FAWM: February Album Writing Month 2004

Song #14 In God's Time
MP3 Here 4.0Mb Download

Ok. Here come the apologies. The last two songs and this one were done very rushed and so they are not as good as I would like. For some reason I thought the month ended on Monday, so I agreed to go out to my Father-In-Law's place to hang out, thinking I would have time on Monday to wrap the ideas up. My wife informed me that, oops, Sunday was the 29th. Doh. So I rushed through the 3 songs, writing quick lyrics down while my wife drove out to Dassel, where her dad lives. I slapped some guitar tracks down on my laptop while I was out there in about an hour and just finished cramming some vocals on here. In other words, I apologize.

This is my answer to the "End" challenge. Because I was so rushed, this came out as a song I always promised myself I would never write - a sappy manipulative drivel breakup kinda song. It's actually about 2 things: My band breaking up and me quitting my job. (I haven't officialy quit, but they know I'm intending it, which is why the last couple weeks have really been stressfull and difficult to write some nights.. etc...)

Anyway, forgive the rushed fingerpicking and the nasty vocal pitch problems.. It's no way to end FAWM, considering some of the stuff I've cranked out. Maybe I'll write something less sappy and post it in a day or two as an addendum. More...

Song #13 Ode to Homebrew
MP3 Here 3.5Mb Download

This song is an ode to one of my hobbies, which is brewing beer.

It is a lot of work, but it's fun and what hobbies are there that net you 2 cases of beer at the end?

It's a little silly country riff, but it details basically all the steps in brewing your own. The alternate title was "Everything you wanted to know about making beer but were afraid to ask".

More...

Song #12 Linton
MP3 Here 3.4Mb Download

This was an alternate tribute song that I had started on, but it was so strange I thought about not doing it. But that isn't in the spirit of FAWM, so here it is.

This is a tribute to my first year Music Theory/Composition teacher. The lyrics are very-close paraphrases or direct quotes of things he said often. He was a big proponent of Dissonance, arguing that consonance didn't go any where and the more tension you built in a piece, the bigger the release when you removed that tension. Philosophically I see his point, but it's hard to sell a song to the "average" audience when you stack lot's of minor seconds on top of one another.

This song is dissonant, so be forwarned. But it is not nearly as dissonany as what Dr. Linton would have wanted. If I had submitted this for Composition I might have gotten a D. (That and it's extremely sloppy.)

Anyway.. Um... Well. Enjoy... sorta More...

Song #11 Count
MP3 Here 4.7Mb Download

I was reminiscing on my old band and how much has changed since the band dissolved, in preparation for writing an "ending" song. It struck me that I was getting old and that we like to think we have control over our future, but in reality all we can really do is react as events happen.

So call it maudlin, morose, introspective, or whatever, this is me feeling my age, and I'm still young.

(I was trying to add a solo part, but my PC freaked on me. In the process I almost lost the whole thing. I had to realign the different parts in the editor and I decided to mix it and post it before I wrecked something else. So I know it is missing a lead line, but it'll have to wait till March. *shrug*) More...

Song #10 Calvin and Hobbes
MP3 Here 2.1Mb download

Here is my Tribute song, about a week late. Sorry about that. (at least I finished one)

This a tribute to my favorite comic strip - Calvin and Hobbes and so indirectly to Bill Watterson. The verses were mostly written from specific comic strips I have in one of the big Calvin and Hobbes collections and the chorus is about "Calvinball".

It's short and really poppy. More...

Song# 9 Main Event
MP3 Here 3.5Mb Download

This one was inspired by the incessant coverage of politics, since it is "an election year".

I don't write in drop D all that often and it shows. It kinda took on a Pedro meets Starflyer 59 meets some other emo feel to me.

Both this song and the last song are song down in a more comfortable range for me. (sinus infection...*shrug*)

This one needs some work, but it's one more notch on the belt, so on we go. More...

Song#8 Endup
MP3 Here 2.7Mb Download

I could tell you guys a heck of a boring story why I haven't been cranking out more stuff, but I'll spare you the details, since I have more than surpassed my quota of complaining during this project.

Anyway, I'm back, but for one reason or another I don't have a tribute song. I tried, but the closest I got was a verse and a half about Calvin and Hobbes, that was really hard to make work. I'll still try and do it to get the tribute song done, but I know I've completely screwed the deadline. I can only appeal and say "extenuating circumstances" and throw myself on the mercy of the court.

This song is based of a chord progression I came up with 4 years ago and promptly shelved because it was too poppy/simple. I was playing to vent some frustration and soothe myself a bit and I slipped into it. The lyrics flowed, initially, from the decisions I am caught in between at the moment, and have been all month.

