**MARCH 2008: here are three rough mixes from the new batch of home-recordings I’ve been working on.**
Hello gentle reader,
Awful Killers, a five-song EP, is out now as part of a ten-song cassette retrospective Forgotten How to Lose out on Italy’s Best Kept Secret label. The first two songs up on here--"Forgotten How to Lose" and "Awful Killers"--are from these releases. Awful Killers was graciously mastered by Tom Ruff at Asbury Media.
"Lovers Only Love" was recorded at the Pigeon Club in Hoboken, NJ by Wayne Dorell and mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music. Bassist Jon Andrew sings harmony and plays the suped-up Casio on this stripped-down, acoustic pop rocker.
"Song for Friendship"--featured on NPR’s All Songs Considered: Open Mic and the [email protected] premiere--is the first song on the EP Someplace Between First & Last, a home-recorded affair written and played by yours truly and up on A Bunch of Beatniks Riding a Rocket (BOB006), a MP3 indie pop label disguised as a blog.
All of the above, as well as several more songs, are available for free download at my site ( www.mikeferraro.net ) for those hungry for more.
But that is all past tense. We (The Young Republicans) are currently working on a full length LP, entitled What’s Yours Is Mine, which we are recording ourselves in our rehearsal space in Hoboken.
And no, we are not real Republicans, young or old, but I will continue to add real ones if you friend request me. Mostly because I think it’s funny. (And we all need our petty amusements, don’t we? Well, I sure do.)
Thanks for listening and nosing around.
Yrs,
Mike F.
**WHAT SOME FOLKS HAVE SAID ABOUT MIKE FERRARO**
Splendid E-zine
Sweet-voiced singer/songwriter Ferraro writes catchy little ditties that stay in your head for far longer than they probably should -- good for him, bad for your long term memory. In any case, this three song EP features one full-on pop song and two downtempo cuts. "Baby Brother" and "Something for Nothing", the slower tunes, put Ferraro right up front, where his simply strummed guitar and plaintive vocals fill the sound field.
However, "Lovers Only Love" is the song you’ll come back to again and again. Its formula for near-perfection: poppy drums, a tautologically perfect Casio riff and Ferraro singing, Lou Barlow-style, about love ("If I call on you / would you promise to be true / my love?"). Great stuff. --Tyson Lynn
Largehearted Boy
Ferraro’s minimal guitar-pop is fueled by his honest lyricism, and the music breathed some fresh air into my afternoon. --David Gutowski
Is This Music? Issue No. 14
’LOVERS ONLY LOVE’ 3.5/4 rating
"a perfect pop formula." --Bernhard Bessing
Music Underwater
Mmm, the sweet taste of indie pop. Everyone loves it. There’s nothing better than a catchy guitar hook or a chorus that just screams to be accompanied by your amateur voice. You know who I’m talking about--Beulah, Neutral Milk Hotel, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, The Unicorns. This is the best music; the stuff that doesn’t require you to be a pondering pseudo-intellectual or an indie hipster to be enjoyed. People don’t want to hear Efrim Menuck and his buddies go on twenty minute orchestral jams just so he can show you how anti-mainstream he is; people want music they can hum on their way to work, dammit.
Keeping that in mind, enter Mike Ferraro...His songs are full of unbearably catchy pop hooks, wonderful melodies and a heartfelt intensity. "Lovers Only Love" is the catchiest song I’ve heard in ages...instantly enjoyable and unbelievably catchy...Most of his music is available free/cheap on his website, so what do you have to lose? The five minutes you spend could help you discover a new favorite artist or a release to look forward to in the next year or so. Cheers, Mike!
--Jeremy Cohen
Think Small
"Three tracks of classic indie-pop." --Martijn Grooten
Oz Beat Music
OZ Beat was started to feature a diverse group of artists (fuck genres) creating Music That Matters. Never did we expect to find such a diversity of talent within one individual. Mike Ferraro is writing exceptional music and lyrics. The presentation of his music is simply stunning. We hear a lot of gifted new musicians at OZ Beat. We cant think of anybody better to be our first new featured artist of 2005. --Dem Hopkins
Vanity Project No. 13
Lovers Only Love is wrapped in just over 2 minutes, very unfussilly, but with sufficient quirk to suggest that you dont need to go over the top to bring a contemporary freshness to the singer/songwriter thing. --Skif
Channel 4 (UK) Teletext Planet Sound--New Indie (Indigo) New Demo
’DEMO OF THE WEEK’ Feature, 4/5 stars
"A UK listener recommended I get in touch," says New Jersey-based Ferraro. Thanks to whoever gave us props, as this is blimmin’ ace.
Traditional summery melodies whose lineage can be traced back from Ben Kweller via The Shins to Evan Dando, it’s surprising that Ferraro hasn’t yet been picked up on by a British label.
Music this sweet is universal. --John Earls
Jersey Beat
Pigeon Club Demo review
Tight’n’tuneful singer-songwriter folk-pop done with a winning surplus of delicate melodicism and low-key thoughtfulness. Mike Ferraro’s endearingly slight and nasal vocals radiate an utterly likeable blend of laidback charm and delicate wide-open sensitivity. The sweetly harmonic arrangements, tastefully filled out by gently strummed acoustic guitar, cool rippin’ Casio keyboards, and subdued, yet steady drums, really hit the soothing sonic spot with dead-on sonority and accuracy. Possessing all the warmth and appeal of a fine fall day, this nifty little item sizes up as a disarmingly modest, but surefire winner. --Joe Wawyrzniak
Smother.net
With synths (Casios no less!) fused alongside his guitar based indie sound, Mike Ferraro is one artist thats sure to emerge from the bubble. Impressive short demolets hear a full length. --J-Sin
Shmat Records
Great melodies on ’Song For Friendship’ which at times reminded me of Earlimart or Heatmiser. ’Yesterday Was A Burning Plane’ is an interesting half speed song with distorted guitar leading the charge through drony Sebadoh-like ambiance. The disc rounds out with a fun spot-on cover of GBV’s ’Awful Bliss’ from Bee Thousand, one of my favorite albums of all time. --Shorty
No Front Teeth
Three tracks of pleasurably minimal acoustic folk/rock. Very atmospheric and instantly reminisces Bob Dylan and Neil Young...gritty and on the punk rock side of the fence. Its definitely got a hint of Vic Ruggieros solo acoustic stuff toovery honest, very exposed. I have a lot of time for this stuffespecially when its so sincere. --Marco NFT
’Jersey Independent Music’ a Weblog by Tris McCall on NJ.com
Thursday, August 19, 2004
from the review:
"Ferraro’s acoustic guitar playing is tense, precise, and tightly locked in with the vocals. The interlocking six-string performances on "Baby Brother" are quietly accomplished. When strumming, Ferraro keeps his instrument under firm control -- but it’s when he picks that ’Mike Ferraro’ takes on its starkest, coolest, and most attractive quality."
