Influences: rock punk indie country bluegrass western swing blues other
I've been playing music live in bars for decades now, up until COVID. I've had a few gigs in the last months, but activity is very low.
I've been doing FAWM for a long time, and it's part of my life.
I'm an adult now (55), so I want to say I can handle criticism. If you're listening to a song of mine and you have things in mind that are more critical than the typical FAWM comment, feel free to leave those thoughts. I'm reasonably confident about what I'm doing, and I'd like to hear about things that hit people funny or may not be working incredibly well.
Just before COVID hit, Nancy Rost and Eric Agner released their first record, Violet Cusp. Rost, a singer-pianist based in Madison, WI and Agner, a singer and bassist in Washington, D.C. have been co-writing long distance since 2008. Their songs, expansive and energetic, span the genre gamut.
https://ericagnerandnancyrost.bandcamp.com/releases
Demos from years past: http://soundcloud.com/fawm-standup/
Pronouns: He/his/him
#1 | Antipode |
21 Feb 2022 |
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#2 | Nothing |
17 Feb 2022 |
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#3 | Postcard from Kyrgyzstan |
18 Feb 2022 |
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#4 | I'm a Ghost |
29 Feb 2022 |
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#5 | Genius |
10 Feb 2022 |
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#6 | Lost Someone |
12 Feb 2022 |
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#7 | Try the Impossible @nancyrost |
21 Feb 2022 |
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#8 | Do the Shank |
14 Feb 2022 |
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#9 | Things Start to Melt (4-Track tape 20) @fourtracktape |
18 Feb 2022 |
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#10 | Robot Space Force is Coming |
2 Feb 2022 |
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#11 | How Far I Fell |
9 Feb 2022 |
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#12 | Something to Believe In |
15 Feb 2022 |
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#13 | Tape 15 |
2 Feb 2022 |
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#14 | So Many Times (4-track tape 1) @zecoop |
2 Feb 2022 |
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#15 | Nobody Knew |
17 Feb 2022 |
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#16 | Priced out of the Palisades @loveonamixtape |
13 Feb 2022 |
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#17 | Sisyphus (Tape 9) @fourtracktape |
19 Feb 2022 |
Thanks so much for your kind words on my song Photographs. I so appreciate the support and encouragement. And I feel happy that I was able to convey the specifics of my experience and yet also make it universal.
Thank you for listening and for your kind comment on "Pleasant Dream Turned to Crap". Yeah, I didn't want to dwell on the 'crap' part of the dream. In the comedy, I see the person waking up all disappointed, and hopefully, the audience would find it funny. Also, I never actually change keys to a minor one - it's just the ii chord with a flat 5. I do want to revisit, though, how I introduce the dissonant notes. I think I can do it better. It's sort of tricky to do, while keeping it out of nightmare territory. I already went to a sort of nightmarish feel earlier this FAWM in "Disintegration" and so wanted something different in this piece.
Thanks for the tips - I shall look into those bands. I know Pylon, Widespread Panic, Oh OK (and Magnapop later) and perhaps marginally later people like Vic Chestnutt (I love Vic - he's very sadly missed) and Drive By Truckers. I've seen Inside Out, but not for years. I'm going to try and rectify that in the next day or two! Cheers.
Hi, thank you for your comments on my Baby Brown Eye's lyric. I didn't have the option of open adoption. Different time and place I guess. But, my daughter always knew she was adopted, that was their choice and I'm so grateful to them for that. I'm not her mother either, but she calls me her Fairy Mom, long story but a sweet one. Anyway, thank you so much for your kind comments.
Thank you for not getting irritated at my rambling comment!
Athens is near the top of my list of places I'd love to go to one day; I've never been to the States and I really must go one day. I've always thought that the music of one's youth casts a long shadow on the rest of one's life and if you grew up somewhere as fertile as Athens in the early 80s, that effect must be amplified 100-fold!
Or another version of self (oooo heady).
Busy Feb for sure; I owe you some listens as well this month. Thanks for checking out the Mommy track. Needed that short one to make it to 14.
