"Beatbox 2"

:)

UPDATED 1/3: Some Notes on the Future of Song of the Week: For a long time I had sort assumed that SotW would end here, and I probably wouldn't do a year 3 (I'm not saying I would quit music entirely, just stop with the weekly schedule). I'm going away to school and probably can't take most of my instruments, and I don't know if I'll have time to record. Plus for a long time when I wasn't doing music, the stress of missing the deadline was getting to me, and I figured it would be better to quit than to have to keep to it. Having said that, doing so many songs in such a short time was a lot of fun, especially some of these smaller, less stressful songs from the second half of the week. And I still have a lot of unused ideas, so who knows? Maybe I can find some time to do something.

Over the last few weeks I've been remastering, editing, and rerecording (what a weird word) most of the SotWs in preparation to do some kind of downloadable album release. I've done most of them at this point though a lot of the most important ones (which of course are the ones that are the hardest and take the longest). Still aren't done yet. And I have three days, and I have to spend a lot of that getting ready to go. I guess we'll see.

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

"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.

"All Along the Watchtower"

Part to the reason there are so many acoustic song near the end here is because I wanted more songs to play live. In fact I wrote this to play live and didn't originally (bang) plan to record it. Ironic because Hendrix's version of the song is probably the best example anywhere of using the recording studio as an instrument.

And speaking of awkward segues, let's talk about my favorite song ever for a minute*. I love Hendrix's "Watchtower" because on top of everything else it has this unique sort of surrealist atmosphere, which for lack of a better description I'll compare to the "Space Coyote" thing from The Simpsons. You can hear a lot of techniques from that song in my songs-- panning, guitar effects, a lot the vocal styles (both Hendrix's "talky" style and the "ooh" and "aah"s from the intro). Of course, this is the rare "Watchtower" that's mainly a cover of Dylan instead of Hendrix. I actually put in some changes, like the increase in volume between verses, to make it more differenter.

I avoided some of the hurdles of the other acoustic songs by recording the guitar and voice parts separately, and thus insuring there was only one thing that could go wrong on each take. Of course I did a bunch of takes before I figured that out. This song, like some of the other recent ones, is very hard to sing, especially as it goes on (I'm actually getting pretty good at the first verse). Some takes had the last verse as the same as the first, and some had it even louder, but those tended to be more shouting or yelling than screaming (yes these are all different things).

Leftovers:
As with "Hallelujah", I've written several other covers of this song, including one very close to Hendrix but in a slightly different style.

This song is also keyed down, quite aloo actually, from C# to F#, basically by playing the Bm, A, & G chord shapes in a lower tuning. I used the same technique as Reaction of only playing D/G/B strings of the chord (not coincidintally, they have same I-vii-vi progression; this song was "written" slightly before that one).

*Note that the two songs I've listed so far as favorites are both covers--which probably says more about my work than my work itself does.

"Knockin' on Heaven's Door"

Another song picked out of "unfinished" pile, mainly because I knew I could do it well, it wouldn't take long, and it would complement "Watchtower."

Digression: I like GNR's versions, but it's probably less "good" and more "so bad it's good", mainly for how much it ignores tghe whole point of the song (of course i've done that, to a not as good song). They took a song about a man literally on his dying breath and tried to play it as fun and triumphant, and it just doesn't work if you actually listen to the lyrics for ten seconds.

More movies: this cover was conceived as the song that plays during the sad part of the movie. Or maybe the credits (not all my ideas are all that brainulated).Then I saw I'm Not There (of course, Dylan's original was written for a movie, too).

Like Hallelujah, this was keyed down five steps from it's original key (here from g to d)

"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.

"Doctor Who"

I forget when I had this idea, but it must have been fairly recent, I think either near the end of Series Five or right after it ended. It's a simple idea but I like it because The Doctor's basically a cowboy anyway.

My playing on the lead part sounded fine on the GarageBand file but here seems.. not that great. This is a fairly common problem--a lot of songs lost volume and/or quality when being converted. I might retape it or just try and fix the mix pretty soon.

Special thanks to the youtube commenter who pointed out The Doctor HAS been to the wild west (and of course, as I just found out a couple days ago, it looks like he's going back there). maybe they can get someone talented to redo this for that episode.

"Hayao"

Over the last summer, I was having a lot of problems with my mood. I wouldn't say it was full-on depression, because I know it wasn't because I had some of that too, but later. But I'm not going to write about that, because it's not a very interesting story and also wildly off-topic. Maybe some other time. Anyway, one of the things that helped was that I got to see all the Miyazaki movies for the first time (the other thing that helped was Calvin & Hobbes). I'm not very good at explaining it, but there's something about even the darker ones that just makes you feel better about everything.

