Hi guys! This week's MP3 is one of my favorite instrumentals. It's actually a remake of an old instrumental called "Banjordian," which I made with a banjo. But while this one lacks banjo, it sounds a lot better. This was made as a possible TV Theme for a real tv show, though I pretty much knew as I was making it that this didn't fit the tone of the show at all. So I ended up really just making it for myself. This instrumental features a fake accordion, and also a real accordion. WOW! Download it by right-clicking here or preview it:
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.
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.
