the Rattling

petalstain (花弁しみ)

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:37:00 +0000

so despite the lack of any activity on the interweb, i've actually been pretty busy and sorta productive on the musical front..

i was real lucky to work on music for some moving images (!) which is pretty awesome.. providence, i suppose - cause i was really hoping to find some way to doing something/anything in that direction. so i got asked to write a bunch of little major chord acoustic guitar bits for a short promo film for the MESD, and i churned out a lot of stuff trying to make sure i didn't screw up. almost all of it was background stuff, so when i listen to it now it seems a little bit directionless - almost unfinished or something.. it's odd to write 'instrumental background music', perhaps..

anyhow, some of the stuff i've been working on has spun itself into other directions.. stuff that would end up unsuitable for the project but sounds kinda cool, so here's one of 'em..

petalstain (花弁しみ)

this is actually two months old or so.. and only one of many things i've been up to, but i think it's the most suitable to share. for the MESD video, it was all acoustic guitars, real simple and pretty stuff.. once we were done with that, i started to tinker with it and introduce all the static-y guitars at the end and play around the electronica bits.. after the MESD gig, i was able to do music for another video project which had a different role to fill, and i think i'll post that one soon. similar and different stuff was involved. ha!

back in school, benkyoo shimashing the hell out my nihongo. lots of hard work, studying everyday for this PSU japanese program, which uses JSL core conversations and all.. blah blah, it's good and bad, sorta hard and unfamiliar, but i'm doing alright. it's nice to be on PSU campus, lots of hubbub. and it's cool 'cause emily and i are going together on the bus every morning , so we wake up together and stuff. sweet.

morning breath

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:18:00 +0000

here you go.

morning breath

bloodtest & trying=failing

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:18:00 +0000

bloodtest

trying=failing

emi-chan to aaron-kun wa futatsu atarashii uta o kakimashita

it's sorta butchered, but i think it gets the point across. and the verb is wrong, but i couldn't find "to write songs" anywhere.. so i just went with 'to write".

they're both cool little 'gem of a song' songs, kinda linear in fashion with some neat lyrics and such.
i'm a particular fan of bloodtest, which i had very little to do with.. the lyrics are super awesome, and i think emily might've performed all the bits herself! yee haw desu.

we're about to eat hangover pancakes, which sounds pretty pefect to me. school is going well, nihongo no kurasu wa tanoshii desu ga chotto muzukashii desu yo. emily got an 'A' and 'Oustanding!' on her midterm paper in environmental ethics! yoku dekimashita, emi-chan!

hangover pancake o tabemashoo!

The World Over There

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:11:00 +0000

another Thomas Pynchon Fakebook song today!

the world over there

this is a song i put together near the end of our time at the Willis house, maybe the last thing we did there.. it clearly benefits from the live drums and loud guitars. i'm pretty sure i did everything on this one, but as i was working on it i had this vague idea about the horns coming in over the second half, making this big triumphant thing (maybe like William the Arsonist).. but emily and i could never really figure out what to do, so it stands as a sorta noisy guitar celebration.

despite all that, i really like this song.. it reminds me of the early Flaming Lips stuff I fell in love with back in the day, ala Clouds Taste Metallic and such. and it has that neat moment where it's in a big slow six for most of the song and then changes into a punk rock two-feel, sorta.. tough to describe, but i like the effect.

moving on - here in Portland, OR the weather has really taken a turn for the better.. high pressure moving in just in time for the weekend, gonna last all week it seems. i'm pretty happy about all that, no doubt. hooray! emily's been working hard in the lab down at PSU all week, this'll be the end of her first week working full-time, so that's a reason to celebrate. and i've been doing work for Ben, actually making money, so that's good news as well. maybe this weekend we'll go out for dinner or something.. ha!

aaron

vulgar song

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:11:00 +0000

Over these last two terms (fall 2008 & spring 2009, i guess) Daniel Couch put together the Thomas Pynchon Fakebook, a project to set the lyrics in Gravity's Rainbow to song.. being a big fan of Pynchon, I agreed to help pretty quickly. i should find the address and set up the links, but i gotta go to work in a bit here.. but i wanted to post a little something before i left, blah blah..

anyhow, it was experimental on a few different levels - obviously working with somebody else's lyrics can be odd, but there was also some collaboration (almost all of it through the internet).. anyhow, emily and i put together 5 songs (i think), and contributed to a few more, neat stuff.

a lot of the lyrics in the book are setup in a jazzy singalong context, and they often have an innate rhythm and form to 'em, we basically just added the most obvious music in most cases.. it was an opportunity to do more show-tunes/jazzy stuff, but this may not be the best example.. on the other hand, it's got Danni doing a lot of funny laugh noises all over it, which is pretty funny.. and emily did a lot of vocal pitch shifting stuff. good times.

