We haven’t done a Sunday Seconds episode in a long while, so we figured we would make it special. This video is a performance in our rehearsal space of our new tune “The War and Games People Play.” We did debut this at our last show of 2009, but we figured some of you might have missed it. So, here’s your chance to catch our new tune and get excited for our 2010 shows!

We hope you love it as much as we do!

Here we are, day six.  What’s the line for 6? Six strummers strumming? Eh…whatever.

Well, for this day, how about a Christmas related video?  This is a video of Bernadette and Catherine performing “Blue Christmas” most famously performed by the one and only, Elvis.  A true hero of Bernadette. The angle of the shot is all off, but it adds character!

FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!!!!

Well, it’s day 5 of this magical holiday run and we figured we should share some songs with you all!  As always, these are free to download out from the Brights Box.  And, of course, you’ll need the password: 12daysgolden

This first free tune is called: Feeling Over This.  We’ve been known to perform it as a band from time to time, but this recording was done with Bernadette on drums and Catherine on guitar and bass.  Enjoy!

The second free tune is called: Perfect World.  If you’ve caught Bernadette randomly at a Tierney’s open-mic you might have heard this one.  If you haven’t, then you’re in for a real treat.  This recording was done with her old band, Lullabi.  Coincidentally, it was recorded at the old factory in Clifton where we now rehearse!

There’s still 7 days left in our 12 Days of Bern & the Brights-mas run and plenty more exciting things to come!  Keep checking in.

By the way, here’s a picture of that hand-made ornament a fan won the other day in our contest:

<3b&tb

Our fourth day has arrived!

We’ve been quietly working on a website, and here is one of our first official announcements inviting you to take a look.  We just added photos from a shoot we did with Alex Podstawski along with a few live shots from a variety of other photographers.

Visit http://www.bernandthebrights.com now and take a look at our photos!

…on the third day of Bern and the Brights-mas, my true love gave to me…

Guess where this photo of our sticker was taken!

The first person to write a comment on this post with the correct answer will win a one-of-a-kind Bern & the Brights ornament, hand-made by the one and only Shawn Fafara of Bern & the Brights! Along with the ornament, the winner will receive a Bern & the Brights sticker and pin!

Please leave your correct name and email address when you are filling out the comment form so we have a way to contact you!  Don’t worry, only we will see this information and it will not be shared with the world.

Here we are—day two! [eh, eh, emmm....mi, mi, mi....] On the second day of Bern & the Brights-mas, my true love gave to me….

AND A

Just Kidding, again.  Last time, we swear…

“Rub Me Raw”
I thank the good lord for giving me life another day,
Was far from perfect, it was quite aggravating,
Hard on my arms and it was hard on my legs,
Hard on my heart and it was hard on my brain,
I feel like lately I’m a feeble machine,
Spread like butter over too many things,
All the things I must complete and things I must learn,
It never fails, my thoughts are always returning,
To the open future and the fading past,
To a love that’s over that I wish would have lasted,
Just tell this driver that he’s going too fast,
Leaning up against the wall, I think that I’m blasted.

[Chorus]
Touch me baby,
It’s the only thing that moves me lately,
Rub me raw because I need a new feeling,
I’m on a desperate search for love, home, and meaning.

It’s getting harder more and more to ignore,
The robot babies and this country at war,
The movie scripts and the making of stars,
Their songs of nothingness and excessive cars,
‘Bout right from wrong, see I’m really confused now,
Why bad men win and good men lose,
We tell the meek that they’ll inherit the earth,
Why do we lie to them? It just makes it worse,
Is it me or is freedom dead?
Why is the government all up in my bed?
‘Cause you don’t name me doesn’t mean I don’t exist,
So please don’t hate me ’cause I’m bursting this blister.
[Chorus]

It’s on; the season that ’tis, the countdown till xmas, the sound bites of bells and coral singers as you go in and out of stores, as you climb in and out of your car that now coughs a few times in the freezing morning before kicking over. Ah, yes. You still need to shop for your mom, dad, girlfriend, grab bag person at work, all the babies your friends keep popping out, and all the holiday parties have left you too hungover to get it all done. Don’t worry.

This year, Bern & the Brights is giving a gift to you—THE TWELVE DAYS OF BERN & THE BRIGHTS-MAS.

SO, as the song goes…

On the first day of Bern & the Brights-mas, my true love gave to me:

Just kidding!

Our first gift are the lyrics to ‘Sleepless Aristotle.’

Sleepless Aristotle
Wring your words and both your hands, I’ll knead and weigh out your sighs and balance them with love.
Anyway…
Line your tears side by side, a river grows. And all your reason wonders why it always flows.

