I got this new song.
Titled Boredom Rock.
It's one of those songs
Where I tend to talk.
It's under 2 minutes
As in, not very long.
As in, it's a short song.
As in, I can't play it wrong.
And that's all I want to talk
About Boredom Rock.
(snaps in audience)
I altered the ending that added like another 5 minutes onto This is What We've Become so now it's back to its original 7 minutes. I terminated the last verse and coda completely which I didn't really like playing in the first place.
It creates the feeling of not getting back to where you started to and just leaving you in a completely different place from where you started. It makes you feel sorta stranded. I like it.
During the jam I created, I build up for a wicked long time from this quiet, slow section into a fast-paced section before slowing down again and delivering the extremely tacky line:
This is just an interlude
A sign that I can't get to you
A sign that I finally read
"The road ends here". (song ends abruptly)
I just made my own rendition of Float On. It's sorta weird, because it's on piano and it's just weird to do that song on a piano, but it works. The first half proceeds like the normal song, but then during the whole "Alright already..." part, I flip to swing-time and improv a little.
Sometimes you feel like writing something but then you don't know what to write. So then you start writing it, not knowing exactly what your putting on paper, but you're writing it anyways. And while you're writing it, you think that your writing has a topic when to others it has no rhyme or reason. And then when you finish writing it, you feel like keeping it, thinking that someday it might have some type of value that doesn't exist to you yet. The existence of the value of your writing is a far-off object, but its in your grasp at the same time. And when it's finally in your grasp, it falls out of your hand and you desperately try reaching for it again. And eventually you give up, possibly realizing that you can't find the point of the writing, or possibly feeling like your mind hasn't developed enough to figure out. If you feel the latter, then you try later on, reaching for that far-off in-your-grasp value, and you finally get it. And then you re-write it, with more feeling, realizing you now know what you're talking about. This can happen in a matter of seconds, or it can happen in a matter of years. You just have to find out for yourself.
...I've incorporated Stuck With Nowhere and threw in the main riff to Dramamine by Modest Mouse, all flowing smoothly.
Last time I clocked it, it was 12 minutes. It seems like whenever I finish playing it, I feel different than before I did. It makes me want to play it again, but my past experiences tell me that I shouldn't, because the more I play it the more I'll get sick of it.
12 minutes, if you put in perspective is only 5 minutes shorter than In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
I sorta almost fall asleep playing it because I get so lost in it. Like, literally lost. As in, I have no idea where it goes next.
WE DIDN'T EVEN PLACE! It seems like all the good people that performed didn't win anything:
A couple of really good well-known rappers did this really good song that didn't win. (One of them even did a backflip, no hands). The other band that played, Human Hands, didn't win anything either and they even bribed the audience by suddenly switching from an indie song to a dark version of Candy Shop by 50 Cent, and throwing candy out in the audience. And then there were the two brothers, Kevin and Justin Goodwin, each doing their own song. While they received an immense amount of crowd support, they didn't win anything either.
The only good top 3 performance was a rap tribute to Derek Johnson. (Someone in our school who passed away last year.) It was made especially for the talent show and got a standing ovation by most people in the crowd, but it still only landed 2nd.
I didn't even think the other two in the top 3 would even place, an interpretive dancer and one of the billion singers that performed.
And now to us:
I thought we played the song perfectly. But afterwards, I realized that I messed up on one of the transitions (sweaty palms) and Ben later told me that he messed up some of the words. But nobody apparently even noticed this, so I really don't see what was wrong. I mean, people said stuff about how some instruments were way easier to hear than others from way up in the stands, but the judges were right next to us. We probably didn't place because of some stupid technicality.
Always next year...
(Hour before show)
Sorta nervous as hell. But I have a huge feeling that we're gonna do well. Maybe not first, but we're still gonna "rock the joint".
I'll say how we did either right after it or next day.
Yeah, the band's over. Well, Chris is sorta reforming them again but leaving me out of it, which I'm fine with. We're still all friends.
Anyways...
