I've
got something that might shock you... if you're a deaf retard. I
don't have a record deal, and I don't even professionally record my
music. Therefore, I don't have the resources or necessity to
produce liner notes and such for the "albums" I make. Anybody,
afterall, could take a computer headset microphone, a guitar, and a CD
writer and make an album. Well, here's the breakdown of all the
non-lyrical details behind songs. I might tell you about the
meaning and history of the song, I might confess the bands I feel I
blatantly ripped off, and I might find something else noteworthy to
share. We'll see. Let's do it.
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First of all, every song I've
recorded thus far was done entirely by me. Bass guitar is
simulated by my Yamaha PSR-290 keyboard, as are much of the organs,
pianos, horns, drums, and various other intruments. All lead and
backing vocals are recorded by me. I use a software drum machine
called Hammerhead for a few songs. I used various editions of the
loop-based music program Acid for many songs, particularly the older
songs. All cover songs are done without permssion from anyone,
and I hope I don't get sued. Any melodies that appear to be
stolen probably are, deliberately and respectfully.
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In brief, the songs without much
meaning:
*Donkey Conga - I named this
song years before Nintendo released their game
*Hash Brown - totally
stolen from Weezer
*Hail to the Cheif -
music based on "The Nobodies" by Marilyn Manson
*Dirty Word - most
soundclips from a video game about the mafia or something. I
don't remember what it's called.
*Intro - variations on a
Catch 22 instrumental
*Hartman - named after
and samples from a character in Full
Metal Jacket
*Stopping By Woods... - I might have
jacked this horn line unknowningly from the Big D song "Quiet Room" but
it might just be a coincidence.
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Ok,
now onto more intimate, individual confessions. These aren't in
any real order. They're roughly chronological, but not
really. Deal.
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*TINAES
- This is basically the first song I ever wrote. Well, not
really, but the oldest one I recall writing. I wrote it in a
matter of minutes (which should be obvious) and it was pretty much
spontaneous while sitting at the piano. The chord progression for
the verses is the same as that of Green Day's "Basket Case" and I used
it a few songs later as well. I added a screamo part later.
The song is obviously intended to be ironic, and it's kinda dumb,
looking back.
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*Fauxbee
- This song was originally intended to be an alternate version of
TINAES, which is why the chords are the same (I changed them up a bit
in the chorus, though). This was probably the first song I was
ever proud of. The lyrics are about an ex-coworker.
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*The
America Song - I just had to write a country song. This
was inspired by that widely-publicized feud between the Dixie Chicks
and Toby Keith. It takes a sarcastically Conservative viewpoint,
and it would be kinda funny if I had made it sound better.
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*Master
Mechanic - This is an instrumental piano piece. It's not
complex at all (basically just chords) and I intended to write
lyrics. The opening/recurring theme is ripped directly from the
Cat Stevens song "Father and Son" and I was going to write a song about
my dad. I realized that I didn't really have anything to say
about my dad, so I left it wordless.
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*The
Aim - This is one of my favorite songs I've written. Its
chorusless structure was influenced by punk bands like NOFX, who just
say what they have to say. This was probably one of the first
songs I ever wrote that had real emotion in it. I remember
feeling good about getting it down, but kinda guilty for feeling so
depressed. The title was taken from some essay in my philosophy
textbook, but I don't remember the whole title.
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*Canadians
Don't Know How To Drive - This was one of my first attempts to
copy Chris Murray's solo acoustic ska style. The guitar on this
recording is so embarassing, and I can't stand to listen to this
song. The lyrics are trivial, but kinda fun I guess. The
one thing I really like about this song, though, is my vocal
solo. Is that considered scat? I don't know. It was
all on-the-spot, and I think it turned out really well.
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*Crack
In My Pocket - The chorus of this song was stolen from Reel Big
Fish, and more specifically Tyler Jones. I decided to write a
song about it. The verses were vaugely constructed ahead of time,
but they're mostly freestyled. The bassline and whole feel of the
song is greatly inspired by "5446 Was My Number" by Toots and the
Maytals.
