House of Shite

Songfight Live - Hot and Sweaty

2008-08-18T12:00:00.001-07:00

photo by JB

Just got home yesterday from beautiful hot and sweaty Tampa, Florida after taking part in the annual Song Fight! Live debauchery, and this year's fest was definitely a fun time. It was a pretty quick, marathon trip for me. I left Santa Cruz at around 4am on Friday, to catch a 6:30 flight from San Jose. Made it to the hotel in Tampa around 7pm EST, and felt surprisingly good, aside from the choking humidity. Stayed at the Westshore Hotel on Friday night, decent place with a couple loud and jumping bars downstairs. Around 9:30, the Songfighter X Men showed up (Hoblit, JB, Erik, and Paco) and we met Dre down by the pool, where Hoblit and I went swimming to cool off. Hung out and ended up going back to the quiet bar at JB's hotel, which was a block away, and got drunk and ate a bunch of yummy appetizers. A nice, relaxing way to end my long day and begin the SF live festivities.

Saturday morning, Hoblit came and picked me and my shit up (i was lugging around my acoustic in a big hard case) and we went back to his place, where the others were hanging out. Practiced my short set with Paco, who volunteered to be my wingman and help cover my mistakes if necessary. I also agree to help him out and play bass on his "get a life" song, so we practiced my songs and his, and had copious amounts of good coffee courtesy of Hoblit. I couldn't get my room at the Hampton Inn, which was a block and a half from the Ritz, until 3pm, so we hung out at Hoblit's until about 2:30, then Dre, Paco, and I headed over to check in at the Hampton Inn while Hoblit and Project D loaded gear and shuttled it to the theatre. Paco, Dre, and I got in another hour or so of practice after checking in, then it was time to grab a bite before the show. As we approached the Ritz, we could hear Hoblit's band soundchecking, from a block away. We walked inside and the db level was enough to rattle windows. We dropped our guitars and stuff off and walked across the street for a slice before we had to play (Paco was up first). The show finally got going around 6:30 or so.

Paco kicked off the show in fine fashion. I don't think I butchered the bassline too bad on his "get a life". He did 6 songs I think, just guy and guitar but really nicely done in the quirky fashion you'd expect from him. Next came the Lord of Oats, whose set was entertaining to say the least. Dre followed with more acoustic music, backed by Paco. So far, all guy and guitar, no bands, no drums, making me nervous...I followed Dre and Paco did a great job backing me up. I played a total of 4 songs:

Unless I Change My Mind Again (originally a brody song)
We Were Not Meant to Be (again originally a brody song)
Spalding Grey is Missing (with lyrics by Niveous)
Out of It (a brad sucks cover)

The Emergency Pizza Party crew tossed the guy and guitar out the window with their Nerdcore rap. Fun stuff, cute girl. I also played a song with Project D, a pretty cool little song called "King Me" which was pretty easy to follow. Erik followed with a bunch of 15/16 Puzzle songs, and really filled out a lot of sound for just playing solo. A slightly drunk and rambling JB followed Erik, and belted his set out in very fine fashion. Then, Hoblit and Ghost Town Gridlock nearly broke everyone's eardrums with their demented goth rock, concluding with them trashing their equipment and all falling and laying down onstage. Kind of hard to top those guys.

But Phunt Your Friends gave it a valiant effort in the live fight, which had 3 fighters square off. Andre's Stinky oats kicked off with another quirky Paco song, this time with him on bass. Then the Phunt guys did their thing. Emergency Pizza Party however was smart enough to write something that included audience participation, so they pretty easily took the honors with the vote this year.

After the show broke down around midnight, we headed back to my room at the Hampton Inn where the awesome Ryan brought the rest of the case of amazing french wine he was giving out. We all hung out, drank lots of fine wine, then walked the Ybor City freakshow and got another after show slice. Drunk and happy, we all went our separate ways around 3am.

Sunday, had a late Mexican lunch with Hoblit, Erik, JB, and Dre, hit the airport for my 4:20 flight, and got back to Santa Cruz around 11:30. Good times.

There is a Light That Never Goes Out

2008-04-25T23:33:00.000-07:00

I took part in a little Smiths sidefight recently, covering one of my favorite tunes by them. If you like the Smiths, you must check out Porky's Vertical Anaconda's cover of "Some Girls are Bigger Than Others", which channels some serious Johnny Marr. Check them all out cause they all kick ass in their own way.

There is a Light That Never Goes Out (Smiths cover) - Jack Shite

That's the Story of My Life

2008-01-28T21:03:00.000-08:00

Just wrapped up a couple new covers. "That's the Story of my Life" is a cover of a Velvet Underground tune done for the annual Gift of Music. I also covered David Lindley's "Quarter of a Man" for the same project.

Sexy Dancer

2008-01-05T20:21:00.000-08:00

I did another song with Johnny Cashpoint for the latest round of the "Purple Reign" project. Sexy Dancer features lyrics by Johnny, and he wrote the arrangement and played the organ, keyboards, and bass. I did the vocals and guitar.

I've also got a new cover song I wrapped up for this year's Gift of Music, which I'll post a link to once the rest of the songs are posted.

This One's For You Baby

2007-12-04T20:25:00.000-08:00

So the wrappings off the "Purple Reign" project as previously mentioned, so it's safe to post my 2 new songs.

"Baby" features Johnny Cashpoint trading vocals with me, all music by me.

"For You" features my friends Phil and Heather doing guitar and vocals respectively, Phil Wages throwing in his unique falsetto stylings, and some excellent wah guitar from Code. Everything else is by me.

Check them out. They're for you baby.

