FAWM: February Album Writing Month 2004

Song #15: It's Over
MP3 Demo Here (1.5mb)

So, I guess this is my answer to Hopper's "the end" challenge... arguably, "All My Sins" (song #12) could qualify, but (1) it used recycled music, so now I've written 14 complete songs, (2) my friends Mark and Laura gave me their old beat-up casio keyboard and I was dying to experiment with, and (3) after that trilogy yesterday, I needed to write something goofy. I think we can all relate to this kind of "ending." More...

Song #14: Trilogy Part 3 (In Your Wrists)
MP3 Demo Here (3.1mb)

And this is the last one! Probably the weakest of the three, unfortunately (I actually like the chorus, but the verses suck... but hey, it was FAWMed). Note also that I make reference to different disciples in each of the songs, but I'm still very much talking about myself here... I'm just relating to said disciple, guess. Whatever. I'll maybe elaborate on my thinking later, but I'm out the door to see Single Frame play tonight... More...

Song #13: Trilogy Part 2 (Answers)
MP3 Demo Here (5.2mb)

This is the second trilogy installment. Note that each of the three songs roughly represents three stages in the Passion story. The last one is the crucifixion, the next one is the ressurection, and this one is that awkward time in between. I blatantly lifted a lyric from the Vigilantes of Love here, but it was too perfect. I'd like to hear this with a piano and really reverby guitars in the background. More...

Song #12: Trilogy Part 1 (All My Sins)
MP3 Demo Here (2.8mb)

So I wrote a trilogy for my last 3. originally it was going to be a sci-fi trilogy. I'll still probably do that... but a series of circumstances this week really made me focus on the story of the Passion of Christ (not just the movie... though I did see that last night). These songs were half written last night and half this morning. Half recorded this afternoon, and the other half just now. You'll probably recognize the tune from this one... I didn't like the original lyrics, but still to co-opted some of them (funny, considering the message is almost the opposite). More...

Song #11: Mick, Me China
MP3 Demo - Download Here (3.2mb)

I wrote this one today at work as a bit of a break. I first learned about "cockney rhyming slang" when I was traveling in England last fall and visited with my cousin Kristen who's working as a vet there. She says she'll get calls from farmers saying, "Well, that new calf turned up brown" and she'll say, "Huh? Brown? But I thought she was white!" and the farmer will say, "No, no... brown! Y'know, brown... bread... dead!!"

I also just recently finished reading The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson, which is a fun and irreverent history of the English Language (and includes a fabulous chapter on wordplay). If you've seen the re-make of "Ocean's Eleven" there's a few jokes about the slang in there, too. Natalie and I occasionally try to dabble in it and create our own personal vocabulary of rhyming slang, but it's really quite hard.

I think I might try to write a "wordplay EP" combining this with "Captain Anagram" and other songs about Holorhymes, Puns, etc. In fact, I'd like to make a whole series of "schoolhouse rock" kinds of albums for more advanced topics. Oh, and I apologize in advance for the poor cockney accent in this recording. I sound Australian. It's just a demo. More...

Song #10: Jennifer
MP3 Demo - Download Here (1.7mb)

Okay, so this is my crappy tribute song. I spent all week trying to write a song for Alan Turing, the famous mathematician to whom modern computer science owes nearly everything but committed suicide because when the British government found out he was gay they revoked his security clearance, considered him a national threat, and forced him to take estogen therapy to "cure him." Needless to say, with such weighty subject matter I had a difficult time doing it justice.

SOoo... since I'm headed out the door in a few minutes and won't have time tonight to make a tribute song, I wrote a quick ode to Jennifer Connelly, whom I had a major crush on as a kid every since I saw the movie Labyrinth. The tune is kinda reminiscent of real early Lemonheads stuff, I think. I'll write that Alan Turing song someday. More...

Song #9: Captain Anagram
MP3 Demo - Download Here (2.3mb)

If you take equal parts Beck and They Might Be Giants, throw in a ton of severe work-related exhaustion and merely a pinch of sleep, you have strange dreams... and write songs like this. It's been ages since I wrote a song like this. Probably for a good reason. That's about all I have to say right now. More...

Song #8: Shiner
MP3 Demo - Download Here (1.4mb)

This is actually a leftover from last week's "shine" challenge... I was going to try and write two. I got the chorus and the first verse done before that deadline, but never finished it. I think the main reason was that I haven't known anyone whose drinking problem was this violent and this regular, so I couldn't really write honestly about it. But now that it's four or five days later, I almost feel as if this song is complete and real enough as it is. More...

Song #7: Uff-Da, Wisconsin!
MP3 Demo - Download Here (2.4mb)

I was meditating on Hopper's challenge early on that I write a song on "what I love most about Wisconsin." That's hard, because it's generally unloveable, with only two seasons (a short warm one and a long cold one) and nary an armadillo in sight. But I have to say the beer is worth it. So this is my ode to the New Glarus Brewing Company in particular. I thought about writing a separate verse for each beer they make, but that'd get boring... so I just wrote about the ones I've actually had. I need to tour the brewery sometime.

