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December 18, 2006

Song-A-Week: Say Now

Hello, it is with great anticipation and no small amount of apprehension that I proffer song #1 of the Song-A-Week project - I think I'm gonna just BARELY get it in before midnight. I gotta start planning ahead.

This song is Copyright 2006 Matthew Good - don't steal it, internets.
"Say Now"

I wasn't thinking of myself
Believe me this time
I wasn't selfish, that's for sure
I'm still reeling
and carryin on
I'm not getting no rest these nights
no life in the daylight
I've taken till there's nothing left
I've dried us up
what do you want me to
Say now?
Okay now,
to say now?
okay now.

What chance for rest have we got
we're on the run
Peace comes but once a holiday
leaves us numb
and happier
I've taken everyone's advice
like a drug
I've made my simple heart contrite
You called my bluff
What do you want me to
Say now?
okay now
to say now?
okay now.


That's it. Keep in mind - the "recordings" are demos and the songs are sketches. The vocals will typically suck, and my guitars will probably be out of tune and played badly. But, if you've bought any of my albums, you're probably used to that now. Anyway, I'd like you comments, and I'll probably base what songs I end up recording for real off of what you all say.

UNFORTUNATELY, I'll be heading "home" for Christmas in the coming days, so there will be no mp3 demo of the song a week for the next two weeks - I may or may not post lyrics in its stead. PLEASE let me know what you think!

Posted by pedalboy at 11:55 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

December 12, 2006

Kurt Vonnegut... In Second Life??

Here's a google video video (video video, hehe) of Kurt Vonnegut Being interviewed... In Second Life. WEIRD STUFF. But Vonnegut is a master, and you'll understand that as he makes even his very first point... Which blew my mind. The one about the famous marx quote, "Religion is the opiate of the masses." According to Vonnegut, it may not mean what you think it means. Check it out, post comments.

Posted by pedalboy at 11:04 PM | TrackBack

December 11, 2006

What I'm Up To Lately

Well, I've been posting on my blog slightly more regularly, *that's* for sure. It might not always be inspiring, but at least its there.

A few days ago, I packed all my recording gear into my car and drove to Greenville to record my friend Jakob Eckeberger's new band live. Jake and I were in Amnesty Letters together back in the day, along with three other brilliant persons. Jake's new band is a blues thing - which is unexpected and very cool. Chris Matetic from Lexington (RIP) drums on it, and Jake's wife Katie sings. She... rips it. She's freaking ridiculous-good. I didn't catch the name of the bass player, mostly because I'm socially awkward.

So on friday I left for Greenville after work. Later that night, a bunch of us went out to Pokey... (High-school friends, pokey is a 24-hour truck stop about 10 minutes away. It was/is typically the only food place open at the crazy hours of night we'd get hungry.) It was pretty good. I ate some Chicken Fingers for Kate, who regretably was off being her own person in Boston or something.

Early start on saturday - 10am. Building was locked until 11 am (oh, Greenville, how I don't miss that at all), setup until 12. We're tracking live, everyone playing in the same room at the same time, really loud. Everything's bleeding into everything else's microphone, and its great. jake has to work at 3:30, so at this point I'm thinking we're gonna be in a rush. Once I got everything set up, I didn't even bother listening to it to make sure it sounded okay - just got levels, tried to figure out the songs on piano, and hit record. A few hours later, we had knocked out the three songs we wanted too, plus a fourth (A cover of "Chain of Fools") just for fun. I remember in Amnesty Letters that it took us about 6 months of steady work to record a 4 song ep, so it was super-refreshing to knock out four songs in less than 3 hours. I needn't have worried about the time I guess. Tons of fun. I pretty much botched all the piano though. Ha.

After that came overdubs - which reminded me why studio work takes so long. Nobody playing overdubs really has any idea of what they want to play for them, so you spend about half an hour trying to come up with something for the part, figuring out exactly what was played before, that sort of thing. For just a few little overdub parts, it took us until about 12:30am. then teardown and stuff while tired, I got to bed at 2. The stuff sounds pretty great though.

Sunday was a low-key day. Church in the morning (I miss St. Pauls), then potluck (I miss St. Pauls), and then an episode of Firefly. Hung out with the Katie and the Caitlin mostly. Then I went home. Long boring drive. I was pretty much the saddest ever. Being back at Greenville was strange, leaving my friends again was heart wrenching. Unfortunately, this stage of life is where we know we have to cut the veins from our heart and transplant it somewhere else. And then we do it. Good God.

Guess I can't follow that very well. I put some piano in some of my tunes. It was good to see people again.

Oh and I'm going to be starting a thing called "new song monday." Perhaps inspired by Dan's NaNoWriMo effort, every monday for the forseable future, i'll post lyrics and a demo to a new song I'm working on. Please leave comments. After there are several songs up there, I'd like to have people vote on them. Perhaps the winners will be the ones I end up recording. Good idea? Bad idea? I dunno, perhaps you will tell me.

Posted by pedalboy at 1:29 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

December 7, 2006

Silversun Pickups & More

Found a new band I think I like: Silversun Pickups.
I heard the song "Lazy Eye" from their album Carnavas, and I liked it a lot. Here's what an NPR station had to say about them:

"This Southern California band follows last year's promising Pikul EP with an even better album of psych-tinged indie-rock, sounding like early Smashing Pumpkins filtered through hypnotic My Bloody Valentine drones, with lots of noisy guitar effects and powerful hooks."

You can listen to this song, and check out the ten other "Best Debut CDs of 2006" on NPR's site. Let me know what you think!

---

Well, I wrote this entry, then listened to some more songs on the site - and DANG if i didn't find another really neet track. Its "Sons and Daughters" from The Decemberist's new album The Crane Wife. And it's FANTASTIC. Here's a quick NPR summary:

"This Portland band led by Colin Meloy returns (for the first time on a major label) with another ambitious concept album, this one inspired by an ancient Japanese folk tale. This release finds Meloy and company at their best. Epic story tracks mixed with short, punch rock songs that make for a full, rich listening experience."

Check that one out here.

Posted by pedalboy at 12:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 1, 2006

Fickle me.

So it's probably about time for another blog. I haven't had much to say, I guess. That's pathetic. I still haven't gotten pictures off my camera from as far back as the honeymoon that kristin and I took - i have about 200 megs of free space on my laptop. I need a raided NAS unit, i'm thinking about building one and running linux on it. But i haven't gotten around to figuring out the specifics like and ordering the parts yet. ::sigh::

I guess I'm feeling a little depressed right now. Can't pinpoint a reason, which usually means it will be here a while. I'm having some misgivings about my music and I'm a bit lonely. Nobody calls my phone except to reach kristin when hers is off. And it got cold today. I'm so fickle. Lower the temperature and i just plummet.

So the landlords are working on the wooden breezeways at our apartment, so kristin and I are staying at a pretty nice holiday inn that the landlords are paying for. Whatever. It makes us feel like we're supposed to be on vacation or something. But we're not. oh well, we'll prolly try to do something fun anyway.

peace out!

Posted by pedalboy at 5:01 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack