well this took a shamefully long time.
i sorely suspect that this 23-song project will take me into 2008. now i'll have to change all the graphics!
okay, so here is:
7.yourkiss
there are a variety of compelling reasons why this song took so long to make. not the least of which is that i am insanely busy both playing with uncle monsterface and selling portraits of sock puppets that i make.
and yes, it is true that those things make me occupied and productive and less able to make little other songs. but it is also true that this song is personal and sappy in a much more direct manner than usual. so the 'busy' stuff works as an effective excuse to push this aside all-too-often. so the song makes me nervous, and i keep not liking it. but i pledged that i would push some of this personal and sappy stuff for peanut butter and jellery, and here some of it is. there is more to come of it, but then there will also be songs about clothes and bears and the like as well.
i think that this song came out okay. i struggled with how i want it to sound, and it's pretty close, but i no longer have any idea whether or not it is any fun to actually listen to. so be it.
hopefully it won't take me two months to make the next one, because i already know what i want my NEXT song project to be, but i have to finish this gosh-darned one first.
happy everything.
lovemarty
Friday, December 07, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
3 more peanut butter & jellery songs
as suspected, the songs are taking a bit longer to get done than i thought. isn't someone supposed to be giving me a hard time about that?
tracks 4, 5, and 6!
4. my real friends-
i think that 'my real friends' is yet another song in the long line of songs about my curious childhood. i never had an imaginary friend, because i had so many on tee vee and in comic books. but i sort of longed for one. perhaps this stunted my imagination, perhaps it just slanted it in an interesting direction. the notion that the tee vee/comic book friends were 'my real friends' stems in no small part from the fact that, as a classically solitary small boy (until i found another kindred weirdo in the 4th grade), my real-est friends were the ones i was finding in the justice league (thank you, kieth giffen). don't worry, i became a crazed extrovert in junior high...
i pushed myself around a bit on this composition. i tried to do things that didn't come to me instinctively, like dropping the lead verse line when it seems like it should come right back in, and then vocally following a weirdly atonal piano part instead of trying to build upon it melodically. interesting result...
and this is the longest song yet! way longer than a minute!
5. van buren's eye -
this is completely autobiographical. i just thought it was very funny as it was happening. the lyrics are:
'i dropped an eyeball on the floor ; as i remade martin van buren; president - who i adored ; because we share a name or something...'
as all two of you may know, i make sock puppet portraits for a living. recently, as part of a show in chicago, i did three portraits of U.S. presidents - lincoln, washington, and martin van buren. all have a place in my heart, but van buren the most personal. as a small boy, i wondered if any presidents were named 'martin'. whereupon i became fascinated with him. while re-making him in sock puppet form, i dropped his eyeball on the floor.
shortest song yet!
6. animal robot armada -
this falls more under the 'you've been warned'-songs-by-marty category. the leader of which is 'chocula (you're never safe)' as popularized by the rock band uncle monsterface.
any song that features robots, scientists, and zoos absolutely insists upon a nod to the flaming lips. duly nodded.
seriously, though, be careful. it's all a front for advanced robots, and they're assembling. remain vigilant!
that's what i gots.
pleassssse tell me what you think, please tell other people about them.
lovemarty
tracks 4, 5, and 6!
4. my real friends-
i think that 'my real friends' is yet another song in the long line of songs about my curious childhood. i never had an imaginary friend, because i had so many on tee vee and in comic books. but i sort of longed for one. perhaps this stunted my imagination, perhaps it just slanted it in an interesting direction. the notion that the tee vee/comic book friends were 'my real friends' stems in no small part from the fact that, as a classically solitary small boy (until i found another kindred weirdo in the 4th grade), my real-est friends were the ones i was finding in the justice league (thank you, kieth giffen). don't worry, i became a crazed extrovert in junior high...
i pushed myself around a bit on this composition. i tried to do things that didn't come to me instinctively, like dropping the lead verse line when it seems like it should come right back in, and then vocally following a weirdly atonal piano part instead of trying to build upon it melodically. interesting result...
and this is the longest song yet! way longer than a minute!
5. van buren's eye -
this is completely autobiographical. i just thought it was very funny as it was happening. the lyrics are:
'i dropped an eyeball on the floor ; as i remade martin van buren; president - who i adored ; because we share a name or something...'
as all two of you may know, i make sock puppet portraits for a living. recently, as part of a show in chicago, i did three portraits of U.S. presidents - lincoln, washington, and martin van buren. all have a place in my heart, but van buren the most personal. as a small boy, i wondered if any presidents were named 'martin'. whereupon i became fascinated with him. while re-making him in sock puppet form, i dropped his eyeball on the floor.
shortest song yet!
