Grey Skies Blue Skies, In Yr Eyes It's All the Same -1/8/99
My electro fetish was blossoming. I dropped all those drum machine fills in manually, pumped through a Whammy pedal. This song got dressed up for the first pOp*stAr*kiDs CD. Out Ta Win -1/14/99 I'm a sucker for the simplest ideas. There's almost nothing to this, which is why I like it. Sleeping In My Orbit -1/18/99 This song is a sleeper. I recently listened to it and thought it was better than I'd remembered. My favorite stuff is all the weird drum loops I dropped in. Come Out and Play -3/13/99 This song summed up the carefree, playful, celebratory vibe I wanted to put across in P*S*K. To this day I never get tired of playing it live. Believe it or not, it took me forever to complete these lyrics. I even bought a Spanish/English dictionary, which helped me find a word to go with "muchacha." I wound up using "coquetta," which everyone thinks is "cocaine time." Whatever. Alone -3/14/99 There's a certain sadness about this song that I adore. We recorded it for "The Rise and Fall" record and I think it works really well as the last song on that disc. You're So Real -4/25/99 Here's a song I wrote, tracked and promptly forgot about. Some fairly interesting details to this recording, now that I hear it again. The lyric "money speaks louder than art; and your pockets are bigger than your heart" sums up what the tune's about. Turn Up the Noise -5/7/99 Springtime! This is a charming little ditty that somehow remains largely unheard. Writing positive, upbeat lyrics was something I had started to do around this time. So was using big three-part harmonies. We're the Boys -5/7/99 Another one I filed in the trash bin of my mind once it was finished. But it's got a pretty nice chorus and lots of quirky, lo-fi keyboard sounds. All Broke Down -5/31/99 We punched this one up in the studio but there's a charm in the original version that I like just as well. Was playing with a very old Roland synthesizer around this time. It's what I used to create the jet sounds in "Jumbo Jet." The spirit of this song continued to shape the positive attitude I wanted for P*S*K. Crush of Oil -6/4/99 It's a cute and utterly nonsensical song. Alien -6/12/99 I sure got a lot of mileage out of cheap keyboard sounds around this time! Oh and that's a vintage Roland synth at the very end, which was capable of some very cool sounds but nothing you'd call "musical," exactly. Tarted this one up for the second P*S*K record. A cute and silly song. Nine Lives -7/12/99 This song has a vicious, stomping vibe that I enjoy. Ashes in the Air -11/21/99 This is the first song I wrote after the completion of This Is pOp*stAr*kiDs. It's also the first song I wrote after moving to my current apartment. It sat around collecting dust for four years and then we used it on the third P*S*K album. It's a crafty little tune, inspired by Jellyfish and Self. Do You Ever Wonder -12/5/99 A sad little song of heartbreak. One of the loneliest guitar solos I've ever played. |