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*Dub
109 - This was just an experiment, really. I was trying to
recreate the sound I hear from Sublime, Bedoiun Soundclash, and other
bands who dabble in dub. I think I recreated it pretty well, but
mine sounds as artificial as it is. The tempo is 109 bpm.
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*FY
- I don't know why I titled it this way. It's kinda dumb.
This song was pretty much inspired by the Arrogant Sons of Bitches,
although in retrospect sounds nothing like them. I remember
writing the words in like 15 minutes, because I was bored. Then I
recorded it. Sorry, this doesn't have anything interesting about
it.
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*I'm A Nuclear Bomb - Here's another
song I pretty much wrote in a few minutes. I wrote it a long time
(possibly a year or more) before I recorded it, and I only recorded it
out of boredom. I was extremely hasty in the recording process
because I didn't really care how it sounded, and that definitely
shows. This is the first song for which I actually wrote a
bassline on an actual guitar. In the past I composed almost
exclusively on the keyboard. I also played the bassline on a
guitar, not a bass, because I don't have a bass and I don't think I can
play it well enough anyways. The harmonies were
spur-of-the-moment. The music for the part that starts "You
should know, I'm just an average Joe" was based on a song I later
covered, "Sucked Out" by Superdrag. There was actually a little
bit more of the song when I wrote it, but I chose not to include
it. It wasn't worth it.
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*I'm Gonna Do Something Really Bad Tonight
- This title was obvious, as these are the only lyrics in the
song. The chord progression changes about halfway through, with
no other reason but to keep the song different. The second half's
chord progression is based on "Santa Has A Mullet" by Nerf
Herder. This song doesn't have any meaning, and I don't know why
I would record such a stupid thing.
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*Lunch
Time - The first few lines are a rephrasing of the instructions
on the package for Lipton's fettucini alfredo. The rest is
just... emo whatever. I wrote this while making myself some
lunch, and it took no more than 10 minutes. To be fair, the 10
minutes also was used for "stir[ring] occasionally."
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*My
Dancehall - You want to know why this song doesn't have a better
title? Blame Steve Borth and the rest of Satori, who named a song
"My First Dub." I just wanted to simulate a dancehall sound (much
like "Dub 109" was just to try out dub) and I think I did so
effectively. I'm thinking of adding some toasting (Jamaican rap)
to this beat, but I might not. The very end of the bassline
(right before it repeats) was ripped from a Bedouin Soundclash
song. I believe it's called "Rude Boy Don't Cry" but I could be
wrong on the title. And there you have it. I've referenced
three other songs in the description of this one. And I used
quotation marks to set off the title. Dr. Cates would be proud.
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*Regicide
- The melody and chord progression are based on "Motown Never Sounded
So Good" by Less Than Jake. I realize that I strayed from that a
bit, but I just had to own up to it, ok? The war noises in the
middle are all sound effects from the video game Civilization II, to
which I am no longer addicted. The siren at the end was found on
Google somewhere. This is the first song (I believe) I ever
wrote with a time change. It goes from 4/4 to 6/8, and then
back. The 6/8 part is rhythmically speaking classical
poetry. Kinda neat, huh? The lyrics are pretty good, in my
opinion, and I'm proud of this song.
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*Sherlock
Holmes Figures It Out - So, the title doesn't match the
chorus. Did you think I didn't know that? I made a
typo originally and then just decided to leave it. Call it
artistic, call it lazy, but don't call it... I don't know where I'm
going with this. Anyways, this song is about an (the)
ex-girlfriend, and the realization that something went on behind my
back before she and I were broken up for real real. The "At least
I can spell my name right" lyric is regarding her "not so distant
lover," who is named Mat. The two instances of the word "fucking"
in the recording were not planned, and were products of the
moment. I don't think I consciously ripped off anyone in writing
this song, but I wouldn't rule it out. I really like this song.
