Blog Posts - Thanatos.biz: Music, News and More

Plans For 2020- "Covered 70s," "Love Songs For The Indigent" And More (Time Permitting)

1/6/2022

my useless chord chart that didn't help refresh my memory

2020 and2021 were busy for Thanatos. The former saw the release of Portland, Patrick Ogle's first collaboration with Sam Rosenthal in over 25 years. 2921 saw the release of Covered Country, a selection of , as the title suggests, country music covers. We ran successful Kickstarters for both releases. There was also a streamed show at William Faith's 13 Studio.

2022 will be busier. Right now work has begun on a new covers record. The new record is Covered 70s. Songs will span the decade and jump from genre to genre. There will, at some point, be a crowdfunding effort for the release but it will be a bit. Have to deliver some odds and ends from previous crowdfunds first! Im pretty sure one of the rewards will be picking tracks for the record. So far there are folk songs, reggae songs, glam songs, disco songs and some odds and ends.

Work has also begun on a new original Thanatos recording, Love Songs for the Indigent. Demos for this may pop up in advance of the release.

An as yet unnamed Christmas recording is also planned.

In the midst of all this will be, hopefully, a show or two ( in person? streaming? who knows?)).

Plesae check out the Thanatos Spotify Page and follow the band there. Keep an eye out for playlists! And if you want your band included? Email patrick at thanatos.biz. Be sure to follow me on Instagram and Twitter .

Late in the year work will begin on the next Thanatos LP, Antietam.

My Kala ukulele and some other stuff I am writing with these days

Thanatos Acoustic Streaming Show, Playing "Portland" LP And More

10/21/2021

Patrick Ogle at 13 Studios, Chicago, recording "Covered Country".

Thanatos will be performing an acoustic set at 8 p.m. (central time) Saturday, November 20, 2021 on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/patrickaogle.) Feel free to add me as a friend on Twitch. I don't have many since I have mainly used this to listen to other people's stuff!

Most of the set will be the last studio LP, "Portland" with some other material mixed in. Anyone who wants to hear something specific can get in touch in the comments here. I will also be playing a couple cover songs that were rewards from the recent "Covered Country" . I'm also likely to toss in a couple songs from that new record (out November 26).

The show will be from William Faith's studio, 13 Studio, here in Chicago. If you are looking to do some recording in Chicago you should check him out.

This is the first streaming show I've done. I'm not sure how LONG this is going to be but it should be about an hour and ten minutes or so but I haven't worked out the set yet.

Please help spread the word about the show!

"Covered Country" Is Like Sitting With Me In My Living Room Listening To Me Play

9/26/2021

PLEDGE TO THANATOS' "COVERED COUNTRY" HERE....

Years ago I had this notion that I would do shows that were identical to me sitting on my couch playing in my living room. I wanted to actually bring the beat up love seat in my living room to the show and put it on stage.

I really thought about doing this at a show here in Chicago at a place that is now an optometrist office. It was a "venue" I personally hated but one where people allegedly went to listen to music. When I played there I realized it was one of those places where people pretend to come to listen to music...but just talk and ignore the poor sap on stage. It is harder for a band to know this because they have some volume. Me? With a guitar solo? It was painful. One of the most hateful shows I ever played (and that is saying something).

So the whole "bring my couch to the show" thing died before it could ever happen!

Until now anyway.

When I sit at home I either look for music online or try to figure out how to play songs I love and I play them on my couch. In truth the vast majority are not "country" ...this being country is coincidence really. As often as not I am playing Bowie or Lou Reed or other bands I love. There are always singer songwriters involved and many of the people you'd expect me to want to play. I try to play Father John Misty and Angel Olsen. I take a stab at playing things by T Rex and Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam)...Sometimes I take a swing at Nick Cave and Alphaville.

It is an eclectic thing.

This release is me doing country but if this does ok I will do more !

A Bonus For Folks Pledging To "Covered Country" Kickstarter

9/21/2021

I posted about this on the actual KICKSTARTER too.....but thought Id mention it here as well.

