Old Fashioned Weapons

i started this last night, just finishing it now after work.. and i gotta run off to Peabody's practice, zoom zoom. we haven't played in quite awhile, so that should be fun. unfortunately, i gotta carry all the drums everywhere. i'm so lazy these days.

Old Fashioned Weapons

rar!

Normal Clock

today i recovered from the King Hen show last night.. which wasn't easy, with Wes waking me up at 10 in the morning and dragging me off to breakfast.. the bastard!

but i guess it's not all bad.. i was quite the layabout, watching football all day and sleeping in the living room, while emily went to toastmaster's meetings and took 10 key tests. naps are pretty great, and the colts came back and beat tom brady, which i was kinda rooting for. wow.

anyways, admist all that, emily and i put this thing together.. it started off as a kind of hip-hop flavored backing track, using this alesis keyboard that wes brought over. i was fooling around, trying out the built in string sounds and i think emily found some inspiration and the thing came together. nice.

Normal Clock

Clumsy Seduction

the egg has to break itself.
shooting popguns at the stars,
the little pink elephant lies broken on the floor.

we don't have the time
to feed each other lines,
to look for all the signs.
we've got to revel in our lives.

Clumsy Seduction

emily and i had to work pretty fast on this one.. she wrote the music on the keyboard before we left for the store, i think.. and then started recording when we got back. i wrote some lyrics, and we sang a bunch, and then we started clapping and emily started beatboxing (she always does, eventually).

in any case, i think it turned out great. the King Hen tonight, yep. pretty fun.

aaronmacdonald.com

Keep Your Chin Up

they'll never bottle you
if you keep changing the place
you may never get settled
but if you keep moving
you might get away
but i bet you get tired
'cause everyone does
it's written in muscle and memory
and you've done enough

i'm gonna runaway
break through the sky
fragile's not good enough
i need reasons why
point all my guns at the man
i at least have to try

our potential may eat through the best of us
but i don't want to make peace
study the light and photography
keep pretending that's me
but i bet you get tired
'cause everyone does
staring at pictures and biting your fingernails
is not good enough

Keep Your Chin Up

big rock show tomorrow night at the tonic lounge (in portland, oregon).. which i'm very excited about. the king hen is gonna debut a few songs, maybe four or five, plus a few re-worked ones and such. that's a lotta new stuff, but it's all coming along really well. i think it's gonna be great - i just gotta be more careful about breaking strings.. and maybe have a back up guitar. hmm. big time rock show.

aaronmacdonald.com

I Built A Black Box

i built a black box to call home with
i got talk to my mom one last time
we should admit that we're slowly folding
i wanna confess the things i did wrong
(why i never belonged)
i built a little black box to call home with
i built a band to remember my songs
when i quit they can keep going
but if they turn back i'll be singing along

you're not the boss of me
soon as i'm old enough i'm gonna leave

i should go to bed, but i'm very excited about this song.. i started it this morning, and basically worked on it all day except for when i left for tNMR practice... and now i've stayed up for hours finishing it up, working feverishly. yeehaw!

Please Come Home

i think matt wrote these lyrics about colleen coming home from work one day while we were working on music.. he played the two bass tracks and sang a bit, and then i played all the other crazy noises and such.. i think the best part of the song is the odd structure matt set up with the main bass line, all D major with an odd phrase of A minor. it was a neat set up for the guitar with a bow. i'm getting a tiny bit better at that bowing stuff, but it's harder than i figured.

when you get home
we'll place our bets
take up our spoons
and feed our heads
when you get home
we'll go to bed
take up our spoons
and feed our heads

Please Come Home

aaronmacdonald.com

Snow Day

i woke up today and the city was covered in snow. awesome.

emily and i went on a walk to buy groceries and such, and when we got back i put together this little piece.. i had been thinking about it for a day or two, and i knew i was gonna work on it today, but i didn't plan on finishing it. blah blah. i think Eb is the official key of snow. if you tap a glacier, does it ring? Eb, i figure.

i've been reading Genesis of A Music, the book Harry Partch wrote about himself and music and such, over and over.. i think it's driving me to despair. and Finnegan's Wake, driving me to the land of insanity and confusion. ha! and my cold isn't helping much.

Snow Day

aaronmacdonald.com

mondays

you fell into the room like sunshine
spreading shadows with a knife
though i hated you on monday
by tuesday i was begging for a slice
my legs were shaking
(i was nervous)
but you still took me for a ride
once we got where we were going
you knew i was yours for life

i exaggerate/exacerbate/conversate
for days

we're all going up and over
straight into the ground

mondays

i got this stupid cold.. and emily is having a hard time sleeping at night. it's quickly escalating into a form of torture. sometimes when i think of religious fervor, i think of a fever (mental and physical) and i wish i could burn the sickness out of my body and come out the other side healthy and new. a crazy donkey to cross the waters.

kids don't care

this song is due mostly to jason, a good friend of jonpaul who recently moved to portland.. or back to portland, perhaps.

