215. Weakness (Happy Birthday, Headache for a Heartache!)

DAY TWO-HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN

WELCOME BACK, 365!

Weird! I just checked the 365 today in start-up mode, and, in curiosity, checked what I wrote one year ago today, and it was Headache for a Heartache.  What a surprise.  The day I posted this song, it got over 650 visits.  In one day.  And here we are, one year later!

You may also remember that I have a beautiful video of a live performance I did of this song for Sleepover Shows:

Last night, James Frazee, producer and engineer extraordinaire for the movie (and a whole bunch of other awesome projects), and I just did first review of the movie in its entirety with final music.  As these things go, we will need to tweak a few things as we are requested to do so, but we are DONE!

James Frazee and Emily Hope Price basking in the done-ness.

In celebration, I am going to post a rough draft of a song I wrote that DID NOT make it into the movie.  I wrote and recorded this while on tour with Pearl and the Beard in Madison, Wisconsin last November.  What a perfect use for the restart of the 365! It was intended for the opening credits then moved to the end credits, and eventually tossed completely.  In very 365 style, this was written and recorded in the morning over a few hours at Anna Vogelzang‘s house.  I used her “studio” (which, in truth, is a very small and somewhat friendly-cluttered office.  She had several helpful instruments and a whole bunch of very inspiring pictures pasted onto her walls.)

The song that actually ended up in the opening credits for the movie almost didn’t make it as well, but, at the last minute, it was requested to be used by the director and executive producer.  Suspense can function as a type of motivator at times, so I will only tell you that the person involved in its creation just might have been Sam McCormally (Day 10: A Thousand Thousands, Ugly Purple Sweater). More to be revealed…

I kept saying I would restart the 365 in a few weeks and, every time I said it, I meant it thinking the work would be done… but completion of projects like this is too hard to predict, and, even now, I know a tiny bit more still has to be done.  But overall, it’s finished: composing, editing, mixing…sigh.  It was an awesome experience.  I feel 10 years older but wiser, nonetheless.  The 365 will resume! FINALLY!

Weakness

Oh how it works

Is that it’s you and this is me upon a mountain

The highest mountain

Oh how it works

Is that I say that you are small and terrifying

So terrifying

So I’ve been cursed

Oh I’ve been wounded on my heel, my heart is bleeding

Oh, boy it’s bleeding

And only you

Yeah, only you can heal the damage that I’m feeling

Oh, yeah, I’m feeling

Five, four, three, two, one and I say

Weakness, you are my weakness

Savory and sweetness

You are my weakness

Weakness, you are my weakness

And I am so compelled right this moment

I’m comin’ home.

It’s how it is

Oh how I just can’t stand to see you suffer

Oh how you suffer

So I will seize

I will seize you by wrist, and we will conquer

Oh, how we’ll conquer

Come willingly,

Come willingly and be accomplice to my devising

Oh be my shill

And we will break the banks of all who’s worth

Five four three two one

Weakness, you are my weakness

Savory and sweetness

You are my weakness

Weakness, you are my weakness

I’m so compelled right this moment

I’m comin’ home.

190. In The Woodshed

DAY ONE-HUNDRED AND NINETY

Ha ha! I love you Google Image!

Now, I’m not saying that any of these 365 songs are completed, but, today, this song isn’t even close to finished (by saying that I mean: there really aren’t any words down on paper or a form or any changes, really).  I have posted incomplete songs before, but have yet to revisit them.  However, I think this song has some potential to become something interesting.  I like the uke part, but it needs a chorus, a bridge, etc., to really flesh it out.  I’m hearing some really dark and beautiful chord changes that color it up.  I’m posting it in this youthful form, having only improvised lyrics and form, as I am out the door.  Sometimes these moments of rush can really open up doors for possible gems.  We’ll see (hopefully soon) if this ends up in that camp.

May your weekend be as fruitful as your local produce section.  I sure do like you.

In The Woodshed

139. Show Me Ole Texas

DAY ONE-HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINE

Texas Cowboy

Instrumentation: 2 tracks of Bariton Uke, treated

Midi: Several tracks of treated beats and one track of treated grand piano

Vocals: treated (vocal transformer)

Finished track: slowed down 10 BPMs from original recording tempo.

