"Lower"

UPDATE SOMETIME BETWEEN XMAS AND NEW YEAR'S, THEN REWRITTEN ON 1/3, BUT IT'S AFTER MIDNIGHT SO I GUESS 1/4: Originally (woo! plastered!) I wanted to end with a different song, which was I project I'd half- recording a long time ago (beginning of this year, I'd guess). It was much wordier, loop-heavy, and very "controlled"-sounding. I gave it up because I couldn't get the old and new guitar sounds to match. I tried going to drop-d, but it still wasn't right, which got me here. In the end this is almost certainly a better fit anyway, what with being more spontaneous and longer and stuff.

One thing both song had in common was this intense, dark, manner to them. It's basically metal but much different than than heavy wood or dread or 22 minutes--the first song (which never got a name) was more trip-hop, where this is more prog.

DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: This one's the same.



In the end really happy with how this turned out. It's almost fully improvised, and it feels loose but not shaggy or foot-dragging like "Grace" (or some parts of "Testify"), and it's alternately contemplative and violent, but still has the right energy that the fast and slow parts feel like the same song.

I had my guitar amp and my computer on the floor and just used the Mac's built-in microphone. Because I was standing, the mike was about six feet away (probably more, I wasn't standing on top of it). As a result the lyrics are probably a bit hard to make out. Although, the fact that you can make out anything should tell you how loud I was singing. It's not a complicated story, basically a cross between Paradise Lost* and "Viva La Vida"; I wanted something epic but also uncomplicated, and just sang what the title suggested to me.

Lyrics:
I thought I had it all (xseveral)
My kingdom, my kingdom, on fire
My body, my body, in chains
But the only thing
The only thing I missed was you

*If you had told me at the beginning of year one that I would have songs based on both Paradise Lost AND The Divine Comedy, I would have assumed you were joking. People change, plans change.

"Morning in America/ Out to the Street"

wanted to do a double song for a while, even recorded another. these two were recorded separate, but were turining out similar in theme (plus both were in c) so saw chance. wanted third, called "breakfasttime," but couldn't figure out how would sound in time (these were very last two songs recorded, on Sunday night).

Morning in America:
arose out of me fiddling (pun) w piano, and getting this riff i liked because it reminded of Copland (see, i know real things about real music*). in contrast, this very urban and modern where he focused rural. A lot of my instrumentals are trying to conjure a place and time as well as a mood, and this really gets all three.also like bc where a lot of these last few songs are backward-looking,this is something i haven't done before. some previous helped, though contrapasso, dread, helped w strings (in turn this helped strings for dread rewrite)

Out to the Street
originally not intended as a double song, but like the way they contrast, with morning all get up and go and street more reserved, unhurried, but both having same urban/early morning feeling. opening strings based heavily around tone clusters (slam hand on keyboard--which is what i did). horns written similar way, sax synth, played four/ five notes together and rocked hand back and forth. easier than trick i used in diamond. also used clusters on piano for percussive sound. interesting how same technique comes out three very different ways.
Original title (when just strings, before finding whole arrangement) was "inverted rainbow," but sounded somehow homophobic, then "inverted halo." latter is good, might still use for something.


*Speaking of modern composers, anyone who thinks my music is weird should check up on some of those guys. "Rise" could be The Beatles compared to "Ancient Voices of Children." And compare "Insanity in 9:8" to "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima"

[eh, that's good enough. you can understand it]

DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: Both of these are the same. Which was lucky, because I don't think I could have had just one of them.

"We Used to Be Friends"

Trivia: did you know "We Used to Be Friends" is a total ripoff of this song?

If you don't know why this song is short you fail at everything. (The correct answer, by the way, is that it's because I'm more a TV geek than a music geek. Also I think the theme song version works better because of how it builds to a single, perfect climax, where the original comes off as a little more draggy and repetitive. I was going to write a blog post about it but couldn't think of enough other examples).

For this song I wanted something more "live" sounding. I was sort of inspired by the AV Club's Undercover series. That's why this song features only voice, uke, and handclaps, even though I originally wrote it with more backing tracks (of course, it also helped me record it faster).I used the uke instead of guitar because I want a cleaner and brighter sound. I did try to add backing guitar and vocals, but I didn't think it added much. Maybe I was just doing it wrong.

I'll admit I wasn't entirely sucessful; it's surprisingly hard to make something look easy without it just seeming half-assed ("Effect & Cause" has the same problem). I probably also ran into singing problems after changing the key.