I felt like writing a poem-style type song. I heard the Black Angel's Death Song by The Velvet Underground and I wanted to do something like that. So I wrote this 7 minute epic of politics. It's definitely hands-down the most aggressive song I've ever written, with Brock-esque type yelling throughout most of it, me slamming on the piano almost nonsensically but rhythmically at the same time. And then there's this nice, calm ending.
Lyrics:
(quiet)
Well sometimes these kids need water to live
Sometimes they need a family to live
Sometimes they need friends to live
But this is all stuff that they'll never get
Got to go to work, be back at 5
Check the news to see if anyone's not alive
Eat all your food, and eat it all well
While the kids on the television live through imaginary hell.
They don't exist, existence in your mindset
You only seem to care about what you want next
A car, a TV, a million bucks,
And those kids can get run down by a school bus for all you care...
They're not there
For all you care
They're not there
Sometimes these kids need air to breathe
(LOUD!)
Temperature's rising, temperature's flaring
The media displays in red and neon grey
But you don't really care about tomorrow,
You only really care about today.
Oh and we sing...
Downwards.
Oh and I sing...
Uptown... the death machine roars, pumping out gases
While we watch the television and sit on our asses
Watch the pretty pictures, humor for the masses
While the death machine roars and pumps out its gases
For all you care
It's not there
For all you care
It's not there
Sometimes us kids need air to breathe
(Instrumental break)
War count's rising, war counts rising
And the number who want to go is slowly downsizing
President's in his lounge, slowly devising
His totalitarian plans while the war count's risin'
Those of us who care can only dream of better days!
Watch a homeless person get beat in the mall
Watch an old man get beat in the hall
Watch, watch, watch like it's nothing at all!
This is what we've become
This is what we've become
This is what we've become
(Coda)
Good god.
This is what we've become... good job.
This is what we've become... good job.
This is what we've become... good job.
Good god.
Good job.
It's a great song, but seeing as how loud and into it I can potentially get, I'll rarely be able to practice it at home. Whoo. Just re-typing that gets me pumped.
Our band may be on a definite hiatus here. (That means we might be breaking up.)
Stay tuned for updates.
And I know it's my fault. And this blog started all the trouble.
Peace Frog's coming along well but practice today on it was sorta messy. The keyboard I was using just randomly kept switching to echo, drowning out the rest of the instruments (somehow...) We were all sorta struggling trying to figure out which parts went where but we'll be able to pull it together but Friday definitely.
I'm pretty excited for it as long as I don't have to use that keyboard again.
Slow-paced.
Glows.
Build-up.
Jam.
End on bad note?
No, ends on good note.
I'm also working on a song called Lay My Soul Down which sounds pretty good but I'm still working out the phrasing. Sounds good it's like country blues rock-ish.
Good stuff.
Recording soon again (I hope.)
I'm suddenly doing the talent show with Jeff's brother, Sam.(((and his band i think, I don't have any details yet.))) We're doing Peace Frog by The Doors, me being on keyboards and hopefully not on vocals. I pretty much got it down, I just need to know the chords for one part, but that's it.
And Internal Clock V2 is finished, but I'm still debating whether I should post it via video yet. For one, it's extremely obscure. And another problem is that people would probably get sick of hearing virtually the same thing. It's pretty much a stripped version of Thrown Together, followed by a minorly changed Internal Clock and "bells and whistles" at the end. I don't know, it sounds good, but do people really need to hear it?(((It makes Internal Clock sound a lot better... even though my voice still sucks.)))
I still have a little more editing to do with it anyways, because there's this tone towards the beginning that's supposed to have no other sounds around it... but it does. Boo. And I think I've clocked over 9 hours editing this? How I didn't notice it... I. Don't. Know.
And this is probably the only quasi-electronic song I'll be doing, everything else will be just piano (((keyboards depending on the sound))) guitar, bass, and drums.(((maybe a few effects...)))
I've been making an attempt at editing Internal Clock, adding echos and putting the Thrown Together bit before it as an intro. I added more layers of noise to Thrown Together and a looping drum track of Radiohead's Like Spinning Plates onto it. I'm calling it INTERNAL CLOCK V2, but it's still not the finished product.
