Erasure

this is where emily says some stuff.

there is a wine in my fruitfly. true story.
this song began while aaron was on tour and ended after he got back. the last things to go down (today) were the snare drum, electric guitar and trumpets. the bottom head of the snare was broken and i had to hold it for aaron while he played, as the stand was nowhere to be found. we placed several calls and journeyed by foot and uncovered keys and unlocked doors to get the trumpet. the guitar was textured with a caked spatter of aaron's blood. yeah, we should probably get that cleaned up one of these days. here is a picture of his post-tour fingers, all healed up:












Erasure


even if you wanna swim deep, you gotta come up for air once in a while.
you're floating on a liferaft with your face in the water, never taking a breath.

please put on your happy face. just hold your tongue and hold it in and hoist it back up.
pray for a swim in the river to erase these nasty thoughts with a contrived baptism.

a simple trick

i leave to go on tour with the king hen tomorrow, so i'm leaving emily in charge of the site.. hopefully she'll be able to post some of the songs she's working on, fingers crossed if the creek dont rise.

here's a song from the brand new king hen EP that we're bring on tour.. one of my favorites, in part because i get to yell "we win! we win!".. ha.

bull in a china shop

here's the tour: a month out.. crazy.

Aug 15 2007 9:00P Neurolux Boise, Idaho
Aug 16 2007 8:00P 3 Kings Denver, Colorado
Aug 17 2007 8:00P Oleavers Omaha, Nebraska
Aug 18 2007 10:00P club underground Minneapolis, Minnesota
Aug 19 2007 10:00P the Klinic - ALL AGES SHOW Madison, Wisconsin
Aug 20 2007 10:00P Elbo Room - 9 pm Chicago, Illinois
Aug 22 2007 9:00P Kraftbrau Brewery Kalamazoo, Michigan
Aug 24 2007 9:00P Beachland Tavern -w/ JJ Magazine Cleveland, Ohio
Aug 25 2007 10:00P Gooski's w/Persona Grata Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Aug 26 2007 9:00P Kimballs Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Aug 27 2007 9:00P SPARK Syracuse, New York
Aug 28 2007 9:00P Bullfinch Yacht Club Boston, Massachusetts
Aug 30 2007 9:00P Trash bar Brooklyn, New York
Aug 31 2007 9:00P Lit Lounge nyc, New York
Sep 2 2007 9:00P Galaxy Hut Washington DC, Washington DC
Sep 3 2007 9:00P Pilot Light - PENDING Knoxville, Tennessee
Sep 4 2007 8:00P Murphys - w/Organ Thief, Rainy Day Manual Memphis, Tennessee
Sep 5 2007 8:00P Springwater lounge Nashville, Tennessee
Sep 6 2007 8:00P Checkpoint Charlies New Orleans, Louisiana
Sep 7 2007 8:00P day off somewhere in, Texas
Sep 8 2007 8:00P tba Austin, Texas
Sep 11 2007 9:00P Casablanca nightclub & lounge Phoenix, Arizona
Sep 12 2007 9:00P Double Down Saloon Las Vegas, Nevada
Sep 13 2007 9:00P TBA Los Angeles, California
Sep 14 2007 9:00P Scolaris w/Lebanon (Israel) San Diego, California
Sep 15 2007 9:00P Edinburgh Castle w/Paranoids & Ovipositor San Francisco
Sep 16 2007 9:00P Hemlock Tavern w / Lebanon (Israel) San Francisco, California

dont be shy.

Ash St Saloon

you know what i like? when the 'creative act' seems to just spill out, or snowball, or something.. i was sitting around practicing the guitar the other day and i wrote the music to this, and within moments had most of the lyrics to this little song, and with each line that i wrote down i got a little bit giddier and more amused. or something. it spilled out, and snowballed. i laughed and laughed.

it's not particularly deep or beautiful or poetic.. in fact, it's mostly inside jokes and lies. oh well. if matthieu was still in portland, he'd find it funny.

Ash St Saloon

so heather called it:
degrees don't count
and handed me the baggie of blow
but i'm a rock star i barely looked down
i took the stage and stormed the show
but all of this is make believe
i see reality subjectively
i even like to listen to myself sing

oh heather nailed it:
degrees don't count, is entertainment in your soul?
'cause as an artist, you're gonna end up homeless.
(as if i didn't know)
but all of this is make believe
and my illusions work out beautifully
we'll get that friday show eventually

so heather called it:
degrees don't count
it boils down to who you know
we traded emails, and i started to doubt
that we would ever play a show
but all of this is make believe
on the the road and playing constantly
and there's no place i'd rather be

Night Time Coffee

the other day Said the Gramophone wrote a little thing about Rich Enough to Ignore It, which is awesome. i really like those guys, and its a pretty cool compliment.. it's a blog of really good songs, you know. ha!
i just sorta lifted this outta there.. hope that's okay.
thanks, Sean!

The Leaning Towers - "Rich Enough to Ignore It". In music, in art, the why-didn't-wes are rarely meted out like this. Usually it's dragging feet, dusty drums, a weary man hounded by flashbacks. Here: tambourine, tuba, synths, fanfare, and of course that golden guitar-line. The guitar never leaves the moment of open possibility; it curls back over and over it, like a life can always be remade. The song seems... happy. Resigned to its regrets, comfortable in its shoes. Nostalgic in a pool of warm tender sun. "Probably should be singing redemption songs / instead of filling out exemption forms."


and i wrote this thursday, 'cause i had the day off of work. emily says it sounds like Wilco, and the more i worked on it, the more it did.. ha!

Night Time Coffee

i really like the funny synth noise that pops up every now and then with the cool rhythm..

The Eleventh Hole

this is what emily and i have been doing, amongst other things.. The Eleventh Hole. In which Amy and Mary are separated by an untimely demise, but through Amy's death a bit of hope is brought back to the living, as Mary and the Professor work hard to set things right.

or something like that.

1 - Le Professor (Du Babylon)
2 - This
3 - A Cure For Meat
4 - Rich Enough to Ignore It
5 - A Cheery Scandal
6 - Date to a Funeral
7 - You Can't Even Be Here

i'm not sure how podcasting reacts to multiple .mp3s in one post, so i'm only including one here, but you can find 'em all on the Eleventh Hole page.

and in the process of finishing up this album, i went back to what i consider the first album, Animal Teeth, that Emily and i put together after the first round of SongADay - i discovered i hadn't actually posted a few of songs.. some good ones, too, like Wet Glass and Your Ideas. neat stuff..

hooray!

Detention & Febrezio

last weekend Erik Becker (of King Hen) needed a band in the studio to finish out a recording class, and Evil Alien Costume was lucky enough to do it.. it was an all day saturday sorta thing, starting around 8 am. wow. but it turned out pretty well, and it was all on 1 inch tape, 8 tracks, very minimal overdubs.. just the vocals, i think. erik, jon, jesse, trailerpark studios, we thank you.