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*Shit
- This song was written a while before recording, but not too
long. When I wrote it, it was an attempt to sound like Dan
Potthast, but the sound changed quite a bit and I don't consider it a
ripoff. A few bands I listen to have songs with only one verse
and one chorus. Sublime's "Pawn Shop" is the only one that comes
to mind, but I assure you, there's more. This is one of those
songs, but not nearly as good as any of them. I liked the
instrumentation on this track, but I've never liked the words. I
made a couple different instrumental versions of it so I could listen
to it and not cringe at the pathetic lyrics.
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*Couch
Bustin' Lovin' - This song starts with a clip of "Viva Las
Vegas" by Elvis Presley. This is a song about two of my friends
who's sexual encounter may or may not have messed up a couch in a Las
Vegas hotel room. This is one of the first songs I wrote with
full instrumentation (with my Yamaha providing me with voices for the
guitar, bass, horns, and drums). Ultimately I shoved this one
into the back of my mind because of the uninspired lyrics and the
inability for me to sing it right. It's an interesting relic, but
not necessarily a good song.
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*Fuck This War - This song
was actually written a few months before
the United States entered Iraq. I believe it was
written in late 2002. It changed a whole lot between originally
being written and actually being recorded. One major change was
moving it from a major key to a minor key. This change was
inspired by the Slackers' E.P. "Internation War Criminal" which has
five anti-Bush/anti-war songs on it. That E.P. is fucking
amazing, and you should buy it.
Listening to it got me thinking about this old song I had written, and
I decided to play it again. After resurrecting it, I added two
more verses to it. I think the song is much better now than it
was, because I think the two verses I added (the ones starting "You got
us into this mess" and "I know you said it") are better than the
original two. I also think the minor key serves it well. I
might record this in the original major mode some time, just for shits
and giggles.
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*I
Want You For Christmas - This song was written for a
friend. Not about her, mind you. For her. We have
this joke where she pretends to think I want her, and I pretend to
think she wants me. I joked with her about the title, and then
told her I'd write a song. The song might seem like I actually
care about someone and wish I had them for Christmas, but it was
written emotionlessly and is really a joke song... even though it may
not seem like it.
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*The
584 - First, the title. I record a lot of things, and the
program I use saves the files in a nondescript "Snippet ###.wav" and
this little piece of sound was Snippet 584.wav. I picked I think
a flute voice on my keyboard, and doubled it with something else, and
then moved them up a couple octaves. The result is that really
high-pitched noise. I played it through my guitar amp, and
recorded it with the sound also coming through the computer speakers
(giving way to some feedback). Then I just kinda went wild on the
keyboard, and this is the result. Well, not this website, but the
song. You know what I mean.
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*RBF
In Da Club - This is something I threw together in some version
of Acid. It's an a capella version of 50 Cent's "In Da Club"
mixed with Reel Big Fish's instrumental song "Sleep All Day." The
only work I really did was to change the tempo of the 50 Cent song to
match Reel Big Fish's. Everything else fell where it did.
Parts sound bad because of the uneven structure of 50's song and I
didn't care enough about this track to fix anything up. I made
this because I believe the two groups were playing a concert together
one time.
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*Fungus
53 - This is a song I wrote for the hell of it. Fungus 53
is the punk station on XM radio. NOFX did a jingle for them, and
Less Than Jake did a jingle for KROCK, and I was inspired to write a
little jingle myself. I think it came out ok for what it is.
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*Walker
2005 - This is basically a rewrite of the Things About Nothing
song, "Walker." I wrote new words to make it actually a political
song instead of a joke song. The last instance of the chorus is
different than the rest of them. This final chorus is the
original chorus, and I thought I'd be respectful to my brother and his
old band by including it. I think the chorus they wrote was
catchy and had a ring to it, and I think it should be heard. I
came up with the chorus while working one day, and wrote the rest of
the song when I got off.