Vulgar Song

hmm.. i should also find the lyrics and maybe page numbers (ha!).. . but i gotta run.

oh yeah, and i kinda bombed my japanese quiz yesterday, which made me pretty sad. i guess i was just caught off guard, the quiz was pretty easy (despite the fact that i failed it). oh well.

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:20:00 +0000

Saddest Songs

another song from the Black Mesa Songs album.. sorta gets me all choked up, sometimes. gorgeous little song with some excellent words, i wish i had written this. oh well, at least i get to listen to it. ha!

while we were working on the album, there were a couple of songs that seemed like little gems - maybe we shouldn't clutter them up with accordions and trumpets and noisy guitar solos and such.. and while we ended up doing that to most songs, this one was too nice to mess up.

on other notes, emily and i started a japanese conversation class last night, which was pretty cool.. i've been studying japanese for a few terms now, at PCC, but it's sorta exciting to have emily as a conversation partner.

ja mata

Hunger For Thirst

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:26:00 +0000

hunger for thirst

The New Mexican Revolution finally released a new album, Black Mesa Songs, and I think it turned out pretty darn good. It's got the reliable mix of americana/country/songwriter-stuff, as well as some Tom Waits-style gypsy punk (ala Gogal Bordello). ha!

that sounds funny to read over, like some mutant press release. it's also pretty early in the morning, 'cause i gotta go to work.. which is awesome, 'cause i need money. i've been reading the Grapes of Wrath lately, on account of all the plane-traveling i've been doing, and it's a bit depressing. apparently you gotta have money. hmmm..

anyways, hunger for thirst might be my favorite song on the album, but it's a tough pick.. it's a country tune with neat poetic lyrics, and it's got a nice solo section and bridge. good stuff. on other parts of the album, their is more noise, more instrumentation, more experimentation, but this one is beautifully basic, i think.

I swore today I’d bite everything I said
Half words full of broken letters
I couldn’t explain away the reasons that I stay
Half sounds are for all the better

And you were at your best when I was at my worst
But I could never remember exactly which came first
Even benign smiles could seem so cursed
As I traded in my hunger for my thirst

Words are like leaves that are free, you can’t put them back on a tree
Each one a life of its own.
They might try to fly, or maybe just fall and die
Or wait like a seed to be sown

Sometimes words move like snow or they’ll settle like broken glass
Sometimes they lie in waiting for the moment to pass
So I try to bite down on them break them into pieces,
Let them settle where they will.

yuki geshou 雪化粧

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:17:00 +0000

yuki geshou 雪化粧

this is a little something i was thinking about doing in the big snow storm of portland 2008.. and hopefully it's closely related to an earlier piece called "snow day" on here.. a lot of the same things in the same key, spacey and instrumental and increasingly lethargic, almost.. i think this one could've been longer and more spaced out, especially up front. we'll save that for the live version.. ha!

also - wes shirley has a new blog that's pretty interesting - wes's album-a-day review blog!.. he doesn't seem to be held down by any genre or time period or relevance.. but it's all western pop music so far, i think. we shall see. neat0.

the white visitation

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:46:00 +0000

the white visitation

emily finally finished this term of school, which is pretty great news.. and i'm sure she got 100% in everything, so we're celebrating. ! and with that celebration we can post this little guy.. another instrumental experiment, which has a neat big modulation from Emaj to Amin.. and i think it worked out alright. it'd be nice to have a cello or something, but i don't.

now that emily has much less stuff to do all the time, maybe we can kick out some jams.

the lonely rocketman

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 04:20:00 +0000

uh huh.

the lonely rocketman

i'm pretty proud of this one.. it wasn't super hard or complicated or what-not.. but it was the most successful experiment of the past two weeks.

happy thanksgiving.

cloud or lion? part 2

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:15:00 +0000

here's a few more things i've been up to..

she left
bad dream / wake up
anti-venom

absolutely no luck on the job front.. it's terrible.

i've managed to stay busy, but not by making any money. sad face.

i found a way to control and trigger midi events in protools with this alesis keyboard. ha.

cloud or lion?