Detention 2:39
Febrezio 6:29 (wow!)

all this, and Evil Alien Costume is playing a show tonight, Tonic Lounge 4/26/7 - which is probably the last show we'll do.

Matt has to go to law school, you know. he's gotta grow up and starting flying right. i hope he stays golden, pony boy.

Pastel Phallus

Pastel Phallus - 2003
1 Prologue
2 Whale Quest
3 Kathy Sandstorm
4 Kid Prince Yucatan
5 Bomb Shelter
6 La Bette
7 A-E-I Oh You
8 Red Wine
9 Leaves Steele
10 Ballerina Accidens
11 Egoid
12 Wasabi
13 That Force Has Got Fine Controls

i don't have any artwork for this Sons of Ja'rel album.. i barely even had the music, G. Tony was nice enough to email all the tracks to me.. ha! and it's a pretty good album, i think.. lots of neat psychedelic pop songs, including Kathy Sandstorm, which goes all the way back to Planck's Constant in Ft. Collins, i guess. wow.

Wasabi came directly out of an evening at the Mulgrew School of Advancement, a home-made sushi party spearheaded by Colae Johnson.. ahh memories. better than reality, often. in any case, you don't fuck around with wasabi.

in addition, i got this song from X=Object, called Talkin 'Bout Chairs which is the closest i can get to the song about chairs that James wants.. i think, in a super-rare bit of editing, we chopped the chair song down into this 30 second noise bit.. perhaps you can imagine how the three minute version went from this. it was probably noisy. i can't remember why we decided to do this.. it's almost an anti-Sons of Ja'rel idea, so it was probably for the best.

ironic that James would want one song from all of the sons of ja'rel catalog, and it doesn't exist. hmph.

Mazer Razor

recently i've been on a feverish run of sons of ja'rel enthusiasm, trying to track down and listen to all the albums and such.. it's quite an undertaking, but i think they've all been located. it looks like thirteen (!) albums in all, from 'Penpricker' in 2001 to 'The Mythmagic Special' in 2006.. pretty crazy.

Mazer Razor is possibly my favorite sons of ja'rel song of all time.. but that's kinda hard to say. g. tony has an iconic bass line on this song, which isn't represented on this original version, sadly, but i can hear it clearly...

it's on the album X=Object, that started out as a concept album about a comet that flies too close to Earth and animates the mundane objects.. like chairs, for example. it was recorded on 4 track, for some reason, at the 65th and Foster house.. i'm sure G. Tony was involved somehow.. he's definately a part of Backdoor to Heaven. . ha!




X=Object - 2003

1 The Comet
2 Drop Dead
3 Lonely Object
4 Locusts, Ha!
5 Talkin 'Bout Chairs
6 The Sultan
7 Celebrate (the earth doesn't)
8 Stranger Object
9 Pain and Being
10 Robots
11 Mazer Razor
12 The Procession of the Greater Trocanter
13 Summer Day
14 In Your Mind
15 Backdoor into Heaven
16 Outro

I'll Change

portland is really gorgeous right now.. the sun is out, the flowers and trees are in bloom, the grass is green and the dogs are happy.. good times.

i've been working hard on all sorts of scattered stuff.. a lot of music in a lot of different areas, mostly writing and working on King Hen songs in preparation for a big end of summer tour, about a month long (!).. that'll be the longest i've ever gone out on the road. and it looks pretty promising, 'cause we're gonna try and spend the majority of the trip on the east coast, where i haven't spent much time. very cool..

in addition, i've been working on a bunch of little ideas for short films or a collection of short films or something.. a lot of learning about cameras and editing and digital media and blah blah.. not to mention scripts and actors and costumes and such..

all the while, i've been fooling around with songs of course.. this one is for Wes, who is out in Denver these days, i think. i got this little delay box thing working again, which can sorta oscillate the pitch of a repeating echo in a sine wave shape (i think).. which is really awesome, but sorta difficult to work with.. but i got pretty excited. in this song, there is a keyboard that comes in about halfway through that has an example. neat-o.

I'll Change

but it's much too beautiful to sit around writing nonsense on the internet.

The New Mexican Revolution

Wes came over last week for a few days and wanted to record a new little EP demo.. a few new songs and a few old ones, all of them great. and moreover, he wanted to be little more experimental with 'em, which i always appreciate. he probably had ten songs, but we ended up working on three or four to the exclusion of some others, emily and wes and myself. they ended up neat, i think.

Crooked Trees - this is typical of how awesome wes' songs are. and it's got a neat keyboard outro, something we wouldn't have done before.

Disaster Won't Come - this was for a short film, Jack Hankey's Disaster by Jack Gibson (aka tenlon's fort), but this is a different version than that one.

Lines & Waves - has been a tNMR song for a long time now, but never got recorded that well. i think it's real pretty, and emily wrote that last little ending bit, really awesome.

Los Santeros - has also been around a bit, and features Emily pretty heavily.. Wes entered this into a salon.com contest, and we never heard a thing from them. hmph.

so Emily and I got an awesome little write-up at the www.localcut.com.. it's pretty neat. i'm not too sure how long it'll stay there or anything. i'm not sure if this link will work, but we'll give it a try.

aaron and emily's article

i also don't know if it's okay to just grab this and use it, but i suppose i'll hear about it if it's not.


by Anika Sabin
Aaron Macdonald is one busy bee, or more appropriately, hen. Or alien. Navigating through numerous Portland band websites that list Macdonald’s involvement (Evil Alien Costume, the King Hen, the Leaning Towers, the Peabodys), he seems to be traversing a plethora of genres, as does his partner-in-crime, Emily (also of Evil Alien Costume and the Leaning Towers).

“Old Fashioned Weapons” surprised me. The transitions are quick and unpredictable with dance-y fits, soft piano breakdowns and pop-induced hooks. “It’s just a bunch of tiny things” Aaron sings in the song’s refrain. And, well, it’s true. The beats, rhymes and riffs are terribly cute and simple, yet when layered atop each other, a beautiful density emerges.

The Leaning Towers’ website (theleaningtowers.com) is a map of their well-documented experiments, and creations that Macdonald posted religiously (almost daily up until about a month ago). There you’ll see that “Old fashioned Weapons” is only three weeks old. The library is a bit overwhelming, with songs ranging from eclectic folk that echoes a living room’s softness to cold industrial landscapes of electronica. Even still, there are distorted-gypsy and power pop ballads, most of which actually works. I’m confused, but impressed.

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.

Morgan, Of Course

haha !

morgan came up to portland for new year's eve and we recorded four or five songs over the course of the afternoon.. most of them were songs morgan had written, a few were real loose jams with the banjo and acoustic guitars and such. this is one of those. the whole 'song' was about seven minutes long, so i decided to trim it down a little.. which is a shame, 'cause the whole first three minutes are morgan(guitar) and i(banjo) noodling around, and morgan has all sorts of cool little guitar licks.. but i cut that part out, in favor of the half of the song with singing.. but trust me, the first half was like a solid gold spaghetti factory..

