Pursuit of Shallowness 1/10/09
Liked this one enough to add it to Black Sugar Transmission's live set (largely so Matt could do a drum solo!). The lyrics came out in one piece on a hungover Saturday afternoon and I love them ("you try on every affectation/but talent skipped a generation"). I recorded the vocals immediately upon completion of the words and you can hear the hangover in my gravelly tone. The track has a unique vibe that I'm real proud of. Dancey and hard. Those rad guitar sounds were created using pedals that were stolen six months later. Thanks alot, ASSHOLE.
Domina Abomina 1/29/09
This one pleases me. It's spare and vibey and nonsensical. I like all the textures and space and how it gets somehow menacing in the end.
Killing Another Man 1/29/09
This was, believe it or not, initially Prince-inspired. I like the sound design but as a song it's a bit...wallpaper-y. I dunno, what do you think?
Play All Yr Records 2/22/09
My life's a mess and I play all your records. I like that sentiment. This is a cute throwaway.
Fear Hope 2/22/09
Strictly a mood piece that I'd never release officially or play live, but still enjoy somewhat.
On a Plain (Nirvana cover)
"On a Plain" has always been one of my favorite Nirvana songs -- the chords in the chorus always hit me (which is why I reinforced them with synths in this version). The bridge is meant to invoke another Nirvana song, "Something In the Way." I recorded it the way Kurt recorded that song (more or less), with just one mic in front of me. I miss Kurt Cobain. This was for the 15th anniversary of his death.
Death Is Alive 7/16/09
The music for this was just a stray idea I'd recorded and the vocals/lyrics were finished sometime later. It won't win me any awards, I predict, but it sounds perfectly nice. The re-invented last chorus idea (same melody, new chords) is one I use all the time.
Fader Four 7/16/09
I wrote the main riff on guitar while watching my buddy Jimmy Fallon on late night tv. I recorded it, forgot about it, and went back to it later with fresh perspective and some lyrical ammo. It was easy and I love how it ended up. The lyrics are about drinking and dancing and forgetting life; "DJ opens up fader four/bodies piling onto the floor/stimulation wrung from a glass/now there's nothing left of the past." Mastered by Tom Waltz.
Hitting On the Guard 7/16/09
Hitting on the guard -- haven't we all been guilty of that at one time or another? My favorite part of this track is the ambient background noise.
Rain Instead 7/23/09
Rowdy guitar riff and really cool "hordes-of-locusts" synth sounds in this one. For best results play LOUD.
Over Now 7/27/09
This song makes good use of the Kumoi scale, one of my favorites. The dynamics, space and details are everything in this. The weird drum stops n' starts keep it from getting too monotonous. I also like how the two main vocal melodies work on top of each other in the 2nd verse. It was a really easy song to write and it sounds good to me.
Why Don't Ya Tell Me 7/27/09
This song took forever to get right -- I tweaked and poked and prodded and picked at it for probably two weeks before I was satisfied. And once it was there, I loved it. When you break this song down, there's not much to it -- the sound design and details were crucial in making it a great track, I think. I love the noise that threatens to overcome the entire track at the end. Thanks to Tom Waltz for a blistering mastering job!
Stuck In the Middle 7/28/09
A quickie. I like how the vocal starts on the 2 instead of the 1 in the last chorus. Definitely not reinventing the wheel, but the wheel gets you where you're going, I suppose.
Busted and You Lie 7/28/09
Usually chord progressions like this get me going to write cool vocal melodies but in this case, not so much. I don't mind hearing this, it's just a bit perfunctory for me. Done it before and it's too easy to do again.
Downslide (remix) 8/4/09
This is actually one of the first songs I ever wrote, way back when Clinton was in the White House and Bush was...an inexplicably popular band. Anywhoo, I felt compelled to do a 2K9 remix of the song and this is it. When I say "remix" I mean I just added stuff to the stereo master (xtra synths, beats, vocals, guitar), did some chopping, editing and FX to the track itself. Came out real nice, I think. That's my buddy Nick D. on bass.
Rt 170 9/3/09
I've written this kind of thing many times before, yet "Rt 170" still makes me happy. It's a driving song from someone who does not own a car. I like the reinvention of the chorus the last time around.
Station Is Calling 9/3/09
This one started out sounding like a throwaway but, somewhere along the way, turned into a kind of gem. The guitar solo was a bear to get right (twice, no less: once for the left channel and once for the right). You music nerds who are keeping score at home might notice that the chorus hook goes Lydian in the outro.
