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

June 21, 2009

King Of Clubs: A Very Old Man With Very Large Wings

Filed under: black cards,clubs — Tags: , , , , — hewins @ 10:32 pm

I’m skipping ahead to the King of Clubs because there is a king in this song. I’ll come back to the Jack and Queen in the next two weeks.

This song started with some of the lyrics then I just built upon them as I went. I got to a point where I thought of a short story that I read in college by Gabriel Garcia Marquez called “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings.” I remembered the title a little differently last Monday when I was working on this though, hence the title of the song. When I found the story in my old book I realized the difference. In any case, the story by Marquez and the story in this song bear very little resemblance except for the Old Man within.

I thought about Michael Zapruder’s songs when working on this one.

June 14, 2009

Ten of Clubs: Big Indian

Filed under: black cards,clubs — Tags: , , , — hewins @ 9:58 pm

This weekend I attended the wedding of two very dear friends in Big Indian, NY in the Catskills region of upstate New York. It was a great weekend with good friends and good times. The happy couple are en route to Spain as I type this and I couldn’t be happier for them. They have great families and great friends and I’m so glad that I was able to share in the experience with everyone. Thanks, guys!

the wedding attendees running for cover

the wedding attendees running for cover (by Nina G.)

June 4, 2009

Joker: End of May, Part 2 (synthesizer)

Filed under: joker — Tags: , , , , — hewins @ 10:28 am

This is not a Joker like the other two have been but I guess I’ll file it here becuase it’s not really one of the 52 songs, it’s more of an extra bonus. So, Jokers are all the extra bonuses. Check it!

This is another version of the “End of May” piece but instead of a guitar as the “sound generation device,” I used a MicroKorg synthesizer. Other than that I used the same setup with four guitar amplifiers and a bunch of pedals.

Enjoy–on headphones!

June 1, 2009

Eight of Clubs: End of May, Part 1 (guitar)

Filed under: black cards,clubs — Tags: , , , — hewins @ 2:24 pm

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.

May 26, 2009

Seven of Clubs: Remember The Sound

Filed under: black cards,clubs — Tags: , , , , — hewins @ 11:54 am

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.

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 13, 2009

Ace of Clubs: A Proposal

Filed under: black cards,clubs — Tags: , , , — hewins @ 12:11 am

Over the weekend I asked my girlfriend the question. Yes, the question. I wrote this song on the Monday before last weekend and had a plan for the way it was going to happen. It didn’t happen exactly like this because it was raining and I couldn’t bring her up to the roof. But it’s basically right.

She said yes.

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