Hello! This is the first mp3 of the week from MY NEW HOUSE THAT I LIVE IN. I moved two neighborhoods over to Rego Park. First time I've ever moved in my life. FREAKY.
I had a nightmare about stepping on baby turtles and squashing them (a friend of mine was doing it, not me, and I was screaming for him to stop), and outdoor toilets flooding everywhere. It was awful and disgusting!
On to the, ahem, Mp3 of the Week: This week I think it would be apropos to put up "All I Ever Wanted", a song I wrote about my fear of never moving out. I'm not super crazy about some of the lyrics, but the focus is more on the ROCK and the ROLL if ya know what I'm saying, kids. Here are the lyrics anyway. Note: The old lyrics were about a town flooding ("my block is flooded and drowned", but then Katrina happened, and I changed it ("My block is shakin' around"), but still kept the flooding motif at the end ("my block is drying out.") Whatever.
My block is shakin' around Ringed out, upside down Everyone but me falls out Halfway through that last song I felt so BAD and that's cause I...can't be trusted
When I was 9, and then when I was 15 and then when I was 18, and then when I was 19, and well
All I ever wanted was a chance, chance to get out of here
All I know comes through the phone All I own is this moan All I know is my home That's the doorknob that I hate That's the floor that hurts my feet When it's COLD. When it's COLD. When it's dusty and cold.
Back in the day when things wouldn't go my way I'd temporarily stay inside my room all day and well
All I ever wanted was a chance, chance to get out of here
AhhhhhAhhhhhh
My block is drying out Wrinkled up and flattened down Everyone but me feels proud
It's bigger than you and it's bigger than me (x4) And that's what they say when you can't speak up for yourself
There is a full band version on my website, www.jordancooperlalala.com (check it out!!!!!!!!), but here it is in all of it's solo show glory, possibly it's very first performance (which I'm basing on the fact of how slow I'm playing it), from a show at the Sidewalk Cafe on 2/2/05 :
At the end of the mp3 you can hear me tell the audience "I don't have too many moody songs like that, so that's my one moody song," then my friend Yoko proclaims with enthusiasm, "I liked that one." This whole show was very moody, as my girlfriend (who was in the audience) was slowly breaking up with me at the time (three cheers for that!) Just like last week's was clearly They Might Be Giants inspired, I feel like this one is obviously Violent Femmes inspired.
Maybe next week I'll put up the instrumental I made that inspired the song! Ah? AH?!? WOULD YA LIKE THAT BOYS AND GIRLS??
My 3 year old niece Scarlett has been visiting from Australia this week. She goes back in a few days. When she was born, I made an album for her called Scarlett Songs: Music For Babies, because I am a nice song uncle. There is a very small crappy webpage for it here: http://jordancooperlalala.com/scarlet.html
Album cover by James Jajac! Three of the songs are available there, and here's another! "Don't Watch Too Much T.V.", a lesson song that I am a complete hypocrite for writing. The song actually existed years ago, around 2001, in a version titled "CPU", which I think I'm too embarrassed to put up, at least for the moment (requests?). The lyrics were kind of awkward and about spending too much time in front of the computer ("pale skin, square death." Blegh.) I played it live once in 2002 and forgot about it. But I always liked the riff and the bass notes under it changing the feel.
This NEW version is a pretty nifty recording, and with slightly less awkward lyrics. Basically trying to describe what T.V. must look like to a baby ("Bright light, square friend, zigs zag, shapes bend. People, places, pretty faces.") I try not to make my influences TOO obvious, but even I can admit the arrangement and sound of this song has a very They Might Be Giants feel. SO THERE IT IS. I SAID IT. I'm still proud of the arrangement though. Epic.
This week's mp3 is "Hi Eight", which was an instrumental that was decent, then smashed with audio from an old hi8 tape, from when me and my friends walked around Manhattan during Halloween (2002? 2003?). I can't exactly describe the feeling of this mp3...the music, mostly made with my acoustic guitar, is relaxed and indifferent, but the audio sample is frenetic and full of energy, and even sounds aggressive.
This song was always odd to me because of that conflict. I didn't have a master plan, I honestly put the audio on it for absolutely no reason. I love the end result, though. At the end, my friend Dave says "Those are the kind of people you want to avoid on Halloween."
Happy 4th as of July. This week's mp3 is "Rain As Of Late", an instrumental I made in 2006.
I basically recorded the ambient sound in my room as it was raining, specifically the sound of rain on my air conditioner. Then put quiet music under it. I like this a lot. I wish I made it a little longer, but all of these instrumentals were made so spontaneously without any planning, I didn't even know if I'd like it as I was doing it. Put up the volume looooud on this one so you can hear the pitter patter of tiny rain steps.
