Heave Media

You're Only As Good As Your Latest Song

Another Day On Earth writes and records a new song every day – and HEAVE gets a weekly update on this adventerous project.

Namaste. Since January, and due to a mild case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, I've been writing and recording a song each and every day. This has caused me to experience moments of great bliss, and also to have a recurring nightmare where bugs are crawling all over me. Anyways, I post the tunes on a "blog," http://anotherdayonearth.net. I'm using this space to review the week's songs. I promise to be scathing when necessary, after all, like any of us loathsome "creative types," I am my own worst critic: 

Saturday, July 11th - the kid

When I started this thing, back on January 2nd, I knew it would be a haul. Well, actually I didn't know shit. I was high on a quadruple espresso when I came up with the idea. It wasn't until about the fourth day when the haul began to present itself. It was around that time I built in a failsafe to make life easier for me. Once a week, I allowed myself to post an older song I had written and recorded that I had never done anything with before. I have always been prolific, in some ways more than others. I figured it'd be a good way to give myself a rest once a week, and also a way to do things with songs I know I'd never get around to fixing up. 

Well, things went great, for a while. I called these weekly cop outs "mulligans" and they really came in handy when I had to do real life stuff, or if I was just puking into a bucket next to my bed. This all came "crashing" down around March when a hard drive failed on me. Kaput. They all went to that great iTunes in the sky. Poor little buggers. So, aside from a few here and there, that plan was nixed. Once in a while, however, I am able to find one while trolling my Gmail or other places. Once in a while I sent one to a friend or something. Previous to this blog, if I didn't think a song was done(and they never were, to me) I didn't really like sending them to anyone. 

I found one more. This one. "The kid." It's not so bad. The bassline is actually my voice like that Beatles song "I Will." It peeters out about half way through, though. Otherwise, the lead guitar track is this old classical guitar I used to have. It makes me really miss the darned thing. It was just one of those crappy flea market models but it had some charm and it sounded great. Also, just to be on the safe side, this song has nothing t o do with the Bruce Willis film of the same name. I wish. 

Older song it reminds me of: it's a dreamer's world

Sunday, July 12th - way down, in a well

This is one of those songs that really makes me want a full band. Any takers? I'm not available until January 2010 though. Also, I'm habitually late to practice. Sorry in advance. This is just a simple acoustic song but I can hear it so full and rocking and fun if it were fleshed out and a ton louder. Like vintage Lemonheads. 

Speaking of The Lemonheads, Evan Dando is the reason I hate to meet people I admire. Ya see, when I was a kid they were my most favorite band. I collected posters and t shirts. I cut out album advertisements from the back of Spin Magazine and made collages for my wall. Hell, I even made my dad a Dando mix tape. I was a real nutter for that whole crew. Lemonheads, Juliana Hatfield etc. Well, good bands didn't make it to South Florida too often back then. Something about it making Dante's "Inferno" seem like a happy nursery rhyme, I think. 

Lo and behold, The Lemonheads decided to make the trek into that loathsome, vile penis tip of America. I was happier than the first time I saw that keyboard cat. I lured my dad into letting me go with the aforementioned mix tape. It was on. Now, for some bizarre reason, because I was a kid and therefore kind of an idiot, I decided to bring Evan Dando a "Nightmare Before Christmas" watch that I picked up at Burger King or something. Why anybody would want this, I have no idea. Again, I am from South Florida so my particular view of culture was always a bit skewed. 

So, I waited for him in this alleyway behind the club, and yeah he was kind of a dick. He didn't want the damned watch and he was making crude sex jokes with his roadies. Now, let me be clear. I am not saying Evan Dando is a dick. I just didn't know what I wanted, or what I expected, and I learned at that young age that it's unhealthy to put anyone up on that kind of pedastal. I've actually met him since then and he was really nice. So, you know, probably just had a bad day. 

So yeah, this song is homage to that. It's also homage to the wells that Haruki Murakami characters invariably find themselves in. You Murakami readers know exactly what I mean. 

Older song it reminds me of: mary lou lord

Monday, July 13th - the literal sea

My friend said this song sounds like it could be in a sitcom montage. She assured me she meant this in a good way. I guess I can see it - like those episodes where a few characters get trapped in a basement or something and they end up hashing out old memories. "Oh remember all of those times our dad, Tim Allen, insulted his partner on that dumb show he does?" Cut to montage. Cue music. Yeah, I can see it.

Otherwise, I just kind of think it sounds a bit like that band The New Year. I kind of half assed the entire thing, though, I didn't start until late and I just wanted to get it over and done with. I've had a bit of a self-destructive week, without naming names. Well, ok I can name names. Me, myself and I. Don't worry, the names have been changed to protect the innocent and to infuriate the guilty. 

