mixtapes + meltdowns

Featured on a Podcast Near You!

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:24:00 +0000

Exciting news! Some friends of mine have a rad film podcast called Film101 and the latest episode features a few of my songs, including my latest!

The Film101 podcast is worth checking out in general-- the hosts are hilarious and insightful and they choose great topics to discuss. You can listen to the first five episodes on the Dane101 website or by searching for "Film101" in the iTunes store.

New Demo: Paper Weight

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:57:00 +0000

I recorded a new demo tonight for Paper Weight. Rough vocals!

Original (30-second) demo is HERE. Read feedback HERE.

==

paper weight
you're my paper weight
without you
i might just float away

i'm a red balloon
floating high above the clouds
can't touch the ground
but you reach up through
and you pull me down

you're my paper weight
without you
i might just float away

i'm a tornado
grabbing up all my dreams
and pulling them into the sea
but you calm me

you're my paper weight
without you
i might just float away

New Song: Paper Weight

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:38:00 +0000

Dudes, my last post was two months ago. That is not OK.

I guess I haven't had much to say, musically-speaking. I've been so focused on writing that I've barely touched my piano. But here's what's been up in Mixtapes Land since last we spoke:

Found out I earned a grand total of 28 cents in royalties last year. DRINKS ON ME, Y'ALL. In other news, I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon.
My song "Come Around" hit the T61 homepage for the... third time? Fourth time? It happened out of nowhere and I was pretty psyched.
February Album Writing Month (FAWM) is back!

I'm not sure how active I'll be this year, given my busy writing schedule and the fact that I share a house with very thin walls with four other people, but I did start my first song today.

Here's a thirty-second clip:

paper weight

you're my paper weight
without you
i might just float away

This is the first time I've really sat down and played in a long time and my voice sounds a little rough. But progress!

Speaking of progress, you can follow mine HERE.
My friend LK is learning embroidery and she made a sweet tea towel for me for Christmas. I'm basically obsessed.

Can we just talk about how cool that is?
I've been listening to the new Bon Iver album non-stop for the past few weeks. I definitely recommend it!

And that's all the news that's fit to print.

Stay warm, peeps. Spring's just a few months away...

Give Me the Bad News First

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:34:00 +0000

I've been away for far too long. It seems I can only devote myself to one creative outlet at a time and lately it's been prose. But the keyboard is there, looming.

This past week has been a blur of family, friends, and sunshine-- the best kind of blur. I was in Florida for purposes of pumpkin-pie-consumption and partying down at LK's film premiere. The premiere was a smashing success and the after party was the stuff that dreams are made of.

Pretty people and good music make for easy video, even on a four-year-old Canon Powershot. This video was made by yours truly:

[music: "postcards from italy" by beirut]

And after a week of flip flops and suntans, I came home... to this:

[music: "tangled in threads" by ben & petie]

Oh, Wisconsin. How you sadden me sometimes.

On a brighter note, I was surprised and thrilled to learn that "Something to Humble Me" hit thesixtyone homepage again this week!

How lovely!

In Which I Am At Last Recognized for My Many Varied Achievements

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:17:00 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow dudes and ladies!

While you were all stuffing your faces with mashed potatoes and watching disturbingly large likenesses of cartoon characters meander down a city street, I was engaging in one of my all-time favorite activities.

That's right. Air travel.

Rest assured that good times were had by all, including-- but not limited to-- the gentleman from Minneapolis who had many, many questions about the book I was reading and who also apparently thought "Seat 27E" was secret code for "Seat 27E and also half of Seat 27F". It's cool, I enjoy scrunching against the window like this.

But hey, good news! I just found out that I won an award! And if there's one thing I like? It's awards.

It's the Artists' Choice award from MaxBumps.net and I couldn't be more excited if it was a national holiday and I had leftover pumpkin pie in the fridge.

Oh, wait. It is... and I do.

BEST. DAY. EVER.

comic courtesy hartboy

Muddy Boots and Snow Angels

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:45:00 +0000

Solstice be damned... winter is here, y'all.

I haven't touched a piano in over a week, though I'm in the midst of an exciting song experiment with a local musician and I'm itching to get back to the keys. It's been a crazy week, what with the election (yay) and Halloween (boo) and a million birthdays and visitors and home improvement projects in between.

But the dust is settling. Or at least it's thinking about it.