The "Covered Country" project is the first in a series of cover releases. Anyone who pledges to the current crowdfund will get a download of the acoustic versions of the next one. Right NOW, it looks like that will be "Covered 70s"...although that could change. I have no current plan to do a physical copy of these songs. This might

I will post the recording or send a compressed file. This next one might be an EP but it could be full length. Who knows how it turns out at this point. I suspect this will be sometime in early 2022.

If you have suggestions for covers, feel free to tell me (you can leave them in comments here if you like....). I cannot promise that I will do every suggested cover. Sometimes people overestimate my vocal range!

A Song By Song Breakdown Of "Covered Country" The New Thanatos Kickstarter

9/16/2021

First of all the track listing and order will be -- (and the name here is the artist who I associate with the song there may be additional songwriters). And if you want to pledge go HERE.

Pancho and Lefty ( Townes Van Zant )
Sunday Morning Coming Down ( Kris Kristofferson)
2 Kool 2 Be 4-gotten (Lucinda Williams)
LA Freeway (Guy Clark)
Magdalene (Guy Clark)
Bucking Horse Moon (Tom Russell)
Seminole Wind (John Anderson)
Starting Over ( Chris Stapleton)
Highwayman ( The Highwaymen)

Pancho and Lefty-

Like many people, my first exposure to this song was via the Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard version that was a hit in the 1980s. At the time I didn't really think much of it. There is nothing wrong with that version of course but it wasn't the sort of thing that was going to reach out to a 16 year old punk rocker who listened to The Great Rock n Roll Swindle LP over and over and over. Many years later I was introduced to the version by the songwriter, Townes Van Zant. Van Zant quickly became one of my favorite songwriters. He was a unique songwriter and I highly recommend watching the documentary Be Here To Love Me. I wanted to do another song by Van Zant called The Silver Ships of Andilar but didn't get a version done in time.

Sunday Morning Coming Down-

Kris Kristofferson is retired these days but he was a songwriter, musician, actor and writer. He was also a pilot who famously landed a helicopter on Johnny Cash's lawn to sell him this song. He also told off Toby Keith, well up in his 70s in front of a number of witnesses in what is one of my favorite "show biz" stories. You can read it HERE. Kristofferson isn't just a great writer but a fascinating human being. His work and politics also stand the notion of the right wing flag waving country musician on its head. Unlike most of those people he actually wore a uniform. He was a captain in the U.S. Army Rangers.

2 Kool 2 Be 4-gotten-

I regret this is the only woman songwriter here. This isn't due to misogyny but rather that the songs I tried to do by artists like Jessie Coulter and Dolly Parton? Let's just say they did not work well with my voice. You may think this one doesn't either! Lucinda Williams is, of course, a critical darling and justly so. I tried to think of which of her records were "best" but I just couldn't narrow it down that way because Ramblin and her eponymous record are great but so are three recordings that came out between 1992 and 2001 (Sweet Old World, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and Essence). These last three are special to me personally. They were records that bring me right back to that time every time I hear them. I am sure you have records where you had a favorite song when you first listened to them. Then, a day or a week later, you had a new favorite. A month after that a new one. Ultimately you realize every song is great. All three of these records are that to me.

LA Freeway-
Magdalene-

Both these songs are by the great Guy Clark. I cannot think of an American songwriter as consistently brilliant as Clark. He has multiple records that are absolute perfection (notably Old No. 1, which features L.A. Freeway). I didn't intend to do two songs by any individual but I could not help myself. A number of years ago, while working for a now defunct music gear website I went to Guy Clark's house in Nashville and interviewed him. He was a really interesting guy (most of those videos are up on Youtube, I thought about having most of that stuff taken down but I didn't want the Clark stuff to vanish).

Bucking Horse Moon-

Speaking of artists I got to interview (none of these wound up on Youtube I don't think), there is Tom Russell. Russell, if I recall correctly was discovered by a member of the Grateful Dead when he was a cab driver in NYC. He apparently sang some of his songs. Russell is also an excellent painter. He is one of those lesser known but nonetheless fantastic songwriters.

Seminole Wind-

For a lover of the Florida Everglades this song is both heart wrenching and prophetic (it came out in the 80s ). I could have easily opted for another great song on this same record, Straight Tequila Night. I do not know LOT about John Anderson but I do love this record and other singles Ive heard from him over the years.

