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King of the Junkyard -6/7/95 "Go go go! We're moving out like drunk tanks..." Whatever that means. I wrote a ton of songs in this time period. It was a great summer and I'd just figured how to write songs, so I did it all the time. There are so many more. Wanna Be -6/16/95 Another choice lyric -- "I'll piss in my hat if I gotta go..." Ok anyway, I always enjoyed this chorus melody/chord progression; maybe one day I'll airlift it out of this song and put it into another. And maybe change those lyrics... You're A Star -7/18/05 A song about celebrity couples who choose their mates based on how much the other person will raise their profile. Verse number two is nothing like verse number one -- why should verses always be exactly alike? I didn't know it at the time, but I unwittingly used the Hinduston scale in the guitar solo. Get all your useless trivia right here! New Year -1/11/96 Ok I had said "Covered" was the last song I wrote before moving to NYC -- but "New Year" was written on the same day, so maybe it was the last song written before the move? Oh well, it hardly matters. Judging by the lyrics to this miserable little ditty, I was more than ready for a change of scenery at this point in time. Really like this song, despite that the vocals are very rough around the edges. "The world doesn't owe me, the world doesn't know me." Drive All Night -9/15/96 I wrote a handful of tunes in my first few months in New York, most of which don't excite me all that much -- but there's a certain melancholy charm to this one. I think I was a little depressed that the summer was over and I was broke and didn't really know anyone in the city yet. That would change very soon. The Beginning -9/23/96 I like the brooding, autumnal quality of this particular track. So sad how the fidelity of these recordings has degenerated over time. Aged photographs is all they are. The Spin -10/21/96 This song was written about an annoying person who was unavoidably a part of my life at the time. Here's a sample verse: "your words are turds; you're unctuous and shallow; I don't give a shit about your gold records." Only time I've ever used the word "turds" in a song. Ditto for "unctuous." Witchlight -10/28/96 It was nearly Halloween so I wrote a Halloween song. I remember having a hard time singing in tune while recording this; I was using headphones and trying to keep the volume down because my next-door neighbor was a horrible complainer. Anyway, it was nice to give this song proper treatment on the "Rise and Fall of P*S*K" record. Always loved it. On the Cusp -1/22/97 Another song that I could have easily forgotten about -- but listening to it again recently made me think it was worth unearthin.' Not the kind of thing I normally do -- maybe that's why I like it now. Fish -11/16/97 It was a dry year as songwriting goes. But this tune is a winner, I think. I like this: "open up your mouth and everything comes out; your half-digested version of everything that ever was." The main guitar part for the whole song is three tiny notes -- yet, as simple as the part is, it's not easy to play the same short figure over and over for five minutes straight. More songs started coming after this; many still don't deserve to see the light of the day, though... I remember doing a lot of my four-tracking, including this song, in Keeta Speed's (the band I was in at the time) basement rehearsal space on Hester Street in the Lower East Side. That place was crawling with giant cockroaches. Saturdusk -2/11/98 That's me going for a Kevin Shields effect with the Whammy pedal. this was originally an instrumental and my friend Marty suggested I turn it into a proper song. So here ya go! "I'm headed for the horizon in a boat that's stuck in the current." I'm sure you've all felt that way. Turncornering -2/12/98 There's a haunting, subdued vibe here that works pretty well. Another one that began as an instrumental. Odd note choice in the main guitar solo. Love all the backwards stuff, though. Taste the Magic -3/22/98 A fun, frivolous song. Catchy enough, although perhaps too silly for its own good? Splinters Everywhere -12/18/98 Love this song. Gave it a good making-over for the "Rise and Fall" record but even in this lo-fi capacity, it works for me. Two chords for the whole song. Why not? They're two good chords. Break Yr Bones -12/30/98 Talk about silly. Here's an idea: let's split up the syllables in the chorus into two call-and-answer parts! So on track one I have to sing the first, third, fifth, etc syllables and on track two I sing all the ones inbetween. No wonder it sounds so weird. Repeated the exercise in the second part of the guitar solo. Still, it seemed good enough to record on the first P*S*K cd and people STILL want to hear it live to this day. 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. 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. 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. 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. Let's Get Close -1/28/00 I'd just gotten an E-bow, so that's all over this song and others from this time. The vocals are scrappy on this but I knew it was a good enough song to make the cut for the second P*S*K record. Stretched the last chorus on the album version and cleaned the whole thing up quite a bit, although I remember having a real hard time trying to re-program all those skribbly little drum bits at the end. In many ways, you can never better the original...although I do think we bettered this, significantly. Let's Break Up -1/31/00 "Let's" this, "let's" that. In two weeks' time I wrote three songs whose titles begin with "let's." More cool E-bow guitar in this recording. "You talked a hole in my answering machine" is a line I like. But the minor key chorus/outro is my favorite part. Warm waves of gorgeous sadness... Empty -8/01 This should be a country/western song. From the Murray Hill Sessions of late August, 2001. Thank you Scarlett! Greenpoint -2/02 Already had a song called "Williamsburg," so I figured I oughta have one called "Greenpoint." Don't hold your breath for "Cobble Hill," though... Everything Is Cool -2/02 The best part of this song is where the