Purple Reign - Part II

2007-11-12T19:06:00.000-08:00

Well, it's not quite as good as the Godfather Part II, but if there's anyone that can fill James Brown's shoes in that title, it's the guy from Minneapolis who once was a symbol.

So the previously blogged song below has taken on a new identity, that of Johnny in the Corner. Featuring the fine vocal stylings of Johnny Cashpoint. More to be revealed around the end of the month.

I'm also working on another song for this project. "For You" will feature a couple guest vocalists (I hope). Same tease as above.

Also, cool artwork by Ken Auldridge. If you have some extra bread, go buy one of his paintings cause they're pretty damn rad.

Purple Reign

2007-11-04T18:40:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been 5 months since I posted anything here. It's not like I've been recording alot of live music lately, but I did just wrap something up for a new project being organized by my song fight peeps Glenn and Niveous called Purple Reign, a sort of tribute to a certain famous musician who will remain nameless but probably isn't hard to figure out.

You can find out more on the project here.

The first set of songs won't be released until the end of the month, but you can sneak a peek of mine ~~here~~.

New brody

2007-05-26T13:59:00.000-07:00

There's some new brody over on Songfight! this week. Check out "We Were Not Meant To Be", recorded last Saturday afternoon in my living room in Santa Cruz. Check out all the fine tunes on Songfight this week (yeah, i know there's a shitload....) and pick your favorite one. I think ours turned out pretty good. Inspired by a real life friend of ours who shall remain nameless.

There was a line I really wanted to use, "choke you with my bloody smock", which was deemed "too violent" by eric and jeff, so it got scrapped for "chokin on the shit you talk", which is also a good line, but i was bummed about the bloody smock line getting left on the cutting room floor. Damned NC-17 culture.

2 for The Redmons

2007-04-24T19:16:00.000-07:00

I recently recorded a couple new tunes (both covers) for the king of all things tartpop, Phil Redmon. This was all part of a super secret project a bunch of artists put together for his 30th birthday. You can find out more about it here. Phil is a longtime contributor at Songfight, where he generally records as Abominominous, or with his wife Heather as The Hell Yeahs.

I actually covered 2 songs for this project. The first is a cover of the Hell Yeahs classic "Beauty is a Burden". The other tune is a cover of what I'd consider one of the greatest songs of all time on Songfight, the Abominominous classic "Lucky Man". I recorded my version in one very long day, and mostly did it out of necessity as a possible backup for someone else, but then that someone else came through and I had already put alot of work into it, so I decided to finish it anyways.

"Beauty is a Burden" (Hell Yeahs cover) - Jack Shite

"Lucky Man" (Abominominous cover) - Santa's Little Helper

10 Lies

2007-04-10T22:26:00.000-07:00

Well I finally got off my lazy ass and put together a somewhat original piece of music for this week's Songfight. I think it's been over a year since I last did a solo songfight.
Head over to Songfight and go listen to all those other fine, probably much better versions of said title and pick your favorite.

If you can't wait until the fight gets posted or if you're just too lazy to head over there, you can hear my latest song "10 Lies" here.

Man Overboard

2007-02-26T21:54:00.001-08:00

I had the good fortune to contribute to what I think is a really kick ass song, a cover of a song called "Man Overboard" by some totally obscure band called Do Re Mi as interpreted by fellow Songfighter Calfborg, who really ripped this bad boy up. My part was actually pretty small (some harmony vocals over one section), but I mostly wanted to point out how good I think his version is.

This was part of the annual Gift of Music. Some fine tunes over there so check them all out.

Happy Holidays

2006-12-21T18:37:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everybody.

Songfight! Live 2006

2006-06-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

brody closes out Songfight High & Dry, August 19, 2006, Cayuga Vault in Santa Cruz, California.

photo by Tawny

photo by King Arthur

Don't Judge Me

2006-05-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

As a wrap-up to the previously mentioned Nur Ein sidefight, I as a judge was challenged to create a song that incorporated the following non-optional elements.

1. The song must include handclaps
2. The song lyrics cannot rhyme
3. Opposite Sex Vocals
4. Plagarize from one or more of the jurors
5. Bass solo
6. Call and Response
7. Bring your A Game!!!!

so i did it. the handclaps come in the outro, the lyrics don't rhyme, my ball bustin falsetto subs for the female vox, i stole a line from 18 different jurors, i have a bass solo for a bridge, a call and response chorus, and hopefully, somebody will think i brought my A game. for the lyrics, it was a fun exercise. i stole one random line from each of the original artists from the "pencil me in" round that posted their lyrics. 18 total. then from the random lines i chose, i put together the song. i intentionally didn't use any reference to "pencil me in". but i wasn't thinking of how the lines would fit while choosing them, only picking whichever one caught my eye first impression. i really think it all fit together very well lyrically, perhaps better than what i could have written from scratch. sometimes, things have a way of naturally developing without foresight, often in the best way.

here are the lyrics as i arranged the lines:

although i judge don't judge me

gonna keep my options open (tex beaumont)
i know you only got so much time to spend (ross durand)
she woke the next morning, took the first train (noah)
a night of love a night of lust a night good old sin (kamakura)

don't draw lines in black and white (sven)
might not be the best but i'm persistent (remiss)
two minutes, two minutes, two minutes to blow the lot (sausage boy)
it's time to carpe diem, the time is overdue (stueym)

although i judge don't judge me

watching the rain run down the window (the bewells)
dreaming of the moment that you make the sun shine (leaf)
saying the wrong thing has always been my thing (deshead)
because i'm bound to make some mistakes (glenn case)
and with some luck the end result is gonna ring true (jim tyrrell)
if you can find the motivation (heuristics inc.)
you've gone where it's so unfair (jolly roger)
i arrived late but i always come first (denyer)
don't forget to wear a smile (wreckdom)
don't cry don't see the language of me (thornberry)

although i judge don't judge me

all lyrics except the title/chorus from the Nur Ein "pencil me in" lyric archive. as credited.

anyways, although i judge, Don't Judge Me. enjoy.