Thank you for the listen and nice comment on "Where I am Headed I Really Don't Know", much appreciated!! Look at you 17!! Woot!!
Sweet that you remember "My Boyfriend!"
my first track is up!
yay! i'm always amazed at what you come up with here. wowie! miss you all, hoping things will calm down here for me this spring, but you never know!
Thanks for your comment on my slothcore song, Eric! That version you heard was the original one. My plan was to stretch it, bounce to tape at 5 bpm, and then compress it back to the original length... But when I tried that it sounded hideous, so I gave up.
It was fun trying to play guitar at 5 bpm, though. I was sipping beer between notes in the riffs!
Hey, you read my mind! Was just thinking about our possible/hopeful collab! Love the idea of a "proper" duet with trading verses and harmonies on a chorus. I've got a few lyric ideas I've been bookmarking and needing to flesh out and am happy to take a crack at getting us started with lyrics!
I love what you did on 'things start to melt!' :)
just sent you an email (need your address for the next 4 track) -thanks for hearing 'far from home' - was great fun to do!
Thank you so much for your comment on „Defeat the demise“, I‘m happy that you enjoyed it!
Thanks a lot for your comments! Haha yes you spotted the mistake in "She's contemplating". Why should she burn down the garage and put plastic bags into the trunk? It happened when I searched for rhymes, maybe we fix that when we record the song for real. @wacha will do a better job on vocals and guitar. I just started playing guitar some months ago, but I write and produce for more than a dozen years.
Thanks for your kind words on The Devil's Wife. I'm a less is more fan.
Hi, thank you for letting me know I messed up the URL! It's fixed now.
Thanks for your kind comment on my song 'I want my time with you'. I loved what you said about imagining architecture students drawing. Part of my inspiration was a memory from 20 years ago when I was a fine art student and we did what you described... drawing in huge spaces with interesting architecture. Glad that's what it evoked for you
Oh, thanks for that! I will not hesitate to reach out!
Hi, thanks for listening to Regular Old Living, and for your encouraging comment!
Thanks for listening :)
I wish I could help, but my song is purely fictional. However, the idea of going back and convincing your ex to just be friends sounds like a great song idea. (Forgive me if you’ve already posted this song—I will come back for some listening, but I’ve got to run now)
Thanks for listening to "When Summer Comes Home"!
I struggle to include enough imagery in my lyrics at times, but have found that the more I pull from real experiences, the easier it is to do so and that's where I think I tend to convey my feelings and stories most strongly.
Proving love by staying away is probably the hardest thing I've been thinking about recently.
Thanks again for taking the time to listen.
Thanks for listening to my Asteroid song. I appreciate your comments. (I read here, that you're an adult. Well, I'm one year-probably less-younger-so I haven't reached the same level of maturity. So thanks for going easy one me.) As for my humorous humor tags: somehow the commas didn't get in, and I created a whole new genre. That's evolution.
Thanks! Fun thing is i was literally using it an as instrument. Using the mode settings to change the harmonics in time to the music.
Thanks for your kind comments on "Room to Fail". It's really a process of unlearning old behaviors for me. I appreciate the feedback about color vs. grey. I was trying to fid a way to work in color, but skirmish time was running out and my brain was coming up blank! I've gone back and added a few options. I'd appreciate your thoughts on whether any of them work. Thanks!
Thanks for the kind words...guitar in the opening is a Squier Jazzmaster through a Twin. Yeah I'll have to see if all the lyrics pasted right when I get back to a computer. Thanks again!
Thanks for your kind words on Mr. Spaceman, much appreciated!!!
Ah, the EQ. Right. Perhaps the type of strings contributed? I just changed strings and hear them a bit bright but I'm moving the mic around to get a good sound and so far I'm not unhappy. Much better than the dead one with little pits in them.
