This is the 28th finished song for 50/90. I hope to have #29 posted before I sleep tonight. At that point I’ll be out of mixable songs until I can sneak in some vocal time next week.
Progress, kids.
Category: Song Writing
Two New 50/90 Songs
Here’s the first one…
There’s a lot of weirdness going on here.
First, King’s X has a song on their Dogman album called “Go to Hell”. It’s 30 seconds long and it’s balls to the wall and just when you start to feel the groove it ends. I thought I might try something like that. Fast, loud, and over before it goes anywhere. That didn’t end up happening with this song, but that was one of the ideas.
Second, GarageBand for iOS doesn’t have a lot of options as far as time signatures go. I wanted to do something in an unusual time, but I was sitting in a doctor’s office waiting for my mother’s appointment to end and I didn’t have my MacBook on me. So I just did some math. Eight bars of 6/4 time is the same number of beats as 12 bars in 4/4. So I set the segment to 12 bars of four and just played something that felt like 6. It worked. Hooray. Then I tried to replace the original drums using the OSX GarageBand’s Drummer function. All the fills were in the wrong place. I spent 3 minutes messing with it before deciding to just use the original drums. I did change the sounds though.
Third, as 50/90 approaches the end of the second month, lyrics are getting hard to come by. Even when I do have a subject to write about they are just hard to put together. I had an idea for forcing inspiration. I would look up old New England folklore and write lyrics based on those stories. That song is my first attempt. The story is about a guy who, backed with some zombie muscle, kidnapped his crush from her wedding. Not before killing the groom, of course. It’s a nice family friendly tale.
And now here is the second song…
Last month I did a bad instrumental thing inspired by the quiet little instrumental breaks in the last couple of Pink Floyd records. I don’t like the way it came out, but I did decide right away I’d try something similar again before 50/90 ended.
Well, here it is. Break Time pt2 is also Floydish, only this time I was thinking Obscured by Clouds instead of Division Bell. I like this one better, but it’s still more or less a throw away.
Three New Songs
I mixed one song tonight after mixing two last night. 50/90 is now 25/44. I hit the 50% complete point one day after reaching the halfway point. I need to step up the pace a little.
Here’s tonight’s song. I don’t really care for it, although it is in 5/4 and makes the prog fan in me happy.
———-
Last night I mixed a song that sounds alarmingly similar to a song I mixed the night before. Repetitiveness is a bummer.
———-
I also mixed this angry little ditty that is sort of maybe about Ferguson, MO although at the time of writing I had very little factual knowledge of the protests. I was just going on tweets from the scene and most of those were more emotional than factual.
22 Songs Finished, 28 to Go
I have a total of 33 songs either finished or in progress for 50/90. This one marks 22 as finished. Miles still to go.
I’m not sure about this mix here. If I weren’t 75% asleep I might be able to make a better determination. It’s okay for now at least.
Yet Another New Song
I mixed this one last night but was too tired to take the time to share it. Here it is, better late than yadda yadda…
———–
This second song was mixed this evening. I usually don’t stick the lovey lyrics with the big dumb rock songs, but it seems happy here.
50/90 is now 31/48
———–
The tail was sung off today. I made use of every non-work second and wrote and recorded six (6), that’s SIX vocals today. The song above is the first of those to be mixed, and the 19th song posted to the 50/90 page.
My head is spinning with all the progress I made today.
Another New Song
Actual, real live percussion. There’s a little monkey drum that I bought at a Ren Faire many years ago, and a pair of finger drums I bought at the Moroccan Pavilion at Epcot Center even more many years ago. It’s the first time since I had an actual real live band in a real studio that I have recorded actual real live percussion.
The lyrics are in first person, but it’s not about me. Some one close to me is being shown an alarming lack of respect at work. This is about that person’s situation.
The guitars are all Strat, and it’s my first time messing with the pitch shifter in GarageBand. Not sure I like the results. Next time I’ll go all Trevor Rabin and shift the leads up a minor seventh. Sah-Weet.
50/90 is now 33/50
Song #17 is complete.
I wrote the lyrics and melody and recorded the vocals before work this morning, and mixed the track after work tonight. The music was written and recorded on Sunday during a pretty productive weekend.
The lyrics are about depression and the inspiration was Robin Williams. I will never condone suicide, but maybe if we all take the time to learn a little bit about what he was going through, and how to treat people in the same boat… then maybe we can find something worthwhile in the loss.
Two Songs Mixed
I mixed two songs tonight. Both include the sound of the new Fender guitar.
The first is from March. It’s called “The Universe Next Door” because I can never sound pretentious enough. The title came from a news story I read back in March. I wrote the name down, but not the link to the story. Sorry. I don’t know what any of the lyrics are actually about. Paranoia? How rock and roll!
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/the-universe-next-door.mp3%20The second song is from the April list, but it is actually ancient. It was written in my bedroom back in 1993. Maybe 1992. I guess it might have been 1994. Who the hell knows! It’s old! It was played by all of the short lived bands that came after Tempest Fero but before Prime Meridian. Maria the drummer didn’t like it (I think… it’s been a really freakin’ long time) so Mike and I agreed to drop it. Almost immediately we wrote another yipppeee dance song to replace it. That one might be included in the next album in a month batch.
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/falling-star-1.mp3%20Mother’s Day Music
I put rhythm guitars onto the one song left that needed them, and I added leads to two additional songs. I now have five that are ready to mix.
I used the new Strat for everything today. I haven’t changed the strings yet, and those that are on now are heavier than I’m used to.
Ouch.
Inside the Red Head's Head 