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7 Plays

Blind Man Running - Demo - This is a song I had recorded back in 2006 in the basement of the house I was living in.  Johnny and Emi, the landlords, we kind enough to allow me to make as much noise as I wanted down there as this was a byproduct of said noise.  I’m playing all the instruments in this track and provide the off key singing. 

I wrote the song while I was working in a nursing home and often will play this with the accompaniment of a mandolin.  I have the original recording of when I came up with this but we will save that for perhaps another day.  There is really no meaning behind it, the lyrics just came to my head along with the music and I wrote them down. 

I hope you like it. 

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4 Plays

Davy Crockett - This is a remix I did of the classic Disney Song, Davy Crockett.  I added some drums to the project and did a little post mixing to make everything fit.  My daughter has a bunch of old Disney tunes form old movies and TV shows and to make them bearable to listen to, I have added a little bit to them.  This is one of three I did.  My kids enjoy it, hope you do too.   

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Is There a Band Wagon Around?

So I guess Tumblr is becoming more and more popular and people are starting to consider it a fad of sorts, or saying “I’m jumping on the bandwagon and signing up”. I had no idea this site was even considered popular. I personally picked it over any other blog site because I was able to post my music, photos and videos at my leisure. But hey, if people are coming over to the smart side, I’m not going to complain or bicker because as we all know, I signed up. Perhaps I tumbled into the wagon without even realizing it. Oh, and by the way, I think some band out there needs to call themselves “Wagon” That way, when people ask you who your favorite band is, what’s that band we just listened to, or what band are you going to see, you can tell them that it’s the band “Wagon”. Their first album can be called something like “Get On” or “Pile Into” or something along those lines. Come on people who don’t read my blog and are looking for a band name, get on this and make it happen. All I ask if for thanks in the CD liner notes. Oh, and a new car, but only if you make enough off your success to by me a new car. If you don’t make enough, perhaps fixing my old car would be in order. Yes, that is my price for the idea. You can have the name Wagon if you buy me a new car, or fix my old one. Speaking of my old car, which to say, is my current car. It’s bad. I mean, it needs some Major work. It shimmy’s like a young Elvis when I drive it. There is a hole in the window washer tank, the ABS system is dead, my rear defroster no longer works, and my AC is no longer of this earth. So yeah, it’s bad. But by far, the most concerning part is the rocking back and forth it does as I drive it. Yes, I need it fixed but shit gets expensive and I just don’t have the funds right now. I would also like to wait until the weather is nicer so I can crawl under there and look into it myself. I’m pretty sure I know where to start but seeing as I have zero knowledge of how to fix cars, perhaps my brother or brother in-law will help me. Anyways, there was a point to me bringing up the rocking. I don’t drive my car very often because of this issue and when I do, I try to keep it in the neighborhood so if it breaks, I won’t have far to go. I will pick my kids up from day car being it’s only a 45 second drive and I feel there is no major risks at hand in such a short distance of travel. I piled my two children into my car the other day at as my car started moving down the road to swaying started. At the moment it started, both my children started to sing and hold one note. The gentle rocking was bouncing them just enough so that if they held that note, the bumping would add a vibrato to their voice. It was creepy. Not the fact that they were doing it, but the fact that without ever doing it before, they both started doing it at the same time. They are 4 1/2 and 1 1/2 so it’s not like their planning of such things would be very detailed. It was just strange. So now, every time they are in my car, they think it’s funny to do this the whole ride home. Most cases it’s only about 45 seconds to a minuet, but there are days like yesterday in which they did it for 5 minuets straight. I’m glad I did not have to drive far or they might have driven me crazy as I was driving them home. I will do a music post this weekend (or at least try to) and give you something for your ears to enjoy. M@

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My dinner for tonight will be some honey bee, black dog, coconut porter and kolsh. It’s gonna be good!

My dinner for tonight will be some honey bee, black dog, coconut porter and kolsh. It’s gonna be good!

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My beer is very happy that I will drink it tonight

My beer is very happy that I will drink it tonight

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It’s been a while sense my last post and I am short on time, so I wanted to share with you a little bit of how music goes down in my house.  I swear, when I play music in my house it’s like I’m the pied piper.  No matter where in the house I start playing, in seconds the kids are down in the room with me singing and dancing away.  This is exactly what a practice session would look like if I practiced around my kids all the time.  This is from last summer.  We were waiting for a friend to pick us up to go somewhere and my guitar was handy so to pass the time I thought I’d play for the kids.  This song is called 3 things.

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13 Plays

I Just Wanna Love Ya Baby - Vocals - Benny Culbert, Joe Culbert, Matt Bingen - Production - Matt Bingen

OK, So this is the first thing I had ever recorded with my favorite music program, SONY ACID.  Ben had a shareware version of this back in 2002/2003 and we sat down one night and just started messing around.  One thing led to another and after I had all the music laid out, we just started rapping.  Now, I will be the first one to admit that I CAN NOT RAP!  Just to let you know.  Not only am I really bad at rapping, but I’m even worse at freestyle, which is what 90 % of this song is.  I have always thought that if Benny were to write some stuff down, he would make a great MC, he has a killer voice for it, and I think he still does.

There are a few things to consider while listening to this.  1, we did not have a microphone.  What many people don’t know is that most headphones have tiny mics built into them that go along with the magnets that play back the sound, so if you turn up the volume loud enough for your line in, you can use headphones as a Microphone, which we did.  So, there we were huddled around a pair of headphones, being used as a Microphone in Ben’s room while he was living with our good friend Johnny, his lady friend Emi (Now Wife) and Ben’s brother Joe.  The other thing that we need to point out is the fact that we were not sober fellows.  We had been smoking a lot of the refer at the time and a bit of our mush mouth can be contributed to that.

As I had stated earlier, Benny and I had did much of our stuff on the fly.  I think Benny’s last verse at the end of the song was co-written by the two of use.  However, Joe’s part, was written out entirely.  We asked him if he wanted to add anything to the song early in the evening and about 2 1/2 hours later, he came back with his part.  For anybody who has the pleasure of knowing Joe, his verse is only that much more awesome.

The Chorus of the song was done by me.  I was kind of ripping off Old Dirty Bastard in my own white boy way.  I had come up with this hook and we just went with it.  At the end of the song, we had layered each of us clapping and speak singing the chorus.  After this song was all said and done, we were very proud of it.  We knew it was nothing fantastic or anything but it suited us at the time and upon listening to it again, it bring me back to a much sillier time in my life and I really enjoyed all that went with it.  We would play this at house parties and people loved it.  Now, we bring it to you Direct from the Radiator Room…I Just Wanna Love You Baby.

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9 Plays

Princess & The Pedestal - John Deiley - Vocals, Guitar, Johnny Sundahl - Guitar, Benny Culbert - Drums, Matt Bingen - Bass

This is a song that the 4 of us recorded back sometime in 2002.  Johnny and Benny were living in North Minneapolis and we had all contributed into making a fun little practice space in the basement for us to use at our leisure.  This song was written by Mr. Deiley and the rest of us just filled in on our respective parts.  Our recording equipment was 1 microphone in the middle of the room.  Being that it was just the one mic, it does not sound all that bad.

We had played this song so many damn times that we really started to hate it.  John was one of those fellas that would just want to beat it into our brains so we could play it in our sleep, you know, like real bands do.  This would have been great and all but the four of us were not a band but just guys getting together to play music and playing the same song for 2 1/2 hours got to be old.

I remember Johnny’s wife, then girlfriend, and the other members of the house being forced to listen to us play this time after time.  I don’t remember what their true feelings were but I did catch them singing it from time to time.

At the beginning of the song, you can hear me playing a little Bass solo.  It’s “If I Only Had A Brain” from the “Wizard of Oz”.  I have a medley that I like to play on my Bass combining “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and “If I Only Had A Brain” in various musical styles.  It’s a lot of fun to play and in this track, it’s pretty much the tail end of what i would have played.

There are not very many recordings of Ben playing Drums or Johnny playing guitars so I’m glad I was able to dust this gem out from the archives.  Enjoy!