Cool, guess Logic has gotten a lot of new features since I used it 10 years ago :)
Have several Audio Thing plugins including the Hainbach collabs, actually use Wires on a return track mainly for its mechanical noise emulation on the song you commented on. Used a modified Walkman we recently got in the studio that I wanted to test out for the lo-fi tape echo effects, so had no need to use Wires echo section. Would probably be a bit overkill :)
great - I'll reach out to you in the morning - not sure at this point if I'm going to plough on or pause.. - If I pause it would be great to meet up
ha, it is indeed the day i'm in DC! just spent two hours obsessing over a base part for that very song in my hotel - tomorrow I am meant to drive to Cincinnati - but the whole artic has dumped on it overnight - so I'm thinking I might delay a day...
It's interesting your comment in your song "Nothing", about how it didn't happen to you. My girlfriend is still not used to the fact that I'll write songs from different perspectives...
Yesterday I started a song with "Let's pretend that we're OK", and I saw her looking at me as soon as I sang the first lines, so I walked over and reassured that the song was not about me and her. :)
Thank you for the comment on my song :) Glad you enjoyed it and that you liked the twist.
Just listened to "Angel Acoustic" on Soundcloud and it's beautiful! I look forward to hearing your music!
Stopping by to say cheers! I was listening to Violet Cusp on the way home from work a couple days ago. It was just what I needed to leave the workday behind. :)
Hey Eric! Happy FAWMing! I always love hearing what you come up with, looking forward to your new tunes!
Thanks for your note! Always great to connect with other artists in the DC area -- Covid-permitting, it would be great to organize an in-person song-circle or something for local folks. Since you asked to hear some of my stuff, here's a link to my Soundcloud playlist from last year's FAWM: https://soundcloud.com/paparomeo/sets/fawm-songs-february-2021?si=9be6ccd4c9b74eda85f92707eb606cae&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Happy FAWM!
Hope you have a great FAWM!!
Hey, have a nice FAWM. Let it bring you a lot of geat tunes!
Thanks. You have a good one too. I'm still not planning on being super active. I burned out on 50/90 last year and really need to back off of writing for writing's sake. Take a more focused approach.
Hello! :D
Hey Eric, now that I have a face and voice connected with the bass and voice, I look forward even more to hearing your music! +1 on Team Gretsch ;)
Yes to Team Gretsch!!
Happy FAWM 2022! Hope all is well! Looking forward to hearing what you do next month!
Hi Eric! Thank you. I'm excited to see what this FAWM will bring.
So, your thoughts on whether you want to always be together with Patti for 4-tracks or wouldn't mid going separate? I'm thinking that I am going to do a random name draw for a number of tapes to get things rolling. After that, the tapes kind of run themselves, but I wanted to be sure to at least get one to everyone who wanted to be involved. Let me know. :)
Make it weep, sir...but gently.
Hey man! Happy FAWMing to you! Y'know I initially thought your avatar was a stapler...then revelation struck me.
Heya, Eric, I hope you are well. Have a great FAWM
Happy fawm!
Getting ready to go again. Looking forward to hearing your creations.
Thank you, it's good to see you here, too! And I definitely will -- especially given our stellar collab track record so far, if I do say so myself!
Hey there Eric! I always look forward to hearing your music! Want to do a 2 person 4 track collab? I am going to be using my 4 and 8 track machines more this year. Any specific plans?
Hi E
Hope you’ll have a great FAWM, not sure if I’ll be that active this year, but I’ll be looking forward to hearing new music from everyone.
Heya, friend! Happy FAWMing to you, too!
Great to see you back!!
I look forward to your sonic experiments for sure!
Welcome back!! So good to be back and WOW, it looks like 4-tracks are going to be flying around a ton this year. Very cool. Looking forward to hearing what you come up with on all fronts. Definitely want to get the 4-track band back together (me, you, Patti and Rob) but also hope to collab a normal song too. :)
Here's to another great Fawm!
Hey Eric! Happy new Fawm!
Hey, welcome back! I know you're going to make me miss my long lost portastudio again this year - enjoy!
welcome back! (and i have the 4 track waitin' to go!)
Hello, good sir. Here's to FAWM!
Looking forward to see what you come up with this FAWM!
Eric, looking forward to your songs and more tape collabs this year! Have an amazing FAWM!
Thanks for the open mic tip - I have a feeling I’m going to be in all the right places at all the wrong times! In D.C. on a Thursday…