Iktomi/In the Form of a Spider Update Poopy Poopy Ones

Iktomi extended

Okay, here's Iktomi part 2 (it's the same recording as the one I posted yesterday, but with a Grand Finale added to it). Well, actually, it's not a grand finale, so much as it's an extra chorus. It felt poopity-poop incomplete without one. Fartknockers.

The picture is of the same 2 characters as the ones in yesterday's entry, freakin' out about different types of stuff. In case you cain't read my messy writing, they're sayin': "Dude, why do we keep on having these freaky-ass hallucinations?" "I dunno."

Here's another picture of Iktomi, (or 2 pictures of him), but this time he's in his spider form. He shows up as both spiders and as humans sometimes. And sometimes he can be a rock.

In the Form of a Spider (Iktomi)

Iktomi2

Okay, wow. I realized after that last song that I accidentally started writing a rock symphony. Or maybe it's more of a rock opera - I'm not too sure. I was all wow. It's a minimalist rock whatever-you'd-call-it, where I take samplings of people talking in that movie, Skins, and I play 'em over and over and do a song over them.

Of course, as you know, I cain't take credit for that idear. Lots of people might think, wow, what a cool girl for thinking of that. No, nope. I fucking stole the idea from Steve Reich. He's written lots of pieces o' music with people talking and he figures out what the melody is of them and, um, repeats it with instruments or something.

Maybe it's okay that I stole an idea from him cuz I met him in person once. He was the guest Really-Smart-Person at Dartmouth for a term or so. Shit, okay, that sounded really narcissistic, eh. I just name dropped my hoity toity Ivy League education, as well as the fact that I MET a FAMOUS COMPOSER. Shit, yeah, wow, okay, I'm a narcissist.

In any event, my intention with this ever-so-large piece of music I'm working on is to tell the story of the movie, Skins (cuz it's my favorite movie in the world), with minimalist, weird industrial-ish rock music.

This song is sung from the perspective of Iktomi, the trickster spider, who plays a large role in that movie. The picture I used to illustrate the song ain't of a spider, per se. But those 2 characters have a lot of Iktomi in them. I think they're actually trickster figures who think they're heroes. I think that I'm also a trickster figure who thinks she's a hero. I think my life'll get a lot less complicated when I finally recognize my Iktomi-nature. But I haven't done that yet. Thank kind of sucks.

In any event, here's a song sung from the point of view of a spider. The chorus may not make sense to the common-garden-variety-listener, though, so I'll explain it a wee bit. See, I go to sweat lodges sometimes, and when I do, sometimes there're spiders in there. You see 'em comin' down on their webs, descending toward the hot stones.

People who do sweat lodges are really nice to animals, so we all attempt to save them if we can. In the case of the character in the song, well, poor Iktomi ends up trapped in the heat of the lodge. Fuck, I can't believe I was so mean to poor iktomi. I think he probably survives it, though. I think so.

Yeah, no, yeah, he totally survives it, now that I think of it. I mean, he is Iktomi, after all.

Big Man Every Time His Friends Are Around

Big Man EverytimeUrFriendsR

I did another experiment thingy of looping a person talking a sentence and having it turn into a melody, which, in turn, functions as a drone, and all that.

I cain't take credit for the rhythm, man. Dang, man. There was this really cool - I dunno - industrial? Techno? (I'm all dumb about telling music genres apart) - rhythm on a song on a teevee show. I liked it a lot, so I sampled the rhythm, and I thought I'd be all clever and make a new rhythm out of the drum sounds. But what happened was when I rearranged the drum sounds into a new rhythm, it sounded just like the old one. So, in a sense, like, I stole this here rhythm. Poopity poop.

The dude talking (from the same movie as the last song I got a loop thingy from), he's all concerned about his brother showing off in front of other people. That's, I guess, sort of what this song's about. The "big man every time your friends are around." [The movie's called Skins. It's good. You should watch it.]

Fartknockers.

I cain't tell if I'm just mixing up genres and generating a confusing product, or if the mix is more, like, better than that. Cuz I think the big-ass drums go really well with the whole liturgical soundingness of the rest of the song. I could be fooling myself, though. But, I keep on thinking that the song is big, like a big old pipe organ, or something dumb like that. All celestial or whatever. All big, the way celestial things tend to be.

