12-22-09 Four Rivers

Sheer absurdity. The title came from an internet pattern identification game to which Sarah and I are addicted. The song has nothing to do with the game. Link.

Vicodin Taffy

The title of this song came out of a late night conversation/argument with Kirk and David. I'm not sure how the argument actually spurred the creation of the phrase, but it must have been a really interesting argument. It's a fun little bit of circus nausea. Link.

11-26-09 Catch As Catch Can

I understand what this expression means, but I'm still mystified about its origins. I mean, it sounds like nonsense, right? But, when it's used in the right context, I love it. Like Ned Plimpton does in The Life Aquatic. I couldn't find a clip, but go see the movie if you haven't already. That's where the title came from. Seu Jorge is an integral part of that film, and I think the overall sound of this piece is reminiscent of his stuff (with a little Iron and Wine thrown in for good measure). One of my favorite patchworks of sound from the year. Link.

10-4-09 Ohio's A Piano

Based on a random email that Rob sent out. I'd like to think that either the Ohio Chamber Of Commerce or Baldwin Pianos might pick this song up as their state anthem/jingle.

9-23-09 Log Jam

The name of a one-off night we did at Seattle Center for Winterfest last year. Pretty much completely nonsensical. I kind of love it. Especially the ridiculous guitar tone cluster meltdown at the end. link.

9-11-09 Cheeks On The Glass

Uh-oh.

This one's kind of terrible, but in a really fun way. This was recorded in the Portland Hilton with Sarah, on our anniversary weekend. We'd been listening to a lot of Serge Gainsbourg on the way up, and it spawned this. The title actually came first, thanks to an unfortunate photo taken in our hotel bathroom of, well, cheeks on glass. Use your imagination. Or don't.

8-30-09 The Road Of Bones

Sarah and I had been watching Long Way Round, a series about Ewan McGregor and his mate Charley Boorman attempting to ride his motorcycle east all the way from Scotland to New York. The Road of Bones is a treacherous expanse of highway in Siberia that they traveled as part of the journey. It's named for the labor camp workers who died while building the road during Stalin's regime. link.

8-23-09 Rubberneck Dick

This title, and the first line of the lyric, came directly from John Osebold, so you can blame him for this song. Link.

8-12-09 Vituperation And Vitriol

Playing some catch-up tonight thanks to a couple crazy days and a summer cold...

The title came first with this song. I came across the word 'vituperation' in the Michael Chabon book I'd been reading. With his novels, I tend to look up a lot of words. It had occurred to me that my retention of these new words was next to nil unless I started using them. This was my attempt to retain that word. (I still needed to look it up just now to remember that it means 'bitter and abusive language'.)

Musically, it's a great little piece with weird chord changes and time hiccups, and it almost feels like it could be an interstitial track from The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. You know, if I sounded anything like Peter Gabriel.

7-13-09 All-One

If you're curious about the crazy genius whose name is on this soap, Emmanuel Bronner, you must see this movie. It's a great movie.

The song has very little to do with Bronner, other than his "All One! Or None!" credo. In retrospect, I may have stolen some of the chord changes from David Crosby. He'll be wanting those back at some point, I'll wager.

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.

4-16-09 Grandma's Dinner Table

I asked Sarah for a title, and this was what she came up with. My first inclination was to make a country song (maybe I was subconsciously thinking of this song. Once that inclination passed, I ended up writing one of the more poignant pieces that I've done in recent memory. And it's totally made up, which is even stranger. Link.

4-10-09 Land's End

Recorded at Aaron and Bronwyn's after having watched a blustery sunset at Lincoln Park (Land's End). The instrument in the song is the hang, a metallic flying saucer-looking thing that makes the sweetest, purest tones. Link.

4-1-09 They Arrived At The Gates Of Heaven

My friend Jen was having a party to celebrate the completion of a manuscript she wrote. The title of it was "Uneasy Heavens Await Those Fleeing", and she asked a bunch of her artist friends to create pieces inspired by that title. This was my first attempt at such a piece.

3-28-09 Forty Dollar Bill

This one actually came from a dream I'd had the previous night. It's a bit hazy now, but I remember being in a hotel suite with some people who were drunk and disorderly. One of them had spilled wine on the floor, and I was freaking out about it. It just so happened that my friends Amanda and Patti, who run the fabulous Theatre Off Jackson here in Seattle, were in the corner of the room sitting on high stools at a sort of cocktail table watching the proceedings. Seeing my distress at the spilled wine, Amanda handed me a forty dollar bill to help pay for the damages. Of course, it was totally logical that I'd received such a piece of currency in the dream.

The song itself has very little to do with the actual dream, but I just loved the idea of a night out on the town with a forty dollar bill.

3-17-09 Sound Unbound

The title of a book by Paul Mullins, aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid. Extra reverb? Why, you're soaking in it! Link.

3-15-09 25 Lbs. of Glitter

I'd had a random conversation at the Canoe Club with an aerialist in the fantastic (and, sadly, defunct) troupe known as Circus Contraption. She'd just come from a performance. Although she was in her street clothes, she hadn't had time to remove her makeup, which essentially consisted of glitter. Lots and lots of glitter on every exposed body part. She made a joke about requesting 25 lbs of it every week. Now that's a good inspiration for a song. Link!

3-13-09 Beef-C

We sometimes play this game called Bananagrams - it's basically like Scrabble, only without the board. Sometimes we'll have a hilarity round where everyone picks somewhere between 4 and 7 letters, and, using all the letters, need to make up a word and a definition for the word. I don't remember who made up the word, but I do remember that it was a vitamin supplement made entirely from beef. So this song is a PSA (apparently sung by Gordon Gano of The Violent Femmes) to remember to take your Beef-C every day.

2-28-09 No More Risky Pinches of Salt

During our Half Brothers retreat last year, we watched a lot of the old Flatt and Scruggs TV show that aired in the 50's. It was sponsored by Martha White's Flour. In between scorching bluegrass numbers would be long-form ads for different Martha White products, which always included the catchy tagline, "Goooooodness graaaaaacious - it's good." This particular sponsor segment inspired the song I wrote that day.



Shaky backups provided by Rick.

2-24-09 Margaritas and Viagra

This title was provided by my wife. She had an encounter with a maintenance guy where she works on a Friday afternoon. After a small amount of obligatory niceties, he volunteered (unbidden) what his plan was for the evening, involving - you guessed it - margaritas and viagra. Thus a song was born. I imagined him as smarmy and full of chest hair, lost in the swinger-encrusted 70's. Sorta like Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.



A fun song.

(Song a Day 2009 does not endorse the mixing of these two contolled substances unless you are seriously groovy.