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I was going to post some music tonight but the pictures I wanted to use with the post are not ready and I am tired and don’t want to look for another song, so I decided to invite you into my home and show you the Geek Den that I have created for my wife and I.  It’s the place where we store all things that we own that someone might consider to be of a geeky nature, which I am completely OK with.  I never once have denied the fact that I am a nerd deep down.  I know, you are saying to yourself right now, “But Matt, I’ve always thought you were so cool, this just can’t be” but yes friends, I was raised by one of the finest geeks in the land, my father.  I won’t really explain my father just yet but I can tell you he is awesome in his geek-ness.  Let’s just say he has 25 + years of D & D.

Picture # 1

In picture 1, you can see the majority of what my wife and I have that would classify us to our geek like status.  First, there is the book shelf.  I made the book shelf with the help of my friend Chris for my wife last year as her mothers day gift.  It’s made of pretty much solid oak with some oak plywood for the book shelves and backing.  The book on the top and the rails coming out of it I hand carved from Pine.  Right below the book on the top shelf, you see the collection of figures from The Lord of The Rings that was a gift to me on my 28th Birthday from My Mother In-Law.  She had bought them at one point and never had a place for them, so she gave them to me.  I won’t say that I built the book shelf to house these little friends of the shire, but they do fit really well up there.  Below them we have various books that most geeks might have in their collection.  All the Harry Potter books, The Lord and of the Rings trilogy, Sword of Truth Series, and many more.  We have books of music, book of history and art, and books of poetry all on this shelf.

In the middle of the shelf, we have my wife’s Harry Potter Figures that she has collected over the years.  Yes, they are all still mint in the box, that’s the way we like them.

To the right of the book shelf we have our Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows poster my wife got from a co-worker as a gift.  It’s from the midnight release of the book.

To the right of that, we have 1 of 3 antique lights that are in this little den area.  They used to be my Grand parents and then my parents and now they are mine and yes…I know how awesome they are.

To the right of that would be our Phone Booth.  For all you Dr. Who fans out there, no it does not travel about through time and space, it’s just a really cool cabinet.  My mother in-law was purging some of her things when we moved in and this was one item I could not pass up.  In this phone booth, you can find out Beetles Yellow Submarine figurine set, our Futurama figure set, and all the rest of the collectible figures we have been getting throughout the years.  We have X-Men, Sleep Hollow, and a few other random things down there.

To the right of the book shelf is our collection of Simpsons, Beatles, and Nightmare Before Christmas tin lunch pails that the wife has had for years.  Below those are various books on music, music related movies and DVD, some magizines, and book on philiosphy and religion.

All of these things sit on top of a brick little stage that looks like it once housed some sort of fire place or stove that sat in the basement to hear the lower level.

Picture # 2

This is a collection of booze bottles my grandfather had collected from his days as a traveling salesmen.  Once he died, he gave them over to my father and when we moved into the house, my father gave them to me.  They are really old bottles and I am glad to have them.  I came out of my office one day to find that my daughter had taken one of the bottles to use in her “Cooking” set.  She had poured it into her little pot and was stirring it around to make me some soup.  Needless to say, we had a nice talk about not taking daddy’s special bottles and she has not gone near them sense.

Picture # 3

This is a closer look at the Phone Booth with the lighting lit up in the basement.  I have some red and orange lighting in the basement to go with the oak bookshelf and the red phone booth.  It all works really well together.

Picture # 4

This is a view from the bottom of the stairs.  Here you can see the wall that I had made out of a tapestry my MIL gave us because she never used it.  I framed it with some 1 by 1/4 and was able to prop it up from floor to ceiling.  Behind that is my kids play area.  Out of sight, out of mind.

Picture # 5

This is Tree Beard and he is protecting his book…nuff said.

Picture # 6

This is Smeagol A.K.A. Gollum from the Hobbit.  They like to show off their book.

On the 4th wall that can’t be seen is a really old hide-a-bed couch that we really don’t care for.  Above the couch is a Sleep Hollow movie poster and a Nightmare Before Christmas movie poser surrounded by 2 red lights we had picked up from IKEA.

There are many more things in our house that I will show off over time.  Perhaps I will tell you the story of how I got my MST3K movie poster signed or show off my music poster collection.  There are many things that make my wife and I geeks and I would love to show them all to you another time.  Just remember, in this day and age that we live in, it has never been more accepted, more appreciated, more hip than to be a geek, so wear your red shirt uniform with honor.  From one geek to another, I say…Worst Post Ever

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12 Plays

Funeral Dirge - A.K.A. Dixie Wallin

When my daughter was born my wife and I decided that when it came time for her to start watching TV shows, we wanted to encourage her to watch some of the shows that we had grown up with.  One of the shows that I thought was so cool as a kid was Fraggle Rock.  For those of you unfamiliar with the masterpiece click here.

