Written out of the blue but kind of based off of a song called "Charm" that I started in early 2010. This one is probably going to end up on a new album of songs from the Blistering Hearts era combined with some other new songs and I haven't quite finished the concept yet but I know where it's heading. This also contains some nice sarcasm which I like. I hope you like it.
This song gets my distinction of my second least favorite demo of the year. Not because I truly dislike it, but more because it just didn't turn out how I wanted it to. Lots of "fixes" and that will be evident the next time I work on it. That's the funny thing about releasing so much stuff. Sometimes you just run into songs that you think sound how you envisioned them but then a few days later you say..."wha?" All good though. Hope you like it more than me. :)
I wrote this a long time ago. It was actually part of a Radiohead-ish concept I was working on and it morphed over a short period of time into a heavy song because it just made more sense that way. THis recording sounds very Nirvana and that's okay by me becuase...um...I love Nirvana and I intentionally have been recording Wristbreaker to sound slightly Nirvana-esque. The guitar on this is chaotic and I love that but I also love the vocals. I hope you like.
This song means a lot to me. Not only because of who I wrote it for, who I wrote it with and when we wrote it but also because for a really long time, it was my favorite song that I'd written. It was written on a December night and we literally wrote it and recored it in about an hour. It just kind of happened and I sent it to my friends that night because I was so proud of it and forever, it was just this symbol that I could write songs that caught people's attention. The number of times I've sent people the older Motion Picture demos is many. I guess the reason it was #090 on the list is because I was tired of playing by the time I started this in 2009. In case you didn't catch it, I named this blog after a line in the song. I hope you like this version. It's pretty minimal but I think that works. Important to note now that I have hit 90 songs. Once I hit 113 I will not be releasing things as rapidly. The reason it's 113 is because I covered 13 songs in the 100 and I want to make sure I release 100 original songs this year. So...the countdown has begun...23 songs left.
I initially had an idea for a song called Satellite in like 2008 but never wrote it. It resurfaced when I started working on this yesterday. I would describe this track as kind of the sequel to "You Are My Light" only because I wrote it with that song in mind and it has some similar ethereal elements and references that song in the third verse (sort of). I like that I used a ringshifter for the wobbly guitar underneath the jangling guitar. It's a sad tune but I love the textures on this one and the minimal guitar. Also written in open c BTW. I hope you like it.
Yeah so...I saw Pavement last weekend and so I started tuning my guitar in different tunings and this was the result of open C. Also, the lyrics are a result of a comment on my friend and fellow musician John Keck's FB wall where someone mentioned he should write a song with word "orange" because you can't rhyme it unless...you use the tricks you learned from Lil Wayne and rhyme it with itself. So, I kind of built the song around it and then because I mentioned haiku in the last verse I ended the song with a haiku cuz I'm totally witty like that (or something). The synth at the end is something I'm really happy with as are the wailing guitars and the somewhat screaming vocals on the chorus.
In 2002, I started working on a space opera that I've probably mentioned before and this was one of the two original songs that I wrote for it. This is the track that is the main character talking about how he's stuck in a small town and feels trapped. It's kind of his longing to get out. I added the breakdown at the end to demonstrate the duality of the personality but it's hard to actually explain without the full story being in place so more on it later when I do the space opera post once I've finalized the story. This was hard to record because I used a strange tuning and lots of dissonant chords. More takes on this than any other song I've recorded. Hope you like it even though it falls outside the standard rockin' jam.
I wrote this late last year when I conceptualized the album of the same name. I really like the lyrics on the chorus. The recording actually kind of ended up sounding a little like a Tupelo song to me because of the low-high vocals on the chorus. Total slow drag on that album and looking forward to releasing more of those tunes once I get them recorded. My goal is to only put 8 songs on that record because I think albums should be deemed an album based on total length not on number of songs. Hope you like it.
So a long time ago, I scrawled the line "mama get the bottle your little boy's an alcoholic" in my first primary "lyrics journal." Lots of years passed and it would come back around every now and then but I never recorded it until last weekend when I finally cranked this out. I like the tune and I like the guitar solo. It's another "Wristbreaker" jam and that album is shaping up to be nice. I hope you like it, it's not super dark but I guess it kind of is...
Alt-country space blues. Alt-country space blues. Alt-country space blues. Written w/ C.D. in 2008 and reworked over the weekend into alt-country space blues. One of the four original "Blistering Hearts" songs written in a penthouse and culled from a crudely recorded demo. One of my favorite jams and I threw some guitar noise on it to give it a more true aesthetic. We used to create walls of feedback when we rehearsed and at times it got kind of epic. This recording has the distinction of containing what is currently known as my favorite guitar solo on tape. I love it.
Xmas Lights was this idea I had in 2008 and it was originally the title of Sleep It Off. I scrapped that plan when I wrote the chorus that would become Sleep it Off but revisited this the other day and wrote a song that ultimately fits on Self-Destructor. This mix is kind of soft but check it out. I like the bouncing lead guitar. On all Self-Destructor songs, I only use acoustic guitars. That's the one rule. I also like the bridge because it's so "delicate".
When I initially came up with the concept behind this song it was going to be the title track to a soundtrack to a movie that I might make. Basically a concert movie/art film called "Alone" that borders on silent movie except for live musical performances intertwined. Like two extremes: silence->music->silence. Still will probably do it but this song is now also destined for the "Boundaries" album because it has this whole "slow-drag" feel to it and the "Boundaries" album was inspired by Neil Young/R.E.M (NAIHF)/Jay Farrar. The only other songs I've posted in contention for that record are: How Many Times? and Maybe. More should be coming soon though because I've been in that place lately. We'll see. I'm hell bent on writing more of "Wristbreaker" at the moment. Another notable thing about this track is that I played banjo on it and that's the first time I have done that.
This is basically about cycles and getting stuck in cycles that repeat over and over and over and over and over and recognizing that feeling. It's destined for "Wristbreaker" and overall I like how it turned out. It needs a few tweaks but overall that chorus gets stuck in my head so I think it's good. Not much else to say on this oh except one of the lines in the chorus just makes me smile every time I hear it. I hope you like it.
