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.

Hey. Since January, because of a propensity towards grandeur, I've been writing and recording a song each and every day. This has made me a crack guitar tuner. It's also made me just one crack above homeless. 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, September 12th - tripping on acid (changed my whole perspective of shit)

First things first. This is the sorriest week I've ever come across during this little experiment. Well, there was this week in late March when my computer broke but that was due to faulty tech. This is due to a, for lack of a better word, midlife crisis. If one considers the blog to be a life, that is. I do sometimes. It's ok to anthropomorphize your creations right? Anyways, the way I figure it, midlife crises with people occur usually somewhat later than midlife. That 60-year-old man in the sportscar probably won't live to be 120. The same thing here. I'm deep into September now. Not so many months left until that giant clock ticks down to nothing. So, consider me crisis-ed. Only, instead of young girls and bad toupees, I'll be writing bad songs. You’re welcome.

This is one such bad song. Don't even listen to it. Cool title though. My friends had a short-lived band called that in college. Even better, "the Prank Rocks," which was a four piece punk band that only played sets during crank calls. I don't think we ever fully made it through one song.

Older song it reminds me of: dumb ole day

Sunday, September 13th  - oh, work

This song is a bit less annoying, but not by much. It was my attempt to do something I knew after a few days of missteps and false starts. Still, it's paint by numbers "blogfolk" and doesn't go anywhere too interesting besides the beginning. This would be an ok song had I not made 14 better ones in a similar vein throughout the year. This is a triple fold problem. I find myself stuck in the genres I know most about just because I really don't have the time to start at 7 am and learn a new genre enough to ape it. That coupled with my equipment limitations, and it becomes a headache. Not a migraine, just a regular headache. Sometimes my brain finds creative ways around these hurdles, and sometimes it does not. Damn, dirty brain! Get with the program. I don't know. Some friends seem to like this song. I think it's mostly stupid.

Actually, you know. I just re-listened. It's not that bad. Damn, dirty brain! Get your opinions straight!

Older song it reminds me of: be free

Monday, September 14th - i wonder what i'll think before i die

This song is like making a delicious stew, with all of the finest ingredients, only to accidentally put a bit too much salt in at the end. People complain. The dog won't even eat it. Sucks. I wrote it as a slower ballad, with no beat. Only, due to yesterday's song being a standard folk song, I changed my initial idea and glammed it up a bit. This was a bad idea. If there's one thing to learn(and teach) from all of this, is "the song wants what the song wants." One should never try to cram a bunch of crap into a song that it obviously doesn't want. This was a well thought out song. Great melody. Charming lyrics. I should have kept it simple instead of layering one thing after another in a misguided attempt to have an "A HA!" moment where it all magically came together. Merlin sat out this session. It never really came together. But if you listen closely, and slow it down a bit, you can still hear the song I first wrote. It's pretty good.

Older song it reminds me of: follow the bells

Tuesday, September 15th - pissin' paint

This song is cool if only for the fact that I got to use an actual picture of urine on the blog. Sure, it was Andy Warhol's and is widely considered to be art, but whatever - fuck it. Piss is piss. This song is trying to encapsulate how I've been feeling lately - that no song has really been coming together. Thus the term, pissing paint. I'm not entirely sure what it means. I've heard it here and there maybe. I take it to mean "Just fucking around. Not doing anything of importance."

It's a simple synth song that would be passable if not for the vocals. There's just something off on them. I should have lowered everything else slightly and raised them slightly. That could have evened it out. I don't have monitor speakers so I mix exclusively with headphones, which can sometimes be great, other times not so much. I find my headphones tend to misrepresent bass a little bit which sometimes can tarnish my mixes a bit. Then again, the last monitor speakers I had also did that very same thing. It must be a trend that's going around. Like swine flu.

Older song it reminds me of: forget paris

Wednesday, September 16th - hounds just shrug

Today I read about a study that likens the intelligence of dogs to 2-year-old children. They go as far as to name the smartest dogs in the litter, Border Collies, as 3 year olds. However, the class known as hounds was related to 1.5 year old status. For whatever reason, these scientists don't like the hounds. Maybe one of them helped a policeman sniff out drugs on them one time or something. Anyways, I've known some hounds in my day. They don't seem particularly dumb and in any event, how does one even liken dog intelligence to kid intelligence? Seems like apples and oranges. So I wrote this song, the response from those childish and immature hounds, which is just one big shrug.

Yeah. I really need to stay off of the blogs. Can't have too many future songs informed by scientific studies. Or can you never have too much?

Older song it reminds me of: i believe in love

Thursday, September 17th - race on, racehorse

This song is a bit junky and stupid, and the lyrics are mostly throwaway word jumbles about nonsense, but I still like it. It has an old school indie pop feel. It reminds me of something I can't quite put my finger on. Something from my past. Insert spooky music here.

I really love the loud guitar lead that runs throughout the song after the first part. The beat was probably a poor choice. It's a bit too dancey and doesn't fit what else is going on. If only I had a real live drummer at my beck and call. Know of any? They are hard to find in NYC. There are tons of "ex-drummers." I think this has something to do with everyone's living spaces being about half a tuna can. That and neighbors tend to frown hard at drums. Neighbors! Get your acts together! Drums are your friends. Seriously though. Drummers. Email me. Extra points if you live and die by the fill.

Older song it reminds me of: some pop song about the sea

Friday, September 18th - boca rays

After a lengthy and drunken BBQ at my house, I figured out why the songs suck this week! I drink a lot and smoke a lot and god knows whatever else a lot. This can't be good for my body and a little guy on television once told me that whatever affects the body also affects the brain. So, with that said, next week I'm going to take care of myself. I'm going to jog and drink wheatgrass, or at least some of those stupid three-dollar juices. Anyone ever try Kombucha? What's the verdict? I'll drink that too. It kind of reminds me of beer anyways. Two birds with one stone and all of that. Oh. And Kale. I'm going to ingest so much kale my skintone is going to turn greener than a Prius. But I'm not so worried about my carbon footprint. That's next year.

This song kind of sucks and isn't worth talking about too much, but I will say this: One of my very first jobs was at Target at the Sawgrass Mills mall in southern Florida. My coworker claimed to be close and personal friends with Freddie Mercury, so much in fact, that he claimed the other members of Queen talked about him during the Freddie memorial concert that happened shortly after his death. He was really annoying. Years later, I finally watched that concert. I don't know. I guess I just always missed it. Obviously, my coworker was never mentioned. I thought I'd get a good laugh out of it. I didn't. I just felt bad. I ended up sort of wishing he was mentioned. That would have been cool for him.

Older song it reminds me of: nooo way

That's it for now. I'm going to go sell a thing to a guy. Don't tell anyone.

Posted by Lawrence Bonk on Sep 24, 2009 @ 9:00 am