Archive for December, 2006
Postcard
Friday, December 8th, 2006This one is called “Postcard” and it goes back years — written and recorded when daja was still an active part of the band — that’s her singing, not me (the more acute amongst you may have suspected!). We decided not to try and re-record this one when she came up last year, so this is the original 4-track cassette recording, done out at the farm maybe ten years ago or so.
We only needed two out of the four tracks available; this is just autoharp and daja. (The autoharp is being slapped rather than strummed.) Oh, if you listen close, you can hear a truck going by between the verses. Sweet.
Here are the words.
Or the next day, at the latest
Friday, December 8th, 2006The title of the song “Or the next day, at the latest” dispenses with what I’ll call “interior caps” (although I’m sure there’s a more technical term) because it’s, like, a full sentence. (Or wait — is it a fragment? Hmmmmm)
This is pretty straight-forward. It’s actually written 5 or 6 years ago, I think, and originally recorded on the 4-track out at the farm. (This is the re-recorded version.) I think it’s one of my first songs to have a bridge — most of the time it just doesn’t occur to me to put one in in my mad dash to get three verses out in under two minutes. (Also I find bridges really hard to write.)
The structure is: Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus (and just a little bit more chorus to finish it up). This is pretty standard, but complex for me.
Instrumentation is straightforward to the point of tears: Autoharp, SR-16, Anders. One main vocal track, one harmony, and some whistlin’. (The whistlin’ is a one-take ad lib.)
(Readers of my LiveJournal may want to note that this version is slightly re-mixed from the last version I posted — less muddy vocals, less annoying intro.)
Lyrics. (Listen to the song first, though!)
Turn Off the Eyeball
Friday, December 8th, 2006This song is called “Turn Off the Eyeball.”
I use the term “song” loosely — this is more of an experiment in technological toys — I had just gotten my MicroKorg and was playing around with various things I could do with it, and I had just figured out how to cut and paste things in my digital recorder, so I was playing around with that, too.
Let’s see — the main keyboard riff is a Yamaha TX81Z Tone Generator, I think. I know I used it for something. There’s some giant-robot-talking near the end of what I’ll call the “breakdown” — it’s not very present in the mix, which is to say it’s “hard to hear” — and that’s using the Korg’s Vocoder. There’s the sound of sharp inhales throughout — I’m pretty sure that’s run through the Korg as well, but I’m not sure exactly what I did (this will be more useful once I catch up and post these comments closer to when I record the songs) but the goal was to make it sound like mechanical pneumatic valves and whatnot.
I really like the MicroKorg. It has lots of monophonic voices, so I don’t have to pretend like I should know how to play a chord.
Other instruments include the SR-16, autoharp (for only one chord!), and my beloved Casio SK-5 sampler (with which I sampled something — probably cymbals sitting on the floor — to make the giant marching robots in the breakdown). My notes say that there are three keyboards involved, so that’s probably Anders providing the organ parts (eek! Sorry, Anders!).
There aren’t really any lyrics to speak of.
Also, I’ll mention that the keyboard part coming out of the marching robots section was recorded onto an old Walkman and played back — near the end of that part you can hear it slowing down and breaking up — that’s me squeezing the Walkman in my hands to make the tape slow down. Fun!
Happy
Friday, December 8th, 2006Here is a song called “Happy.” I’d like to call it an experiment in repetition — “can you really take a single riff and repeat it over and over again for a whole song?” — but the truth is there wasn’t that much forethought involved. I made the 4-chord keyboard riff, looped it, and never got around to expanding it. The song is under two minutes, so…*shrug*
I don’t remember where the lyrics came from but I’m pretty sure I wrote them after writing the music. It’s weird — it feels like the kind of song that should have some sort of story or confession behind it, but it does not.
Instruments used: Kawai keyboard, Alesis SR-16, toy piano. Vocals are double-tracked — sung twice — and then one is panned a little to the left and the other a little to the right.