Category: music and video

this one (click here) is kind of a craigslist missed connection with theme-park character actor cosplay, all played out as a spaghetti western in a convention center somewhere. and of course, some other shit.

i originally had our protagonist wishing he could be a klingon next year.

“western swagger”

i lost none of my swagger when i left the western booth
spurs gently jingling as i cross the convention hall
i spot a girl in costume on a break from the barbary coast
she’s such a coquette she catches my eye and won’t let go
from there it’s all in slow motion and freeze frames on her eyes
the noise and commotion become silent as the night

pardon me miss, did you drop this glove on the ground?
i must be mistaken, i’ll just take it to the lost and found

she bats her eyes several times then suddenly breaks the lock
spins on her heels, moves away with a perfect walk
i’m left in the dust suffering from shock
a lifetime of love and lust poured into a twenty second shot

so many years of playin’ the cowboy i don’t know anymore
maybe next year i’ll be real, i’ll be something more

pardon me miss, did you drop this glove on the ground?
i must be mistaken, i’ll just take it to the lost and found

tonight i should have just gone to bed, but instead i sat down at the computer and started playing tchaikovsky through the string ensemble sampler in logic, one thing led to another and soon i had this stoney outtake. i swear there are cannibinoids in these scharffen berger chocolate bars. i can’t really imagine using this instrumental interlude with the songs i’m writing, so i’m putting it here as a service to music-deprived bongrippers out there.

mark your calendars: i’m going to play my new acoustic and sing at minna on february 15.

i did a quick recording of the new guitar today. this song has been on my mind the last couple of days, the reason should be apparent if you listen through to the last verse. i wrote it a long time ago.

this morning, i woke up to the clock radio playing tchaikovsky’s serenade for strings in c major, op.48, i. pezzo in forma di sonatina. i downloaded it from itunes and have been listening to it a lot through the day. first song of the new year setting the tone for the day. it’s so fucking “sticky”. as in stuck in my head.

i am adding this bit of code for some thing i am signing up to:

My Veoh Show

this post is just to insert the rest of the songs and vids into the podcast feed:

movie of LA scored with the tune sharq

this post is just to insert the rest of the songs and vids into the podcast feed:

a lyricless fragment

this post is just to insert the rest of the songs and vids into the podcast feed:
weatherbeaten (from the cd “full range”)

this post is just to insert the rest of the songs and vids into the podcast feed:
tanman

this post is just to insert the rest of the songs and vids into the podcast feed:
serenade (from the cd “full range”)

this post is just to insert the rest of the songs and vids into the podcast feed:
aloha (original version)

this one’s really rough, and i was feeling the limitations of garage band when i tracked it. no way to adjust the click volume in the headphones, and no way to track piano and vox together, so the bleed into the mike is just part of the song now.
i read some study today that said that people are the least happy right around the age of 42, but that once they come to grips with the fact that they will never achieve the goals of wealth and prestige that they have been conditioned to believe they want, life starts getting better. and if they make it to sixty and are healthy, that’s when people are generally the happiest. that, and some other things i have been thinking about, coupled with a rainy day in berkeley with nothing to do but varnish and play the piano led to this little bit of maudlin: (for those of you that don’t know what a dark and stormy is, it’s dark rum and ginger beer. just because i quit doesn’t mean you should. i recommend barbancourt or coruba rum and reed’s ginger beer. drink enough, and even the work of a hack like myself will sound good. drink more than enough, and i bet this little bitch brings a tear to yer eye. cheers!)

“dark and stormy”

i was born and raised in tinseltown
know how much work goes into fantasy
they say i’ll be better once i stop believing
all of the things people are dreaming of

i’ll have another dark and stormy
i guess i never made it to tahiti
so this is what it’s like to be sixty
i feel just like the day i turned thirty

master of my own ship with a crew of none
spent my whole life waiting for the only one

even the sailboat’s an illusion
of travel adventure and freedom
never really made it out the golden gate
spent my whole life cruising sheltered by the bay

master of my own ship with a crew of none
spent my whole life waiting for the only one

man i think i have drastically changed. i used to be so protective of work in progress, and now i just couldn’t give a shit. put on yer headphones and listen to this one LOUD.

so here’s the story with this one : the vocals are a seriously rough track. they’re a little “pitchy”, and sung at about 1/3 horsepower (i started getting a little capsule distortion on the akg 414, and realized that half the neighborhood could probably hear me, so i had to shut it down. have to track it for real at the gallery). also, i know the word “baby” is a cheesy rock cliché. that’s why i used it. AND, i am predicting some serious guitar pyrotechnical solo / dueling harmonic six-string ejaculation in this sucker’s future. maybe a DOUBLE double-neck crescendo.

“the list”

i’ve been a prisoner baby and i’ve been a guard
it’s all been experimental searching for brighter stars
see you on my horizon though i don’t know who you are
possibilities open up and you break into my heart

i’ve been a dreamer baby and i’ve fallen hard
been a cynic and never got a start
now i’m finally happy living here on my own
but it’s a little paradise that makes me piss and moan

not sure if you’ll make the list
of things i cannot be without

we live in a world of over stimulation
the grass is greener stains our every relation
i’d rather roll in bed with two girls half your age
share the sunset with you at the end of the day

dream the impossible dream in the suburbs
in our s.u.v.
it’s just you, you and me alone on the couch
with our t.v.

not sure if you’ll make the list
of things i cannot be without

sort of a comment on all the blog/social software/fuckster stuff going on. i managed to make it a little creepy/obsessive as well. (i guess this is a good point to say this is NOT autobiographical. ok maybe slightly. i feel pretty fucking sexy every time i walk to bart. but the stalker undertone is from talking with my first and only “friendster fuck” about the serious weirdos that stalk chicks on those things). recorded in garage band over 2 nights. kinda weird to do vocals in my apartment, because i can’t really belt shit out.

stellar profile

i feel pretty sexy this morning as i strut the sidewalk on the way to the train
my headphones are naughty naughty naughty for making me feel this way again
i point and click point and click i’m so good it’s making me sick
i point and click point and click

does anyone here recognize me from my user profile
does anyone here recognize me from my great profile
does anyone here recognize me from my user profile
does anyone here recognize me from my stellar profile
does anyone here recognize me from my drop-dead profile

i checked out your website, now i’m feeling the way i’m guessing you wanted me to
sort of impressed sort of distressed ’cause i’m suddenly infatuated with you
i’ve never met you but would it upset you if i wrote to you as if we were close friends
i feel a connection in your direction
direct messaging you night and day
i hit return you better hit me back
i’m not believing you are away

i point and click point and click i’m so good it’s making me sick
i point and click point and click

does anyone here recognize me from my user profile
does anyone here recognize me from my great profile
does anyone here recognize me from my user profile
does anyone here recognize me from my stellar profile
does anyone here recognize me from my drop-dead profile

this is from a few years back, when i was living in l.a. in the hollywood hills, had blonde hair halfway down my back, and we had a regular gig down on the sunset strip at the roxbury. (courtesy of george lyons) bret is currently archiving a bunch of this material (this is some rehearsal tape that’s a bit fucked up speed-wise). apparently he just bought a 200 gig HD to complete the project. right around the time of this recording we played a private showcase for gary gersh, (i think he was the president of capitol at that point), the guy who signed the counting crowes, (isnt that how they spell it???) who currently have a hit with a joni mitchell cover. coincidence?

the line-up: the wilsonious institute on lead guit and vocals, bret haller on bass, me on guit and lead vox, and i think that’s anthony johnson on drums.