WEEK 88: And I'm Gone ALBUM PREVIEW!

Hey everyone!

This is an insanely special MP3 OF THE "WEEK", a preview of my first ever album!

My band Trouble's Afoot disintegrated a while back but we had started work on two (!) albums, doing the drums and bass. For the past year (or more...it's been a long time) I have been working in a studio on the first collection of songs. I have no idea when the album will be done (I am out of money and lack time), but for now I am enjoying the results.

There are lots of great things to share, but I am particularly happy with "And I'm Gone", one of my stranger and harder-to-classify songs. It came out as interesting and strange as I wanted, but I still consider it very catchy and accessible all the same.

I don't exactly want to talk about what the song "means", because this is one of the rare tracks where I DON'T quite know what it means, in a literal sense, though I certainly know the feelings it's based on. I'd rather talk about the production, since that's what I spent the big bucks on:

I love the super stereo mixing of the drums and bass. Drums on the right, bass on the left. Another Beatles-esque touch is the plodding piano that comes in at the end section of the song, my favorite thing on here. I love the heartbeat-like bass line that my buddy Dave Fox is playing during the choruses (uh, I think they're choruses?), and Chris Roberts on drums really gave the song a surprising danceable groove, something I had never intended, but makes complete sense.

The best thing? FOOT STOMPS. The foot stomps during the choruses was thought of in the studio and track after track of stomping (ow my feet) on a wooden floor really adds to the heft of the beat. Love it love it love it.

I am also proud of the production idea to have a subtle ambient noise hiss fade in on the verses and fade out before the chorus. It gives the chorus a clarity of sound that is almost subconscious.

Anyway, enough of that, check it out!

Download it by clicking here!


Or preview it!




See ya whenever!

-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 69: Sally: Have You Met Someone (live)

WELCOME TO WEEK 69!

This week's MP3 is ultra awesome super cool. I had a show last week at Hank's Saloon in Brooklyn, and my vocally gifted friend Meghan O'Neill joined me on stage for a mini-Sally set! (Sally is my band with all love songs and female lead vocals.)

My often-bass-player Dave Fox played drums along (after only hearing the song about 2 hours earlier before the show), and I played electric guitar, trying to do the best Johnny Marr impression I can possibly fake. I love how it all came out.

The quality of this recording isn't so great, mainly because there were a lot of people talking at the bar, and we were struggling to be louder than them. Still, I loved playing these songs live, and there will be more MP3s from this show and future Sally recordings soon!

Here are the lyrics. The song is pretty self explanatory:

I don’t regret the time we spent

In fact I think it’s splendid

The more I guess at your progress

The more it seems we’ve ended

I haven’t been with many people

Not after what happened with us

I don’t know why I feel like I must be faithful

But…have you met someone?

A guy at work is a big flirt

He asked me out for supper

My red cheeks glowed but I said no

It just doesn’t seem proper

Chorus

Is she pretty?

Is she happy?

How does she kiss

Does she exist?

My kitchens cold and all alone

I miss you at the table

I eat and go to sleep I don’t

Know if this mood is fatal

HAVE YOU MET SOMEONE?!?



Download the song by right clicking here and saving!


Or preview the song!





Jordan

WEEK 62: Halloween (live)

Long time no see!

I took a break from this blog for-reasons-that-are-known-to-me-and-me-alone, BUT NOW I'M BACK. Let's start things with a BOO.

This week's MP3 is a really nice soundboard recording of my band Trouble's Afoot (currently in need of a drummer) performing my song "Halloween", at the Sidewalk Cafe in August 2009.

If you like, first check out the very rough and very quaint (read: "bad") demo of this song in this previous MP3 of the Week entry.

Once you've listened to that (or don't listen to it, what do I care?), you can see how AWESOMED UP it got once I brought it to my band. Dave's bass is crazy during the "party freak out" section, the drums are completely loose and fun and somehow holding this Frankenstein song together, and my guitar is...well, it's doing it's job. By which I mean ROCKING. HARD. REAL HARD. AND TOUGH.

Mostly because the amp at the Sidewalk Cafe only had one setting -- "ROCKING HARD AND TOUGH", which made the song sound a bit odd, but I like it.

This was always a song I considered a b-side, a little oddity nobody would ever hear. But my drummer LOVED it, and the more we practiced it the more we realized how much more interesting it made our show. All year round, not just in the Fall. I gotta write more like these.


Download it here!


Or preview it!




Hope you enjoyed. See you next week,


Jordan

WEEK 54: Held Her In My Arms (live)

Hey everyone

This week's MP3 is a cover of the great Violent Femmes' song, "Held Her In My Arms," played live by band Trouble's Afoot on November 2nd, 2009, at Niagara Bar. As usual, Dave Fox on bass and Chris Roberts on drums.

This was our drummer's last show. We prepared this Violent Femmes cover very fast, then PLAYED it very fast, as you can hear. It was fun. Please enjoy it.


Download the MP3 here

or preview it:





-Jordan

WEEK 40: Is It Free?

Hey poop machines!

This week's mp3 is from one of my many "side projects", Proceed To Small Talk.

Proceed To Small Talk is an experimental recording project with my friend (and bass player) Dave Fox. We both do everything on the songs -- write, guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, vocals, etc. You can learn more about us on our myspace: Http://www.myspace.com/proceedtosmalltalk

This track is a favorite among our friends, titled "Is It Free?"

The legend goes, we ordered a pizza, and were waiting for a very long time for it to arrive. While we waited, we created this song.

As I can recall, it's Dave on lead vocals and acoustic guitar. I'm on synths, and banjo. Possibly backwards guitar too.

Download it here!


Or just preview it...it's free!






-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 19: Hi Eight

YEAAAHHHH!!

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."

Download it HEEEERE!


Or preview it here:




-Jordan