Jeff: Well, here we are, Twenty Ten, going on the future….and we finally have a new song for you.  I think this year we’re going to do a song every other Tuesday, just to make sure we can keep up and put more time into these things.   I’ve rearranged the Vegas Bound Studios so all the recording equipment is set up all the time, and there are several good song ideas percolating about and MCQ has a gig in August (The Boulder Fringe Festival), so we should have some quality tunes for you this year.  Which doesn’t forgive today’s song, but whatever.

The music for this song is something I’ve had sitting around for awhile and have always had my ear on as something that could be turned into a decent song.  The lyric “Nothing More To Say” came about one day in a fit of anger, when I was frustrated with whatever situation I was in at the time….but as the new year unfolded and I took some time off and things seemed to level off and maybe take a small turn for the better, I couldn’t write that song anymore.  So yesterday, when I sat down to write the lyrics for this, it became not about anger, but about a gentle Sunday morning.  Yeah, sometimes guys can be gentle.  Enjoy.  And come back in two weeks for more gentle whisps of music….riiiiight.  We’ll have something rockin’ in two weeks.   I can only take so much of this gentle happiness.

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Lyrics:

Sunday morning nothing more to say
I’ve been talking all week nothing more to say
Stay in bed with you baby and sleep away the day
Have a cup of coffee and here I lay

Yay yay

We’ve been together forever baby nothing more to say
When I look at you I see me nothing more to say
A house two kids a foundation a lifetime of play
And baby baby baby baby I really love your way

Yay yay

When we look back we’ll say nothing more to say
We did the right things we had the right words to say
We grew up we grew old we built a life together we had some fantastic days
They will talk about us like we were out of the ordinary

Yay yay

Sunday morning nothing more to say
I’ve been talking all week nothing more to say
Stay in bed with you baby and sleep away the day
Have a cup of coffee and here I lay

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Words and Music:  Jeff C.

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Jeff: Things have gotten crazy around here, so we’re taking the easy way out and giving you more videos!  YAY!  No, seriously, we’ll get back to audio shortly.  In the meantime, here’s a video.

Jeff: Well, here’s one more video for you (next week we’ll get back to recording some audio).  This comes to us from 2007, and it was MCQ’s second gig ever.  And Floyd and I wanted to write an introductory rap….but we wanted to mess with each other, too.  So we agreed to write a rap, rhyming “quartet” in each lyric, alternating alphabetically.  And if THAT isn’t confusing enough, we wrote the lyrics for each other, so neither one of us had any idea beforehand what was on the cards we were reading.  It turned out to be a lot of fun and, if I knew all the lyrics, I’d write them up for you.  But I don’t, so just enjoy the video.  Next week, more new songs!

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Words and Beats:  The Mathematically Challenged Quartet

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Jeff: Um, yeah.  There’s not a whole lot to say about this one.  Just enjoy.

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Lyrics:

Hey there girl let’s go out and get naughty
I’ll take you out to a nice chicken sauté
Just you and me girl and a waiter who’s snotty
Forget him let’s have a nice sexy party

After a bottle of wine and some potatoes au gratin
Maybe you’ll want some desert, maybe some flan
Maybe I’ll even pay the bill, a free meal you’ve gotten
Or if we’re out at Chinese you’ll have a sexy won ton

You and me and a jar of peanut butter
You and me there could be no other

You and me and a bottle of Nutella
You and me and 5 or 6 other fellas

Hey there girl let’s go back to my barbecue
I’ll make you a hot and juicy curry vindaloo
If you want you can bring your stinky sister, too
She’ll eat the best meal she’s had since she got back from picachu

After I clean up the pinot noir that you’ll spill
I’ll take your wine glass and yes, I’ll refill
You’ll fall for me as I clean up your mess, yes you will
And I’ll take off all my clothes as I finish up at the grill

You and me and a box of nutter butters
You and me and my two older brothers

You and me and a big ol’ renaissance fair turkey leg
You and me, c’mon baby don’t make me beg

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Words and Music:  Jeff C.

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Jeff: Here’s another video of a song from the MCQ gig at the Boulder Fringe Festival last month.  This is “Big Dog,” which, if you recall, is song #29 in our countdown of the year’s best 52 songs  (All of a sudden, I feel like Kasey Kasem!).  Anyway, we took that song and turned it into our 1980s themed song for the show, so any resemblances to Devo, living or dead, are purely on purpose.  Actually, it sounds more like a Kraftwerk song, but it looks like a Devo song.  And yes, we are wearing bathrobes and showing our Big Dogs to the audience.  See what you miss when you skip an MCQ show?  Enjoy.  Next week, you’ll learn how to properly use Nutella.