Starting Over -

I wanted to have someone NEW on this recording too. I asked around and several people suggested Chris Stapleton. I admit I'd never heard of him. After listening to his music I thought "Hey, I'd like to see this guy play"....I didn't realize he was playing at Wrigley Field and the cheap seats were like $180. I'm sure he is worth it and one of the openers was Mavis Staples but I just didn't have the cash. I thought this was a lovely song and I encourage you to go check out his version below.

Highwayman-

Highwayman is a song written for THE Highwaymen by songwriter, Jimmy Webb. Webb has written a ton of great songs including Up, Up and Away. The Highwaymen were, of course, a country super group featuring Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. Kind of like a Rock super group with Elton John, David Bowie, Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney.

"Covered Country" A New Record From Thanatos Finished, Kickstarter Is Live Today

9/14/2021

FIRST OFF...GO HERE TO BACK THE PROJECT

The last thing, well maybe second to last, that folks who listen to Thanatos would expect is a record solely dedicated to covers of country music.

But if you all think a second you might understand that Thanatos is a hop, skip and a jump from country music. Not the fucking Confederate flag waving douchebag version. Not the Toby Keith's or other flag waving pricks but the old school country AND the new folks whose focus isn't on yammering about the South rising again but but on writing good songs.

Growing up in South Florida country wasn't a thing. It really wasn't. It was pretty much the least cool thing you could listen to. It was what toothless Florida crackers putting together rides at the county fair listened to. Frankly, that time period was a painful period for country. Even country greats were putting out super shitty music in the 1980s (not all of them but many). I heard records by Waylon Jennings from that period and thought "why do people think this fucker is good". I regret didn't think to go back just a handful of years to when he really WAS good.

Even so, there were country music performers that reached out to young punk rockers like me. Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson (although I missed the good Waylon stuff...I did hear "Red Headed Stranger"). There were also songs that just leapt out by Glen Campbell and Marty Robbins. These didn't sound like what we associated with "country", at least not to me. They sounded like pop music or like the big band music my mom listened to.

So, even back then, my teenage, and tweenage, brain understood that "country" wasn't one thing. Hell, now I even look back at the hilarious youngsters who embraced the urban cowboy thing. They were usually from NYC and I knew one guy whose parents were from ENGLAND but they dressed like they were heading out to rope a "dogie". I thought they were idiots at the time but , really, was it any different from my having my hair stand on end and wearing a garbage bag to school?

Genres are just marketing tools. What is good is good and most genres have good and bad in them. This record is my homage to country and my belief is that these songwriters are among the best.

NEXT, A SONG BY SONG BREAKDOWN OF THE RECORD.

Thoughts On Portland, The New Thanatos Record

6/21/2020

View from Alexana Winery tasting room, Newberg, Oregon

This is a song by song run down of my thoughts on the new Thanatos record. I am adding these thoughts on songs here one day at a time (and photos I took wandering in Oregon). Sam my also chime in as he is moved to. I plan on posting these all here, updating this post rather than posting individual things. So check back if you are interested...

Help with the pre-order / crowdfund HERE.

June 21, 2020

DAZZLING--Dazzling is one of the songs where I took a sort of epic poem by Sam and cut it to ribbons to stuff it into some music. I HOPE I kept some of the intent there and I think we chatted about it. As I look at the notes for this I recall that Sam's lyrics were extensive. I copied a small portion of those then cut even further as I made the words fit the song. It is a love song with a sort of cosmic scope but my cuts actually sort of take a bit of the cosmic out of it (unintentionally). I feel like the words that are not THERE are still part of the song because they inform how I sing it, how we structure the song and even how we play it (whether we know it or not).

June 21, 2020

FIRMAMENT--I've tried to write Firmament several times without success. I wasn't happy with the words the first several times. I had an idea but the words wouldn't come. The music was done. So DONE in fact that essentially the same chord progression appears on the last track of the previous Thanatos LP, The Coyote in the Graveyard I wrote the words in a notebook I brought to Portland for the first recording session while Sam was mixing. Right before I recorded the vocals, literally a minute or less before, I received a text than an old friend
of mine had died. I hadn't seen him for years but we'd corresponded. I was supposed to see him when I was in
NYC a year or so before but an Amtrak derailment and my disorganization intervened. So I never saw him. I
regretted that then and even more now. The song isn't about him but the performance certainly is.

