Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Weezer Medley: July 1997

Here it is--do you see you in the audience?

Weezer Medley from Only Anything on Vimeo.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

OA Summer Song Series 09: Stone's "Old Psychosis"

Old Psychosis from Only Anything on Vimeo.

Here's my second summer tune. I've followed JT's lead here by posting it as a video and not an audio recording. The video option makes it a relatively quick process (though you have to make it through the whole song without messing up--which I don't quite do here--and it was at least a 6th take.)

This song was, like "My Last Mistake" started back in February as part of the RPM challenge. But whereas "Mistake" was pretty much done then, all I had on this one was the traditional blues chords and the first verse "Is there a gamma ray in your nightstand..."

This isn't the first bluesy flavored song I've written--I have another one that will for now only live on in our minds called "the letter" that we recorded back at the Thanksgiving "pie tunes" jam. My hard drive crashed in December and I lost the song which is tragic not because it was an incredible song--it wasn't. What makes me sad about it was that we had all kinds of guest players on it. Brothers-in-law Chad Adams and Trevor Thompson played guitar (that Chad can wail out a blues solo!) and Dave Bertoglio played a mean harmonica on it. :( Sad that it's gone, but we'll have to redo it sometime.

Anyway, hope you like this one, it's got some mistakes and some lyric issues to work out (though I'm ok with the fact that the title is "psychosis" and the actual lyric is "psychoses"-plural). Favorite part? Well that would have to be:

"all you wanna do is play me. betray me. cliché me, delay me, gamma ray me"

Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Making of Pleasantly Surprised pt2

So, while you don't get much of us making music in this clip, the activities captured therein were no less important to the album-making process. I for one can't get enough of teenage Mat, floppy Joe, hopelessly nerdy JonStone and ever-focused (on his Chilito) JT.

Here's the blurb from the Vimeo video description:

Later on December 19, 1994 when the boys take a break from the rock and drive around town listening to tunes, illegally taping the inside of a Taco Bell, and hanging around a drainage tunnel. All the while, they discuss the "process," make inside jokes and Cure allusions, and enjoy a lovely December day in Tucson outside of the Sauna.

The Making of Pleasantly Surprised pt2 from Only Anything on Vimeo.

The Making of Pleasantly Surprised

I'm very excited about what follows. In my archive exploration, I came across some amazing footage of the band as we recorded our first album in December, 1994.

I love this footage because it, as most good documentaries do, catches us doing what we loved to do: hanging out and making music--and doing it in our natural habitat. Gone is the posturing for an audience and, as you'll see more in later parts, the performances are intimate and really quite good. There's a lot of teenage noodling with the camera too, which is kind of fun. Another huge plus is the screen-time increase for our best bud and drummer (and brother!) Joe, as well as cameo appearances from Steve and Andy Hunt and Mindy (Hatch) Richins.

The Making of Pleasantly Surprised pt. 1 from Only Anything on Vimeo.



I am still planning on putting out that Weezer medley I promised, but also look for the next parts of what may be the best video footage we have--The Making of Pleasantly Surprised: a documentary in several parts.

Happy Birthday, Jon! You're all growed up!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Dobro video blog #1 & 2

Howdy Folks,

I'm really loving Jon's first two songs, aren't you? You can tell a good songwriter when they can tell you a story in their songs--Jon does this better than just about anybody. Way to go, man.

I've also been thinking a bit about songwriting, but I have also been spending a lot of time trying to get to know a different style of playing--a style that will, evenutually, require the purchase of some new equipment. I thought it might be fun to start video blogging about my adventures in teaching myself how to play the resophonic guitar, more commonly referred to as the Dobro.

Without further introduction, I give you the first two "posts." (you may need to turn your volume up a bit, my laptop mic isn't that great)

Salty Dog




Wabash Cannonball

Polygraph

I got a somewhat uncommon instrument last year; it's called a melodica. Hohner makes it and it's very similar to an accordion without buttons (so it's like the an accordion playing melody only without bass and chords). But you blow into it which gives it some similarity to a harmonica. When playing the melocida I came across a little tune in D minor; that melodica tune is heard here as the guitar intro. It inspired the whole song. I played around with it for a while and decided I would use it as the music for a song about an event from my life: my employer accusing me of theft. The song unfolded quickly, I think it took less than two weeks. It never really happens to me that a song just comes to me all at once. I'm jealous and skeptical of songwriters who claim that.

Usually I will come up with a melody first, then a chord progression or bassline and then lyrics. Lyric writing is usually a drawn out process, with gaps sometimes that last years between one first verse and the next. I think writing melody first is a good way for me because if you have a strong melody then it is a sure bet that you have a song, you just have to work out the rest of the details. A strong enough melody always seems to eventually inspire a lyric and arrangement that is good. To contrast that, I would say that sometimes it's possible to have a good sounding chord progression but it won't guarantee that I will ever come up with a complete song that I'm happy with from it. In this case I lucked out; I had an instrumental part first and then I started looking for that solid melody that would let me know that I had a song and I wasn't just noodling around anymore.

At the end of the song I wrote an intense guitar progression and it just happened that I felt that a spoken type part would end it out well. Maybe I was a little misleading last time stating that it had a "rap". As I listen to it now I think that rap is not the first word that would come to mind to describe it but it's closer to rap than I've ever been in my songs. Overall I think the sonic mood of the song matches the lyric, or in other words, the feel of the notes and rhythms fits the meaning of the lyric. I think that's important. Here's Polygraph:

Polygraph from Only Anything on Vimeo.



