Friday, May 29, 2009

WEEK 13: Unzip

Hello bee do bo do bo dooo,

This week's mp3 is "Unzip", a sleazy instrumental that I made after meeting this girl back in 2002. I was fairly inexperienced and innocent, and this highly sexual girl kind of seduced me, and it freaked me out a bit, and I felt very much like...well, how the instrumental sounds. Sleazy and kind of gross, kind of "adult", and also kind of awesome/manly/confident. I tried to capture all that in 45 seconds. And then I called it "Unzip", which you should be able to figure out for yourself.

This mp3 also exemplifies something that I hope people are following, which is that although they are short instrumentals, they are pretty much like diary entries. Very specific diary entries.

Download it here!


Or preview the nasty thing here:



SEE YOU IN 7 BUSINESS DAYS.


-Jordan

Thursday, May 21, 2009

WEEK 12: We Will Take A Trip

Hello! It's been singy songs for a few weeks, so let's hear an instrumental!

This is a nice full length ditty called "We Will Take A Trip." I don't have much to say about it that won't sound like self love -- I like the horn section nonsense that keeps interrupting the nice sounding song, which I then reversed for the end. I like the subtle climbing scale bass line, the fake fuzzy electric guitar riff that comes in towards the end, and the general feel of the whole thing. Just a bass drum and hi hat for percussion, which leaves a lot of empty space for other things to happen. Hope you think it's nice.

So come on! Take a trip! Download it here.


Or preview it here:






DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE COMMENTS! It would make me so happy!


-Jordan

Friday, May 15, 2009

Week 11: Stumped (live 2003)

Jumpin' Jesus the weeks are going by fast! This is freaking me out! I feel like I just posted "Folky Song" yesterday.

This week's song is "Stumped", a live performance from September 3rd, 2004, at the Sidewalk Cafe in NYC. This was a "new songs" show, where I only played...new songs. If we do the math (math is fun!), this places the song about 18 months into my relationship, where the problems were really starting to weigh me down. It's a purposefully minimalist song about not knowing WHAT THE HELL to do when your girlfriend seems mysteriously upset all the time. You blame yourself ("are things that bad?"), you try to distract her ("it's time for a movie, then you won't be sad"), you HATE yourself ("why am I stupid?") and you even get angry at her ("why can't you feel good?") Ultimately, it leaves you very very tired ("we should just got to sleep"), and...stumped.

This was kind of a potentially dangerous song to play at a live show in front of her, but I think she was absent at this particular show. I would have played it anyway. I think it's healthy to confront these things, with honesty and humor. Especially in front of lots of people who clap after you do it!

Download it here!!!

Or preview it right here:




-Jordan

Friday, May 8, 2009

WEEK 10: Folky Song

Hellerrrrrooooo.

This week's mp3 is "Folky Song", which is a lame title, because I never thought of a good one for this song since it has no repeating phrases or chorus.

I like this song. It was based on a very specific night. I had seen a guy do songs similar to this, then came home and wrote how I felt all night. Which wasn't too great. I also like the performance in this live demo. Hooray for me! It's slightly underdeveloped, there's a few guitar noodlings and touches that I hadn't though of yet. I'll post a later version some other week! I like the line about "not being vicious." Sometimes you have to be vicious if you want to have a good night.

Download it here

Or preview it:




-Jordan

Friday, May 1, 2009

WEEK 9: I'm A Happy Dog

This week's mp3 is "I'm A Happy Dog", a feel good full length instrumental from 2004. A very obsessively worked out instrumental that took me a million years to record. I went crazy arranging the bass line to fit intricately with the drum part, piano thingies, when the acoustic guitars come in and out, the percussion, everything. I'm pretty damn proud of this. It was a big lesson in learning when to drop instruments in and out, to prevent everything from sounding too cluttered. And of course the lead melody line is my ACCORDION. Say hello!

If you turn it up incredibly loud at the quiet part about 1 full minute in, you can hear that it was raining outside! That may not be true, but I remember it being true. You can also hear that I used my lamp for percussion.

Download it here!

And preview the thingy here:




Have a nice life!

-Jordan