"Spellbound"

This last grouping of songs is full of intentional reprisals and sequels (obviously Diamonds and Clubs noise, but also "Sunrise" vs. my first Bass Solo, "The Cove"/"Teardrop", "61"/"Mixology", as well as, slightly earlier and less intentionally, "Reaction"/"Duel" and "Insula"/"Hawaii"), as sort of a "look how far we've come" statement. This song was also written, about six months ago, as a response, though not, as you might expect, to "Rose", but to "Heavy Wood". It's meant to be equal and opposite-- where "Heavy Wood" used the textures and playing styles of metal but less of the melodic content or instrumentation, "Spellbound" uses metal-style scales and tonalities but is played in a different style altogether. Does that make sense? Probably not, but whatever.

Like "The Cove" and "Ray of Light" this idea that was written recently but shelved; unlike those I rediscovered it on accident when going through my GarageBand files. All i remembered was the basic concept, the overall Spanish guitar style, the use of diminished scales, and that it was about 2 and a half minutes long.

The song is based on a diminished scale which I'm pretty sure goes like this:

D|-0-1-3-4-6-7-8-9-12|

Music people will note that this scale has one too many notes. Whatever.

"Would?"

Usually I try not to do more straightforward covers; my opinion has always been that if people want to listen to the original song they can (and will) just listen to the original song. So even if I'm not doing something radical, I try to change the aesthetic or the tone of the song, usually to see how that effects the meaning.

But something with this one just seemed right. Even though it's basically the same as someone else's song, I sing it or play hear it and it feels like one of mine.

Also I knew it would be simple enough that I could finish it pretty easily.

[Clever joke relating to the name or subject matter of the song, or to my recent lack of blog updates]

"Insula":

As always, I will put words here at some heretofore-unknown later date. Probably in a couple hours.

Update, A Couple Hours Later: At some point I'm going to have to stop doing this reverb/surf type thing. Probably right after someone comes up with a name for it.

I think I've tried to record every day this week. I spent more time on Sunday playing with guitar effects than it took to write, record, and publish this whole song. My version of writers block is instead of not getting ideas, I get a thousand ideas, all of them shit. I think I broke through it last night, but by the time I could play anything (this is a fancy way of saying everyone else in my house was asleep) I had forgotten what I wrote. I'm pretty sure it wasn't that good anyway.

The reason I'm posting these rambling and incoherent* thoughts on writer's block is that I don't have much to say about this song. I like it. I like the ghostly sound of the steel guitar (that'd be the thing that sounds like a dolphin screaming). I like the way the static sounds like waves, which was actually an accident from when I made the track louder. I like the atmosphere, how it's somehow an idyllic island paradise and dark and creepy at the same time, an idea I totally came up with before anyone else.

*Those two words tend to hang out together a lot, don't they?


DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: More of the steel guitar, louder overall.

A Dare

Start at the beginning of Homestuck and see if you can get to the end today.



OK that's a stupid dare, but I've wanted to link to it forever (my main goal with this blog is to waste huge chunks of its readers' time, plus it's the best webcomic going right now) and today seemed like good day since it's the one year anniversary.

Also, check out the music, especially if you like chiptunes, which you do, because you're reading this, which means you're probably a nerd.

AAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAA:

The name of, and basically everything else about, this song was inspired by this. I decided to write a song that would be first in your iPod. Then I decided that that song would be violent and chaotic and feature lots of screaming. Then i forgot about it for a while. Then I remembered and decided that "AAAAAAAAAAAAAA*" should be the only lyrics. At some point a triangle solo got folded into the mix.

I'm working on song that will be the hardest Guitar Hero song ever (its title is "Hardest Guitar Hero Song Ever"). With this I sort of wanted to sketch out some ideas for that. Playing "AAAAAAAAA" wouldn't actually be that hard, except maybe on drums (the trick is to hit the cymbal and tom on the same stroke, and to alternate hands in the first part), but there are some ideas there. The final song, if I ever do it, will probably be longer and feature more shredding (though probably less screaming, since they always just make that a talky part, and that would kind of negate the harditude).

That's it, I guess. See you.

*There are nine A's, and don't you forget it.


DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: The drums and organ are louder, the vocals quieter. I'd say this is the song most improved by a different mix.

Liveblogging The Beatles: Rock Band: You Knew This Was Coming (Part 1)

The Unboxing:
Box is friggin huge

Kitten Sold Separately.
I don't know how to rotate these.
Box, opened.

