Liner Notes: The Moscow Rules “4. Don’t Look Back, You Are Never Alone”

March 14, 2026March 14, 2026 berkstin#music, #rock, liner-notes, music, reviews, writingLeave a comment

Well this one took a while, but as of Friday March 13, 2026 our fourth EP is out in the world, on all the streaming services (except Spotify because fuck them). This one took a while because of the usual scheduling, life intervening, and so forth but also because we wanted to get it right. We questioned ourselves, tried new things, listened to round after round of rough mixes, went back and redid parts months later. Not because what was there was bad (well, not usually anyway…) but because we wanted to end up with something where there were no regrets. I’m really proud of it.

As usual I’ll go song by song but here are the credits that are the same on all tracks:

Average Joe Crane: all vocals. He also wrote all words and music except for the music to “Climbing Crowds,” which was written by Mike Bergstrom.

Michael Perez played all the drums, as well as engineering his own sessions.

Mike Bergstrom produced and engineered and mixed and mastered all tracks and you better believe he got a real nice bottle of Irish whiskey for his efforts (as well as praise and love and all that).

OK, the songs…

CLIMBING CROWDS: This was the obvious opener, a banger with a nice buildup and a huge chorus. Mike B sent Joe and I this track as we were putting together a list of potential tracks for this EP. A lot of what we heard on that demo is still in the finished product – Michael P replaced the original drum machine track, and I believe Mike B replaced a keyboard bass part with a ‘real’ bass guitar part, but what you hear is real close to his original idea. Of course, Joe knocked the lyrics and vocals out of the park on this, maybe my favorite performance of his since the first record. Which leads to a little behind the scenes story… When Joe came out to record his parts, we set up at An Undisclosed Location and got to work. As mentioned Mike B is the Man, so I happily played cable monkey/tea boy for the session, tuning guitars and keeping Joe in red wine while they worked. We were tracking vocals in the control room and Joe’s a largish mammal so I would generally hang in the lounge while the two of them did the tracks. So I’m sitting out there hearing him work through the song in sections and I’m digging the melody, getting excited. Of course all of my and Mike B’s guitars are all around me, so I grabbed my new-at-the-time Black Bobbin JM and figured out Joe’s vocal melody, then started tweaking and chopping and guitar-ifying it. As soon as Joe took a break I harangued Mike B into letting me lay down what I had come up with, and that is the guitar solo you hear on the finished song. Every other stringed instrument you hear is Mike B.

SHIVERS: This one has a long and winding history. Originally called ‘Sunshine Shivers,’ the earliest version of it I could find on my various hard drives is from 2014. We worked on this as a possible cut on our second EP, but it got dropped pretty early in the process. It wasn’t that it was a bad song, we just couldn’t get it to work. When we started this new EP, Joe brought it back to the table and we landed on the formula that you hear – tom-heavy driving drums (remind me a bit of Adam Ant, Icicle Works), some glam rock guitar (I was thinking T Rex when I was putting my parts together but I don’t know if anyone else would get that), and no guitar solos. Back in 2014 when we were brainstorming on this cut I suggested some mariachi style horns and was promptly sent to the corner, but this time around we realized we needed something horn-like for texture. Enter the Electro-Harmonix Mono-9 synth pedal. Basically you plug your guitar into it and you can emulate old school monophonic synthesizers. The key word being ‘monophonic’ – you have to play only one string, one note at a time or the pedal completely glitches out. You can hear it in the song during the ‘scratchy’ guitar parts that happen right after each time Joe says “Shivers”. I am thrilled at how this one came out, and that we got one of our orphaned songs finished up and out there. As far as who played what, Joe plays the strummy/clean guitar, Mike B plays bass and some of the chunky guitars, I play my Marc Faux-lan part and the synth guitar.

