Delays in recording, advances in baking

I realize I haven't posted much here in the past week+, but I was planning on having a violinist come in this past weekend and make songs that have bad synth violin parts on them more palatable to listen to. Sadly, it got pushed back to Thursday night. So what the hey. I'll post something that has bad synth violin on it. That way you can appreciate how much it improves when real violin replaces it.

This song is kind of a fun number inspired by a scene in a book called "The Dream of Scipio" by Iain Pears. In it, a character gives a long toast to civilization on the eve of WWII. "We must mourn its passing, and turn ourselves into beasts to survive what awaits us." he says. I read it when it came out in 2002 and the scene stuck with me perhaps because the world was seeming a bit savage that year, but more likely because a good chunk of the toast was about the wonders of cheese.

Anyway, here's "Raise a Glass" with bad synth violins which shall hopefully be replaced Thursday, when I can repost the song with much rejoicing.

You might find it surprising that I am going on about bad synth violins when by all accounts the track is layered with terrible sounding synth drums. Well, I don't know what to say besides I like 'em. (It might surprise you to know that they are, in fact, played live. An old drummer of mine put down these electronic drum tracks back in 2005 before a mysterious ailment forced him to give up drumming. I found the tracks on a CD and resurrected them for this recording, adding only a little bit of programming.) I played this for Robin from Piñataland a while back and she found my affection for the drums kind of baffling but was not able to talk me out of it. You may try to do so in the comments if you wish but you are fighting a losing battle.

And, since I haven't really thought of that book in a while, I looked up Iain Pears to see what he's up to. Looks like he's coming out with a new one in May!

And lastly, I had planned on writing about cookie baking in this post, but I never really got around to it. It shall have to suffice to say that time spent not recording has been time spent baking a lot of cookies.

cheers,
dave

'Til We Wake Up in Brooklyn - a comparison between drunk lyric writing vs sober lyric writing

For your consideration this Sunday we have a song written several years ago (Sunday, June 25th 2006 if you care) and posted on my then blog "Tomorrow's History Today". Basically, that night I been sitting around on the web, had a few drinks of my favorite Czech liqueur, and had downloaded (legally) a copy of Okkervil River's "Don't Fall In Love with Everyone You See". After downloading I listened to approximately the first 15 seconds of the first song before deciding that was a nice chord progression and I should just write my own song. I didn't want to get corrupted by listening to the rest of their song so I turned Okkervil River off and continued to write and drink, drink and write, until I cranked out this little ditty. Here's some of the original blog post from that night-

As I write this I have actually yet to finish the song, but have continued the Becherovka drinking unabated. If you'd like to follow along with this blog entry authentically, go have a few drinks and come back in a few hours. Actually, to be more authentic, have a few drinks, then read the first part again, then have some more drinks. Play some guitar. Have some more drinks. Write some lyrics, cross out lyrics. Have some more drinks. Decide you need harmonica on the song. Change key of song to fit key of harmonica you have. Have some more drinks. Try to learn how to play harmonica. Have another drink why don't you?

The end result of which was this-

This turned out a good deal better than I expected it would given I had had quite a few shots by the end of the evening and it was the first time I had written and recorded a song in one sitting while drunk. (I realize this admission compromises my rock 'n' roll credentials.) In general, while the song was alright, I felt it had a few problems.

1) Though a passible performance, some slurred words.
2) I totally don't know how to play harmonica.
3) Good God, what maudlin lyrics!

Everything could be dealt with by just rerecording except of course changing the lyrics. I tried rewriting them in the next few days, but I just wasn't getting it so it sat on the backburner for a few years until I decided to record this new album, which is all songs written (or at least started) during the Bush administration. This seemed like a good one to finish and I went through a few months of trying to change the lyrics, which also wasn't working out too well. So finally last week I hit on some lyrics that I liked (except for one line, can you guess which one?) Anyway, here's a demo with the new lyrics.

As you can see, a couple lines stayed intact, some lyric ideas crossed over from version one to version two, and the general feel of the song, sans annoying self-pity, stuck around. The new one is less about me me me and more about charting a dreamstate relationship with the borough (and, apparently, some romance*) as kind of a metaphor for the real estate bubble (though, interestingly, the line about buying all the brownstones was written in the initial rewrite in the week after the post, well before I knew we had a real estate bubble). Yeah, sure, there's a few me me me moments in there still, but at least more entertaining and/or hidden.

But yeah, I'll probably embark on recording this for real for the album in the next week. I guess it'll be guitar, bass, drums, and, if I can find someone who plays, harmonica, or maybe pedal steel for the lead, unless anyone out there has better ideas.

cheers,
dave

* Here's something I never realized before, which gives you an idea of how many love songs I've written, but not many words rhyme with "love". For straight rhymes you basically have "of", "above", "shove", "dove" and "glove" as far as I can tell (though you could add .gov in there somewhere I guess.) I opted for the half rhyme of "up"

I need a title!

This song was called "The Greatest Generation" but I took that line out. Any ideas on a new title? It's a song about the destruction of the WTC. (In fact, I dare say it's the most rockin'. danceable song about the destruction of the WTC ever written, unless someone has proof otherwise.)

And any other ideas of what else should go on here instrumentation-wise? I know I need a bunch of backing vocals but not sure what else the arrangement needs.

Over the cold

Well, the last time I tried to record vocals it just wasn't working and the next day I came down with a cold. Cold's gone except for a lingering inability to clear my throat so still no more vocals. In the meantime I hope to get a piano track done on a song about New Orleans called "Every Damn Light". Setting small goals today as I have tons of other work to do which I've been avoiding with things like posting blog entries that contain no news...