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.

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.

President of Your Head

Download 02 president of your head

This is a reaaallly old song - from the year 2000. I thought I'd add it to create a little balance, cuz some of my more recenter tunes have been on the dark side. Not that this song is light, but it's not dark neither; it's fairly neutral, I guess is what you'd call it.

But anyway, I like this song just fine; it's one of those old songs that I sorta forgot about.

When you hear the vocals, you may be dismayed by the flatness of them in some places. At the time, I was intending to make it sound like the narrator of the song was all unenthusiastic and stuff. But it came out flattish in places.

I was thinking, at the time I wrote it, that it would be cool to write a song that was all presidential. This is how it came out.

I Was Born With A Shadow Following Me

Shadow following me

Here's another song from a dream. Or, well, I guess just the lyrics of the chorus is from the dream. Yesiree.

It's dark and uplifting at the same time, or that's how I hear it. I was trying to go for a bluegrassy sound in the chorus, but it sounds a little bit more like Celtic music.

City Of Angels

City of Angels 2nd Remix

Shit, dude, I know there's another song out there that refers to "the city of angels," but I said "fuck it," and recorded this anyway. I mean, I got this song from a dream, and when the dream calls and tells you to do a song, you'd better heed that dream's advice. It seems like the only good advice these days comes from dreams. These days dreams are saying "Stop fucking around."

This is another one of those depressogenic songs. Sorry if it makes you depressed. But the dream told me to record it.

The vocals ain't all the way perfect, but the funny thing is I don't give a shit, cuz there's something poignant about the imperfectness of the vocals. I dunno. Maybe I'm fooling myself.

Anyway, I should give a brief description about this song. It's a depressing song about LA. Poopity poop.

I Don't Think I Should

I dont think i should

This is a song about wanting to be with the wrong person. Sometimes that happens to people.

26 Miles

26 miles

I wrote a new song quite unexpectedly this morning. Like, it came to me in a dream, and you know how dreams are. When they call for you to pay attention to them, you'd darn-tootin' better pay attention to them. So, rather than doing work today, like I intended to do, I did this instead. Yesiree.

I, um, yes, am continuing to steal drum sounds from Linkin Park. I'm, like, creatin' my own rhythms and all that. But the sounds, themselves, are from good ole Linkin Park. Yesiree.