I think this is Mount Hood...but Im not sure...it could be Mount Jefferson...

January 22, 2020

BLOODBUZZ OHIO--I love The National. I've seen them in concert three times and each time I would have gone back the next night to see them again. To me? They are one of the greatest bands currently in existence. SO, naturally I had to record a half-assed cover of one of their songs. I do that, I make fun of myself but I assure you I wouldn't ACTUALLY release something I didn't think was good. I played this live at a show a few years ago and the idea stuck. This version is a lot different than I intended. I wanted it to be darker than it turned out but I like this. I don't think the purpose of a cover is to duplicate the original but to but a twist on it. I hope this does that.

June 28, 2020

SAM ADDS--
Sam: Unlike Pat, I never listened to The National before we recorded this track. (Yeah, I’m like that, I don’t listen to much music). For me, it was purely a Thanatos track for the album. When I record my part for our cover songs, I don’t listen to the originals. I don’t try to recreate something somebody previously played. I play a synth part that sounds good to me in the context and mood of what we’re creating. When we were done with the album, Pat wasn’t happy with this song because it didn’t sound like what he imagined. I think Pat suggested I listen to the original version for comparison; I checked out the video on Youtube and thought, “Well shit! I like our version better.” I like that it’s slower and sadder. It doesn’t have that incessant drumbeat. It’s just a sad guy reflecting on something that happened. Love that! I also like that I still have no idea what the song is about. “I still owe money, to the money I owe?” What? It’s a mood piece for me.

January 23, 2010

A CERTAIN SENSE OF COLLAPSE--It wasn't just Sam's lyrics I chopped up. A Certain Sense of Collapse was much longer when I started. It was coupled with another song (in my head) that I thought of making ONE long song out of. I didn't because the two songs didn't really fit together. "Certain Sense" was general while the other song was specific. It also had some language on gender I thought could be easily misinterpreted. Years ago I wrote a song and a reviewer wrote it was an "admirably two sided view of the AIDS crisis." This freaked me the fuck out. There were no "sides" in that song. It was a rant about how the authorities were concerned over politics and people were dying. There were no "sides". All I cared about were the people. SO, I looked at the song I'd thought about merging with this one? And I felt it was too ambiguous and to explain more would just make it clunky and condescending. I shit canned that song. The remaining lyrics for a Certain Sense were also cut down to the bone. And that is what you have here.

June 29, 2020

CATHEDRAL SONG--Cathedral Song comes off what is one of the best debut records I can think of, Ancient Heart, by Tanita Tikaram. I was in college when it came out and it (and her next record The Secret Keeper) were in my heavy rotation records for years. She is actually younger than me. This song was one of my favorites on the LP. I played it at one of my rare live solo shows a few years back and I worked. Sam had never heard the song and his additions are him doing what he thought worked (the same is true of the song by The National). I also
feel like I have to add that Tikaram's third record Everybody's Angel is also really solid. I also spelled
her name wrong when I sent it to Sam apparently.

BARELY PLAN TO FEEL-- I don't have in depth ruminations on all the songs we did. This is another one of those where I took Sam's lyrics and wrote the music. There was, if I recall right, less slicing and dicing with this
one. I also recall that when we finished, just at the very end of the song, I thought "Hey, I sound like
Chris Connelly there." This would be the first time in over 100 recorded songs that I sounded even close to
Chris and it was purely unintentional (it would turn out tragic if I TRIED).

I'LL BE YOUR MIRROR.--The Velvet Underground and Nico is on damned near everyone's "influential album" list. I like every song on this record and my first choice to record would have been Venus in Furs but I didn't know how to play it. SO , we did this instead. I could tell stories how this record amazed me when I was
a kid but it is the same boring story everyone tells.

Blurry action Sam!