This song isn't really an StL song, but it is soundtrack-realted (similar situation with "Grace", but that's a different long story). Basically what happened was I just had this scene in my head, and I heard this music under it, like a waking dream almost (or am I the only one who writes music in their sleep?). And it reminded so much in spirit, and setting, and style, that I hummed it into my computer and gave it this title in homage.

The main thing with this guy is that it sounds like a Joe Hishashi-style piece, but somehow doesn't resemble any specific one, either in terms or melody or arrangement. [Or it's an exact copy and I'm in big trouble. I've never done pastiche before, so these problems are new to me.]

"Alabama Frog"

This was the first song I wrote after getting back from Europe, around the end of June, which is a long and involving story that no one but me will find interesting. Anyway, probably as a result this is the most American song ever.

Originally (shot) it was just the one guitar part; the second guitar was added as a test. In retrospect it's maybe more electric-sounding than I'd like, which is mostly a mixing problem.

I have no idea where the title comes from. It just seemed to fit.

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

"Untitled, No. 61"

This was a test of MIDI instruments and Apple Loops. I completed most of it inn about 15 minutes, on October 29. I know this because I know it was a Friday, and Rock Band 3 came out that same week.

I wanted to write a song called 52. It would be the last song of Song of the Week Year One.

For obvious reasons I didn't do that, but I revisited the idea and decided to do a song called 61. Since that's where about I was at that point. Sort of, but "60" and "62" both sounded wrong.

I wasn't going to post this originally. I thought of it as too much of a joke, and was going to have it as a bonus track or such. But since I already had a title, and it's kind of a fun listen, I figured "can't hurt."

Though it was finished sooner, this song was probably partially inspired by "Club Noise", in terms of structure. Along with that song, this is the one I most want to see performed live.

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

"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.

"Reveille"

another sequel, this one to "taps". wanted more shoegaze sound where that was surf rock. took 15 mins to learn, 10 mins to set up and play, 1 and a half hours to mix and master.
reveille is this song, which you can almost make out in final recording. i played it more or less right, but like 2.5 octaves down (from b to e)
got to play with gband 11's electric guitar settings. used three modified tracks, then had to include a clean track to make melody recognizable.
this was song where i finally figured out how to mix out static. it involves an eq setting.

[that makes sense, I'll just leave it like that].


DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: Mixing. Can't remember.

"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.

"Contrapasso"

Another "title inspired" song. I picked contrapasso because it sounds like a music term but actually translates to something like "punishment that fits the crime"--it's mostly related to Dante's Inferno. From there I got the idea to write something more classical-sounding but simultaneously hellish and scary, with this sort of theme of descent.

It's the key of e-flat minor, chosen because so far few of my songs are in sharp/flat keys, and because it uses mostly black keys, which let me reference the pentatonic scales scales used in a lot of religious music. I used a church organ for a similar reason. The only instrument that I allowed to play out of the scale was the piano, both because I wasn't good enough to play the whole thing in key and also because I think it makes things more chaotic as you head toward the end.

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Rerelease Notes: I think I made the flute a bit quieter. I can't remember.

"Angels Dressed in Black"

Soundtracking Your Life Part Eight--The Last Stand*: There's a specific moment in a lot of movies, when the female lead enters and one of two things happens. In the first she's shot from behind, then turns to reveal she's The Most Beautiful Woman He's Ever Seen (TM). This is generally accompanied with strings, or perhaps a harp, and may or may not be in soft focus. The other way of doing this usually shows up in Badass Movies That Don't Play By Your Lame Rules, Old Man (TM), so of course it's the more common of the two. The girl walks into the room as the camera pans up from her feet to reveal She's A Sex Bob-Omb (TM). The music in these scenes is usually "Bad to the Bone" or "Born to Be Wild" or one of its cooler offspring (Wolfmother's "Woman" is a good choice), and may or not involve a wind machine.

My idea was to marry the two, hence the title. It sort of moved away from that to a more generic "entrance theme", but that was my starting point. This was actually (albeit accidentally) a pretty good idea, as it gave me a good way to do an instrumental verse-chorus-verse structure. My initial plan was to have each "verse" end with a guitar solo, then go into the chorus, but the rock guitar solo is sort of my Kryptonite, because my normal playing/writing style is so different from it, so there's only one solo now, and as a result the "verses" (especially the second) ended up a lot shorter. I decided instead to end them with the noise blast you hear at the beginning, which is a tone cluster on a guitar synth played 2 octaves below a guitar's natural range, then I set the volume to fade in, then back out out quickly (I changed this part when I was remixing stuff, so it's wrong here but right for the later version which no one but me has heard).