Anyway, I just wanted to touch base with you today and let you know that my song Smoke Signals just hit the sixtyone homepage for the third time! The first time was six months ago, on the morning of my 26th birthday.

What was a sweet surprise for this cold November morning.

Vlog and You: A Musical Journey

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:15:00 +0000

Dudes and dudettes,

Well, it's snowing outside. It's not even Halloween and it's already snowing. I love Wisconsin, but I feel like we need to sit down and have a chat about this.

One advantage of the foul weather: more time for indoor projects! I've been working on a bunch of sweet projects lately and I want to share one of them with you today.

As back story, I'm part of a blog ring called Twenty-Something Bloggers. It's a great place to meet other bloggers, get ideas, and discover new ~~addictions~~ subscriptions for my RSS reader. The site regularly posts events and challenges like blog carnivals, essay contests, and Blog Swap Day. I always half-heartedly intend to participate, but life and procrastination thwart me at every turn.

The most recent of these events was Vlog Day. The word 'vlog' sounds like something you'd catch on Spring Break in Cancun, but it's actually just short for 'video log'. In other words, it's a blog post... on video! So twenty-first century! Next stop: personal jet packs and birthday cards that play Livin' la Vida Loca.

Vlog Day was last Wednesday, but as part of my ongoing theme of Personal Tardiness, I didn't finish mine until last night. It has nothing to do with music, but there is some great music in it. Andrew Bird, Le Tigre, and more!

And so, with limited further ado, I present to you...

Crafts & Cooking: An Ill-Advised Vlog

The New York Times calls Crafts & Cooking: An Ill-Advised Vlog "... an engaging, heartfelt romp through one woman's neighborhood and home. A triumph of the human spirit."

The Chicago Tribune says, "Two emphatic thumbs up! The best [curtain-related] vlog we've seen this year."

Michael Cera writes (probably), "I deeply regret not responding to Laurie's repeated requests to star in her vlog. It's so much better than Juno. Also, I love her."

My mother: "What's a vlog?"

Included within: wacky scene transitions, awkward camera angles, and approximately 900 instances of me nervously fiddling with my bangs. Also? Somewhere in the fourth quarter, I become convinced that I am Michel Gondry and/or stoned out of my mind. SO ARTSY.

PART I

PART II

Watch and discover for yourself why I have neither a home decorating show, a cooking show, nor a boyfriend.

Until next time,
MM

Rock 101: Still a Man's World

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:17:00 +0000

Saturday afternoon, some friends and I headed out to Madison Music Foundry for their Second Anniversary Party. Specifically, we were there to see some performances from MMF's Rock Workshop.

The Rock Workshop is an eight-week music program at Madison Music Foundry for middle- and high-school students. During the workshop, the kids form bands, learn songs, play live shows, and even record in a real studio. It's a rare and exciting opportunity for young musicians and I was excited to see what the kids were up to.

First of all, Madison Music Foundry definitely knows how to throw a party. Tasty snacks? Check. Fancy beer keg? Check. A lifetime supply of ear plugs for rock-your-socks-off volume levels? Check, check, check.

And the kids were awesome. There's something about thirteen-year-olds singing Van Halen that just warms my heart. Also, most of these kids had better hair than I do and they were definitely better at playing the drums.

One of the bands, a group tentatively calling themselves Four Pesos, even played a few original tunes. The original songs were some of my favorites of the night-- I swear one of the songs could have come from a Pernice Brothers album. You may or may not consider that a compliment, but I happen to really like that album.

I managed to snag a quick video of one of their Rock Workshop originals:

"All boys," my friend Clare observed at one point, nibbling a pretzel cracker between Ramones covers. It was true: there wasn't a girl in the whole group.

Amy Winehouse notwithstanding, rock and roll is still very much dominated by men. Which is part of why I was so enamored with the documentary Girls Rock! when I had the opportunity to catch it during this year's Wisconsin Film Festival.

Every person in the world should see this movie. It was so much more than cute.

photo courtesy hoodedfang, madison music foundry

At Least My Cough is Productive

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:22:00 +0000

A lot has happened since last we spoke: the weather's turned cold, the economy's made a run for the border, and I've had my heart broken no less than three separate times. I may have broken a few myself. It's been a busy month.