Lyrics: Inspired from old set lists from other bands found at Hog Farm Annex when Pearl and the Beard played there last night.  Jocelyn found three different set lists from nameless bands to use as scrap paper for our set, and, as we read through them, she mentioned they might work well as a 365 song.  So, here it is an old set list put to good 365 use.  The only rule was that I couldn’t change any of the words to fit the tense.  I had to use what was there though I could combine them or split them up.  In my original versions of this exercise (I did several), I used all the words, but for this song, I decided to cut a bunch out of it to simplify the piece as a whole.

This is how the set list I ended up using read… (if this is your band, or if you know who this might be: thanks!)

Label pills

El Gusano

Show Me

Ol Texas

Slow Shards

Super Vision

Acreless

Shot n Shot

Throw duck

Jet Fighter

Outside

Show Me Ole Texas

Show me ole Texas

The one we knew when we were younger

An acreless vision

Send me to El Gusano

A shot in the dark

I have super vision

She will see through me

She will see through me

Like your favorite dress

Show me ole Texas

Throw me a label of pills

We’ll drive through the night

Texas.

Pearl and the Beard is goin’ home tomorrow!  It’s been a fun mini tour, and it’s been very relaxing.  Thanks to all who made it out to the shows!  See you soon!

119. Deck (Songs from Underneath) HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN

Queen Lacey. Sir Jonathan. Underneath.

Today I enjoyed Montauk for the first time ever.  (Preface: Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind is in my top 5 favorite movies of all time).  It took us about 2 and a half hours to drive there.  We went today because off leash dog season ends in a few days, and I’m on tour for the rest of the time and always talk about going, so we made a last-minute mad dash to the furthest out-to-sea part of New York.  It was absolutely beautiful.  It was a bit windy, cool and foggy.  Awesome.

I brought with me my recording equipment, 2 ukes, the bells, the snare, the omnichord and the thumb piano.  On our drive there, I kept looking for interesting things that might make for a good “underneath song”.  On the beach on top of a hill of sand, there was a large deck and, underneath that, a perfect space to sit and record.  So, Lacey dug herself out a little resting space, and Jonathan and I recorded this song.  By the time I got to the end, every string was out of tune!  Ha!  Blame it on the ocean air.

You can hear the ocean in the background which I feel was so much a part of the composition of this song that no lyrics were needed.

It was my intention to do a song for my dad’s birthday, which is TODAY!  Our trip to the ocean brought on some different ideas for it, so I hope you like it.  My dad isn’t a perfect sleeper, but maybe he could sleep to this…(though I considered doing a cover for his birthday, isn’t an original better than a cover for a birthday gift?!)

I love you, Dad!

Deck

114. Pieces and Parts (The Sketch)

DAY ONE-HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN

Well, you can’t say I haven’t learned anything.  I’ve realized something very significant from yesterday’s posting.  All long, I have felt very strongly about being honest and forthcoming in how things are going and how I feel about a particular song.  I still feel like there is validity in writing all of that stuff… however, it occurred to me that, though I might be unhappy with a certain portion of a song or feel negatively about a certain aspect of it, it doesn’t mean you have to know about it.  In fact, as someone said in a comment, it gets annoying (this secretly hurt my feelings, but I understand it).  I also realize that these statements aren’t helping you devise an opinion about the work itself without my own feelings about the work getting in the way.  Someone said to me, “You create the art and, when it’s finished, you let it go and just put it out there and let people think what they’re going to think.”

I have been openly writing my feelings about the way a song has been going and making my frustrations apparent for the sake of my own learning and future use.  That works privately on paper, but not in the world-wide web where everybody reads everything and remembers everything.  So, from here on out, I will tell you what you need to know about the process, not my personal experience with the insecurity of it.  In short, I am ridding myself of the need for validity.  I simply appreciate that you come and listen.  Simply posting what IS will be enough for me now.

Pieces and Parts (Uke Solo):

I thought I might give an insight into a song as it’s being worked on, not just at the end of it.  Yesterday, I went to pick up a new tenor uke string.  They didn’t have what I needed at the store, but they offered me a replacement alternative which was a .36 gauge guitar string.  It is so tight!  And I’m finding it makes an interesting sound for me to get ideas.  So, this is a rough uke part I have been toying around with.  I found several sections in this very simple tuning (E flat, A flat, E flat, A flat) that I put together.  I have yet to decide on a melody or words, however, and I’m still working out the kinks in the uke part.  Usually words and music come somewhat at the same time, but in this case, I had to teach myself the uke part as I am shifting around frets and playing thirds on two strings.