Note: I was actually finishing off the 6-pack of Spotted Cow I had in the fridge as I recorded this demo (about 6 takes layered on top of each other, trying to get that "sing-along drinking song" feel). Natalie helped with some of the clapping, and she hasn't the best sense of rhythm in the world... but in all fairness, she informed me that "Edel-Pils" is pronounced "ee-del" and the last syllable of "Reinheitsgebot" is pronounced "boat." My mistake. She learned her German in a classroom, and I learned most of mine in a bar near a tent in München. Go figure. More...

Song #6: Let it Shine
MP3 Demo - Download Here (4.7mb)

Well, this is my submission for the "shine" assignment. Seeing as how it's Valentine's Day and all, I decided to write a love song for my wife... in fact, it's my first love song ever, I think. I've written broken-hearted songs, but never love songs. Go figure. It's stripped down: just acoustic and vocals, 2 takes and an overdub for the solo. A nice Matthew Sweet/Dinosaur Jr ongoing background guitar solo there at the end... and I'm really hammering those "bop-bop-ba-dahs" in, aren't I? Happy Valentine's Day, everyone... We're almost halfway through FAWM! More...

Song #5: Each Day Is Better Than The Next
MP3 Demo - Download the neurotic thing here (1.4mb)

For some reason I was really irritable this evening (just ask my poor wife). Maybe it was that wacky spaghetti with suspicious "pepperoni and cream-of-mushroom based white sauce" I made for dinner, but I was just in a bad mood. I couldn't read. I couldn't study. To make matters worse, I lost my favorite guitar pick. I was behind in FAWM-ing. Ah-ha! I thought. But wait! So I just spit this fast, crappy little country-billy ditty out as a stress reliever. It turned out better than I thought (only about 20 minutes recording time). At first I figured I'd just count it toward my 14 songs but never go anywhere with it, but I might work out a solo and add another verse. Opinions? More...

Song #4: Heaven Only Knows
MP3 Demo - Download Here (3.1mb)

If you listen closely after the first chorus you can hear my wife Natalie caughing in the background. ;) She and I were talking the other night about domestic abuse, and I told her that I just can't figure out why anyone feels they must resort to that to get the other's attention. I can't wrap my head around it. So this song is kind of an exploration into why someone would be so cruel ("heaven only knows why"), and since there are plenty of songs about physical abuse, I just limited it to emotional abuse. Equally cruel. Musically, I got a little carried away with this demo, too... when I finished writing it yesterday, all the different parts (bass, electric) just popped into my head, so I decided to demo them all. It's probably my best song so far, but this it taking too much time!! More...

Song #3: Far and Away
MP3 Demo - Download (3.6mb)

This song is kind of based on the character Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. Some of the lyrics are even loosely based on quotes from the book. The song is just about that struggle to find your place in the scheme of right/wrong while you're growing up. This is one of those songs I've been trying to finish for ages, and glad FAWM finally got me off my butt to figure out what it's about and finish it. I wonder if I'm going to start write more naunce lyrics like "ooh-ooh-oh-yeah"... tee hee. More...

Song #2: Kentucky Blue
MP3 Demo - Download Here (2.6mb)

I wrote and recorded this all today. Probably my fastest writing/demo turnound ever. It's inspired by a news story I read about a pickup truck flooded into a drainage ditch just north of Louisville, KY. After the wreck, the driver still got out and tried to walk on, but ultimately drown. They found his body the next day. I dunno... the words & melody just came to me, and I figured out the chords when I got home.

I threw an impromptu mandolin part into the demo (being called "Kentucky Blue" and all), and since I didn't rehearse it or anything please forgive the couple of sour notes. Also forgive the scratchy voice, as it's still not totally recovered from being sick. The song is less than 3 minutes... and I almost feel like it should be longer. But I don't know what a third verse could be about. Maybe a longer solo? Any suggestions? More...

Song #1: No for an Answer
MP3 Demo - Download (3.3mb)

I finished writing this yesterday, and since my voice has 90% recovered from laryngitis I'll try to demo and post it tonight. It's actually a leftover from when I was trying to write a concept ablum a few years ago. I wrote the first verse and basic chord progression then, and just yesterday wrote the second verse and bridge/out-tro. Part of the reason I never finished it was that I don't really feel this way anymore; it's a bit more angsty than the place I'm at right now. But I think we all know what this kind of stubborn spiritual face-off can be like.

Disclaimer: This demo's a bit more hi-fi that most of mine will be... I just had some spare time to map out a drum pattern using some loops back when my voice was out of commission. Figured I could still be doing something while mute. More...

And We're Off!!
It's officially February, so it's officially FAWM. Let the Songwriting and demo-ing commence.

Note: For those who may be a little less tech-savvy, I added some info to the FAQ on how to make MP3s out of your demos and upload them. Hope it's useful. More...

The First Post
As much as I would like to have written a song called "The First Post," this is just a test. More...