imaginary break-ups

A few months back I tried to write an album in 30 days. It didn't happen, of course, but I did get several song ideas that have ended up working for summer.

Funny thing is, they are all wintery songs, and they're all about fading, troubled relationships. And though they are simple, 3 and 4 chord songs--I'm proud of them. I think the melodies are pretty strong, but mostly I'm proud of the stretch outside my own experience.

I'm a happily married man. But these songs--"My Last Mistake" "Old Psychosis," and "Don't Ask" (see below) are about people breaking up--or at least people who have encountered significant love-challenges. Tina and I are a normal couple--we have the occasional disagreement and even less occasional argument. I tried to take some of the feelings of those circumstances and put an exponent on them. The results were kind of sad songs (though "Old Psychosis" is actually more cynical and therefore kinda funny) about the prospect of going it alone.

When you listen to the song in this post and "My Last Mistake" of a few weeks ago try to think of the coldest February day you can summon up. You're in an empty house or a lonely cafe and you've just lost the love of your life.

Don't Ask from Only Anything on Vimeo.

For those of you with Vimeo problems, the video can be viewed on YouTube here.

I recorded this one in ONE take. Despite the few chord errors and words flubs, I decided to leave it. Tempo is also something that is in the air here--I tried to speed it up a bit, but maybe the tempo's a little too fast (I didn't want it to be a 6 minute song though). What do you think?

I should also say that when I first imagined these tunes, I was listening to a lot of Bon Iver.

Where all the stories go

Why do we love movies and books? because sometimes our lives are so boring or messed up or depressing that we need an easy temporary escape. That's the whole idea of this song, I was particularly thinking about books though. Most of my songs and most popular music aside from jazz has a straight eighth note pulse. There are many exceptions though, one that sticks out in my mind is "Lonely Place" by Goldfinger. It has that swung feel, some call it a shuffle. This song has that rhythm, I think it brings out the carefree feeling I'm going for. The recording is pretty loose, partly because I recorded it quickly and partly because my skills on the drums are not very precise. On all the tracks I used either the first or second take and I'm pretty happy with the end result. I have to be because summer is moving fast and with very limited recording time, I've got to make it productive.
Enjoy:
Stories
click to go.

Weezer Medley: July 1997

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

Weezer Medley from Only Anything on Vimeo.

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"

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!

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".

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.

"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!)