Dan Hewins: The Deck 52 songs in 52 weeks: A Deck of Songs in 2009 by Dan Hewins. A song-per-week project.

May 19, 2009

Six of Clubs: Featherlight

Filed under: black cards,clubs — Tags: , , , , , , — hewins @ 12:09 am

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.

May 11, 2009

Five of Clubs: Bad Day/Song

Filed under: black cards,clubs — Tags: , , , , , , — hewins @ 12:13 am

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.

May 3, 2009

Four of Clubs: Two Days After A Day At Coney Island

Filed under: black cards,clubs — Tags: , , , , — hewins @ 5:57 pm

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.

April 26, 2009

Three of Clubs: After A Day At Coney Island

Filed under: black cards,clubs — Tags: , , , , , , — hewins @ 10:39 pm

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.)

April 6, 2009

King of Spades

Filed under: black cards,spades — Tags: , , , , — hewins @ 1:46 am

Wow, I’ve made it through one suit. This is the King of Spades, another african-influenced song. This I did at the space with the electric guitar and some percussion.

March 29, 2009

Queen of Spades: Darn These Walls

Filed under: black cards,spades — Tags: , , , , , — hewins @ 12:00 pm

Here is another acoustic guitar based instrumental. I like the drone music. I added a few more ambient parts on top of the two acoustic guitar parts with electric guitar and a bunch of effects. One ambient track is a cymbal with the mic real close.

The name is derived from the “soundproof” walls that we have at the space. That premise (promise) is false. It’s hard to record an acoustic guitar in a room next to one of the louder bands around. They were covering a Pavement song for some of the time, so I have to give points to that. So, with those points, they are at negative 25. I just gotta live with it. Serendipitously, they ended a song right after I had ended mine so there was a little bow tied on the end of that noise gift.

March 22, 2009

Jack of Spades: A Man A Plan A Canal Panama

Filed under: black cards,spades — Tags: , , , , — hewins @ 11:11 pm

Face Card! That means I’ve made it to week eleven.

This song is another instrumental but instead of acoustic guitar, I went with electric. There are three guitar parts on here and some percussion tracks as well. This started with the original riff on the first guitar and I added a couple other parts. This may be one of the ones that could be built upon at another time to make something more out of it. But I do also like it how it is. I did this at the space on Saturday.

March 16, 2009

Ten of Spades: Subway Platform: 2:45 am

Filed under: general — Tags: , , , , , , — hewins @ 12:29 am

This week’s song is about riding the subway late at night. Very late at night, or maybe very early in the morning. It’s basically how I feel now, tired and overworked; but the only difference is that I’m home right now. Which is where I wanted to be in this song.

I did this one this weekend at the space. There are some differences between recording at home and at the space and they each have their advantages and disadvantages. At home, I have reason so I can do fake drums and synths and keyboards. But at the space, I have my better guitar, the ability to play it loudly, and my bass and, basically my better equipment. But the drawback is that the space is home to many bands and it’s not the most soundproofed place in the world, as you will be able to hear at the end of this song if you listen carefully. I think it gives it character. But that’s because I have to live with it.

Here’s a photo of the A Train platform at 34th Street at 2:45 am:

from flickr

from flickr

March 1, 2009

Eight of Spades: Contemplation of a City: Los Angeles

Filed under: general — Tags: , , , — hewins @ 2:41 pm

A couple of weeks ago I took a trip to Long Beach and Los Angeles, CA. I really love California and I used to live in Walnut Creek a long time ago, when I was youg.

There is an ongoing rivalry between LA and New York, where I live now. People in each city think theirs is better and try to convince their counterparts of those facts.

I won’t get into what I think here in this post, but you can find out by listening to this song.

February 15, 2009

Six of Spades: The Sun Rises, But Shines Not

Filed under: black cards,spades — Tags: , , , , , , — hewins @ 12:00 pm

“The sun rises, but shines not,” is a quote from Walt Whitman about a certain battle early in the Civil War. The Union lost this one and it set everybody in Washington in a pretty bad mood. This was Whitman’s assessment of the morning that followed the battle. Because the battle was so close to Washington, civilians, including Congressmen and their families had picnics on a bluff from which they could see the battle in action in the distance. As the Union Army retreated they panicked and the streets back to Washington were clogged with soldiers and the spectators alike.

President Lincoln told General McDowell before the battle that “You are green, it is true, but they are green also; you are all green alike.” I used part of this quote in the song as well.

This is the second song that I have used eight tracks of vocals (5 and 3). It’s definitely “something.”

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