BROKEN RECORD: According to Joe, this song is 23 years old. I do remember him playing it in the mid 00’s, I may even have backed him up on it at a biker bar outside of Houston at some point. This is another one that was slated for the second EP but we couldn’t get a take we liked and put it aside. When we revisited it recently we STILL struggled to find the right tempo and rhythm. It’s not a complex song but it requires a certain swing that was damned elusive. Michael P finally delivered a drum track that clicked everything into place. Mike B played the bass and some of the guitars, I believe Joe’s rhythm guitar is also in there. I played my baritone guitar tuned to drop A to add a little Crazy Horse fuzz to the mix, and found one of my favorite tones ever on the lead guitar part. I like the back and forth between Joe’s voice and the guitar. Another one that’s really satisfying to have out there finally.

BROKEN STRINGS: Our third overall song with the word ‘broken’ in the title. This and the next/last song on the EP were newish ones Joe brought to the table. I’m thrilled with how they turned out but confess they were both struggles. Like most of the songs Joe brings us, he had been playing them live, just him and his acoustic, for a while before laying them down for us to build the songs around. So when he recorded them they were… long. Which works great if you’re playing a solo set but not as much for a rock record. I believe the initial run time on this track was over 7 minutes. Once we got our heads around the song and figured out a workable arrangement we broke out the digital scissors and got it down to a slightly less epic length. Joe, Mike B and I all share rhythm guitar duties, and I got bass duties. As far as the guitar solo, if you didn’t know that Vivian Campbell’s guitar work on the first two Dio records were a huge influence on me, now ya do.

HEAR AND NOW: Lighters up, people. Once this one started coming together it was obvious it would be the closer, and probably the show closer if we ever gig again. One element Joe was adamant be included was what he called the ‘pulse,’ which I think he envisioned as a keyboard thing. I ended up breaking out the mono synth pedal (see #2 above) and running my baritone guitar through it, then Mike B cooked up the tremolo effect and voila, pulsation. The song is all about the build up and Joe’s extremely hooky vocal melodies. Definitely channeling some 1983 on this one.

Albini

May 9, 2024 berkstin1990s, albini, music, nirvana, stevealbiniLeave a comment

I never met him, but I’ve been listening to records he engineered (as he would put it, never thought of himself as a producer) for 30+ years. Pixies (about whom he never had a positive word), PJ Harvey, The Frames, of course Nirvana, and so on. I even have a former bandmate who did an album with him with some unknown band. If you could pay the rate he’d do the gig. Simple. He was a craftsman. An ENGINEER.

Never listened to much of the music he made, and what I did listen to didn’t do much for me. Too trebly and mechanistic for my tastes but I never heard enough to make an informed judgement so I’ll leave to others to comment on that. I don’t think that would bother him. What I think would have bothered him was thanking him in person for engineering some record I loved. “Tell it to the fucking band who wrote and played the songs” I imagine he’d say.

He was at least publicly a grump, although from stories I’ve heard a joker and a funny guy as well (the stories about his prank calls are fantastic). Like I said I didn’t know him but he contributed a LOT to my enjoyment of music and in an industry that has always been a hive of scum and villainy he was by all accounts an honest dealer. He was motivated by things other than money or attention and that is a way of living that is in very short supply these days.

In sum, from what little I know, Steve Albini was proof that if you are really really good at what you do AND you are scrupulously honest in all your dealings and interactions then you can be the grumpy dude in the knit cap and coveralls who is more interested in playing poker or how to build the perfect room for recording drums than being cool or points on the back end and nobody’s gonna give you shit about it. Not a bad way to be at all. 🤘

That was 2015: My End of Year Mixtape, Volume 2

January 6, 2016January 6, 2016 berkstinBlack Ryder, Bully, Chvrches, Crooked Fingers, Dodos, end of year lists, Father John Misty, Florence & the Machine, Greg Dulli, Josh Ritter, Mikal Cronin, music, Ryan Adams, Sharon Van Etten, Sheer Mag, The Frames, William FitzsimmonsLeave a comment

A double-album required a double-post, so here is the conclusion of my mixtape commentary. You can read the first part here.