Shoot for 2 on Tuesday

2006-04-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

Couple new songs to talk about this week. "Shoot for Tuesday" is another Johnny in the Corner collaboration between myself and Johnny Cashpoint and it's holding fort this week over on Songfight!. This was mostly Johnny with me doing guitar and backup vocals on the chorus.

It's also the return of The One with "One Too" by Jack in the Corner. I figured the name was fitting since Johnny contributed all the lyrics (or maybe I should say I blatently stole them) and threw in his random shouts to the vocal stew. Also, the goal was to create a song that was exactly one minute long. I think this clocks in at exactly one minute.

All music by me. Happy birthday phil.

The Best of Nur Ein

2006-03-17T19:14:00.000-08:00

So i'm on the jury panel of this little contest going on. It's kind of like american idol, kind of like survivor, kind of like fear factor, and features a bunch of good artists from Songfight! This week, they recorded the first elimination song called "Pencil Me In". The first round produced alot of good songs which you can hear on the Nur Ein webpage. I'm gonna post my 5 favorites here each week, and I highly recommend checking them out and the artists behind them. Great stuff. Some of the best things in life really are free.

"Condescending Prick" - Best of Nur Ein Round Six

Leaf
Glenn
Ken
Calfborg

"Don't Go To ...." - Best of Nur Ein Round Five

Leaf
Ken
Calfborg
Glenn

"Like a Villain" - Best of Nur Ein Round Four

Leaf
Tex Beaumont and the Dirty Hearts
Jim Tyrrell
Deshead
Octothorpe

"El Balazo" - Best of Nur Ein Round Three (I came up with the title!)

Ross Durand
Tex Beaumont and the Dirty Hearts
Jim Tyrrell
Glenn & Rachael
Ken and Erin

"Sleeper" - Best of Nur Ein Round Two

Deshead
Leaf 62
The Bewells
Tex Beaumont and the Dirty Hearts
Glenn Case

"Pencil Me In" - Best of Nur Ein Round One

Leaf 62
Sven Mullet
Thornberry
Calfborg
Deshead

Give them a listen!

Brown Boxes

2006-02-18T18:15:00.000-08:00

I just wrapped up another cover. Brown Boxes is a song by fellow songfighter King Arthur, a pretty selfless guy and a pretty solid musician. It's a long story about what motivated me to cover this particular song, but i like how it turned out. I kept the original lyrics and arrangement pretty much intact, but just kind of put my own shite spin on it.

April Morning With a Peach

2006-02-17T18:09:00.000-08:00

Well, brody rides again this week with "April Morning With a Peach" over on this week's Songfight! Go show us some love and be sure to check out all the other fine tunes before coming to the realization that there is no other choice but brody. Special thanks to my buddy Tom aka T-Money for the wicked drums.

True Love

2006-01-20T23:06:00.000-08:00

trader joe's apple pie. $4.97. haagen dazs vanilla ice cream. $3.50. bringing them together. priceless.

The Belated Gift of Music

2006-01-09T22:29:00.000-08:00

The Gift of Music is a little virtual get together a bunch of songfighters do each year between thanksgiving and christmas. You pick a song you'd like to hear covered and you cover one in return for someone else. I got the best of both worlds as I got to cover the Tom Jones' classic "She's a Lady" and also got a cover of Ween's "Buenos Tardes Amigos" by my friend Glenn Case, Mr. House of Delusions himself, all stripped down and unplugged due to his asshole soon to be evicted downstairs neighbor.

The Songfighter Rainbow Coalition for Peace

2005-12-08T09:21:00.000-08:00

Today is the anniversary of John Lennon's death, and for me anyways, it's one of those events that I'll always remember exactly what I was doing when I heard the news. I was actually reading an interview he gave to Playboy (yes, actually reading a Playboy) and was watching Monday Night football when Howard Cosell announced the news. I was completely in shock, as I had the magazine next to me and was reading the interview while watching football. And then came the incredible outpouring of grief afterwards, all the people gathering across the street in the park. A very dark day for rock and roll indeed.

So as a sort of tribute to this often brilliant and misunderstood man, a bunch of my Songfight! friends and I got together to record a little tribute. Featuring the talents and fine efforts of Deshead, Johnny Cashpoint, Kamakura, Caravan Ray, Sausage Boy, Smalltown Mike, MC Paul Denyer, and Spud and Mad Dog from The Mighty Octothorpe. I produced, mixed, did the first verse, guitars, and glockenspiel.

"Give Peace A Chance" - The Songfighter Rainbow Coalition for Peace

We All Need Love

2005-11-29T13:10:00.000-08:00

Johnny in the Corner is back doing Songfight! with We All Need Love. I did all the music this time and as usual, Johnny Cashpoint did the lyrics and sings it. I'm really happy with how Johnny interpreted the mix I gave him, and think he did a really fabulous job with it, and hopefully others will think so too. Give it a listen and check out all the other fine songs this week over at Songfight!

Speaking of Songfight!, I also participated in a little side skirmish coverfight. The band is the Eagles and my song choice was Peaceful Easy Feeling. When I recorded it last night, it was pouring down rain so I opened my window and recorded a "rain" track for ambience. I was going for a pensive and sort of sad interpretation on it. I always thought the Eagles version was too poppy. But hell, it's their song so what do I know.

