First, a reminder to teel free to head over to the SoundCloud. Once there, you can stream and possibly enjoy some originals-only RKBS material:
https://soundcloud.com/johnk-rkbs/
Now, as to the business at hand, the time's flown yet again-- everything accelerating in the wrong places and evaporating in the other wrong places. But to hell with it, after all: Here are some modernized, if still rough sounds for your ears. Both songs date back to the just-after-Honcho-band days in Baltimore, as I recall.
"Mary Mary" was definitely a '90s tune, the "Mary" in question actually being Mary Bono, widow of ol' Cher'in', furry-vest-sportin', Phil Spector-hangin', Palm Springs-mayorin' and terminally-skiin' Sonny. She looked like a little lost lamb during those House Clinton impeachment hearings, Mary did, and thought I'd encourage her to lose that crowd she was hanging with. Anyway, it was and is a pop song, to my understanding, and always a bit rootsy. This go-round it happily took on a little bit of a street party feel, once the overdriven Wurlitzer hit, and the congos, guiro and all that. Best version to date, so this one goes into the "win" column.
"Wrung Out" clearly lands a more on the "alterna-" side of things, but it was the '90s, after all. It's definitely a B-side, but it's fun to revisit and re-work things: hard-pan the drums right and left, take up some bass guitar, add those long-needed harmonies, work out the guitar parts and all that... Of course I had to leave Nicholas J. Pootle's guest vocals at around 2:12. Gettin' lazy about all the mixing and editing, I am, but also it warms my heart to here a little "woof" here, some squeaky toy over there, or a collar jangle when you least expect it.
Mary Mary: https://app.box.com/s/cw75d5eb4wpxxe3ythmr
Wrung Out: https://app.box.com/s/vxn1zbpiv249x6ph7nnu