in any case, he brought over some toys the other day, including this little sampling keyboard. it's pretty cool.. i had played with it for a day or two not too long ago, but didn't get too much out of it, outside of it's nice piano sound. but jason knows how to use it - he did the beatbox stuff and played all the keyboard noises and the washy ocean noises.. pretty much the bulk of the track, and it's cool stuff.. he's been doing his own thing for a long time, under the name 'idiosyncratic routine'..

http://www.myspace.com/perfectangels

that's his myspace link, but for some reason my html stuff didn't work.. but you can find him there.

i think he has some of the same problems i do.. once you start getting an idea of what you want to do, it's much more difficult to work with other people. 'cause other people suck. ha! i shouldn't speak for him, though.. that's just how i think. but i'm glad he came over. hopefully he is also.

kids don't care

aaronmacdonald.com

Oceanview

so i wrote this little guitar line one day, trying to come up with riffs for King Hen, but it was decidedly happy and major-key sounding, so it didn't quite work over there.. independently, i was working on this neat little chord progression with lyrics that i liked a lot.. so i changed the keys around and started putting it together, but i had already started working on it.. so part 1 is mostly the instrumental intro to the old version, which we saved, and part 2 is the new version in a new key. i don't really see a problem in just making it all one song, but it worked out so nicely as two bits.. i wanted to save that idea. the only problem i had, and i'm not sure how to fix it, is part 1 should be quieter than it is now, in relation to part 2.

oh well.

when the seas drag you under
you get an oceanview
the green and blue of the tv light
reflecting off of you
let the screen pull you under
there's not much you can do
you can't keep fighting your feelings
and expect to feel something new
one day the lies/walls will crumble
i hope we get there soon
'cause i've invented flowers
that need the truth to bloom

waves and waves of traffic
lapping at the curb
i'm drilling through the patterns
just looking for a cure
let the screen pull you under
as the days become a blur
just keep clicking for an answer
and stop thinking of her

you won't believe
the things we can see
what might have been
the love between our best friends
well i'm gonna join up with the runaways
the runaways


Oceanview Pt. 1
Oceanview Pt. 2

aaronmacdonald.com

The Saddest Song

woke up today, made some coffee, turned on the news.. it's 22 degrees outside! wow. which isn't that impressive if you consider my sister called yesterday and said the high was 5 back in colorado. sheesh.

this is a sad song.

The Saddest Song

we wrote it the other night at EAC practice, but it doesn't seem to have much future in that band.. it's very quiet, and has no trumpets or anything. luckily, i have songaday. and just yesterday, it was a veritable songaday party, with jonpaul, jason, matt and myself all working on a couple of songs for hours, (and playing scrabble) while emily studied accounting. great day.

aaronmacdonald.com

Ants

they've been talking for months
about what they found at the dump
they threw it out with their old junk
its the only way we've found
when the alarm sounds
hide yourself down underground
we're gonna block out the sky
they got the ways and means but not the why
we might miss the sun, but we'll survive
i heard it on the news
go ahead and turn your radio on
go ahead and drop your favorite bomb

Ants

i like this song, 'cause it marks the first time i ever got to use the violin bow on guitar.. which is harder than i thought. the guitar neck doesn't have a curve to it, so it's hard to play just one string, unless it's the two outside strings. which is still kinda hard, 'cause the bow hits the body of the guitar and such.. anyhow, it was a good experiment and i'd been thinking about it for awhile now.
as for the lyrics, matt's been studying for the LSAT lately, and somehow there was a question/answer bit about ants taking over the earth, and how we had to create a nuclear winter to defeat them, logically.

lawyers are crazy, man. watch out for 'em.

One Two Three

wes and i went out last night to the belmont inn, and we talked and talked about music and songs and cd reviews for awhile, drinking beer. the tNMR cd has been reviewed a few times, four or five, i think.. and they've all been sorta positive, but it's neat to see what other people think of your work and such. and the revolution has a show coming up, which hasn't happened in awhile, so that's good news..

One Two Three

as for the song.. matt came over a long time ago, before christmas, and we recorded this.. its about him getting fired from his last job. that main 'session' involved banjo and guitar and singing, but then it just sat there, for a long time.. i played harmonica on it, and organ, and then i sang those gregorian-esque harmonies on the chorus, and called it done. rar!

www.aaronmacdonald.com

Airborn Ranger Marriage

from innocence to ignorance,
intelligence to common sense
the medicines you take for this
the reasons why you made the list
the bombs'll drop, from start to stop
a breathless morning looking lost
it's just a job, it's just six years
your lives/your loves
in structured tiers
through all the world
an idea swirls
a brand new math that only girls
are good at
can you believe that?
they wrote a book called 'landflat'
and in it's page, or so they say
a way to bend both time and space
a vortex made of steel and lace
we can get to mars in just one day

we are tomorrow what we start today
the sooner we destroy this world
the sooner we can get away

Airborn Ranger Marriage


My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-375d6f4e2a072c08a72251fa85a7c925}

as if i didn't freak out enough, i found new sources of anxiety the other day.. itunes and podcasting.

and part of the process is putting this podcast alley feed! in a post.. hmm.

but seriously, jonpaul helped me do all this stuff and i appreciate it. even if it does overwhelm me.
love.
www.aaronmacdonald.com

defeated, at last

this song started off with the long descending chromatic line in five, with all the odd percussion noises and such.. more of that acoustic blip-pop matt's always excited about, but pretty twisted around, kinda odd and exciting.. the chorus is also in five and has a big phrase of ten.. odd stuff, but pretty cool.

i feel sorta sick today.. i think it's mostly the drinking from last night's EAC show (which was pretty great), but i may also be getting a cold. my head hurts.

defeated, at last
i can sleep.
they say its a test
of words and deeds.
swell.
my throat is sore,
and i wanted more.