I always knew the song would have this riff, but learning how to play it took a long time. It's actually two guitars, one playing the chords and one playing the response. I used a borrowed wah pedal (thanks, Tito!), and the overall sound is played by working the pedal while scratching the pick one the strings. I actually got the riff wrong-- I worked so hard trying to get the sound right I forgot there should be two dead notes at the end of each bar. This is basically the definition of missing the forest for the trees.

The synthesized vocals were played once (actually, I think it took about four takes), and then I used lots of copying and pasting to get them to sound at every vocal range, for a choral effect. I wrote them on piano and then had to basically custom-make a synthesizer that sounded just right. I originally wanted to use an organ, and add a bunch of harp and string sounds on top of it, but the fake choir just sounded more "clear," I guess.

*It's not the last StL song, just the last that you'll see on the blog. At some point in a million years or so I want to do a proper album of it, possibly with real musicians who can actually play guitar.

DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:

Rerelease Notes: I wasn't able to fix the riff, but I did fix some mixing problems, mainly changing the way the noise blasts are used and making the bass louder.

"♣ Noise"

With all the "___ Noise"s, I tried to create something completely different, but at the same time I wanted there to be elements that were common to all four--basically a "spirit" that justifies the hyperlinked titles. While each focuses on one element--Hearts on the way the tracks are layered, Spades on how effects change the sound, Diamonds on balancing order and chaos, and this song on playing different textures and styles against each other-- they all have this thing that unites them, which is that they're all almost something, but not quite. They're supposed to be sort of deconstructed, "wrong" versions of what they're sound like they are. Hearts is almost, but not quite, pure noise--everything still fits together in some recognizable way even as it clashes at the same time (compare to "Insanity," which uses noise more as an instrument in itself, rather than a result of the composition and how the instruments are used). Spades is almost a straightforward rock song, but the rhythms and scales are all off and for some reason there's an all-sped-up version. Diamonds could be pop, but the vocals are just an inaudible moan and the horns sound defeated, and some of the other instruments aren't even paying attention to what the others are doing. This song has the synthesized sounds and mash-up aesthetics of modern dance music, but it's near-impossible to actually dance to.

This song has probably the most uniquest (take that, grammar Nazis) structure of any of my song, one which I don't think I've ever heard before. It's a refrain/solos structure similar to jazz, but there's no refrain, just a series of consecutive solos (bass, ukulele, piano, and acoustic guitar) played with barely any breaks between them. The rest takes a sort of A-B-A form, but the second "A" section isn't really all that similar to the first, and adds a new motif (the 10:8 guitar/drum breakbeat) which gradually takes over the whole song.

Other things:
At one point (around the end of July/ start of August), I spent most of a week trying to figure out how to get the guitar sound on this--something that would be simultaneously atmospheric and musically dynamic--but gave up, and the next day ended up writing "Insula" in less than an hour*. The final sound is me playing weird rhythms on an A Minor chord, playing a wah pedal with my left foot and a whammy pedal with my right foot, which is essentially the same as something I made a joke about a long time ago.

It's probably fitting that my attempt to write electronica has the most metal riffs I've ever written.

The screeching noise that ends part one is a triangle scraped with a drum brush. I used the same effect on it here as I used to create "Insanity in 9:8"
Initially I tried to write around the bass and drum parts, and recorded a bunch of additional "solo"parts to use later. Everything but some minor percussion and the two electric guitar parts was thrown out and ended up rerecorded.

As I said above, this song, like "Diamonds" has a 5:4 beat (really more 10:8, which i actually use a lot but not in anything I've recorded yet). I want to use more weird time signatures going forward--so far really all I've done is the 3:4 parts of "Rise"-- but I especially like how it's used here because everything else is still 4:4. Other weird key and tempo stuff-- the song is mostly in A minor but the piano and uke are in C**, the bass in f#, and the guitar breakbeat in G.

The guitar breakbeat uses the A, G, and E power chords, the same chords "Ray of Light" is built on, and has a similar circular pattern to both "Reaction" and "Watchtower."

The endless coda to this song isn't some bold artistic choice, it's a mistake, caused by me setting something wrong and then not bothering to listen to the song before posting it.

Out of all my songs, this is the one I'd most like to see performed live.

*To be fair I also figured out structural elements like the piano solo, and the pattern for the breakbeat, then played on cymbals.
**I later went back and made some minor changes, the biggest of which was writing a different piano solo which is in A Minor

DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: See ** above. Also I used a hard pan to put the acoustic guitar on the left and the rock guitar/drum breakbeat on the right. Also the ukulele is a little quieter I think.

"The Cove"

After those last two songs (and the first few recordings of "Watchtower," and trying to get "♣ Noise" and "Angels" started, and a bunch of stuff I didn't finish, and, you know, real life) I wanted to do a song that was just fun to play (out of anything this is probably my favorite song to just pick up and play). Ironically, I picked a song I previously gave up on for being too difficult. It's all relative.

