Alex Hates Music

Day 2: "I'd Be Wrong Were I To Say I Loved You Not Quite Or Almost Always" by damian

Day 25: "Whether U Like It Or Not I Love U" by The Frogs

Day 26: "Romulus" by Sufjan Stevens

Day 27: "Don't Call, Marylin" by Tickley Feather

Day 28: "Lie Down Here" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Friday, February 27, 2015

Fun-a-Day 2015 - Day 27

Day 27

TODAY'S SONG:

"Don't Call, Marylin" by Tickley Feather

I've never heard of Tickley Feather and I've definitely never heard this song before. It came on another of those free mp3 mixes I downloaded and forgot about forever. This one is the Insound CMJ 2009 Digital Sampler. Insound and CMJ were my two biggest sources of finding out about new music for a while. But what this song ends up reminding me of is something completely different.

Sean Mikula lookin' at my Kid A special edition
Photo from about 15 years ago

It reminds me of a mix CD that my friend Sean made for me a few years back, which he titled, “Dude, you like Weezer?” (or something like that), a reference to when we first met in high school. We were in the same Chemistry class. Our teacher had us line up by shoe size as an ice breaker activity. I was wearing a Weezer t-shirt, which Sean immediately noticed. He said something like, “Dude, you like Weezer?”

I didn't really know anyone else at the time who liked Weezer, so I was pretty shocked. Sean told me he had been to the Weezer show in Buffalo a couple weeks before, a show I had been dying to go to, but couldn't either because of fiscal reasons or a conflicting family trip (I can't remember which). We became fast friends, with many a debate over which song was best on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and whether or not any given band sucked.

Flash forward 10 years and Sean made me this mix CD. I know I didn't have a chance to listen to it for a while, until Kayleigh and I had to take a little road trip to Burlington, VT for a graduate school interview I had. I think it was my second time going to Burlington. We drove for about an hour, took a ferry to cross the lake, and drove through some beautiful Vermont country roads. I definitely felt like I could see myself living in that state.

Of course we did not move to Vermont. It was very windy that day in Burlington. Even though my interview went well, that program was much more expensive and time consuming than what I was looking for. But Kayleigh and I had a great time walking around Church Street and by the waterfront where some race was going on, and we ate at some awesome vegetarian restaurant. Sean's mix had a bunch of reverb soaked vocals, synthesizers, and tremolo guitars (I dunno why the Besnyo guy would make me a CD like that). It was a perfect soundtrack for a short vacation.

Well, I tried to write a song about this, but it turns out I'm too distracted by the passing of Leonard Nimoy, so I wrote about that instead. One day left!

Day 2: "I'd Be Wrong Were I To Say I Loved You Not Quite Or Almost Always" by damian

Day 25: "Whether U Like It Or Not I Love U" by The Frogs

Day 26: "Romulus" by Sufjan Stevens

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Fun-a-Day 2015 - Day 26

Day 26

TODAY'S SONG:

"Romulus" by Sufjan Stevens

This song reminds me of my senior year of college, when I was working for the AV department at Duquesne. I would take phone calls when professors were having problems setting up laptops and projectors. It usually had to do with plugging in the right cables, or knowing when to restart the computer. On a few occasions, I had to go wander around campus to help solve a really bad problem, but mostly I had a lot of free time to sit at a computer, do homework, read, and listen to music.

I think I was using Yahoo radio at the time. I also think you kind of customized it by typing in artists that you like, so my station was a hybrid of indie, folk, and jazz. A little while before, my friend Margaret had put the song “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” on a mixtape for me, and I got Illinois shortly thereafter. So I was just a little obsessed with Sufjan Stevens at the time. On this Yahoo radio station, I started hearing his songs from Michigan and Seven Swans.

Caroline and I eating Mexican food (?) at a record store.

Then one day I heard some Sufjan song that was so pretty that I needed to get the album as soon as I was out of work. I went with my friend Caroline to the music store Paul's in Bloomfield (which I don't think is there anymore, unfortunately). They had such a good selection and the best prices in the area, as I recall. I think we met Caroline's then-boyfriend Christopher there. His CD-addiction ran much deeper than mine. He bought like five albums every week, it seemed. If I had the money, I probably would've bought everything Sufjan had ever made right then. I guess I didn't, because all I bought was Michigan.

