WEEK 100: Settle Down (Live, first show, 2002)

Oh my goodly goodness!

This is the 100th post! Not exactly the 100th week, because I don't in fact update this every single week, but the 100th post!!! The 100th MP3!!! THE 100TH CELEBRATION OF MEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeee(eeeeeee.)

Well anyway, it took me a while to figure out what song should go here, but this one hits all the right notes with me. You might say it strikes a CHORD. You MIGHT SAY...

So this is from my very first show. August 18th, 2002, Sidewalk Cafe, and my God, this was like 12 years ago. Wow. Well the reason I chose this MP3 is because this was kind of the moment for me on stage that I felt like I found my voice, and that it was working, and that people were enjoying it. 

This was the last song of the night, and a lot of the other songs were pretty rough. A lot of mistakes, a lot of reject songs that no one has heard since, a lot of bad rhythm and awkwardness. But this song is so simple, there's just no way I could have screwed it up. So I am both extra relaxed in this recording but also full of happiness and confidence at completing my very first show, which I had been unbelievably nervous about for like several weeks leading up to it.

This MP3 also has one of my all time favorite off-the-cuff stage moment. The wonderful sound person woman there at the time threw on a giant dose of reverb during my very bad whistle solo. But she accidentally left it on as I sang the next line. She turned it off super fast and me and the audience kind of laugh at the weirdness of it. But then I improvised a lyric change - "we should go someplace where there isn't...so much reverb" (instead of "where there isn't so much stress."), and MAN...The big laugh and applause from the audience just made my night. I knew I wanted to keep playing shows. Not to mention the laughs at other lines, and the laugh after "THE CALM, CALM SEA" part! 

So yeah, this is a special one for me, on several levels. Hope you enjoy it both musically and also as an interesting historical document. 

OH...I didn't even talk about the song I guess? I explain it at the start of the MP3, but it's basically from the POV of a guy who's girlfriend is screaming at him, and he's trying to calm her down. The joke of the song is that there's an implication that the guy is a jerk and she's completely justified in yelling at him, but he's painting her as a raving lunatic. 

Is that funny? I think so. Check out the lyrics, then download the song!


And would you like to settle down for a while?
And would you like to settle down for a while?

You act like all those other people that I hate
Not enough like who I like
Normal people don't pretend to get mad all the time
Normal people don't like to fight

chorus

Tomorrow maybe you'll realize how crazy you were
Today well come to think of it
Yesterday you acted just the same or even worse
and Now you're acting ignorant

chorus

And would you like to take a breath
and nod your head
like you were on a ship at sea
THE CALM, CALM SEA!!!!!

::whistle solo::

We should go someplace where there isn't so much stress
It would be nothing like this
We should go and then your hair won't be in such a mess
Or my hands on your wrists

And would you like to settle down for a while?


DOWNLOAD THE SONG BY RIGHT CLICKING HERE!


Or listen to it here!





Thanks guys! See you soon,

Jordan

WEEK 93: Not Gonna Stop You (Demo)

Hello. This "week's" MP3 is an old demo of an old song called "Not Gonna Stop You."

Keep in mind this was January 2002, before I really played guitar very smoothly (I am really HITTING the strings hard) and my throat had yet to be removed of some very large tonsils that made my voice fairly congested sounding.

But the point is to put up an old rough demo, cause I feel like doing that.

This song has somewhat simple lyrics, but I've always thought there was a lot of complicated denial and unreliable narrator stuff going on. This was written before I was ever in any relationships, so it's basically a fictional character kind of song, which most of them were at the time. The guy in the song doesn't want to quite admit that his girlfriend (wife?) is leaving him, so he's acting like it was his idea and that he couldn't care less. He even thinks that SHE thinks he's going to be chasing after her at the airport, but he's too lazy to even do that.

Mostly the narrator is not trying to stop the breakup out of spite. "Oh you think I'll beg you to stay, well fuck that, I won't."

I love writing songs about self centered and hugely flawed people, and having the lyrics be warped by that mentality, with only a few hints at the "reality" going on for people to discover. This song is the ultimate example of that.

This song is so easy and thus really fun to play live. It's all about those last few high notes. You know songs that have a really satisfying ending, it's all worth it just to get to the last 10 seconds? That's how I feel about this one.