Fill Yr Sails, Man 9/3/09
Another one I'd recorded music for, abandoned, and completed the vocals/lyrics much later. I like the manipulation of the drum sounds and the chorus: "Fill yr sails, man, carry on then/your horizon quietly beckons/sing yr song and watch the compass/you're the ocean, life's the promise."
In the Wolves Den 9/8/09
There's something about the keyboards in this that are deeply melancholic to me. The whole song is sad, for that matter, and to that extent, successful.
Keep On Carrying On 9/8/09
"Keep on carrying on" -- easier said than done, isn't it.
Pitching On the Silent Sea 9/8/09
Very autumnal, very moody, very...nautical. Love those hand drums! (I didn't play them)
Equinox 9/22/09
I got the basic riff idea for this while teaching a guitar lesson and the lyrics are about a party on a boat I'd been to the previous weekend. Absolutely love the way this one came out -- it has a certain magic that seemed to blossom during the late stages of production. Mastered by Tom Waltz.
Story 9/22 9/22/09
The guitar harmonics were how this one started, then the track turned into a slow-building mood piece. And yes I'm quoting Chaka Khan/Rufus in the end. Tell me something good, indeed.
Feed the Castaways 9/29/09
Fun and bouncy, quickly recorded. Strictly b-roll stuff!
Watched You 9/29/09
The germ of this one started as an experiment: I recorded a bunch of single notes and chords individually (on my crappy little Backpacker acoustic) and then edited the melodies together in Cubase. The sound was really cool by itself, but happily I managed to build a really nice, simmering, dark song around it. I'm pleased with this.
Cities In Dust (Siouxsie and the Banshees cover) 10/09
Autumn always sends me running for my Banshees discs. This years I decided to bite the bullet and cover this much-loved track, something I've wanted to do for awhile. My take on it is fairly straightforward -- with the exception of a couple liberties taken in the vocal phrasing, a nifty intro/outro idea, and my insertion of the keyboard melody from The Cure's "Prayers for Rain" in the midsection. This was an "October-only" Myspace special in 2009.
Into Mortal Drains 10/21/09
The Banshees influence is all over this one, both musically and lyrically. I'm really pleased with how well (and how easily) this came together and how effective it is with such minimal ingredients.
Banshee Night 10/22/09
This one was put together quickly and not too seriously and the results are consequently really fun. It's literally about going to a Siouxsie and the Banshees night at a Brooklyn club in October with a friend. There's nothing wrong with that.
Monroe 10/30/09
Delighted with this 1:55 barn-burner. Totally inspired by the band Duchess Says and a weekend in Manchester, England. Pow, done. Next?
Surrender Shouldn't Be That Hard 11/5/09
I wrote this song the old-fashioned way: by picking up my guitar, coming up with an idea quickly, then recording it. The solo section encouraged something nice and tasty, but I resisted the urge to go there by playing some rather atonal stuff instead. Love this song!
Medicine From You 11/10/09
This little musical knuckle sandwich was a snap to get together intrumentally but the verse melody took a couple of tries before it was right. I like this: "I feel like walkin' death but I'll pull through/I'll never take no medicine from you."
Telling Secrets 12/1/09
I love when a song can make you feel shades of seemingly disparate emotions. This one does that for me: it's kind of pretty and sensual and it's also kind of creepy and queasy. It's also quite linear. Works pretty well, overall.
Get Out Here Instead 12/1/09
Originally an instrumental with lots of guitar solos in it, this piece of music seemed interesting enough to give a second life as a proper song. I'm glad I did -- it's kinda hot, isn't it? Pretty much all the vocals and guitar solos are first take.
The Punchline 12/2/09
The lyric "this life was all mine/when I signed on the punchline" is the best thing about this. Oh, and the hyper cut-up solo. Otherwise I'm underwhelmed.
Away From Today 12/3/09
Wrote this in my sleep.
Diamond Wine 12/9/09
This one ended up, fittingly, having a sort of solstitial, seasonal quality to it. I like the idea of celebrating the holidays "parked under a bridge next to an oil drum fire." Merry Christmas and all that.
Black Sunshine 12/10/09
When I worked out the music to this, I was really excited about it and then....no ideas came to me for vocal melodies. I put my head down and went for it, though, and it took at least three distinct drafts before the vocals seemed good enough to match the music. Now I'm quite proud of "Black Sunshine". Hope you like it too. Actually, I don't give a rat's ass what you think.
Thank you, and goodnight.