Next time: Daily grind bringing you down? Forget the cares of life and go "Where All the Stories Go".

Sunday, June 7, 2009

The first from J.T. "Need"

I can truly tell you that it is a very exciting time here in the land of Only Anything. You can expect a lot of activity here. To get the ball rolling on my end I have made a video of an acoustic performance of a song called Need. This is a song written years ago but never recorded because I was trying to plan the right arrangement and ran out of time. It got shelved for a while along with a few other tunes. I pulled it out a few days ago and realized that it works well with just a simple acoustic arrangement. So here is #1 from me.

Need from Only Anything on Vimeo.


"A song first conceived in 2003. I've always been impressed that I could actually write a song like this. When I listen to it I marvel that I came up with it. It's about humans (and me in particular) being so reliant on others. I propose that one of my greatest needs is to be needed."

Over the last semester I made a series of acoustic videos mostly of cover songs. You may have seen them on facebook but if you missed them you can go to my YouTube page for all of those: http://www.youtube.com/thwaits

Now to look ahead,
I'm thinking the next song I submit will be Polygraph, which describes an experience from my life where I was obliged to endure an interrogation and polygraph test; not a fun time. It is an accurate retelling without embellishment, which is not always the case in my writing. It also features a non-pitched vocal segment at the end....ummm, OK, it's a rap. This is a first for me. Now you know what you have to look forward to.

Friday, June 5, 2009

"Gotta box full of your toys!"

I am in the process of putting together a little medley/montage of the 5 =w= songs we played at our "last" show back in 1997.

Here is the first of the five.

My Name Is Jonas (Weezer medly intro) from Only Anything on Vimeo.


I'll also post some of the other highlights of that show as soon as I have them ready.

(Oh! also pop over to the Lancaster site--see link to your right--for some videos from our show at the Tempe Borders in 2006!)

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Every Good Bandit Lives by the Code

Into the summer we go with a new, but not unfamiliar purpose. I have accepted a challenge to produce ten new song demos before summer's end. Apparently, we can't get anything done without a deadline and furthermore, the suggestion to work isn't taken seriously unless it comes in the form of a dare. We are boys after all, we cheat, we lie, we steal, we accept dares and we seek danger. All of these things done in the most honorable of ways mind you, for we are not without virtue; every good bandit lives by the code.

To complete the ten I will take a few existing songs that have never been recorded and pass them off as new (you will never know the difference). I will sing of personal experience mixed with autobiography from a fabricated reality. We must perpetuate the mystery. Valid submissions will be in a form publishable on the internet, i.e. video or mp3. And I will remind you that the end of summer doesn't officially come till we are through the better part of September. It is attainable.

I will make a noble effort to post regular updates here, making songs available as I finish them and giving insight into the songwriting process as it unfolds. Jon Stone, the author of this challenge has likewise accepted it and it is expected of him to adhere to the code and make a matching noble effort.
The imaginary band has been revived yet again.

J. Thwaits

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Summer 09 = MUSIC from the OA crew!

Howdy OAers! It's been several months since the last post. We've all been super busy with life. In the last year, I was accepted into my department's PhD program, Jon is pulling in scholarship after scholarship at ASU's engineering program, two of us labor in law school, and one of us made a major employment change.

If you are a member of the Imaginary Band Collective and are reading this, time to rev back into action. We got a TON of great photos in our last surge, but some of you are still sitting on your hands and haven't yet explored the dusty caverns of your basement. If you've done your photo duty, we now need short stories to go along with them and other non-pictured classic OA moments.

For all the rest of you, it's time to get some more content on. Here's what's on deck for summer 09:

Final show '97: Tribute to Weezer. We played several tunes by the =w= at that last show before I flew off to SF. I'm gonna work on getting the videos up for you.

Spacecapers: We have yet to get a digital copy of our second album up and downloadable. I think it represents the band at our best. Great songs, great theme, great cohesive composition. Watch for that.

Jon Thwaits solo work: Jon is an incredibly productive songwriter and has written a ton of songs in between actual band projects (which, over the years, has amounted to way more than actual band project time). I have two CDs full of these tunes and will make them available here in little chunks. We'll eventually get a new site up for him where these songs can go and live forever.

New Songs!!! We have stuff that we worked on last Thanksgiving during the Pie Tunes jams that haven't yet seen the light of day. I'm working on getting a few more of them up--
Additionally, I'm posting one new song I wrote last February when it was cold cold cold RIGHT NOW. It is a first attempt to map the feelings of a season and the story of another into a song of my own. I hope you like it. It's called "My Last Mistake". (right-click/save link as to download or just listen below)

In addition, Jon and I have issued a challenge to one another for the summer: write 10 new songs by the time that school starts in fall!!! We'll demo these songs for you as they surface. I'm really excited about this.

We've all but given up the dream of being famous musicians. But we just can't stop loving music and the song writing process. More and more, I find myself wanting to be better--in fact, I've practiced the guitar more in the last two weeks than I have in a long time. In addition to being a place to collect our musical memories and the friendships that surrounded them, this site will continue to be a place to share that love and our development as musicians and music lovers.

Enjoy!
My Last Mistake