Retrospective

Since this isn't updated daily/weekly/yearly(?) like a regular blog, let's make it easy.

Here is everything on one page.

The Cedars Two

Nom (2008)
1. Beneath the Weeds

2. I Need a Place to Stay

3. I Come Home to You

4. Whatever You Say

5. Spring

6. The Fire's Burning Brighter

7. Officer, Please

8. Where No Man's Eyes May Go

9. Appalachia

10. Accidents (Better Than Diamonds)

11. Pacific

12. Humor and Pale

MP3 (zip)
Lossless
Stream
Original Post


Satchuwar   (2008)
1. I Cannot Do This
2. Buffalo
3. Little Blue to Little White
4. Black Chameleon
5. In My Car
6. Fruitograph
7. Playground
8. Dungeon
9. Chapel
10. Charade
11. Tasting October
12. I Tried to Tell You...

MP3 (zip)
Lossless
Stream
Original Post


Funnel   (2009)
1. If You Don't, I Do
2. The World We Knew
3. Animals (Give Him a Title)
4. New Pacific

MP3 (zip)
Lossless
Stream
Original Post


Loose songs (mp3):
Abigail, Belle of Kilronan (Magnetic Fields cover)   (2007)
Affection   (2007)
A Letter, at Least   (1996)
Anniversary Song   (2007)
As You Turn to Go (6ths cover)   (2004)
Better Be Home Soon (Crowded House)   (2007)
Better Be Home Soon (Crowded House) (Strings Version)   (2007)
Birthday Candle   (2007)
Camera Shy (Lucksmiths cover)   (2007)
Certain I   (1996)
Certain II   (2006)
Checkers   (1993)
Come Back from San Francisco (Magnetic Fields cover)   (2003)
Copper   (1993)

Crazy Eyes   (2007)
Cut Off Their Thumbs (Mountain Goats cover)   (2008, Live)

Death Is Not the End (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds cover)   (2003)

Death to Everyone (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy cover)  (2007)
Desperate Happy   (2007)

Don't Let Go   (2008)
Every Good Thing   (1993)
From Mosquito to Frost II   (2002)
Graduation Day (Chris Isaak cover)   (2007)
Here I Go Again (Whitesnake cover)   (1993)

I Can't Touch You Anymore (Magnetic Fields cover)   (2007)
(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World (Wreckless Eric cover)   (2008, Live)
In Amongst the Millions (Vic Chesnutt cover)   (2008)
In Remission   (1994)

I Was a Teenage Stereotype   (1994)
Josephine (Magnetic Fields cover)   (2004)
Keeping the Weekend Free (Franklin Bruno / Liquorice cover)   (2003)
Lullaby   (2007)
Nightside   (2007)
Officer, Please   (2008, Live)

One for an Albatross   (1996)
Oscillation   (2007)

Parables   (2007)

Repair   (2008)
Room Full of Roses (George Morgan cover)   (2008, Live)
Rorschach   (2007)

Shadow Song (Mountain Goats cover)   (2007)

Small Things   (1993)

Something Good Is Shifting   (2008)
Spilt I   (1996)
Spilt II   (2006)
Spiritualized   (1997)

Stepping Stones   (1993)
Suicide Is Painless (Theme from M.A.S.H.)   (2008, Live)
The Belt Rattlers I   (1993)
The Belt Rattlers II   (1996)
The Belt Rattlers (J. Strings)   (2006)

The Drugs Don't Work (Verve cover)   (2008)
The Man Amplifier (Young Marble Giants cover)   (2008, Live)
The Only Thing   (1996)
The Other Way Around   (2007)
The Same Love That Made Me Laugh (Bill Withers / Bonnie 'Prince' Billy cover)   (2007)

We're Proud of You  (2008)

Wheels on Track (J. Version)   (2004)

Wheels on Track (M. Version)   (2004)

Which One of Us Are We   (2004)

Jennifer Solo


Autumn Sketches   (2008)
1. From a Distance
2. Faulty as Flesh
3. Mornings String Quartet
4. Carnival
5. Changes Course
6. Where Do You Want to Go
7. Autumn
8. Daddy
9. Catacomb
10. When Did I Cringe
11. Mockery
12. Alleluia
13.Denver

MP3 (zip)
Lossless
Stream
Original Post

Twenty Days of Nothing   (2009)
1. Puppets on the Wall
2. Everything Before Now
3. So Low
4. Ocean Floor
5. Gypsy
6. These Days
7. Like in High School
8. Desperation
9. Pacific
10. Duo by Wilhelm Braun for violin and viola

MP3 (zip)
Lossless
Stream
Original Post

The Fiberglass Girl   (2009)

1. Irvin Cobb: String Quartet
2. To the Wolves
3. Fractured
4. Two by Two
5. It All Passed By So Fast
6. I'll Sing You a Song
7. Quartet No. 6, mvt. 2
8, Daybreak
9. Janis and the Orpheus
10. Immediacy
11. My Velvateen
12. Glass Addictions
13. Quartet No. 12, mvt. 3

MP3 (zip)
Lossless
Stream
Original Post

Funnel

Funnel is the new e.p. by the Cedars Two, four songs arranged for violin, viola, 'cello and voices. It was recorded March-April 2009, here in our home. All string arrangements are by Jennifer.

Tracks:

If You Don't, I Do

The World We Knew

Animals (Give Him a Title)

New Pacific

Running time: 9:38

This .m3u plays a stream of the album.

