Get with the Fokken program

Die Antwoord is the shit ok.

Leaving

Gaslight Anthem on the beach with blue eyes
Leaving love is life
Walking with slush puppies in the summertime
Breathing heat and leaving
Believing there is something
Over the hills I have to climb
The rivers I have to cross
And the heart I leave behind

Banksy NOT in Cambridge

Banksy NOT in Cambridge

Rise up Girl!

Rise up Girl. Rise The Fuck Up!
Its not everyday that someone tattoos a lyric from one of my songs on their arm.

Viva Os Wegas

Banksy in Cambridge

So I just saw the Banksy art on Essex St in Cambridge.
A large man with a red sox cap in need of a belt walked by proclaiming his 5 year old niece could create better art than this.
I read online people saying he's only doing it here because he is on "tour" to support his movie. I thought why should anyone even bother?

Basement Poetry

May 6th 2010,
Before the show in Syracuse ,Tom Around The World hooked up a little performance at Underground Poetry Spot. Its in the basement of a Chinese restaurant. It was a very cool spot and they were very supportive.

Video From Art Show at TT's

Art and Music May 1st

The Dog

The Dog has a shiny silver bowl
He actually has 2 shiny silver bowls
One bowl is for food
The other bowl is for water
Sometimes while he is eating, he sees another dog in the bowl
and he growls
and the dog in bowl growls
and then he barks
and the dog in the bowl barks
and then he growls some more
and then he barks some more
This can go on for an afternoon
Until I say "Gus, stop barking at yourself!"
and then he comes to my room for a pet

Thank you!

I got back from my west coast tour and got slammed with the flu! So, I been in bed with a high fever for the last week. This is the first day I've felt OK enough to actually write something on here. I just wanted to take a little time and personally thank everyone that helped me out on that one. It may have been a solo tour but I definitely did not do it on my own!
Much thanks to Jacqui Deegan! Matty V for getting the ball rolling and being the best temporary, non manager, advice giving, I'm not your manager, manager I ever had. Jessica Jekel for carting my ass around and putting the bug in my ear! Brian Mathews: Patron of the Arts. So here are the rest mofos. Nathan, Joe, Jessica and the rest of you crazy fuckers down in Carlsbad CA, for making that show. Long live the southern Californian tacos! Adam Shaw and Mike Mcolgan for getting me booked. Alex's Bar in the LBC. I always wanted to see where Sublime was from. I have no shame for liking Sublime. They were waaaay better than your crappy band. Trip Bar and Alex in LA for putting me on on 2 hours notice! Nicole for letting a strange person live in her living room for a few days. Ken Casey and Todd Benoit in SF for setting up that super rad show and SF tour. I shall return to the Bay Todd. I'll bring Wee Wee pads. Everyone at The Medicine Agency Gallery and Jason White! Pinhead Gunpowder what? Green Day what? Steve Neary, Brian Hanover and Brian Stevens and the attack of the Brians. Christopher Jonsson in Santa Cruz. Dude, we gotta catch up on the facebook! Sues Java for the free coffee. Just about made it to Seattle on that stuff. Chris from Action Patrol. Pleased to meet ya. Thanks for the T! The Plea for Peace Center in Stockton CA for letting me open up that punk rock show. Stockton CA for letting me leave alive and with my guitar. All of the happy cows on the California Coast. Your happiness makes me happy. The entire Pacific Northwest for the pretty hills and trees. Seattle! Rev and Liz and Success! For the awesome house show and Seattle tour. Rev, thanks for the corn dog mints. Austin and Anna for the hospitality! That's a very comfy couch FYI. Oh yea good burgers too. Portland Oregooooon! Vegan Mecca. All the fly chicas in Portland for sure ;) Kirsten Ringen. Alexander Hudjohn for setting up that show and the free-for-all afterward. Classic. Good times for sure. The Alleyway for having the show! Rebecca and her "friend" for coming all the way from Somerville! And last but not least, all my awesome friends and supportive family for putting up with this whack shit for all these years. Can't wait for the next tour. If I missed you on this list, I apologize. I blame it on the swine. Alright y'all. Back to bed. Hey, lets make a new record huh?

