Song-a-day

Slug

2012-02-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of song-a-day, I let a lot of things stand as they were, notably some lyric lines that are little more than filler. Bleah. It wasn't fun singing the end of the chorus.
This song was a clear attempt at achieving a certain sound. I do wonder what impression it leaves on the listener.
Lyrically it came across a lot more mean-spirited than I had intended. I wasn't trying to write an angry song, more one of wry amusement at this creature that couldn't harm me now matter how creepy and panic-inspiring it might be. You know how people overreact to little creatures like slugs and bugs and such? I was trying to play off that. I liked it as a metaphor.
For the soap-opera-oriented, this song isn't about anything personal.

Blissful Denial

2012-02-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

A song on the first day of the month.
I am acting on a challenge from Derek to record songs with the sole instrumentation being one electric guitar track. I am also working with some new influences, which I won't reveal yet. It is a strange process for me to imagine myself writing in the style of something or other - because I feel compelled to NOT listen to whatever I'm emulating, so I don't copy. The end product goes through some bizarre filtration indeed.
I can't imagine anyone having worse songwriting disciplines than I do. Many times I will start out writing/recording one thing and it will end up as something else entirely. Now and then I'll pull up some old files and listen to discarded vocal, or even instrumental, tracks, and remember the completely different direction I had set out.
The technical details of this track: Driskill #61 through Roland micro-amp, or whatever it's called. It's tiny and awful but the only amp within reach at the moment. Guitar and vocals miced with Sennheiser e609.

It's time for song a day!

2012-01-30T18:04:00.000-08:00

It is January 30, 2012. In two days it will be February 1. Thus begins song a day.
I do not know if I am ready.

Perfection

2011-02-24T10:23:00.000-08:00

In an effort to put up one last thing before I went away I made a rough take into a final. One mic records guitar and vocal, and a few cuts and pastes were necessary to make the measures come out right in the end.
You'd never believe the way I came up with this song. It was after mixing a great martini, one that in my mind was as close to perfection as could be. Hard to believe, but true.
So forget about listening to the song and make one of your own:
2 measures Hendrick's gin
1/3 measure Dolin's dry vermouth
half a drop of orange bitters. Seriously, as little as you can add.
Stir
Serve with olive - don't use a blue cheese or jalapeno stuffed one this time.

I think I have also made a discovery that vermouth doesn't mix well with vodka. I don't drink vodka martinis myself, but I think the reason for the whole nonsensical "very dry martini" notion is that vermouth doesn't settle in with vodka at all. Most vodka martini drinkers just want a cold glass of vodka and a free pair of olives anyway.
A dry martini is one made with dry vermouth. A sweet martini would be made with sweet red vermouth, but I've never seen anybody make one. "Very dry" is meaningless.

Postscript: after writing this entry there is now an add for olives on my blog page! Those clever folks at Google - they work fast.

Candy

2011-02-24T10:15:00.000-08:00

I think it's funny that the most noticeable thing about this tune is the weird drum track, since that was an afterthought. It's just an 808 loop, but at the last moment I put some filter effect on it to get the final sound.
The guitars are heavily effected as well. I had a melodic guitar part as well but the sound field was getting crowded so I left it out. So: two acoustic guitar tracks, one drum loop. I tried to add bass but since I hadn't conceived of any harmonic structure in the guitars it proved impossible.

Hard Fall

2011-02-24T10:10:00.000-08:00

This song had a funny evolution. I began with an early (pre-psychedelia) sixties pop feel, with that I-IV-I cadence which is impossible to describe in words but I could hum it for you and you'd know exactly what I mean.
Then as I started to meld the words to the song I decided I wanted it to sound like The Clash were performing it. So I learned I can't sing like Joe Strummer, not by a long shot, but I'm even worse at trying to sound like Mick Jones doing backing vocals. I had to bury that in the mix because it just didn't work, which was a shame because I liked it in concept.
I wrote the words moments after falling pretty hard while skateboarding. As I lay there in the driveway clutching my leg in agony I thought "Hm, this could be the subject of a song". And indeed I did break my calcaneous back in August and now have a fine plate in my foot to show for it.
There's a metaphorical verse as well, plus a bridge, but I didn't have time to cut and paste to lengthen the song so I kept it to two verses.
The only technical details to note on this song is that I used Driskill #12 (the more trebly guitar) and the Redwood Chapin Hawk (the mellower rhythm guitar).