But I'm cutting back down to one job, so hopefully my writing will begin taking place at the piano again. Not that I have anything against napkin scribbles and singing into my voicemail at crowded bus stops, but the novelty's wearing thin.

My excuses for the past month are the usual: sick, work, out of town. In reverse order of enthusiasm. My out of town adventure was to Chicago where I visited my dear friend M. Markets, museums, and thrift stores, oh my! To top off the weekend, we rediscovered Regina Spektor in M's colorful, mid-century kitchen while making eggplant-almond enchiladas. They've got them some fancy food in the big city!

But I didn't log in to tell you about eggplant-almond enchiladas (though they were delicious). I'm writing to tell you about a very special and exciting project I've been working on with Glenn Case.

A few months ago, Glenn got some folks together and asked us to collaborate on a tribute album. I'll let Glenn explain in his own words:

Several musicians from thesixtyone have come together to pay tribute to a special guy, and a special band.

Supergrover is a very active listener on thesixtyone, and he's a very funny guy. In May of 2008, he was diagnosed with cancer. Even after the diagnosis, he has maintained a great sense of humor.

Supergrover has described For Squirrels as his "favorite band that no one has heard of." Two founding members of the band died in a car accident along with their tour manager on September 8th, 1995. They might have developed a much larger audience if tragedy hadn't struck so early in the band's career.

Every song [in this tribute] will be a cover version of a song that was originally recorded by For Squirrels.

Supergrover is an awesome dude and has been one of my biggest supporters on thesixtyone, so I was excited and honored to participate. I was assigned a song called "3" from For Squirrels' debut album Baypath Rd.

Glenn recorded the instrumental mix months ago, but due to some eighty-hour work weeks and (let's be honest here) my general love of procrastination, I didn't actually start recording vocals until last week. My recording sessions were maligned by subpar conditions (namely: four housemates, thin walls, and some seriously tenacious postnasal drip) and, as a result, my vocals on this track are all. over. the. place.

But Glenn Case? Is a champ. He saved the day with some sweet harmonies and mix-mastering mojo and the song turned out just dandy. And if you check out the second verse, you'll hear the closest thing to a belt you've ever heard from me. Thin walls be damned!

In other news, I have no other news. But stay tuned! Because I'm making clandestine plans for a Ryan Adams cover. I'm hoping to ask my housemate to supply guitars and lead vocals, though I haven't got up the nerve to ask him yet. My goal: get better at recreating existing songs, in addition to imagining new ones. Yes!

As for today, I'm working a fourteen-hour day and, by mid-morning, I've already single-handedly slaughtered an entire rain forest in the form of 3-ply facial tissue. But the leaves are changing, the sun is shining, and better health is just a cup of tea away. I can feel it.

photo courtesy saulgrayhildenbrand

Your Untimely Demise

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:51:00 +0000

Light sweaters and crackling air; autumn leaves and warm blankets. Winter is already whistling its sorry tune, but after a too-sticky summer, we're almost humming along.

Fall means fresh notebooks and fresh starts, clean trapper keepers and neatly labeled folders. A matching outfit laid neatly on the bedspread. There was always so much hope surrounding that ritual; it was a new year and anything could happen.

As an adult, that feeling has become a stranger: we just wake up and we are. But in those first crisp days of fall, with a warm mug of cider and palms pressed against, I can almost feel it again.

My housemate says that fall is a time of hoarding, a sort of anxious desperation. I feel that, too. These days of flip flops and tank tops and back porch barbecues, they're numbered and we're counting each one, quietly, quietly. Cold nights and heavy boots, they're peering in our windows and waiting in the cobwebs, and we're lighting every candle to shoo them out, to welcome them in.

===

I have the day off today and I'm sleepy-eyed and cat-napping, waking up to fingerspell sonnets on white keys. But a sonnet never comes; just this.

you're starting fires you can't put out
and the air is getting thin
and when your last bridge has been burned down
well that's when you've gotta swim

I'm happy with this thing in front of me, I'll tell you that.

photo credit photographer padawan

The Onset

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:02:00 +0000

summer's trailing off
like a word you never meant to say
& i'm wishing i could reel it in
again

Playing piano by the lake with a glass of pinot noir and a heavy heart. You can hear the gulls in this one.

Not a full song, just a thought...

photo credit davebluedevil

Half-Baked

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:34:00 +0000

I generally have a music-first approach to songwriting-- I start with the music and then let that inspire the lyrics. I suspect that my lyrics might suffer from using this approach, but whenever I try to write lyrics first, I can't seem to come up with music that works for them.

