san francisco, 1947

When i started the year out i thought i'd definitely have included more instrumentals by now. For some reason i just kept writing songs that had words in them. This one is sort of a collage. I sampled this great recording of Jack Kerouac reading from On the Road, along with a beautiful instrumental track from the soundtrack to The Darjheeling Limited. They're some of my favorite recordings. I was actually walking around for a few weeks with them mashed up in my head like this. It pretty much came out the way i was hearing it. It's sort of a dreamscape I guess. I can kinda get lost in it.

Also, it feels good to stretch out on the parameters of what can be included in this singles collection. I feel like we live in an age where artists have lots of freedom to take a more mulitdisciplinary approach-blogging, songs, collages, tumblring, mashups, remixes, videos documenting the process, weird videos with found footage from 1950's B-movies, photography, mixtapes, essays, poems, cover songs, etc. I'm still working on getting to some of that stuff but it's probably just a matter of time.

the eternals

i wrote this song with my friend Edan from the band West Dakota (westdakota.us) He's a great songwriter. He and i decided to collaborate after joking how we both actually are just trying to write really catchy, big, straightforward pop songs, but for some reason our songs always come out strange and just, well, like us.

The lyrics are more serious I guess. The song is about trying to abandon the past, and make a clean break. There's one line that says, "First we burn the maps, then we burn the ships." I'm drawn to the idea lately of moving forward with absolute certainty, and never looking back.

here are the lyrics:


I'm awake with you
And your bad dreams
Maybe we could use
A change of scene
I never had a home
But the curves of you hips
First burn the maps
Then we burn the ships
Cause you lose yourself
When you're in between

So Leave it alone
Do what you wanna do
The old days are gone
A new life is calling you
You're lost in a dream
You're floating downstream

Is there something wrong?
Cause I can't tell
Won't you meet me by
The carousel?
Because you can't get ready for the fiery crash
I never fuck with the future and the past is past
What I mean to say
Is all is well

You'll open your heart
With no reservations
We're the eternals
The pale generation
They'll call it a crime
But they don't know time

If I'm the one to surrender
I'd never give you away
Our hearts will glow just like embers
And for once
I'll know just
What to say
What to say
What to say

So Leave it alone
Do what you wanna do
The old days are gone
A new life is calling you
You're lost in a dream
You're floating downstream

Open your heart
With no reservations
We're the eternals
The pale generation
They'll call it a crime
But they don't know time

Live on KDVS, February 2005

2005 was sort of a turning point for me musically. I had hit a point where i thought about stepping back and focusing on other things. I had made a couple acoustic records that hadn't really found much of a fan base outside my own circle. Jackson was a year and half old, and our second son Elijah was on the way. I'd just moved back to the town i grew up in, and i felt like my life was getting pulled in a strange, yet all too familiar direction.

Instead of throwing in the towel, i made a conscious effort to write pop songs, and started Beat Radio. But a few months before that happened, i took a trip out to the west coast for the first time to play some shows. The whole trip was sort of a pilgrimage for me - especially going to San Francisco and checking out the City Lights Bookstore and walking around the streets i'd read about in all those Jack Kerouac books.

The highlight of the trip was getting to play live on the air at KDVS. Michael Leahy invited me to do a session for his great Cool as Folk Show.

I stumbled across the mp3's the other day in my itunes. you can check them out here:
television

the man i should be

fearful

silver birds

hope you like them.

if you see her, say hello (bob dylan cover)

I was excited to finally getting around to working on this Bob Dylan cover. I was walking around with it in my head for a long time. Sometimes songs kinda torment you, until you get them done. They knock around your head, threaten to go bad and destroy everything. My advice would be this - if you've got an idea, try not to let it die. Following through on it will probably be it's own reward.

Oh, and i took the lyrics from the version of this song on the Bootleg Series. It was the first version Dylan recorded at the NY sessions for Blood on the Tracks. I actually greatly prefer all the recordings from those sessions, compared to the ones Dylan went on to record in Minnesota for the official release. My favorite line is when he says, "Kiss her for the kid," which didn't make the album version.

Also, when i was walking around with this song in my head all those months, it sounded like a cross between Sparklehorse's "Ghost of His Smile" and Them's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." The way it actually came out, i think owes a bit more to Dylan's "Series of Dreams." Sort of a Daniel Lanois feel. Life takes interesting turns.