It took me a long time to learn to write mandolin songs that weren't just variations on "Teardrop." By which I mean it took until I figured out this song, which basically meant figuring out this one chord. Which is more or less but not exactly a B minor. I think this song suceeds where a few of the other instrumental songs failed, in that none of the parts are inessential to the song, and they flow into each other without dragging or any of those weird pauses where I tried to figure out the next part. I've been trying to rerecord a few of the older songs, and this helped a lot with the new version of "Grace" (though I still haven't quite nailed it. There's a lot to get right and a lot that can go wrong). Speaking of "Grace," I have a sneaking suspicion that it's the only song of mine with more notes than this one. Of course, it's five times as long, so...

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

"Ray of Light"

I wanted to cover Madonna since I saw the episode of that show about her. You know, the show with the singing teens? I think it's called The Sopranos*. Mainly I wanted to do it for the contrast of it, similar to why I did some of my other covers, but I also think Madonna deserve more respect than she actually gets. Even when complimenting her, most people talk about her image or her celebrity status, and ignore the fact that she's actually responsible for some pretty good music. It's especially odd when someone does basically the same thing (hint: rhymes with "maybe lava"), and gets lauded as the Greatest Artist of our Generation TM.

As with Hallelujah, this song was easy to write (it took about an hour to work out the chord placements), but hard to play. Madonna's original "Ray of Light" is already hard to sing; this version is even harder, because of its unusual chord progression (which is either I-V-vii or vii-IV-vi, I couldn't figure out how the key worked) and lots of variations. Most of my early takes came out as vague grunts or psuedo-drunken slurs or Billy Corgan impressions. I actually changed parts of the structure of the song after taping this, but couldn't get a decent recording of the new version, so I had to stick with this earlier take instead.

Random Bull---- (he said, pronouncing the dashes effortlessly):
-At one point I was going to change the lyrics more, but I think what I was trying to say with the song works without all the changes. I sort of saw this version as being about losing someone (where Madonna's is more about going towards something), so lines like "faster than the speeding light she's flying," end up meaning very different things in the two versions.
-Recording this was a lot like recording "Hallelujah," but with a few differences. I spent a lot more time here trying to nail down the singing style, and playing in every conceivable key, in an effort to avoid the headaches the last song gave me. I failed, though this one did take less time, perhaps due to lower standards.
-This song was completely finished (by which I mean written) in May, but was shelved until recently because my attempts at recording it back then were about as successful as my attempts to record it now. Except for I gave up sooner, and I was less desperate.
-I decided not to listen to the original at all until I finished recording, so that the two versions would sound more different.
-Because I'm proud of them (and because they're nothing like the original), here are the chords in standard tuning (I played it three steps down):

Intro:
(D A C G B F Em D)

D              A     C       G
Zephyr in the sky at night I wonder
G              Em       A                C
Do my tears of mourning sink beneath the sun
D                   A             C
She's got herself a universe gone quickly
C               Em      G               A
For the call of thunder threatens everyone


A     D     A             C
And I feel like I just got home
D           A             C
And I feel like I just got home
Em    G    A  D
And I feel
D              A      C          G    Em
Quicker than a ray of light then gone
D              A      C          Em    G
Quicker than a ray of light then gone


D               A        C           G
Faster than the speed of light she's flying
G             Em     F        Am    C
And I don't remember how it all began
D        A     C      Em       G
I had myself a little piece of heaven
F               Em        Am                D   A
Waiting for the time when Earth could be as one

(verse)

G A B C D Em F G A

A     C     A      C
And I feel/ And I feel

D              A      C          G    Em
Quicker than a ray of light then gone for
Am                  Em
Someone else should be there
Am            Dm    Am A
Through the endless years

A     D     A             C
And I feel like I just got home
D           A             C
And I feel like I just got home
Em    G   C  A
And I feel

A                   D
She's got herself a universe
A                   C
She's got herself a universe
A                   D
She's got herself a universe
A                   C       Em G A
She's got herself a universe

A     D     A      D
And I feel/ And I feel

A C G B G F G Em G A Em

D              A      C     Em    G
Quicker than a ray of light she's flying
D              A      C     G     Em
Quicker than a ray of light she's flying
D              A      C     Em    G
Quicker than a ray of light she's flying
D              A      C           G  Em
Quicker than a ray of light she's flying

A D A C G Em

*In all seriousness, I've wanted to write about Glee since it started--it's not always a good show but there's always something to talk about--but I didn't want to start TV blogging again (too much work, plus I wasn't that great at it), and it seemed weird to only write about one show.

