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.

Sup?! Since January, because I nearly OD'ed on sushi, I've been writing and recording a song each and every day. This has allowed me to appear on the BBC, and also to appear in civil court for not paying rent. 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 25th - "i was a workhorse in another life" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/149748213/saturday-july-25th-i-was-a-workhorse-in

This is a nice little folk song with some fun guitar work. It was fun to play, anyways. Not sure if it's fun to listen to. You be the judge of that. I had some trouble getting this "yee haw!" to fit during the choruses. Eventually I only put it in one, the first one. I know conventional songwriting wisdom dictates that if you are going to build up or add layers, always do the adding towards the end of the song. I have just been tired of that lately. For a while I'm going to do all of my adding at the beginning and then devolve into primitive simpleness by the end. If this was a manifesto in front of an art project, I'd say "I am doing this to represent the arc of human life, for the human experience adds layers as we grow, only to cruelly strip them away as we reach an advanced age." Hmm. Maybe I could show somewhere at a gallery in Brooklyn sometime. I do draw a fantastic Alf.

Older song it reminds me of: "downwind" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/75730535/wednesday-february-4th-downwind-this-is-a

Sunday, July 26th - "kokomo 2" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/150442668/sunday-july-26th-kokomo-2-i-dont-quite-have

Who doesn't spend their summers in the fetal position watching that Tom Cruise movie "Cocktail" over and over? I know I do. On a particularly, uh, fetal, Cruise sesh, I decided the Beach Boys hit off of the soundtrack needed a sequel. I was also on massive amounts of Nyquil at the time. Of all the harebrained ideas I've had throughout this entire experiment (I'm looking at you, ten minute noise track from April) this is perhaps the dumbest one. It just may be the dumbest idea I've had in my entire life. So, awesome! Dumb ideas are like pizza and sex. Even when they are bad they are pretty good. Wait, where have I heard that one before?

Little known facts about the amazing slice of hifi heaven known as "Kokomo": It was the Beach Boys final chart topping billboard hit, coming in at number one in 1988. It was also the only Beach Boys number one hit that has been known to induce violent nausea. Well, actually, "Good Vibrations" does that to my dad. He claims it's because he had a shotgun pulled on him the first time he heard it. True story.

Beach Boys lore indicates that due to the neverending financial quibbling between those rascally Beach Boys, Brian Wilson was shut out of most of the recording process for "Kokomo." What a great idea! Let's shut out the best songwriter and producer of the group! Mike Love is a genius. Well, maybe he actually is. It did hit number one, after all.

Older song it reminds me of: "still i dream of it" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/69896405/monday-january-12th-still-i-dream-of-it-i

Monday, July 27th - "you are alone" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/151316243/monday-july-27th-you-are-alone-this-is

This is another "mulligan," meaning it's older than Methuselah. If you are an avid reader of this column (Hey Ted) then you know once a week I'm allowed to post an old song I made to give me a bit of a break. Now, as loyal readers have surmised (Again, Ted), I take horrible care of my stuff. I don't own a single thing I've ever put out in any band I've ever been in. Maybe at some point I did but I either gave them away, stepped on them or got drunk and used them in a makeshift game of frisbee golf. Back when people still bought music (Kind of weird how quickly that went away isn't it?) my bedroom floor was littered with bits and pieces of CDs that I had stepped on or otherwise had treated unfairly. This made selling stuff I didn't care for, like Third Eye Blind, rather difficult. For some reason, used CD stores didn't like their product to be covered in scratches. No wonder nobody buys music anymore! We've all had it up to here with mistreatment from the record industry! Yeah! What's 40 or 50 scratches among friends? Don't worry it'll play. It's just thinking. Give it a few minutes.

I don't really love this song. I was an idiot kid when I made it. It reminds me of Holden Caulfield and Conor Oberst having an immature and malformed baby. Get it? It's immature and malformed because Holden and Conor are so similar. Kinda like when cousins have kids.