Sheer Mag, “Fan the Flames”
A few tracks back I mentioned that Royal Headache’s second album suffered from its clean production. This – what these Phillie freaks have going on, that glorious SCUZZINESS – is what I am talking about. Back in the day caring about lyrics meant you were a folkie or a crooner, and that ain’t rock n roll.
Bully, “Reason”
Yep. Two Bully tracks. They deserve it. Hell here’s a whole concert. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Mikal Cronin, “Turn Around”
I was introduced to this guy at this year’s Treasure Island Music Festival. Great power-pop songwriting, really good live band.
The I Don’t Cares, “King of America”
“So, they sort of sound like, if Paul Westerberg and, like… Juliana Hatfield had a band?” Well, that’s because for some reason this actually IS Paul and Juliana, although she isn’t exactly prominent on this track. Curious to hear the whole album.
Florence & the Machine, “What Kind of Man”
Been a fan since her first singles hit America. This song reminds me of The Cult but I cannot figure out why.
Sharon Van Etten, “I Don’t Want to Let You Down”
The Queen of the Sad Bastards. Exquisite.
Ryan Adams, “Style”
Ah, the indie music media storm of the year. And I still haven’t listened to the original album. Hey, good songwriting is good songwriting, and both the coverer and coveree in this situation know what that is.
Josh Ritter, “Getting Ready to Get Down”
Such a smart, fun songwriter. I still think his high points were 2006’s “The Animal Years” and 2007’s “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter,” but the new album has some solid tracks on it.
The Frames, “None But I”
It was fitting to put the Frames next to Josh Ritter, since they discovered him at an open mic in Rhode Island and convinced the Idahoan to move to Ireland where he first found success. I’ve been despairing of new Frames music for a long time, since singer Glen Hansard appeared in “Once,” won an Oscar and so forth. But they at least gave us a retrospective album this year, and this is one of the new recordings on it. Not the best Frames track, but even middlin’ Frames music is better than most.
Father John Misty, “Bored in the USA”
I caught FJM at the Treasure Island Festival this year, and I think I get what he’s at. The costume, the false-feeling camaraderie with the fans, etc. He’s subverting the whole Laurel Canyon coked out rockstar thing, right? In any case, this is a bold song. The laugh track cinches the deal.
The Dodos, “Two Ships”
Another installment from the Polyvinyl 4-Track Singles Series Vol. 2 but one that I can actually find a link to! These guys really took their sound in a different direction on this track, and the crunchy old synth outro seemed like a great lead in to…
Chvrches, “Never Ending Circles”
I’ve written about Chvrches before, so I won’t repeat myself. Just couldn’t pick one song so here’s 3. Also caught their set at Treasure Island and dammit they can do it live too. Such a great band.
Chvrches, “Leave a Trace”
Chvrches, “Clearest Blue”
Greg Dulli, “A Crime”
The Savior of Misbehavior covering the Queen of the Sad Bastards? Yes please! Frankly Dulli covering anyone is worth listening to.
Alabama Shakes, “Sound & Color”
And now we start to ease ourselves towards the exit. What an undeniable voice (she also fronts Thunderbitch who appeared somewhat more raucously earlier in the mix), and although I am normally anti-vibes and anti-xylophone; just anti- any instrument the playing of which involves a mallet, really – this is a nice groove.
The Black Ryder, “Throwing Stones”
It was hard to pull a single song of this album, which is really all one big, dark highway run. It takes me back to the first Mazzy Star album and that’s never a bad thing.
Crooked Fingers, “The Old Temptations”
Yep, a THIRD entry from Polyvinyl’s 4-Track Singles Series. Go Polyvinyl! I even didn’t hate the Deerhoof single that was included. Hmmm. I just realized that this track has some mallet-involved instrument on it. Problematic…
William Fitzsimmons, “Pittsburgh”
Don’t know much about this guy other than he has a mighty beard and a nice turn of phrase. Basically I figured anyone with the stamina to make it through the entire mix would probably need a rest, and this song, while really good, makes me sleepy.