June 30, 2020

HEARTS LIKE OURS- A year ago I had a conversation with a friend about love. I wrote down some words and they stuck in my head. In particular "Love is not the same" stayed with me. No love, no feeling is ever the same. I'm not talking about the difference between how you love your boyfriend and how you love your grandma--every single instance of that emotion we call love is somehow distinct. There is more to it than that but I really hate explaining lyrics because it takes away from other potential meanings for a song. If it means something else to you than it does to me? That is real too.

June 30, 2020

HALF PAST FRANCE--John Cale's Paris 1919 is one of my favorite records. Defintely a top 10 ever record for
me. I really wanted to do the song Andalusia but I could never put a good version of it together. I played
this song at a couple of solo shows I did over the years and liked my version. Ive seen John Cale play four
times. He had never played it at any of those shows--until the last one. He did a sort of avant garde jazz
version of the song. Sam and I both are big Cale fans so it seemed like a logical meeting of the minds, unlike
other covers where he didnt know who the artists are!

March 5, 2021

ENTANGLED OUR BODIES--This is a reimagined version of a song off the first Thanatos record. We didnt even listen to the original but just did it. It sounds oddly similar to the original to me but, then, I didnt actually go back to the original to listen

THE SHATTERED SKY NOW SETTLED--Another reworked song from the first record. This one is done at a much slower tempo than the original. The first song wasn't speed metal or anything but we changed it a great deal when we did it live. There are tons of different live versions of this that are all wildly different from one another. It is a song that lends itself to remakes. The lyrics (like Entangled Our Bodies) are by Sam and were old even when we recorded the first record almost 30 years ago!

INCOMING STORM--Another of the songs where I worked with Sam lyrics. This one was a massive collection that was cut down significantly. I took the original work and wrote the pieces I wanted to use down in a notebook. Then I wrote music and cut them back further. It is all right in front of me in a notebook. I know that if anyone saw these notebooks they would think I was a madman with all the crossed out bits and highlighted bits and all of that.

CREATURES--These lyrics required little cutting and are much more true to Sam's initial intent. When we worked on a lot of these he would alter stuff to get back to the original intention (which sometimes eluded me). I think this one is close to what was intended.

TANGLE--I always look at this song and think --"what is that?" because originally it was called "Shards and Splinters"....since there is already a Thanatos song called "Splinters" we changed it. I was working on this for some time and was leery of it but when I got with Sam to record it? It just came together. His additions are understated but I feel like they really make the song work.

Thanatos Delaying Our Release Out Of Respect For George Floyd

6/4/2020

Rest in peace, George Floyd and condolences to his family and friend.

We are pushing our release back a week out of respect for George Floyd and others who have lost their lives to police brutality. We didn't feel it appropriate to self promote in the days between Mr. Floyd's memorials in Minneapolis and his hometown of Houston. We are reflecting on what we can do to further the cause of equality this week and encourage everyone to do the same. See you June 12.

Some (very limited) organizations you may want to check out.

National Action Network

ACLU

Campaign Zero

Reclaim the Block (Minneapolis)

The Okra Project (fighting food insecurity)

FAIR FIGHT (fighing voter suppression)

Thanatos' "Portland" Pre-Sale/Crowdfund Begins June 5, 2020 At Projekt Records' Bandcamp Page

5/27/2020

The new record is a couple years in the making and is the first full length record featuring Patrick Ogle and Sam Rosenthal since 1995's "An Embassy to Gaius.". The style is similar (and different) from the first two Thanatos recordings.

The pre-sale is on Projeckt's Bandcamp page and goes live June 5, 2020. If you want a reminder of what Thanatos sounds like? Here is a free compilation.

More news and links will pop up here next week so keep an eye open.

New Thanatos Record Mixed (Almost), Kickstarting Soon. We Are Looking For Your Input

2/15/2020

The New Thanatos record is mixed. There may be a tweak here and there and Sam Rosenthal is going to add some parts to one outstanding song.

I keep calling it Portland which seems to be sticking as the title.

There will be a kickstarter in a month, month and a half and we are working out exactly what will be included. We want to know what people want. There will obviously be a download, CD and there will be SOME sort of vinyl option (likely hand cut lathe vinyl which we will explain )....

What do YOU want?

Feel free to chime in with any suggestions.....you can leave comments here if you like....or email.