6-30-09 There Goes The Neighborhood (again)

A gentrification meditation. Link

6-29-09 Carry Me Over Mountains

Hmmm. Mountains on the brain. A late-night entry. Link.

6-28-09 Perilous Mountains

Back to Seattle, and a glimpse of the majestic and dangerous Cascades from 30,000 feet above. You've got ice, baby, in your soul. Link.

6-27-09 Rub The Goiter

Boy, this one's gonna be hard to explain.

Okay, so whilst visiting Milwaukee (Waukesha, to be more precise), I shared a night of bar-hopping, bowling, and 99 cent tacos with my sisters Julie and Lisa, my brother-in-law Dennis, and my niece Jenna. At one point during the bowling portion of our evening, Dennis pulled out this mangy rabbit's foot that he rubs for good luck. He's had it so long that the fur is mostly gone, and so it's a grisly sight - mostly bone and tufts of hair on a keychain. I'm not sure who said it first, but someone indicated that it wasn't so much like rubbing a rabbit's foot, so much as it was like rubbing a goiter. Of course, the expression stuck throughout the rest of the evening. (Sadly, there was no photo taken of said goiter.)



The next night, I was showing my mom how I make these little treasures on Garage Band. So I created this song at the dinner table with her sitting by. She actually helped out with some of the lyrics, and that's her laughing at the end. Link

6-26-09 Michael Jackson

It's already been a year. Weird. Sarah and I watched "This Is It" earlier this week. I must admit to feeling nostalgic and sad. For all of the messed up stuff he did, that mofo could still sing and dance, up until the end. link.

6-25-09 Guessing Game

My parents' piano has been through a lot. Note the chipped keys in the picture, chipped by me with a hammer when I was four or five. (Don't ask me how or why I had a hammer then.)

It hasn't seen a lot of use in recent years, but I like to plonk around on it when I'm home. (The hand in the photo actually belongs to my nephew Shane.) It's not the best sounding piano. The action is wonky, and it's only marginally in tune with itself. But the sound of it brings back lots of memories, in the same way that familiar smells do. Because of the nostalgia evoked when playing it, the stuff I play on it these days usually sounds like this.

6-24-09 Back In My Hometown

It's funny - I don't get nostalgic for my hometown very often, but looking for a good photo of the Milwaukee skyline really made want to be there. Not to mention the fact that my family all live there.

Let's see - the first night that I was in town, I stepped in as a sub on my sister's bocce ball team. The league she's in plays on strips of grass between the parking lot of the bar that sponsors it, and the road. Accuracy is important.



anyways, here's the song. Link.

6-23-09 Day or Night?

A short little ditty about passing ships. Link.

6-22-09 Stupid Misery

Not much to say about this one. Link.

6-21-09 Summer Songs

This one turned out really well. It's now enjoying a second life as a Railroad Tycoons song, which you can listen to here. Or you can listen to the original here.

6-20-09 Rings

I'm thinking of submitting this one to Ween for them to cover. Let's all go to the Medieval Faire together!

Oddly enough, the title came first on this. I'd just brought home a new board game that we were playing called Ringgz. It's an abstract, territorial game on par with Go, but much simpler. (For a review of this game written by someone who might actually go to one of those medieval faires, go here).

Here's the song.

6-19-09 I Am Your Elmer's Glue

With the wild popularity of this blog, I'm a little afraid to post this song lest I be sued by the Elmer Corporation. But I laugh in the face of litigation. All for you.

The metaphors in this song get a little confused along the way, but I think you'll get the idea. Link.

6-18-09 Mega Ultra Crazy Love

This is a heavy metal anthem without all of that distracting heavy metal music to get in the way. Link.

6-17-09 I Wanna Be By Myself

Sometimes you just want to walk. Link.

6-16-09 See What Comes Back

I think this one turned out really lovely - a simple vocal melody doubled by the mandolin, and a simple theme about simplifying your life. Link.

6-15-09 They Listen To Prog

I am the 'they' in this song. Link.

6-14-09 First Day On The Job

A silly little song with a twist at the end. Link

6-13-09 Sunshine

A pretty acoustic instrumental. Link.

6-12-09 Wasting My Time

Ah, and now we get back to June as it actually was. Jeez, what was I so bummed out about? I can't really remember. Link

6-11-09 Free of Doubt

An upbeat break from the heaviness of the majority of the other June songs. (Again, full disclosure: this one was actually recorded later in the year as a make-up, which explains the sunny outlook in a sea of angst.) Link.

6-10-09 Solving The Unsolvable

This will only take a minute and 6 seconds of your time. Link.

6-9-09 Where Is My Darkness?

A lot of angst and wistfulness this month. hmmm. Link.

6-8-09 Longing

An acoustic instrumental. A few clams in there, but I really like the chord changes. Weird guitar tunings always make for interesting surprises. Aptly named, too. Link.

6-7-09 I Built This Abyss

Indie-rock-ready. Link.

6-6-09 All Is Quiet

If I'd had more time, the main riff in this song would have made for a great bass line. It was one of those nights when I was writing the song late at night, which necessitates quiet parts rather than noisy bass and screaming guitars. Link.

6-5-09 Sunrise So Pretty

An ugly song about pretty things. Now with extra kazoos! Link.

6-4-09 She's Got A Brand New Bike

Sweet. Cruiser bike. It's all hers.

brand new bike (she not included)

Link.

6-3-09 Walking A Mile In Your Shoes

Full disclosure: I had to make up some days during the year.

June was kind of a tough month. I had several days that I skipped. Usually, if I had a crazy, long day and didn't write a song, I'd do two the next day. But, in June, for some reason I really lost steam and let a few days lapse. Then it became this thing that hung over me for the rest of the year. So I think this song was actually recorded sometime in December. I can't remember who this song is about now, but it was definitely pointed at someone in particular.

I did make up all of the days that I missed.

6-2-09 Summer's In The Air

Well, at least it was this time last year. A break in the psychic clouds. Link.

6-1-09 Hang It Up For Now

Some days just beat you down. Link.