Ok, so here’s my Christmas Song. I didn’t do a Halloween song or an Easter song or a Veterans Day song or an Arbor Day song (note to self: do an Arbor Day song). This is officially Christmas Song number 45225566265789001.
Santa’s had enough. His back hurts. Let someone else deliver the loot for once. He’s going on vacation. Deal with it!
Merry Christmas!
This is one that has been in the works for a long time now. Back in the middle of August, I went to the space to record a lot of samples. I got samples of the acoustic guitar playing a bunch of different chords at different volumes (loud/quiet) and different lengths (long/short). I did the same for a clean electric guitar as well as a distorted electric guitar. Then I got single notes from the electric guitar. Then I got my voice singing Aaaah, Eeeee, and Ooooh (short and long). Then I had them and I didn’t do anything with them until tonight.
This is the first of (hopefully) a bunch of things stitched together from these samples. This one’s a bit wacky but just go with it. Maybe another in the future will be kinder to your senses.
MAYBE NOT! Who knows?
The Ten of Diamonds was made last week, just before the first snow of the year here in Brooklyn. But the mood is right and since I mixed it tonight, I’ll call it First Snow.
The first snow, as any of you on the Eastern Seaboard already know, was a big one. It’s the most snow I’ve seen in the city in quite a long time.
This is another of the instrumental acoustic guitar pieces. Enjoy!
The Nine of Diamonds is essentially a Neem song. The Neem, my band back 10 years ago in St. Louis, wrote a bunch of State Songs (before John Linnell) and we got through only about eight or nine, seven of which we recorded. (New Jersey is lost forever.)
So this song is about South Carolina. I got some facts from the internet and from my brain and went for it.
I sincerely hope you enjoy… South Carolina.
The Eight of Diamonds is a little ditty.
I have nothing to say about this song except eee aah.
Isn’t that something you can say before exactly anything? “I have nothing to say about ____ except…” It’s all just for effect. If you had nothing to say about that thing, there would be no “except.” I have nothing to say about chocolate chip cookies except that I want one now. So, I actually do have something to say about chocolate chip cookies. It’s that I want one. So, that’s not nothing. It’s something. I have something to say about the KKK: they’re not on my list of good folks. That’s putting it mildly. I have nothing to say about my list of good folks except that the KKK is not on it. Neither is Kim Jong-il. He’s funny looking though.
Eee Aah.
There is a site that I found when I searched the internet for weekly songwriting things. This site is called SONG FIGHT! It’s a weekly competition wherein people submit a song written to a previously determined title. This week’s submissions must be called “Your New Dress.” So I decided to compete this week and write my very own “Your New Dress” song.
That’s what I did tonight. So, probably sometime over the weekend the folks at SONG FIGHT! will post my song and the others of the same title at the SONG FIGHT site. Check back early next week and check out my song and compare it to the others. When you’ve determined that mine is superior to the others, vote for it! This should be fun.
The five of diamonds is an instrumental piece made with a drum machine, guitars, and a keyboard.
I’m moving on!
It’s been a tough late-summer. I’ve been out of commission for most of August and September. But! I fully intend to come back from the dark territory and regain control of this beast called The Deck.
The latest installment was made on September 29. It’s called Bosch Loopers, which means runners of woods in Dutch. I’m reading Gotham, the history of New York (until 1898) and I found it in there. It somehow seems appropriate. Or maybe it just sounds good to me.
The Three of Diamonds is based mostly on the percussive part of it. The percussive part is made entirely of sounds of my knuckles cracking (aside from the two handclap samples and two cough samples, which are both me as well).
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