The last day of May has come and gone. And with its passing comes this piece of ambient fun. I used four guitar amps and a bunch of pedals to create this.
Keep your eyes and ears peeled later this week when I’ll post another version using the same setup. In part 2, instead of a guitar I used a synth.
Sounds of the summer. Some people hear this and run towards it. Some people hear this and run away covering their ears (is there anyone actually who does this?). One thing everyone has in common is that once you hear it it’s locked in your head on repeat for at least an hour.
For those of you outside of NYC, name that tune!
Enjoy!
The Seven of clubs came about because this weekend was really great, the weather was great, and I was feeling good. So I wrote this nonsense as an attempt to describe it.
I thought of the chord progression for this song on the A Train coming back from the Cloisters on Sunday afternoon. I was able to record it into my phone so I could remember it and it became this song. It’s my pop-punk hit of ’09. Rock it!
My good friend, Ben Lord, came in to play drums on this song. He and I were in Up The Empire together and run The Cougar Label together now. Thanks, Ben.
Last Monday I had a bad day. Things we just not going right for me. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice to say I was in a rotten mood. I started this song that Monday night and was going to make a bad day song or bad song day or some kind of bad durge. The bad day continued right into the night and I had a problem with my computer and I had to stop recording. Ugh.
So, I finished the song today, Sunday, and since that badday Monday, I have had a few much better days and I was not in such a bad mood anymore. So, this song is what happens when you start it on a bad day and finish it on a good day.
This song is influenced by a bad day, Steve Reich, and Jim O’Rourke.
I just creted a page on the site where I am offering zip files of batches of songs. The first batch I offer is a collection of all of the Spades. Check it out.
Two days after we visited Coney Island I created this song. There isn’t much to say about it except for: acoustic guitar and mass feedback.
It was a beautiful day. It felt like Summer had come ahead of schedule this year. I spent the day in Coney Island with my fiancée and some friends from Boston. I’ve been living in Brooklyn for about 9.5 years now but I’d never ridden on the Wonder Wheel until today. I am glad we did it. And of course we took a ride on the Cyclone; that is not to be missed. After a Nathan’s dog we came back to my part of town.
This ‘song’ was made all in one take. There are no overdubs at all. I did it at the space this evening. I’ve been into Robert Fripp and his “frippertronics” in the last several months and this is influenced by that in part. Also, if you’ve seen Up The Empire you might have seen me do something similar to parts of this at points in the set with my bass. Things that I would recommend checking out if you like this: Brian Eno: Discreet Music, Fripp & Eno: No Pussyfooting and Evening Star. Those are all excellent albums.
(the crackling you will hear on the left side at about 8:10 is the signal coming in too hot. I could choose live with it or do the whole thing over again. I chose to live with it.)
Here is the Two of Clubs. It’s late, I know. This is because our apartment was broken into over the weekend while I was in Boston and Hillary was also out of town. I meant to record this song, which was already written (I finished the lyrics in Boston) on Sunday when I got home but I had to deal with the aftermath of the burglary. The Police came, then the Detectives, and finally the officers that took fingerprints. It was an action-packed evening, that’s for sure.
It seems that the subject of this song was eerily appropriate. The basic idea is that sometimes, when we are in a situation that we can’t change, we need to not worry about what’s already happened and concentrate on what we can do now and in the future to make things better. I didn’t know that this would apply to one’s apartment being burglarized. But I guess it can apply to that too.
I was in Boston over the weekend. Go Sox! They beat the Orioles 2-1 in a pretty good game. It was a bit cold at the game but it was great to be there with my family. So, anyway I had planned on recording this week’s song last night when I got home. But when I got home, I realized that we had been burglarized over the weekend! My evening was overtaken by visits by the police, talking to Detectives and getting my fingerprints taken to differentiate between mine and the prints they found on things in my apartment. I didn’t have time to record it.
So, I plan to finish it tonight and post it here as soon as it’s done. Keep your blog eyes peeled.
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