Lyrics:

You oughtta know
Before you go
I'm really really slow
I'm really, really slow

If you should run
And not for fun
You'd be the only one
You'd be the only one

And if you want to leave
Then you can go and leave
And you want me to let you
So I'm not gonna stop you
I'm not gonna stop you

And on the plane
You don't have to wait
For me to show up late
I won't be late

I'll be inside
While you ride
I will be inside
I won't be at your side

And if you want to leave
Then you can go to leave
And you say I won't let you
But look I'm not gonna stop you
I'm not gonna stop you

You may have left
But there's something that you did forget
I think you did forget
Your thoughts remain
With me over here
Not inside your brain
There's no thoughts in your brain

And if you want to leave 
Then you can go and leave
And you think I won't let you
But I'm not gonna stop you
I'm not gonna stop you

---

That last line is another favorite, he's trying to say a sweet thing like "I will always think of you" but it comes out as an insult. Wordplay, words all mixed up, the meaning getting confused, I love that stuff.

Download the song by clicking here

Or simply preview it, I'm not gonna stop you:





Thanks for listening, come back soon. I'm in the mood to put more old rare demos up.

-Jordan

WEEK 75: Nice To Me

Hey guys!

This week's mp3 is an extremely sentimental instrumental that I made in 2002, called "Nice To Me."

It's basically about that feeling of "I can't believe how nice this person/these people are to me, I don't deserve it, I am so touched, I can't take it!"

That is literally the best way to describe what this instrumental is trying to evoke. I added applause at the end to push that feeling way over the top.

I really love this instrumental, and it gets me kind of choked up. The recording, being from 2002, is very old and not the tightest piece of work ever, but I love the arrangement. I could have kept piling melodies onto that chord progression forever.


Download it here!


Or preview it:




-Jordan

WEEK 71: Grandaddy Eyepatch (Live 2002)

It's freak show month at MP3 Of The Week!

Here is another bizarre oddball relic from my musical past. A song called "Grandaddy Eyepatch," written by myself and Dave Fox.

One week in 2002 we went to visit our friend Matt in New Paltz, and he let us open for his band. I brought my giant keyboard, Dave brought his electric guitar, and we rehearsed 3 or 4 weird songs that we had never planned on playing live. This is what happened. Dave plays a pretty rocking guitar solo.

This MP3 is ripped from an old video camera recording, so it is TERRIBLE audio quality. Here is a transcription of what you are about to hear. This makes me laugh.

Dave: This is another one...about um...(mic goes dead)...Did I just turn this off?

Me: YOU DON'T NEED IT!

Dave: CHECK. Yeah I did. (mic goes dead again.) Oh god.

Matt: SQUEEZE IT FROM THE BOTTOM

Dave: SHUT UP.

Matt: Alright.

Dave: I'LL SQUEEZE YOU FROM THE BOTTOM.

Audience: OHHH WOOO

Song Starts

Dave: I ain't no basket of sunshine
I ain't no bucket of rain
I got a refrigerator full of body parts
And that includes...your brain!
Let's go!

I ain't no basket of sunshine
I ain't no bucket of rain
Refrigerator. With body parts.
That includes your brain.

Alright that's enough of that. That's just a dumb song we wrote.



Download this masterpiece here.


Or maybe you'd just like to preview?




-Jordan

WEEK 68: Hooded Man In The Snow

SNOW.


A lot of snow fell the other day. So this mp3 will happen now.

This is just a cool (pun intended) atmospheric piece, almost threatening to be techno, but not quite getting there.

I really love this one mainly for the title fitting the music. I just really see a night time blizzard with a hooded man in the snow in the distance fighting the wind, drudging along. It was so clear to me when I listened, that coming up with the title was effortless.

It's a pretty old piece (2002), so the sound quality isn't great and there's a lot of awkward mixing (I wish those cymbals crashes weren't in it), but I still love this.


Download it by right clicking here.


Or preview it:




-Jordan

WEEK 65: Nerd Squint

Sorry for the long Holiday break!

This week's song is Nerd Squint, a little instrumental from 2002.

I really like this one because of how much the title nails what it sounds like. Usually I title these after I make them, and the phrase "Nerd Squint" was the only real choice. It SOUNDS like some fat nerdy kid walking down his school hallway and squinting, because his vision is bad, and feeling some weird sense of pride.

