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Post by Jeff on Sept 1, 2006 3:22:42 GMT -5
Sinking Island (GTR Mix) (1988): www.zshare.net/audio/sinking-island-gtr-mp3.htmlThis song that I wrote and recorded when I was 18 is probably the best song on Harbinger. It is very much like Ryan’s song “Poseidon’s Daughter,” just not as good. I am going to post two versions of it. The first is a guitar version. The second uses the guitar tracks for synth harmonies. In both cases I’ve reworked the drum track as it has been a major detriment to anyone ever getting a feel for the song.
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Post by Jeff on Sept 2, 2006 2:58:30 GMT -5
Sinking Island (Synth Mix) (1988): www.zshare.net/audio/sinking-island-synth-mp3.htmlAnd here is a better mix of the GTR Mix: www.zshare.net/audio/sinking-island-gtr-btr-mp3.htmlHere’s how these two recordings came about: Often I used to do two drafts of songs that were slightly different then record the vocal track on the one I liked best. I wrote Sinking Island before I went to college in the summer of 1988. Once there I made the first recording of it, the synth mix. During that first semester I met a guitar player whose name was—believe it or not—Michael J. Fox. Of course, he was not the one you know. We decided to record a few songs together, so I played him several things that I’d been working on. He picked the songs he liked and wrote guitar solos for them. His favorite was Sinking Island, I think, and he decided to work out the guitar chords for a few of the synth parts that I played in the original mix. He also thought that we should increase the tempo by about 10 bpm, up to a very brisk 145bpm. Michael was fun to work with. He reminded me of my cousin Joey. But he was doing music just for fun. I remember talking to him about being a music major, and he said, “How would you make any money? Teach? Heh. Heh.” Mike was an engineer and, if memory serves, he had two or three patents by the time he finished his undergraduate career. None of them were for musical equipment. I have no idea where he is or what he’s doing. But I hope it’s some place and something interesting.
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Post by Jeff on Sept 3, 2006 1:12:34 GMT -5
(Not Just Some) Cliché (1987-9): www.zshare.net/audio/notjustsomecliche-mp3.htmlI’ve always had a soft spot for the music on this one, which I wrote in 1987. The lyrics are another story: I actually had decent words for this song. The original title was “Every Time We Say Good-bye.” I started writing them in 87 and finished around February of 88. Just as I did, I happened to see a Tom Hanks movie in the video store that had the same title as the song. Freakin’ bummer. I went ahead and recorded the music in Fall of 88 when I got my four track, but I decided to scrap the lyric since I had been beaten to the punch with the title. The music sat around for a while, maybe till February or March of 89. Then I had this idea for a song: What if the narrator was a person who could not express himself. He would be just smart enough to know it but not smart enough to do anything about it. I still think that’s a pretty cool idea for a song. But I was only 18, and it was just a little too close to the truth. Due to the horrible lyrics, I’d recommend that you don’t listen to this one.
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Post by Jeff on Sept 3, 2006 22:20:05 GMT -5
Peace in the Sky (1988): www.zshare.net/audio/peaceinthesky-mp3.htmlHere it is, and I must say that it sounds a hell of a lot better now. The song used to consist of a vocal, guitar, and bass. I knew that I was going to add a drumline when I mixed this down. As I was doing that I thought how easy it would be to switch out the bass too. I tried to find an updated bass sound that was pretty much like the DK70 with some muscle. As soon as I did that I realized that song’s intended snark was finally there. (It’s amazing how flat sarcasm falls without the requisite attitude.) The vocal and the guitar are exactly as they were recorded in 1988/9. The lyrics could definitely stand to be sharpened up. They still sound like they were written by an 18 or 19 year old. Anyway, I am happy with how this turned out. Justin, I’d really like you to listen to this one and tell me what you think. I am not saying that it isn’t still laughable in some ways, but isn’t it a whole lot better?