Morgan, Of Course

kierkegaard.

Bisons is Bisons

morgan and matt and i are playing songs, 'cause they came over. and that's pretty much what i do. this is what i did after emily went to work (around 1pm) and i think it turned out pretty well.. whew. i wanted to wrap it up quick and all, but i don't think it suffered too much for it's celerity. ha!


bisons is bisons
a penguins a bird
and when it comes to 'us' babe
'us' is a four letter word
yeah i got your letters, i tried not to read
'cause being 'round you
keeps me high for a week
but i'm gettting older
sometimes all i want to do is sleep

this ain't no intervention
whatever that means
there's already too much sunlight
on the dark sides of the earth

bisons is bisons
or haven't you heard
when it comes to cocaine
that penguins no bird

cocaine is a hell of a drug
bison is a bison
until you turn him into a rug
i'm on the floor
couldn't ask for much more
unless you cutting up another round

Perfect Math System

mercury all day today, king hen practice tonite, not a lot of time for songs.. i did most of this yesterday and last night, going back and forth between a few different instruments.. emily takes a little solo in the middle on the guitar. whew.. tiring stuff, all these crazy songs. i wish i had a drumset and a piano. that'd be nice.

Perfect Math System

i'm looking like i'm in charge
thinking i can see an icy ghost
staring at the star charts
writing out the math in a brand new way
laughing at distance
mapping out a way for us to be
seeing my mistakes on the tv
nothing good is easy
we can build to excess
a palace now: to float between the moons
decadent and epic

Dodging Low Moans

last night after evil alien practice i came home and pretty much finished this one up.. i had the chorus chord progression for awhile, i like the major/minor idea it has.. neat-o. and i had a lot of fun taking the outro chorus solo on guitar.. even after i had the solo recorded, i kept fooling around just for fun. good stuff.


when i get inside i win for life
i dont search carpets for your lies
no soft scratching,
i'm going barefoot
with an optimistic eye upon the ashtray

this is not like life
one long day is not like life
took a break from cars and crumbled
from sandlots to schoolyards
they're screaming the chorus

and after -
i admit a charged fascination
digging boxes & dragging lakes beds
dodging low moans and arrows from the void,
driving south.

Second to First

Second to First

i gotta go to evil alien costume practice right now, but this is a song matt wrote a few days ago.. he came over this morning and we recorded the acoustic guitar and some vocals, then emily got home from work and we sang and played keyboards and guitars and accordions and such. i also made some click clack percussion noises. whoa.

Wolf Buddy

Wolf Buddy

this song is mostly me playing this little descending lick on acoustic guitar, something i wrote while watching tv with emily.. it's Em , D , C , C with a Gflat..

i think it's kinda neat, so i recorded that one day all by itself.. that was the verse.. the solo bits are all ripped off of a king hen song that i'm really into, and i kinda just wanted to solo over those rising changes in this big 9 measure phrase. fun stuff.

i'm real into the idea of crazy old men living in the woods in frontier america becoming part of a wolf pack and running through the woods like a lycanthrope of old europe. bizarre old west witches living in caves, dealing in gold dust. yeah - that's good stuff.

today i worked for the mercury.. cold and wet all morning, but the sun came out this afternoon while i worked downtown. that was nice. i need a coffee grinder.

xmas

we're going over to the kronser's for japanese christmas! moshi moshi! kudasai!

xmas

merry christmas.

special hello's for james in montreal/pennsylvania.. jacob and lance in houston.. andy down in la, morgan in sf.

Super Construction Paper

more weird songs.. more guitar solo wankery. good times, waiting for emily to get home from work. sunday, coffee and puttering around a handful of instruments and a drum machine. and a wah pedal.

this song is about super heroes, and convincing people to become super heroes, and all that. you know.

Super Construction Paper

and it's christmas eve! my family has been known to celebrate christmas eve before..

Cokebottle Moses

just saying, but moses was a cokebottle
i'm rocking white shoes
the ocean is cloying
we can all be replaced

god's washing dirt?
well i slaved for ages:
"i made a thing, it don't float!"

Cokebottle Moses


this song has me playing that odd out of tune chord organ morgan gave me.. it's tough, 'cause it has super slow action, and is really flat, so it's uses are kinda limited. but i liked the lyrics and setup and robots and all that.. maybe i should've used the talkbox on it. ha.

i really like this one movie, cool hand luke. that's good stuff.

Never Look Back

so you say your the youngest
and you made a mistake
now you're building a rocket
and taking to space
gimme that smile
say your goodbyes to earth at last
never look back

i can't explain over coffee,
but mom is not the same
she keeps mumbling death threats
and sneaking away
she gave me her word
(she had her hands behind her back)
she gave me a laugh


i had to just write this one really fast last night, as i don't think i'll have any time today to do any song work.. i gotta go to the mercury all day, (where they might celebrate my birthday!) and then i get to go celebrate wes' masters degree (congratulations wes! it's about time!). it's a big day, with precious little time for songaday. wow.

Now That I Got Her

wes shirley came over yesterday and threw a few lines at me, which i tried to turn around and write into this pop song i'd just started putting together.. thanks wes! hopefully he'll come over again sometime.

sold my last drop of blood
didn't make a cent
somebody somewhere knows what that meant

now that i got her
i want her to leave
i love her, but need to be lonely

i feel like i've been on a roll lately, doing all sorts of good song writing/recording work..

At Christmas

whew.. even after the marathon session of yesterday, we had enough left over to come up with this little ditty.. it's almost entirely matt's work, with emily on the plastinet and i'm playing my brand new ukelele (yeehaw!).. i think it worked out really well - it's all live 'round one mic, very simple and warm and such. it's also got a nice depressing air about it, which makes it one of the better christmas songs already.

At Christmas

it's for colleen, who left matt here in portland while she went back to see her family. poor, poor matt.

Aaron's Birthday

today is my birthday, and matt and emily and i are all hanging out, celebrating and making music.. i gotta get back to it, but i wanted to post this.. for the record - i wrote it today. i woke up this morning, 'round 9:30-10 and got some half and half, made some coffee, and started working on this.. the entire thing happened over the course of 11 hours or something.. which has got to be some kinda record, at least for me. i'm giddy and pround, kinda. also drunk on wine, ha!

Aaron's Birthday

sometimes potatoes have eyes,
like tornadoes and needles
dr. jones likes it clockwise
some folks like to get high
marching along
to the sun on the sea
take a seat at the helm
steer the ship to the end of the world
thanks for getting born
so we can all laugh at what you do.
eyes, eyes.
eyes, eyes.


gotta run.

