Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand
by krisis
Well, this one’s off to dreamland, and I don’t think i have a damn thing to do tomorrow, because i was expecting to be hung over or something. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to suggest. Otherwise, i think i’m headed into the studio to record. Of course, that might have been your suggestion, but in the absence of class and work, music is my #1 priority so i tend to shy away from it. We’ll see…
by krisis
AMkitchen is getting a months overdue update, but if you’re a regular reader here i don’t think any of it will be new to you. AMkitchen used to be the main component of my website, and now this has taken over and left the kitchen as a neatly designed archive for all the witty new songs that pop up over here. I suspect after i begin work in earnest on my new demo (in less than 12 hours, honestly!), things will perk up over there. We shall see…
by krisis
a sound of sadness: christmas Twin Falls, Idaho is her oldest memory / She was only two it was the first time she felt blue / Cafeteria Harrison Elementary / Beneath a parachute I saw her without shoes / 7UP I touched her thumb and she knew it was me / Although she couldn’t see unless of course she peeked / My mom’s good she got me out of Twin Falls, Idaho / Before I got too old you know how that goes / That’s where she still was the summer she turned 17 / In 1983, two weeks after me / Last I heard was she had twins or maybe it was three / Although I’ve never seen but that don’t bother me
I don’t know if it’s the easy whine of his voice, or the quirky little appregiated guitar part, but this song puts tears in my eyes every time. I guess i’m old enough to start to appreciate all this retrospective stuff, huh?
Excuse me while i go cry in a corner like a sissy…
by krisis
there must have been some kind of parade
we kissed for a while to see how it played
and pulled the pin on another grenade
by krisis
I think that i’m under the impression that if i keep writing, something good might come out. Funny, eh? Do you know what amazes me? Arrangements. While i am always amazed at a solo guitarist’s ability to hold the stage with a single instrument, by that same token a well arranged rock band can totally awe me. I have trouble focusing on the fact that each instrumentalist has their own function, their own independent role in the creation of a song. I’m not much for arranging, seeing as it’s usually just me and my guitar, but my sudden fluency in the studio has left all of my songs open for additional parts.
But, it’s not so easy. Sure, i could layer on tracks of bass playing the root of the chord and guitars playing riffs in the same fashion, but arrangements that truly stun me add something with every part they introduce. A terrific example of this is “Goodbye Sky Harbor” at the end of Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity. The song is 16 minutes long, but essentially for the latter dozen minutes the band just repeats a single figure. It start with drums and guitars, and slowly a vocal comes in, and by the time you’re well on the other side of the 10 minute mark the guitars fade away leaving you with just a chorus of voices repeating the same pattern over and over. Eventually a new drum loop is introduced that has nothing to do with the one before it, and you realize that you’re not really listening to the same song – except it is the same song because everything you’re hearing emerged from what came before.
That’s the point of arrangements. Arrangements for my songs should be so that you can take away everything except a backing vocal and a bass and then build a different but familiar song back up from them. Those are the arrangements that feel like more than just a backing band plugging away at roots and downbeats. I’ll have to give it a try…