Alexander Sunset

Alexander Sunset

here's a little bit of a theme song for alex.. for some reason, when i think of super hero themes, the first one that pops up is darkwing duck. i think that's a little odd, but maybe not.. there was a short window of time where i really liked watching tale spin, rescue rangers, ducktales, and darkwing duck after school.. although, at the time, i think tale spin was my favorite. always been scared/fascinated with flying, i think.

anyhow, emily is still outta town, so i didn't really give her a chance to call this one finished.. but i think it'll be okay. it's kinda important to the overall super hero concept album thing.. not unlike the few unfinished songs i have left. i wrote some good words for something i'm calling "the ballad of windy & alex".. and i think that'll get it pretty close to finished. yeehaw!

also, on an unrelated note:

craigslist musicians seem to be uncommunicative flakes. i'm kinda still in disbelief.. i've been looking for other musicians, bands, people on tour, maybe somebody needs a multi-instrumentalist who can leave for tour tomorrow - anything.. but nobody even really replies to my emails, and if i get a single email, there's no phone number or anything. i figured it would be easy to play with a few different people, especially here in portland, make some new contacts, whatevs.. i can't even do that. hmph. yeehaw.

Alexander Uses His Powers (why the hellknot?)

hahaha. today is monday, and i'm trying to finish up the a.f.c. stuff, which still includes another 5 or 6 tracks.. but this one is an odd one, a sorta dreamy noise wash.. mostly guitars feeding back in the old practice space, late at night.. it was pretty fun, using the acoustic and the electric to try and build these chords, moving around the room with the amp turned way up, trying to make the pretty noises.. kinda like whales or something. i can't make noises like this in the apartment, of course.. i keep trying to re-create those feedback swells and such, but it's never quite right..

Alexander Uses His Powers (why the hellknot?)

anyhow, i like how this one turned out.

Even Adam

Even Adam

the music for this song started off with a cool cowbell part, and i like that a lot. of course, now it's got a bunch of other stuff going on, and it's hard to hear how neat it is, but still.. cool cowbell part. it's also got attempts to move between three similar but seperate song ideas, and that proved kinda difficult.. the swirly psychedelia of the first third, and the major key guitar rock, and the end.. whatever that is. ha! it was kinda hard to mix 'em all together all the same song.. trying to make the guitars sound big in the 2nd part, etc etc..

in other news, recording for American Friction is still underway, but it's slow going.. after spending some time on a particular take of 'Martians' we decided to scrap it and start over. tough decision sometimes. oh well. on the other hand, another new song that may or may not be called 'Nudist' is sounding pretty awesome. and we got a show coming up, jan 12th, so i imagine it'll be more rehearsal than recording for now.

Plastic Bags

here's the bigger & longer side of our two-part release.. this song has been around since the days of the practice space (sometime in the summer, i suppose..) and that's probably obvious from the live drums. i had this crazy idea for a groove similar to Primus' My Name is Mud song.. sorta the inspiration for the end of the song, although my version comes out all square and full of guitar solo. ha!

Plastic Bags

life ain't that precious

we keep getting closer to the end of this crazy album, sort of.. and here's a few more songs - but i also keep writing more, which is good and bad. today i'm gonna post two songs, but in two separate posts. crazy, huh?
yep. crazy.

anyhow, part of the reason i'm posting two is 'cause they're connected and this one is super short.

life ain't that precious

Bullies!

yeehaw, december 19th. good times.

it may seem quiet around here, and i suppose it is - but not for lack of noise. we've been working on the new album for awhile now, and that recently included a long stretch of something like writer's block and dissatisfaction with the lyrics.. whew, tough times. we had a dozen songs all half finished, and i didn't like any of 'em.

but the good news: we seem to have found some new energy, and a lot of songs started to come together last week, even some new songs... all fitting together into the concept nicely, so it's probably time to start posting 'em.

this new song, Bullies, is kinda tough.. it's got some dimished chords, me trying to sing falsetto, a big thick bass/low-end mixdown to go with my dance-y hi hat stuff, all those crazy lyrics.. ha!

Bullies!

yeah, so i hope to be able to post a bunch more songs in the next few weeks, as we can get 'em squared away. and things are going well in both American Friction and the New Mexican Revolution. The Revolution just played the best show we've had in a few years - down in Eugene, OR at Luckey's on a Saturday night, with a traveling posse of drunk Santas filling up the bar and dancing. hard to compete with that. i also think jonpaul took a few photos from stage, so i look forward to seeing those. the band is really starting to gel, Geoff's back in shape already, it seems..

yep, dec 19th, good times.

Truly Daring

Another for the A.F.C. album - Truly Daring is a song I wrote one night while at the practice space, all alone with a single strand of christmas lights for illumination. i was working with the big dynamic shift from the get-go, trying to figure out how i can come in with big guitars and live drums and screamy vocals, yet still contrast that with acoustic guitars.. and then, somehow along the line, we put together the intro - it started off with some more random piano bits, but really came together with emily's film noir trumpet solo..

Truly Daring

Boney is just this kid from back in grade school
a lizard's light beneath his skin 
but he showed doubt and word got out 
now i don't get to be his friend 


Truly Daring is just the way I was in high school 
a madness i could try and call my own 
it rippled out in the dark - i swear i gave off sparks 
to keep us warm against the cold

lets get wasted

alright, so it's been a little quiet on the front these days, but it's not for lack of activity. emily and i have been working on a new album, a.f.c., for a while now, in addition to some other projects, but we're just now starting to see some results.. for our first offering, we've got "lets get wasted", a short little number that turned into something i'm really kinda proud of..

lets get wasted

i think it's cool, hopefully it sounds alright to other people.. i kinda struggled with the mix to this one, partly 'cause i don't have a strict deadline, and also 'cause i really like the song.

in addition, one of my other projects, American Friction, has been pretty busy lately, recording and playing shows.. and this weekend is gonna be kinda cool - friday at dante's, and saturday at slabtown. either show alone would be awesome, and back-to-back is kinda exciting - a tiny bit like tour.

as if that weren't enough, another awesome old friend is in town this weekend, one of the original guys i moved to portland with, from the first band.. neat-o.