It's Only A Party

ooh, i really like this one.. i wrote most of it over the weekend, i guess, but today while i was at work emily swept in and put all sorts of cool things on top. she played a keyboard track, sang a few times, plus sang via talkbox and keyboard, and played the 'plastinet' - a sort of melodica thing with buttons, shaped like a clarinet. matt gave it to emily for christmas and she likes it a lot. funnily, it has a little bit of a bum note near the end of the register, which reminds me of the cool chord-organ that morgan gave us, which is about a quarter step flat. ha!


i live a fever, and you said
"It's only a party...
sit in the corner,
or on the sofa."

try and imagine

now i'm ready
to live my life on duty
crush the neck of another cigarette
now i'm ready

like/crush/love disaster
i wonder at the laughter

now i'm off to king hen practice!

The Spaces In Between

don't confuse your friends with who you know
we've been on the road a long time now, we must be close
they can have the stars, we'll take The Spaces In Between
they can have the stars, we'll take the darkness in between


umm... i didn't see Apocalypto yesterday, but i heard it was good and violent. i also didn't see akron/family last night, so you can see how much i give up. oh, i suffer terribly.

nah, i'm kidding. life is beautiful, joshua.

One Smart Decision

whew.. last night was matt and colleen's christmas party, and i got pretty lit up, i tell ya.. it was a pretty great time, what with the white elephant gifts (i got a talking cow!) that being said - today was a slow and painful day for the most part.
however, the upside of all this:

One Smart Decision

i managed to work pretty hard on this new song, and i think it turned out pretty well. blah blah. a little bit of acoustic guitar blip pop, sorta postal service-ish.

The Apple

friday friday friday.. big day today, you know.. matt and colleen's christmas party and such, should be great. i bought a gift, which is pretty good, but emily's got an even better gift, so it should be great.

The Apple
now i'm looking for the king
and when i find him i'm gonna set him on fire
and then i'll start to sing
my chest'll open, bones'll bend to reveal the choir
i've been hiding

Least Favorite Winter

i don't even know her, but i wish that i was over there,
i gotta make her believe
i thought the earth was starting to crowd, didn't think i deserved,
the worst is the loss of her laughter when she looks up and sees all eyes on her.
so i went back to her, and those six months are a blur
worth having and losing
but she had that faraway look as we drove back from the ocean. she is gonna say goobye.
i'm not so stoic, when i get high i start thinking of her
and who did just what to blow it, and why we said goobye, my Least Favorite Winter


no robot voices in this song, sadly. i have a headache, sadly.

Loose Waves Lazy Ocean

last night at King Hen practice Paul let me play his standard gibson les paul.. it was pretty sweet. i can't really consider myself a gearhead or guitar freak or anything like that, but a really nice instrument goes a long way. every now and then i get to play a really nice drumkit and it can be so satisfying.. that being said, i felt like i had to baby it a bit. the stealth guitar i play everyday doesn't get much coddling.

Loose Waves Lazy Ocean


tethered to the box that gets me home
one thousand swallows
namweN .J dlanoD
ranimeS melborP A
look at you:
clothes held up by the wing of an unhappy bird
i'm pushing buttons now, right?


ha! i'm pushing buttons now, right? ha! get it??

i need some more coffee.

We've Seen Enough

jenny soaked the pages
but she could own the alley
she's just held back by her scene

she likes this kid named david
and then it's me she stays with
she could get away with anything

ten thousand years ago
when dates went poorly
luckily we've seen enough

she climbs in and out of windows
she was free to go
but she couldn't get away


oh man.. i saw GUNS N ROSES last night! ha! it was pretty fucking great, all things considered. i got gifted an invitation/ticket as i was leaving work yesterday, and it was for a spot in this skybox (wow!) and everything.. i got there about halfway through Helmet (who i liked as a kid, but they didn't sound so great in an arena) and then saw Sebastian Bach, and then GNR. pretty cool.. it took some time outta my songwriting and recording, but it was worth it. and how.

thanks a lot to Scott, who arranged the whole thing.. and by proxy, the portland mercury.

Leglifts

this song was a headache, pretty much from the beginning.. i'm working without a piano and a drumset, these days, in our little apartment.. so i'm limited by a lot things that i've taken for granted. blah blah.. in any case, this song has at least three new experiments all thrown into it, and i really started to like it again near the end of it's birth.. it's an odd bird. super ripped up guitar sounds, twitchy little percussion bits, swirling keyboard bits, and robots. oh man.

Leglifts

to the slaughter of the gods:

should i stop? (this left unconquered)
stabs and gasps
hooray i'm gonna be famous
instantly and obvious

lets take our hats off to the lost
come back with the latest fashions
we can't scratch back into why,
but we get frail before our time
our bones grown random

we feel our hearts burn through gauze,
with thin lines that bind the things we believe and what they cost
we cant come close enough to say
climb up into nothing and bring back those old fashioned ways

so lets take our hats off to the loss
should i stop, this life unconquered?
stabs and gasps, hooray i'm gonna be famous

to work!

The New Boss-Man

man.. i saw gwen stefani on SNL last night.. it was awful. i was a little surprised, actually.. not that i'm such a big fan of hers, but i was under the impression that No Doubt worked real hard for a long time before they started to succeed, and that wasn't really apparent from her show last night. and she looked funny.

The New Boss-Man
i didn't really need to tell the truth, if it left you black and blue, i wanna live the life of someone else, the whole time leaving clues back to me, i'm sorry. i'm not living on the edge, i'm taking up too much room.

this song has a lyric that references 'before the fall' - a song morgan wrote a few years ago in the Volumes that is just gorgeous... so thanks, morgan.

A New Romance

yesterday was a pretty good day, even if i didn't get much songwriting done. after working all day at the mercury, emily and i went to the friday afternoon Mercury birthday/drinking party, and hung out and talked for awhile, then i went home and got to "work" while emily went to a business meeting for school, and then we went to Erik's ski lodge party.. for two years straight Erik Becker has had an ice sculpture, which still kinda blows my mind. that's classy. then emily went to work at 7 in the morning. wow. i'm a jerk, drinking coffee and thinking about music.

anyhow.

A New Romance
just open your bones,
let the sun explode,
the weight you unload,
all the monsters you know
the man with ten thousand hands is watching

the marks and whats told,
just tantrums to throw
as we wrestle with souls,
with pills to soften the blow
you gotta believe him, the system found a new friend: the entwinings, the bees who eat crow
we all sleep alone, afraid and hiding from our secrets
a wasted day, hope is broken,
it'll all be new tomorrow.

i got a love

i got a love for a pony with wings.
i got a love for a pony that sings.
she's cries the saddest songs while traveling.
her wings cut through the air, her voice is gonna tear your heart away.

we love to fly about and see the country,
we're always looking sharp and making friends.
we often say goodbye, but we often mean to try and come back again.

last night was a Peabody's show at Satyricon.. it was alright, i suppose.. the other bands were attentive. ha! 48 Thrills really kicked ass last night, despite going on last to a handful of people. great songs, great energy.. and Scratch always does fine, and we spent a good bit of time at Ground Kontrol, where they actually serve beer. it was a pretty good night. i should have gone to the Color Lab and said hi to Pat and celebrated the studio opening, but i couldn't rally. i'm sure it was a good time, and the Color Lab looked great, and Pat's a good guy.

ski lodge party at Erik's tonight. yeehaw!