House of Delusions

2005-10-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

My friend Glenn Case has been creating these awesome podcasts lately, playing lots of his favorite obscure music, and creating general musical mayhem. His show is really better than most syndicated radio shows you hear these days, and I'd love to have people spread the word and support this awesome show. Maybe someday when he's rich and famous and becomes the next Rick Dees, he'll remember us little guys and throw us a play.

House of Delusions - Subscribe

Don't mesh with Depeche Mode

2005-09-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

Depeche Mode Star Sued for Stalker Assault
Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan was forced to pay $40,000 to a male stalker who drove him to violence. The stalker, known only as Roy, insisted on holding all-night vigils outside Gahan's house -- until the singer head-butted him and broke his nose. Gahan says, "You'd look out the window at four in the morning and Roy would still be standing there. I ended up assaulting him -- well, I head-butted him and broke his nose. And I actually got sued! He sued me for $500,000 and he ended up getting $40,000. He claimed I gave him brain damage, but he was pretty [bleep] up to start with."

And here I always figured those Depeche Mode guys were pussies.

Squirmer

2005-09-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my friend Chris the other day, and we got to talking about Squirmer, a band that he and I used to play in. Squirmer was really my first and pretty much only "real" band experience, as most of what I do now is solo or virtual collaborations. The band sort of evolved from a group of friends, and to this day most of the members are gigging musicians in other bands, a couple have new kids to deal with, but we all remain friends and still try to play together on occasion. Squirmer was also the first real experience I had with recording, and at the time, we would record our practices and gigs with a Tascam 488 Portastudio 8 track, which is sitting about a foot away from me as I type this. Alot of times we would just rig up a couple mics and hang them from the ceiling of Mark's recording studio, but at gigs, we would try to rig it up better. I've got tons of cassette tapes, masters that haven't been mixed down yet, sitting around waiting to be digitized, and I think I'm going to start work on a squirmer CD project I've been meaning to do for years. Try to mine the nuggets I know are hidden in this trove of tape. Anyways, I found a pretty good recording of Squirmer doing "Hopeless", a song I wrote around 1997 I think, but would later become a staple of the Squirmer setlist. Recorded October 7, 2001 live to 8 track and featuring Mark on drums, Chris on lead guitar, Bill on bass, Eric on guitar, and myself on vocals and guitar.

Hopeless - Squirmer

Rattle

2005-09-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

Back from Burning Man, tired and still trying to get the playa dust out of my skin. Before I left, I managed to squeeze a bit of time in at the legendary sonofsupercar studios in the armpit of Japantown in San Jose. At least it's next to a brewery so there's something to be said for that. Future Boy and I were treated to Blue's famous fish tacos and then we basically cranked out this tune in about 3 hours. So check out The Japantown Three doing "Rattle" over on Songfight! And don't forget to listen to all those other fine tunes while your at it.

Funeral Director

2005-08-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

New Johnny in the Corner coming to Songfight! this week. I do all the music and Johnny Cashpoint does the lyrics and vocals. Love the way Johnny took this one in a disturbing and funny direction. Check it out and while you're over there check out all the fine tunes this week.

Funeral Director - Johnny in the Corner

Hooker Pumps

2005-08-05T13:45:00.000-07:00

I started to do a Songfight! tune this week, but never really finished it to the point I was looking for so I didn't bother to submit it. But if you're curious, you can check out my unsubmitted version of "Hooker Pumps" below.

Hooker Pumps

A Little More Than Soup

2005-07-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

I was virtually born from Songfight!, and to this day my all time favorite Songfight! song remains Starfinger's "More Than Soup". This song is pure genius on so many levels. So it was with great trepidation that i decided to remix it recently, knowing full well how much I loved the original. But at the same time, it was pretty challenging to tackle a remix of a song i had listened to a thousand times and never get sick of hearing. The original arrangement is so bored into my skull, it would be hard to break myself from that thought process and try something different. Out of respect for the original, I decided to leave the original vocal track completely intact and unedited (i added a bit of reverb). Then i built around the original vocal track using the original loops, as well as loops i took from reason and garageband.

A Little More Than Soup - Starfinger remixed

Covermania

2005-07-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

I've got 3 new covers I just wrapped up for The Double Shot Independence Day Secret Hxaro, a little Songfight! side project I recently took part in. It honors Ken Mahru and Johnny Cashpoint, 2 really terrific recording artists that I've worked with alot in the past, and really enjoy working with and knowing. Great guys deserving of a nice tribute by other songfighters. I posted links to my 3 songs below.

"Space Cadet" - Ken Mahru cover
"Between the Rain" - Johnny Cashpoint cover
"Season Finale" - Ken Mahru cover

What's in it for me?

2005-06-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

Jack is back, wearing the honorary beard for this week's Songfight Orchestra. Lot's of good stuff on Songfight! this week so go over there and pick your favorite.

Overreacting

2005-06-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

I recently added another Brad Sucks song to my remix hitlist. I've remixed a number of his other songs, and one of these days I'm determined to have remixed his entire album. Brad just finished up the final production work on his first full fledged CD, which you can get from his website. I highly encourage anyone not familiar with Brad's music to check it out and support a really fine, truly indie musician.

Brad Sucks - Overreacting.
My Remix.

Red Flag revisited

2005-06-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

Red Flag by brody is the second song I ever recorded for Songfight! and was written and recorded with my friend Eric a couple years ago. I had some free time recently and took a stab at a solo version of the song. I really love the original version, so what I tried to do with my solo version is take it in a different direction instead of just trying to replicate it. You can check out my new version of brody's "Red Flag" by clicking here.

The Blue Signal remixed

2005-06-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

I got a really cool surprise when I found out my virtual music bud Dr. Kong Balong, otherwise known as Starfinger, otherwise known as Craig Tanis busted out a remix of an old Songfight! tune I did called "The Blue Signal". Very cool and fun take on the original. You can check out Craig's remix here, and check out all his other fine music on his website while you're at it.