Wait For A Better Moment

after EAC practice yesterday afternoon, jonpaul came over and we sat around working on songs, watching tv.. which is significant, 'cause terminator 3 came on last night, and it was perfect inspiration for this little song. i had recorded most of the music over the past day and a half, and jonpaul wrote the words and sang and such.. after he left, i rounded it out with keyboard synth parts and all.

when the machines come to take us
i will try to be brave
when the machines start their conflict
i will look at them and say
take a look at what your after
is it worth the fighting for?

in the future there's a failsafe
you can still try again
if you fail the first time
you can still try again

who wants to inherit
a post-apocalyptic earth anyhow?


Wait For A Better Moment

Juliet Vespers

i borrowed jonpaul's moog the other day, and ended up having a pretty good time with it, recording for hours the other night.. and it sorta cemented this song. i also had a dream last night/this morning, about singing emily instead of juliet, but i thought that might be too much. the main acoustic guitar on this song is tuned in an odd open C major sorta thing, which was a little bit of a challenge at first but set up some nice ringy suspension chords. my cat's breath smells like cat food. Evil Alien has a show tomorrow at the tonic, so we're gonna have an afternoon practice in a few hours.. i'm not sure i've recovered from last nights King Hen practice.. i think we got done around midnight last night. whew.

Juliet Vespers

i threw out all her medals
hoping i'd forget her
i called up all her friends
who knew that i'd desert her
see juliet in vespers
you see juliet, it matters
she's on the wane
as promised, i'll forget her

i tore through all her letters
hoping i'd remember
i still can't sleep easy
our bed is like a splinter
see juliet in vespers
you see juliet, it matters
she's on the wane
and i'm the one who let her

Into the Skyliner Age

friday friday! freaky friday! brain swap.

i got a coffee grinder for christmas/birthday in the mail the other day, and i couldn't get it to work this morning.. i was so mad. mad mad mad. punching mad.

but then i got it to work, so i felt much better. yep.

i don't think i would be so into the coffee if i hadn't stayed up all night, working on songs.. i hit a little creative burst a few days ago, and wrote four or five new little bits, which is pretty exciting. some of it is sorta pretty and weird, which is my favorite stuff... lots of potential, i think.

Into the Skyliner Age

emily wrote the chords and structure to this a few days ago while i banged my head against the router.. then i played a few guitars, emily put down that awesome bass line.. whew. then we sorta stalled out, until emily wanted to put the 'sakura' theme up front.. it's from a little music box that jacob mills gave us years ago, and it's a gorgeous little japanese melody. it's a little swirled up front, but turned out pretty cool. blah blah.

I Like Crystal Pepsi

i wrote the music to this a long time ago, probably a few months.. and i always liked it, the odd descending figure outlining this large phrase of Ab Cm Fm Gm. well, i thought it was cool, but it was way too bizarre to actually work with, but little by little i started to hear things in it.. the bulk of it are the aaron & emily robots talking, plus some singing and some noises and such.

i didn't think i was ever gonna do anything with it, but jonpaul heard it a few days ago and didn't hate it, so i started thinking about it some more..

sing songs of your missed chance
"i like crystal pepsi
and the promise of an animal wrong"
the senses aren't dead yet
horse screwed and (off)off(off) set
from anything that could possibly go wrong
"nothing could possibly go wrong"
so we rip free of the haz-mat
and stare at the eclipse
"go out laughing with trim sails!"
cannot be wrong
'cause we grew up right,
we behave
we just show our card and save
the screamers / the wild ones
"who could ask for anything more?"
the waves
we rip free of the life vest
dive into reflex
no(any)thing could possibly go wrong

I Like Crystal Pepsi

Excited To See You

jonpaul and i recorded the chord progression and the verse lyrics to this the other day, but we didn't get very far into it.. until emily stepped in, and recorded everyhing else.. seriously. she wrote and sang and played accordions, guitar, chimalong, keyboards, we did some clapping.. all that stuff, she did it.
i just tried to stay out of the way.

you see my hair standing up
like i'm excited to see you
but i'm not
i just combed it that way

sometimes it seems
somethings there when it's not
you got to
know not to stare for
too long at one spot

Macabre Country

haha! happy new years peoples!

i had a good time.. and after getting home with emily, we stayed up a bit and watched some pbs television.. and it was this crazy flamenco guitar jam out thing, and i got sorta inspired by it, i guess..

i woke up kinda late, and did this little guy - pretty much just to play matt's nylon guitar a bit.. maybe a bit indulgent.

Macabre Country

and now emily and jonpaul and i are hanging out, playing guitars and talking about routers. network, that is.