Somebody Get Me Out Of Here

Hey Guys.

It's my Birthday!! J'ai vingt ans. A little old now. Ugh.

It's been a weird day, but it'll be OK, a few people are coming over shortly to celebrate.

But the main reason I'm blogging is because I have finished (well, added more) to my Ukulele song. I have put in some vocals and I think they really make the song sound full and well, like a song.

And I'd like to take now as an opportunity to apologise for the less than exciting visuals I do for my music. To be honest, I don't really have the resources, patience or need to do anything terribly out there (which is why I remain boring and stick to the one picture deal). Also, because I'm posting songs on youtube, not music videos. So, thats the reason why you don't have a hell of a lot to look at, I'm not trying to be artistic or minimalist or anything, I just can't be bothered making movies.

But enjoy the song, and let me know what you think.

The Conversation.

My brain is all mushy.

Lack of sleep from last night.

Work in less than an hour.

Feeling a little sick as well. Why does my body decide now would be a good time to get a bloody cold/flu? Now that I'm trying NOT to smoke and I have 4loor and RENT coming up like uh... really soon. Nice one, immune system. You bastard.

Anyway, I'm posting another video that I cried to. This is Julia Nunes and I'm a little bit in love with her, check out her big eyes and her amazing voice and in this video check out her "I'm not going to cry" face. D: . This is a Motion City Soundtrack cover of hers, but she also does originals on Ukulele and all that kind of stuff.

Here's The Cover.

Time To Update?

It has been a while since I have written on this, I haven't really had the chance to get here.

And of course, now I'm here, I don't really know what to write about.
It has been a shit few weeks for me, but i won't go into any of that, I don't like talking about my "problems" on my blog. But just so we are all aware, yes... Yes it has been rather shit.

I told Greg I would put up a cover that he and I have recently recorded, I need to put it on YouTube first, which might take a while. But while I'm here, I'll put up the original version and then I'll do another post with our version. In our version, I think my voice could be a hell of a lot better! Greg, maybe we re-record it one day? Haha.

But ignore that for now, sweet ones. Just appreciate the genius of Matt and Kim's "Daylight". A truly bright and colourful trip through Grand Street in Daylight. If you're feeling as rotten as me right now, it may help you out. Get up and dance or something, and shake off the filth of winter.



DAYLIGHT
we cut the legs off of our pants 
threw our shoes into the ocean
 sit back and wave through the daylight
 sit back and wave through the daylight
slip and slide on subway grates 
these shoes are poor mans ice skates 
fall through like change in the daylight
 fall through like change in the daylight
i miss yellow lines in my roads
 some color on monochrome 
maybe i’ll paint them in myself
 maybe i’ll paint them in myself
these sidewalks liquid then stone
 building walls and an old pay phone 
it rings like all through the daylight 
it rings like all through the daylight
and in the daylight we can hitchhike to maine
 i hope that someday i’ll see without these frames 
and in the daylight i don’t pick up my phone
 cause in the daylight anywhere feels like home
I have five clocks in my life
 and only one has the time right 
i’ll just unplug it for today
 i'll just unplug it for today
open hydrant rolled down windows 
this car might make a good old boat and float down grand street in daylight 
and float down grand street in daylight
and with just half of a sunburn 
new yellow lines that i earned 
step back and here comes the night time 
step back and here comes the night time

and in the daylight we can hitchhike to maine 
i hope that someday i’ll see without these frames 
and in the daylight i don’t pick up my phone
 cause in the daylight anywhere feels like home

Original Song!

Finally, after however many months, we have a finished product of an original that Greg and I recorded sometime last year. Its called "Last Time", Greg wrote the whole guitar parts, and also wrote a few lyrics, and I wrote the chorus and the melody.

So, if you happen to stumble across my blog, your you're a frequent visitor, or you are a stalker, have a listen to the song (its going on youtube, the picture over the top means nothing (its itunes visualizer on my wall, nothing special) so pay it no mind.) and let me know what you think.

There will be a few more recordings coming, some original and a cover or two. So keep your eyes and ears open, and I'm totally open to feedback.

Sick, Sick, Sick.

