elephant

this picture is sorta unrelated to anything in the song.. but i was looking through photos on the camera and found this - i guess emily must've taken it a month ago (or so) while jonpaul and i were "fixing" the moog. i'm pretty sure this attempt was mostly 'take it apart and put it back together'... and i don't think it helped much.

as for the song, elephant, i wrote this a few weeks ago, all distorted piano and odd chromatic motion (it's all in Fmaj, with a C C# D augmentation thing going on..).. the whole noisy-pop thing is definately a nod to Idiosyncratic Routine and Best Supporting Actress, two projects of jason nickle (of the Shitty Beatles) that i find pretty inspiring, and difficult to imitate.

i guess the music kinda reminded me of a circus (maybe 'cause i saw some OPB reality circus thing recently).. so i started writing about elephants, and originally i had an idea for a short story about a lonely elephant.

that would've been cool.

but it wasn't really happening, i couldn't get a bunch of lyrics over the music, i couldn't find a melody/rhythm for the stuff i wrote, blah blah.. so i just started over, and wrote something different.

hmmm.. i think that's about it. i also used the borrowed accordion on this one, but listening to it in the background, i can barely hear it.. who mixes this stuff?

aaron

things will change

the other day we met a married couple that plays music together (the mukluks) and we sorta swapped accordions for a bit, in case they wanna use our slightly fancier accordion for their show.. so i had their smaller accordion around the apartment, and tried to use it on some songs. i'm not much of an accordion player, though. blah blah.

this little song is odd - it's kinda short and simple, but it's got backwards bits, slide guitar noises, harmonica, on and on.. kinda crazy and full of instruments. but still short. it's another in the line of "happier" songs experiments, and it has the same mixed results.. the chorus is all Emajor stuff, but the verses start with a good C#minor setup - so that's not too cheerful. and the lyrics are a little more cheerful than "i don't wanna be your friend anymore".. and the ethusiasm is kinda muted. i managed to squeak out a harmony or two, but i can't hear the smile.

ha! it probably just needs an awesome guitar solo outro.

things will change

things will change maybe for the better
it may sound strange but today i got a letter
it was plainly stated: all the worry and regret are over-rated
things'll change whether or not you let 'em
the storm clouds'll crack and the sunshine is back

is it simple enough?
momma always said that the song doesn't need to be much
just sing from the gut
if you're honest the words'll be someting they love

its been fifteen years since i thought about my friends in highschool
like facing your fears, fielding phone calls cluthching a bible