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Post by Jeff on Sept 4, 2006 13:17:42 GMT -5
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Post by Jeff on Sept 5, 2006 0:00:38 GMT -5
Sacred Soul (1989): www.zshare.net/audio/sacred-soul-mp3.htmlThis song was recoded in an afternoon because I happened to have a little $30 Casio keyboard that I borrowed from Cindy Miller. It had an interesting piano-string sound on it that inspired the melody. What makes someone write a bad song? What makes them record it? It takes a while to do that. In this case, the recording process lasted 5 or 6 hours as I experimented with arrangement and lyrics. As a listener you keep asking yourself why didn’t the mental editing switch get flipped, the one that holds back your scathing comment at the dinner party or allows you to talk nice to conservatives? 99% of the work that I do in making my bad art is trying to find ways to live with the fact that all my ideas appear to me as so much foolishness. When I am thinking about writing an essay or a song, everything I might say seems idiotic. Creation presents me with an existential choice: Agree with my assessments and produce nothing, or follow the foolish idea and perhaps be seen as a fool. So, for me, anyway, the very act of creation involves setting aside the internal editing filter. There is a wonderful film called 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould. In that film the actor playing Gould ( www.glenngould.com ) says that the proper ratio of artist to audience is 0 to 1. I’ve always liked that idea, and I think it is basically correct. But I think that Gould failed to understand it. Gould took it to mean retreating from performance altogether. He still made recordings and did his idiosyncratic radio broadcasts, but he didn’t talk much about his art. What he did, in effect, was to increase the mystery surrounding himself and his art. He wasn’t just any concert pianist, he was one with ideas! Gould’s actions actually worked against his principle. The right approach, it seems to me, is to make art more ordinary. Creation should be what it is: simply another part of life that everyone is more or less engaged in. It should definitely be in our everyday conversations as an ongoing concern. In fact, I feel rather the same way about Art as I do about God on issues of reverence. Bad art can serve a purpose. It comes without much allure or mystery. But it is surrounded by as many stories as the sublime.
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Post by Jeff on Sept 5, 2006 2:57:29 GMT -5
Lifetime Guarantee (1989): www.zshare.net/audio/lifetime-guarantee-mp3.htmlNothing noteworthy about this, other than it was one of the two or three worst songs on Harbinger. At one time I thought it was one of the best due to the originality of the chord progression on the verse.
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Post by jtmx1 on Sept 7, 2006 11:14:23 GMT -5
Justin says that the mix of peace in the sky still fails. After listening to it a few more times, I think it fails because the guitar part is too stereoscopic. I will post another mix this afternoon that tries to fix this problem.
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Post by Jeff on Sept 8, 2006 0:42:14 GMT -5
Peace in the Sky FINAL MIX: www.zshare.net/audio/peaceintheskyfinal-mp3.htmlI hate this song; it’s terrible. You know it. I know it. I just don’t know why I am still working on it. Worst thing I ever wrote. I’m tired of trying to make this ugly step-child look nice. I’m so finished.
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Post by Jeff on Sept 9, 2006 2:39:16 GMT -5
Hope (All I Have) (1986): www.zshare.net/audio/hope-all-i-have-mp3.htmlMore whining from my 16 year old self. Half the songs on Plastic Smiles were written before I ever had sex, so I don’t know what I was so depressed about. Wait a second…
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Post by Jeff on Sept 9, 2006 3:01:35 GMT -5
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Post by Jeff on Sept 9, 2006 12:25:12 GMT -5
A Rarity: Anymore Draft (1990): www.zshare.net/audio/anymore-rarity-mp3.htmlI am not exactly sure why I am posting this. It’s a snippet of a completed rough draft of this terrible song. The draft didn’t have the simulated sax. I think that when the drum track goes away, you can kinda see what I was thinking with this one. Or maybe not.
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Post by Jeff on Sept 9, 2006 14:01:42 GMT -5
Plastic Smiles (1986): www.zshare.net/audio/plastic-smiles-mp3.htmlThis is the first song I ever recorded. I know there is so much that is wrong with it, but it represents my introduction to the world of the 4-track, and as such it forever altered my consciousness. Part of the problem with the recording is that it was one take everything. I kept asking Mr. Hale if we could clean up the song—one of these requests survives at the end. But he said no. Really I think Mr. Hale engineered this song not to produce a great recording but because he wanted me to start 4-tracking on my own and because he wanted to introduce me to David Murray. I had often heard David drumming in the band room. In fact, his drumming was often the highlight of my mornings. But Mr. Hale told me that David also played guitar and suggested that we ask David to play on this track. I still think that Dave’s guitar solo is plaintive and yearning, just as I had hoped it would be. I had been playing this song for a couple of years before I recorded it, so the lyrics were written when I was 14 or 15. I think I remember my parents still being married when I began work on it. Finally, I used this song as an audition to get into EIC II (Explorations in Creativity II). [EIC was a summer camp for G&T Native Americans run by AIRD (American Indian Research and Development).] Although I got into both EIC I and II, I only attended the first one.