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*Tippecanoe
and Tyler Jones
- I had an away message up on AIM that said "Someone inspire
lyrics." One of my friends IM'ed me and told me to write a song
about Aaron Barrett from the perspective of Tyler Jones. Tyler
was kicked out of Reel Big Fish by Aaron. I liked the idea, and
the song starts on that premise. Then it deteriorates into me
just venting my frustration with Reel Big Fish. The first two
lines kind of ripoff Weezer's "Pink Triangle". The lines "It's
like some kind of monster/Maybe we need therapy" are in reference to
the Metallica documentary, Some Kind
of Monster, which has the band sorting out their personal
problems with a therapist. The bridge is in reference to his
apparent mental breakdown incident, where Aaron smashed his guitar on
stage and basically ruined a show for hundreds of thousands of
fans. Well, not that many fans. But tens at least.
When my friend suggested the topic of this song, I already had the
music written. The music is greatly inspired by the Arrogant Sons
of Bitches, and they're the reason I have liberal use of profanity in
this song. The title was changed from "Breakdown" to something a
little more... Jeff Rosenstock.
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*Why
Is Fat Jess Going With Danny To Chicago? - First the title... my
brother was talking to someone on the phone the other day. This
was something he said angrily to the person on the other end of the
conversation... numerous times. He was talking about his bandmate
Danny, who is leaving his band for some other Victory Records
band. That's where the third verse comes in. The first two
verses are just crazy verses. I wrote them both at work today,
and they don't really make any sense. The chorus I wrote when I
got home from work, and that doesn't make any sense either. The
melody was stolen from one of my own songs. That song was called
"I'm Feeling Pathetic" and it'll never see the light of day.
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*Summerbreeze
- This is a cover of a song by the same name. The song was
originally
written and recorded by a band called CIO (Covert Intelligence
Operation). I actually did get permission to cover this
song. In return, we agreed that they would cover my song "Shit.".
I'm still waiting for that one. I played around with different
drum and guitar patterns, and this was the first time I experimented
with the plug-in effects of the Acid software. That's where you
get that delay stuff in the part that goes "The heat of the sun" yadda
yadda. I think parts of this sound pretty good, but I wish I had
put some bass guitar in there. It sounds kinda hollow, know what
I mean? It's too late for that, though. Fuck. And
then at the end, I went right into the Weezer song, "Say It Ain't
So." Weezer's probably not in my top 20 favorite bands, but I
apparently steal more from them than anyone else. I really like
how I did the end of this song, with the rockingness fading away to a
quivering vulnerable acoustic strum and my fragile voice(s).
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*Feel
Blue - It all started with Bob Marley and satelite radio.
The XM reggae station ("The Joint") was playing a bunch of music
spanning the life of Bob Marley in honor of his would-be 60th
birthday. I realized that a lot of the Wailers' oldest music was
traditional ska rather than reggae. A few days later I picked up
"Greatest Hits at Studio One," which included a lot of the Wailers' old
ska songs. I wrote this song that same night, and recorded it the
next day. The music from this song was based on a number of tunes
from that Wailers CD with the same chord progression. I added the
sha la la la's so that the chorus would sound different than the
verse. Considering this is my first real attempt at this type of
ska music, I'd say this song is pretty good.
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*The
Everyday Joys of Sado-Masochism - This is a song I wrote about
being interested in a person and them treating you like shit.
When (if) you listen to it, you'll notice that my vocals aren't
entirely consistent. That's because the rate of the words doesn't
allow any space to breathe, so I recorded the vocals in two separate
takes. Each take I sang four lines, skipped four lines, etc.and
then the two both sing during the chorus and bridge. Ingenious,
no? No. That's correct. Long story short, that's why
this song doesn't sound very good. I didn't write keyboard parts
until I thought I was finished recording. I was like "Well, this
demo version of Acid 5 lets me record ten tracks, and I only have
7. Why not come up with some keys?" And so I did. I'm
sorry, but the story behind this song was incredibly boring.