Mean to Me

2005-05-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

Johnny in the Corner (Johnny Cashpoint and I) are back tagteaming this week's Songfight! with "Mean to Me". I played guitar and did some backup vocals to Johnny's little gem about being bullyed as a kid, and by a girl no less! Check out the latest by Johnny in the Corner, and give a listen to all those other fine tunes over on Songfight!

Courage

2005-05-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

I've got a new Songfight! tune this week called "Courage", which I created using quotes taken from John F. Kennedy's book "Profiles in Courage". I created alot of the mix and arrangement in Garageband, then I took a stereo track of that and imported it into ProTools, and added real guitars, bass, and vocals to the loop based stereo track. I've been playing around alot with Garageband since I got my new Mac, and I really like it so far. I think it makes a great tool for a home based studio, has pretty solid sequencing capabilities, and the best part about it is I got it for free.

Check out all the good tunes on Songfight! this week. They are free too!

Don't Break My Heart Again George Lucas

2005-05-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

Now we all know how much Star Wars fans love Jar Jar Binks, that CGI-nightmare that old George thought might prominently draw in the tween demographic, yet mostly served to alienate die hard Star Wars fans. Jar Jar has always been a running joke, one that George refuses to acknowledge any poor decision making over. I love a good running joke, or taking a good joke and running with it, or something like that. So for this weeks Songfight!, The Jet Eye brings the gratuitous use of unlicensed Star Wars samples mingled in with the musings and flow of Pavlov's Dawg. Check it out and don't forget to make liberal use of the force.

The Return of the Bloody Hams

2005-04-27T00:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back in the Songfight! ring again this week, as a member of the internet supergroup The Bloody Hams. The tune was written by Bolio, our virtual keyboardist who lives in Minnesota. I do the tremolo, acoustic, and overdriven guitars, some backup vocals, and a bunch of harmony oohs and ahhs. Fellow Molsen Twin Leaf from Quadra Island, BC kicks in some killer drums and bass. Ken does the vocals and some guitar, and production-god Puce does the mixing, adds some nice touches like the bells, and basically is the glue that brought this all together. I honestly had my doubts on this tune as we really scrambled to the last minute and once again Puce had to pull a late night production session to get it done. I was blown away by the final product and just re-affirms why I refer to Puce as a production-god. Check out the awesomeness of The Bloody Hams doing A & A, and while you're at it, check out all those other fine songs on Songfight! too.

The Gift of Music

2005-04-20T00:34:00.000-07:00

ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT I AM SERIOUSLY BLESSED!
A bunch of folks from Songfight! recently surprised me by secretly covering a whole bunch of my songs. This is arguably the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. A really amazing effort by a very talented and giving group of recording artists that i am blessed to be associated with. Check them out here.

Pasty White Man

2005-04-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

Well, this week anyway I am certainly the pasty white man of Songfight!. My nom-du-jour is Luco Brazzi and it's my strange, warped foray into the world of 4 mile white boy rap and mashups. I've been wanting to try my hand at a mashup lately, so I settled on taking two songs by Brad Sucks (or I should say loops from) and mashing them into a new mix with new drums I created. I sampled out guitar, bass, harmony vocals, and random noises from Brad's "Borderline" and "Dirtbag" songs, with his blessing of course. Then i added a bunch of vocal nonsense over that and the result is one seriously pasty white man.

On top of that, if the stars are in alignment, there is a good chance that there will be another appearance of the Molsen Twins in the same songfight. I really like what Johnny has come up with and sent him a bunch of tracks, and heard Leaf's drums which sound kickin as usual, so I'm excited about this one too.

All this musical madness is playing out here.

The Sweetleaves

2005-04-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

The Sweetleaves is the latest virtual collaboration with my brochahcho from the great white north, Leaf from Quadra island, BC. We tackled the classic Mighty Octothorpe song Skyline, for OctoFest!, a virtual "festival" celebrating all things Octothorpe. It was my idea to do it as a reggae sort of arrangement so I did a rough mix and sent it to Leaf, who recorded the drums, wah guitar, and much of the background crowd noise (his friends and family helped alot). I did everything else and mixed it all. I really like how it turned out, Leaf's stuff is killer and I love the fact it sounds nothing like the original while retaining the same lyrics and chord progression. You can check out the latest from The Sweetleaves here.

Punk Bartender

2005-03-29T09:40:00.000-08:00

I did a song last week for Songfight! with my virtual buds Johnny and Leaf called "Punk Bartender". Johnny worked up most of the song....he did the lyrics, the arrangement, the vocals, guitar and bass. The interesting part about this project, aside from the fact that the 3 of us live in 3 different countries (USA, Canada, and the UK) and there is about 10,000 physical miles between us), is the logistics were key to making it happen like it did in one day. Johnny uploaded his tracks to my server at 2am his time UK. The nine hour time difference meant Johnny could pass off the production and mixing to me, and Leaf and I had that 9 hour window to get our parts done before the song deadline. Leaf got me his drum tracks around 10pm PST, which gave me a couple hours to mix it all together. We submitted it as "the molsen twins". I thought it turned out pretty good, until Johnny told me I mistracked his vocals by a couple bars. oops. But I still think it fits pretty good and nobody else really noticed it or complained about it. I really like the way the song turned out actually. Johnny said he wanted to give it a Pixies/Frank Black feel and I think we accomplished that pretty good. Hear it for yourself here.

Lush and Green

2005-03-05T12:46:00.000-08:00

I've got a new song I've been working on. It's kind of a one off cover request for my friend Glenn. A cover of a song by Grandpa Boy, otherwise known as Paul Westerberg. A really cool song so I thought I'd take a stab at it. I'm still hoping he might send me something to add to it but i still like it pretty good as it is too. You can check it out here.