Here's my song about closed-up record stores:

Day 2: "I'd Be Wrong Were I To Say I Loved You Not Quite Or Almost Always" by damian

Day 25: "Whether U Like It Or Not I Love U" by The Frogs

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Fun-a-Day 2015 - Day 25

Day 25

TODAY'S SONG:

"Whether U Like It Or Not I Love U" by The Frogs

The Frogs were introduced to me by my brother, on one of the first mix CDs I ever got. Not knowing the name, Jory wrote the track title as “Frogs?” Turns out that was a special little song about Grandma. (NOTE TO GRANDMA: Do NOT click that link!) I performed that song at one of three Fredonia shows I played at The Caboose. It got weird when I started to improvise. Improv in music has never been my strong suit.

However, my friend Colin is a genius at comedy and improv. Back in high school, we started a band together as a way of quitting the band we were currently in. The band was called McNasty. We wrote and recorded songs on the spot, some of which were pretty hard to listen to, but some which I still love.

Unfortunately, it seems that the only picture I have of McNasty is all of us with our pants down.
I'm not gonna post that online without permission from the other people in the picture with their pants down.
So here's a picture of Bruce on a toilet.

For example, on the first day that we were a band, Colin noticed an autographed picture of Levar Burton hanging on my wall which I had received when I was about five years old. He came up with lyrics to some chords I put together on the spot. The lyrics begged Levar Burton to come through the TV and be Colin's mom, and the song ended with Colin saying, “Make love to me Levar Burton.” It was brilliant.

You gotta love him.

For quite a while that summer, we would string the microphone to the ceiling and record whatever we came up with at that moment. It was probably the most content I've ever been musically. Then we also had a radio show on the Fredonia college station. We came up with a couple songs there, the best being “HP,” a song about a little orphan wizard boy who stole flying cars and chased snitches on his broomstick.

Somehow we played a mock bonfire show in the Fredonia High School gym, where I dressed up in an old pig costume I'd had when I was much younger. But shortly after that show, we stopped playing and McNasty “broke up.” We had a “reunion show” in my living room in 2003, but soon after that Colin joined up with the USA army and moved to Korea.

Still, McNasty lives on, in the hearts of every kid with a dream and a song to sing without knowing the words.

Here's my song, complete with a couple McNasty clips:

Day 2: "I'd Be Wrong Were I To Say I Loved You Not Quite Or Almost Always" by damian

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Fun-a-Day 2015 - Day 24

Day 24

TODAY'S SONG:

"Spiderwebs" by No Doubt

Unbelievable. Yesterday I was in the car with Kayleigh on our way to work and this song came on a mix I had made for her for Valentine's Day. And I thought, “Well, if 'Spiderwebs' comes on shuffle I'll have no problem coming up with a memory to write about.” But I also thought it was very unlikely that it would come up on shuffle with only five days left in the project. Yet here we are, me and No Doubt, on Day 24.

So this obviously reminds me of our wedding. Rather than hire a DJ, Kayleigh came up with the brilliant idea to have people write down songs that they would be willing to dance to on their RSVPs. We used the RSVP responses to create a playlist on my iPod, Kayleigh's Uncle Tom brought some speakers, and we had our dance music.

I was shocked by how amazing my wedding was. It's impossible to describe how it feels to be with the person you love and surrounded by nearly everyone you love and care about. You look out into a small sea of faces, and each and every one of them is important. Pretty sweet.

The ceremony was lovely. We stood by this structure made of fallen trees that Colin and I had put together (mostly Colin), flanked by our groomsmen/ladies, with Addie biting a stick and getting upset about distant barking. Our flower girl was my little cousin Sabrina, in a dress that Kayleigh made (matching Addie's bandanna). The judge gave a powerful speech...and then we were married! Just before the rain started. Perfect timing!

The rain only lasted for a little while before the weather got really beautiful. The sky became pink and it was never too cold. We ate some amazing burritos provided by Kayleigh's restaurant, Jory and Sarah gave some speeches, and then the dancing began.

The dancing was tons of fun. We had a big ring of dancers going for “Hava Nagila.” Sabrina tried her best to get the tired people off the couches and onto the dance floor. The big hit of the night though was “Spiderwebs,” which had been requested by our friend Liv. When this song started, people who'd been sitting outside bolted to the dance floor. The whole building probably sank an inch or two from all the jumping we were all doing.