- Bryan

3/16/10 @ House of Blues Boston with the Dropkick Murphy's and Sick of It All

March 16th, 2010 at The House of Blues Boston, with the Dropkick Murphy's and Sick of It All
Photographs by Ilya Mirman.

West Coast Tour

July 5

July 5 live at Wreck The Halls, at The Paradise in December, Boston MA

Can I Get a Hell Yea?

"Dangerous Friends" (Wreck the Halls, The Paradise, Boston 12/19/09)

Don't blink twice its alright.

Couple vids from Wreck The Halls 2009 with Street Dogs, Roger Miret and The Disasters, and Stigma at The Paradise.






More vids at http://playgroundboston.com/2009/12/22/wreckthehallsvids/

Congratulations Mom and Pete!

Even though they have been together for almost 20 years they had never officially tied the knot and gotten married. After a random, middle of the night, brain hemorrhage suffered by Pete last month they started to talk about getting married. They had scheduled their impromptu wedding for this Thursday, but were interrupted by yet another major health complication when Pete was rushed to the hospital yet again in the middle of the night in an ambulance and told he had major blood clots in his heart and lungs. Words like mortality and death were tossed around. Survival rates clung too. Faith forgotten and remembered. Tears were shed. Love was exchanged. Hands were shook. Some phone calls were made by a family friend(Dee we are all grateful to you). Right before his open heart surgery we got a Reverend/justice of the peace up to his room to have a wedding. We closed the curtain to his bed and had an outlaw wedding. Perhaps one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed in my life. 10's of thousands of dollars and months of planning could not match this sort of ceremony. Before being carted off to surgery Pete said he was very happy. He made it through the surgery. They took a very large blood clot out of his heart and he is the talk of the hospital due to the large size of it. Mom and Pete are now officially hitched in the eyes of the state, god, man,woman, dogs, cats etc.. The joke is next month when Pete's nervous system fails or his arms fall off or something, they will be getting a divorce. I don't think so though. This is 20 years in the making. Congratulations Mom and Pete!

T-Shirts on SALE now.

Bryan McPherson T-Shirts on sale now for 10 Bucks.

Order them here http://bryanmcpherson.com/Merch.html

You no white guy

Eating lunch today with my Vietnamese homies.
We are eating Chinese food.
They got the hookup.
I bug them all the time for the hookup.
Its a secret society.
I really had to weasel my way into this club.
Finally when they realized I wasn't going to quit, they let me in on it.
Curry noodles.
mmmm
I'm using chopsticks.
That's all we have in the shop.
They are using forks.
I say "Hey, why is the white guy using the chopsticks and the Asian guys are using the forks?!"
They say "You no white guy, you Mc"

I took that as a compliment.

That's the end of the story.

Live on Bay State Rock

Here are some live tracks and an interview from when I recently played on Bay State Rock.

http://www.bryanmcpherson.com/buy

Interview with Distorted

Here I am running my mouth

http://www.distortedmagazine.com/features/chasing-dreams

Dog

This dog can not walk, so he sits on a bench most of the day.

I do covers

See
"Held Her in My Arms", by The Violent Femmes

Deleted Me

Yo my song is in a deleted scene of the movie Townies. I do believe its the best scene in the movie, so I don't know why they cut it. You may remember this movie from a couple of years ago when they were shooting off guns in Charlestown while filming it and the cops came and there was a big thing. Yup, thats the movie. Here it is.