Naked on the Meach

2005-02-17T11:15:00.000-08:00

I've got a new tune over on Songfight!. It's called "Naked on the Meach". I have no idea what a Meach is, and still don't. I assume it's a noun, but I sort of interpreted it as more a state of mind, a cognitive bliss of sorts. It's back to the old guy and guitar, although I also used mandolin and some keyboard too. I like it. People tell me it sounds like Jimmy Buffett. I chuckle.

Check out all the great tunes on Songfight! and pick your favorite. They are all winners.

Insects Ahead

2005-02-08T22:36:00.000-08:00

Insects Ahead is the name of the first collaborative project I ever did with Glenn Case, a truly talented musician if there ever was one. The song "Accelerator" was mostly written and completly arranged by Glenn, although I did write one verse and half of the last chorus i think. It was a really cool effort that led to many more collaborations with Glenn. I did the producing for the original track and i went back and remixed it, thinking that i've maybe learned a few things over the past year about production.

I also did a really short, 45 second piece for an ongoing project called The Songfight Orchestra. My little Aria is called "Glass Eye". or you can listen to the ongoing full length track here. Kudos to Jim of Seattle for a pretty chill idea.

And i did a songfight tune called "The Wrong Girl". written about no one particular girl, but maybe a combination of a few.

Hope You're Ok

2005-01-10T09:43:00.000-08:00

Couple of new tunes to share. I'll be doing this weeks Songfight!. The song is called "Hope You're Ok" and i did it with Leaf and The Hip Cola, a couple of awesome Canadien musicians and guys in general. A friend of Leaf's just passed away a few days ago, so we sort of dedicated the song to his memory by taking his last name as our band name this week. This was such a seemless, easy, and awesome collaboration and i'd really love to do more work with these guys in the future. So, check out the Hedefine track on Songfight!, in fact check them all out because that would be the prudent thing to do. plus, it's all good!

I also posted a cover I recorded of Emmylou Harris's song "Waltz You Across Texas". This was for a little project for something called The Gift of Music and seeing as the holidays are pretty much over, I posted it on somesongs.

Also, I've got a new remix I did of the Donkey T tune "Sleepless", which I'll post a link to next time.

A Bientot
-js

Run Faster

2005-01-02T23:59:00.000-08:00

Hey now....I've gotta new tune up over on Songfight! It's called "Run Faster" and it's sort of a new years jig if there were such a thing. I used a bunch of fiddle loops I got online, mixed that in with a bunch of drum loops I made in reason, and added a bunch of other stuff on top of that. It was fun to do and alot of work. Get your booty on over there and check out all the other fine tunes this week and don't forget to pick your favorite.

I also have a new remix on Remixfight. It's a remix of DeRon's "When I Want Romance". This was also a fun project. I love working with string samples and he had some good ones. You can check out my remix here, and all the other remixes of DeRon's song here.

and I created a new blog for my MC Jack in the Box stuff, as it's starting to become a bigger side project. I posted a couple new remixes over there, including my final Chuck D remix (with Flava Flav!) and a David Byrne remix I did. Bon Appetite.

Remixfight V2

2004-12-23T14:50:00.000-08:00

Hey, check out the new, slightly better remixfight.com. or .org. or .net. i think they all hit the same place now. the site got hacked a few days ago by a very disruptive worm virus that seems to be going around preying off old php bulletin boards. the file got into the site server and destroyed all of the old html based files, most of which had no backup. but remixfight is back with a vengeance!

Sick as a Random Dog at Puzzlefest

2004-12-16T20:42:00.000-08:00

New music is the theme du jour! The Secret Hxaro Santa has struck again, this time in the form of a seriously huge Puzzlefest for fellow songfighter 1516 Puzzle. The love is evident, as is the depth and quality of his music. I covered a version of his song "Hotel", and got a bit of help from Jim of Seattle on the piano. I also played guitar on Jim's tribute "Cemetery", which I really love. All of the songs can be listened to here, which i highly recommend checking out. Tons of great songs!

I've also done a couple new remixes. I remixed Brad Sucks song to barf to "Sick as a Dog". And I also remixed another track by Random called "All This Time". MC Jack in the Box has been restless. I'm also working on a couple other remixes right now, one by Deron and one by Donkey T. And, i'm actually going to remix a song by Chuck D, the legendary founder of Public Enemy. I'm pretty excited to work on that one.

Iron Clef wins Songfight. Commits Harikari.

2004-12-05T09:41:00.000-08:00

So I did this songfight tune this past week called "Zero to Phantom". It was a jokey sort of song, recorded in 64k mono (about as low a bitrate as you could expect to listen to without wanting to turn it off). The lyrics were awful, pretty much made up in about 5 minutes. the drum mix was ok, lots of loops sampled out of reason, the keyboards were intentionally cheesy in a casio sort of way, and I pitch shifted both of my vocal tracks so that I wouldn't be recognized. And I kept it thankfully short at 1:30. Well, I am ashamed to say it won. I have no idea how it won but it did. I have a feeling somebody intentionally caused it to win, although I have no idea why someone would want to do that. Anyways, it's a hollow victory and the Iron Clef feels embarressed by all the fuss and attention. He also feels he has somehow brought dishonor to the principles of a fair vote, which caused him to recently commit harikari using the sharp end of a broken wok ladle. Sadly, there will be no more appearances of the Iron Clef. He was just a minute thirty blip on the horizon, a shining star, a comet trailing MSG, and we hardly knew him. RIP Iron Clef.