"Hallelujah" in G Major

Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" is possibly the greatest thing ever put to record. It's so good it's almost insulting to call it music. It's less a song, let alone a cover of a song, and more this secret little world that you get a glimpse of for a few minutes. It conjures something from nothing with just sound. It's light and darkness at the same time. It's pure passion, but it doesn't sacrifice structure or logic. It is perhaps the closest thing I've ever seen to something truly supernatural.

But it's not the whole story, nor should it be. "Hallelujah" is so widely covered because it's so ambiguous (unlike a lot of widely covered songs like "Yesterday," which are done because they're so universal). It can be sarcastic or achingly sincere, dark or redemptive, subdued or screamed, total crap or the greatest thing ever put to record (it also helps that you can pick and choose which parts to sing, and everyone including me seems to change the words). Even something as great as Buckley's version can't tell the whole story.

[In fact, I've written at least three different covers of this song, and every one of them is completely different. But more on that if I ever finish them.]

With this version I wanted to do something fairly dark, almost minor-key in the way it's sung (especially on the choruses, which are meant to sound pained and defeated, literally "broken"). In all honesty I probably bit off more than I could chew. I picked this version out of the three because I thought it would be relatively painless. Three weeks, fifty takes and one-and-a-half panic attacks later,* I was proven wrong. This was without a doubt the most difficult and time-consuming recording process I've ever had. The end result (for now at least) is what you hear now, which is successful in some ways but certainly isn't nearly as good as it could be.

There were basically three problems I had when recording this. 1.) Learning how to sing it. This version is a little talky, mainly so you can make out the words but also because I kept losing the good parts of my voice, and this was a decent compromise. Goddamn cold season**. 2.) I made a lot of mistakes. It's tricky chord progression, and it's hard to remember the third verse, because the best lines are at the end not the start, so you're always like how does the holy dove verse start oh shit I can't just keep playing people will realize it's cause I forgot the words better start over but now I'm rambling. 3.), and most annoyingly because you can't do anything about it, is volume. My setup has always been lo-fi, which a lot of people think is a good thing because they think it's what the music is supposed to sound like. It's not. Lo-fi in this case means that you can barely hear the quiet parts, and the loud parts hurt your ears and have all kinds of clipping problems***. For a song like this, which has lots of dynamics changes, it's basically a death sentence. In particular, the intro had to be changed from an arpeggiated part (which sounded sort of like Pachobel's canon, actually) to the more lamer thing in this version. I actually tried to dub over it with an electric guitar part, but it just sounded worse, though it did give me the idea to do the solo.

*Sadly neither of those is a joke.
** I'll probably, talk more about this in the "Ray of Light" and "Watchtower" posts, so I'm just giving you the Cliffs Notes here.
***For one take, I set the recording levels to "automatic," which gave me headaches to listen to. It's especially bad since it was otherwise probably the best take I did, much better than the final one, and I spent a week and a half trying to get something even close to it.

"♦+Noise"

UPDATED, 12/28: I can't remember exactly when I decided to finish the suite(s). I think the idea occurred to me sometime around finishing Spades, but I didn't actually know what they would sound like until this summer. I went with the laziest possible creative choice— basing what the song would sound like based on the title (it's a surprisingly effective strategy— see "Programming," "Insula," "AAAAAAAAA"). "Clubs" was obvious, but "Diamond" can describe a lot of things (one of my rejected ideas was to do a math-rock song). In the end I decided to go with a lush, string-and-horn heavy style, sort of like you might hear in a Bond movie (with a healthy dose of Phil Spector in there, too).

As it turns out, that's not an easy style to imitate. And it was especially difficult to reconcile a cool, slow ballad style with the chaotic nature of a "___ Noise" song.

The key was nailing down the drums. [Hint number 1: play slow. Play like you've never heard of Keith Moon. There are no such things as 8th notes. Hint number 2: use a tambourine. I played mine by sticking it on my right foot, which also why there's no bass drum in this song. Hint number 3: use brushes. this will also make hint number one easier. Oh, and hit the cymbal, not the hat]. I basically recorded a completely different song, then had to redo almost everything once I figured out the drums.

Other things:
-Expect a lot more synthesized instruments in these later songs. That's partly a consequence of the kind music I was writing, mostly due to having a decent MIDI controller now, and almost entirely due to the fact that I had to record almost 20 songs without anyone complaining about noise.
-The "deflating horn" sound is caused by hitting a chord and then hitting a blue note at lower volume.
-There are, actually, vocals in this song, though I never intended there to be words. I was never able to really get the sing style right, so it's mostly "ooh"s and "ah"s.
-Garageband 11 actually has a guitar setting called "Spy Movie." A heavily modified version of it appears here.
-This is the first song I've (successfully) written in 5:4 Time.


DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: I cloned the drum track to change the panning, and made the 2nd guitar louder.

