Song of the Day #5: "Worried"

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Fifth Song of the Day! Holy crap, this is working.

5. Worried
RIGHT CLICK SAVE AS

Lyrics
What'll I do without
Friends who have cars or a
Phone or a job or a
Deadline

What'll I do without
You and your dinners and
Homework and your house and
Mine

What if I lose all my
Money and somebody
Steals all my stuff and I'm
Starving

Will you come get me and
Let me freeload on your
Couch and support me and
Feed me and find me a

Job
'Cause I'm sort of scared
I'm a little bit worried

[I'm gonna stop linking to every Song of the Day now 'cause it's really time-consuming.]

About Recording on Thorpe with the Yamaha

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Just for curiosity's sake:

Thorpe, my Asus EeePC 901 with Eeebuntu Jaunty Jackalope OS, came with a cute little stereo microphone built right in below the monitor. Xandros, the GNU/Linux distro it shipped with, had only the simplest audio recording software, and so did Eeebuntu, so I installed Audacity, which I've been using for three or four years now. I find it frequently buggy but capable. I'm especially pleased because the latest release, 1.2.6, has an .mp3 encoder that actually works. I could never export as .mp3 before and always had to export as .wav and convert to .mp3 in iTunes if I was on a Mac, or with a script I downloaded for Nautilus on Linux.

Since I record instrumentals and vocals at the same time, using the same microphone, it took the first four songs to find a good balance of vocals and instrumentals using the volume on the keyboard and the placement of the laptop. My biggest problem now is that the left channel of the stereo microphone is a lot quieter than the right channel. Since I don't think you can edit channels separately in Audacity (I don't know how, anyway), I have to just mix them down to mono. Which is okay, but stereo is very pretty to listen to. I'll have to check that out.

Another problem is that Thorpe's audio output is much weaker than a full-size laptop's. At full volume, it's quieter than 1/4 volume on an iMac--both the speakers and the headphone jack. So if it sounds kinda quiet in the recording, it's bound to be loud as hell in real life, and I can't check it without sticking it on my mp3 player. At least that's the opposite of the problem I usually have, which is super-quiet recordings that just distort when I try to get them any louder.

The Yamaha keyboard is adorable. It has phat beets.

Song of the day #4: "Same"

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Fourth Song of the Day! I'll admit that--out of curiosity, and not desperation, I swear--this chord progression came about by taking a two-year-old song that went nowhere, playing it backwards and clipping out the chorus.

And I know it wasn't desperation 'cause I went ahead and wrote a couple more in advance. From scratch. ;) Anyway...

4. Same
RIGHT CLICK SAVE AS

Lyrics
The same thing happened
The last time I said

[More Songs of the Day: 3 2 1]

Song of the Day #3: "Packing"

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Third Song of the Day! This one is because I'm sitting here surrounded by boxes and junk I didn't even know I had, trying to sort it into piles like "Parents' Attic," "Hiking Backpack" and "Why Do I Even Have This, Nobody Would Want This Ever."

3. Packing
RIGHT CLICK SAVE AS

Lyrics
The trouble with packing
Isn't so much that you're packing
And more that you're leaving

It's good to complain
About boxes and car rentals
Just to forget that you're leaving

By now you have done it
So often and still you forget
'Til the end that you're leaving

You're leaving

[More Songs of the Day: 2 1]

Song of the Day #2: "Cold"

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Second Song of the Day!

2. Cold
RIGHT CLICK SAVE AS

Lyrics
It's too cold for May
It's summer in a week
And I'm still wearing hoodies or a sweater
I've closed all the windows
I've put on some tea
I can't get the hang of Boston weather

I don't like the desert
It's good near the sea
I'm not into palm trees
Or humidity
I don't need to fry
My eggs in the street
I just want a picnic
So how 'bout some heat?

[More Songs of the Day: 1]

Song of the Day: "Suspenders"

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I'm starting a new project. Since I'll be unemployed and overseas for six months starting June 11th, I figured a few regular projects wouldn't be a bad idea, you know, to keep the creative juices flowing and provide some deadlines.

So I'm going to write a song a day, starting today (theoretically; I don't actually expect myself not to miss a single day, but I'm gonna try) and I'm gonna record each one by any means necessary, which for the next week will be with this adorable little Yamaha keyboard belonging to my roommate, and put it up here for free download. Each song will be available for one month.

And to kick it off...........

1. Suspenders
RIGHT CLICK SAVE AS.

Lyrics
My suspenders hang down on my butt
'Cause they don't really help when they're up on my shoulders
A redheaded kid let me have them
I helped him move out; they were under some folders
I helped his stepdad take the dresser
Down two flights of stairs, then I carried the bedding
I'd been trying to sell him my bed
Which I got for ten bucks from a couple in Reading

And I named the suspenders Muffin
Yes I named the suspenders Muffin

The Alphabet -- "Prosthetic Face"

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Aaand here it is...



I like directing. Maybe I'll do it more often.

The Alphabet -- Upcoming Music Video

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So my band, recently renamed The Alphabet (from Pretty Balanced), is almost finished with our first-ever official music video and because it's an absolutely gorgeous day, I thought I'd share some stills.

Thorpe the Eee

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It came. My Asus EeePC 901 came, and I replaced Xandros with Eeebuntu, which is a thousand times better. Here's a screenshot:



Also, I'm writing this from the MBTA commuter rail. Because it has wireless. Crappy wireless, but STILL.

Milk and Cookies Release Information

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The Sneaky Mister's Milk and Cookies will be officially released on Thursday, 21 May 2009. The album will be available five different places and formats:

• here, as a free download, in a .zip archive of .mp3s, for three months


• on Last.fm, as free individual track downloads, indefinitely


• on CDbaby.com as an extremely limited run of 50 copies for $20 apiece. The limited run will be duplicated on Memorex CD-Rs, the CD faces and inserts will be hand-screenprinted, drawn, signed, and stuffed in standard clear jewel cases with a tray card -- not slimline cases.


• also on CDbaby.com as a $3 download, permanently


• on iTunes for their usual $9 download or whatever, permanently

So yeah, people'll have their pick, and you can totes get it for free, at least for a long while.

Meanwhile I'll keep uploading Milk and Cookies beta tracks for general enjoyment.