Musically, I just like the arrangement...the bass line, the way the beat comes in right when the melody picks up. The "electric guitar" repeated line throughout the whole thing (OK it's fake terrible sounding casio electric guitar.) Everything helps contribute to the title...Nerd Squint.


Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD IT HERE.


OR PREVIEW IT:





Jordan

WEEK 50: Green Grass

Hey all,

I have been totally busy and totally slacked off Mp3 of the Week this past 2 weeks. So here is an MP3 now, with another one sooner this week. AUGH HERE WE GO.

This week's MP3 was made with my friend Matt Koff in 2002. He recorded a guitar part and vocals while I was in the bathroom. Then I came out and added some keyboard shenanigans for the 2nd half. I really like this. And I'm betting he forgot this existed.


Download it here


Or preview it:





- Jordan

WEEK 46: Skating

Hey guys and dolls,

This week's MP3 is a very old instrumental I made on May 15th, 2002, called "Skating."

One of literally hundreds of instrumentals I was making nonstop at the time, this was one of the many where I thought the title really nailed what the music sounded like (I would usually make the music first, then title it.) I believe my friend James Jajac came up with the title after stopping by and hearing it. James also crushed a soda can at the very end.

If you can believe it, that horrible static sound about 30 seconds in is actually an electric guitar I borrowed. I had no good way of recording an electric guitar. So it sounds like crap. The accordion sounds nice though.



Download it HEREEEE



Or preview it!





Thanks!



Jordan

WEEK 42: Posters (Tear Them Down) (live)

Hey punkers,

This week's mp3 is from December 10th, 2002. It is a very rare (and the only) live performance of a song called "Posters (Tear Them Down)."

This song, along with several others, was written as a kind of fake "punk" song, when me and my friend Daniel were set to perform at a punk show and needed some tunes. Daniel described the songs we wrote as "songs for teenagers." Other songs written that week include TV Girl, I Want My CDs back, and Movie Set Girl. These will most likely pop up on this blog soon enough!

So this song was about wanting to tear down the posters in your wall as an obvious metaphor for hating yourself and wanting to change your identity. I actually really like this song. It's in another confusing subdivision of songs that aren't exactly sincere attempts at writing a song but still come out to my liking, magically turning into a real song in the process. Here are the lyrics:


I'm sick of being used to
all the posters in my room
but i'm just too lazy to take them down

All the posters on four walls
with their colors loud and all
sing me a sad song in stereo sound

I'll tear them down
Let the scotchtape rip off the wallpaper
Then put up some more
To cover up the scars

There goes the one with the cartoon face
Smiling at me, taking up space
Now I'm Glad it's in the trash bag, buried alive

There goes the picture from the magazine
Years ago it wad added to the scene
Now I can finally see what's on the other side

chorus

These posters from the past have been up for way too long
I'd rather not stare at the squares that desecrate my wall
I'd rather stare at nothing at all.

All these posters in my room
seems like they've been up for a century or two
Now I know exactly what I have to do

chorus


Download the song by clicking here!


Or preview it:





- Jordan

P.S. Picture stolen from some random guy's website. Nice room.
P.P.S. Yeah that's supposed to be a pun on Glad brand trash bags.

WEEK 35: Funky Frankfurters by Special Friends (live)

Still no luck on the tooth front. Oh well. On to other things:

This week's mp3 is fucking crazy!

Basically, me and my friend Matt, as our weird on again off again comedy band "Special Friends", played the Sidewalk Cafe open mic in 2002. It was packed. I went on stage and said I found a man named "Mr. Supper" to play a song with me, and we did our amazing song "Funky Frankfurters." Matt Koff on lead vocals, and me on guitar. These are the lyrics:

Hey bitch, don't touch my franks
They're mine, not yours
Hey bitch if you touch my franks
I'll show you the door

DON'T TOUCH MY FRANKS (FUNK FUNK FUNKY FRANKFURTERS)
DON'T TOUCH MY FRANKS (FUNK FUNK FUNKY FRANKFURTERS)



You get the idea. Matt went up there with a big wooden spoon and banged in a pot. It was pretty fun, and you could hear how much fun we were having up there. The audience seemed to HATE US. And we weren't sure why. Our main goal was to be as energetic and fun as possible at a really low key and slow open mic. Everyone sitting there looked angry at us.