"Sunrise"

This has been up for a week but I haven't blagged it for a good reason: the recording quality is about the opposite of what it needs to be. It should be a lot more aggressive and "hot" (hence the title), and instead it sounds like it's underwater, and I've already done that song. I'm hoping to rerecord it if I can find the time.

Plapljwsijvklsjdnfiouwhu! Iuytfvsdg!

It's the End of the World as We Know It:


Minor Thing:

I don't really have anything to say about these, which is why I'm bunching them together. They're both ideas I had a while ago: the first is about a year old, the second I probably came up with around the beginning of last summer (which is probably why it sounds a lot less finished, but I was trying not to over-think it). Here's some facts:

-"End of the World" has a really long coda that I cut for it-sounding-terrible reasons. I left the first line of it as the last line of the song, if that gives you some idea.

-Great Big Sea also covered "End of the World" at a faster tempo. Their version is actually the exact same length as mine--for some reason iMovie always makes my songs a few seconds longer.

-I recorded all the "Minor Thing" piano parts with a Rock Band 3 keyboard, which works pretty well except it doesn't have instructions, and also that I'm a really shitty piano player. In retrospect, I probably overused the pitch-shifty thing.*

-"Minor Thing" is the first song of mine to take more than one day to finish recording, due to interruptions.

-I forget.

*Here is my review of it:

"If Rock Band 3 was just 'Space Oddity' and 58 Nickelback songs, and I'd probably still give it an A minus. The fact that there are least five other songs I might have used instead in that sentence is proof that it's the best thing the music game genre has ever produced."
They should put that on the box.


DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: I took out the problematic ending, mainly because I couldn't figure out how to fix it.

"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.

Here's a thing you probably didn't know but also probably should.

No blogging for a while

Right now I need to be living in the real world. Depending on how that works out I might start posting again next month or so.

UPDATE 7/8: Worked pretty well.

I feel bad for pushing that .GIF off the front page

"Reaction"

For some reason the title of this song reminds me of another song, which is going to be stuck in my head for the next week. Thanks a lot, me. (More words later)

UPDATE 6-3: First of all sorry I haven't been doing more of these. It's been harder to make time then I thought it would be; I keep sleeping weird hours-- Monday I went to bed at 1 AM and woke up at 4 AM; Tuesday I went to bed at 1 AM and woke up 4 PM; four out of the last six days I've still been up when the sun rose (it's 5:35 AM as I type this). So figuring out a time to make a lot of noise when you won't be waking people up requires a small amount of planning & a much larger amount of luck.

As for the song itself, here's what I like:

-The contrast between rough heavy metal and shimmery shoegazey textures. The guitar somehow manages to switch between sounding really clean and really distorted and back again almost within a single note. Part of this was accomplished by setting my Expensive Whammy Pedal to harmonize a fifth below; mostly it was just raw natural talent. The drums are really cymbal-heavy, but then there's that breakdown at the end with all the off-beat hits (originally I was going to make the guitar part go crazy here too, sort of like "I [spade] Noise" or the end of "22 Minutes," but I like that it stays into that three-chord pattern). The vocal part is ragged and shouty, but it's mixed so low that at barely registers that way. Speaking of which...

-The low-mixed vocals. I wasn't going to do vocals at all, but my instincts suggested listeners need something to sing along with here. The words are pointless--they actually make sense and are internally consistent, but mostly I just needed something with "Reaction" in it, since I had already figured out the title (those instincts again). So I sort of shouted them away from the mike, almost like someone was just listening and started singing along. Plus that way you (hopefully) focus on the melody and emotion of the singing, which is more important than the words anyway. I seem to be doing this trick a lot-- see also: "Toybox," the aforementioned "22 Minutes"-- so my next song will probably have to have really loud vocals so I don't look like a one-trick miniature horse.

-I forgot what I was going to put for this one.

-Another contrast: the simplicity of the arrangement vs. the complexity of how it fits together. I used the White Stripes band setup, plus a clone of the guitar track so I could add a phaser (phasers are cool. They make me feel like I'm living in what people in 1975 thought 1999 would be like. For more cool phasers, see "Taps"). So there's no bass, no keyboard (speaking of which*), no cowbell. On the drum part a I don't even use the high-hat. The guitar is just three chords (Cb, A, and G, but the harmonic effect makes it a little more complicated). For almost half the song all you hear is that rapid bass drum pedal. But at the same time it's an insanely fast tempo, a weird key**, the rhythm is constantly shifting around (at one point the guitar rhythm is identical to "Duel," which is, sadly, unintentional), and at any moment it might stop or start up again.

-Which is the thing I don't like. This song is hard to get into. Once I finished it I wasn't sure if it was actually a good song or just one that was fun to record. It only after two or three listens that the groove of it made sense, and I was sure that it was worth doing. And I wrote the damn thing. Of course, once I got into it, I really got into it, and now I've listened to it maybe more than any other song of mine I've recorded in the last two years (though there are some unfinished songs that get stuck in my head a lot). So give it a few chances. And if you still hate it, lie and tell me how right I was.