Who told you to stay awake at night?

Words that end in -ing pass the time seamlessly, but tracking down your greatest deeds will take some time.

Who told you to stay awake at night?
You can’t wish your way to be a good girl.
Who told you to stay awake at night.

Hey.

So, it’s time for another present to put into the BRIGHTS BOX. What better  time than now…A Bern  & the Brights Thanks-Give-Away Tune!

You’ll need the password (get it from us on FACEBOOK) to download your tune here: Thanks-Give-Away Tune

We decided to post a “c-side,” if you will. The song is called “Metroland.”   You will probably not ever be able to get this anywhere ever again, unless we step into some serious shit in the near future that enables us to record all day and night long.

One thing that’s kind of bittersweet about writing songs and recording music is that many times there are tunes that probably will not be heard by anybody outside of a tiny, tiny circle, songs that will never be  added to an album or a live line-up because time just won’t have it. There are other songs being written all the while, and they take precedence, or we are driven to distraction and so on.

It is a dream of ours to wake up in the morning (with no plans to change out of our  Hunter S. Thompson attire, pipes dangling from our mouths), and stroll into a music factory and produce as much as we can as often as we can and share it  with you instantly.  Perhaps it can happen, but for right now, we are still in the universe where things take time. (Multi-tasking is a bunch of bullshit. )

So, I’m glad we have this BRIGHTS BOX up. It’s actually the perfect place to share some of these random songs that are sitting in a box of their own. We hold quite a bit  back from your ears, because naturally, we want the sonic experience to be earth shattering, multi-orgasmic, pro-tooled, glossy, click-tastic, up to that…standard, that…perfect…blah-di-di-blah blah. Why should we give you a primi who still needs to be in the incubator? You want a thriving, plump newborn, I know.

But, for this week, let’s throw the notion of perfection out the window. Besides, a good song should be able to come across in the simplest form, should it not? That means a melody, a lyric, and a shitty guitar from Walmart if that’s all you have. It’s like if a girl is pretty,  really pretty, she’ll be pretty even in a potato sack.

So maybe demos are potato sacks, but potatoes are still good. Are they not?  (Don’t diss potatoes. Especially if you are currently on a time travel excursion in Ireland during the famine.)

So here’s the potato. “Metroland.” I hope you think she’s pretty. She doesn’t have much on  her. She never had the chance to be mixed. She never had the chance to have some more layers of instruments added to her. I had written the song probably a week or so before attempting to record it, and up to the last minute was tweaking lyrics. I don’t know if Bern & the Brights will resurrect this from the archives. But there is some Bern & the Brights synthesis happening here on this recording; this is a piece of the history of our band, and marks a moment in time for me where the inspiration to form Bern & the Brights was starting.

You see, the band began to shape-up in little separate clusters (that eventually came all together by happenstance for one show). One of the clusters was Nicole and me. Nicole was finishing her sound program at William Paterson University, and invited me in to be the artist for her project. We tried to tackle five songs or so (a lot for 6 weeks),   and whenever we could, we squeezed sessions into late nights and wee mornings of a cold November and December of 2007. This track is one of the results of that time.

Nicole did a swell job recording with the few hours we had to work on this one.  She had Dana, from Waking Lights, come in and do thunderous, epic timpany rolls (thanks Dana). I played drums (thanks Theo Metz for letting us use your kit), acoustic, and bass (that’s all there is on this).

But here’s the scene: we two are freezing, working with the knit hats on, propping ourselves up on coffee, (and the occasional cigarette), getting to know each other musically in the Studio Room A of Shea Auditorium at William Paterson Universtiy, sharing the building at this ungodly time of night with only Pablo, the benign but difficult-to-understand security guard who held our i.d.’s until the tender hour of 3a.m.  Pablo—where ever you are—I think I can speak for both Nicole and myself—-a part of us is seriously bleak without your less-is-more grunt of a hello. We love you. I hope you have a wonderful Turkey Day.

This is for you, Pablo. Now go get her from that BRIGHTS BOX.

For realz,  I hope b&tb fans enjoy this, and we are thankful for you guys.

<3 Bern

Our good friend JoeKelly did a lot of video magic for us while we were all busy performing, etc. He’s been so kind as to create a Ghost Tour Teaser for us to share with everyone. I must say, it’s easily our best and most professional video to date!

Thanks, Joekelly. Enjoy everyone!

So, we’ve returned from The Ghost Tour.  It was a lot of work, a long drive, but we’re all really happy with the outcome.  And we were quite happy to have the McMickle Brothers join us on the second leg of the tour!  While we work on compiling 4 video cameras worth of videos stare at these photos!  Much more to come…