Indieish : Guerilla video production for the web

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This song belongs in an 80’s movie as the track running on top of one of those montage scenes. You know the ones. That 7th inning stretch part of the movie where everybody pulls together and cleans up the performance hall just in time for the big show.

Mr. Corporate A&R man shows up, signs the plucky protagonists to the deal of their dreams. The Guy gets The Girl, sunset. And, scene.

But I digress. Here’s what Magnatune has to say :
“First, a true story; When Thornside was in his mid twenties, he worked at McDonalds. Believe it or not, he came so far as to being a “white shirt”, bossing around. But of course Thornside had a boss over him, a crazy but nice man from Iran. When he heard that Thornside sang and played the trumpet, he immediately insisted (or “decided” is probably the right word) that Thornside should play for the guests between four and five every Tuesday. Thornside called his old friend Burnshee, with whom he was playing in different bands, and asked him to play with him. They formed a duo, performing jazz standards and some dixie, in the corner of the McDonalds restaurant at Kungsgatan in Stockholm, Sweden. Thornside singing, playing trumpet and banjo, and Thornside playing the guitar. Two hundred Swedish kronor and a free meal was the deal. And the start of what 15 years later would be Burnshee Thornside, the funky jazzy whacky duo from Sweden. (What the guests thought at the moment is not very clear. One thing is for sure: they did not come only to hear Thornside and Burnshee.)”

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“2003; after pursuing different careers (IT, Advertising, computers), of course neither Thornside or Burnshee made a living out of music, altough it gave some good extra money, Burnshee finally made one of his dreams come true: his own studio in the basement. Based around a Mac G4 and Logic. All of a sudden Burnshee and Thornside were back were it all started. Recording, making music, composing, arranging. They looked at each other and decided to start all over. But first they had to get rid of their Swedish sounding names - Johan Nilsson and Jens Henriksson - so they named themselves Burnshee Thornside and their first recording in the new studio was of their old song “Hey Hey Hey” (which now appears on the Burnshee Thornside Album Blues and misc.) After that they composed 14 brand new songs and invited the magic musician Tomas Bergquist in to play drums and bass (he is still with us). The releasing of “The Art Of Not Blending In” was quite successful, there being no record label behind it. We got some airtime on a small radiostation in Oregon, and Australia, and we sold some albums via magnatune.com who supported us from the start. Everybody said it sounded like Steely Dan and Michael McDonald, mostly thanks to Thornside’s voice, we guess, but also due to the fact that the music is kind of Rhythm & Blues. With a jazzy feeling. And then a bit funky. And with horns. The lyrics, that’s quite another story. They are not only about love. They can be about anything…”

Screw it, think Weird Al, or They Might Be Giants, or Moxy Fruvous, and then forget all that. Burnshee Thornside is all about putting a smile on your face. It’s a little velveeta at first, but it’ll grow on you.

Burnshee Thronside (4:36)

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