10 ITEMS OR FEWER
DEMOS FOR NEW ALBUM
WORKING TITLE: “PRESS ONE FOR YES”
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GENERAL NOTES
These demos are, admittedly, hacked together and shambolic– all parts played, sung, or programmed by me (with one exception)– and not anything I’d ever release to the public, but useful in putting across what I’ve got in mind. They’re intended mainly to let the band know how the songs go, and I’m excited to see how much further they can go in the competent hands of the musicians I’m fortunate enough to work with, especially documenting the vibe of everybody playing together with somebody else dealing with the audio engineering.
This is, of course, not everything we’ll be recording. There’s more I’ll be tracking with the band, plus a few I’ll be overdubbing part by part– possibly playing all the parts myself on a few, though far more carefully than I’ve done here.
About vocals: You’ll often hear me singing unison parts an octave above my usual baritone. These lines, like the harmonies, will eventually be sung by our harmony singer Rhiannon. There are also lots and lots of unfinished lyrics, represented by “na na na na”. (There’s an exception to this principle, as we’ll see.)
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CRISIS ACTOR
Your basic “Giant Sand meets Morricone” chug-a-chugger. Just another song that juxtaposes ancient astronauts with cryptocurrency. Ho hum.
Still noodling with the lyrics, which I’d call maybe 60% done. Lots of unison and harmony high parts on this one, which– again– will eventually be sung by Rhinannon.
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THUNDER
This one was inspired by a chicken stewarded by Claire Luger– chicken farmer, singer for The Silent Treatment and wife of 10 Items (and Silent Treatment) drummer Keely Lane. In a social post, Claire advised us to “raise yourself a bird like Thunder”. I was captivated by this language, and wrote this song to frame it, although it doesn’t really have anything to do with said chicken– who, sadly, has passed from this earth in the meantime. But I do like the song!
I played the drums myself on this, to give the sense of what I was looking for rather than just trying to describe it (which would have been quite difficult). I’m looking forward to what the parts sound like played by an actual pro drummer!
I do hope bird flu doesn't wind up making this song un-funny. And I also hope bird flu doesn't wind up doing a lot of other things.
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OLE’ DEATH
Don’t be fooled! This is a song about life.
The solo will be an accordion eventually, and the whole thing will hopefully sound more like a sea shanty and less like “Piano Man”. Although some of us do wish Billy Joel spent more time defending us than we did him, of that I can assure you.
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ON ANOTHER STRAND OF THE STRING
A bit of a Warren Zevon impression here, though Duncan does much better with the piano part than I do here.
Though I’m sure it’ll work out, I’m concerned about the lyrics here. When I first dove into the lyrics– which, as you’ll hear, concern multiverses– I was under the impression that string theory and the many-worlds concept were the same thing. In a discussion with a physicist friend, it turned out I was mistaken about that. So I’m challenged by how to bridge that gap. But, again, I’ll figure it out.
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PRESS ONE FOR YES
Lyrics are maybe 60% done here; in particular, I don’t plan to replace the lyrics in the “That which will not kill you” section, since I think hearing those only once would be better.
Harmonica is purely a stand-in for “something instrumental happens” here– not sure what it’ll be yet.
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OH MY GOODNESS
This is a very new one. While I do have some ideas for lyrics, nothing’s fleshed out enough to lay down yet– which is fine for our current recording purposes, since I’ll be recording scratch vocals in the studio and finessing the vocals myself later.
That said, this one does constitute an exception to the “na na na” concept. The first “na na na” section you’ll hear will be actual “na na na”s in the finished product, of the “Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'” variety. The rest will be actual lyrics, although the “Oh”s will be actual “Oh”s. Got all that?
In any case, this one has a lot of potential to be pretty fun I think. I don’t usually write straight up rockers, but I appear to have done so in this case.
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LIFE SENTENCE FRAGMENT
The single track where I’m including a rehearsal recording by the actual band, since I think it works as a demonstration. On this recording, everyone (including me) has just learned the song and is hashing it out for the first time, just barely hanging on. The lyrics are very much in flux on this one, so I’m fine with them being somewhat garbled here, haha.
I originally envisioned it as more of a mellow rockabilly number. But in the hands of the band it’s turned more of a garage/ surf/ zydeco, which I love.
Developing this material with a live band is taking things much further than I can by overdubbing everything myself track by track. And that’s why I’m excited to get this crew into a studio! With your help, I hope to make this dream a reality. Thanks so much for listening, and for the support of those who lend it!