Yes, THAT one. “The letter U and the numeral 2.” A cover for Theme Music by my tremendously amorphous side project Virgins and Philistines. Enjoy until it gets content ID’ed out of existence.
Author: admin
Sunday, 8 March 2015
Wednesday, 4 March 2015
The End [Video]
A duet with the charming Zoenda McIntosh of the fabulous b-side of Ian Whitcomb’s N-N-N-Nervous! (Also covered to remarkably different effect by Linda Ball, strangely also on a b-side.) Featuring the estimable guitars of Torbjörn Petersson. For Theme Music‘s Breaking Up theme. Enjoy!
Thursday, 18 September 2014
US Air [Video]
Video for an unfinished song, made for Theme Music‘s Lost (unreleased song) and Found (the footage) themes.
Original video source
Saturday, 13 September 2014
Dan Bryk on MuchMusic Rapidfax [Video]
Aaah, the spoils of youth. Classic photobombing by Danny Michel.
Monday, 31 March 2014
Whatever Happened to Dan Bryk?
2014, year of the Twerk. Oh, the Horse. The damn “new record(s)” is/are taking forever, but yet I keep stealing time for them from my busy busy actually-income-streaming life. You’ll like them, I swear. One of the catchier numbers was unveiled in Radio Free Song Club’s episode #30, of which I am understandably honoured to interlope.
Number 30 | Radio Free Song Club
TO PLAY THE SHOW: Click the arrow. Click in the text box to move forward or back in the show. Adjust the volume with the bars on the left.
I moved to Washington DC (“our nation’s capital!”) at the end of last year. I miss Dar but it’s also nice having my studio back again. I took a Coursera Songwriting MOOC with professor Pat Pattison of Berklee. While finding time for hours of lectures, writing and demoing whilst full-timing a three-year-old was tricky, I learned a ton of valuable stuff, even at my advanced age. The peer assessment feedback was priceless. Assuming you’re curious, here’s my final assignment:
Now that I am practically soaking with UAD mix horsepower, I decided to dust off and finish up a couple more unreleased, abandoned, practically decontextualized recordings for the Lovers Leap bonus record — one you’ve heard if you basically EVER saw me play a show from 2000 on. The other one you’ve never heard of, I promise, but if you spent time in Parkdale in the early oughts you shall chuckle heartily. And the other other one was the flip of the ultimately non-existent Nova Bryk split 7″. (Those guys are so incredibly post-rock now, they were like “yes, take the rock from us Bryk, it’s yours now.”)
Also, I hereby promise never to Twerk.
Thursday, 15 August 2013
Some old sh*t.
Came across this dead link while searching for Lovers Leap Deluxxxe reissue media. That beats Tiny Desk Concerts by a decade! Sadly, the actual files of the performances are probably long since deleted.
Spin | Features | Spin Live
Spin Magazine: The Online Authority for Music and News
I keep coming across stuff that makes me wish I was still half as clever as I was in my 20’s. This is from an interview with Tokyo’s Kansai Scene:
Q: If some stupid rock critic asked you to list your influences, what would you say?
A: Late nights, loud music, and air conditioning. Rock critics always think my influences are Randy Newman and Jonathan Richman, when it fact it’s more like Walter Benjamin and Hoffman-LaRoche.
Q: What’s next for Dan Bryk?
A: Sleep, followed by strong mochaccino, some light exercise, a morning spent at the piano, and perhaps a late afternoon at the bookstore browsing Billboard and The Baffler. I will drive home, prepare a delicious meatless dinner entree, and then feel guilty about procrastinating all day.
But seriously kids, don’t squander your precious, precious youth! When you have a job and kids of your own, you will read statements like that one and feel incredibly envious of your younger self to the point of hatred. And then you will just feel stupid.
Saturday, 10 August 2013
Lovers Leap Deluxe Reissue
Let’s see… what else is new? The Deluxe! Lovers Leap reissue hit a bit of a snag after a drive full of original artwork and media assets went into storage instead of coming to Africa with me… but the audio part is all ready and should have some real treats for y’all: Outtakes, alternates, demos, contemporaneous originals, radio sessions and a couple of live versions. And finally, that “Rick WakeMed” cover of Feelings I was too chicken sh*t to release. The original concept was “Lovers Leap: Lucky 13th Anniversary Edition” but it looks like I’m going to slip by that date.
Here’s a question: Does anyone still care about iTunes LPs? I was going to make one as proof of concept that I have the up-to-date .css and .js skills to actually make one, but it looks like Apple and The Orchard might make me jump through hoops to make that happen. I love reading liner notes, especially when they contextualize reissues of things I don’t know enough (or anything) about, and there are some pretty good Lovers Leap stories to share. Every song has at least a paragraph or two, and there are a essays and assays. Would anyone be offended if I just made a 99¢ Kindle Single of the liner notes for anyone who cares enough? I can include a PDF in the Bandcamp version.
Of course, if we kickstarted some vinyl, I would have plenty of room for liner notes…
Wednesday, 7 August 2013
Schmello World!
Pole sana. Why the new WP install? Why, I must be late for my annual blog post! I was seriously tiring of that rapidweaver abomination standing as my “web presence.” I’m this far from becoming a Facebook dropout, in which case it was manifest destiny to migrate Buddhabubba (formerly “my personal blog”) into sort of a “new website.” So here we be. I am still in Dar Es Salaam, still nursing the songs and arrangements that will become my “new record(s).” Culture shock, the molasses jar of time called African logistics, and, uh, parental responsibility sucked up an awful lot of time this year. A year of rebooting. Despite my rMBP and now Logic X allowing for yet another unwanted matrix of possibilities, work on the “new record(s)” continues slowly but dutifully. It’s finishing the damn lyrics, as usual, that’s holding everything up. I think these are the wordiest songs I’ve ever tried to sing. One possible release configuration has the working title Lies of Girls and Women: it has one song entitled Hannah Horvath, one called White Nanny, and the possible “hit” has a spelled out chorus: E-R-I-N. As usual, any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental, and even they might complain that songs seem to be the only relationships in my life where I indulge in obstructive perfectionism. Amen, sister.
P.S.: Sorry about all those scare quotes.
Saturday, 5 May 2012
She Doesn’t Mean A Thing To Me Tonight [Video]
The song that started it all, now in glorious 480p.
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Pitchfork
Pop Psychology got a very nice review from Pitchfork yesterday, theoretically the biggest media “break” this record might receive.
I know I’m probably breaking some sort of taboo by writing this, but 24 hours later… here’s the math:
• 1,734 web page loads from bryk.com
• 4954 song plays on my Reverbnation widgets (including the main player on the splash page of my site)
• 5 Reverbnation Site Visits, no added fans
• 6 Tweets linking to the review (not including my own)
• 1 Email from a high school friend I haven’t heard from in 20 years.
(I have no idea what’s going on with Myspace, as of this morning it says my “profile is undergoing routine maintenance” as is my ability to log in. They apologize for the inconvenience, which is kind of annoying considering the timing, but not a huge issue as they don’t really provide much in the way of stats.)
• I’ve had 346 streaming player/store visits
• I’ve had 101 track “plays”
• I’ve given away 22 free downloads: 15 Pop Psychology, 1 Lovers Leap, 1 Discount Store and 5 miscellaneous track downloads
• I’ve sold exactly 4 PP downloads (plus a Lovers Leap download)
Hmm.
1. Pitchfork drove a fair bit of Traffic to my site(s).
2. Could my music really be that unappealing to all those readers and listeners?