MISSYFIT %

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the audio-visual collective MISSYFIT! (Not yelling, just being precocious.)

This was a little project that sat patiently for years in the back of the queue, waiting for its turn to shine. I’ve always been drawn to collaborations as a duo – one other strong voice is enough already! – and this particular one with Mia Gentile has blossomed into a lush and fecund playground of ideas.

Who TF Is MISSYFIT – Episode 3 (Bea and the Bees)

Released: 16 April 2021

It’s Episode Three! The interview you’ve been waiting for! So many untold secrets revealed! We’ve outdone ourselves this time!

MISSYFIT – Glad To See You Go, 2020!

Released: 30 December 2020

A rush-release for the end of the year – not just any year, this one!

#ramones #happynewyear #goodriddance2020

And the after-the-fact behind-the-scenes documentary:

MISSYFIT – Build Me Buttercup

Released: 14 September 2020

Second of three cover songs we recorded earlier this year; just for fun. I had the idea of doing Buttercup as a ballad in my back pocket for years – in fact, the track for this was already completed – so imagine my shock when we discovered it was a thing on TikTok to play it liltingly on a ukulele… But this is a totally different thing.

MISSYFIT – Have You Ever Seen The Rain

Released: 16 June 2020

We dropped this Creedence Clearwater Revival cover accompanied by a slideshow, the most effective way in our minds to rush-release this recording. It seems that many viewers were (or are!) confused by who or what MISSYFIT is, since we don’t appear in the video, so just to clarify: Mia and I threw this together in a couple of long-distance recording sessions; she is singing all the vocals and I’m making the rest of the noise. A few elements included:

A 1970s Epiphone acoustic guitar I found in someone’s trash and had local guitar repair wizard Jeff Foster bring back to life. Just in time to make its recording debut on this track: got her back on Monday, released on Tuesday!

Rescue Guitar before and after

Fisher-Price Xylophone: you need the tintinnabulation of bells if you’re chasing that Phil Spector Wall of Sound!

Fisher-Price Xylophone

UPDATE: For an even more thorough look at our game of musical Jenga, check out the mini-doc released last week on YouTube:

A few other fun facts:

1) We originally had no logical reason or agenda to record this particular song in this particular style: it was just, as we like to say often in the MISSYFIT situation room, a “bolt from the blue.”

2) During the first long-distance recording session (and our long-distance recording sessions are primitive with a capital P, but that’s a subject for another post!), my power went out and for the remainder of the session the studio was running on my phone’s battery (symbolic?).

3) We didn’t know yet that George Floyd had been killed the day before, nor could we have foreseen the subsequent reaction and social awakening, but suddenly the song seemed so relevant and vital that we dropped everything and finished it off in a mad rush.

The most gratifying comment I’ve seen (so far) is “this deserves to be shared everywhere!” MISSYFIT agrees!

MISSYFIT – Mushroom Tea

Released: 20 April 2020

The first MISSYFIT single. Same personnel as “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” (see above); i.e., it’s MISSYFIT, innit? At least Mia is in this video: she filmed it, I edited. Featuring footage of her time-traveling to an exotic country near the Equator.

Addressing a few misconceptions:

1) This is not a pro-drug song, or encouraging our fans to take drugs! (Listen to the final verse of the song!) The release date of the song is purely coincidental… well, not entirely, but how could I pass that up? I’d be kicking myself forever!

2) It’s obvious to me, but apparently not to the rest of the world: that is not a theremin in the final verse, but rather our resident chanteuse, i.e., Mia, imitating one.