April Songs

With April coming to a close, I figure I should post about the songs I have written and recorded over the last month.

First up was "Vegan Music".  This was a title I was given in Jon Eric's Circle of Titles Side Fight over at Songfight.org.  Basically, you gave a title and got a title in return.  There was a nifty due date of Easter, and as of this writing, the guy who suggested the title I was stuck with has not posted his song, and the guy who got my title "We Degender Bawdily.  Ha Ha!" has not posted his either.  I am not the least bit surprised.  Anyway, I ended up writing a song that sums up exactly what I think about most vegans.  Strangely, I did not get a "thank you" from the guy who suggested the song, but when I found out who it was, again, I was not the least bit surprised.  I entered this contest under the name Apodan.

The next Songfight! title was Double Life/Half Life.  Two years ago for the Half Empty/Half Full fight, I wrote two separate songs with the same chord structures and mixed one into each ear.  I wanted to do something like that again, but didn't have the time.  I ended up writing two unrelated songs.

"Double Life" was written on a Tuedsay night; thus it is about Lost.  There are a few direct references to the show (Juliet, Adam and Eve, etc).  No one picked up on this in the review thread.  I like this song.  It's a fun little poppy number that was done up real quick like.  The "which one I'm going to ride to the end" was a crass line from the point of Jack/James talking about Kate/Juliet.

"Half Life" was written a day or so later.  This song was submitted under the name Kuwait Sheet Set (another anagram of The Weakest Suit).  I like this one too, in a laid back low key kind of way.  The distorted guitar in the background makes it feel a lot more than just a live acoustic and vocal take.  After the first chorus, the rest of the song was improvised at the time of recording.  That's why some of the phrasing and word choice is strange.  The melodies were influenced by Wilco's Being There which was in my mp3 player at the time.

"Ease Your Storm"  What can I say about this one?  It's four chords.  Falsetto.  About someone losing their true love.  I intentially had my voice crack in a few places to make it sound more realistic.  I also put a "telephone" filter on it to make it sound old timey.  Again, lyrics were semi-sketched out before hand, but a lot of the phrasing was improvised at the time of recording.  I recorded three takes and used the third one.  I originally wanted to write a poppy Frank Black-ish song, but when I sat down to write I had no energy and a slow, sad song came out instead.

"Down For A While" was, up until I started to record it, going to be another anti-Obama song (like "Mediocre Savior", "Sorry To Inform You", and "9-11 Was An Inside Job").  I really didn't want to write another negative song, though.  I ended up writing a more positive song inspired by the troubles of a friend on facebook who I last saw when I was in grade school.  For percussion, I used a tambourine, a water bottle, a stick for a cowbell, and an egg shaker.  I like this one.  I wish I had the time to record a better version.  Maybe this one will make it into my live shows.

Front And Center

Another SongFight! title that I didn't have any inspiration for.  On the last night before the deadline, I wrote and recorded a quick song about the point in the book Armadale where I was at the time.  I really wanted to have drums on it, but none of the presets in the Micro BR fit well enough.  I also used up all four tracks (guitar, bass, vocals, vocals) and didn't have the energy to mix some of them down just to add a track of egg shaker.  I have a feeling that this song would have been better with a keyboard, but the one we have is not in tune (which I don't understand at all since it is electronic).  Anyway, lyrics were made up as it was recorded, but when I was recording the verses, I was, at the same time, playing the vocal melody on the acoustic guitar, to help me sing more in tune.  Overall, I don't know what to think about this song.  I haven't listened to it since I mixed it.  And the book "Armadale" is not all that great either.