Welcome to August! Our first song this month, which as I look ahead seems to have a little common theme of "who?", is "Come On" by Number One Fan

Number One Fan were a band from Wisconsin who were active for a short time in the early 2000s. I don't remember how I first heard this record; it's possible I sought it out after seeing the video for this song on punkrockvids.com or it was in the add bin at my college radio station. Either way, I heard it and was immediately into it. Their first, and only true proper release 'Compromises' is a really lovely record of emo tinged indie rock that reminded me of some of my favorite bands, distilled into a character that set them apart. I doubt that many people know this band, or this song, but I encourage you to check out that record.

They changed their name to the Wildbirds shortly after putting this record out in 2004,but then put out an unreleased record as Number One Fan in 2007, only to break up and reform as a whole new lineup as the Wildbirds in 2010. Needless to say, they didn't have much of a presence past those of us random enough to catch them.

Since they existed for such a short time, and definitely before any of us had smart phones with video cameras in our pockets, there isn't much more than the record and the accompanying music video for this song. That provided challenges in learning it, but honestly proved to be a blessing, because it left me room to change things to more of my own taste and instinct. I made minor changes in the drum part; mostly adding the constant floor tom in the beginning of the chorus, and doing a more complicated turnaround before the second verse, which was completely accidental.

For the guitars, I blended my SG and Cabronita, playing slightly different parts, to highlight some of the notes that would get lost while palm muting and constant strumming. The guitars are definitely a little dirtier than the original, but I was able to brighten them up by utilizing a guitar bus for the first time, and adding a nice EQ plugin. On top of that, I added my Nash JM-63 in an open tuning, capo'd real high up the neck, to play some really pretty and washed out picking. That just added a little more atmosphere to the song that I thought gave it some space. I also tried out some new compressor settings on my stereo mix, which i think, gave the song a nice step forward in quality.

I honestly think this is the happiest I've been with a vocal in this series so far, and I attribute that partially to having that additional space to interpret the song more, but mostly because I've been singing a lot more than I had been. Quarantine definitely got me out of practice, and I've always hated recording my own voice, but I feel like I'm finding a rhythm and getting a little better each time. That being said, I am especially looking forward to other guest vocalists taking over, so I don't have to do this all the time (ha!).

This month, we'll be sending our charitable donations to The Trevor Project (www.thetrevorproject.org) who provide crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth. Right now, with schools reopening in the US haphazardly, and with some really harsh bigotry being so loud, I think helping these kids with their struggles is really important. We need their voices to be a part of our future.

Thank you so much for your continued support. I was able to send in $50 to the Movement for Black Lives (got about $43 after Bandcamp fees, and I rounded up) and I wouldn't have been able to right now without you. I know I'm not the most well known, and I'm doing this silly project, but just knowing I can use this to raise a couple extra dollars for something I care about, that I think we should all care about, is really awesome.

I hope you enjoy, and see you next week!