View with the drums removed.

The goods
The not so goods.

Life Imitates Mr. Show

First real-life Mayostard (TM), now this crap?

TV host accused of ordering killings.

Compare:



Is someone trying to tell us something?

Song of the Week Week 2! (Part One)

(Yeah, you read that right.)

"2-Note Shuffle":


I've been trying to write stuff that's fairly short, inspired by my new favorite song. This actually has nothing to do with that. I was working on another song but didn't have time to finish it (hooray for school!), and so I started something fairly simple for Soundtracking Your Life, and then I remembered this thing I wrote a long time ago, just this little thing with only two notes. So I hit record, and...actually, that's the whole story.

I think the original version of this is slightly longer, but see above. More tomorrow, probably. Hopefully. Don't hold me too anything. Quit looking at me like that, at least I'm trying. Shut up, I hate you! Get out of my house! [sniff!] (And scene. Now what was I talking about?)

Needs no explanation...

Just click here.

Then, whence* you've done that, here's some more stuff:

*Couldn't decide between "when" and "once".

Two pieces of news.

First of all, I won! ABC.com is dead! I should demand things on the internet more, if it works this well!

Let's try it: Suggested donation, $1,000.

Also I broke and bought some drums. Song of the Week time!

[Song of the Week is a "weekly" feature which is supposed to update every Thursday Friday, but almost never does. In it, Drew records a song, or attempts to record a song, or gives up and writes another movie review.]

"Baby's First Drum Solo":


I think I'm pretty good for someone who started six days ago. Otherwise not much to say here. If I can I'll get a song up tomorrow.

Postscript: How weird is it that I haven't posted in a whole week? I mean serious, weird. Not sure what happened. Apparently nothing blogworthy.

Post-postscript: That noise that sounds like someone breathing is just feedback. The cough, however, is real, and I did it on purpose. Not sure why.

(Fingers Crossed)

I don't think these really require or deserve an explanation. I'm just glad I figured out how to do it.

normal

slow

fast

completely different song

total waste of time

Escape to the House of Mummies, part 2

Saturday Night Live, "Jon Hamm/ Coldplay":
SNL sure loves guest stars, doesn't it? This time, they at least have a good reason, with Amy Poehler gone (and not coming back, from what I understand). Other than Coldplay playing 3.5 times (who do they think they are, U2?) to kill time, there was surprisingly little filler here, and most of the sketches actually worked. Hamm, even if he was playing Don Draper or Jon Hamm half the time, proved he could be funny. That young man's going places.

Mad Men, "Meditations In An Emergency" (plus other thoughts on Season 2):
If I celebrated Halloween (I don't, because I live in "real America"), I would totally be going as Don Draper.

Oh, you want me to talk about the show? It was one the best, strangest episodes they've ever done. I've avoided doing reviews because I started late (I finished season 1 halfway into season 2 and caught the rest on demand), and because there are many, many places to read better and more comprehensive reviews. One thing I definitely want to bring up, though, was how this one ended. No exclamation point (OMGwhatsinthehatch!), no dash ("listen, I want you to know"--) no question mark (I'm looking at you, the Sopranos), not even a period (like last season). It's an ellipsis (...) and fade to black.

Also, how weird was it seeing everyone dressed all 21st century in that after-show thing?

OK, I lied. There's three parts. But since this post is below that post, you probably already new that.

Liveblogging Rock Band 2: Electric Bandaloo (Day 3)

9:43 PM, Wednesday

Alternative Marathon (Drums, Medium):
"De-Luxe"--repeat
"Give It Away"--repeat
"Testify"-- I just figured out drummers can freestyle over the end of songs (it was just the beginnings in RB1). Doesn't quite make up for almost no Big Rock Endings
"Teenage Riot"-- Fun. I'll have more to say later, I bet.
"Everlong"-- I think they made the Medium version easy on purpose to mess with my head.

Ernie Ball Showcase(Drums, Medium; Repeats Omitted):
"We Got the Beat":I liked the surf-rocky part in the break. Also, they replaced hihat & crash effect (yellow & green pads) with toms for freestyle. Is it because of the cybal add-on they're releasing (probably).
...5 starred "The Middle"..."Where'd You Go" isn't a repeat, I just forgot about it...
"Let There Be Rock": What a big, dumb, awesome song. Also I got five stars and did another Big Rock Ending. Also also, why isn't this the song played at the beginning (instead of "Hello There")?

Done and done.