New Table

2011-02-24T10:02:00.000-08:00

I looked through some lyric fragments I had from past years and found these words.

They are:

I’m not exactly thrilled

They’re gonna raise my taxes

I feel like I pay my share

Some people believe

We’re in a brave new world now

Honestly I don’t care

I’m just a self-serving ass

Not invited to the new table

I am sarcastic and crass

Critical whenever I’m able

I don’t like the state

Of music sports or the movies

Celebrity magazines

Every day it’s dumbed down

Drinking vodka martinis

On a trampoline

I must have come up with them during the last political campaign. Not being at all politically aligned myself I haven't had a strong opinion on elections for ages now but when a candidate's campaign seems to consistently proclaim "I am going to do nothing that benefits you and harm you in any way I can, Peter," I do get just a tiny bit disturbed - I feel just a bit left out, you know? So there's that floating around in the song, plus all the ways I could think of someone else might criticize me, accurately or not, and then some complaining thrown in for good measure. It's meant to sound obnoxiously self-pitying and snotty at the same time.

Melodically I put in a few touches inspired by John Lennon. I have no idea what it ends up sounding like once filtered through my synaptic processes.

2011

2011-02-24T09:51:00.000-08:00

The month is nearly over, and I had to exit the project midway after putting up only a few songs. Oh well.
Here's what did end up on the site:
You're About - would have been put up with a vocal track but I didn't realize till it was too late that I had no microphones in the house. Yes, that means everything else was recorded direct.
This time round I decided to give up completely on recording quality if I was to have any hope of completing anything, so no amps, no microphones, just plug into the computer and go.
That said, I was happy with the way You're About sounded. The single-take dissonant guitar line fit just right, somehow.

It is February 8

2009-02-08T19:47:00.000-08:00

I put something up, finally.

I may have strayed from the purpose of song-a-day, but I do have about five bits that are in process that I like. There's Doppler, Lost Soul, She Deceived Me, Woman of my Dreams, and some other things, probably. That's what I can think of. The point is, I like them enough to allow them to germinate instead of forcing them out ahead of time.

This is a frightening thought to me. Am I actually planning and developing ideas? That would be odd.

Day 2: All of them

2009-02-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

The wife is shivering in bed in between breaks for vomiting. Sort of killed any time I might have had to put together something lengthy and complete. So this is what happened.

It's supposed to be funny, inasmuch as the listener hears the first lines and then is waiting for more, but that's it.

"I really can't elaborate further on the topic, that pretty much says it."

Everything sounds better when you use a preamp. Mine is an ultra-cheap ART unit with a 12AX7 tube in it.

My ultra-cheap A/D converter, on the other hand, buzzes something awful. I promise not to use it again.

Recording techniques for these first two tunes:

1. Place mic near guitar. Press record. Mic: Sennheiser e609. Guitar: Epiphone Masterbilt something-or-other.

2. Aim mic at face. Sing.

Day one

2009-02-02T09:51:00.000-08:00

Okay then, I got a song up. This song resulted from an experiment, which was to write a verse with few, and slow, chord changes - or at least not one-chord-per-bar.

This tune probably holds the record for the one that felt and sounded the least 'like me' when I was doing it. Fingerpicking sweet little major chords halfway up the fretboard? I never do that.

It's kind of a downer song, isn't it? It has nothing to do with my state of mind at the time.

Prelude

2009-02-01T09:14:00.000-08:00

It is February 1, and it is the morning, and like last year at this time I have a cold. Also: no ideas, or plan on how to get through this.

I do know that I will be developing, or discovering, or falling into, a new process for songwriting. Last year I began with a single text document in which I poured every lyric idea I had, and let them all sit there, occasionally adding to or redoing some. Eventually this was the source for most of the songs I ended up recording.

On the music side almost everything was literally written on the day it was posted, using what seems to be my only method: come up with a chord progression or note sequence first, then speak the lyrics over it, and rerecord the lyrics over and over till they gained a melody.

It was time-consuming and inefficient. Something needs to change.