6. animal robot armada -
this falls more under the 'you've been warned'-songs-by-marty category. the leader of which is 'chocula (you're never safe)' as popularized by the rock band uncle monsterface.
any song that features robots, scientists, and zoos absolutely insists upon a nod to the flaming lips. duly nodded.
seriously, though, be careful. it's all a front for advanced robots, and they're assembling. remain vigilant!
that's what i gots.
pleassssse tell me what you think, please tell other people about them.
lovemarty
Friday, August 31, 2007
i am making a bunch of new songs called peanut butter and jellery.
hi.
it's me, marty.
the short-ish story:
i am making 23 new songs up...sort of...
i'm not sure how long it will take.
it will be called
"peanut butter and jellery",
(big thanks to perfect jimmy for the title idea that i then slightly modified because i am weird and also to remind me of the james kochalka book i really like called peanut butter and JEREMY, and my best friend of that same name, and also because i like peanut butter a CELERY way better than peanut butter and jelly...)
each new song(s) will initially be on my myspace at
www.myspace.com/martysongs and the completed and archived work will be up on my old songaday blog at
martystuff.blogspot.com ...
at the end, i think i'll call it an 'album', and give it artwork and everything.
initially i thought i would reserve the right to re-sequence the tracks, but i take that back. it'll be more interesting to let the album sequence itself.
i can make no guarantees about the quality of these songs, both conceptually and in listening-wise...we'll find out together...
here are the first three songs from 'peanut butter and jellery' that i peanut butter and jelleried in the wee hours:
1. holdmyhand-
is i think about living in new york and being overwhelmed by massive amounts of people who are constantly so physically close to one another but simultaneously so isolated from one another. urban life. sometimes it seems like we're all singing the same song, but we can't join together, we're all running the same marathon, but we can't keep up. and i just want everyone to try and hold hands while they try...i'm such a softee...
2. tiananmen square root -
is not a political statement, but just a strange lyrical phrase that got stuck in me so i needed to let it out....in its way, i guess it becomes about my own curious thought-process and where that leads me (as many of my organically derived and naturally evolved songs and artworks are wont to do). memories of old cars and global tragedies butt heads and entangle body parts with books about the berenstein bears... that sort of thing...
3. this is my hed-
it's made out of head. this is my head. it's made out of your head...(see above)
please join me as i make up the rest.
the longer story:
usually, i am in a band called uncle monsterface. together in that band, we make many wonderful songs.
sometimes, i make songs by myself. sometime those songs even become monsterface songs (which is to say, way better). around 2005 or so-ish, just as uncle monsterface was being born unto the world and planet and planet of worlds, i made a song a day for 30 days, 3 different times, totaling 90 songs. the results of that experiment are still at:
martystuff.blogspot.com,
and that will also be the primary home of this experiment (as you've hopefully surmised).
you see, i can't quite carve out the time for another song-a-day at this juncture in my life. this is basically a good thing - my life is full of a myriad of exciting creative pursuits. but i still want to undergo a ridiculous marathon project of song-ing...
enter 'peanut butter and jellery' .
here's how this one came about:
i write a ton of little musical 'blips' : musical thoughts or ideas, often only around 30-40 seconds, that largely just sit around on my hard drive and mock me. more recently in the material world, i decided to make a concerted effort to compartmentalize a lot of my sketch book efforts. so i now have: a 'funny' sketch book, a 'drawings' sketchbook, and a 'songs' sketchbook (and tons of others, really. but you get the point.)
so, to keep making a long story long, the other night i was thinking about all the little music 'blips' i have. on my way to bed, i listened to one, and thought suddenly, 'oh my goodness, wouldn't that be just very super perfect for those weird lyrics i wrote?' i didn't make it to bed for another four hours, because suddenly i was matching lyrics to music-blips in a frenzy (and an irresponsible frenzy at that, as i was justifiably dog-tired and had several other things i OUGHT to have been doing...). in the end, i had matched no less than 23 sets of words to 23 little pieces of music. an unusual feat, and an odd way to write songs...(and as an aside, the number has a sweet spot for me from a variety of directions [let's please ignore the silly movie], and it was entirely unintentional. on a conscious level, anyways...)
but i didn't RECORD any of it, see? so i'd imagine SOME of it will work great, and some will end up in the,'huh, what was i thinking aboot?' category. and i invite you, fictitious person who is no longer reading my over-wrought missive, to join me on this journey of journeys. weeeee! what a journey! of sonnnng!
sorry.
some notes on why this isn't another songaday:
it can't be song-a-day because it isn't. it's something else entirely. for one, with song-a-day, a big part of the ethic was that the song was made up in it's entirety on that day. i'm sure there will be a lot of re-working of what's already written and recorded going on with this project (but the essential bits are there, and once it's recorded and posted it's 'done'), and i'm pretty sure there will be days and days where i won't publish songs. and days (like today) where i publish several. but if i wait too long, you should get on my case. moreover, a lot of these songs will be short as the dickens. most of them, probably. not that dickens was always short, but you get that idea, too. moreover, some will be sappy and/or morose. and i don't generally hold with that crud with the monsterface. at least not in as much of an obvious manner.