In other music news, Jack is back in a song he's proud to be part of, the latest from the Bloody Hams. "Piece of my Heat" is featured in this week's Songfight!. The Bloody Hams are a bunch of very cool guys from California, Minnesota, and British Columbia that I hooked up with a few months ago who trekked to Seattle and played a show together. I think the song turned out really well. Ken and I worked up the arrangement last friday when he came to Santa Cruz for a visit the day after thanksgiving. We spent most of the evening recording tracks after Ken worked up the lyrics. Originally we thought of just doing it as a Ken & Jack song, but then Ken suggested a bloody hams tune and it was off to the races. I may post our original version here after i remix it a bit.

Also, over on Remixfight!, MC Jack in the Box returns, putting a new spin on the UnDesirable's "Happy Machine Ankle". I think mine turned out ok, but I highly recommend a listen to Future Boy's remix, which I think is really outstanding.

Finally, I have a couple covers that I'm wrapping up which I'll be posting soon. One is an Emmylou Harris song. The other is a cover of a tune by another songfighter which i'm not at liberty to reveal yet. Bon Appetite!

More Music Stuffs and Happenings

2004-11-15T11:45:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty absorbed lately in recording other peoples music, either as remixes or as covers. I remixed another Brad Sucks tune for Remixfight! (as MC Jack in the Box). I also recorded another cover for a secret project I can't discuss yet. In fact, i've done this twice now, and what sucks is I have to sit on both songs for another 3-4 weeks. Oh well. Beats procrastinating. As a kick, I also recorded a hypothetical theme song for the ABC TV show "Lost". It's only 30 seconds and I think it's a hoot. Finally, in the quest to get back into doing original material again, I recorded a version of a song I wrote maybe 10 years ago about an ex-girlfriend. It was one of the first songs I ever wrote. Links below......
Bad Attraction (Bradass remix) by MC Jack in the Box
Lost theme by MC Jack in the Box
Leslie

The return of MC Jack in the Box

2004-11-07T01:36:00.000-08:00

that's right. he's back. hide the kids. and the fanboys of brad's originals. this time, in his quest to remix brad sucks' entire CD eventually (i'm up to 5 now!), he's taken the challenge to "look and feel years younger". check out brad's website to hear the original, as well as lots more great music.

King Arthur Super-Secret Hxaro Lovefest!

2004-10-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

I was really fortunate recently to have the opportunity to participate in a terrific new project with some outstanding musicians. The idea was to secretly cover a whole bunch of songs by fellow songfighter King Arthur, and then surprise him and everyone else by posting them all together. The interesting thing was that nobody else knew who else was involved. The collection of music is really outstanding, with lots of diversity among the artists. It's a great reflection on the musical quality of his songwriting. You can check out the collection of music (as free downloads) here. Congratulations to King Arthur, a fine musician and a pretty cool guy.

New Remixes

2004-10-19T22:27:00.003-07:00

I've been doing alot of remixes lately, mostly as a means of improving my studio techniques without having to get too hell bent creative on writing something completely new. It's been good practice for me and it's loads of fun too. I've posted a few links below to some of the recent remixes i've done. I've also posted links to the originals for comparative purposes. 2 of the recent remixes i've done have been by brad sucks, who's provided a great set of loops to work with (and he's a really terrific songwriter and producer as well). the other features a remix of johnny cashpoint, a recording artist i've worked with numerous times in the past, usually as "johnny in the corner". i really like johnny's song that i remixed, "the puppets dream". i think it's one of my favorite songs of his. i'm also working on yet another brad sucks remix (this one for remixfight!), as well as a remix of a jute gyte tune, another songfight recording artist. So as you can see, I've been playing producer more than songwriter as of late, but it's been good fun and hope people enjoy the remixes.
Brad Sucks "Making Me Nervous"
Original
Remixed
Brad Sucks "Dirtbag"
Original
Remixed
Johnny Cashpoint's "The Puppet's Dream"
Original
Remixed

Pleasing pigs and crazy monkees

2004-09-28T10:38:00.001-07:00

I've got a couple new recordings I've done lately. One is a cover of fellow songfighter Caravan Ray's tune "Please the Pig". Brody did our own version of this tune so it was kind of cool to do a different version with the same title. I also did a song called "Crazy, Crazy Monkee" for the Sober Irishman's Songskirmish IV. I tried to write a kid's song sort of thing, as the title was picked by 9 year old Madi, singer, songwriter, from Seattle. I blatantly ripped off "the lion sleeps tonight" for the arrangement and made up some quick lyrics for it. I also had to use laughing somewhere in the song, so i sort of made it about someone that is locked up, either in jail or in the nuthouse.

Sleepless in Seattle

2004-09-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

Back from a very fun and successful trip to Seattle this past weekend. I played a show with Songfight! legends The Mighty Octothorpe at the Jewel Box Theatre, this great little theatre on Second avenue in downtown Seattle. I played guitar and sang for "The Bloody Hams", this sort of collaborative group du jour for the show, made up of a few random other songfighters that wanted to come and play the show. Ken and I drove up, leaving Berkeley around 7:30 friday night and getting to Seattle around 10am the next morning. Caught a few hours sleep at the hotel and then we were off to meet our bandmates for the first time and practice our set. Leaf and Puce both drove down from British Columbia and Bolio came from Minnesota. We had discussed our set, practiced each others tunes, and other random shit beforehand after i built a blog for it. The practices were great fun and the show went pretty well, all things considered, and of course it wouldn't be a live show without me having issues with my sound/amp. But playing with these guys was a real blast and i'd love to have a reunion show someday. Viva la bloody hams! Oh, and we actually collaborated online for a songfight the week before the show, and the song was so kick ass, it won! The drive home on Monday was long, we did it as another straight shot, getting back to Santa Cruz around 1am, some 16 hours after i left Seattle. Crazy shit but it was worth it.