*And speaking of that, between the bass pedal, the simplistic guitar part, the atonal singing, and all the empty lpace, I think I've written the least fun Rock Band song ever.
**It's possible I just don't understand key signature, but I believe it's played mostly in G but resolve on A.

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

Some GIFimations

There are some even-more-impressive ones (which I can't embed for stupid technical reasons) here.

Something Different for Today

I have a question I want you guys to think about. Don't feel like you have to answer, because I'm not sure an answer even exists.

This is the first steam engine. It was built in the first century AD. It was considered a toy; no one could think of a practical use for it. We wouldn't build a useful steam engine for at least 1500 years after.

This is a magic spoon, which is basically another way of saying "ancient Chinese compass." It was built in the 200s BC; it was used to help lay out buildings, because for some reason every ancient culture thought buildings needed to point exactly north or south or whatever. The Chinese wouldn't build a compass specifically for navigation for about 1200 years.

So my question, which you probably already guessed, is this: is there a similar technology today, something trivial that, if we only used it in a different way would change the world, like the steam engine changed transportation and the compass changed navigation?

P.S. Happy Towel Day!

Still better than Guitar Hero: The Beatles

Seinfeld Rock Band - watch more funny videos

Too-lazy-for-a-real-review Review

I really like the pilot for The Good Guys, but I feel like they missed a real opportunity by not calling it "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." If you watch you'll understand why:

Two videos in one day...

...how do I do it. I'm a machine. Honestly, someone should give me an award. (Those sentences work best if you read them aloud in a low, nasal monotone. I'm not sure how to type that out).

This is really stupid, but I can think of at least one person who will find it funny:

What Am Watching

Like every post, I meant to write this a long time ago. I suspect that now might actually be a good time though, since I'm guessing a lot of you, like me, suddenly find yourself without a whole lot to do. So here are some things that you can watch, most of which are on the internet somewhere or other. Introductions are hard.

First of all, if you didn't see last week's Community, all you need to know is 1) it was maybe the best thing to air on television in the last year, and 2) you are dumb for missing it. The good part comes after three minutes (an aside--what's up with New-Hulu? They seem to have change it--and Wikipedia--in the last hour or so, when I wasn't looking). Since it's not letting me embed, here.

A while back I somehow got pointed toward the works of Charlie Brooker, of which the biggest and best is Screenwipe. Basically a combination of a TV review show and a deconstruction of television itself, it's one of the few TV shows that might actually make you smarter. But not boring like I made it sound--the style is a lot like (and actually inspired) Zero Punctuation, so if you like that, you'll like this. There are six seasons, but those are British Seasons so it's really like two real seasons. Also worth checking out are his other shows, Newswipe, Gameswipe, and You Have Been Watching, all of which are good in their own way (especially Newswipe), but don't have as many episodes (you can get through all three over a long day).

Why We Fight is basically the same as Food Inc, in that it could be really preachy and one-sided, and just take potshots at George Bush (in other words, it could be Fahrenheit 911), but instead it really transcends politics and gets to the bottom of the issue itself. As a result, it's still worth watching no matter who the president is. The whole thing is on Youtube but for some reason the only playlist is backward. Here's part one.

Party Down is another good show that I know you're not watching. Shame on you all. It's a black comedy about caterers in Hollywood, which is a premise that sounds really lame but is actually genius, for reasons I'm not very good at articulating. If you have Netflix the whole thing is on Instant Watch (with new episodes up Friday Mornings); if you don't there are a few episodes up here.

Lastways (that's a word, right?), Doctor Who. I started watching the new episodes and then went back and watched the whole (new) series, which is also Flixable. I sort of assumed this was one of those things nerds liked because nerds like anything with spaceships, but it's actually, gripping, funny and heartfelt, and all around good television. On the other hand, I'm trying to get through Torchwood, but all I can think is "I liked this show better when it was called Angel" (which, incidentally, is also Flixable, but I didn't mention because I already saw it).

Allright, that should hold you guys until the next one of these.

Why does my dvr not have a recycle bin? Shit gets deleted from that all the time that someone else wanted to watch, and then yelling is ensued that could be averted by a feature that's been standard for almost thirty years.

Surfing the Infinite Part III

Party like it's post 199!

This is the blog theme I'm going with for next month. Thought you'd want a preview. Make sure your speakers are on.

[Made with Geocities-izer]

Drew a while ago, forgot to post...

Let's Play "Count the Clichés!"