So one day, I was watching an episode with my daughter.  It was Episode 14 in Season 1.  The name of this episode was called “The Challenge”.  In this particular show, there was a scene in which Gobo, Boober and Red needed to get past Junior Gorg and in order to do so, they were able to convince him that he had died and could not move, that way they were able to pass.  Well, Boober did not take this lightly and found it fitting to sing a Funeral Dirge that he had composed himself, for himself in the event of his own death.

“Boober, where did you learn a funeral dirge?” -Red

“I composed it in honor of my own departure.” -Boober

Well, needless to say, the first time I had ever heard this song, I was floored by it.  It had that Dixie Land Jazz feel to it that I love and I knew that I must learn that track.  So, I ran and grabbed my pen and pad and must had watched and listened to that scene about 6 times before I was able to figure out the lyrics and chords needed to play it.  From there, I took my own minor liberties with it not knowing the title at the time, called it “Funeral Dirge”  Hell, up until this post I had never really bothered to look up the real title of the song, which is “Dixie Wallin”

I have performed this song many times and to this day, it is one of my favorite songs to play.  My kids love it and everybody who I have every played it for has enjoyed it.  It’s such a dark song for such a light hearted show as Fraggle Rock and the fact the Jim Henson put it in the episode is awesome.

In this version of the song, I had recorded and played all the parts myself.  It was recorded in the basement of the house we were renting in North East Minneapolis.  This is just a rough demo of the song but it gets the point across very well I think.

I have another version of this song that I have been working on with my friend Chris who I colobrate with.  All the work we do is titled under “The Bingemoe 5”.  Tomorrow, I will post a jam that we had recorded of us playing this song.

Here is a link to the Fraggle Rock version of Dixie Wallin

I would like to mention that I had created this blog as an outlet for me to share the works that I have been recording through out my life as well as share my current thoughts on things I feel like sharing with the world.  Many of the music that I post will be music that I have recorded and never really shared with anyone other than a small hand full of people.  I figured, what’s the point of having this if no one other myself will ever hear it.  Some of these songs are on my Myspace page, but most are old relics that need to be heard.

They are not perfect recordings.  Sometimes they are poor quality, other times, my pitch may be off or a wrong note might be played, but that’s life.  Things aren’t always perfect and if we only shared the perfect things with one another, the world would be full of a lot more selfish thoughts and some of the best ideas may never have been discovered.  So, you don’t need to tell me about any imperfections you may hear, trust me, I know they are there and I know where they are.  Just take things for what they are and listen to the art that lies in there somewhere.

I will be posting new tracks as well as I create them, I just have a lot of old stuff that I feel I need to share.  So, I hope you keep coming back and listening to what I have and let me know if you hear something you like.  Maybe I will go back and record something again with better production if I know someone will want to hear it.

Enjoy

M@

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10 Plays

This is a track that I had done back when I was borrowing a friend’s MC-505 Groove Box. I had made it as a sample of some Hip Hop that I could do with the type of equipment that was in my possession.  It’s got kind of a Moog Synth feel to it and I had never really done anything with the track.  Few people have actually heard it and I don’t really have a name for it.  So…let’s just call it…MC Moogoo.  All the beats were programmed using ACID, and I ended up laying some Bass done with my Jackson 5 String.  Everything else you hear was created with the 505.  So, Enjoy.

Special Thanks to MC Ben-C for letting me borrow the Groove box for so long.

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Back on the Path of the Beam

So today is the day in which I have finished Stephen Kings “Wizard & Glass”, the 4th book in the Dark Tower series and I find my self in a strange sense of sadness.  Not because I was disappointed with the book, but because of how much I truly enjoyed it.  Everybody I have spoken to about this book and the series has always stated that this is their favorite book, and I can see why.  The story of young love set in a western scene with gunfights, explosions, and heart break.  However, this book leaves me with a disheartened motivation towards the rest of the books.  It’s not that the next 3 will be bad, it’s just that…well, they will never be as good.