and that's my story. welcome to
'peanut butter and jellery'
(thanks again, jimmy!)
as ever, please let me know what you think.
lovemarty
it's me, marty.
the short-ish story:
i am making 23 new songs up...sort of...
i'm not sure how long it will take.
it will be called
"peanut butter and jellery",
(big thanks to perfect jimmy for the title idea that i then slightly modified because i am weird and also to remind me of the james kochalka book i really like called peanut butter and JEREMY, and my best friend of that same name, and also because i like peanut butter a CELERY way better than peanut butter and jelly...)
each new song(s) will initially be on my myspace at
www.myspace.com/martysongs and the completed and archived work will be up on my old songaday blog at
martystuff.blogspot.com ...
at the end, i think i'll call it an 'album', and give it artwork and everything.
initially i thought i would reserve the right to re-sequence the tracks, but i take that back. it'll be more interesting to let the album sequence itself.
i can make no guarantees about the quality of these songs, both conceptually and in listening-wise...we'll find out together...
here are the first three songs from 'peanut butter and jellery' that i peanut butter and jelleried in the wee hours:
1. holdmyhand-
is i think about living in new york and being overwhelmed by massive amounts of people who are constantly so physically close to one another but simultaneously so isolated from one another. urban life. sometimes it seems like we're all singing the same song, but we can't join together, we're all running the same marathon, but we can't keep up. and i just want everyone to try and hold hands while they try...i'm such a softee...
2. tiananmen square root -
is not a political statement, but just a strange lyrical phrase that got stuck in me so i needed to let it out....in its way, i guess it becomes about my own curious thought-process and where that leads me (as many of my organically derived and naturally evolved songs and artworks are wont to do). memories of old cars and global tragedies butt heads and entangle body parts with books about the berenstein bears... that sort of thing...
3. this is my hed-
it's made out of head. this is my head. it's made out of your head...(see above)
please join me as i make up the rest.
the longer story:
usually, i am in a band called uncle monsterface. together in that band, we make many wonderful songs.
sometimes, i make songs by myself. sometime those songs even become monsterface songs (which is to say, way better). around 2005 or so-ish, just as uncle monsterface was being born unto the world and planet and planet of worlds, i made a song a day for 30 days, 3 different times, totaling 90 songs. the results of that experiment are still at:
martystuff.blogspot.com,
and that will also be the primary home of this experiment (as you've hopefully surmised).
you see, i can't quite carve out the time for another song-a-day at this juncture in my life. this is basically a good thing - my life is full of a myriad of exciting creative pursuits. but i still want to undergo a ridiculous marathon project of song-ing...
enter 'peanut butter and jellery' .
here's how this one came about:
i write a ton of little musical 'blips' : musical thoughts or ideas, often only around 30-40 seconds, that largely just sit around on my hard drive and mock me. more recently in the material world, i decided to make a concerted effort to compartmentalize a lot of my sketch book efforts. so i now have: a 'funny' sketch book, a 'drawings' sketchbook, and a 'songs' sketchbook (and tons of others, really. but you get the point.)
so, to keep making a long story long, the other night i was thinking about all the little music 'blips' i have. on my way to bed, i listened to one, and thought suddenly, 'oh my goodness, wouldn't that be just very super perfect for those weird lyrics i wrote?' i didn't make it to bed for another four hours, because suddenly i was matching lyrics to music-blips in a frenzy (and an irresponsible frenzy at that, as i was justifiably dog-tired and had several other things i OUGHT to have been doing...). in the end, i had matched no less than 23 sets of words to 23 little pieces of music. an unusual feat, and an odd way to write songs...(and as an aside, the number has a sweet spot for me from a variety of directions [let's please ignore the silly movie], and it was entirely unintentional. on a conscious level, anyways...)
but i didn't RECORD any of it, see? so i'd imagine SOME of it will work great, and some will end up in the,'huh, what was i thinking aboot?' category. and i invite you, fictitious person who is no longer reading my over-wrought missive, to join me on this journey of journeys. weeeee! what a journey! of sonnnng!
sorry.
some notes on why this isn't another songaday:
it can't be song-a-day because it isn't. it's something else entirely. for one, with song-a-day, a big part of the ethic was that the song was made up in it's entirety on that day. i'm sure there will be a lot of re-working of what's already written and recorded going on with this project (but the essential bits are there, and once it's recorded and posted it's 'done'), and i'm pretty sure there will be days and days where i won't publish songs. and days (like today) where i publish several. but if i wait too long, you should get on my case. moreover, a lot of these songs will be short as the dickens. most of them, probably. not that dickens was always short, but you get that idea, too. moreover, some will be sappy and/or morose. and i don't generally hold with that crud with the monsterface. at least not in as much of an obvious manner.
and that's my story. welcome to
'peanut butter and jellery'
(thanks again, jimmy!)
as ever, please let me know what you think.
lovemarty
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
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