Another Whirl

I dreamed about elephants 2

I decided to give the Elephants song another go. I decided to give it another whirl. There was a part that bugged me, so I changed it. I like this one better.

I Dreamed About Elephants

I dreamed about elephants

I don't know if this song is good or if it's just a derivative of all my other songs. It's very odd.

I guess I don't care that much, though. Fuckity fuck.

In any event, elephants have become important to me these days, so I thought it would be a good idea to record a song about them. The thematical relatedness of the verses and the choruses probably sounds a little disjointed to the common-garden-variety listener. However, the relatedness is really super obvious to me. That's probably annoying, now that I think of it, to put something out there that's meaningful to me, but weird and random sounding to everybody else. Oh, well. Poopity poop fart poops.

Ten Brown Squares

Ten brown squares

This is a song about a girl who smokes a lot of weed, which enables her to do some magical shit. Yesiree.

(Where The) Monsters Grow On Trees

This song is more autobiographical than the common-garden-variety listener might suppose.

Monsters grow on trees

 I wasn't even planning on recording any music today. I was in a kind of "fuck music" sort of mood. But then this song came a-knocking on my door and I couldn't do much about it except record it and all that.

My apologies for some of the clumsy instrumental and vocal performances. All I can say about that is "fuckity fuck." But, then again, the lyrics in the song point to why those performances are so darn clumsy, sort of. Ha ha ha.

The Hellish Death Monster

The hellish death monster

This is a song largely written by my subconscious, so I'm still in the process of figuring out what it's about. The picture would be more directly applicable to the song if all the characters in it were female, but I sorta don't care. The picture's actually an excerpt from Daisy Charles's book, The Adventures of Jesus and Chief Running Dog: Volume 1, Part 1. (Everybody should read it. Here's a link. http://www.lulu.com/shop/daisy-charles-phd/the-adventures-of-jesus-and-chief-running-dog-volume-1-part-1/paperback/product-21751663.html)

Anyway...it's odd because I think the hellish death monster is actually really big and hairy, but in the song, she looks just like the narrator of the song. Maybe it's something to do with a shadow archetype or whatnot. Actually, that makes sense. I'll have to think about it.

I was goin' for that industrial sound in this one. Bumpy hard-edged industrialness alongside vocals that sorta soar above it. Althoughghghghgh, technically speaking, I'm not sure if this qualifies as industrial. I'm not exactly sure what qualifications a song needs in order to fit into that particular genre. Yesiree.

Here's another monster picture - I forgot I had this one, which is odd, because it's on the wall over my desk, just staring at me. This monster's personality fits the song really well. That's what I think, anyway.

Thermador Theramin

Thermador theramin

Here's a song with my best imitation of a theramin in it. I dunno how to spell theramin. Anyway, like I wrote it when my internet was down. It's a song about that ghosty feeling you get when your phone and internet are down. You feel all ghosty and forgotten when your internet and phone go toes up.

Cousin Brian

The cousin brian song

This is a song I wrote years ago; it's about Cousin Brian and all the good things he has to say.

Admittedly, I don't have a Cousin Brian, but then again, I'm guessing someone else out there does have a Cousin Brian, and if they did, maybe that Cousin Brian is like the one in the song.

The original version of this song is an improvisation; as such, it took some doing to get this song all good and organized sounding. That's always a toughie. When I have an improvisation, things're all loose and loopy and all over the place. How do you retain the cool, spontaneous nature of it, while also making it organized and coherent enough for it to be all accessible to other people? It's tricky.

I was really depressed the day I recorded it. It's kind of a cool study of how psychological states impact the levels of instruments in a mix. Guitar is louder than usual, and the drum is all loud (although the drums are usually loud). But that day, I really wanted that drum to be loud so it would be all plodding-sounding.

Inside Medicine King

Inside medicine king

This is one of those surrealistic songs where my unconscious was doin' all the talkin'. So if you were to ask me what this song's about, I'd be all, "Well, it has meaning, but you'd have to ask my unconscious."

Actually, part of me knows part of what part of the meaning is, but I feel like I'd ruirn it for y'all if I went ahead and said what my interpretation of it was. It seems like a better song for other people to figure out their own meaning of, than for me to dump it on them and say, "this is what the meaning is."

That said, I decided today to do, yet, another experiment with bilateral stimulation. Actually, back in the day, when I used to do recordings like this, I hadn't known the clinical utility of having repetitive stimuli alternating back and forth between different ears. Now that I've learned more about psychology shit, I've found out this actually does have some utility, healing-wise.

That said, there're a lot of other conditions that need to be met in order for stupid drums to heal you just cuz they're going back and forth between different ears, and the like.

Nevertheless, I'd recommend listening to this song with headphones on in order to get the full effect.

The Adventures of Jesus and Chief Running Dog!!!!!!!!

Oh, say. You must go and check out this new comic book! It's by my dear friend, Dr. Daisy Charles.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/daisy-charles-phd/the-adventures-of-jesus-and-chief-running-dog-volume-1-part-1/paperback/product-21751663.html

Where Did The Flowers Go?

It's hard to read the words in the picture cuz it's so small. It says "Stories from Grandpa," and Grandpa is saying: "Lemme tell you some stories!!!"

Where did the flowers go2

Oh, whoops, I added that picture 3 times. Not that the picture really goes with the song, except for the fact that there's a Grandpa character in the song.

Okay, so I wrote this song in 2003 - geez, man, it's an 11 year old song! Crap, I'm old. There were parts of the old recording that I didn't like, so I decided to do a re-recording. I like this recording much better'n the old one. I was attempting to do a Latin rhythm, but with kick-ass 'lectronic drums instead of Latin percussion just to see what it would sound like.

Some of you may say, wait a second. Isn't this a rip-off of an old folk song? ("Where did all the flowers go?"). I guess you could say that. But I sorta don't care because...well, I'm not really sure why I don't care. But the "where did the flowers go" part came from a dream, and I tend to be loyal to those dream-songs that come to me. So, if it bugs people that this song bears some resemblance to another song, I guess that's okay, cuz they don't have to listen to it.

Halfway To Heaven

Halfway to heaven

Here's a song about God talking to a person through a can of beer. Whoops, I just realized I drew the picture as a bottle. Oh, well.

I'd initially written it as a depressing-ass song, but as I was recording it today, it sounded like shit, so I changed it up. Now it's an up-beat-ish country song.

I can't remember how I came up with the idea for this song. But if God were to come along and tell someone they were half-way to Heaven, talking through a can of beer is as good as any other way, I guess. I guess so. Yesiree.

Decidedly Unhappy

Decidedly unhappy

This is a song about white people.

Okay, see, I was on a run this morning, and at one point, I saw a Caucasian woman watering her lawn. I thought to myself, I wonder if she'll smile or say hi when I pass by. She didn't. Rather, she had this very frowny frown on her face. It's hard to describe. It seemed as if the frown was etched into her features. It's as if she'd made a studied practice for the last 50 years of making sure she had a very frown-like appearance.

It's something I've observed a lot about white people. Us white people, we tend to be unhappy. There's a certain level of tightness to the features of white people as we walk around. It's this unhappy tightness - or maybe it's a tight unhappiness.

I dunno, I mean, it seems like unhappiness has been ingrained into white people in a way that it doesn't seem to have been ingrained into other ethnicities of people. I dunno why white people are so unhappy. Actually, I do have a theory, but it would be long and boring to go into explanations and stuff.

In any event, as a result this morning's white-person encounter, I decided to write a song about an unhappy white person.