I think what I'm gonna do is just ask the recording guy to burn the layer of drums onto a disc so I can throw it on my computer and edit it more to make the finished product. It should be interesting, because I'm new to editing. Or maybe the better idea would be to bring what I have to him, and then he can... we'll see. I think I'll be pleased with the outcome, regardless.
Dear Band:
I was so oblivious and ignorant to not see that you would find this out. Why did I even say some of that stuff? Looking back at it, it was all hate. Deep anger and hate that was just triggered by some small thing that I don't even remember. Why would I jeopardize our image like that? And you would think that because I was being so selfish, I would have realized that not only was I jeopardizing our band's image, I was damaging my image by being such an ass. What was I thinking?
"But they're an outlet, and as long as I can keep thinking of them like that, I should be able to deal."
This may sound like a desperate attempt to apologize, but I'm being sincere right now. I hope we can just move right past this and try to pretend that those posts never existed. Even though it will be hard...
Why did I want to be out of the band? Didn't I realize how good we have things?
Those posts are gone. I'm ashamed to even look at them.
I made this awesome track called Package of Sounds, and I think I broke out of the writer's block that I've been having for the past couple weeks finally.
It sounds unbelievable, way better than Internal Clock and it's a lot more powerful. It's the best lyric I've written in a long time and I can't wait to record it, whenever we record again.
We're all octaves
We're all in a round
We're all harmonies, melodies
Trapped in a package of sound
We're all screaming
Desperate to be found
We're all chords and timing
Trapped in a pacakge of sound
We're all crossbows
We're all floating off shore
We just lost ourselves
And no one can see us anymore
We're all timbre
Flowers curling up in the mist
We just poured out on the ground
Out of the package of sound
We're all desperate
Chimes and bells float away in the sky
Float onto churches and I don't know why
The climax just drowns into a sigh
Float onto churches and I don't know why
Float onto churches and I don't know why
Float onto churches and I don't know why
Float onto churches and I don't know why
This also marks the first time I use a tritone in one of my songs!!! WHOO!!!
(I'm not really that excited...)
I haven't written in the past couple days because of the stupid science fair I'm doing.
I feel writer's block creeping up on me. It seems like most of my rhythms and chord structures are being recycled. I've been struggling to find lyrics that haven't been used before. I haven't been thinking enough lately...
In an earlier post, I mentioned that I might lay down a piano track for someone's cover of Like A Star. While I didn't get that done this time, when we go back in to mix it, I'm going to do it then. But I still don't know if I'm doing an improv for it or what.
I finally got a good audio converter so I could put all my stuff from iTunes onto Windows Movie Maker. I threw Internal Clock onto a video with some text just saying what I did, blah blah blah. If you see the video, you can pretty much ignore the text. I really just made a video of it so I could get the song online.
I'm mad because I thought I was going to be able to make a website. I made this awesome site with the BlueVoda website builder, and the software for the website builder was free. So I figured getting the site up would be free too. WRONG. It cost 19.95 a month! And at the top of the page where it showed all the prices, there was a girl winking. Talk about a dirty little trick.
Here's the link for Internal Clock (Rough Draft).
Internal Clock sounds so good recorded. Now we just need to post-produce, which should be easy because I know what I want.
We need to do some stuff with the vocals, such as make it louder towards the end, we need drums, we need to add a ton more effects. I want to throw in a ton of stuff towards the end just to make it feel like your house is really on fire. Kinda like The National Anthem (Radiohead) , only with a ton of guitars and bass and piano instead of horns. Harmonies are possible with this song, maybe add another verse, the list of possibilities almost never ends.
I hope to get a ton of time to do this, unlike the one hour I was given (even though she stretched it out another half-hour for the bass)
And unfortunately, my voice is once again dull (which I'm slowly adjusting to) but I'm making the best of it. It'll make me more profilic.
Since I'm probably not getting a music myspace anytime soon, and windows movie maker doesn't support the audio, I'm trying to figure out how people will be able to hear everything...
Tomorrow's my first actual solo recording.
I've shaped Internal Clock into my best song. I can't wait to record it. I expect my next song to be a lot quieter...
I might also do a layer of piano on someone's cover of Like A Star by Corrine Bailey Rae, but seeing's as I only have one hour, that might be pushing it.