The Warmest Tundra

super collider, really scratching their heads.

lets see here.. this song has me and matt singing sad and hopeful. and it's got references to Ender's Game, which matt and emily and i have all read. ha!

The Warmest Tundra

congratulations to g. tony jacobs, he gave a master thesis speech yesterday on fractional chromatic numbers and graphs and such. linear programming, i guess. and then we celebrated, so that was cool.. celebrated straight into Evil Alien Costume, where tony was cool enough to play the bass and jason played the maxi-korg blah blah blah. i think i beat matt at star wars, also. it was pretty fun.

congratulations, tony!

a very sharp lemon

here's a song:

a very sharp lemon

worried by the burn, thinking of the sea
fog light heat
god needs my machine

it's a very sharp taste
and me, i don't want to play
it's a very sharp place

stalked off in the firs
curtain on the scene.

there's a guy missing out in the mountains/forest, but his family has been rescued.. i guess he left the car looking for help after 7 days stranded in the car. wow. having never been lost in the snow, i can't claim to know much about hypothermia. i have a friend, Matt, who says you go crazy and stupid at the same time and get real hot 'cause your blood goes up to your skin, so you gotta get naked, sometimes. matt's also very concerned that i express well-wishes and sympathies, of course. it is sad.

The MythMagic Special

The Sons of Ja'rel are pleased and proud to present their twelfth album, THE MYTHMAGIC SPECIAL.

Recorded by and large while Jacob was in Portland, and mostly over the span of a day and a party, it's an epic work.

7 songs.

21 minutes.

1 - Seedless Watermelon
2 - Cat Masquerade
3 - Sabrina Sings
4 - Bird Flu
5 - Business Math
6 - Give Yourself A High Five!
7 - Sabrina Speaks


most of the 'music' is me.. most of the vocals and lyrics are jacob, with emily doing some singing and writing also. sabrina did all her own bits, while i wasn't looking.. so did matt. kaylor and shook figure into it also, i imagine.

ha!

evil alien costume

here's some EAC stuff we've been working on.

6th Planet Malaria

Last Train

We Got Twins

i mostly just play drums on it, and sing a bit.. and harmonica. JonPaul does the bass and moog stuff, and sings. Matt sings and plays guitar, Emily plays keybords and accordion, and trumpets and chimalong. Zach plays trumpet and does a lot of push-ups.

it'd be nice to record more songs, but i'm not sure how much time we'll have.. we gotta pack up the studio here on morrison st and move outta the house, find a new place to live and such. it's possible the studio will change dramatically in the next month or two. i'll have to see what kinda songs i can write then. i might have to lose the piano, which would be sad.

evil alien costume on MySpace

These Simple Machines

well my assemly work is through
and somehow word got back to you
i'm inclined to agree to see the sky as "blue"
if you're saying you're sorry
then maybe he can call me on the phone
i'll sing my favorite song:
oh oh oh oh oh

i'm a rock tasked to plumb the sea
the ocean floor is conscience clean
and these simple machines perform like you won't believe
that broke-spine book on the floor
are the instructions you're looking for

Drama's a Rot

!.!.!
!'!'!

Drama's a Rot

do do de doo doop

with your win i'm torn under and left alone, is that right? i don't think so. we can all be replaced. it's all a dream, like we put on faces and lace up. i've ended it through and through, the lies i told were true, i'm gonna sing:

" " " "
this drama's a rot, but it's here whether i like it or not

rising local tension

Matt's Birthday

monday was matt's birthday - true story. we had a barbeque, it was lovely. i ate a hot dog, drank some beer, played a bit of lawn bowling. it was lovely.

in addition, the friday prior was a final Volumes show, at tiger bar. it was lovely.

yesterday i had the day off, so i started playing piano and came up with this funny little chord progression and ascending bass line bit.. by the time emily got home from work i had just about finished the song. it was a bit of a headache figuring out the lyrics, but i think it worked.

Matt's Birthday

the mirror ghosts can start the show and celebration on my knees
i won't fight back, i didn't really bring the meat you know
if that's the case then santa fe'll be right back
i was superb, i was sleeping and safe
your eyelids are a likeness
as you can see, the song's about me

"lets go to las vegas" - find a way to trade places
"ching ching a ling" - you oughta know, you gotta sing out on your birthday

you used to be our favorite daughter, now your bag shakes out make believe
i can never lose 'cause the wind is on my team
just 23, what have you seen? a lotta tv, entertainment ain't free
born aloft on the steam, a bird lost at sea

so lets go toe to toe

her eyes have the steam of an ancient machine rusting
she puts on one hell of a show
i gotta confess that that zipper dress haunts me
you put on one hell of a show, she's got me singing

hugged up to the mother, glad she wasn't fit to set you free
i can always win 'cause the universe will bend to my belief
just 23, what have you seen? a lotta tv, entertainment ain't free
steer into trees, maybe death sets us free

I Couldn't Really Give A Fuck

ha!

so, i wrote a few songs the other day, (one glorious sunday, actually).. and of the three, this one really stands out as hilarious fun-time stuffs.

I Couldn't Really Give A Fuck 3:34

i think it makes a lot of sense.

it's got some backwards guitar, which is pretty cool.. i spent some time working on it, trying to play with the song in reverse and such. it's some head-trippy stuff, bra. i also love all the harmonica on it.

i've been listening to the theme song from mr. belvedere a lot lately. and WKRP.

Tumblin' Down

i've been pretty busy, working on music.. lots of piano and guitar and drums.

in addition, the new mexican revoltion finally got the new cd out, Theories of Sun & Rain.

it was recorded last year (wow!), and entirely finished before i even started the song a day project, so it's nice to finally get it out. hopefully it will make me lots of money and i can go back to making music.

here's the second song off the album, a sad country number. wes and i play guitars, tony on bass, jana on clarinet.. i play organ, and emily plays violin, but those are both kinda subtle.

Tumblin' Down

so, go checkout thenewmexicanrevolution.com and such, we have a bunch of songs up over there, and pictures and such. i have a ukelele.

sons of ja'rel

i had to kill the song a day project. it was quite a monster.

i wrote 118 songs.

which is about 70 or 80 more than i thought i could do.

hooray!

anyhow, jacob and i used to record a good deal of stuff together, as the Sons of Ja'rel. i suppose we still do, but we've been on a long break lately.

to console me in the wake of the project's death, i started listening to old songs.

