When you finally get to hear the whole album, you’ll likely notice this technique dotted around throughout. To give you an example here and now, though, here’s a short disco-inspired sequence in demo form:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Pistols_at_Dawn_disco_section_(Demo).mp3

Then we asked ourselves the question, What would the same thing sound like if we were playing a sort of ballad? This is our answer:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Pistols_at_Dawn_ballad_section_(Demo).mp3

So, same chords and recognisably the same section, but different beat, bassline, instrumentation, melody, etc. Anyway, these are brief snatches from a song we’re calling Pistols at Dawn, the opening track on our forthcoming album. We’ve previously uploaded other snippets from the same piece, and just for fun, here’s another, complete with some vocals:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/demos/Pistols_at_Dawn_dark_section_(Demo).mp3

Make of those lyrics what you will. We’ll also leave to your imagination for now just how all of these bite-size chunks will fit together. Is Pistols at Dawn coming across as a very fragmented piece to you? More than likely it is, but that’s the challenge we set for ourselves. Can we make a prog-esque album that actually sounds relatively accessible? Probably not, but that’s the aim…

http://www.thehomeguard.info/free/The_Home_Guard_-_Nevermore.mp4

http://www.thehomeguard.info/free/The_Home_Guard_-_I_Want_to_Tell_You.mp4

You’ll need to right-click each link and “Save Target As…” to download, otherwise they may try to play in your browser.

Meanwhile, many thanks to all of you who helped these cover versions to travel by blogging about them, adding them to your YouTube favourites, sharing them on Last.fm, posting on Facebook etc. etc. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: you may not realise it, but tweets like this go a very long way indeed.

Roll on 2012!

The mp3 can be downloaded here by right-clicking the link and choosing “Save Target As…”:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/free/The_Home_Guard_-_I_Want_to_Tell_You.mp3

George always seemed to struggle to get his own compositions taken seriously by John and Paul, but this little cracker from Revolver has long been one of our favourites. We’ve obviously taken quite a few liberties with the instrumentation and arrangement, but we thought the song would work well if done in a more upbeat fashion. We tried to rock it up, and may have accidentally glammed it up in the process.

We’re also aware that after release, George regretted the lyrics in the chorus, stating openly that he got them the wrong way around; we’ve been arrogant enough to “correct” them to what was originally intended. Comments, criticisms and other observations are all welcome, especially if you can manage not to use the word “Philistines”. (I knew her brother. No, wait…)

For the truly die-hard Beatle fans, we’ve slipped in an ultra-obscure reference to a significant moment in the history of the band during the solo. See if you can spot it. We’ll send a free copy of our new CD (when finished) to the first person who gets it right. We sincerely doubt anyone will!

http://www.facebook.com/thehomeguard/posts/166053610158941

Thanks, guys! Fellow musicians, make sure you get in touch with this lot – you won’t regret it.

You can download the mp3 for free here (right-click and choose “Save Target As…”, of course):

http://www.thehomeguard.info/free/The_Home_Guard_-_Nevermore.mp3

It all began when I was lent a nylon-stringed classical guitar and started experimenting with different picking techniques. But what to record? Nevermore is one of those short hidden gems that Queen used to bury on their albums, and its relative obscurity is what made us think it was ripe for covering. A few Mellotron strings, atmospheric effects and vocals later, and this is the outcome.

In truth, our version bears little musical resemblance to the piano-based original – besides the main melody and lyrics, of course – but hopefully it’s a vaguely fitting tribute to possibly the greatest singer and frontman of our generation.

We’ll be commemorating the passing of another of our musical heroes next week, so be certain to check back on Tuesday for another new download.

http://www.facebook.com/thehomeguard?sk=app_204974879526524

They seem to have kept it nice and simple – a plus in our book – as all it does is make our Bandcamp site available without leaving our Facebook page. This means that fans can listen to full streams of our songs and download them if they like what they hear, with all transactions taken care of automatically. When you think about it, this should be the absolute bare minimum for any music page, and we wonder why it’s not actually built into Facebook ‘out of the box’. Still, Facebook’s loss in Bandcamp’s gain.

If you’re a musician but haven’t added your tab yet, go here for instructions:

http://blog.bandcamp.com/2011/10/21/facebook-app

We did, however, break with this tradition late last year by putting together a glorified slideshow of John Lennon photos for our Imagine cover version, and a few people actually liked it. In fact, due to popular demand (i.e. one person suggested this may be a good idea), here it is to download, optimised for iPhone (it says here):

http://www.thehomeguard.info/free/The_Home_Guard_-_Imagine.mp4

Of course, the mp3 has been here for download all along:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/free/The_Home_Guard_-_Imagine.mp3

Feel free to share far and wide.

As promised, you can listen to the show through the BBC iPlayer for free here (available for seven days from broadcast):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b0162wgt

Sadly, I believe this only works if your IP address says you’re in the UK. We come on around 1:41:20, but don’t just skip to that point – as always, the whole episode is worth a listen. After all, the chances are you’ll never come across these songs any other way.

The best thing about the Fresh On The Net show in many ways is its philosophy. Tom himself insists that nobody – whether they be unsigned artists or high-flying PR companies – can jump the queue in any way. The only prerequisite is that the song must be freely steamable online. If it’s recommended to them, they guarantee to listen to it. If they like it, they play it. Simple as that.

This is our third different song to make it onto the Fresh On The Net programme. Thanks, Tom!

Listeners in the UK will be able to tune into digital station BBC 6 Music from 1am Monday (i.e. an hour after midnight at the end of Sunday) to hear Tom do us the honour of giving Dead on My Feet (Again) a spin – and we’ll post an iPlayer link here after the event for anyone who would (somewhat inexplicably) rather get an early night.

Those of you taking notes will be aware that this is our fourth appearance on the Fresh On The Net programme, and we’ve got the previous clips to prove it:

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/The_Home_Guard_on_Tom_Robinson_Introducing.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/The_Home_Guard_on_Tom_Robinson_Introducing_Again.mp3

http://www.thehomeguard.info/archive/The_Home_Guard_on_Tom_Robinson_Introducing_3.mp3

http://www.facebook.com/thehomeguard?sk=app_155326481208883

Not that exciting, but it all helps spread our sounds far and wide. Fellow CD Baby artists, add your tab (are they still called tabs now that they’re a menu on the left rather than, well, tabs?) by going here and clicking through the various options:

http://members.cdbaby.com/sell-music-on-facebook.aspx

Is it just us or are all the colour schemes on offer a little hard on the eyes?