In other music endeavors, I just wrapped up a remix for Johnny Cashpoint's "The Puppet's Dream". That will be posted on remixfight next month. I'm also playing a show on 10/2 that i'm really excited about. It's the Squirmer 10 year reunion show. Squirmer is the electric band that I played in many years ago, pre-brody days. brody is sort of the acoustic spin-off from Squirmer. Anyhow, it will be great to play with these guys again, and it's back at our old stomping grounds, at Daisy's annual end of summer BBQ in Redwood City. Yeehaw. Can't wait! We may even do a brody mini-set.

Secret Ceremony

2004-08-30T13:25:00.000-07:00

Johnny in the Corner (Johnny Cashpoint and I) return to this week's Songfight! fray with "Secret Ceremony". I actually recorded all of the music for this (minus the backing vocals) last Monday while waiting for the titles to show up. After recording the backing mix, and still having no title yet, I emailed J$ and asked him if he wanted to, to pick a title and work up some lyrics and a vocal track for it. I really like what he came up with. This was a pretty unique collaboration for me, as this is possibly the first and only time I've given up a song i've recorded to someone else to write the lyrics and vocal arrangement. I really had no doubts or reservations as far as Johnny was concerned as the more I worked on the mix, the more it became evident to me that I wanted him to sing it and I was arranging it with that in mind. Thanks again to Johnny Cashpoint for another fun and inspired collaboration. If you're really wanting to hear it and can't wait for the update, you can probably listen to it here.

The Bloody Hams

2004-08-29T00:56:00.001-07:00

So the big latest news from the land of shite is that it looks as though i'll be motoring up to Seattle, Washington on the weekend of September 11th to play a show with Songfight! supergroup "The Bloody Hams" at The Jewelbox Theatre on September 12th. We will be opening for The Mighty Octothorpe. Should be buttloads of fun. It will certainly be buttloads of driving but I haven't had a good roadtrip in awhile so I'm up for it. It was either this or burning man and this just seemed cooler, both literally and figuratively speaking.

I posted a couple new mixes I made last night. Basically, it's just me doing guitar and vox. These are 2 of the songs I'd most likely do at the show in Seattle.
Gonna be your man
Unless I change my mind

Hack n' Jack

2004-08-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

So I helped out fellow songfighter c. hack on his tune this week. It's called can't take our love away and he did a really excellent job with it. I do the backing/harmony vocal stuff and the percussion. Great tune by a really good artist. Check it out!

por favor

2004-08-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

tengo una nueva canción que escribí para este week's songfight. it's llamado por favor e it's en la lucha roja it's sobre conseguir una danza del regazo. ¡vaya escuchan toda la música fina en este week's Songfight! y escoja a su favorito.

Munch ado about nothing?

2004-08-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

"Police fielded a flood of tips but still had no motive Monday for the daring theft of "The Scream" and another Edvard Munch masterpiece by armed robbers who barged into a lightly guarded Oslo museum and ripped the paintings from the walls before the eyes of stunned visitors.

"It can only be with horror that you react to something like this," Deputy Culture Minister Yngve Slettholm said by telephone, also expressing shock over what he said was Norway's first armed art theft."

What I want to know is did the curator’s face look like the one in the painting when he found out?

My favorite Songfight! tunes this week

2004-08-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I do a lot of Songfighting and lots of running my mouth and opinion on the board there. This week, I actually listened to every song in all 3 fights. And these are my favorites, for what it's worth. I highly encourage checking them out.
Gin or Ginsing (Jim of Seattle)
Chainsaw (obscurity w/JB)
Jimmy Hat (Redcar)

Songfight! Poster Boy

2004-08-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if it's a blessing or a curse but for what it's worth, I'm the Songfight! poster boy this week. And while you're laughing at my self portrait, shot this morning during my morning coffee fix, check out some of the fine, fine music in this fight.

Johnny in the Corner

2004-08-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

Johnny Cashpoint and I are working on a songfight tune this week. It's the "Jimmy Hat" fight (I stand corrected JB) and we are Johnny in the Corner. I forget which color fight it's under, but that doesn't matter because you should go check out all the songs at Songfight! anyways. Especially ours. It should be posted on Monday or Tuesday. I've done 3 songs now recently with Johnny Cashpoint and i've really enjoyed working with him. Here's a couple links to the other 2...

quentin tarantino
let it be

Jimmy the Hat

2004-08-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I said I wasn't planning on doing Songfight! this week but it looks like I may end up contributing to a song in the "Jimmy the Hat" fight. Contributing is the key word here. I'm not really at liberty to mention to who I'm contributing but I will say that the rough mix of the tune I thought was pretty good.

Remixfight! rising from the ashes

2004-08-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

I've been doing some pro-bono for Remixfight!, the fledgling community of loop-based recording artists that Bryan Baker set up. Bryan is a man of many projects and little time and as such, the site was in need of more support from the community at large so I stepped up and started helping out with the updates. There's currently a really good project underway, a remix of Future Boy's "Brown Boxes", which i'd never heard before starting this remix. It's a pretty cool song too! I've downloaded the loopset and have started to put something together, and I have until the end of the month to finish it.

brody has been working on this secret stealth project for a couple months now. Unfortunately, our schedules are pretty whack this month and it looks like it might be a few weeks before Eric and I can get together and record any more new material. I've been working on stuff seperately for this project but we get alot done when we can work together in the same space.

No songfight this week for Jack. although, i'm itching to collaborate with Leaf62. And i have this collaborative thing i've been working on with obscurity, which i hope to wrap up very soon.