We found out later there was some mix up, and Moldy Peaches' girl Kimya Dawson was announced to go on, but for some reason we went up instead (we don't know if it was our mix up or someone else's mix up), and I think people were angry they had to wait 3 minutes to see Kimya Dawson. You can hear in the mp3, the open mic MC says, "right now let's welcome Kimya, FINALLY, to the stage." Some people in the audience gave us a good cheer but if you were there you would have felt the bad vibes.

I left some of her performance on the mp3 to show what people wanted to hear instead of us.

On another note, a guy came up to us after and said he thought it would have been a funnier song if we sang "hey bitch don't touch my FRIENDS, they're mine, not yours." But that's completely missing the whole point. We think it is a lot funnier for a weird character to be angry and overprotective of his frankfurters, rather than a dumb misogynist song about some girl fucking your friends.



Enjoy!!!


Download it here!!!



Or preview the madness here:




-Jordan

WEEK 33: Halloween

Heeeeey!

So it's Halloween. SAY WHAT. My band Trouble's Afoot does a song called "Halloween."

I think you see where this is going.

Our version of that song is over at my website jordancooperlalala.com, but for your enjoyment I am going to post the embarrassing and crappy demo I made for the song many, many years ago. Another pre-tonsillectomy vocal performance where I sound all stuffed up.

Here are the lyrics:
Halloween's my favorite holiday
Everyone listens to what I have to say
Everything seems to go my way
On Halloween

When I see a Halloween cupcake
I get a jack-o-lantern smile across my face
Even though I don't like the taste
The very idea is just so great.

I can't recognize my best friend
I don't know what room he's in
He's not acting like he usually is

He's smiling under his skin
Halloween feelings may not last long
Before Thanksgiving they're already gone.


Download the demo here!


Or preview it:





-Jordan

WEEK 28: Phone Call (live)

Hey MP3 of the Weekers!

This week's mp3 is a crazy old song, recorded live at the Sidewalk Cafe open mic in the late late hours of the night, back in 2002. It must have been 1 AM, and I think there were 4 people there.

The song was basically about this girl I liked who said she'd call me back, but never did. Here are the lyrics:

What the hell do I do now?
I've had enough of this stuff
I can't try to figure you out
I'm not intact, you're abstract, it's

Not too fair that I'm in the air and I
Can't deny that you are unbearably great

Months go by and not a sound
Just think out loud, you're to proud
It's another singing clown
Fucked around, it's astound...ING

I can see you're not meant for me but if
You can show some decency I'll be
Free to believe that things can happen to me

What the hell do I do now?
I'm waiting for a phone call
Where the hell do I go now?
If I go I might miss the phone call
It's not a good thing that I'm not hearing that
Stupid phone ring and It's amazing that
I can sleep so late
Wake up even later
To an alarm clock playing that song I hate her

What the hell do I do now?
I'm waiting for a window
To turn bright red In my head...
It's simple.

Upon typing those lyrics I think the off phrasing throughout the song is kind of neat -- lines end with what should be the first word of the next verse. It's consistent through the whole song! That's cool. I don't remember planning that.

This is the only recorded live performance of this song, which I like a lot but is maybe more whiny and defeatist than usual, which may be hard to believe. Still I like the end, because I still don't know what it means. And I like the "it's another singing clown" line, because after being at an open mic where everyone is whining, that's really how it felt.

You'll hear singer songwriter Lach on this mp3, who hosted the open mic for many years. He, charmingly, liked to pop in on the song, with vocals, telephone ring sounds, and hand claps. His intense "OH MY GOD" after the performance definitely strokes my ego. It was fun stuff. Then he introduces my friend Dave Fox up to the mic. Weird.


Download it here!!!


Or preview it:




-Jordan

WEEK 27: Frayed

Hello everyone again.

This is an old instrumental from September, 2002, titled "Frayed", for reasons unknown to me. I like it a lot...it has a slow build up, some cool improvised guitar soloing from me (at a time when I can barely do that sort of thing), then things turn all happy and major key, then a subdued ending. I think this is a cool instrumental.

Thinking back, September 2002 was a very, very hard time in my life. Maybe Frayed has something to do with all that bad stuff.


DOWNLOAD IT HERE.

Or preview it:





-Jordan

WEEK 22: Tent

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!

Download it here!!!!

OR PREVIEW IT:




-Jordan

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