I for the longest time couldn't come up with any more verses, so the third was kinda FAWMed in there. Any suggestions would be appreciated More...

Song #7 Round and Round
MP3 Here 2.8Mb Download

This one came when I was playing around with a partial capo. Check them out here! It was set on the second fret on the DGB strings. (A position) The chord progression popped some words in and basically the rest was FAWMed. It's about cultivating a personal image for the masses.

I apologize for the guitar sound. It sounded much better on the acousting, but because of a tough micing situation, I had to use a pickup, and it ended up not sounding as good that way.

As always, please forgive the vocals... sinus infection and all that. More...

Song #6 Drunk
MP3 Here 3.3Mb Download

This one was inspired by my coworkers. Since I work for a courier company, most of the people who work there are former drivers, and would probably be considered "blue collar", if that means anything. I've overheard several conversations between some of them and the same thing kept coming up. They go out drinking to get loaded on a lot of nights and come in hungover, for no other reason than they can. They don't really have any sorrows to drown or anything like that. They just get loaded because they're bored... every night. One guy was removed from work, because the management insisted he go to treatment or he wouldn't be allowed to work there. He refused. He was fired.

This song is basically about recreational alcoholics, or at least that's how it started out.

This song ended up feeling a bit to Oasis for my tastes, but see what you think. More...

Song #5 Transistor God
MP3 Here 3.4Mb Download

Here is my entry for the Shine challenge. It is sort of a self-indictment. I read an article that stated that as modern youth become more and more dependent on the internet, they do less and less outside of it. It of course had a bunch of statistics and stuff, but I thought about how much I, as a computer guy, don't get out into the sunshine and how I can remember strange details about computer games but sometimes don't remember people I went to High School with (though I doubt I would under any circumstance since I hated High School)

This started as a little guitar riff that I would have thrown away if it wasn't FAWM and went from there. I am not a drummer, but I wish I was, since this thing needs drums bad, but my attempt and slapping a loop on it was fruitless. I did this one in maybe 2 takes and my voice is at it's limit, so beware of some very painful vocal spots. I don't think a retake would have fixed it, since I'm barely able to talk at the moment. More...

Song #4 The Muse
MP3 Here 6.5Mb Download (sorry for the size)

Ok here is the 4th song. It is my first ever 7 minute song.. (in retrospect I should have played it faster) It's for my fellow FAWMers. I was feeling the pain of not being able to come up with something and so I wrote this.

Please forgive my voice! The sinus infection and cold has gotten worse and I can't sing worth crap. (I mean more than usual)

This was another 1 take wonder, so forgive the usual glitches, voice cracks, timing issues. The only thing that isn't screwed up is the drum track, which came out of a loop program. This is really just the bed of the song, leaving lots of room for refinement and more instruments, etc.. More...

Song #3 - Stout and Alba
MP3 Here 4.4 Mb Download

This one was inspired by my two cats. They totally have the right outlook on life, IMHO. There are days I wish I could swap places with them, so that's what this is.

It was done in literally 1 take, so it's very sloppy, but I'm really tired. I'll redo it later and actually put effort into it. (though the slop lends a kind of flavor of its own)

(yes I kinda ripped off the Stray Cats. I apologize!) More...

Song #2 - People magazine
MP3 Here - 4.6 Mb Download

This song was written musically first from a little fingerpicking riff and then the words were dumped. Please forgive the vocals, as usual. (I found out today I have a sinus infection... ugh) I was determined to do this as a live take and consequently ended up makin a few mistakes guitar-wise because I was determined to do the finger-picking.. c'est la vie.

The chorus need serious help and any advice would be appreciated. More...

Song #1 Wanderlost (?)
#1 Wanderlust - MP3

Ok, I have been extremely busy with work and stuff, but I cranked this out. I'm not particularly happy with it, but it is at least better than nothing.

It was originally patterened after old sea shanty/folk song type songs... sort of the melancholy wandering song, but as is usual with my stuff it didn't quite fit that and ended up being depressing, so I apologize. It's kinda derivative and I'm not sure if I would keep it beyond February, but the point of FAWM is to write and not critique, so here it is anyway.

I have had a total of 3 hours to record so far this month and 2 of those were spent trying to figure out why I had a nasty hum in my system (pickup+Room Light Fader+UPS on PC=Nasty), so I finally gave up trying to do it as a completely live take and just recorded the guitar part at about midnight last night. I will slap the vocals on tonight and upload it.

The song is actually about my job, if you can believe it, but it goes for anytime you're life is lost and you're not sure where you should be. More...

Test 123
Hello... test.. 1.2.3 Is this thing on?

Ok. I have some lyrics I wrote today.. little fragments. Is it cheating if it isn't February? Or is it only cheating if I use them in February?

Help me finish these if you can.

More...