Oh how sick I feel today. I had to leave work after I vomited in the bathroom. My head is throbbing, my ear is still aching and I still have the tasted of rejected paracetamol in the back of my mouth. Ew. I can't believe how crap I feel, and I'm trying to use the time I have to myself to write some lyrics, but nothing is really happening yet. I think something may be forming, but not sure this sick and therefore depressed state I'm in will inspire fantastic lyrics.

I'm thinking of using the title of my blog in there somewhere (haha) probably because at the moment, nothing springs to mind.

Anyway, here's to hoping i come up with something good/acceptable/at all, really. Maybe watching "GO" is killing the creative flow. Mind you, so was ABC3. TV in general maybe?

Ok, back to work, the melody is there, that's a start I guess. If i think of something good, I'll post it, tell me what you think if I get to it.

well, it has been about half an hour, still have nothing. although i did find something that I wrote a while back, but whether it can be adapted to a song (see, its somewhat of a poem i guess) remains to be seen.

The aim is to have something, anything written before the day is out. And I will post whatever I write today.

Here is me in my sick state.

Circus by Tom Waits

I'm really crushing on Tom Waits at the moment, and yes, I know he is an old man. But there is something about his smokey sleazy voice and the way he writes which I adore, and I hope at some point to write as artistically as he does. I also watched "The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus the other day, in which Tom Waits played the Devil. Honestly the coolest man to play the Devil in the history of cinema. The only let down of the movie was the special effects, but apart from that, the concept and the story line were really good, and the way they altered the storyline to fit around Heath Ledgers death was really well done.

So here is Circus by Tom Waits, with lyrics for those who want a bit of a read. Also I apologise for the crap quality of the picture, I think it's all pixellated. So again, sorry! But enjoy the song, it's warped, the drums wander in and out of time and there is an eerie music box thing that plays its own little melody over the top of the sleaze and rasp of Tom Waits.

Enjoy.



We put up our tent on a dark
Green knoll, outside of town by
The train tracks and a seagull dump
Topping the bill was Horse Face Ethel
And her 'Marvellous Pigs In Satin'

We pounded our stakes in the ground
All powder brown
And the branches spread like scary
Fingers reaching
We were in a pasture outside Kankakee

And One Eyed Myra, the queen of
The galley who trained the
Ostrich and the camels
She looked at me squinty with her
One good eye in a Roy Orbison
T-shirt as she bottle fed
An orangutan named Tripod

And then there was
Yodeling Elaine the
Queen of the air who wore a
Dollar sign medallion and she
Had a tiny bubble of spittle
Around her nostril and a
Little rusty tear, for she had
Lassoed and lost another
Tipsy sailor

And over in
The burnt yellow tent
By the frozen tractor, the
Music was like electric sugar
And Zuzu Bolin played
'Stavin' Chain' and Mighty
Tiny on the saw and he
Threw his head back with a
Mouth full of gold teeth
And they played 'Lopsided heart'
And 'Moon over Dog Street'

And by the time they played "Moanin Low"
I was soakin' wet and wild eyed
And Doctor Bliss slipped me a
Preparation and I fell asleep with
'Livery Stable Blues' in my ear

And me and Molley Hoey drank
Pruno and Koolaid and she had a
Tattoo gun made out of a cassette
Motor and a guitar string and
She soaked a hanky in 3 Roses
And rubbed it on the spot
And drew a rickety heart and
A bent arrow and it hurt like hell

And Funeral Wells spun
Poodle Murphy on the target
As he threw his hardware,
Only once in Sheboygan did he miss
At a matinee on Diamond Pier and
She'd never let him forget it

They were doing two shows and she
Had a high fever and he took
Off a piece of her ear and
Tip Little told her she should
Leave the bum
But Poodle said, "He fetched me
Last time I run."
But I'd like to hammer this ring into a bullet
And I wish I had some whiskey and a gun
My dear

And I wish I had some whiskey and a gun
My dear

Alone in Kyoto AIR

LOVE THIS SONG but I don't really understand the film clip? It's just shots of leaves and temples in and around Kyoto. I mean, fair enough cause it's Kyoto, but there is no real point to the film clip. It'd odd.

Anyway, this song was featured in Lost In Translation, which is one of my favourite movies I believe alot of travellers can relate to, especially in those times where you are alone in an unfamiliar place with no one to talk to. I think Bill Murray is a genius in it, and Scarlette Johanson looks the best she ever has.