Smaht kids love Bryan McPherson

"So I'm at my induction ceremony for the honors society at my school, and guess what the background music is...Its your CD...Weird, lol"
-Jessica, New England Institute of Art

Proving once again that Smaht kids love Bryan McPherson

Raphael Home Now

In regards to previous blog entry "The Whackest Days Start Out With Matty V"
You'll be happy to know that upon my arrival home today, I was informed by the smoking landlady, that she took down the sign on my door. The Laptop No here sign.
This is our conversation.

"Raphael is home now" she said
"Home to Poland?" I said
"No" she said, shaking her head and pointing inside
"Oh" I say, "Sometimes Its hard" I'm nodding my head and frowning
Yes Barayan I Understand

Love. So it goes.

This one always gets me

I'm not falling for it this time

Someone call Cambridge

Quick, someone call Cambridge. Marcy Playground is detracting from the aesthetic appeal

The Whackest Days Start Out With Matty V

A crazy day indeed.
Here is my account of the day.
It is factual.
There are not going to be a lot of adjectives.
This is simply for my own records.
A crazy day indeed.
Yesterday that is.
Today I have yet to leave the house and so far nothing has happened.
So lets talk about yesterday shall we?
It started out normal enough.
I crawled out of bed slightly refreshed on 8 hours.
Its saturday.
The sun is out in between the clouds and the ground is damp.
I walk to the coffee shop where I run into Matty V on Dorchester Ave.
Matty V already had his coffee.
I have not.
Enough said.
I was still across the street looking at the coffee shop.
Staring at the coffee shop
Like an oasis.
He is talking
I'm not really hearing what he says
Other than him laughing at my black hair and calling me Billy Joe Armstrong.
I said "I hate this town. I need coffee"
The coffee was good enough
I sat there reading the paper when I noticed this attractive young lady reading sitting across from me.
She kept looking at me.
It was a lot to handle first thing in the morning.
So she walks up to my table and drops a note on it.
It says her name, B*&^%
and it says 200 a half hour and 3 hundred an hour
What a ripoff.
That's a weeks pay for me these days.
I got up and left.
I flicked the note onto the ave and walked on
I got home and checked my email
I'm procrastinating
I need to change my strings for the show tonight, but i hate changing my strings.
If I don't change them before gigs they break.
I have a tendency to abuse my guitar.
I check my email again.
Oooh an email from a friend
Its the third one this week about missing me in Vermont or Northampton
What is this all about?
I figure there is some sort of misprint online about a show or something
He says "with Dropkick Murphy's"
I say "hey man I'm not in Dropkicks, I was just playing that one song with them"
He says "on their website it says your opening "
I say "Oh"
I check it out.
Sweet. I am opening
I call Ken Casey
Confirmed. I am opening for Dropkicks
I start punching it into the web when suddenly
The 20 years younger than my landlady polish lover of my polish landlady comes bursting into my apartment with a laptop computer
"Balayan!" he says, "Shhhhh" and puts it in my shower. He then turns and runs for the door.
2 minutes later there are sirens.
Police
Polish male mid 30's bla bla bla
Radios outside my window.
What the fuck. How did I get into this?
I decide after about a half hour of avoiding the police and looking at the laptop in my shower and peeking out the window Jehovah's witness' style, that I've had enough. I need a sandwich. A big 'ole motherfucker of a sandwich from the polish mafia sandwich shop. They have really good sandwiches. The polish people don't mess around with sandwiches
I manage to stroll right out. There are 2 police cars. I go unnoticed. Way to go cops!
I come back. The line at the sandwich place is too long and I'm impatient. I would rather go hungry than wait in a line. I am my own worst enemy.
My landlady is in the driveway crying.
Whats the matter I say?
"Raphael go bad", she says "Raphael go bad"
They were supposed to be married today.
He went crazy.
Smashed the house.
Ran off.
Broke in.
I say hey theres a laptop in my shower.
She says, "that's mine Balayan".
I get the laptop and explain to her and 2 detectives the details of my situation and my involvement in this laptop heist.
I am innocent.
I then ask if they know of any places to live?
No they say.
I put a sign on my door
It says "Laptop No Here"
I never manage to change my strings
The show was great. I break a string.
I go see this movie Paranormal Something with my friend that's a girl
We'll call her K^*&%
She doesn't cost 300 an hour.
This movie scares the shit outa me.
I'm up until 4 am jumping out of bed at every squeaky noise looking for demons and crazed Polish men with expired visas looking for laptops. Friggin Demons.
Today I am drinking Tea