Lyrics:

When it’s Friday and you’re lonely and confused
You’re walking the city streets bemused
All you’re wearing is a trench coat London Fog
What you gonna do? You’re gonna show ‘em the Big Dog

When it’s Saturday night and it’s very late
You walking through the mall looking for a date
All you’re wearing is a trench coat London Fog
What you gonna do? You’re gonna show ‘em the Big Dog

Woof woof, woof woof

Keep the Big Dog inside until you see a pretty girl
Then it’s the Big Dog that you should unfurl
I got a feeling she’ll take the Big Dog for a stroll
As long as she doesn’t call animal control

When you’re out with a girl, somebody you just met
You think she might be looking for something to pet
All you’re wearing is a trench coat London Fog
What you gonna do? You’re gonna show her the Big Dog

When you’re at your job and your boss is being a dick
He’s hanging with the guy he promoted over you, he made the wrong pick
All you’re wearing is a trench coat London Fog
What you gonna do? You’re gonna show ‘em the Big Dog

Keep the Dog inside until you see a pretty girl
Then it’s the Big Dog that you should unfurl
I got a feeling she’ll take the Big Dog for a stroll
As long as she doesn’t call animal control

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Words and music:  Jeff C.

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Jeff: Here’s another video from the MCQ Boulder Fringe Festival; it’s Floyd’s song, and we’ve played it several times, but usually with instruments.  For this show, however, we decided to try it acapella.  I guess I should explain something:  Our shtick for this show was that we are the “Unluckiest Band In The World,” and that every song we put out was immediately eclipsed by a better, more well known song by some other artist.  And so we arranged our songs in a chronological order (and changed some of them to fit) so that MCQ played a song from the 1950s, a couple from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and our last song was a techno jam from the early 21st century.  So in last week’s video for “Pirate,” we were dressed like Simon and Garfunkel because that was our 1960s folksy song.  This video, as you’ll see, has us as a boy band, which is why we did it acapella.  Think ‘NSync meets Backstreet Boys.  MCQ Style.  If there is such a thing.  Enjoy.

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Words and Music:  Floyd J.

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Jeff: Because Saturday is International Talk Like A Pirate Day, we (The Mathematically Challenged Quartet) give you our 1960s almost-mega-hit, “Talk Like A Pirate,” as performed at the 2009 Boulder Fringe Festival.  There are some dirty words in it, so keep the kids and co-workers away.  Enjoy.

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Words and Music:  MCQ

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Jeff: Well, here’s a newer version of last week’s song – as you can tell, when we get a song idea we like, we tend to work on it for a while.  And we like this one.  So enjoy.  Next week, Pirates!

Anthony: The lyrics weren’t actually written in commemoration of anyone’s birthday. It’s more about going through life and, essentially, reaping what you sow. Everyone’s familiar with the phrase “circle of life”; well, this more like the “circle of karma”. Groovy, man.

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Lyrics:

I was twenty
Life was good
And plenty
But I told one lie too many
She left me wondering when she’d
Come around

I was thirty
Love was fun
And dirty
But too many girls were “purty”
And too many of them heard me
Sneaking ‘round

There ain’t no bars
But I’m doing time
In solitary
For my crimes
Crimes of passion
Crimes of excess
All in fashion
Signs of success
Have given way to
Signs of my crimes

Now I’m forty
Life’s a very
Different story
Less of someone else and more me
Like a revolving door she’s
Finally come around

When I’m fifty life will be nifty.
I won’t be cheap I’ll be thrifty
When I’m dying
Who’ll be smiling?
Who’ll be crying?
Don’t wanna still be tryin’
Just wanna know that I have
Come around

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A Chacon/Reynoso Thing

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Jeff: Well, it’s Anthony’s birthday week (everybody wish him a happy 29th birthday!) and he wanted to work on this song, so here it is, in progress.  Basically, so far, I’ve outlined just the melody lines and music with my acoustic guitar and my voice, based on Anthony’s words.  Eventually, within the next couple of days, it’s going to turn into a Dwight Yoakum meet Lynyrd Skynyrd kinda thing.   So come back for that.  And enjoy this regularly scheduled program, already in progress.

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Lyrics:

I was twenty
Life was good
And plenty
But I told one lie too many
She left me wondering when she’d
Come around

I was thirty
Love was fun
And dirty
But too many girls were “purty”
And too many of them heard me
Sneaking ‘round

There ain’t no bars
But I’m doing time
In solitary
For my crimes
Crimes of passion
Crimes of excess
All in fashion
Signs of success
Have given way to
Signs of my crimes

Now I’m forty
Life’s a very
Different story
Less of someone else and more me
Like a revolving door she’s
Finally come around

When I’m fifty life will be nifty.
I won’t be cheap I’ll be thrifty
When I’m dying
Who’ll be smiling?
Who’ll be crying?
Don’t wanna still be tryin’
Just wanna know that I have
Come around

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A Chacon/Reynoso Thing

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Jeff: Well, MCQ played a great gig in Boulder two weeks ago (I’ll have some videos from that up soon) and I took last week off….because you got two songs the week before….and then I tuned my oldest guitar to an open ‘G’ tuning.  Yeah, I took a guitar that I bought for a girlfriend in 1988 (with strings nearly that old!) that I subsequently took back when she dumped me for her boss and I tuned it to an open ‘G’.  For a change, because most of my life I’ve played guitar in standard tuning.  And I think I’m gonna permanently leave it in open ‘G’, because it’s fun to experiment with that.

Once in ‘G’, I came up with this.  It’s an ambient sort of thing, positive in mood, hopeful in atmosphere.  Because, really, that’s how I roll.  Or, psychologically, that’s how I like to escape my demons.  By killing them with hope and positivity.  Enjoy.

Next week:  A very special tune for a very special birthday.  Look for it.

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Music:  Jeff C.

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