Good morning, Readers!

I hope you are doing well today. Personally, I’m really not sure yet, really not quite conscious enough to even have a general positive or negative impression of today, so far.

But regular visitors here might be familiar with my often-stated opinion — an opinion that I understand is a bit controversial and unconventional (although I think many people secretly agree with me, but I just happen to be the only one brave enough to come right out and say it) — that Mondays completely suck.

But fortunately, there’s also a correllary to that particular theory, which is that Mondays suck just a little bit less when there’s good music, so I’ve found a few songs I’d like to share with you on this Monday morning, to try and ease the pain somewhat!

 
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There are three songs altogether that I’ll be passing along to you, and they all have visual elements that accompany the music. The first is a video for one of the songs (“Free Will”) from Monsterworks‘ recent Mortal Music DR Man::Instincts, that I told you about last month. The video doesn’t have much action, aside from just showing the band playing through the song, but it’s still pretty visually interesting — and they say it was filmed in one of the rooms of the house where the songs were recorded.

 
Check it out here:

 
And, in case you haven’t done so yet, the three-song Digital Release is still up for grabs (for FREE) here:

 
Monsterworks: website, Facebook
Mortal Music: Facebook, Bandcamp

 
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The next video also comes from a band that’s been covered here in the past — Visions‘ 2011 debut Home (Basick Records) was one of my earlier attempts at an album review back in December.

Anyway, these guys are back and have a new EP that’ll be on its way soon — which they say will be available for free download via Myriad Records sometime in the next few months. To give you a little taste now, a brand new song called “You Won’t Even Know” has been released. It sounds very much like the material that was included on Home, musically and vocally, and even the lyrical content seems relatively familiar (again with references to “time” — either being wasted, or how it’s being spent, etc.)…

 
Here is a lyric video that’s been put together for the new song:

 
If you like that, Myriad is also giving you the opportunity to download the track for FREE right now:

 
Visions: Facebook
Myriad Records: website, Facebook

 
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And finally, today’s third item is a glimpse at some brand-new Ernie and the Berts material…

Earlier this month, the Pittsburgh-based trio played a show at Howlers Coyote Cafe, where they unveiled a previously-unheard song, which the venue managed to capture on video! As bassist/vocalist Erin “Ernie” Payne explains in the introduction, there’s a fairly well-known children’s book titled Everybody Poops, which is also the title of this song.

Ironically, considering the subject matter involved here, the song is actually a bit cleaner and less-vulgar than some of the band’s other works. Plus, the sound quality of the live recording is nice and clear, allowing all the subtleties to shine through (inasmuch as a song that talks about camel poop contains any subtlety!), including a brief solo reluctantly played by guitarist Eric “Bert” Carroll after a bit of goading from Ernie, and some nice shouted backing vocals from Bert as well as drummer Dave “The Other Bert” Warren.

 
Check out the video here, and feel free to leave your feedback for the band. As they said on their own website, “So, comment… share, watch, watch again, leave it up on the screen when browsing the internet at a store or on someone else’s computer… all the fun stuff.”

 
Ernie and the Berts: website, Facebook
Howlers: Facebook