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:36:00 +0000

i found a dead bird..
bum
indoor pigeon
juggernaut

it's a leaning towers clearance!

these are all little instrumental pieces that we've been working on.. well, mostly instrumental - no lyrics but there are some voices. some of it was put together as sorta marketable tv commercial style experiments. some of it was just experimental, 'cause i gotta keep busy somehow. 'bum' dates all the way back to October Mountain.. and 'juggernaut' is pretty old too, but 'i found a dead bird' was mostly over this weekend.

in addition, i don't really like to crowd a single post with more than one 'song'.. so that part is also new. i'm very experimental, ha!

Creeping Tokyo

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:47:00 +0000

Creeping Tokyo

this song has a kinda tricky harmonic structure.. it's got a Bb major, a Gmaj and Gmin, Cmaj and Cmin, and it's mostly in the key of F (as per the good time outro solo).. so i'm kinda proud of that stuff. it's not super complicated, but it is a little bit clever, i think. it's got some guitars weaving in and out playing single notes to build chords, along with the moog and the keyboard, so i had to be kinda careful about the orchestration.. or something. it's just a song.

and it has some funny words -

you're a whore and i would kill you if i could
i'd write a dangerous little tune
a creeping tokyo of doom

it's a war and i'm never calling truce
i've got little left to lose
and i'm not afraid of you

i cut tiny little holes and you'll never be the same again

you're a fake and i'll expose you to the world
show them all how much you're worth
i guess i've always hated girls

you're not safe and i'll crack you in the end
you'll get betrayed by all your friends
i'll never let you sleep again

i cut tiny little holes but you'll never be the same again

evidence, a pop song

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:05:00 +0000

evidence, a pop song

well, it seems like good news all around at the house - i've been working a little bit for ben, and i've got an interview scheduled at powell's books for wednesday.. and i'm pretty hopeful for that job. and leah had a great interview for OHSU med school, and the new mexican revolution had a pretty good show the other day, despite wes having two missed up arms from two seperate bicycle accidents (!)... i guess that last bit is both good and bad news. ha!

and emily and i found some time to finish a few more tunes.. this one i wrote mostly while watching a documentary on Thelonious Monk - neat stuff. it's also kinda inspired by the new Blitzen Trapper album, Furr.. which is pretty great.. a full half of the album blows my mind, makes me jealous, all that stuff.. i like it alot.

celebrate

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:14:00 +0000

this is.. umm.. day 8 of unemployment, i guess. sad face. i've filled a few applications and sent a resume, but no replies yet. sad face. i feel like i should accomplish more creatively, but i'm pretty bummed out and always feel like i need to be finding work.. which isn't doing much to cheer me up. ha! and then i have 'band practice' just about every night of the week, but it often feels like a waste of time, a luxury.. that's a new feeling. band practice used to be a responsibility, right up there with all the other big time things i have to do. oh well. blah blah. i have written a few bitter songs and what-not.. emily's been trying to help out with a couple of pretty good ones, so i've shelved those in favor of finishing this one..

celebrate

i also have a picture! i'm not sure who took it, but it was given to me by G. Tony Jacobs (the bass player in the picture) and i think it must've been taken by Dan or Colae.. i like it. that's the one Leaning Towers show we've played, for their wedding. for the record, we played two cover songs and Beautiful Creature, an original.. short set, hopefully we kept them wanting more.

rivers run downstream

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:39:00 +0000

day two of unemployment, not much to say... i've got band practice every night except thursday, when the king hen plays a show at the Tonic Lounge, so that's keeping my nights busy enough.. and during the day? songs.

i've got a few things that are kinda neat, including two pretty things that just need more lyrics.. yesterdays big effort, "evidence, a pop song" is coming along nicely, i think i can finish that pretty quickly, but for today:

Rivers Run Downstream

this has emily rocking out on the bass - thats always a treat.

mermaid babies

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:43:00 +0000

well, i lost my job yesterday at The Portland Mercury.. i'd worked there for a little over four years, first as a distribution driver with emily, and then as an advertising runner. they were always really cool to me, let me take time off for touring and always treated me well, and it allowed me to work just a few days a week and still make ends meet while working on music. fairly ideal situation, i think.. so it's sad that it has to come to a close..

and then, well i didn't want the last song we'd posted to be dayjob, so i figured i'd better finish something else and post it.. this one wasn't the first choice, but i spent so much time working on this other song and i couldn't quite finish it.. well, anyways, i wanted to post something, so here it is..