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Post by Jeff on Sept 9, 2006 17:31:44 GMT -5
You and Me (1986): www.zshare.net/audio/you-and-me-mp3.htmlAfter David and I finished Plastic Smiles we immediately wanted to record something else. So I wrote this song in an evening before our next recording session. My goal was to write a song that featured the guitar, but I didn’t play guitar. Mainly I just gave David lots of open 5ths to play with. He got the chords the day we recorded. So really, this is just us playing around and being happy. Don’t blame David for the strange solo at the end. He had just learned the song about 1 hour before, and Mr. Hale only gave him one shot at each of the tracks he laid down. Mr. Hale didn’t think this song was age-appropriate for David and I, and he nervously watched the vocal room door while I sang it. Looking back, I think he worried too much. The song isn’t about “parking” so much as keeping aging love alive. And even if my rhymes are stupid, I highly recommend making out in the car after you’ve been married for a decade or more. It can be pretty hot. Anyway, Mr. Hale wasn’t so interested in working with David and I as a band after this one. He suggested that I record ballads next.
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Post by Jeff on Sept 9, 2006 22:20:46 GMT -5
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Post by Jeff on Sept 10, 2006 1:34:17 GMT -5
Rarity Coming Home (1990): www.zshare.net/audio/coming-home-mp3.htmlThis will be the last rarity, though I could probably post about 10 more including a drinking song (“We’re Down”), a backwards tune, and a bunch of instrumental noodling. This is the best of what’s left. Jason, who was only 19, wrote it, played guitar, and programmed the drums. I put in a placeholder bass line, but it was never meant to be kept. The reason it’s still on the track is the story behind this song. When Jason sang his lyrics into my crappy microphone, he couldn’t believe how terrible his voice sounded. He tried to lay the vocal three times, but after each attempt he made me erase it. Finally he asked, “Why does it always sound like shit?” “It’s because of all the shitty equipment we are using.” He didn’t believe me. To prove it, I sang the vocal, and promised him that it would sound even worse. It did. And it was enough to turn Jason off recording forever. Sorry, Jason.
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Post by Jeff on Sept 10, 2006 2:29:07 GMT -5
Nothing (But the Radio On) (1987): www.zshare.net/audio/nothing-mp3.htmlI think during the intervening years my title for this song was stolen. Just as well. However…my story’s infinite, though I was too chickenshit to tell it in the original liner notes. Since only my true friends are still following this thread, I’ll give you something to laugh about…or, if you’re Ryan, to feel icky about. Last chance to stop reading… Crystal had lots of sexual fantasies, and it was my great good fortune to help her out with a few of them. She really got off on creativity—of course she did; she couldn’t have been after me for my looks. Anyway, she wanted to have sex with me while I wrote a song. I tried to figure out how to do this. It’s not like my mom’s living room is ever really empty, and that’s where my piano was. I thought about trying to get into the vocal or the band room at school, but I really needed the scholarships that I was applying for. It would have been just my luck to get caught at something like that. My grandma had a portable keyboard I thought about using, but before I snagged it, my uncle Terry loaned me his. (At this point Ryan is grossing out, but I promise his keyboard was unspoiled by the experiment.) It took about an hour to write the song. The most difficult part was finding a position that would work. We eventually solved that problem and the rest is...well, there goes another novel. I told you it was going to be gross. At least this time my distracted lyrics are easily explained.
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Post by Jeff on Sept 10, 2006 3:15:02 GMT -5
One Body (1987): www.zshare.net/audio/one-body-mp3.htmlThe ironic thing about this song is that I recorded it about five minutes after Nothing But the Radio On and it was written about the same person. I got to participate in only some of Crystal’s sexual fantasies. It’s sad to think that I recorded this in October and didn’t break up with Crys until January. The reason I waited was because she was trying hard to make it up to me, but I knew that I had moved on inside. I really was struggling to stay in the relationship. Isn’t that strange? After hearing this again, I think it holds up pretty well…for a song written by a 17 year old. It owes a great deal to Bourgeois Tagg’s “I Don't Mind At All,” which was my guiding influence.