Band of Skulls, "Friends":

All my life [1] I've been searching for something [2, plus doesn't this line seem familiar?]
Something i can't put my finger on [3]
Maybe I've been living for the weekend [4]
Maybe I've been living for this cyber soul
But every friday just about midnight [5]
All my problems seem to disappear [6]
Everyone that I miss when I'm distant
Everybody's here

I need love [7]
Cause only love is true [8]
I need every wakin' hour [9] with you
And my friends* [10] cause they are so beautiful [11]
Yeah my friends [10A] they are so beautiful [11B]
They're my friends [10C]

All my life [1D] i've been wastin', wastin' [12**]
Wastin' all my money [13]
All my time [14]
All the time [14E] i'm waitin', waitin' [12F]
Waitin for the moment [15] you are mine [16]
The song about*** yeah I'm thinkin', thinkin' [12G]
Thinkin all the things that I've done wrong [17, "that" optional]
All the time yeah I was forgettin' [18 (commonly known as "the empty 'yeah' "))
You were mine all along [19, note that many adjectives and nouns can be substituted for "mine" here]

Then they just repeat the chorus.

Total score: 19 distinct clichés, plus 7 more repeated ones, out of 23 lines. That's a clichindex score of 83|108, which is no mean feat. Special attention also should be drawn for the whole-line lift (especially as both lines are in the same place--the first line of the song, no less), the lack of cohesion, and the generally nonsensical, ungrammatical, and illogical nature of the non-cliché lines. This is a truly impressive feat of mislyricism (so bad it inspired a whole feature).

If you have any suggestions for future Count the Clichés entries, feel sure to leave a comment or just keep it to yourself and make me do all this hard work myself.

*It wasn't a cliché until John McCain made it one.
**Not these specific words, but the cliché of repeating a phrase for no reason because you can't think of something else that fits.
***Sidenote: whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

Just Linking to Stuff Mega-Post

I been sitting on some of this for a while, forgot/neglected to post for whatever reason:

Someone had too much fun making this:

Proof that New Zealand is kind of awesome:

Ze importance of context:

SPECIAL MARIO SUBSECTION

It's easy to forget how much a badass Mario is. Don't:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

And this

SUBSECTION OVER...FOR NOW

I don't know, this is just funny:

This is like a parody of Batman Begins-style reboots, and then you realize that it's an actual fucking movie:


Turn your speakers down:


IPAD SUBSECTION
Some of these are worthless but the good ones make it worth clicking.

Also here's the reason I didn't get an iPad. Remember when Apple was the cool company with all the new ideas?
SUBSECTION COMPLETE

VIDEO GAME-RELATED ART SUBSECTION
Pokemon as sumi-e prints

Games covers as books covers. Again, a lot are worthless, but the good ones are better than the actual box art (which raises some interesting questions).

Maybe not art but I found it cool anyway. Title is accurate.
SUBSECTION TERMINATED.

Can't remember if this is good or not, video isn't working:

Sonar from Renaud Hallée on Vimeo.

Finally, the most insightful image I've ever seen.

...Except I'm guessing everyone looks at it and thinks they're the one guy. Which is stupid cause it's obviously me. I didn't even buy a iPad.

untitled 196th post

You've probably already seen this, but...I don't know, I'm busy. I'll right a real post about something else later.

untitled 195th post

to whom do i have to petition to get brown sugar cinnamon poptarts into wal*marts? the crappy strawberry ones are all over but the place but the best flavor in the world i have to stock up on. that is all thank you for your time.

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.

i wish i had a skill...

Broken Fingaz -Graffiti Stop Motion from Broken Fingaz on Vimeo.

Nope, still can't sing

"Enter Sandman":

(Here's a better version of the same thing. In my defense I only spent like five minutes writing this.)

UPDATED 4/22: There are usually two kinds of ways I'll write a song of the week. Either it's something I've worked on for a while and figured out enough to get recording, or it's something where I started recording with just a concept (sometimes not even) and just worked out ideas as I went along. This is the much rarer third kind, where I'd have an idea and record so I wouldn't forget it. If you want you might call it a sketch.

I had this just come to me after watching that smoothtallica video and a melody just popped into my head. I decided to do it rockapella because the internet has a retarded fascination with a capella and I knew if I put it in the title it would get a billion hits. This turned out to be true. According to the Youtube this has quickly become my 2nd most popular song, beat out only by That Zelda Song. I'm a whore.

Artistically, this is one of my less successful songs, partly because I don't really know how to write a cappella music (at least I avoided the "guy one sings the guitar, guy two sings the bass, guy three beatboxes" cliche, which is basically the lamest thing ever yet describes nine eighths of all internacapella music). The other failure is that I didn't really care enough about this song to work hard on it. Like I said, it's a sketch, and (hopefully people figured this out for themselves) a joke. I tend to obsess when I fail, but here I just hope people listen to my other, better songs after hearing this one.