katie please don't hang up the phone

so let the record show i've been diligently working on "a viking's funeral" and it's getting much closer to being presentable. i keep talking about it because it sounds so good in my head, and i'm so excited about it, but the process of bringing it to life the way i want to has been way harder for this one than for others.

my major fear now is that i'll finally get it to where i want it to be, post it, and then you'll think it's overproduced, or in some other way potty. but yeah, i'm only a little worried about that.

keep checking back here, it should be ready in just a few days. or join the mailing list to the right, and you'll be the very first to know.

oh and i almost forgot. this had me laughing so hard today i cried.

quick like a bunny

yo. so today i was in the shower and a lyric kinda came to me so i jumped out (the shower still skeeves me out a bit anyway, see below) to write it down. next thing i know it's about 2 hours later and I've got a song completely written and a demo of it recorded.

now granted the lyrics may change a little bit, and the recording sucks, but i'm kinda proud of it. it's got a last-song-on-the-record feel to it, and i think you might like it. it's called "new york city" and you're encouraged to listen to it and tell your friends about it and listen some more. i'll probably only leave it up for a few days, until i get a better version of "a viking's funeral" finished, at which point i'll be putting that back up.

it's available to listen to at all the usual places: pulverradio, myspace, and purevolume.

ps: i did a lot of work on the rest of this site this weekend, just making it look better and shit. take a look around. it's more...elegant.

jibblie jibblie jibblie jibblie jibblie

so this happened to me a few mornings ago but i didn't want to write about it right away because i thought maybe i could just shut it out of my brain like it never happened. i now realize i can't (not without years of therapy) so here goes:

i woke up around the same time i always do and stumbled out of bed towards the shower. it's been hot as shit in new york so i turned on some comfortably cool water and felt it for a while with my hand while i stared in the mirror trying not to look so tired. (you know, kinda like how when someone wakes you up with a phone call but you try to talk like you're not just waking up but they can always tell anyway? like that only with looks.)

so i get in the shower. i always wash my hair first. so i did that. and you know, conditioner and shit, that all happens too. then i reach for my poofy scrubber thing. you know, those things that are like big bundles of plastic netting? i have no idea what they're called, but practically everyone uses one or at least has seen one so i'm assuming you know what i mean. i soap it up and get ready to go to work, when i notice a little black thing on it (could have been towel fuzz because my stupid black towels always leave fuzz). a closer look reveals it's a little baby cockroach.

ok, so at this point if you don't live in new york city you're probably totally grossed out. if you do live in new york city you're like yeah so what. those goddamn things are just everywhere. you deal with it. it's not like i leave food sitting out in the bathroom.

i flicked the sonofabitch off and watched him go down the drain. on with the scrubbing. but then, after a few mins of sending that soapy poof to all the places it needs to go, i took a closer look. turns out on the underside of the thing (the side i was holding with my hand as i used it) there were at least 30 more baby cockroaches.

now even if you live in new york you're grossed out.

the only thing i can think is that some stupid mama cockroach thought that would be a nice place to lay some eggs (but then, where isn't a good place for cockroach eggs?). needless to say, my scrubbing tool has been thrown out, and i've spent some time checking every dark corner of my bathroom for more colonies. none. an isolated incident, i'm hoping.

but i mean...come on. how gross is that?

if the silence takes you then i hope it takes me too

tonight i stayed super late at work and resang the vocals for "a viking's funeral" in the office where it's nice and quiet. forget about how 3 of my bosses walked in on me singing in a closet sized room with my eyes closed. it was after hours. the point is, i'll have a new version of that song posted soon and if you ask me it sounds about 50 million times better. i'm taking the other one down now, and i'll post the new version in a few days once i've convinced myself i don't need to change it again. i'm trying not to be in such a hurry all the time to put up shit i end up not being happy with.

and holy crap. have you heard the new death cab for cutie song? it's good.

summer is overrated

holy moly...it's been almost a week since i put up any news on this bad boy here. truth is, not much to report, on the music front. i've been playing a bit, working on a few new songs, trying to rework some others. as i should have known i would do, i've decided i'm overwhelmingly unhappy with the vocals on "a viking's funeral" so that'll be redone quite soon. in the meantime you can still listen to the old one, but do so with the knowledge in mind that the vocals are shite and i'll be redoing them. and also with the knowledge that i'm posting this in my underwear because it's a million goddamn degrees in new york tonight.

i have a paper here that entitles me to fast track status

got my ASCAP membership in the mail today. makes me feel pretty legit...even though i'm pretty sure they'll give one to just about anybody. i've got a membership number and everything. and apparently i can get a discount renting a car now.

all this really means is that if i take the show on the road now, or ever get any radio play anywhere, i get paid. performance royalties, my friends. dollar signs pop out of my eyes.