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*Numbers
- Where did this music come from, you ask? I don't know why, but
I decided to write one of those pop-indie-rock songs. You know,
the kind that Detroit bands get famous for. So I was just strumming
those artistic, expressive three sloppy chords, and I started
yelling. The lyrics you hear/read are not very intelligently
constructed, lending itself to the style. I think I pulled off
the style pretty successfully. I'm thinking about doing this song
with some drums, too (but no bass!). We'll see what the future
holds. But anyways, the words. It's obviously a "I like
you" song of sorts. And then the chorus hits with a "but".
The song is about liking someone who is either too old or too
young. Not about pedophilia, mind you. Just being attracted
to someone who has no business being involved with you because of their
age. Interesting, isn't it?
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*Spill
A Glass Of Water - This is a song that I never really liked, but
I recorded it anyways. If you've heard it (which you probably
haven't, but nobody's stopping you from taking it from me on AIM) then
you know it sounds like shit. I recorded it on this value (cheap)
mp3 player my dad got in China. It has a voice recording thing
for taking notes or some fucking thing, and it records them in a bad
bitrate. But I used it anyways, because it was late and I was
just hanging out with my guitar and wanted to record the damn
thing. The words... they're pretty roundabout. It suggests
leaving home (or maybe dying) and knocking over a glass (I don't know
why) on the way out. The lyrics are about what the rest of the
household does with this spilled glass... does it just go unnoticed
because of the circumstances? Ok, I'm done trying to make sense
out of this. It somehow is crystal clear to me. Oh yeah,
did you notice that there's no chords in this song? Yep, just
single notes. Just because.
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*Reflection
- This song was originally written by No Alternative. They were a
pop-punk band from the Rochester, MI area, but they broke up some time
ago. I was listening to their first CD the night before recording
it, and that's when I decided I would do my first cover song using my
new recording style. I thought about doing a few other songs, but
they all took a backseat to this one. First of all, this song is
too good to never be heard again. Second of all, it's not that
complicated. The bassline is actually totally original, and much
more complex than the original. I'm proud of that, as well as the
dub/reggae bridge in the middle of it. I think this song turned
out really well, and I hope people enjoy the lyrics as much as I do
(assuming you can make them out, what with my crappy singing and
recording and all).
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*Get
Out - This was originally called "Every Song Has A Title And
This One Is No Exception" but that title obviously sucks, so I changed
it. I'm kinda upset that I wrote this song like I did, even
though it's a good ass song. It's about not wanting to work and
not wanting to go to school and wanting to just rock. Well,
someday I won't be in school and I'll feel as stupid as Suburban
Legends probably do whenever they play "Popular Demand." The
second verse is the only ska part, and I originally wasn't planning on
any ska at all. I think it fits great there, though, so I'm glad
I did that. The first verse has lots of rhymes but the other two
don't rhyme at all. Why? Because. I mention
Rosenstock in the third verse. He's the singer/songwriter of Bomb
The Music Industry! and Arrogant Sons of Bitches, and he told me he
liked my music. I'm so self-centered that I just kinda dropped a
name in there. But Jeff did it first in the ASOB song "I, Musical
Genius" when he mentions a conversation with Jay Navarro of the Suicide
Machines. So fuck you for judging me. I wanted to have
other people come in a sing the gang vocals (the hey!'s) but I decided
to just do it myself. They sound like utter shit, but
whatever. That's punk. The "Stop... continue!" was stolen
from "Dance Commander" by the Electric Six.
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*Not
My Country - This is obviously a different sound from me,
compared to the previous few tracks. But I guess the songs I've
been writing have been all over the place lately. I really enjoy
that, though. Who wants to hear the same old ska lines over and
over? Not me, that's for DAMN sure. So, anyways, this is a
song about the holy union of church and state in our fine nation, and
how the people in charge of either of them seem to be working to fuck
people over. Wow, it's been WEEKS since I wrote a political
song. I hope it doesn't alienate my fanbase! It's punk,
with tints of hardcore and weird. To me, it sounds like Leftover
Crack, the Suicide Machines, and NOFX. You can make up your own
mind. The synthesizer wasn't planned. I just was playing
something while listening to the unfinished version of this song, and I
came up with something cool, and I decided to include it. It
gives it a unique sound, if I may be so bold.
