Tuesday, April 24, 2007

mexico


i've always been kind of a revisionist. i guess it goes back to taking creative writing workshops at purchase.

i stumbled across this mp3 in my itunes the other day:

mexico (demo #1)

i remember when i first wrote the song, it was one of those moments that you live for as an artist, where the song just kind of comes to you out of the ether, like a gift or something. i was so excited to play this demo for my wife liz, who i was basically talking to directly with the lyrics. i thought i'd written this amazing song, like it was this big artistic breakthrough or something, but her reaction was more like, "Yeah it's okay....it's a little boring." I was, of course, a bit let down. I went back to the drawing board and made this demo the next day:

mexico (demo no. 2)

then we got the band into the studio and we did the version that ended up on the album:

mexico (from the great big sea LP)

listening back, i'm glad i took liz's advice. the original demo is a little boring, but i do like it because it reminds me of that feeling of writing the song. it's like a souvenir. speaking of souvenirs, liz took this picture down in mexico, when we were there on our honeymoon.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

friday


really excited about this show friday with battering room. i've known the mugs for a long time and have been getting really into mussels and sure juror as well.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

plasticities

not that he hasn't been blogged about everywhere, but i'm really intrigued by this andrew bird character:

his songs grow on me more with each listen.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

wail away

vanesa alvero is a friend of mine and one of my favorite singers ever. she's also married to phil who is my partner in crime in beat radio. there are four amazing songs over at her myspace page. also, check out her current project with phil called easy anthems, who i will tell you more about soon. here is a cover of a song she wrote with phil a couple years ago called "wail away." it's from the beat radio covers ep that i'm working on.

beat radio - wail away (vanesa alvero cover)

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Kerouac's Thirty Essentials of Spontaneous Prose

this is jack kerouac's list. it's good advice i think.

1. Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
2. Submissive to everything, open, listening
3. Try never get drunk outside yr own house
4. Be in love with yr life
5. Something that you feel will find its own form
6. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
7. Blow as deep as you want to blow
8. Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind
9. The unspeakable visions of the individual
10. No time for poetry but exactly what is
11. Visionary tics shivering in the chest
12. In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you
13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
14. Like Proust be an old teahead of time
15. Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog
16. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye
17. Write in recollection and amazement for yourself
18. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea
19. Accept loss forever
20. Believe in the holy contour of life
21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind
22. Don't think of words when you stop but to see picture better
23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning
24. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge
25. Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it
26. Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form
27. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness
28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
29. You're a Genius all the time
30. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven

what i love the most

i'm hoping this blog will be a sort of creative journal as well. i've been working hard on writing songs for the next beat radio ep. here's a demo for a new song called "what i love the most."

what i love the most (demo)

here are the lyrics:

i was looking for a light
through all my misery and shame
and i am glad we've got our friends
but all those parties are the same

and now my head is full of stars
and all the answers aren't clear
and i've been drifting into dreams
and i've been far away from here

and now this is what i love the most
to find a place where we can be alone
and i know the rest is all a dream this world is not our home
it's not our home

and then the morning light hits hard
when i was silent in my sleep
and i'm a thousand miles away
and there are promises to keep

i know i'm better than i was
i know the changes are for real
but i was trying to be free
and now i don't know how to feel

and when the wind comes blowing through the hall
you'll smile at me and we can laugh about it all
and we'll have no regrets and we'll forget what lies beyond these walls

and this is what i love the most
to find a place where we can be alone
and i know the rest is all a dream this world is not our home
it's not our home

and this is what i love the most
and this is what i love the most
and this is what i love the most
and this is what i love the most
and this is what i love the most
and this is what i love the most

a cinema of sunshine

i did an interview recently where i said i've been meaning about starting a blog about being a punk rock dad. something about it being a bizarre and beautiful existence. actually, you can find it here. i tried to start this blog a few other times a month or so ago but i always felt like i was just writing the same stuff i do on myspace and promoting my band, so i deleted the posts because i was already promoting my band in all these other places. it seemed sort of redundant and spectacularly narcissistic. i don't think this blog will be entirely about the kids, but here's some pics. i don't get to show them off enough. the big guy is jackson. the little one is elijah. i'll tell you more about them soon. these pictures are a few months old, we took them one afternoon in the fall down at newbridge park.