so i'm copyrighted (remember?), and i'm in ASCAP. now all i have to do is put together a band, write a great record, tour to support it, and get in heavy rotation on every station in the country. the paperwork's done...everything else is smooth sailing.

so let's play doctor babe

a while back i met this kid named nick who was pretty cool. he directs music videos. long story short, he asked me if i wanted to be in this shoot of his, so i was like yeah ok. it was like an 11 hour day of shooting and lifting this dead-weight girl up ten thousand times, for a 4 min clip. but it was totally fun.

anyway, the video's finished now, so you can watch it if you want. i play the french maid. no, i'm kidding. i'm the doctor. the guys in rufio were pretty cool. and notice how freakin' strong i am to lift up the bass player over my head near the end. goddamn i rule.

but just because i am posting again don't think you're off the hook to go listen to "a viking's funeral" about a million more times. do it here, here, and here. come on people, show me you care. i put the lyrics up in the music section in case anyone's keeping track.

note: even though i couldn't help naming this post what i named it...senses fail is everything that is wrong with emo music. and you can tell them i said so. actually no wait don't.

a viking's funeral - demo

yo. so i got up early today, played music for 12 hours, and it's done. the demo, that is, of the song i've been talking about forever. so far only my brother's heard it, but he said "shit man. this is HOT" so that's pretty cool.

here's the deal: i don't have a bass in this apt so there's no bass part. and my computer crapped out in the 11th hour (literally) so the ending is kinda lackluster because i was just trying to finish it without exploding this thing. and i only had about 2 tries at the vocals for the same reason, so give me a freakin' break.

as for the piano (see the entry below) i practiced it a whole lot, and played it about 10 times before i got it right. listen to it though, it's such a simple thing. next i'll try to learn to play with two hands and all my fingers.

ok, enough babble. listen to it here or here and let me know what you think of it. i think i'm going back to bed.

now would be a great time to join the mailing list if you haven't yet.

art is hard

so i've been trying to make myself proficient enough at piano (read: radio shack keyboard) to record this song that i decided just absolutely needs a little piano part. kinda like that time i tried to teach myself harmonica. now, i'm not even very good at guitar, and i play that all the time. harmonica i managed to fake well enough. turns out i suck at piano. i even took lessons for a few years when i was a kid* and i'm still completely useless.

to calm my nerves, i took some time to bang some nails into the walls of this apartment to hang my newly acquired dart board tonight. so come over and i'll whup your monkey ass in darts (unless your name is kevin, then you beat me at everything all the time you sonofabitch). the hammer i use to do this shit around here is scary, because it's really old and when i swing it i'm always afraid the head will fly right off the handle and the claw will hit me in the eye. which would suck, but also be totally manly.

* from a lady named mrs. dick. her husband's name was richard. dick dick. not kidding.

scroll buttons get ill, like a heart attack

driving back into nyc last night from my weekend respite in connecticut, i saw guys shooting fireworks off overpasses right over my head. and we're not talking little bottle rockets here, we're talking some heavy shit. in fact, there was some pretty heavy shit flying around all over the place. off of fire escapes, sidewalks, building roofs. where do these people get their rad fireworks?

i ♥ new york.

also, if you view this site with internet explorer:

1. you are a dying breed.
2. i customized the scroll bars. now they're black and white. f yeah. but only you, faithful ie user, can reap the benefits.

let the record show that i, in fact, use firefox.

mom's leftover macaroni salad is balls-to-the-walls good. i wish every day could be the day after the 4th of july.

some site updates

greetings and happy july 1. today's a holiday in canada you know. i found that out this year. god knows what for, but they all have the day off.

anyway, tonight i have to drive from nyc to my old hometown (monroe, ct. represent.) and i'm sitting around waiting for a time when traffic might not be so stupefyingly bad. so i got bored and did some things to the site. you may have noticed there's a links section up now. want a link to your site there? it won't do you any good because nobody reads the thing, but if you want one just drop me a line (comment this post) and i'll make it so.

a note on how the news section has become more of a recovering-emoholic support group than a news section about the music of a non-existent band: the band doesn't f'ing exist man. i gotta fill the page with something. i wish it could be like "so today me and my awesome guitar player and awesome drummer and not-that-good-but-we-keep- him-in-the-band-because-chicks-think-he's-hot bassist went into the studio to lay down some tracks with a grammy winning producer" but for now it's just me and so the news section is what it is.

also, i put an easter egg up on the site. it's a song i didn't write but i did record some time ago. more people liked it than any song i wrote that i know of, but i took it off all the music sites because i didn't write it. anyway, if you can find it and you want it you're welcome to it. don't go and give it away to everyone else though, then you'll ruin their fun. i hid it like a sneaky guy, and they'll have to find it like sneaky guys just like you, you sneaky guy.