So now I find that it’s hard to push onto the next saga in the series because for one, after this book, my appreciation for certain characters has grown and I know that these characters must die, and for second, I know that Roland must endure so much more hurt to achieve his ultimate goal of reaching the tower.  I guess this is the true sign of a fantastic writer.  A writer that can make you come back to his stories with the knowledge that your heart will be broken, your senses will be baffled, and the time you put into these things will be worth every moment of it along the way.

I think I will take a break for a week or so and let the true brilliance of this story settle down in the back of my mind.  I have many other things to occupy my time while plugging away 40 hours a week from my 6 X 6 cell of gray and white.  When it comes time to return, I will welcome the sights and sounds that the road to the tower fill my head with and I can’t wait to see what lies at the end of the beam, the epicenter of life that is the dark tower.

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10 Plays

This is the first of many songs to be coming to my Blog.  It’s a remix of an older song a had done a few years back.  The title of the track is called “Thinning Paint” but this is the remix of it.  I had recorded several version of it at one point and in this version I have combined two of those version together.  The first version you hear was done with the help of my good friend Jason, who is the other person involved with “The Radiator Room”.  He plays the Violin on this track.  Halfway through the song, the second version is tied in.  You will recognize it because of the “Room Effect” that I had added to show a more dramatic change.  The song is just over 5:30 but please listen to it all the way and listen to it loud.  I am really happy with how this all turned out and I hope you are too.

So now, I give you…”Thinning Paint Remix”

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I love this image.  A Whale fighting a squid fighting a T-Rex.  Can’t get any more awesome or epic than this.  I only wish I knew where I had found it.

I love this image.  A Whale fighting a squid fighting a T-Rex.  Can’t get any more awesome or epic than this.  I only wish I knew where I had found it.

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I sometimes wish I was a Gunslinger…
OK, so I am a little ashamed to admit this but here it goes…I don’t read books.  I LOVE the idea of reading books but to me, it all comes down to time.  Being the father of 2 young children, I have little free time.  The free time that I do have is often dedicated to my wife, keeping up with social appointments, or working on music.  I would love to read more, there is just not enough time…
My wife got me into Audio Books a while back as a way to pass the time while driving and keep up with the stories she is reading.  Now, after a good bakers dozen or so, I find that I can’t get enough.  I work at a desk 40 hours a week and my job allows me the time needed to dedicate myself to these wonderful books.  I LOVE getting lost in the story as it unfolds in my ears.  So much so that I have caught myself typing the story into my work as I hear it.
Right now, I am 4 books into Stephen Kings “The Dark Tower” series and man, I love these books.  It’s part scifi, part western, part steam punk.  Wizards and Glass is the story within a story about the Gunslinger Roland and his first Kah-tet (one from many).  I find myself not wanting to finish the story because I don’t want it to end.  I should not worry too much as there as still 3 more stories to go through and a 4th one in the works.  OK, I am going to finish this today so I can start Wolves of the Calla next week.

I sometimes wish I was a Gunslinger…

OK, so I am a little ashamed to admit this but here it goes…I don’t read books.  I LOVE the idea of reading books but to me, it all comes down to time.  Being the father of 2 young children, I have little free time.  The free time that I do have is often dedicated to my wife, keeping up with social appointments, or working on music.  I would love to read more, there is just not enough time…

My wife got me into Audio Books a while back as a way to pass the time while driving and keep up with the stories she is reading.  Now, after a good bakers dozen or so, I find that I can’t get enough.  I work at a desk 40 hours a week and my job allows me the time needed to dedicate myself to these wonderful books.  I LOVE getting lost in the story as it unfolds in my ears.  So much so that I have caught myself typing the story into my work as I hear it.

Right now, I am 4 books into Stephen Kings “The Dark Tower” series and man, I love these books.  It’s part scifi, part western, part steam punk.  Wizards and Glass is the story within a story about the Gunslinger Roland and his first Kah-tet (one from many).  I find myself not wanting to finish the story because I don’t want it to end.  I should not worry too much as there as still 3 more stories to go through and a 4th one in the works.  OK, I am going to finish this today so I can start Wolves of the Calla next week.

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