This .zip contains the entire album as VBR V1 .mp3.

If you would prefer to download the songs individually in FLAC or mp3 format, and for a large version of the album art, please see this entry at archive.org.

I like thinking of it as one of those 33rpm 7" records with two songs on each side. This strings-only style is something I've wanted to do for a very long time. Thanks to Jennifer for indulging the idea, and for arranging and recording the strings.

As always, thank you for your listening time.

If You Don't, I Do

Here's a new song by the both of us, entitled "If You Don't, I Do."

Listen to the .m3u stream

Download .mp3

Download .flac

The story of how this song was made might be interesting.

8/17/08: I wanted to cover a soul song, and did. There were things I didn't like about the result, mainly that the vocal came out sounding like Songs: Ohia, which isn't what I wanted, and that I was playing the wrong chords anyway. So onto the scrap heap it went.

Left over on Jennifer's computer was the solo ukulele track, which she found and arranged for strings. We discarded the ukulele track. For six months the strings track sat around.

2/21/09: I had my eye on this strings part for a few weeks, so I loaded it up and started throwing test vocal parts at it. These were only meant to figure out what the melody should be and where the phrases should go. After a dozen takes there were six vocal tracks that could be mentally combined and re-recorded as a final vocal.

I played Jennifer the practice takes, she made some snips here and there and the song was finished.

This is the beginning of the new album, the one I said would be finished mid-February. In the next few days, there will be a new solo album by Jennifer. The new album with us working together will be a while longer.

We're Proud of You

This song didn't make it on the album.

We're Proud of You

Download mp3 or flac, or play the mp3 stream.

Thanks for listening.

Nom

Today we are proud to announce the release of our first album, entitled "Nom."

Track listing:

01. Beneath the Weeds

02. I Need a Place to Stay

03. I Come Home to You

04. Whatever You Say

05. Spring

06. The Fire's Burning Brighter

07. Officer, Please

08. Where No Man's Eyes May Go

09. Appalachia

10. Accidents (Better Than Diamonds)

11. Pacific

12. Humor and Pale

Running time 35:51

1, 2, 4, 7, 8 by Michael

3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12 by Jennifer

To download a .zip file of the album in .mp3 format, click this link. (45.1 M)

To listen to the album via mp3 stream, click this link.

If you'd like to download the songs individually, follow this link for mp3 or this link for flac.

"Beneath the Weeds," "Whatever You say," and "Where No Man's Eyes May Go" are different mixes than those previously posted here.

We thank you very much for listening.

Where No Man's Eyes May Go

Where No Man's Eyes May Go is an exile-song, sung by a voice in the wilderness. It's meant to be a companion to "Officer, Please," taking place in that story.*

(mp3, flac, or stream)

*Statements like this one are made solely for our amusement, and may be safely disregarded. We must first entertain ourselves.

p.s. The album will be complete soon. We are recording parts for four more songs by Jennifer.

Beneath the Weeds

There's bright snow on the ground, which means it's time for a song about murder. We hope Beneath the Weeds gives an impression of lunatic songs like "Psycho" (Eddie Noack, Jack Kittel, Elvis Costello) and "Down on the Banks of the Ohio" by the Blue Sky Boys, or the long suite on the second side of Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare.

(mp3, flac, or stream)

The murder-song is one of our favorite types, so expect to hear more from this narrator in the future. He always sings to his intended next victim.

Whatever You Say

Whatever You Say is a novelty duet in the style of "Think Twice" or "Yeah, Oh Yeah," to be filed under delusional courter. It's enough to say we sometimes hear only what we choose to.

(mp3, flac, or stream)

From the forthcoming e.p., which is tentatively titled That Is Not Helpful.

Best,

M.

I Need a Place to Stay

No, not really. It's only the name of the song. I Need a Place to Stay was written and recorded an hour ago.

(mp3, flac, or stream.)

The Drugs Don't Work

The Drugs Don't Work Original version performed by the Verve, available on the 1997 album Urban Hymns.

(Link)

p.s. We had some technical difficulties with several songs we uploaded to archive.org (i.e. songs that are not covers), but we have repaired everything. It didn't take long, but put us in a sleepless frame of mind. In the hours we gained we recorded this, one of our favorite laments.

p.p.s. We don't want to step on anyone's toes, so anyone with the band who wants us to take this down can contact us discretely by using the email link on this or any C2 page.

Officer, Please

Officer, Please is a persecution-song. The persecution-song type includes all songs in which a power alienates or oppresses the protagonist. We wanted to write a song in response to the text of Leonard Cohen's The Partisan, one that plays with the situation of the woman who gave shelter. We took the liberty of changing the narrator to someone more like us.


(mp3, flac, or stream)



In my opinion, Jennifer's strings arrangement on "Officer, Please" makes this the best song we've done together so far.

As always, thank you for listening.

Pacific

It's an original song this time around: "Pacific" was written and arranged by Jennifer.

Stream the mp3 here.
Download the mp3 here.
Download the flac here.

In Amongst the Millions

Hello, we are the Cedars Two, and this is where you will find our music. Thank you for your listening time. How we know there are many other songs you could spend it on.

Here is a song for you.

Link: In Amongst the Millions

Original version by Vic Chesnutt, available on the 2001 album Left to His Own Devices. This arrangement is by Jennifer Warren.