(P.S., my apologies to the dude with the football. I didn't draw him all that accurately - he's actually a hottie hotterson in real life.)

So He Can Get Bent Again

So He Can Get Bent copy

I was, like, watching my favorite movie for the thousandth time, and I realized when the dude says "so he can get bent again," it was musical sounding.

See, I learned from good old Steve Reich that sometimes if you play a person saying a sentence over and over, it starts to sound like music, cuz people use different musical notes when they talk. It can make a nice little repeaty backing track and all that.

Update: April 11 - here's another picture for this song. It's s'posed to be the dudes in the movie, heh heh heh. 'Course, the grumpy guy is hotter in real life. In real life, he's a hottie hotterson from hot land.

The Scale

The scale

Oddly enough, I was psychic when I wrote this song. I had no idea there was a scale that would change two weeks afterwards. Or was it 1 week? This is such a freaky-ass time in my life, that a week feels like a year. Poop.

2 For The Price Of One

I want my money

42

The first song is about not having money (and the inherent suckworthyness of it).

The second song is about the number 42.

The Boring World

The boring world part 1

Oh, dude, I can't believe I wrote a song about The Boring World. Dang. There'll probably be many more to come after this one.

It would take a long time to explain what The Boring World is, yes. Yes, yes. What can I say about The Boring World? I guess the picture above is a pretty good description of it.

Okay, wow, yeah. So, the A-Phrase I got from a dream. That's probably why it's a bit more complex than the stuff I usually write. That dreaming-brain tends to be smarter in some ways than a waking brain.

I'm worried, though, cuz I don't know if I accidentally ripped off another song. I hope not. I'm wondering if I did. If so, then I do apologize to whoever wrote whatever song I accidentally ripped off. Like, whoops.

That's one problem with the dreaming-brain. Sometimes it doesn't give a shit if a song's already been written or not.

I had a cold when I recorded this. You might be able to tell because of the nasal-ness of the vocals. Oh, well.

Grandma's House

Grandma's house

This song is about a lady who feels like she's losing her marbles; and near the end of her life, she is reflecting on all the mistakes she made. The funny thing is: It turns out that a lot of these mistakes led to something good.

I Just Want To Be Alone

I just want to be alone

The chorus-y part of this song came from a dream; I'm getting lots and lots of dream-songs these days. This is a song about those chattering monkeys we all contend with on a daily basis. Or, in other words, all those poopy thoughts we can't turn off that sometimes give us insomnia and all that poopy stuff. I made it buzzing insects rather than chattering monkeys in this song cuz I think buzzing insects are really annoying.

Grandma Led Him Down That Frozen Slope

Grandma led him

I wrote and recorded this song back in 2011.  I've always liked this song and have been intending to post it for a while now. It was one o' those songs I wanted to keep to myself for a while before having other people listen to it. Sometimes that's a good idea.

This song came from a dream; in this case, the dream-song was bluesy. I changed it and made it more...I don't know what I'd call it...sacred sounding? I guess that's as good a term as any.

This is one of those songs that's a wee on the abstract side, and yet it's all meaningful and stuff, too. It's one of those things where the meaning is for the listener to decide.

I like songs about grandparents. Don't ask me why. Maybe it's because there aren't that many songs I know of that are about grandparents.

I Would Sit With A Fish

I would sit with a fish

I was dreaming this morning that there was a John Lennon concert playing on TV. He started playing this song. The funny thing is, it doesn't really sound like John Lennon at all. It sounds more Tom-Waits-ish, with just a hint of Talking Heads. (Or I might be flattering myself).

Oh, yeah, there's a heavy Philip Glass influence in this song, as well.

I don't know how irritating this song will be to other people cuz it's, once again, one of those songs that came out of my unconscious. The unconscious has a language of its own, and therefore, its message may be indecipherable to the common listener. I could understand people being irritated, as a result. Like, maybe they'll think I'm being all surrealistic just to annoy them. No, man, I'm not trying to annoy people with non sequiturs. I'm really not.

In any event, given the set of circumstances outlined in this song, I would expect myself to be willing to sit with a fish.

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.