Older song it reminds me of: "idiot kids" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/90847710/saturday-march-28th-idiot-kids-thanks-to

Tuesday, July 28th - "i don't know myself" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/151951782/tuesday-july-28th-i-dont-know-myself-i

This song started with just the acoustic guitar and beat and the general vocal melody. I was going to keep it there, but whenever I boot up that electric guitar to "try a thing or two" it usually ends up changing the entire tenor of the song. Now you can barely hear the acoustic guitar except for the first half of each verse, which is my favorite part and sort of reminds me of The Pixies. So I ended up noodling all over this. I like that though. It's fun. I'm quite good at three note guitar solos that don't require too much skill and rely mostly on "feeling it." Just close your eyes man. Feel it. Just feel it man.

I like this song a lot. I really have nothing bad to say aside from the fact that if my bedroom happened to be a state of the art studio instead of, um, Fred Sanford's back yard, then it would sound a lot better. It could use a differing, real drum beat. And bass. Any volunteers? This will be for 2010's mission of playing a show every single day, though. Hmm. Lots of bands do that. Crap. Well, not Thanksgiving and Christmas! Nobody plays shows on those days. We will. Apologize to your families now.

Older song it reminds me of: "licking acid in the hot city" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/99123735/tuesday-april-21st-licking-acid-in-the-hot

Wednesday, July 29th - "whachu got" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/152604897/wednesday-july-29th-whachu-got-love-is-what

I'm a bit torn on this song. I kind of think it rules, but I also kind of think the mix pisses me off. Is the guitar lead too loud? Are the vocals too soft? Can I get away with saying this was a "stylistic" choice? I'll draft up a two paragraph artistic statement. Ok, here goes nothing:

In this hustle and bustle modern world, the chaotic noises we hear all around us tend to drown out our internal monologue, our inner voice. I propose to illustrate this through mix choices made in the song "whachu got." The guitar lead, which extends throughout the entire song, is used to represent the certainty of chaos and distraction in our lives. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the hauntingly soft vocals are used to point towards man's escalating irrelevance in the face of massive technological leaps.

It all hits home in the final thirty seconds, when four more guitars join the lead to create a massive cacophony. This could only be used to represent the coming singularity, when mankind's dominance will be forever skewed, as we merge with machines. Additionally, the fade out represents the final end to the old way. Upon further listens, the astute listener may notice there is a glimmer of hope to be had.

Older song it reminds me of: "messy love" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/74451789/friday-january-30th-messy-love-this-song-is

Thursday, July 30th - "how many people?" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/152807207/thursday-july-30th-how-many-people-how-many

This song was inspired by a recent listening of that Paul McCartney album, "Ram." You know, by that song "Too many people." Rumor goes that Paul wrote that song as a dig against John and Yoko. I'm not sure what the line "too many people paying parking fines" means in that regard, though. Were John and Yoko known for their prompt fine paying? They don't seem the type.

In any event, this is a fairly standard acoustic song. It has a cool ending that features a Harrison-esque vocal harmony. Otherwise, it's nothing too special but it's not that bad. It's the song equivalent of an edible diner breakfast that was only 4 dollars so how much can you complain? Eggs, bacon, toast AND potatoes for just 4 dollars?! Sign me up. If they throw in a cup of coffee I'll be a customer for life.

Older song it reminds me of: "nooo way" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/108423264/thursday-may-14th-nooo-way-bill-and-teds

Friday, July 31st - "victory song" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/153910231/friday-july-31st-victory-song-another

I jumped the gun a bit here. This is another mulligan. Technically, this is two in one week, but I'm sure it will even out by the time I post another one. I only have one left, after all. So, with respect, gimme a break. This song is so very old that I can no longer talk about it because I'm the type of person who hates everything I do that's over several months old, let alone a decade. Being in the Rolling Stones would be a fate worse than death for people like me. Playing those same hits over and over and over, most at least forty years old. Forty damned years. Imagine that. Rock N Roll is so strange. What if practitioners of all art forms were forced to do that? Imagine John Updike being forced to tour around the country in 2007 reading excerpts from the books he wrote while in his twenties, or some wise old painter being forced to recreate his teenaged lesser works. "Still life of girl who did not respond favorably to my mixtape."

Then again, the newer Stones albums kind of suck. So, what are ya gonna do?

Older song it reminds me of: "across town" http://anotherdayonearth.tumblr.com/post/81826218/thursday-february-26th-across-town-this-is

Ok that's it. I'll see you next week. Grill them all. Let God sort em out.

Posted by Lawrence Bonk on Aug 03, 2009 @ 8:00 am