Today was my first day off work in far too long and it was my first chance to sit at the keyboard during piano-appropriate hours. I don't have anything finished, but I came up with three half-formed ideas... we'll see if any of them develop into full songs.

Fair warning: these aren't performances. This is just me improvising on the piano and making up lyrics as I go along. Definitely not ipod-ready!

photo credit luz a. villa

Back in Action (However Briefly)

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:19:00 +0000

Sorry that I've been M.I.A. this week-- I'm working eighty hours a week for the next month and in my limited time off, I'm going on a few dates (what?), trying to maximize time spent with friends who are moving (no!), and-- when possible-- catching up on much-needed sleep.

But!

Last night, I was out and about at the Dane 101 show at The Frequency. I was there to catch some shaky-cam action of my friend Clarity J. Unfortunately, the footage is currently locked away on mysterious little tapes in a camcorder that belongs to our friend Andrew. I hope to share it with you soon because she was fantastic.

Pony Parade - Clarity J

Clare's played in a successful indie pop duo for years, but is newly on her own as a singer-songwriter. It must be scary to be up on that stage all by yourself after sharing it for so long, but if the audience's response to her (at least one instance of "You're so cute!" yelled between songs) was any indication, she's going to do just fine.

I missed a few of the other acts due to a mid-show trip to the 'Dise for some grilled cheese sandwiches and irish cream (best combo ever), but I want to tell you about a few bands that really impressed me.

First: The Takebacks. This act wasn't even on the original line-up, but they absolutely blew me away. Based on their band name, I was expecting high-energy pop punk, but they were this, like, shoe-gazey explosion of electrifying goodness with hints of reggae sneaking in around the edges. It was super good.

Three minutes into their set, a friend leaned over to me-- unprovoked-- and whispered: "He's married," referring to the dreamboat lead singer. Dude, it's all about the music here! Although, I have to admit that I basically had a huge talent crush on the entire band. They're all pretty adorable.

Go see them when you can and pick up a CD. They were selling them last night for $5.

Inna Rut - The Takebacks

Speaking of crushes, another band I loved was Madison favorites The Shabelles. Oh, that keyboardist. So cute. Anyway, they were super fun and had the whole bar bopping along to their raunchy pop-a-licious goodness.

Nothing - The Shabelles

I was excited to see Pale Young Gentlemen as I've been a fan since their debut album (which I strongly recommend getting your hands on as it lived in my CD player for a full three months before I reluctantly took it out of circulation). That album is equal parts classical music recital and wild west saloon drinking game. It's swaggering and grandiose and it's effing beautiful. They remind me a bit of Regina Spektor in this piano-as-time-machine way. They're like a couple that's doing the tango, but the man has a rose between his lips at a certain jaunty angle that says, We're in on the joke.

Unfortunately, I was too tired to keep my eyes open after The Shabelles and will have to catch them live another time.

Keep on keepin' on, Madison music scene!

photo credit: david de young

For Your iPod: September 29th

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:44:00 +0000

Enough about me, let's talk about someone else.

Specifically, I want to talk about the artist who calls herself September 29th. She lives in Italy and she is 25-years-old and she is amazing. Her voice is equal parts ether and steel; her lyrics a poignant blend of poetry and madness.

First, let's talk about this song that I love. It's called "Meditation Upon the Perfect Word" and it is painfully beautiful. I can't stop listening to it. You should listen to it, too.

And I understand
That what's good is the Prelude
To what's bad
And what's sad is a path
Towards woods of Joy...

Holy crap, y'all.

She also makes these incredibly rad music videos that I kind of cannot even handle. This one's called "Heavy Times" and it gets better every time I hear it.

Broken hearts, windows
Widows, cigarettes,
Global warming,
Global warning
We're getting used to living
In these Heavy Times.

This next one is a cartoon. The reason for watching it should be obvious.

The song is called "Legend".

You are leaning on the window sill
The Moon is pale,
Looks ill.
And up there, on the barefoot hill,
The dogs are barking to the ghosts.

You can visit her website here and check out more of her songs on thesixtyone or on her myspace page. You can buy her album Herald of the Morn here for $10, including shipping.