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*Just
Can't Stop - This song was more or less hell. I wrote it
and recorded it all in one day. Well, actually all in about 4
hours. I decided I wanted to write an instrumental ska song, and
this is about it. It's got the words in it, but most instrumental
ska songs do. It's instrumental compared to my other shit,
ok? One of the reasons this was hell because I couldn't rely on
my lyrics to get me through a song like I usually do. "My songs
are just vessels for my words" was my theory, but now I had to actually
write more than just background noise. All three of the solos
were 100% improvised. I'm not good at the keyboard, so that's why
they don't sound so great. The trumpet solo went quite high, and
my keyboard just doesn't realistically simulate the trumpet at that
range. Sorry. Then, when I was finished, I couldn't save it
as an mp3 or wav. I've been using a trial version of Sony's Acid
5.0 program, and I just used up my last trial mp3/wav.
Damn. So I tried reinstalling it, but that didn't work.
Damn. I had to get a trial copy of a different copy of Acid, then
save it as an ogg, then convert it to mp3. Damn! The end
part (the vocals that sound like Elvis, along with the reggae guitar)
weren't really planned. But as is usually the case with the best
part of my songs, I had a brilliant accident. It still cracks me
up.
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*Suckers
- This song wasn't supposed to come out as an electronic song.
Danny something or other told me I should do an RBF cover, all Bomb The
Music Industry! style. He suggested "Suckers" because it's so
poppy. Well, I thought it about for a good few minutes, and took
out my guitar. I just couldn't figure out how to do it. Eh,
whatever, I said to myself. A week or two later, I was in the
shower. Now, this isn't to say I didn't shower at all during
those two weeks. Quite the contrary, actually. I shower
regularly and practice good hygeine. Um... where was I? Oh,
I was in the shower, and it hit me. What was it, you ask?
An idea for making "Suckers" sound like BTMI!, that's what. I got
out of the shower, dried off, got dressed, ran my fingers through my
hair, and got to work on the song. And then little by little by
little by little, I lost my interest in making it a ska/punk
song. I added some effects and I liked it. I added more
effects and I liked it still. Pretty soon, it was totally
bitchin' and electronic-ish. The guitar part (which I kinda
pushed into the background and added effects to) is actually still
playing ska and reggae throughout the song, though. I put this
sucker (pun?) up on the internet, and IMMEDIATELY people started
whining like little crybabies who just got punched. "The vocals
aren't loud enough," this whiny infant choir wailed in unison. So
I remixed it, with the vocals up more in the mix. But just to
spite them, I made it around 15 seconds longer. During those
additional 15 seconds, I decided to read a poem I'd written, oh,
probably in November or December. I'd always wanted just record
me reading a poem over music, and this was a good opportunity. It
made the song a bit more fucked up (because that kinda thing isn't
exactly usual), it made the song more my own, and it just fit. I
uploaded that remixed extended version, and everyone was happy.
Ultimately, I'm very very pleased with the final product.
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*Dr.
Strangelove (Or, How I Leaned To Stop Worrying and Love The Job)
- This is a song about my job. Most of the stuff is specific
cases rather than general stuff. The alky/drink till you're dead
part is about the general manager. The kiss-ass queen is a shift
manager. The fat bitch is Amy (another shift manager), and the
next part is all about her. The chorus mentions a can in the
oven. Basically Barb (the aforementioned kiss-ass queen) made a
mistake, blamed it on me, and then everyone thought I was trying to
blow up the store. I did no such thing, but the song says
maybe. I decided to write this song over a repetitive emo chord
progression. Thinking back, it kinda sounds like one of my
brother's old bands, 9miles2go. I didn't really write a specific
melody for the vocals, so that's why they're different sometimes.
