense to Brian - phenomenal basement - but located in East Jesus, Wisconsin). And I'm pretty sure that I was in a bar, once, in the Iron Range somewhere that is a near replica of Jay's basement.
Aaaany-Hoo, MegaMuff is a hair band tribute, meaning all original songs done "in the style of" that genre of music. Jay is the shredder guitarist, Greg is the drummer, Chad on bass, and Dave on microphone baloney pony (that's not how they described it, I had to clean it up a little). I heard most of their set, with Jay doing double duty on guitar and vox, and found it to be highly entertaining! They are definately true to the genre with finger-tapping, double bass, whammy bars, and of course the obligatory hair band ballad. Most of their songs have the word rock, love("luv"), or both in the title and deliver refreshingly clear messages. There's no point in cryptic vagueries; when these guys say, "We're gonna' rock an' we're gonna' get naughty!", that's exactly what they mean!
Later, some good laughs emerged as the boys shared war stories from their heavy metal past around the firepit. Unfortunately, I missed them because Marc S. had dropped by to talk about fishing and I got distracted. Here's two, though, that were re-told:
While Jay was performing in North Dakota local legend, Sure Phitt, someone apparently switched the "S" and the "P" around on their poster promoting their next show. When Greg was in Demonic Discharge, a recently acquired lead singer (think Pantera - shaved head, army fatigue cut-off shorts, combat boots, Cookie Monster vox...got it?)evidently never memorized any lyrics. In the first song at his first show he got frustrated, dove off stage into the mosh-pit and was never...ever...seen again... Whoa! Well, maybe that dude will somehow turn up at the Triple Rock on Friday, May 29th. He would surely feel the luv of MegaMuff if he did! Rock on people, the day is soon upon us!

CANCELED!!! MEGAMUFF

There is no rehearsal this evening. please do not come to my house. i will not let you in... unless you have hookers and blow.
jj bones.