===

I'm hoping to make these artist intros a regular occurrence on my blog. You know, for the ten people who read it. Hello, friends!

Letting the Bad Ones Have Their Turn

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:40:00 +0000

A friend of mine once said that writing is like having a thousand words queued up inside of your brain. The problem is that the best ones are stuck in the back, waiting their turn, which means you've got to spit out all the bad ones first.

My problem as a fiction writer is that I never want to let the bad ones have their turn. I just sit there with my mouth clamped shut, pen hovered, waiting for the good ones to leapfrog their way to the front.

They rarely do.

As a musician, I see every song as an opportunity to learn and to grow. My problem as a fiction writer is that there's no joy for me in the learning and growing; I see it only as an affirmation that I'm not already good enough. But as a musician? I don't expect to be good. When I write bad music, I'm unsurprised and unbothered and I move on. And when I write good music? I'm amazed and I'm thrilled and I move on.

The point of this post is to say that I write a lot of amazingly bad music. For every song that I post, there are a thousand deleted takes of me singing the most ridiculous lyrics, banging around on the keyboard like a six-year-old, and hitting notes that cannot and should not be heard by the human ear.

And that's the whole point of something like February Album Writing Month or 50 Songs in 90 Days: To get to the good ones, you've got to let the bad ones have their turn.

photo courtesy of meredith_farmer

Even In the Desert, It Sometimes Rains

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:09:00 +0000

A few years ago, I drove across the country with someone I didn't know. We were two strangers trapped in a cramped Toyota Camry for five days-- both in a sort of existential place in our lives, in the midst of major life changes and still stinging from recent, painful break-ups. We spent a night in Las Vegas on the way and you couldn't choose two more perfect people to share a gaudy motel room in the desert on a rainy summer night.

This isn't a full demo, but it's a snippet of an idea I'm working on. The piano and "violins" are me, but the guitar is not. (It's just a loop.)

More to come.

Improvisation & Being Mindful of Your Medium

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 05:40:00 +0000

Tonight began with pisco sours & hand-rolled cigarettes on the front porch, but soon led, inevitably, to guitars and tambourines on sloping couches. I live in a house of musicians and usually these jam sessions find me playing an oil can with a wooden spoon or harmonizing shyly in a corner, but this time my housemates insisted that I haul my keyboard downstairs and join the fun.

I was incredibly nervous because I have essentially zero experience playing music with other people and certainly don't have experience improvising music with other people. But, guys, it was so much easier than I thought! I've been practicing piano almost every day and I'm getting much better at hearing a chord and then reproducing it on command or finding a complementary chord. I guess that really is something you can learn with practice. I'm still shy about playing music live, but I'm excited about getting better.

===

I've been thinking a lot about songwriting lately. It's still very new to me, but I've spent most of my life thinking about writing in other forms.

Some of the best screenwriting advice I've ever heard is: Be mindful of your medium. Theoretically, you have a story to tell and you choose a certain medium (film, photography, poetry, etc.) because that's the best medium in which to tell your story. If you've chosen film as your medium, then you should take advantage of the aspects of film that make it unique; writing a screenplay that is purely dialogue-driven is a waste of the medium.

I think the same goes for music: every song is a story that you tell and you've chosen music as the medium for telling that story. We should make sure its the right medium and, if it is, take full advantage of what that medium has to offer. In other words: a song should be musical! It's not a poem.

These thoughts aren't entirely cohesive, but I hope it gives you something to think about. We can talk about it over pisco sours the next time I see you.

photo credit: zen

New Demo for "Frequency"

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:52:00 +0000

This still needs work, but here's an updated demo. It's basically just clearer vocals and a little bit of musical rearrangement.

The old demo is here.

Incidentally, I'm not sure what would possess me to write a song that includes notes I can't actually hit, but... there you go.

New Demo - "When My Eyes Are Blue"

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 03:17:00 +0000

New and drastically different demo for When My Eyes Are Blue. The song still isn't finished, but as a wise man once said: "Art is never finished, only abandoned."

This song feels like a major departure for me, although I don't know if it will sound that way to you. For one thing, I wrote this song entirely on the piano, whereas most of my songs rely on loops more heavily than I'd prefer.

I also feel like this song differs lyrically from some of my recent songs. As a writer, I'd expect lyrics to be the easiest part of songwriting, but I've found that I really struggle to be honest as a songwriter. It's so easy to fall back on cliches rather than writing a song than really comes from an honest place.