I think this song is pretty fucking good, for being an emo song about
decapitating my bosses.
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*Someone
Call a Cab - This is a true-life story. I drove when I
shouldn't have. Not something I'm proud of, but I can own up to
it. When I wrote the music to this song, I was trying hard to
make it sound like MU330. I don't think I succeeded really, but
it's not that far off. I can say with certainty that this is the
most MU330 song I've written to date. The music was kinda written
before I wrote the words, but only roughly. I wrote all the
lyrics during my economics class. People must've thought I was a
freak, because I was playing air guitar ska, bobbing my head, and
mouthing the words while the professor was talking about debenture
bonds or something. I was trying to sound like Dan Potthast while
singing, but apparently I failed. Dan CIO said it sounds like a
Matt Wixson song because of the vocals. Fuck! I guess I can
do Tim Armstrong better than I can do Dan Potthast. This song is
too high. You can tell my voice is getting strained on the
recording Well, guess what? That was the first take.
Imagine how it would sound if it were the second or third (which isn't
unusual for me to need). It would've sounded more like Tim
Armstrong.
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*Psycho
Killer Song - Here's another song spawned from boredom.
Dan CIO told me I should include that one line from Silence of the Lambs in some
song. The first idea I had was to write an instrumental song,
with those lines yelled at set intervals. I recorded the rough
idea of what I was talking about and sent it to Dan, only to realize
that I had totally ripped off the Toasters' song "Matt Davis".
Defeated but not discouraged, I set out to write a new song. The
song I wrote is this one, and the lyrics are about boredom and mental
issues. I sang "all about you" and I didn't really write that
before hand. I didn't write the song about anybody, so I don't
know why I even said that. And then comes the 4-part
harmony. It starts with the root, adds the 3rd, adds the 5th, and
then shocks the listener with the final addition of the minor
7th. This one moment of my musical career is one of my proudest,
I'll tell you right now. I'm shocked. The la la la's that
carry the awkward chord progression to the end of the song were added
as an afterthought, and I really like those too. This song, while
only 0:59 long, is pretty cool.
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*Prizefighter
- I'm not sure why I titled it like I did. I originally planned
to call this song "Intro" but I also originally planned this song to be
a small intro track. It wouldn't have worked anyways, because I
already have a song called "Intro" and it's a Catch 22 cover.
This song got too long to be considered an introduction, and it had to
have a character of its own. It would not be defined by it's
placement on a tracklist. I was thinking of ideas for lyrics at
work, and "prizefighter" came up in my mind. That's probably
where that title came from. This song doesn't have much of a
story behind it. The guitar part is just me playing along to the
stuff. It wasn't structured at all. The various other
keyboard bits grew from improvisations. This is obviously not a
very interesting story in this box, and that's because this song has no
words or difficulties to discuss with you. It's just sounds and
sounds and sounds. I like this song, though, and I think it'll
fit nicely somewhere amidst ska-punk tracks. Maybe it should
start off a CD. Mmm, I want some soup.
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*Mission
Statement - This is a song I wrote as an introduction to
myself. I figured that, if I was going to play some solo acoustic
shows, a short song would explain myself to the crowd, who probably had
never seen or heard of a solo ska musician before. I recorded
this song the old way, just adding new things to an existing
track. I think it's got a real Chris Murray vibe to it, which is
more than fitting. That's all I've got.
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*Fish
Song - I wrote this during one of the last couple weeks of the
Winter/Spring semester of 2005. I remember this because I had a
class called Politics in Film, Music and Art. We didn't really
get to music until the last two or three weeks, and we were talking
mostly about protest music. I had to research a folk musician
called Phil Ochs, and I really liked his stuff, and downloaded a whole
bunch of it. Then I wrote what I would call my first folk
song. The subject isn't really folk-y, but the music was supposed
to be. This song is all based on a true story. One of my
fish died, and it was named Matt, and my brother said that meant I was
gonna die soon. I'm superstitious enough to believe something
like that, but I wrote a song about it nonetheless. Did I record
this song? I don't even remember.
