Check out this rad new (FREE) 3 song Christmas Ep from The Blamed just in time for the upcoming Christmas holiday. Featuring some pretty amazing guests and in their own unique style. Check it out right here and give those guys your support. They’ve announced that they just received their test press copies for the vinyl version of “The Church is Hurting People” and as soon as it is all finished up, it’ll be shipped out. We will have copies of this and the CDs in our store soon.
Hey Y’all, hope your holidays are going well, we just FINALLY got the test pressings for the vinyl, yahoo. So we wanted to give something back, no strings attached, here is the blamed family Christmas. I had a friend psuedo direct us on what songs to play, I have been thinking about this record for almost 4 years, this was the year. So here is some back story, I wanted to make it personal, so every song is a throwback to something from my youth, I used to go caroling in HS youth group.
Hark, I wanted to follow the structure from a Charlie Brown Christmas. Tobin and I have amazing talks and collaborations are always in the works, so he and I have talked about the talent he and his wife posses, Vanessa’s voice was perfect for this song, her accordion on the end was so cool as well.
Joy, I always wanted to mix these 2 songs, eventually I heard a famous pop singer do it and I was so disappointed, she ruined it, so this is our time to mess it up. I reached out to Kris Klein from One21 and Squad Five-0 to play the lead on the end, I know he and his wife Jamie are working on a husband wife project, so I asked if would sing the verse and she killed it, nothing to do with me, she did a wonderful job. I don’t have to sing Kris’s praise, he absolutely is everything classic rock as a guitar player, I am so glad he and his wife teamed up on this. Don’t forget the keys, and old fiend of mine Borre Moinichen from Norway the country, I have had so many fond memories collaborating with him, he was the keyboard player in my first offshoot of the satire called the blamed is dead, those demos…. So I knew he would “speak the language and kill it on this song, and he surpassed all of my expectations, he is such a talented musician. Jim got together with some family and friends for the ending vocals Niko Chica-Chaffin (first baby I remember ever holding), his wife Cathy Chica-Chaffin, Micah Chaffin and Sonia Santana
Away, I have been talking about collaborating with Sally Grayson from Black Swift for forever, we technically collaborate behind the scenes because she uses some of our studio gear for her tours, we used to play a song her and Jerome from Mortal wrote in the 90s together live, Jason Martin would drum, my point is we have a rich history. Jim and I talked about having a guest drummer and Jesse Sprinkle is the coolest, we also both have rich history with Jesse Sprinkle, his studio, his tones, his playing, it was so cool to be able to collaborate with Jesse Sprinkle. I had a vision for how I wanted to do the outro for the release, so Sid and I got Jesse Hawley from the satire to contribute some vocals for this track, Jesse is a great singer and he was able to put up with Sid and my ridiculous ideas. The outro for this song is a throwback to what I remember as Christmas as a kid, we tried to keep it legit, all the way to the scratchy vinyl sounds of the 70s version of this commercial.
Some honorable mentions, Lance Garvin and family took the cover photo (living sacrifice), Jesse Ewan helped me make the cover happen (speed babes rule), Jim recorded his drums and vocals in Fresno, Jeff recorded his parts in Peoria, Jesse Sprinkle recorded his parts at his studio in NY, Sally recorded her parts in Germany, Borre recorded his parts in Norway