It's As Important As Relativity

Lottery Stubs

solo artists hold a special place in my heart. it's not just that they're selfish, or self-centered or what have you.. it's more that they've confronted a lot of the problems with artistic collaboration, namely, that you sacrifice the strength of your 'vision' with compromise. some bands are a little more than the sum of their parts.. or maybe two people really feed into each other and become better through the relationship (mccartney, or springsteen, etc..). but i think those things are the exception. a talented individual is often buried by the friends they keep.

or something.

i think bands have to be careful, the lowest common denominator is much more likely than lofty new heights.

or something.

i just rant, i guess..

emily and i just got back from helping our friends kristin and zack work on their documentary contest/project.. it's about the rollerderby league here in portland. pretty amazing stuff, and i've only seen two teams practice. i think it's a good topic for the project, also.. i hope it works out well. and they want our help tomorrow, and saturday night, so my song writing time is already sorta squeezed out. so emily and i wrote this just now. i love the lyrics.

almost pretty is enough for me
remember deep inside
feeling potential die
failure is all you've got, but it's proof that you tried
open hands are empty hands
so clutch the dark for glass and sand
you're a catchy tune that came whistling through
we keep getting older
i keep thinking of you
i can't stop thinking of you
we said goodbye with our eyes on the sunrise
we said goodbye
lottery stubs and tattoo wings
were all we had to fly
but man did we get high.


poignant stuff. ha!

She's A Witch

well, this was possibly my last day off for awhile, so i've been trying to get a lot of work done.. the more i get started, the easier it'll be to come home from working all day and put effort into songs. hopefully. we shall see.

so, today i woke up and wrote this. it's a cute little number that i thought up laying in bed this morning, the whole odd-time guitar riff thing, with the handclaps to round out the phrase. i had written the lyrics last night, staying up late thinking thoughts.. it's a short one, too, no need to muck it up with a bunch of parts. besides, yesterday's song was a real long one.

She's A Witch, burn her!

ha!

emily'll be home any minute now, perhaps we can work on another song today. i have this little piano thing that's been floating around for almost a week now, i'm kinda stuck.

Gilded Cage

having some time off is a good opportunity to write more epic songs, with more elaborate orchestration and such.. i still don't have much time (a song a day!? crazy) but it's easier to layer things and re-record things if you have the whole day off..

anyways, i wrote the bulk of this first thing in the morning, on acoustic guitar and piano. i recorded drums and such, but then went out to lunch with megan, which was nice, and saw taya again. i haven't seen either of those girls in awhile now, and that was cool. it doesn't seem like much has changed. ha!

when i got back emily and i kept working on it.. she did the violin while i wrote lyrics, and we ate dinner and just finished it up. i think it worked out well. the lyrics are sorta about the songaday project, but it's just what came out. you can't force it, and you can't fight it. the world is perfect/life is cruel.

Gilded Cage

hmm.. in other news, it looks like the new mexican revolution is going down to the bay area to play a show at the sonoma film festival, which sould be quite an event.. i think the van needs some work before then, though. cross the fingers, people.

Any Three Things

we were in this together, you know
and it's a long way home
so sooner or later we'll jump into headlights, for now
leave it alone
you gotta realize: creation is painful
and sometimes i need to clean house, just scratch
regret and potential both leave marks on the bones

we were in this together
laughter and leather (don't go!)
i'll believe any three things that you say right now
(don't go!)
'cause you seem like your straggling
am i wrong to think your wondering how to start a fire?
i saw you eyeing the lines while we wait in the car


i didn't have to work today, so i worked on this all morning.. it's got the full treatment, more or less. a lot of guitars fooling around with Dmin6 chords and such, plus some vocals, the moog,, a neat piano track, trumpets by emily, bass.. percussion, and some samples from television.. ha! almost everything.

it started off as a less creepy latin sorta tune, but started to develop into something else once i put the samples on there.. it kinda reminded me of Beck, that guy seems down with ripping latin music and samples of people talking. then i started to get lyrics, working with a creepy ex-girl friend vibe.. i seem to be doing that a lot lately. huh.

other than that, i didn't do anything today. i'm gonna go over to Erik's and play the drums later tonight, that should be fun.. and i've got a neat idea for a song in my head, for the national high-five day soundtrack, but it's a ways off still.

My Favorite T-Shirt

drunk on your front porch, hoping you'll open the door
jesus, you kept singing but i couldn't hear anymore
so tired today, i could barely get up off the floor
horns were blowing, bringing the waves to the shore
i saw you on the street last night

powers out - we can have our way with the store
don't be afraid, just keep your eye on the door
apples have feelings, but peeling just reveals the core
the lies i've lived are nothing i'll need anymore
you were wearing my favorite tshirt

did i see too much? when i opened the door?
you knew i was watching, but you didn't know what for
you forgot my name, but we weren't keeping score
it's a good thing too
i guess you were right not to smile


this isn't exactly what i had planned.. but you can't fight it. i was up last night, thinking i would write another song, a country tune. and this thing popped out, fully formed from my head. yes - like athena. i liked it enough to spend some time on it, i even had to re-record some of the things, because i was playing super quiet at night.. too quiet, perhaps.

in any case, i like it. it's a little deceptive, and there's not a lot of fat to trim. i had it in my head that the very end would have an accordion bit, almost carnival-esque, but you *cannot* play the accordion quiet enough in the middle of the night. impossible. i suppose i'll just have to write another song.

Why Do They Leave?

this is a little gem from Ryan Adams, called Why Do They Leave?. ?. hmm.

Michelle gave me this song some time ago, at the end of a mix cd.. i totally loved it, but i guess i lost the cd at some point.. and just had the idea of it in my head for the past year or two. it seemed a pretty perfect choice for this next week of song-a-day projects.. great song.

i played the guitars, banjo, and harmonica. emily did the piano and violin.. i think it worked out pretty well. we're getting better all the time, i have to admit. ha!

it's been a pretty good day. it was gorgeous weather here in portland, sunny and getting warmer.. emily did a lot of yard work (i did a tiny bit) and then i auditioned for Gruesome Galore, a local portland band looking for a drummer... i think it went alright, but i'm not very familiar with their material, so we didn't acheive much. oh well.. i think i'll get another chance.

back to work tomorrow.

Angel From Montgomery

whew.. it's been a slow recovery for our post-st. patrick's day. i didn't actually get outta bed until about noon. wow. and then we did some yard work and went to the grocery store and such, and decided to tackle this over the course of the day.. it's a gorgeous song, and it's hopefully the start of a bunch of songs like it.. i wanna try and go a gram parsons/emmy lou harris sorta thing, and work out a bunch of country-ish stuff.

we'll keep our fingers crossed.

in any case, today was Angel From Montgomery, written by John Prine.

emily played guitar and sang, i played banjo and sang.. it was real nice, but i felt like i had to add stuff to it, flesh it out and all that. so we spent a lot of time trying violin, accordion, even trumpet.. nothing was working. if i had a harmonica in the right key, i would've tried that.. in the end, i just did a few little slide guitar noises in the spaces. it's much better if you just leave it alone..

and i like the idea of me and emily just hanging out, singing and playing together.