Mermaid Babies

i like the lead guitar and all the crazy drums on this one.. i kinda thought it was a little like Keith Moon at times.. with a big windmill guitar.. and i kept it short, 'cause i've always like the little short rock tunes.

Dayjob

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:29:00 +0000

Dayjob

i'm not sure what happened, but this was supposed to be posted a few days ago.. oh well.

this was all words and chords that i had for a few weeks after the wedding, but it didn't seem nearly substantial enough for a song.. two verses and a guitar solo is all i had.. so i dropped that big D minor change into it and got a little weird, i really like that.. the accordion comes in and the odd drum exchange, neat-o.

ichi ni san shi

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:50:00 +0000

ichi ni san shi

well, i finished two songs today, which is pretty cool.. they've both been sorta stalled out for at least a month, so i feel good about closing 'em out and posting them. this one here was one of the first things i did in the basement with drums, but it was difficult to bring together all the elements.. the keyboards and the hundred guitars and all the different parts.. on and on, it was a pain.. but as always, once i could get emily to stop studying and going to school all the time, she came down and recorded some more vocals and keyboards, and it made a lot more sense, sounded a lot better, and so we're gonna call it finished.

hmm.. that's quite a run on paragraph. oh well.

busy week here - last night we went out to see Deerhoof and Experimental Dental School (who are locals now?).. pretty great, inspiring stuff.. but we knew it would be, we've been fans of both bands for awhile now. tonight and tomorrow are band practices.. friday the King Hen has a show at towne lounge, and we haven't played out in awhile. lots of stuff going on..

Pillar of Autumn

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:04:00 +0000

pillar of autumn

i wrote/recorded this a few days ago.. with a few very specific ideas.. i wanted the first phrase (all the synth string bits) to be in an odd-time, with a bunch of 3's in it somehow.. so i started fooling around, weaving these little C minor bits in and out of each other, trying to be catchy and simple and odd.

and i also wanted to experiment with this "tense rising string" thing that seems to be everywhere these days.. it's on Lost a lot, and in There Will Be Blood.. i think it's a string section sliding up slowly while bowing, all at slightly different times. so i did that with a few electric guitars and the moog, but it wasn't quite right.. those frets can really get in the way sometimes. then all those guitars, after the climax of that rising action, just sorta of lie there and look pretty in soft relief. which is probably my favorite moment. just floating in space.

so it didnt' really satisfy my experiments exactly.. but it's odd and pretty.

lil pudding cake

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 00:41:00 +0000

lil pudding cake

we both woke up in ditches today
how'd we let things get so far away?
with our fingers dig deep in the mud
breathe life into clay
make worship the noises we've made.

we swarm out of the basement
never get away
twist up in your stomach
dried up and afraid
it's all for nothing lil pudding cake.

the swarm has lots of patience
it's never been afraid
eats off all your clothing
and no one looks away
it's all for nothing lil pudding cake.

today is saturday, and we have a knick knack poker game tonight at dan and colae's house.. i have collected a few knick knacks.. a leapord print snap bracelet, and a bonsai tree seed, some halloween music, and something else. i don't care much for poker, so i may not last long in the game.. which is just more time to hang out with samba, the dog.

as for this song, it's a crazy thing.. i wrote all the major seven chords and the rhythm in five awhile back, probably just as we moved into the house, and then the drums came next, turning it into a big rock out ending.. and then i came up with emily's verses, but i hated the way i sang them.. so i got emily to do all that pretty stuff she does.. and i spent awhile on the noise solo at the end, over and over and over.. some of the odd filter noises at the end are guitar solo bits fed into the moog, and then manipulated, which i love doing.

really i kinda wanted to finish this groovy little song called ichi ni san shi, but i'm still hung up on parts of that.. emily put down a good scratch bass guitar track, but the whole song needs more work than i thought.. oh well.

