New Song - "Smoke Signals" (& Happy Birthday to Me!)

I wanted to tell you that my latest song just hit #1 on the T61 homepage. I also wanted to tell you that it is my birthday. Those are the things that I wanted to tell you.



About this song:

Quarter-life crisis. Hi, nice to meet you.

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Smoke Signals

There was a time when it all seemed clear
I got a signal when I picked up the line
But lately I feel like I'm out of range
And I wish someone would give me a sign

I'm hearing doot doot doot
And deet deet deet
On my little radio
I'm hearing doot doot doot
And deet deet deet

I'm tapping out the signals
And I'm sending up the flares
But it seems that I'm lost out at sea
But everywhere I look from my little life raft
I see a thousand other drifters just like me

We're singing deet deet deet
And doot doot doot
On our little radios
Singing doot doot doot
And deet deet deet

CHORUS

But the sea is getting rocky
And I'm starting to get cold
And I'm wondering if I'm ever getting home

CHORUS

Oh, Internet.

My friend Russell recently directed me to thesixtyone.com, which is a place for artists to post songs and for listeners to find new music. The site works like Digg except that listeners "bump" songs instead of articles. It's a genius idea and is incredibly addictive.

The website works like a game that rewards you for "discovering" awesome new music before it catches on with the masses. Bumping a song costs a certain number of points, so listeners generally only bump a song if they genuinely like it or think it will be successful. The earlier that you bump a song, the more points it costs you, but if the song ends up taking off, then you make a lot more points back.

Anyway, so I posted a few of my silly little songs a few days ago. My silly little songs that I recorded using the internal mic on my laptop and composed using software that came with my computer. And, today, one of those silly little songs hit the T61 homepage with (at the time of this posting) 206 bumps. It's currently #2 on the homepage, right under a Shout Out Louds song. One of my other songs is creeping up behind with 121 bumps!

Guys, that is NUTS.

This is all really funny/amazing to me because I do not in any way think of myself as a real musician. People keep asking if I want to collaborate or if I have an album they can buy and I'm like whattttt?


The internet is so silly and wonderful!

New Song - "Look Me Up"

This is a real rough idea that I threw together tonight. Concept: Angel on your left shoulder / devil on your right shoulder. I'll need to go back and rework the lyrics, but this is the general idea.

p.s. I'm real into the banjos lately.

p.p.s. I was singing reallllly quietly.

Look Me Up (click link to listen)
Who do you think you are
Come walkin' in here like you done own the place
A man like you shaves only one side of his face
A man like you
A man like you has got a few tricks up his sleeve
You don't hesitate when you pull out that little black book
You just call right on, call me
Look, look me up
Look me up

Looked you up in my little black book
Look me up, look me up
Gettin' lonely down here
Just need someone to call me dear
Look me up, look me up
Look me up, look me up
I know a man like you has got a few tricks up his sleeve
Pull out that little black book when you look me up

New Song - "Your Sweetest Cliché"

In an effort to jog my writer's block, I attempted something a little different tonight. I'm not so sure that I like it, but it was a fun exploration in a slightly different direction.

Your Sweetest Cliché (click to listen)
Take your pen, take your paper
Take your pen, take your paper
Take your pen, take your paper
I want to be your sweetest cliché
I want to be

February Album Writing Month

I can't believe I actually finished! A few of the final tracks were just half-formed ideas (one doesn't even have a demo yet), but I finished!

14 songs in 29 22 days (I started late)

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My first day volunteering at the local radio station, I had the opportunity to watch someone sort the mail. OH MY GOD THEY GET SO MUCH MAIL. This is just a teensy little community radio station in the Midwest, guys. This is not Clear Channel. This is not Sony BMG. This is not even Saddle Creek, but there were like ten zillion CDs and some of them had posters or cutesy little gifts and they were all very professional-looking and, dudes, with the exception of R.E.M., I had never heard of any of these people.

It felt kind of overwhelming-- all of these artists just floating out in the abyss, unheard; their labor of love dumped unceremoniously in a cardboard box in the storage room of some community radio station.

I mentioned recently that a friend of mine put one of my songs on a mix CD. My initial thought was: "You can do that?" As if music is only music if it's handed down by a record company with slick packaging and downloadable ringtones.

My experience with FAWM has only succeeded in broadening my views further-- I've discovered songs through that site that I love every bit as much as the newest Panda Bear or Cold War Kids. This is music, too, and it feels real and it feels accessible.

Anyway, these thoughts are a bit disjointed, but I just wanted to write something about that.

New Song - "lovehungry"

About this song:

In the following order:

1. I was visiting my parents and found some funny poetry that I wrote back in high school.
2. I heard Frances' amazing cover of Yeats' The Lake Isle of Innisfree on FAWM.
3. John A sent me a guitar piece he'd recorded and asked me if I wanted to add some lyrics.
4. I made the obvious mental leap.

My process:

1. Listened to John's guitar part once or twice just to get a rough idea of how it goes.
2. Recorded myself singing the poem-- no planning, no second takes. I wanted to come up with something as raw and organic as possible (mmm raw and organic).

I might come back to this later-- ask John to re-record the guitar to a click-track, add some loops, tighten up the lyrics, etc. The ending is really abrupt right now and it's because I ran out of music and couldn't finish the poem, ha.

Also, John's guitar-ing is really beautiful, but every time I get to the part where I sing "to make the whole like the hole in me" I start laughing. Oh, high school.

===

lovehungry

sweet hell-bent
lovehungry:
your desire swells to me like
a red balloon at the Fair
on a hot summersticky after noon

but still not Fair as i wished
on a well you'd be,
thirsty for my kiss, but
still doorslamming mad,
i'm wanting to bash in the
wall to make the
whole like the hole
in me--

but i'm all emptied out like my
crack ed coffee cup
and you are the glue
i need

how many
doors opened last tuesday
to your heart

New Song - "Thirty Below"

About this song:

I'm so thankful for winter here, even when it's feet upon feet of snow and thirty below zero. Boots crunching through the snow, I look around and all I can think is that-- in just a few short months-- all of this snow will be green grass and flowers, flip flops slapping the sidewalk. And I feel so lucky to live in a place that can be beautiful in so many different ways.

===

Thirty Below

Two feet of snow and it's thirty below
But all I know
Is all I can see is snow for miles and miles
But in a few months it will be green grass

Dogs playing in the park
Birds singing songs about love
And little children on their bikes
Ice cream drippin' off a cone
And skirts swirling 'round my calves
And I've maybe got a tan

Birds singing overhead and
Singing songs about love and
Maybe I'll fall in love, too

At least once a day I find myself
Walking down the street
And I've got a smile on my face
And I don't know why

It's times like these when I wish
I was a religious person
So I'd know who to thank
Instead I just send up a thank you
Like a birthday balloon
And hope that someone catches it