Swords and Violins

friday friday.. whew. it's been a long hard week, but all sorts of good news now, so i can rest easy.. umm, tomorrow. i can rest easy tomorrow. i'm all done with that landscaping job, and should have some days off next week. that'd be nice. and i have a few more ideas for songs.. the floodgates.

todays song is Swords and Violins, which i was really happy to work on yesterday. i wrote it when i got home from digging that rock out of the ground, and the piano seemed nice and inviting.. but i didn't have too much time, so i just kinda kept working on it, but had to run errands and eat dinner and all that. i did all the guitars in the middle of the night.. and most of the vocals, for that matter. that can be tough.. playing quietly and singing quietly and all.

emily ended up recording piano for me on this one, which was great.. it's got lots of odd phrasings throughout, and i would've had a hard time with it.. she also sang some poppy background vocals for the outro. i love those epic outros.. they sometimes make me feel like i'm flying.

i think that today (st. patrick's day) is also Colin's birthday, over at 305 SE 3rd.

happy birthday!

Unusual Morning

man.. does unusual really have 3 u's in it? that's bizarre. overloaded.

so, of all the tortures in the world, i only have to face a few minor ones.. i have a great life.

but i still find a way to suffer from it.. i was trying to plant a tree today, on the side of a hill, in ground that is mostly rock, and then a little clay, and some mud. did i mention it was raining? 'cause it was. hooray for portland. hmph. and so - i'm digging this hole, and i hit a big rock almost immediately, and don't think too much of it.. i just figure i'll dig it out, and i dig and prod and push and pull and rip and pound and heave. stupid rock was huge, and probably quite happy in the hole. hell, maybe it held up the house or something.. worst thing ever. i finally dig this giant hole, so that i can see the whole rock, and it's big, and heavy, and at the bottom of a hole. i was climbing down in the hole, covered in mud, in the rain, trying to lift with my legs and such.. wow - i'm tired just remembering.

like i said, i have a great life, but this morning was tough.

Unusual Morning is a little thing emily was working on awhile back, but it lost momentum somehow. we actually considered deleting it (we don't do that a lot here). i've been staying up late for about a week working on different layerings of harmonies and such.. using voices and keyboards and computer pitch-shifting stuff, and this song has some of that in it.

Josh, from Plants mentioned he was using a bunch of bells (like hand bells, that you ring, salvation army style) to form chords, i guess.. he had found the ones with pitch, and figured out the pitch and layered them, or something.. anyway, i don't have any bells, so i just started trying stuff.

fearless pop.

was i hoping too much?

my birthday falls on the same day as you!
coincidence does not make it true.
you stood upright, so hard/so long
that you forgot how to kneel
so proud of the things you can do
you forgot how bad you can feel
it doesn't seem real anymore
dumping these pills on the floor
was i hoping too much?


i wrote this song last night and this morning, in a coffee-fueled fever. it's more skewed-pop experiments, with some nice minor 9th chords, and even a 13th chord in there somewhere.. plus it's got mandolin, which i had tried not to play for a week or two. i guess i originally wrote it on keyboard, but i don't think any of that made it on to the final version.. a few guitars, bass, lots of singing..

i gotta take a shower and clean up a bit, and then go to work for awhile.. it's already been quite a day. songs don't write themselves, you know.

wowowowow.

Very Sad Sunshine

how long can you smile? twelve times.
around in a circle, it's perfect.
why would it be a race?
the sand rises up, takes shape, takes stare, takes a step
it's perfect.
takes a step, gives a call to slamming doors for eternity
she wrenches away and stares back at me beautifully
i'm a very sad sunshine, all washed up.
you gotta forgive me.


last night was new mexican revolution practice, but we never got around to recording anything, so i worked on this before work this morning and just came home and finished it up. it's got a lot of keyboards, bass and banjo, a few guitars, a lot of me singing.. umm.. and some drum machines. i think that's about it. this one took awhile, 'cause of all the parts fitting together oddly at first, and weaving them together and such.. pains.

it's also got a neat reverse drum track near the end.. i really like that.

my whole body hurts, even my finger(tip)s. whew. landscaping kinda sucks. and by landscaping, i mean carrying rocks down three or four flights of stairs. that sucks.

Don't Sweat It

Don't Sweat It, we can pay you for all the hard work. You're a very holy man.

Thanks, it's a lot of work. Now I am very tired.

ha!

i've been reading this collection of Kierkegaard's writings, and it's some pretty interesting stuff. he's always railing against the disappointments of (his) modern christianity, in a beautifully direct, unflinching style. i'm sure he made a huge difference, 'cause i can't find any fault with today's christian church.

ha!

speaking of which, remember:

if you're not catholic (and you know if you are) don't take communion.

those rituals are prettier from a distance, anyhow.

tenfivenine

life is all a confrontation
we're just another rock/roll station
looking for members.
and your body gets old
as the blood dries up
and interest turns cold.

gonna do like you try to:
make it all fresh and new
when your mind starts to wander
and the rapture takes hold
i'll carefully water
all the weeds in your soul.


tenfivenine

whew.. got pretty lit last night, partying with the revolution, but somehow managed to wake up early and eat breakfast, drink coffee, change a flat tire and write this little song, although emily did all the actual work. she played guitar and sang the hard harmonies at the end. i just did bass and banjo, and that snare with brushes track. all in all it's kinda neat, and it has a message from the devil up front. ha!

my body is kinda sore from moving all those rocks and flagstones. i should get packmules or something.

things should be in the open

things should be in the open

first things first.

this is post 100, which means i have at least 100 songs.. i think more, 'cause i did a few for a christmas present. for the record, that's much more than i ever thought i would do. i was hoping for 30 or 40. good work aaron. thanks.

i took a week off or so, in the midst of all this, when i travelled back to colorado to see my family. that was the only break i took. and i missed the project terribly, and wrote a bunch of lyrics. i've managed to stay focused.. discipline is funny stuff.

so i'm kinda proud of myself for that.. a lot of work, you know.

but now i've got new mexican revolution practice/party.

i think i'm gonna drink tonight, in celebration.

thanks to everyone for checking the songs out.

I.O.U.

i finally woke up, and found this IOU in my pocket
take your time - think about where you've been
grow and weed forever
my roof is leaking, and you want me to stand in the river?
standing on a frozen line, watching the sun rise
that whole time we both talked like we knew
felt an acute abuse and paid millions in dues

I.O.U.

last night Erik Becker (from the King Hen) came over and hung out with me and emily, played a song or two and talked recording.. i had planned on doing more recording with him, 'putting him to work' as it were, but we didn't actually accomplish much. no big deal. he did bring over a bottle of maker's mark. wow!

so, after he left, emily went to bed, and i recorded this little guy - real quiet-like, huddled over the microphone. i had a banjo track in my head, and maybe a violin, but it just seemed too much for such a small, vulnerable song. ha!

now i gotta drive around for the mercury.. friday is the big day, you know.