second chorus segues into the guitar solo. Basic powerpop dittie that's two minutes soaking wet. Ten Hammers -3/02 I don't have a clue where this song came from. I wouldn't have the foggiest notion of when it was written, either, were it not for the fact that I date all the songs in my lyric book. Leave You All Behind -7/02 Here's another song that's more than a little foggy in my memory. Who knows who or what inspired this? The whole summer was foggy. Anyway, this was a pleasant surprise to dig up. It's not quite fully baked but I think it's got legs. Hangin' On A -8/02 Here's an inscrutable little piece of pop for ya. Random, free-associated lyrics over a stark postpunk backdrop delivered to you from the putrid yellow summer of 2K2 in New York. Get Down Low -10/17/02 Foamy, fuzzy, noisy guitars make me happy. So do bouncy melodies. That's why I resurrected this lost gem. Ladyfingers (Luscious Jackson cover) I recorded this sometime in the spring or summer of 2003, while P*S*K were working on the "Revenge" record. For some reason there was a pile of discarded, warped, 12-inch singles of this song left on the floor outside our rehearsal space and I nabbed one. Fell in love with this song instantly, especially the Kut Masta Kurt remix. Luscious Jackson were a cool band. I hope I did the tune some justice. I played around with the chords a bit and made it my own. Curses from the Stars (Will Follow You Wherever You Go) -8/4/04 Pretty chords. So many songs just get written, recorded and forgotten about, like this one. When I hear it now, it really appeals to me. Maybe you just need some time away from something before its value is revealed. Singing the word "daddy-o" can never be a bad thing. Rising -8/05 It was a pretty slow summer for songwriting but this hypnotic little number came together pretty nicely, I think. Twilight Alright -8/05 I remember writing this song almost entirely in my head on the subway en route to rehearsal with Jerry Gaskill. I got to the rehearsal space and wrote down as much as I could. I think the idea survived pretty much intact. I'm pretty pleased with this one. Incidentally, this is the second song I've written with the title "Twilight, Alright." The other one's totally different but this is the better of the two. Pretty Pet -1/15/06 This song kicked off a solid week of songwriting productivity that produced no fewer than ten tunes! I like this lyric: "warriors broken by the cause; slaves to the medication, the occupation." That last word could mean a few different things, eh? You Won't Survive When You Let the Girlfriend Drive -1/16/06 I was pretty excited by this chord progression when I came up with it but I can't say it blossomed into the song I wanted. But it sounds ok and has plenty of mel-OH-dee. Flying High -1/17/06 My eternal quest to write the perfect pop song probably doesn't reach its ambition here but I do like this tune. Plus, I used the word "aerosol" for the first time in a song! I think.. Final Exhibition -1/19/06 This song is reasonably catchy. The second verse is cool and the solo came out nice too -- when in doubt, pick up a slide! Dressed and Desperate -1/19/06 When I initially came up with this main riff, it didn't interest me much at all and I nearly abandoned the idea. But then I figured I should try to see where it would take me, and I wound up with one of my favorite songs in this batch. This is about all the humans swarming out amongst eachother at night, in the clubs, parties and bars, done up to the nines, hoping desperately for something good to happen to them... Dust Upon the Ground -1/20/06 I am fond of this song -- anything with cool chords usually gets me interested. Sample lyric: "attaching to your betters can't be any harm; second-hand expression begs your counterfeit charm." Bangin' the Door -1/22/06 This came out real easy and I like the ones that do that. Another song with no chords -- just single notes. Love that sound for some reason. The ghost of Glenn Danzig is all over the vocal melodies, isn't it? Shattered By the System -1/23/06 I radically reworked this one for the band -- rewrote the main guitar riff, some of the lyrics and the outro -- and shortened the title to "Shattered." Clancy's menacing, tribal drum parts on the band version are really wicked and very different from the simpler beats found here. I think the song's better for it. "Shattered" is a much meaner beast now, dripping with righteous anger! The Better They Know You -1/24/06 The January streak continues! I'm really pleased with how this one came out -- I'm always really happy when I can stretch two chords through an entire song and still make all the parts sound different. And the slide guitar solo is just icing...yum. Over and Done -1/25/06 This song is simple enough. Nothing to get too excited about, although I do like how the solo melody gets a slight reprise at the end -- these little unplanned events are so nice when they work out! Broken Promises -6/22/06 A somewhat average song but fairly listenable anyway. A nice Beatles-esque bridge. Or maybe Fleetwood Mac-esque... Run Together, Die Alone -6/28/06 Sorry that the beginning of the song got taped over accidentally -- I can be clumsy in my haste to get a song done. The lyrics are about the jaded and bitter types who crowd around each other and commiserate about "kids today" and pretend the sky's falling because the world isn't exactly like it was during their own halcyon years. Every generation does this. One Day -6/28/06 I really like this recording and the song. It came out one night after checking out some live Ladytron on the internet. So I guess I have to credit them as an influence! No problem, I love that band. Anyway, lyrically, I suppose this song is about karma; "some day the pain will kiss you, when it's your turn..." Unhappy -7/7/06 I originally wrote this song in spring of '95 -- it was one of my first. I recently listened to it and thought it was really nice but I wanted to change the chords a bit and re-record it, which I did, and here it is. Very simple but does the job. You can hear me talking to my cat at the very end -- she gets very agitated when I sing! Maybe you do, too... |
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