Pieces and Parts (Vocal Sketch Sample):

I’m also attaching a section of a sketch with vocals I did just as a trial to see if I could find a form.  This was recorded well before the drafted uke part below, which has more form.  If my mind is locked, I can sometimes free it with some improvisation like I did here.  This is the first of about three I did.  Any stylistic vocal choices (creative vibrato, unusual word pronunciation, etc.) usually come later unless I’m struck with something from the very beginning.

To be honest, usually, if a song doesn’t strike me with that specific “something” or its composition doesn’t come right away, I put it aside for a while until I give it away or it disappears.  I would probably would have done it to do this song, but I’m finding it good to push an initially attractive and then suddenly unappealing song to some kind of finish point: a stick-to-it-ness, so to speak.  Maybe this song has something to say, maybe it doesn’t, but trashing it too early on doesn’t help.

I may show this uke part to someone for a collaboration, actually.  It’s very helpful to get another ear.  I’m actually leaving to collaborate right now: driving to Baltimore to meet with a violinist friend named Emily Price (for real!).  Then, off to DC to play with Anna Vogelzang and start the SPRING TOUR!

Pieces and Parts (Uke Part Solo)

Pieces and Parts (Vocal Sketch Sample)

92. All The Good (Or When You’re in a Buick) – Julia Mecham

DAY NINETY-TWO

Julia Mecham

Julia Mecham is a dear friend and a great songwriter.  She is a particularly amazing guitarist as well.  I’ve known her for a long time, and, in fact, she has been part of the 365 already as an example of an ode.  We did an interesting exercise last night for a new 365 song.  Coming home from visiting with friends, I stopped by Julia’s apartment to write.  She has roommates and it was already 11 pm.  Waking roommates the day before an early class might not have been such a friendly idea, so I invited her into our borrowed tan 2002 Buick Royal to write a song.  She sat in the back, I sat in the front, and Jonathan was in the driver’s seat (such a patient man).  It became our little universe of non-judgmental song-writing.

The Exercise

1. The car is a totally different world from where we just came: it is a peaceful, perfect, ego and insecurity-free zone.  School and work don’t exist in the car.  There is only you, us, and me.
2. We each alternate in writing a line.
3. When singing the song, we sing the other person’s line.

Writing: We started writing this song at almost exactly 11 pm and finished at almost exactly 12 am.  After alternating writing lines back and forth, passing the computer around each time, we found we had to do a bit of juggling with them, so they aren’t necessarily in written order, but it might make it a little interesting for you to guess who wrote what.

Julia played the uke in a guitar tuning (top 4 strings).  We spoke casually about the meter, but I wanted Julia to come up with something organically and then I’d base the melody from what she created.  (Yes, I consciously borrowed a piece of this song for the opening line melody.  Subtle, yes.  Admittedly, there’s a little bit of Mr. Mischievous, too.  If you can’t steal from yourself, what good are you?)  I woke up early this morning and put a quick bass line with cello on it, but lost the time to do anything more.  I’m late in posting because I couldn’t find internet (what an excuse!).  This is a draft, obviously, but I think this has potential to be an interesting song, at the very least a great memory in a tan Buick Sedan.

Recording: Yep. In the car. It was a little awkward, but it worked. I must also comment on the fact that writing and recording in a strange and unfamiliar space helps a lot in the creative process.  It reminds me of the song I did with Lady Lamb in a cemetery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire back in January.  Such a memory as well!

All The Good (Or When You’re in a Buick)

The north wind’s on your breath again

I can taste the dirt on heels of hands

Spit it out with the tip of your tongue

Your spare tire I will be

Tens on tens of revolutions

Made all of glass and man-made parts

Please, oh please, I’ve lost all the good

Leave, oh leave, never thought you would.

A soul of cellophane taken in the wind

Will lose its way but find it again

Someday standing on the shoulders of gray.

Please, oh please, I’ve lost all the good

Leave, oh leave, never thought you would.

Please, oh please, I’ve lost all the good

Leave, oh leave, never thought you would.