Back To Battery

we're all looking for ways to get back to Battery, Kansas
the preacher has the stomach, he just needs a drink
he sleeps at night with barbed wire around his chest,
these guys have seen it.
my conscience hurts, i just need a drink
i'm gonna watch that car wreck.
i'm gonna watch that sunset.
let it slip right through me.
staring at our mothers and their hungry pout
bleach to wash our mouths out
you havent been good.
take the man's test -
he's got cages for ladies and buckets for men
nobody is perfect
we could all use a drink
we're all looking for ways to get back to Battery, Kansas


it's snowing in portland right now, and has been since i woke up. that's pretty nice.. coffee and potatoes, songs, no work. thats a good morning.

this song, Back to Battery, is mostly around this fingerpick guitar bit and this story of the Preacher. then it just kinda kept mutating.. i used harmonica and moog on it, bass and guitar, and a few drum loops.. plus bass drum. and piano. ha! i think that's it.

yesterday i spent all day at the mercury office, answering phones and such. it was odd.. i just sat there, for hours. practically doing nothing. i read a lot, and ate my lunch, and made jokes with whoever stood by the desk. i also sorted through the archives of old issues, looking at cover art. that was neat.

Doctor Alexander

did you hear? no one goes near that house anymore.
just leave your letter on the porch.
for the birds all in a line
from perfect endless circles to terrible screaming dives

the doctor hates mistakes
but amy was too late
we're sorry for the loss
but mary can't move on

Doctor Alexander threw his tools to the floor

now mary never lost her friend
just opened her heart to a wind
amy smashed back through brick
with half-dead and you make me sick.


so i didn't work all day tuesday, and got some good songwriting in.. and emily came up with this cool piano part out of nowhere yesterday. awesome stuff. i kinda like the lyrics to this one, also.

A Great Big Opportunity

at least back in santa fe
i had life underneath my fingernails/tips
these wails through the days dont seem to pay
my memory of you is that time you fell
for the dress you wear/wore
for the secrets you share
we're going to war

but the men are tired, life stuck between and cut against their teeth.
it belies belief, but are they liars?
that the rain in the sky can set them free?
the o.e.s. tells us what to do in our jars
so we're going to war

but see it as A Great Big Opportunity, when the 'winter'
from florida to portland
seems just like june to me
if the ways we have to hate start getting/seeming strange
just give 'em a new name
the world is always at war

now i gotta eat something.

Suicide Is Painless

well, i'm not quite convinced loudon wainwright wrote this.. but we had that in mind. plus burt bacharach. i don't know how you spell that.. WWBBD? latin, i think.

a great new mexican revolution practice, i think.. we learned a lot. it was an experience, worth having. i drank some tea.
Suicide Is Painless is a pretty amazingly sad song, once you learn the lyrics. we did about half of it here.. wow.

Get Off The Label

your royal flushed cheeks are fading
all the scratching at your chest
won't get off the label
you led the birds right to me.

i just saw 'walk the line' that johnny cash movie. it was pretty good.. reese can really sing, i was impressed.

i worked on this one all morning, but ended up leaving in the middle of the afternoon before i could post it (the whole process can take almost an hour).. it's got a good major key epic guitar thing going on, with an octave pedal effect on the main line.. i like that a lot. i ended up playing everything on this one, emily was cleaning the house and cooking breakfast while i worked.. i'm a brute sometimes. all that scratching at your chest won't Get Off The Label. on the other hand, she wrote the first line, which brought everything else tumbling out of me.

i also really like the drums.. they're pretty active, rolling around smashing stuff. it was fun to play. no hesitation.

it's also got this bizarre overly complicated chord structure.. i wrote that last night drinking a beer with jana and emily, watching them sew. rock and roll, people.

Pin You To The Sky

man oh man.. last night was a great show, i think. sounded great up on stage, looked pretty, and we all had a good time playing. good times..

and then i had to work all day today, but i think i'm basically done with the landscaping thing.. for now.

so after work today i came home and wrote this, kinda while eating dinner and such. i think it turned out pretty well, the lyrics are the best thing.. Pin You To The Sky with lies, pin me to the floor with truth. i've been on a roll lately, i'm sure i'll hit bottom sometime.. anyhow, good lyrics. and a neat little shifty chord structure.. emily played that super awesome/cheesy synth sound. i told her it sounded like a song from the top gun soundtrack.

i wish. i like top gun. i used to have the old nintendo game, and i'd play it for hours. i got pretty far, but i never beat it. it was hard.

Stay Wild

friday friday. no landscaping for me. no no non ono.

instead, i work for the mercury for awhile and then play a show at mississippi studios. sounds like a good day.

and i have a song done! yeehaw! i finished this last night, after posting 'i was so turned on'. man, i really love that tune. might be one of my favorites.

but today we have Stay Wild, which was a bit of a headache. it's supposedly an exercise in structure with the drum machine.. but i'm not too capable with all that stuff, so it was really clumsy at first. then it just got weird. which was much better.

it's also a little schizophrenic, which i really like. most of these songs seem to sit in place too long, i think. this one can't hold still, so that's different. it's got a hardcore mandolin solo at near the end, a reggae/dub influenced break in the middle (for all of 15 seconds or so), a really pretty little ethnic guitar solo at the end.. a funky bass line in a dorian scale. neat stuff. all crammed in together, for two minutes and forty two seconds. wow.

breakfast and coffee. lovelove.

this is an old picture of me and tony.

i was so turned on

i only worked a half day today, so i was able to finish this guy up.. and it's a good thing, too. time is gonna be short all through the weekend, i think. work work work. plus we play a show friday at mississippi studios, that has to kick ass..

anyhow, i was so turned on is an awesome song, i think. i got turned on.

i really like all the guitar lines, funky minor ninth things, really cool noises. i had meant to play drumset with this (i wrote it in the middle of the night, when you can't use the drumset) but i didn't manage to find time. that main riff that starts the song was gonna be a mathrock sorta moment. oh well.

and the bass! oh man.. i think that's easily the most comfortable i've felt on the bass.. 3 months later, i'm starting to get the hang of it. it really starts to loosen up near the end of the fadeout. i think the reason i let the song go so long was 'cause of the bass stuff. groovy.

and i'm the news caster of rap. mc pseudonym. ha!

Forces of Lonely

man, working all day is wrecking havoc all over my song writing time. i had to be at work at 8 am today.. geez. so i stayed up late last night working on this song and another, with headphones and drum machines and such. then, this morning, i was able to play some guitars and such and take off to work..

blah blah blah. work work work.

then i got home, tired and muddy, and we worked on this some more, and now we're going to celebrate our anniversary. three years, apparently.

it's called Forces of Lonely 'cause in the song i join an army, the losing team, that is against them. the forces of lonely. the pamphlets were perfect, with needle, thread, and stitches we made war on the line between 'each other'. an ocean, a feather, to victory! may we never say goodbye.