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.