This song feels honest to me.

When My Eyes Are Blue

Talk me down again
Seem to love this ledge
What a view

I've got coffee on
I know you like it strong
You like it strong
Won't be warm for long

And you're waiting for me
To wake up from this dream
From this dream
And I don't want to lie to you
But I'm only sad when my eyes are blue

Twilight's slipping in
It's found me again
Oh, again

And you're waiting for me
To wake up from this dream
From this dream
And I don't want to lie to you
But I'm only sad when my eyes are blue

BRIDGE

And you're waiting for me
To wake up from this dream
But I just sleep

And I don't want to lie to you
But I'm only sad when my eyes are blue

New Song - "When My Eyes Are Blue"

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:34:00 +0000

This demo is ROUGH. Also, the song is not even close to being finished, but I wanted to get the general idea up here.

I've been teaching myself how to play piano over the past month or so, so I'm super excited about how much I'm (hopefully) going to improve in the future...

When My Eyes Are Blue

Talk me down again
Seem to love this ledge
What a view

And I've got coffee on
I know you like it strong
You like it strong
Won't be warm for long

And I don't want to lie to you
But I'm only sad when my eyes are blue

Twilight's slipping in
It's found me again
Oh, again

And I don't want to lie to you
But I'm only sad when my eyes are blue

Better Late Than Never

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:14:00 +0000

From the folks who brought you February Album Writing Month:

Fourteen songs in twenty-eight days was one thing, but fifty songs in ninety days? That just seems masochistic.

And yet, here I am. Nearly a month late, I've got two full songs and a slew of half-written ditties and only 64 days to go. Better get crackin'.

New Song - "Frequency"

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:48:00 +0000

I've been working on a new song. It's by no means finished, but this is the general idea. It's the first song I've written on the piano without the use of loops and it's been both fun and frustrating. I look forward to getting better at this...

Frequency

We walked home from the party
The sky was full of stars
They looked so close
But felt so very far

You told me I should go inside
Said it's best to just move on
And I guess you're right
But I don't know if I'm that strong

'Cause you're on my frequency
And I need you here with me
Here with me

The card came on a Tuesday
Just a date, a grain of rice
It's at the church on Spruce
Well, I suppose that will be nice

I've been afraid to call you
Don't want to hear you say her name
And life goes on
But nothing is the same

'Cause you're on my frequency
And I need you here with me
Here with me

And even now if you called
I say I wouldn't run to you
But I know it isn't true

'Cause you're on my frequency
And I need you here with me
Here with me

The Joys of Songwriting

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:06:00 +0000

This is how I feel today...

Auto Pseudo Mondo CD Released Today!

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:14:00 +0000

Earlier this year, I participated in February Album Writing Month. FAWM is an annual event in which musicians from all over the world commit to writing a full album in the month of February: 14 songs in 28 days. It's ridiculously fun and inspiring.

One of the best things about FAWM is the Weekly Challenge. Each week, FAWM presents artists with a new challenge to inspire us and jog our creativity. One week this year, FAWM participants Nancy Rost, Tim Wille, and Paul Turrell got together and wrote the chords and lyrics to a song. The challenge for FAWM participants was to record our own version of the song before listening to anyone else's. It was called the "Explore the Core" Challenge and the intention was to prove that a song is much more than the sum of its lyrics and chords.

Each version of the song ended up so incredibly different from the next. My version (with John Argentiero on guitar) is embedded above and has a very sleepy/sultry feel to it. My friend Andrew did an awesome heavy metal version and I recall Phil Norman's version being particularly moving and beautiful. The album also includes a great version from my friend Tara Craig, who is a fantastic singer-songwriter in Austin. There are 18 versions of the song in all.

I think the producers will be lucky to even recoup the cost of production, but any and all profits will be donated to RIME (Renovation in Music Education), which is an organization dedicated to helping young people succeed through innovative music-partnership programs.

If you're interested in picking up a copy, you can do so here.

My Setup

mixtapesandmeltdowns@gmail.com (mixtapes + meltdowns) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:50:00 +0000

I'm writing a new song right now-- on the keyboard! I'm pretty excited. Just a few months ago, I couldn't rub two keys together to make a chord, and now I'm writing a whole song on the keyboard!

I guess Mom was right: Practice, practice, practice.