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Post by Jeff on Sept 10, 2006 4:46:48 GMT -5
What can I Do? (1988): www.zshare.net/audio/whatcanido-mp3.htmlWe are down to the two worst songs on Plastic Smiles, and they are both 4 bombs each. When Mr. Hale recorded me, he did all the tempo regulation. When I recorded with John T., I performed live, so tempo took care of itself. When I finally got to work with a 4-track alone I recorded only one song without taking any steps to regulate time. This is it. But then, everything about this song was an experiment. I had never set up a mic by myself. I had never been in complete compete control of instrumentation. I had never had complete privacy to sink to the depths of lyrical stupidity. Etc… This is a bad song. Even so, I was very proud of it for a week or two back in 1988. (Not for long though. There is this line that is repeated throughout the song, “I love you in my heart.” What does the prepositional phrase really add? Nothing. It took me about 30 minutes to really hate that line. I've always needed a producer!) This song was written about Kim Johnson. I didn’t talk about it at all, but Kim is the reason Harbinger has all those odes to chaste love. It certainly wasn’t because I was religious that way. I find holiness in sex. But Kim didn’t, at least not with me. So, this song marks the beginning of my attempts to rationalize my sex-free existence. It lasted almost 3 years. Almost.
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Post by Betterout on Sept 10, 2006 11:04:01 GMT -5
I kinda forgot about "Coming Home," and I'm a little surprised at how much I dig it. The guitar tone, while not exactly expansive or clear, is enjoyable. Or at least, I have used the very same same guitar, amp, and four track to much less listenable effect. I think that if the drum line had been played live on an acoustic kit, it could have passed for a Black Crowes song. That's cool, 'cos I don't think Jason heard that first major label album of theres until around Christmas. Actually, I think I got it for him for Christmas--on his request.
A question or two about "Nothing (b.t.r.o.)"... Was it written that way, or was it recorded that way? If the answer is written, then kudos to you. If the answer is recorded, you guys were being curiously quiet about your goings on. So, no kudos there.
While we're on the topic of gross combinations of sex+music, I have a really disgusting story to share with y'all, my boon friends. This one has been unshared so far, so you can imagine how guilty I feel about it. And, well, it's about self-sex, which makes it less appealing and more lurid than your tale. When I was a young wanker (and not too much younger, really), I discovered that when I was particularly excited, exceedingly strange sentences would pop into my head. Real bizarre things, almost Jungian in nature. At times, even something you might hear as an Electronic Voice Phenomenon. For example, one of these sentences was "you've been rattling the hutch." That's a weird thing to think about when you've got important business to attend to, so when things like that happened, I always tried to take note of them. I also realized that the closer I got to the close of business, the stranger and less voluntary these sentences were. Eventually, I learned that I could just open my mouth and these strange sentences would issue forth quite apart from my awareness of what I was actually saying. I could, however, remember them upon hearing. Then I'd spend the next few minutes trying to determine exactly what sort of psychopath I was, or how long it would be before I ended up on some database. Over time I came to terms with just how twisted the whole thing was, so I decided it was time to start turning these words into something more productive. They were just screaming to be song lyrics. They never felt like my own ideas, so in some ways, the whole process felt really plageristic. Nevertheless, I began this lengthy experiment that ran many years. By the time 1998 rolled around, and Mandy and I had been an item for three years, I was feeling a little strange about making time for myself in order to finish this song, years in the writing by this point. I jotted down all the ideas I'd compiled over time, and figured I'd tweak them all into a song. I wasn't really happy with the end product, but I went ahead and wrote music to fit it. Soon after, I recorded it in the music/stuff room of our Norman townhouse. I think it ultimately worked a little better than I thought it would. But when I was standing over the end result of so many end results, I suddenly became overwhelmed with guilt. It was the title. I thought the title would give it all away. I don't even want to mention the title here, 'cos it's one of the creepiest, most sexually charged lines from all my experimental sessions. I just knew that if anyone ever read the title, they'd know exactly what the story behind the music was, and how shameful I was. I couldn't in good conscience release this thing into the universe. So, I deleted the vocal and added another guitar part. I think I sent it to Chris, who was living in Virginia at the time, as part of a much longer set of song ideas and fragments I was working on. Otherwise, I don't think anyone has ever heard it. I have played just one guitar part for other people several times, and I've even been told, "hey, you should do something with that." Little did they know, I did a whole lot of somethings for that earlier in my life.
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