I'm surprised I haven't put this week's mp3 up already. It's a full length instrumental from 2004, and one of my favorite things I've ever made. It's very simple but I think effective. Acoustic guitar, piano, drums. That's it. The title "Going Up Those Stairs" evokes some sort of haunting imagery for me, the idea of the stairs in your house having so many memories and associations that sometimes it's too painful to walk up them. That's what I get out of it, anyway.
You may notice I have a lot of songs about houses, rooms, furniture, etc. Interesting.
This week's mp3 is an instrumental from November 21, 2006 called "All The Hair." I'm debated on whether to spell out the inspiration too clearly, but I guess that's the point of this blog, no? It was based on when you are lying with a girl, and all her hair is in your face, and the nice uncomfortable ticklish feeling going on. It's a good thing. At least, I think that's what it's about. Maybe I got a haircut and recorded it? It's a mystery.
This Mp3 of the Week may be of interest to some. It's a long lost song called "A.M." I really don't think there's any human being on this planet who has heard this song. I wrote it in maybe 1999, or 2000, though this demo is from June, 2001 (the info I put in at the time says "old song, new recording.")
This was definitely one of the first songs I ever wrote, not just in general, but on guitar. The chords are all made up -- I didn't know what I was playing, I just put my fingers on strings to get interesting sounds, inspired by XTC's methods, probably. I'm still kinda proud of that, it's something I don't do much anymore.
This (EVERY PARAGRAPH STARTS WITH "THIS" AUGHH) is also one of my late night songs about late night stuff. It's basically describing (as poetic as my 17 year old brain could muster) the sounds I hear when I'm up late at night and can't fall asleep. I had sleep problems for a while in high school. Here are the lyrics, which I'm a bit embarrassed by:
It's yellow out the window, and out in the hall The neon from the clock shines it on the wall I think I'll let my arm drops, I think my hands will fall
The rain pellets on the roof, the toilet flushing next door The squeek of the lock, to the footsteps towards their door The footsteps of the rain, hear the clouds snore
The heartbeat of the pillow, the subtle movements in the mirror The longer I can focus the shapes become clearer The farther away the day goes, the more it gets nearer
I wish you were here to sing me to sleep If I knew who you were I might be put at ease I promise to dream of you, if you promise to dream of me.
That last verse was probably about my high school crush, or maybe I just threw it in there to make the song about something other than sights and sounds of my room, which seems to dominate a lot of my songs.
SHITTY STUFF: The track skips at one point. The singing is bad because I had big fat tonsils, and I also didn't know how to sing quiet, and I also wasn't sure what melody to sing over certain chords. That last verse makes me cringe a bit.
NICE STUFF: It's kind of a nice, atmospheric little tune, ain't it folks?
First of all - FUCK BOLT BUS. BOLT BUS IS BAD. I HOPE PEOPLE GOOGLE BOLT BUS AND FIND THIS BLOG, WITH ME SAYING THAT BOLT BUS IS VERY, VERY SHITTY AND ABANDONED ME AND A BUNCH OF OTHER PEOPLE IN NEW JERSEY EVEN THOUGH WE RESERVED TICKETS. THEN ONLY TRIED TO GIVE ME A PARTIAL REFUND OVER THE PHONE. Ha, anyway, on to the Mp3 of the Week -
This mp3 is a comforting, adorable, icy warm little mp3 called "Tent." I don't remember making it, but apparently it was done December 22, 2002, which would explain the icy warmness (I swear I didn't know the date when I typed that!)
It is mostly all made up of organ sounds, and it reminds me of my old Ghostbusters tent I used to have over my bed when I was very very little. I would look forward to going into that tent as if it was an amusement park ride, with total enthusiasm. I like this little mp3, and I hope you do too!
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.
This mp3 is special to me. Special in the sense that there is a lengthy and complicated explanation behind it's existence! So buckle up, assholes!
My 2nd year student video project was a loose (emphasis on LOOSE) adaptation of the poem "The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot. It starred Sam Brown (of Whitest Kids U Know fame) in a quasi-serious role, the sensitive J. Alfred Prufrock, but mainly he was playing me. The movie was basically him and a friend going to a party, feeling ignored, lusting after a girl, having a bad time and leaving frustrated. Essentially what every party I ever went to was like for me. And a sort of dumb literal interpretation of the sequence of events that occur in the poem. I think. I haven't read it in a while.
The only music in the video was this, the opening theme as Sam/Prufrock put his tie on, shaved his unibrow and washed his face, preparing for the party.
Now where the music comes from is another story. In 1999, the high school days, I wrote a 27 MINUTE LONG SONG. A song about a girl I had a huge crush on, who had basically crushed my soul after going on a date (my first date ever) and then rejecting me.
Yes. 27 minutes. I didn't have it exactly down, it wasn't some epic masterpiece or anything, but I had pages and pages of lyrics and one night pressed "record" as I played a piano riff and sang the lyrics on top. To my shock and horror the resulting recording was 27 minutes long. I had no idea. I thought it was going to be 5 minutes at the most.
I threw out 26 minutes and kept 30 seconds for the Prufrock theme! The topic of the original high school song made it all the more emotional for me, as this music played under Prufrock/Sam/Me getting ready to have a bad time at a party. Everything came together.
I still may turn this into a real song one day. And I may put the movie online one day too. Enjoy the accordion and the odd percussion. Enjoy enjoy enjoy!
Summer songs (sort of) continues with the demo for my song Miss June!
I won't say what exactly it's about, but it's from the point of view of a 14 year old boy. Kind of based on someone I knew in Junior High.
This is an old demo, from 2004. I like how full the guitar sounds. Often on my demos the guitar sounds a bit thin. I also really like the accordion line that comes in on the last verse. Lyrics?
Hung up and stationed Illuminated I am awakened I see your face and...
Oh, what would I do Without Miss June
All of my friends and Me think you're hot and I've been rejected Now I'm in Heaven
Oh, what would I do Without Miss June
Oh what could I do With Miss June.
You are so pretty Now you surround me You must have said "cheese" I can see your teeth.