High As A Kite

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:26:00 +0000

High As A Kite

i shoulda said something
i shoulda just lied
like, "it got out through the skylight"
it flew up high as a kite
"and the sunlight was right in my eyes"
maybe she'll still find her way home

i shoulda done something
i shoulda tried
i know you don't feel good
but twenty bucks and a quick phone call
we'll be high as a kite
maybe meet up on the other side
we'll never be alone

i shoulda said something
i shoulda just lied
now i'm out on a tightrope, all alone
high as a kite
and it's gorgeous but i'm scared of heights
(still glad i let the bird go)

i was playing some songs with my father the other day, old dylan tunes (isis!) and whatnot, when i pulled out this song.. i wrote it awhile ago but never got too happy with it, and the words and the writer's block and the blah blah.. so i played it with my dad and it sounded really nice, and made me revisit the recording i'd worked on. if nothing else, it's a song, eh? or something.

of course, my dad was around 'cause of the recent marriage between emily and i.. so, you know, thanks for the support of our union and all that. and that goes for everyone else, also - the cosgroves and the spurlocks, the couchs and the kronsers and the chess'(s) - and all our friends who were around and wanted to hang out in a park and drink for love who didn't share a last name. love.

Fenced

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:09:00 +0000

Fenced

i made a list of the things that i sorta regret
it started off with last night's argument and it still hasn't ended,
but i guess that we're still friends.

a pretty song shouldn't suffer like this
sing that bit about the bicycle trip that seemed never ending
as we swore we'd never fight again

i got a list torn in two on the ground
the falling bombs make a whistling sound
just make a noise when the dogs come around
another kiss and i can go back to digging down
the world seems close to ending,
holding hands we can slip right through the fence.

not too much to say right this second.. emily's parents come into town tomorrow, the weather is nice outside.. i have another 3 or 4 songs that are pretty close, but i've got all sorts of problems writing lyrics.. so it's hard to say when they'll get finished, and in some cases, what they'll even be about. hmm.

and i'll likely be pretty busy for the next week at least.. so we'll see what we can accomplish.

David Dunn vs. The Bark Beetles

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:33:00 +0000

David Dunn vs. The Bark Beetles

a long time ago wes called me up and left a message about David Dunn being on NPR.. and i didn't get to hear him on NPR, but i was able to use the voicemail in a song! ha!

david dunn was one of two super important professors for me back in school.. totally changed me, and the way i think about music, and art and entertainment.. on and on. i've always been a little worried that steven and david are disappointed with me and my lack of forward thinking artistic output.. and i started thinking i should do a neat arty soundscape or something, and tag the voicemail to it. and that's how this started.. it was all stretched out string bits, playing this odd slow melody.. but the more i worked on it, the more normal it got, with the guitars and that big synth bass sound.. this morning i was listening to it and decided to just say 'fuck it' to the arty soundscape plan and turn it into a Mono song.. so i played the drums to it and sealed it into a fairly typical instrumental indie-rock band song.

i saw a documentary of Mono a few months ago from Netflix, and they were pretty cool.

and i got to play the drums in a real bombastic fashion, which is always fun.. it reminds me a little of a local band called Grails, with Billy on keyboards.. they had a drummer who use these ridiculous over-the-top awesome drum fills, and you just had to pray that it landed somewhere near the 1. exciting stuff..

also, i got a picture of the studio.. it's obviously still a work in progress, but it's so much better than what i've been working with.. it might be the best ever. wow.

Banhammer Blues

aaron@aaronmacdonald.com (Aaron & Emily) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:16:00 +0000

Banhammer Blues

you just really wanna win
so you cheat a little bit
or send some pictures to a friend
but we object to the content
and now you've forced bungie's hand

you got smacked by the hammer (banhammer!)
you got sent to banadu (banadu!)
and there's nothing you can do,
but say you're sorry

umm.. if you can't play Halo, you might as well write songs about Halo. umm..

of course, i've been working on a bunch of other songs.. three or four are coming along nicely, plus Matt and I are kicking some things around.. and the New Mexican Revolution has perked up a bit, with a new accordion player and a few gigs and such, so that's been nice.

also, the studio is awesome.. i'd say it's probably 80% set.. i meant to post some pictures, but too much happens at once sometime.. i suppose i'll have to finish some more songs and post more entries, and the pictures'll get up here eventually.. good stuff.

lastly, emily and i got a book in the mail the other day, Fretboard Logic, which has been interesting.. i'm not sure who sent it - although i have suspicions - and i've been working the guitar pretty hard these days. so thanks, mysterious book sender.