Via http://www.bryanmcpherson.blogspot.com

Fish

Love is like a puddle tsunami

For me love has been like waiting for a bus in the rain.
I keep looking for it and checking the time.
When I finally stop paying attention
The bus comes, but it doesn't stop
Its "out of service"
It hits a puddle and splashes me with a puddle tsunami
Then it keeps going
I'm lucky I wasn't hit and killed.

Breakin' The Law

REMOVAL IS NEEDED

Recently there were a number of flyers posted around the city with Bryan Mcpherson name attached. Please note that posting is not permitted in Cambridge, other than on private property with the owner’s permission. Attached is a copy of the City of Cambridge ordinance that addresses this issue.

In the future please abstain from this practice. Apart from being prohibited, posting detracts from the aesthetic appeal of our city and results in many staff hours spent scraping poles to remove the glue or tape that adheres to them. Attaching to the outside or placing postings inside of news racks is also prohibited and could result in citations being issued. If posting are not removed within the given time by September 13, 2009 we will issue a citation for any flyers found.

We would like for you to contact us as soon as possible to discuss removing the postings so that you don’t end up with fines as regulation states in the ordinance.

Thank you for helping to stop this practice. It is your assistance that can help to keep our city clean. If you have any questions regarding this matter, please call Compliance Officer Vincent Best at 617-349-4869.

Sincerely

William Dwyer

Supt of Streets & Sidewalks

Vincent Best, Compliance Officer

City of Cambridge DPW

147 Hampshire street

Cambridge, Ma. 02139

(617) 349 - 4869 Office vbest@cambridgema.gov

(617) 349 - 4868 Fax (508) 509-6065

The sound of one hand clapping

I have an odd set of emotions

"I have an odd set of emotions toward you; One of which is maternal. Its odd considering I like to fuck your brains out"

What the fuck are you doing here?

Boss: I checked your shit out online

Me: Oh yea?

Boss: Your really talented.

Me: Thanks

Boss: What the fuck are you doing here?

Me: Working




via http://www.bryanmcpherson.blogspot.com

I got a job

I got a job at an auto body shop sweeping and cleaning and moving stuff and driving cars. On the interview I almost got hit by a car. I said "First rule, don't get hit by a car" The boss said "No, that's the second rule. The first rule is sweep and clean." I thought that was funny.

New Studio Record

For folks asking about a new studio record.

I have no money.

The End.

DJ Playlist Glowstick Ectasy

This is the Superstar DJ Playlist from the Village Green- Monday nights at the middle east upstairs. Basically myself and Christine Moore and Simon play music off of our ipods and talk about how we will someday dominate the world by creating the world most gimmicky band.
Come by. Hang out. Maybe throw a drink at somebody..?