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*Rock
& Rye - This is a song about a soft drink. Ok, I'm
from Michigan. It's a song about pop. I don't know if the
rest of the country is aware, but Detroit is home to a pop company
called Faygo, and they make a whole lot of different flavors.
More than your Pepsis or Cokes or what have you. One of their
original flavors is Rock & Rye, and it's really fucking good.
It's kinda like a cream soda with a bit of a fruity buzz to it.
This song didn't take much effort to write or record, but some people
think it's pretty good. That's good to hear. Maybe I'll
write more Faygo songs, and then go head to head with Insane Clown
Posse.
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*Monday
Wednesday Saturday - I've been writing simpler songs
lately. I think Bomb The Music Industry! is losing its grip on my
soul. Or maybe I'm not writing fast ska/punk songs because I
don't have an amp with distortion with which to record anymore.
Either way, I'm writing some simpler songs, with easy choruses and easy
verses, but which still are good. Well, I think they're good,
anyways. This song is no exception. The idea for the song
came to me while I was at a Slackers show, actually. I was
thinking about how awesome the Slackers were live, and how I'd tried to
convince someone to come see them with me. But every time the
Slackers came to town, she was working. This is a song about how
I wish they would come on a Monday, Wednesday, or Saturday so that this
girl could come with me and see how danceable and fun live ska and
reggae music can be. Although they may not sound great, I'm
especially proud of the three-part harmonies during the chorus.
That came from listening to a whole bunch of Satori at the time.
If there's one thing I love more than anything else about Satori, it's
the vocal melodies. And I may not be able to sing like Steve
Borth, Matt Embree, and Chris Murray... but damn it, I try.
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*Delivery
in Cambodia - Well, this song is different. At the time of
writing the song (which was two days before writing this blog about it)
I was listening to Against Me! a whole lot. I was driving my
Dad's Cadillac because my car was getting fixed. He's got a
12-disc cd changer in the trunk, and I didn't want to deal with loading
and unloading a bunch of CD's, so I just put Against Me!'s Eternal Cowboy CD in there.
This song, long story short, is supposed to sound like Against
Me!. I don't think it really does, but it sounds more like them
than any of my past songs. I'll give you that one. I tried
not to sing it like "Yellow" by Coldplay, but, well, I failed.
You can totally hear me steal a melody from fucking Coldplay. How
lame am I? I don't even like them. I swear. The
lyrics to this bitch are about Pizza Hut. My boss's boss got mad
at me for saying "shuttlecock," a word he thought to be a swear word,
but which is actually a badminton term. My boss yelled at me for
it, and defended myself by saying "Just because Joe [his boss] is an
idiot doesn't mean it's a swear word." The boss defended his
superior like a 13-year-old boy defends his girlfriend. "You
don't call my boss an idiot. Go home." So I got the rest of
the night off. Win-win, except for everyone else working who had
to suffer because of my absence. But oh well... why should the
manager care about the employees? Oh yeah! The title!
It's a parody of sorts of the Dead Kennedys song "Holiday in
Cambodia." Originally I had titled this song "And You Must Be The
Khmer Rouge" but then I decided nobody would know what meant. The
Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took control of Cambodia and murdered
millions of people. Included were intellectuals and teachers, who
were labeled a threat. So I was basically comparing my boss to a
mass murderer, based on their shared fear of intelligence. I
changed the name because it's just easier.
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So
there you have it. This is more than you get from most musicians,
and I decided I had to do this. I loved reading songwriting notes
from Streetlight Manifesto, Big D and the Kids Table, and the Arrogant
Sons of Bitches. I'm just passing on the good will to you.
It's like that Haley Joel Osment movie.
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