Who knew people like this song so much? I don't know why I wasn't expecting it, but it was the best. Also the best day of my life, other than maybe the day I met Kayleigh. Or the other day when I ate that really big burrito... I suppose that'll be the debate I have with myself for the rest of my life.

Here's my song, quoting a little bit from my vows and heavily from "Spiderwebs."

Day 2: "I'd Be Wrong Were I To Say I Loved You Not Quite Or Almost Always" by damian

Monday, February 23, 2015

Fun-a-Day 2015 - Day 23

Day 23

TODAY'S SONG:

"Look Forward To The Moon" by Lane Shift

I guess it would have been pretty amazing to get through this list without actually hitting one of my own songs. I mentioned before that Lane Shift was an idea for a joke band that my friend Sean and I came up with on our way to Buffalo several years ago. Lane Shift was supposed to be a mid-90s rock band in the vain of Pavement, Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr., etc.

After my freshman year of college, my friend Jeremy and I came up with the idea of making a “Barbecue Band,” in which we could invite friends over for food and play music in one of our backyards. This never actually happened, but we did get together for one “jam” session, a small portion of which I recorded.

I really liked the idea of the Barbecue Band (despite not eating barbecue myself) and Lane Shift, so I tried to write a few songs that were fun, poppy, and sort of like mid-90s rock. With “Look Forward to the Moon,” I think I was hoping for something that would fit in with the Slanted & Enchanted B-Sides.

How many songs can be written based on this movie?
If I had to guess, I would say: many.

I wrote lyrics that reminded me of summers as portrayed in bad teen comedies. I was watching One Crazy Summer with John Cusack and Demi Moore a bunch then, leading to the line in one song: “It's like an 80s summer flick / And we're just watching some loser kid / Try to find another angle.” Not my best, but there's still something about it that I kind of like. Maybe it is just that it reminds me of that summer, which was a pretty fun one.

Lane Shift was pretty much shelved until two years ago when I wrote a “Lane Shift song” for my first 28 Days of Fun called “No Matter.” I kind of want to do a Lane Shift album at some point, just for kicks and giggles. I also consider the song “Wings & Billy Madison” (which I wrote on Day 19 of this project) to be a Lane Shift song.

Unfortunately, I never had quite so crazy a summer...

And here's a new rule that I just came up with for this project: Whenever I get one of my own songs, I will have to record a new version of that song. So here's my new version of “Look Forward To The Moon.”

Day 2: "I'd Be Wrong Were I To Say I Loved You Not Quite Or Almost Always" by damian

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Fun-a-Day 2015 - Day 22

Day 22

TODAY'S SONG:

"Tonight You Belong To Me" by Eddie Vedder

First, this song reminds me of going to see Pearl Jam in Pittsburgh with my old roommate Dale. We were walking through the arena to get to our seats and could hear an acoustic guitar playing distantly. It turned out, Eddie Vedder had come on stage early to play a little bit before what's-his-face from Guided By Voices played. We pretty much missed it all. There were some kids in our aisle who seemed pretty nice, but then they lit a joint and were thrown out immediately. Pearl Jam were great, playing for about three hours as I recall, Vedder going through about two whole bottles of wine during the set.

Dude likes his wine.

This also reminds me of a show I played at Mohawk Place a couple of years ago with my friend Sonny and Dolfish, a singer/songwriter from Cleveland. It was an awesome night of great music, just a few months probably before Mohawk closed. I love Dolfish's music, he's got a great sense of melody and he plays a mean acoustic guitar. His lyrics were especially great with lines like, “And you watch Harold and Maude / but just for the Cat Stevens / you never did follow the plot.”

But then again, he also sang, “I heard you were the lucky caller on the radio / won a pair of tickets to the Pearl Jam show / and I thought that you would ask me, you didn't though / I decided that if you had I would've told you no / given you some excuse about how Pearl Jam blows / and while it's true that I feel this way...”

Check out Dolfish on internet, at www.internet,
or at your favorite record store!

We hung out after the show for quite a while, and we got into a little bit of a debate with Max (Dolfish) about how Pearl Jam does not blow. Kayleigh and I bought his record though, even with his PJ-hate. And we've definitely listened to quite a lot of Dolfish these past couple years, certainly more than this collection of ukulele songs by Eddie.

Here's my song!

Day 2: "I'd Be Wrong Were I To Say I Loved You Not Quite Or Almost Always" by damian