The National - Fake Empire
Tom Waits - Hang Down Your Head
Old Crowe Medicine Show - Take 'em Away
Sex Pistols - Anarchy in The UK
Naughty By Nature - Everythings Gonna Be Alright
Brendan Bensan - Blessed
The Byrds w/Gram Parsons - Hickory Wind
Township - Sinister Mister
Wu Tang Clan - CREAM
The Clash - Police and Thieves
Mung - Red Light
Cock Sparrer - Teenage Heart
Rancid - Old Friend
Operation Ivy - Freeze Up
Swinging Utters - Fifteenth
Tomorrow The Gallows - The Beds that We've Made
Wolf Parade - Modern World
The Stooges - TV Eye
Patti Smith - Land
King Tuff - Ruthie Ruthie
Larcenist - Excuse
GNR - Used to Love Her
Johnny Cash - Spiritual
Bad Religion - Stranger than Fiction
Defiance Ohio - The Condition
Billy Bragg -Way over yonder
The Goddamn Rattlesnake - We'll Take This Town
The Freeks - Back Bay Cops
The Hives - Two Timin
GG Allin - Kill The Police
Lenny and The Piss Poor Boys - Cambridge Port Salloon
James Brown - Down and Out in NYC
Screwdriver - Sweet Home Alabama
Choking Victim - 500 Channels
Showcase Showdown - Oi Oi Deacon
The Ducky Boys - White Slum
Public Enemy - Fight The Power
Arcade Fire - Intervention
The Modern Lovers - I wanna Sleep in your Arms

This is probably the last playlist I will publish, as it is too much work typing all of this in.

A Song

What is a song?
Well I guess its words and music together, wrapped around each other, that tap into some sort of human truth or beauty or emotion. I think of a song as its own organism. Its own being. A sort of life. They are birthed. Sometimes it takes 10 minutes. Sometimes months. I am speaking from my own experience. I have been messing with the song for quite sometime and still can not wrap my brain around any sort of scientific approach to my creative process. I literally just pick up an instrument whenever I get the chance and sometimes its there and sometimes it is not. Every time I try to write something about something it is shit. I have to NOT try and the song comes whenever it wants to. Usually late at night or when I am in a rush. I attribute this to my subconscious being active because my conscious brain is preoccupied with leaving or working or trying to sleep or whatever. leaving room for whatever truth may or may not be lurking in my soul. True songs are what I'm talking about. Songs that came from beyond outer space. Songs that don't know how they were written or why..They just were...
Allow me to ramble..
In my musical endeavors I have had the opportunity to play with some great musicians from all sorts of different backgrounds and nothing drives me more insane than when someone analyzes a song. You see, this is what drives them crazy. Them being the scientists. It looks so simple on paper. A few chords and some words and presto! A hit song. They study it in schools. They wrack their brains. They spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to learn how to write a song because on paper it looks so easy, but in reality its something a little different. A little mystical. Definitely mysterious and can not be bought.
I live in an school city. If you can chew gum someone will ask you if you went to school for it. If you have a nice belt they think perhaps you learned how to appreciate belt fashion at Harvard or something. I cant say how many times when out busking and being somewhat anonymous musically people have asked me if I went to Berklee. Berklee? I write songs. I am not or do not wish to be Slash or Santana. I never wear sunglasses at night and if I were to ever go to college I would spend the money on something more useful than rock and roll school.
For me the journey into and out of songwriting is inward. Its the breaking down of walls and wondering into places I don't necessarily want to go. Its living life. Good or bad. Having experiences. Soaking it up and squeezing it out like a sponge. Its not pouring over text books or listening to someone tell me what a good song is. I know what a good song is. Just like you do. A good song is something that makes you feel ok when your ready to just say fuck it and jump off a bridge. Its love on a sunny day with the windows down on the road. It rain. Its everything human. It makes you pump your fists in the air, jump around, fuck , and dream. Its even Brittany fucking spears. Someone somewhere wrote the damn song for her and underneath all the makeup there is a song there that someone wrote that someone felt to be true.
I got no time for songwriting books, classes, lessons, suggestions, lectures bla bla bla
One time someone told me. "I really like your music. I had to play it for my friend because I didn't know why I liked it. Because its so simple." Do you need to ask your friend why you find beauty in a rainbow or a shadow or a few bright strokes on a canvas. Why it feels so good to lay down after a long day?
What is a song?
I still don't know.
Its something I'm still chasing.
When it comes, it comes and sometimes it feels more like a curse than any sort of talent.
Like a lonesome lover waiting at the window. Only to be left again until the next encounter. Whenever that may be..