This song also works well with just piano, if anyone wants to give it a crack, its just in D minor. I was playing around with it then, and if you slow it down a little as well and really space everything out with the sustain pedal, it sounds beautiful.

A nicely crafted song which I could never get sick of hearing.

The War Criminal Rises and Speaks

Ok, so I tried, and I can't figure out how to add my playlist to my blog (Grace, I was able to get to Grooveshark and create a playlist, I just can't add it to my blog) so, I will keep trying ways of getting it to work, later.

Instead for now, I'll just add youtube videos and the like until I can work my magic. I'm putting up "The War Criminal Rises and Speaks" by a band that my friend Ben has recently shown me (Okkervil River) with the lyrics as well. This song has such raw emotion and the lyrics are extremely well crafted (I mentioned this song in an earlier post that made me cry!) I have been listening to Okkervil River of late and I really really like them. I was given the albums "Black Sheep Boy" and "Down the River of Golden Dreams".

So, if you enjoy music with nice vibes, easy going melodies, rich instrumentation and honest vocals, check Okkervil River out. A little vintage, but that's how we like our Indie! Please enjoy.




The heart wants to feel.
The heart wants to hold.
The heart takes past Subway,
past Stop and Shop,
past Beal’s,
and calls it “coming home.”
The heart wants a trail
away from “alone,”
so the heart turns a sale
into a well-worn milestone
towards hard-won soft furniture,
fought-for fast food,
defended end table that
holds paperbacks and back U.S. News.
The mind turns an itch
into a bruise,
and the hands start to twitch
when they’re feeling ill-used.

And you’re almost back now,
you can see by the signs;
from the bank you tell the temperature
and then the time,
and the billboard reads some headlines.
The head wants to turn,
to avert both its eyes,
but the mind wants to learn
of some truth that might be
inside reported crimes.

So they found a lieutenant
who killed a village of kids.
After finishing off the wives,
he wiped off his knife
and that’s what he did.
And they’re not claiming that
there’s any excusing it;
that was thirty years back,
and they just get paid for the facts
the way they got them in.

Now he’s rising and not denying.
His hands are shaking, but he’s not crying.
And he’s saying “How did I climb
out of a life so boring into that moment?
Please stop ignoring the heart inside,
oh you readers at home!
While you gasp at my bloody crimes,
please take the time
to make your heart my home:
where I’m forgiven by time,
where I’m cushioned by hope,
where I’m numbed by long drives,
where I’m talked off or doped.
Does the heart wants to atone?

Oh, I believe that it’s so,
because if I could climb back through time,
I’d restore their lives and then give back my own:
tens of times now its size
on a far distant road
in a far distant time
where every night I’m still crying,
entirely alone.”

But the news today always fades away as you drive by,
until at dinnertime when you look into her eyes,
lit by evening sun - that, as usual, comes
from above that straight, unbroken line,
the horizon
- its rising
is a given,
just like your living.

Your heart’s warm and kind.
Your mind is your own.
Our blood-spattered criminal
is inscrutable;
don’t worry, he won’t
rise up behind your eyes
and take wild control.
He’s not of this time,
he fell out of a hole.

Lullaby

Im getting into songwriting, it's really bloody hard, but I enjoy doing it immensely whenever I get the chance. I love singing and playing guitar, and I play with a guy from around here on the off chance neither of us have to work.

I've recently written a lullaby, it's not very wordy and not very long, but I don't know whether it needs anything more or not. It's in A minor, 3/4 timing and I just changed the melody this morning, because I thought it was too high to sound like it fitted with the chords. It is quite dark and eerie, but thats the kind of writing I like. Im influenced by Tom Waits, Mojo Juju and the Snake Oil Merchants and Maynard James Keenan (Tool, A perfect Circle) amongst various others, but these guys would be the top guys, for the moment anyway. Heres the lyrics. Hope whoever reads this likes it and feedback (good, bad or honest) is most welcome. :D

Rest your head upon my shoulders and close your heavy eyes
Let the night envelop you, ignore the one who cries
The claws of monsters reach for you, longing for your touch,
But rest your head my child, ignore your tears.

I love you,
I love you,
I love you,
Don't cry, you're safe with me.