Older song it reminds me of: like a breeze in the darkness

Tuesday, July 14th - st. elmo's fire

Brian Eno. What a guy, right? Originally, I had intended to do a cover about once a month. They proved to take even longer than regular songs so I've kind of dropped the ball on them. Why do they take longer? Well, figuring out someone else's song, remembering vocal inflection, creating your own take on it. These things take a while. They take longer than just closing your eyes and remembering to rhyme "you" with "poo." Thus far, I've only done a handful of covers: The Beach Boys, Julian Lennon, Jackie Wilson and now this. 

Covering Eno can be tricky because people are really attached to him as a producer more than a songwriter. They won't get angry that you changed the song around a bit, but they'll cry bloody murder if you forget the blippy noise he and Robert Fripp made by hardwiring a frog to a beat up Chevy truck. And dammit, I forgot the blippy noise. Not on purpose, folks. Sheath your tomatoes. 

There is a cat in this house, a cat that relishes in ruining things for people. A cat who scratched my roommate recently, sending him to the hospital. The doctor seemed nonplussed and matter of factly stated, "Just put him to sleep. He sounds awful." Maybe so, doc. Maybe so. Well, he chewed up the cord that connects my keyboard to the outside world. No more blippy noises for me for a while. Dammit, if only us humans weren't hardwired to think small furry things were so damned cute! Did Fripp and Eno do that to us? 

Otherwise, blip absence withstanding; I think it turned out pretty well. 

Older song it reminds me of: higher and higher

Wednesday, July 15th - everflowing

Ever since I was a kid I've been obsessed with that Teenage Fanclub song "Everything Flows." I remember studying for 10th grade history, smoking clove cigarettes, and jamming that song on repeat like a jacked up Howard Hughes. I'm not sure if that really informed this song in any real way, but it definitely informed the title. I like the song a lot but think the production could be a bit crisper and more pronounced. There's that word again, "crisper." You know, like that 90s band Cracker. Or, um, that 70s band Crispy Ambulance. Ok, I'm all out of "bands that remind me of crispy things" references. Feel free to send me some. 

No, but what I mean is the vocals don't pop in the mix, especially during the chorus. If that's a chorus. I guess it is. Sometimes I get confused as to what to call certain parts of songs. Case in point, I don't think I've ever used the phrase "middle 8" correctly in my entire life. It sounds like a sex position. 

Otherwise, it's a good song. Whatever, I can't be too critical considering I did two that day. I had to work the next day, you know the kind of work that actually puts ramen noodles in my mouth, and I knew I wouldn't have time. In my "big book of blog rules", that's allowed so long as I record past midnight, which I did. So, you know, suck it. 

Older song it reminds me of: anyways

Thursday, July 16th - hungry like the puppy

Who doesn't love a well-timed Duran Duran pun? "Puppies on Film" didn't quite have the same ring to it. Well, mostly this is a throwaway. It's kind of a major crapfest, honestly. It has a good hook, I guess. That's about it. I am stupider for having written it. Only slightly though. 

With that said, I do like how I introduce the guitar solo by going "Yeah go ahead, I guess." Slackers rule 4ever. 

Older song it reminds me of: songs against songs

Friday, July 17th - hector the collector

I very rarely tell stories in songs. It just doesn't fall into my particular skill set. I like things that are catchy and instantly stick in your head. If it can do that AND tell a story, well, fine. I'm not gonna argue it. But how many people in history have been able to do that? Dylan, Bill Fay, Leonard Cohen once in a while, maybe Tom Waits on a good day. That's because it's really, really hard. Only certain words want to fit into any particular line of a song. Only certain syllables, even. Some songwriters are fine with sacrificing the melody a bit in order to shoehorn in a couple of words to get their point across. I am not. I am a slave to whatever melodies I hear in my head and the words have to match exactly. This doesn't give me much leeway for good stories. I tend to go for "words that sound cool if you don't think about them too hard" which has worked fine in pop music ever since they started teaching poetry workshops on "Norwegian Wood." 

Jesus, I remember being seventeen and trying to write this big important song about the life of this magnificent tree. It kind of sounded like Neutral Milk Hotel, if they were absolutely fucking awful. I think that one memory has scared me away from story songs, until now.  

This is a simple, acoustic ditty about a rabid collector. My friend Tasha and I wrote it. I know the title sounds like "Chester the Molester." But collecting ephemera and molesting it are two different things entirely. He lives. He dies. It's a story song. It's not "War and Peace" or anything but it's fine. It has a cool reference to Sir Hans Sloane, who invented milk chocolate. And it's not as bad as that tree song. Thank God. Again, it would also have keyboard if not for that abomination of a feline. 

Older song it reminds me of: brilliant machine

Posted by Lawrence Bonk on Jul 20, 2009 @ 10:00 am